Coral Bay to The Pinnacles Desert

I left my last post just as I had met up with my fellow travellers in Exmouth and embarked on the coastal journey back to Perth. The group of 9 really was a little something of everything. 2 Swiss-German girls travelling together, a Canadian girl, an Irish girl, an Italian guy from Switzerland, a German couple, and a man from Tasmania. Our guide was also Australian born. And then me, the token American.  I had a lot of fun with the group and hoping to catch up with a few of them in the future; here in Perth, other parts of Oz, or perhaps in other countries??? I love inviting myself overJ

Backpacking groups aren’t something that most Americans are too familiar with, so a brief overview to start. It’s sort of like a guided tour that some of us may do when we go to Europe, as in there is a guide taking you places and you get driven around. But all the meals are prepared by the group; everyone pitches in to prep, cook, and clean…generally this is all done together in the kitchens of hostels or at public areas (or on the side of the road…it happens). You carry your food with you in the vehicle for the most part, except when the guide needs to top off a few supplies when we actually get to a place that has a store. Lunches are generally sandwiches you make yourself, with fruit and cold leftovers from the night before. Everyone pitches in to carry supplies from the truck upon arrival. And in the hostels or backpacker inns, you sleep in one or a few rooms together (or camping….this tour did not camp but others in the group had just finished a camping tour and I will likely be doing that in the future). My American friends might think I’m crazy at this point, but I promise you there is this whole other culture of backpacking in most countries. It’s seriously fun and a great way to safely (and cheaply) see lots of places and meet lots of people.

OK, back to the trip. I had enjoyed my time alone for a few days de-stressing from work and was ready to be in the company of others.  After leaving Exmouth we travelled to Coral Bay, where I had another relaxing day on the beach. Coral Bay has some fun activities like swimming with Manta Rays and quad-biking (aka “4-wheeling” in American), but I had just swam with the amazing Whale Sharks and practically grew up driving a 4-wheeler (they charge a fortune and don’t let you go very fast, so pointless for me).

Travelling the next day, we passed through the Tropic of Capricorn and made a pit stop in the fruit-producing town of Carnarvon, where we had amazing chocolate-covered frozen bananas. The Shark Bay World Heritage Site area has some very interesting things happening.

·    Shell Beach is a 50 mile beach made completely  of shells of the cockle species. It has something to do with the extreme saltiness of the seawater here that allows the cockle to flourish – and it is quite a beautiful sight.

·    At Hamelin Pool, at the base of the Peron Peninsula, there are stromatolites, which are over 3 billion years old. They’re not exactly exciting to look at, but they are very special. This is one of only 3 places where they exist in the world (the other two in the Bahamas I am told).

·    The town of Denham where we spent the night and went out for a drink had some pretty interesting locals. Think “Deliverance” banjos. Denham is the western-most town in Australia.

·    Monkey Mia is most famous for the wild Bottlenose dolphins that have been coming to shore multiple times daily for feedings for 40+ years. I can’t believe how close they come.

·    Dirk Hartog Island is named for a Dutch captain who first landed there (debatable with some French dude) in 1616. He nailed his plaque to a tree, said the land was inhabitable, and moved along. Then in 1697 another Dutch captain, Willem de Vlamingh, landed on the island and spent some time exploring the west coast of Australia. It wasn’t until 1770 that Captain James Cook landed on the east coast, outside of Sydney, and the first British settlement began in 1778 - over one hundred years from when the Dutch first landed on the west coast in 1616!

·    An abundance of sea turtles, dugongs (manatees),  and the largest known area of sea grass in the world make this a truly special place.

In the Kalbarri area, we took some short hikes up to Nature’s Window and down to Murchison Gorge. Kalbarri is also famous for the Batavia ship of the Dutch East India Company, which is a story in itself. If you’re curious, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(ship) for a truly fascinating tale. Kalbarri is really beautiful and I’d like to come back and spend some more time here. There are also really stunning coastal cliffs to gaze out over the Indian Ocean and search for humpbacks and dugongs!

We also stopped for a bit of sandboarding on the dunes near Geraldton. Geraldton has a population of about 30,000, making it the 4^th largest city in the state of WA – and it is also the first traffic lights coming from the north top of Australia! While “attempting” to sandboard, I took quite a digger and ended up completely covered in sand sand sand everywhere, even in my ears! We then headed, sand and all, to Nambung National Park to check out the Pinnacles Desert. The Pinnacles were unknown to most of the Australian public until the 1960s when they were added to Nambung (which was originally a National Park due mostly to the wildflowers). You can also see them in the Empire of the Sun music video for “Standing on the Shore”.  

All in all, it was a great trip and I can’t wait to do some more exploring in Australia. I’d love to get up to Broome or even Darwin and do some camping. That will probably have to wait until next winter (June-August 2012) as the weather is pretty unbearable up there in summer. Oh so many things to do!! Now back to the daily grind.

Shell Beach

Sunrise over the Outback

A wild dolphin at Monkey Mia

Coastal cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean

One of many "Leaning Trees" near Geraldton

The Pinnacles Desert, Nambung National Park

Nature's Window, Kalbarri

Exmouth, WA

I recently spent a week traveling from Exmouth back to Perth along the west coast. I originally booked a Skywest flight up to Exmouth with the intention of driving by myself in a rental car / SUV back to Perth over a week, sleeping in the car / caravan parks / under the stars or a swag. The trip is roughly 800 miles / 1300 km, or the distance from Seattle to San Francisco. My better judgement finally won (assisted by some prodding from coworkers) and I ended up finding an adventure backpackers group to travel with for the roadtrip portion.

