Perth, finally!

Just a quick update. We arrived in Perth yesterday and so for the next few days we're just going to relax and give ourselve a break from continuously putting the tent up and down. We're in the city centre at the moment and it's very nice, as cities go.

There's an international arts festival on so we've been seeing if there's anything we want to see (and what's cheap) but other than that we're not really sure what we'll be doing with ourselves.

We're going to try and catch up with some friends this weekend and then Kev's family next week sometime, and then it'll be an easy 2,000 mile cruise over towards Melbourne for mid-March.

...just in time for the Grand Prix, what a coincidence!

Snorkeltastic

Hello. It's not been a huge amount of time since our last update but it feels like ages for us because we've been busy having a lovely time. We left Exmouth and headed north around the cape to visit the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park - the west coast's answer to the Great Barrier Reef.

Although it's nowhere near as well known, it does have a lot in common with the world famous barrier reef but there are some very important differences. The most important one is that to get to the great barrier reef you need to get on a boat and drive out to see it - our trip took 2.5 hours. The Ningaloo reef, however, took us about 2.5 seconds to get to since it's about 10 metres from the shore.

So we bought ourselves a couple of cheap snorkels and put them to good use, swimming out to the coral and watching an incredible number of fish that live there. Within seconds of being out there, a sting-ray kicked up the sand on the bottom of the ocean and swam off. From that moment, we knew it was going to be a pretty amazing couple of days.

One of the more popular snorkelling spots is Turquoise Bay, which has a strong but handy current that drags you along the coral. Without flippers it was a bit of an effort to swim out but then you just relax and let the water carry you along the reef, while you ooh and aah at the amazing marine life below you.

That night we camped at a spot called Lakeside in the national park, just off the beach. With it being (almost) valentines day, we sat on the beach and watched the sun go down while eating cheese and crackers and drinking wine; a recreation of our night on the other reef. Good timing eh!

Being next to the beach gave us the opportunity to be the first out the next morning so we wandered along to the recommended snorkelling spot. On our way, still half-awake, we almost stood on a poor turtle that had managed to get itself stranded on the pebbles sometime during the night. We considered running back to get the camera but the poor thing looked pretty knackered so we put her back in the water and watched her swim away.

The day took a turn for the worst when the car didn't start due to a flat battery. Our auxiliary battery had died and so our fridge had drained the main one. Luckily we were given a jump start by some other campers and we got on our way to Coral Bay.

We arrived in Coral Bay not expecting a whole lot but found a beautiful little town with a fantastic beach and plenty going on. We had heard about a place where you can go and see sharks so we walked along the bay and another couple told us where to go and what to do. There's a little bay that they call a shark nursery, and it's where the young sharks stay while the mums and dads go out to scare snorkellers. You can't swim with them but you can wade out and if you wait long enough they start to swim near you. Any movement scares them though and they shoot off like a bullet. They're not really dangerous but since they're called 'sharks', it's hard not to be a bit unnerved as they swim towards you. Incredible experience though!

That evening was valentines day so we decided to use some money that Charlotte's mum had given us months ago, and treated ourselves to a nice meal. The next morning the car was dead again so, thanks to a bit of that famous Aussie hospitality (somebody always comes to help), we set off for our next stop at Carnarvon.

First thing we did there was buy a new auxiliary battery for the car. The second thing we did there was the medicals for our Visa applications. The third thing we did, was get back on the road and head for Monkey Mia.

Monkey Mia is one of the most famous places in the world for seeing dolphins. They've been coming into the shore to be fed since the '60s and it's one of the big draws on the west coast. We stopped in a town just down the road called Denham which seemed to be the windiest place in the world but was also very nice. The following morning we headed off to get to Monkey Mia in time for the feeding, which happens three times every day and they feed up to 5 dolphins each time, although many more come in with them just to be sociable it seems.

We had a nice morning there, saw all three feeds and then went back to the campsite to relax for a bit. It's exhausting travelling at this pace!

We can feel your pity.

We visited a few other sights in the area, some lookouts and an old sheep-shearing homestead, and then it was back on the road for another 3.5 hour drive to the next stop, and our current location - Kalbarri. It's another beautiful little town, quite like Narooma on the east coast but set right inside a national park featuring all the views you would expect of a system of gorges and rivers.

Our next stop should be somewhere near Geraldton and then we'll finally have made it to Perth. This past two weeks we've been on the road for well over 30 hours now, and we must have covered the length of the UK - from the north coast of Scotland to the south coast of England - a couple of times over at least. It's a bloody big place this!

Piccies, in a kind of reverse order (with a bit of randomness):

The shark nursery at Coral Bay - the dark blobs in the water are reef sharks:


Charlotte feeding Surprise, one of the dolphins at Monkey Mia:


Charlotte at Nature's Window in Kalbarri NP:


The view from Charles Knife Canyon Road, in the Cape Range National Park:


Charlotte and the Ningaloo reef - the coral and the fish are the dark patches:


A shovel-nose ray at Ningaloo:


The national park campsite just off Ningaloo, shared with just 6 other people:

Broome to Exmouth

Hello. We've started with piccies for a change, it's easier. Sorry they're not in any particular order but that's the bloggers fault and we don't have time to fix it.

Circular Pool in Karijini NP from below:


Circular Pool in Karijini NP from above:


This is the Emu that walked up behind Charlotte while she was having breakfast (Exmouth):


Walking along Weano Gorge in the Karijini NP


The view from Mt. Nameless in Tom Price. The 4WD track was much rougher than it looks here...


