Steffi & Gerry: Trip around the World
Travel Blog of our Honeymoon around the World
It was a hot night and the campground had no shade, so we enjoyed the AC drive to the 80 Mile Beach, where we got a nice site under trees. It’s really a looong beach, famous for fishing and turtles (we could see their tracks, but decided not to disturb them too much at night when hatching – turtle code of conduct).
Today we explored the eastern part of Karijini NP, which offered another gorge (Dales Gorge), hiking trails and amazing pools (which we again had for ourselves).
In the afternoon we drove to Port Hedland. We had to overtake several road trains, transporting iron ore to Western Australia’s biggest harbor.
Karijini National Park! Finally! One of the most expected highlights of the Western Australia part of our trip. What does it offer? Mainly amazing gorges – but not just viewpoints! You can basically hike into each of those many, many red gorges.
The Aussies use a scale of 1 to 5 for the severity of each hike. Luckily, even for a class 5 hike you don’t need to be Crocodile Dundee himself, just expect to climb some ladders and cross some ponds. Or should I say pool? Yes! Many gorges offer a natural swimming pool, and you’re absolutely invited to refresh yourself in the clean and clear water. Handrail Pool, Kermit’s Pool, Kalamina gorge / Rock Arch Pool. 3 x check.
Oh, one of those highlights involved a “spider walk” between the walls to reach the next point. Amazing.
The honest reviewer should also mention however that it is often a bumpy ride on unsealed roads. And today we used our fly masks for the first time before dinner, which we had prepared ourselves on the gas grills provided by the Karijini Eco Retreat, where we also parked our camper van for the night.
That day we definitely left the coast and drove around 500 km into the Pilbara region.
The last 44 km before our destination Tom Price was on unsealed roads. However, that was just a warm-up: we decided to drive upon Mount Nameless (official name!) to get a good sight over the town and region, especially at some mining sites.
Yes, we read that it’s gonna be a steep way up, but honestly, we underestimated it a bit, we didn’t expect to come across such big holes, rocks and jumps. But we reached the peak (1128 m), the highest vehicle access in Western Australia. Check. But we also reached the highest temperatures so far: 40° C even under a cloudy sky with a few rain drops.
An Eco tour boat brought us to several snorkeling sites with the main goal to catch sea turtles, which we did successfully, besides amazing views on the Ningaloo reef, fishes known from “Finding Nemo” and even a reef shark.
In the afternoon we left Exmouth in order to decrease the distance until Tom Price / Karijini National Park. We camped on a farm at Garilia Station and had a warm welcome by its hosts.
We were just about to finish dinner when suddenly a big kangaroo passed by with long jumps to feed wet grass next to our camper van.
Then we did some very kitschy sunset photos, followed by a few shots of the amazingly dark sky. Shooting stars? Check.
A real Oz experience – highly recommended!
We did short hikes into the Mandu Mandu gorge and Yardie Creek gorge (again, we did a suggested 2-hour, class 4 hike in under about 50 minutes). Sadly, we couldn’t spot any wallabies. To escape the hot temperatures (and the flies) we went snorkeling again, now at the Turquoise Bay where you are encouraged to do “drift snorkeling”: just walk a bit to the south, enter the sea, swim for maybe 20 meters and let the stream flow you over amazing coral reefs.
Unfortunately, our planned “snorkel with mantas” tour from Denham has been cancelled, so nothing held us there and we drove till Exmouth. In the visitor center we booked a snorkel tour for Friday and then entered Cape Range National Park which also contains most of the famous Ningaloo Reef, which is mostly very near from the shore. So, we went snorkeling on our own and were greeted by colorful fishes and a sea turtle.
Later on we also spotted a stingray. From the beach we finally saw a shark in the water, so we decided to leave it for the day with snorkeling. Instead, we went to a bird hide and observed pelicans and other birds, before setting up our wilderness camp for the night at Ned’s Camp (directly at the beach within the park).
We got up early to be at Monkey Mia before 8 AM to view the dolphin feeding. We had mixed feelings about this touristic attraction, but the dolphins are fed with just about 10% of their daily need, so they don’t lose their natural instincts for fish hunting.
On our way back almost crashed into an Emu family walking on the street. They were, well, pissed, and expressed it likewise… .
As Carnarvon didn’t offer much more than a Woolsworths shopping center we continued our drive and got a camp site at Coral Bay, where we also did a quick swim to cool down – again, we had almost the entire beach for ourselves.
Driving long distances through somewhat unvaried landscapes is also part of the Australian experience. Nevertheless, we could do some attractive stops on our way to Denham.
First one was at the Hamelin Pool and its stromatolites, the oldest known living species on earth.
Next stop was at Shell Beach – 60 km snow white beach, but instead of sand you walk on a layer (at some places up to 4m deep) of small shells. And from another viewpoint we could see sharks, indeed.
We did a quick visit in the François Peron National Park and enjoyed the red sand tracks.
Denham is a nice village, but in this time of the year a bit boring. We had almost the entire campground for us only.
On the way to Kalbarri National Park we spotted a few emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and frightened a kangaroo. Kalbarri NP is known for its gorges and stone structure forming a hole: Natures Window. We arrived just a few minutes before a coach with Chinese tourists. Our chance to do our mandatory “through the window” shots before it got crowded.
Other attractions in the park required a little bit of hiking – and guess what? Much less tourists and more time to actually enjoy the nature. Doing a “class 5” (out of 5) hike can be so rewarding. Close encounter with a kangaroo couple? Check.
In the afternoon we headed back to the coast and visited some points which we missed the day before. And we had a nice snorkeling time at a pristine sandy beach, almost for us alone. We returned to the same campground and enjoyed our private shower.
