Australia – Page 3 – Steffi & Gerry: Trip around the World

Sydney

To our relief we got a hot welcome on Monday after a stormy weekend in New South Wales. Blue sky, 28° C. So, we did THE touristy things immediately: Walk around Sydney Opera, wander through the Botanical Gardens, explore The Rocks and climb on the pillar of the bridge (the one for AUD 15, not the rip-off for AUD 300!). Then jump on a harbor cruise and see the city from a different angle.

Interestingly, a rare meteorological phenomenon occurred: fog in the Sydney Harbour on a hot summer day. At least our tour guide explained that she’s never seen that in 12 years of duty. Let’s believe her – at least everybody enjoyed the fog as something special and not as a nuisance. Clever.

In the evening we finished the day with a drink in Darling Harbour, before returning to our hotel near Oxford Street (known for the LGBT community).

3’800 km to the other side

The news we saw in Broome about Sydney weren’t exciting: massive storm over New South Wales, delayed and cancelled flights. Luckily, we weren’t affected much and could reach Sydney as planned (just the time to switch the plane in Melbourne was… tight).

Our WA Tour ends

Wow, WA was great! But it was just the beginning. Next stop: Sydney!

Open Air Cinema

After having returned our camper van to Apollo (being more red than white from the Australian sand), we explored the other side of the town and tried a few beers at a local microbrewery (Matso’s Broome Brewery)…

… and the oldest (still operating) open-air cinema of the world (Sun Pictures). It was even kind of 4D: bats were flying around and from time to time a landing plane was flying just over our heads.

Crocodiles and Camels

Laundry day and crocodile day. In Malcolm Douglas’ Wilderness Park we could join a very informative guided tour about all different kind of crocodiles and were amazed how they were fed. Malcolm Douglas was an Australian wildlife documentary film maker and crocodile hunter who created parks for crocodiles’ preservation. One says he was the inspiration for Crocodile Dundee.

Cable Beach still had the crocodile warning and we couldn’t see the famous camel treks on the beach – but it seems we were waiting at the wrong end, as we could see the camels on the street at dusk.

Roadhouses and Dinosaurs

It was an easy ride from our campground till Broome. Something very Aussie-style are roadhouses, acting as gas station, motel, campground, restaurant, shop and much more, hundreds of miles away in any direction from the next town.

We arrived in Broome a bit ahead of schedule, only to learn that the famous Cable Beach was closed because of crocodiles! Well, at least it was strongly suggested to keep distance to the water and hungry reptiles… .

But the view from Gantheaume Point was a good alternative: lighthouse, cliffs, shores, plane wrecks and dinosaur footsteps.

80 Mile Beach

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).

Even more pools in Karijini

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.

GORGEous spider walks in Karijini

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.

Karijini Eco Retreat Savannah Campground

Nameless 4WD Fun

That day we definitely left the coast and drove around 500 km into the Pilbara region.

GPS in OZ is for distances, not directions

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.