To explain my decision, we must cover both the size of WA and secondly (and most importantly), its isolation. I don't think most Americans would have an appreciation for the vast size of Western Australia. The state of WA covers 2.5 million square kilometers (approx 1 million square miles). That’s four times the size of Texas and larger than Western Europe. However, WA's population is a mere 2.3 million people, 1.7 million of which live in the Perth metropolitan area.

To further explain, I'm going to use an something I found online to capture your attention: "Take the western portion of the US all the way to the eastern borders of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana and add in, say, Kansas for good measure. That’s roughly the size of Western Australia. Place a metropolitan area about the size of Austin, TX somewhere in the vicinity of Los Angeles and then scatter another 600,000 people primarily along the coast. Separate Canada and Mexico by vast oceans, and you’ll have WA."

The rest of the Australian population (20 million) reside primarily along the east coast, separating West Australians from their neighbors by thousands of miles of outback desert. WA is truly isolated. It has been said that it's the most isolated city in the world. This claim has been disputed with Honolulu, Hawaii and Auckland, NZ....just depends on the measures you want to use. But you get the picture.

So there were obvious reasons for me not to travel alone. If it were the US or Europe, I would think nothing of it. In WA though, towns are few and far between, with no mobile reception between them. And considering I can't even change a flat tire, I think I made the best choice. (And I know my parents would be nodding their heads furiously as they read this).

I flew up to Exmouth on a Saturday, and had a few days to enjoy relaxing on my own. The town of Exmouth is a 13 hour drive (or a couple hours flight) on the NW Cape Peninsula with the Exmouth Gulf to the east and the Ningaloo Reef to the west. The Ningaloo Reef is a 260km fringing reef - the longest fringing reef in the world, and the only reef positioned so close to a land mass. The reef was just recently World Heritage listed. Although not as popular (or as big) as the Great Barrier Reef, the Ningaloo Reef is so close to land in some places that you can just walk out into the ocean and start snorkeling. The GB Reef is separated by a deep lagoon / channel and requires an expensive boat trip to access it. Not fun in rough waters or for people who get seasick....imagine me ralphing for 12 hours straight. I think I lost 14 lbs in one day back in 1998. So I'm a big fan of this fringing reef business!

In addition to the Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth is also famous for migrating Whale Sharks. The coral spawning of the reef produces an abundant amount of plankton that draws in the whale sharks on their migratory path. The whale shark, a slow-moving filter feeder, is the largest living fish species in the world. The largest one confirmed was 12.65 meters (41.5 feet) and the heaviest weighed more than 79 tonnes (79,000 lbs). Their average life span is 70 years! And I swam next to one (mine was estimated to be about 5 meters or 16+ feet). It is not cheap, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For about $400, various tour operators will take you on a full-day Whale Shark experience. Several kilometers out to sea, their spotter planes spot the Whale Sharks and you get in and swim with these gentle giants. Whalesharks are still relatively mysterious and much research is being done. (Note: the picture below is from wikipedia as I did not take any photos on the day. The image is at the Georgia Aquarium and uploaded by Zac Wolf.)

A little about Exmouth, where I spent 3 days enjoying life and sun. This little town of 2,000 has a bit more history than you'd think. After the retreat from Java in March 1942, Allied naval forces needed a base for replenishing submarines against the Japanese. Both Darwin and Broome were too exposed to air attack. Code-named Potshot, the base was also a rest camp for submariners. An airfield (now Learmonth, where I flew into) was constructed to provide fighter defense for the base. Z Special Unit used Potshot as a staging base for Operation Jaywick in September 1943 in which 7 Japanese boats were sunk in Singapore Harbor. The town was basically abandoned after it wasn't needed anymore. Then, in 1967, the Naval Communication Station was built after an agreement was established between Australia and the US. Its primary mission was that of a radio relay station, passing messages between Australian and US command centers, submarines, and surface ships. The 13 large antennaes (numbered 0-12), are Very Low Frequency (VLF) transmitters. Tower Zero (in the center) is the 2nd tallest structure in the southern hemisphere (387.6 meters high or approx 1300 feet).

My first 3 days were on my own before joining up with the group. I had a rental car and took a look around, did some nice walks, spent a day at the beach, etc and just generally took in the sights of the area: 

• Cape Range National Park; Thomas Carter Lookout over the Charles Knife Gorge
• Pebble Beach
• Potshot Memorial (commemorates Operation Potshot 1942-45)
• Krait Monument (tribute to Operation Jaywick)
• SS Mildura Wreck (1907 cattle ship wreckage visible from shore; later used in WWII for allied planes bombing practice)
• Vlamingh Lighthouse and the view! (named for Willem de Vlamingh, who explored the coast and named Rottnest Island and the Swan River in Perth)
• Migrating humpback whales....so many it got a little boring! "Oh look, there's the 40th humpback." "Eh, think I'll have some more chips."
• Dolphins

Tuesday, I met up with the backpackers adventure group and spent the day snorkeling at Turquoise Bay. We set off for our first destination on the drive back to Perth, Coral Bay, on Tuesday evening. The rest of the trip will be covered in the next post. Hope you enjoyed reading about Exmouth as much as I enjoyed visiting!

The VLF towers

Sunset over Indian Ocean

Emu in Cape Range National Park