Our trip down the West Coast, our longest stretch of driving from destination to destination, would not be as comfy as our wonderful relocation campers. With our solar shower, little tent, and more bird food for our diet, we would really be roughing it! Since we didn't buy a mattress or any padding for our tent, at each rest stop we had to use our sleeping bags as our only source of padding--which meant we were basically sleeping on the ground. And by ground I mean a rough, stone- ridden compacted dirt area. Sound excruciatingly uncomfortable? Oh, it was. The first few nights we became masters in contorting our bodies to semi-comfortable positions so my hips didn't dig into the ground, but by the third night when the nights got cooler so you had to struggle for warmth AND comfort my hips were in pain and I had to give up--time to sleep in the car! And so we did for the last two nights which was much more comfortable (and warm). At least we stayed in free rest stops (with toilets!) the whole way down so that was about as much luxury as we were afforded.
Our first day was once again the longest drive to Karjini National park. Our friends Chris and Thirza had also recommend this park to us so we decided to check it out. The first night we arrived really late at the campsite and while it was slightly windy outside, which meant quite a nippy bath as our solar shower was also pretty cool, we were exhausted enough to fall asleep. However the one good thing about that night was the stars. Being out in the middle of nowhere, with no clouds, the sky that night was truly brilliant. In the morning the sun was shining, so it was off to explore the only part of the park accessible by 2WD called Dale's Gorge. The rim walk of the gorge wasn't anything spectacular, but once you walked down into it you were greeted by a lovely plunge pool called Fern Pool. The rocky terrace steps led down to the small pool which was quite cold and had a nice little waterfall:
We enjoyed a bit of time there before heading back along the bottom of the gorge. This walk was much more interesting and in the shade which was nice.
It led to the other side of the gorge and another small swimming hole called Circular Pool. We didn't swim in this one, as John was drawn to all the handprints on the cliff wall. The area was full of the yellow ochre rock that aboriginals mixed with water and used to make their yellow paint, and many tourists had taken after the tradition. John, being the art enthusiast, made some yellow paint and left his own mark on Australia, to live on into perpetuity (assuming rangers don't wash all the graffiti off).
We made another quick stop at the Karijini National Park Visitors Center, which was actually really nice and very informative about the region. It's located in the Pilbarra, which is some of the oldest remaining rock/landscape in present day Australia, some 600 million years old. The center had information about the geological and social history of the region, including the information about Aboriginals and their work on cattle stations. It also included information about blue asbestos which is present in the region. There is a town at the far edge of the park called Wittenoom, which was a blue asbestos mining town in the 60s, but they stopped after they realized that inhaling blue asbestos fibers can cause cancer. The maps warn you not to visit the abandoned town or the local gorge. Although, apparently the rock is still used in jewelry.
So after our morning in Karijini we headed out back to the coast. Our destination was originally going to be Exmouth and the Ningaloo Marine Park, but Exmouth was quite a drive up and we could still access the marine park via a small beach town called Coral Bay. We arrived early the next morning and rented some snorkel equipment from a little family-run business in a shack right on the beach. You could access the reef right off the coast, although the best sites were a bit further out and accessible by a 25 min kayak trip. We decided to stick to the coast, as it was till gorgeous white sand beaches and pristine clear blue water.
The sites we visited in the Great Barrier Reef were much healthier and hence much nicer, but it was still neat to be able to snorkel right from the coast. We saw several varieties of fish and even a few sting rays!
Otherwise, we just enjoyed relaxing and napping on the beach for the afternoon and ended up meeting a really nice Dutch couple who were vacationing in Australia as well. They were going to take the train, called the Ghan, across the Australian outback from Darwin all the way to Adelaide. It's a trip we would have loved to do, but our budget just didn't allow for it. They were really nice and we chatted for a while. Among several stories they congratulated us on our election results and told us to not get married :)
Karijini and Coral Bay were the highlights of our West Coast journey. We had to skip Monkey Mia where they feed dolphins and Kalbarri National Park where you can see beautiful wildflowers, as we wanted to save on petrol and we didn't quite make the trip in time for peak wildflower season as most of them had died away. That was the one big disappointment, as I really wanted to see the outback awash in bright, beautiful color. Maybe another time. So really we just jumped from major-ish town to major-ish town, stopping to grab a coffee and us the internet to finalize fun stuff like tax returns and filling out our Chinese visa applications.
One stop we did make though was in a small town called Carnarvon. The sight we were after there was the Overseas Telecommunications Commission dish at the Satellite Earth Station. It was just an old, rusty dish in a small west-coast town that went out of service in 1987, so what could possible be interesting? Well, luckily John and I had seen a movie called "The Dish" about this very object. It, in conduction with NASA, was responsible for receiving and then broadcasting all the communications from the Apollo 11 moon landing. Back then, two guys--one Aussie, one American, were responsible for running the whole station and broadcasting the moon landing to the world. It was quite a large task for two guys, and they had to battle the gusty winds that pass through the area and which we experienced that day. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it. It's got Sam Neil, who is an Australian actor. So yes, it was just a really interesting stop and actually an important part of history. There are plans to make a NASA museum, but those haven't gotten off the ground yet, so at the moment you can just wander around the place (though unfortunately, not inside).
Our last major stop along the West Coast was an area just outside of Perth called the Pinnacles. It's a vast desert of yellow sand with a bunch of limestone pillars or rocks sticking out all over the place. They aren't really sure where the rocks came from. They could be old compressed sea shells, calcium-rich organic matter that had been held together by old tree roots, which then slowly disappeared, or some other ancient geological process that I can't recall. Either way, in the late-day sun it was quite a unique and pretty sight. Kinda reminded me of a potential cover for a U2 album.
But anywho, that was the last major stop along the West Coast. The next day we finished our 3,000 km (or 1,800 mile) drive and made it to Perth--the major capital city that is still miles from nowhere! The end of our Oz adventures was near!
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