Camping in the bush in Karijini NP


Our last morning in Broome, we drove on to Cable Beach for breakfast.


There were thousands of these sitting on the road as we headed to Karijini. These were some of the unfortunate ones...


Stopping for a cool down on the way to Tom Price from 80 Mile Beach.


Well it's been a busy few days now that we're back on the road. We're in Exmouth now and this is the first place we've been able to get on the net. We left Broome last Wednesday, aiming for Port Hedland but we didn't actually get that far. About 3 hours down the road we found a campsite just about on 80 Mile Beach so we stopped there instead.

Everyone has said that Port Hedland isn't really worth bothering with so the next day we did a 7 hour drive straight to a mining town called Tom Price. This is off the coast road and is the nearest town to the Karijini National Park, which is where we spent the next few days. Karijini is essentially a series of gorges that you can walk down and go for a swim in. It's very nice.

One night we spent away from civilisation in the national park campgrounds. Facilities there consist of a drop toilet, and... err... that's it. And if you're wondering, a drop toilet is basically a toilet above a very deep hole. Lovely.

We're pretty self-sufficient these days so we plan to save money in future by spending the odd night in these remote places. It's a bit more interesting too. We've never been woken up by Dingoes howling and then walking round the tent before...

The following day we had a swim in circular pool after a half hour walk along the gorge, and we had the place to ourselves so it was superb. At lunchtime we decided to leave Karijini and do a 5 hour drive to a roadhouse at Nanuturra, and then it was another easy 3 hour drive to Exmouth where we are right now. Exmouth is the biggest town (which isn't saying a lot) nearest to the Ningaloo Reef; one of the highlights of the west coast. The difference between this reef and the Great Barrier Reef is that you can simply walk out from the beach and swim to it, as it's just off shore. The Barrier Reef was a 2.5 hour boat ride!

One strange thing about Exmouth is that wild Emus are walking round everywhere. Charlotte had one sneak up behind her this morning!

We had a little swim in the ocean yesterday for the first time in months, and then we decided to drive along the beach to see what we could see. However, it was soon clear that this was a very bad idea. The sand was softer than we had expected, and we weren't really prepared for it. We tried to turn back but as soon as you slow down on soft sand, you stop. We just managed to scrape our way back out after getting stuck a dozen times. It was a scary few moments!

This afternoon we're off to the Charles Knife Canyon in the Cape Range NP. It was recommended to us by Stan way back in Darwin so we're going to go and have a look.

Swollen fingers

We've arrived back from our second 'swing' on the pearl farm, tired and sore but happy. This time they worked us even harder so we finished a couple of days early, which is a bit of a pain since the money would have been nice but it is good to be preparing to move out of Broome now - finally!

We went out with a couple of new people and a German couple who were there before, Dorothy and Carlos. We were worked harder on this swing for some reason, not least because a bunch of people left after a few days but we were still managing to clean the same number of panels.

The work itself isn't too exciting. Basically the boat goes out and picks up the panels, which contain 8 or 10 pearl shells. They bring them back and we jet wash them, then chip the remaining crap off them. Then they're dried out, waxed and sent out to sea again. So usually we stay on land for the whole time but this swing we both got to go out on the boat to see what that was all about.

The farm is apparently one of the nicest pearl farms to work at. They are working on marketing it as a B&B soon so it's all landscaped and looks great. Of course the view is superb. We wake up just before sunrise and can spend the day looking out over the ocean. We've seen crocs, sharks, sting-rays, dolphins, dugongs and no end of little fish swimming out there at various points.

The people working there were great. On our first swing we were greeted by Tom and Jimi, a couple of ex-miners who were great fun. Our boss was Kempy, a bloke who looks incredibly like Damon Hill. Then there's the boat crews and us casual workers, which over our two swings consisted of a load of Germans, a French guy, a Kiwi, a few Aussies and Aboriginals, and us two English. All of them were great fun and we all got on really well. The routine was finish work, have a shower and then drink beer until you had to go to bed through tiredness.

Then there's the food. Kev the chef is in charge of that for the majority of the trip and he's a man who loves his work. We got 3 cooked meals a day and more of it than we could possibly eat. On a not unusual day we started with a bowl of muesli before work, then at breakfast it's a big fry up, lunch was lasagne and tea was a choice of Indian or Thai curries. If we'd have stayed until Monday as originally expected we'd been promised Yorkshire puddings too!

Anyway, we've just about scraped together enough for the next part of our trip so we'll be heading out of Broome as soon as we've sorted ourselves out a bit, and got the car ready. The next stage has some very long drives.

The photos from the first swing have been backed up so I don't have them with me, so these are all from the second.






This little python was wandering round the farm one evening. We got some pics, Kempy picked it up but after a while it got quite narked at the attention and got quite angry, so we left it alone!






The view on the way to work every morning:






The farm as viewed from the LARC; the amphibious vehicle they use to transfer the pearl shells and the crew from the boats to the shed:






Charlotte returns from her trip out on the pearling boat:



Shioji - this guy is one of 4 original Japanese pearl divers that remains in Broome, so basically he built this town. One look at the Japanese cemetery in town and you can see what a dangerous business it was (and still is to some extent), so he's an absolute legend and gets maximum respect. He's also a great bloke!




Some of the workers on our last night. Clockwise from Charlotte is Dorothy, Julia, Jimi, Mason, Carlos, Franzi and Dana.


Kempy / Damon Hill and Bree playing pool in the rec. room: