The next day we took it easy and we went to the beach. Since Sinterklaas even knew how to find us at the other side of the world (thanks to Erik's parents!), we bought two snorkels and of course tried them directly at the Blue Holes. We saw very nice tropical fish (large and small)! After this underwater adventure, we (of course) prepared ourselves a nice barbecue with a t-bone steak. Driving along the coast, we actually expected more fresh fish in the supermarkets, but 'unfortunately' they only sell (very good quality) meat in supermarkets (and then you realize how 'watery' our chicken back home is). After our nice lunch, we made a walk to another beautiful beach, where we watched the sunset.
Just before the sun was setting, we drove
to our next destination, a free camp site 50 km out of town (because we had a
long drive the day after). We made a quick stop at the Meanarra Hill lookout and then we continued driving to this camp site. When we made our dinner, we even watched 'De Wereld Draait Door', since we had a very good internet connection with our phone! In the night we enjoyed the beautiful stars. There was no light at the camp site and we had never seen the sky so bright with so many stars before. It was just beautiful!
 |
| Meanarra Hill lookout |
 |
| Free camp spot |
 |
| Watching 'De Wereld Draait Door' ;-) |
The next day we had a long drive, all the way to Denham. On our way we stopped to fill our tanks with water (since it is so hot, we drink a lot!) and enjoyed a coffee at a nice roadhouse.
 |
| Filling up our water tanks |
 |
| Coffee at the Overlander Roadhouse |
 |
| Also part of our road trip: fuel it up! |
 |
| Road trains at the petrol station |
After the turn-off to the World Heritage Drive, our first stop was the Hamelin Pool. We were quite lucky, because it was low tide, which allowed us to clearly see the stromatolites. These are coral-like formations of bacteria that are one of the oldest forms of life on earth. They grow very slow and actually look like stones (but according to the lonely planet they are considered "largely responsible for creating our current atmosphere, paving the way for more complex life."). We walked down the boardwalk and enjoyed the beautiful view.
 |
| Hamelin Pool |
 |
| Boardwalk |
 |
| Stromatolites |
 |
| Having lunch |
The next stop was Shell Beach, with tiny shells instead of sand on the beach. It was beautiful to see.
 |
| Tiny cockle shells |
 |
| The water here was very salty |
 |
| Selfie time! ;-) |
After the long drive (about 350 km), we phoned the Tourist Office in Denham and bought a permit to stay at one of the coastal bush camp sites (Eagle Bluff). It was absolutely beautiful to camp on the beach. Although there were no toilets, no showers, no running water, it was amazing to stay there for one night.
 |
| Preparing our dinner |
 |
| Eating our pasta while watching the sunset |
 |
| Beautiful sunset |
The next morning we visited the cliff top view overlooking an azure blue lagoon at Eagle Bluff.
Afterwards, we drove to Denham where we stayed at a regular camp side (of course also next to the beach). ;-) We visited the Ocean Park where we took a 60-minute guided tour. It was so interesting, because the marine biologist told us all about underwater life in Western Australia. We saw sea snakes, stonefish, turtles, many different fish and even sharks! We really loved the place and the people who worked there. They really care about all the fish/animals and turtles that are brought to them (for example because they swallowed too much plastic)...
 |
| Arriving at Denham |
 |
| Turtle at Ocean Park |
 |
| Lion fish (with quite dangerous spikes) |
 |
| Real life discovery channel ;-) |
 |
| Hello! ;-) |
 |
| Sting ray (killed Steve Erwin) |
 |
| I am hungry!! |
 |
| Sharks... |
 |
| Feeding the sharks |
 |
| Beautiful sunset |
We also visited Monkey Mia, which is one of the main tourist attractions in this area because you have the guarantee that you will see dolphins in the shallow waters off the coast. Actually it is nothing more than a place where they hand out free meals to dolphins. ;-) That was actually the reason why we did not want to go here, but if you are so close (and there was a new-born baby dolphin), we decided to wake up early to watch the dolphins. The night before we met two nice Dutch guys and we went to Monkey Mia with the four of us (half an hour drive from Denham). After watching the dolphins, we decided to make a small hike as well, where we spotted some nice birds as well as very funny crabs.
 |
| Dolphins at Monkey Mia |
 |
| Catching the crabs! ;-) |
 |
| Beautiful beach |
 |
| Holy crab! |
 |
| Hike at Monkey Mia |
 |
| Birdwatching |
 |
| Trying to learn something about the area |
On our way back, we visited the Francois Peron National Park. With our 2WD campervan we could enter as fas as the old old Peron Homestead where we walked around the sheds and a natural hot spring. It is really funny to go in a hut tub when it is 35 degrees. ;-) After this visit we closed the day with a nice barbecue at the Little Lagoon (which was actually not so little).
 |
| 'Little' Lagoon |
 |
| Barbecue master! |
That night we stayed again at one of the seaside bush camps, this time at Goulet Bluff, about 40 km out of Denham. After enjoying a nice beer, we watched the sunset and again the beautiful stars.
 |
| Cheers! |
 |
| Beautiful sunset at Eagle Bluff |
 |
| Good morning! Breakfast on the beach. |
The next day we drove to Carnarvon, which is known for its fruit and vegetables plantations, as well as the old tramway and One Mile Jetty. They did not have a harbour in Carnarvon, so big boats could not make it close to the shore. Therefore, they built a one mile jetty with a tram/train track for the transportation of people and goods from the boats to the shore. The town was heavily damaged by a flooding in 2010, but nicely 'renovated' in the past five years.
 |
| One Mile Jetty |
 |
| Old trucks in the museum |
 |
| Old trains (rusting away...) |
On the way to our next camp site, we made a stop at the blowholes. Here waves spray out of holes in the limestone rocks during a big swell. It was nice to sea the power of the water. An ozzie that was fishing there warned us that "king waves can kill!" and we indeed saw a sign commemorating the fishermen who died here. So we were very careful and watched the holes from a save distance. ;-)
 |
| Rough coast north of Denham |
 |
| Blowholes |
 |
| Blowholes |
 |
| Blowholes |
The next morning we drove a couple of km's off road to go back to the main road. It was a bumpy ride and unfortunately one of our cups did not survive it.
 |
| Whoops! ;-) |
We made a quick stop at Point Quobba, a nice lagoon where Erik went snorkeling (and spotted some nice fish!) and I enjoyed reading my book. Very relaxing!
 |
| Having fun :-) |
 |
| Point Quobba |
Afterwards, we decided to drive back to Carnarvon. In some of the brochures we collected at the Visitor's Center, we red about 'Mount Augustus' and we actually really became enthusiastic about this rock, known as Burringurrah to the local Wadjari Aboriginal people. It was supposed to be one of the most spectacular solitary peaks of the world's largest monoclines: twice the size of Uluru, about 8 kms long, covers an area of almost 5,000 hectares and is estimated to be 1.750 million years old. The biggest rock of the world was located 450 km east of Carnarvon, only accessible with a 4WD. We went to the tourist office and asked them if we could go there, since we also read that there are not many tourists there in the summer (because the temperature can go up to 45 degrees). They said that - if we take heaps of water and we have a 4WD - it should be okay. Then we decided to just do it!
Since our campervan is only 2WD, we decided to hire a 4WD for three days. There were two car rental companies in Carnarvan: Avis and Budget and we visited both. The first one unfortunately did not have any cars available, but Budget did! The only thing was, the lady at the counter said, that it was a 'hubby'. "A what?" we replied. "A hubby" the lady said. "You don't know what a hubby is?" Uhm... no, we didn't. She took a brochure and showed us a picture: "this" she said. All of us had to laugh and then we came to understand that a hubby is a Toyota Landcruiser with a tray on the back, often used by construction workers in the mining industry in WA. We didn't mind how the car looked like, if it would bring us safely to Mount Augustus! ;-) However, this was a V8 4.2 liter turbo, which was quite nice!! Very strong and the sound of the engine was pretty cool (quite a difference compared to our campervan!). After careful preparation (we took enough food, 180 liters of diesel, 50 liters of water, two spare tires, and some camping gear with us) we started this adventurous trip!
 |
| On our way! |
 |
| Spotted some emu's on our way |
We left around 2 pm and we arrived at the Gascoyne Junction, our first stop, around 6 pm. We stayed at a nice cabin at the side of the road and the only thing at the Junction was a fuel station and a pub. We had a beer at the pub and had a nice conversation with the owner.
 |
| Our 'hubby' and the cabin where we stayed the first night |
The next day we woke up at 5am, since we had, according to the owner of the pub "to beat the heat"! We made sure we arrived at Mount Augustus National Park around 9.30am before the sun became really strong. The road was amazing and we enjoyed driving this route so much. We only saw about 4 other cars along this 450 km long road (crazy!) and the temperature was indeed going up. We saw many signs with 'this road is subjected to flooding', but this time of the year all the rivers were dried up.
 |
| No water in the rivers |
 |
| Around 6.30am: still 210 km to go! |
 |
| Just us (and the hubby) |
 |
| That's the world's biggest rock: Mount Augustus!! |
We stayed for two nights at the Mount Augustus Tourist Park. Apart from two construction workers and two other tourist with their 4WD campervan, it was just us staying there. After our check-in we drove around the rock and made a couple of short hikes. It was already pretty hot (over 40 degrees) and no shadow at all (the sun is right above you). Nevertheless, it was absolutely stunning to be here and if you drink enough water and do everything a bit slower, the heat is not really a problem (it felt a bit like Senegal).
 |
| Mount Augustus Tourist Park |
 |
| Driving around the rock |
 |
| View from Goordgeela lookout |
 |
| Amazing scenery |
 |
| Beautiful views |
 |
| On our way down |
 |
| Taking a rest at Goolinee pool |
 |
| View from Emu Hill lookout |
 |
| View at the 'back' side of the rock |
 |
| Aboriginal art |
 |
| Sea life (apparently once the sea was here) |
 |
| On our way back to the camp site |
It was nice to see that the rock changed its color many times during the day. The next day we woke up really early (4am) to beat the heat, since we wanted to hike up to the summit of the mountain (1105m above sea level). It was a hike of 12 km and we climbed about 700m. When we started, the temperature was really nice (about 25 degrees) and it was beautiful to see the sunrise. We also passed the Flintstone rock, under which nice aboriginal art can be found. When we were about half-way, the sun came on 'our' side of the rock, but the toughest part was already behind us. At 8.30am we reached the top of the rock and the views were absolutely amazing! We signed the logbook and ate our sandwiches before we headed down. On our way down we also spotted two kangaroos! It was absolutely doable and really enjoyed it. We were again well prepared (took enough food and 7 liters of water with us) and although the trail was quite tough, it was not as hard as we expected.
 |
| Information about the summit trail |
 |
| Flintstone rock: jabadabadoo!!! |
 |
| Some more aboriginal art |
 |
| Beautiful views early morning |
 |
| Half way our hike up to the summit: hello sun! |
 |
| Getting there |
 |
| Almost at the top (of the world)!! |
 |
| Signing the logbook at the summit |
 |
| On our way down |
 |
| Looking for the signs on our way down |
 |
| 3/4 of our hike: around 10am |
 |
| Water, water, water |
 |
| Skippy! |
 |
| Almost back at the start |
When we were back at our 'hubby' we drove back to the camp site, took a siesta, made some pasta and took it very easy. In the evening, we watched the sunset while drinking a nice ice cold beer and reflected on an amazing experience in the middle of the desert. We went to sleep early, since we had a long drive the day after (450 km back to Carnarvon).
 |
| Sunset at Mount Augustus |
 |
| Enjoying the last night |
And that's where we are now. :-) We handed in our 'hubby' at Budget and booked one night at a camp site in Carnarvon. The upcoming days we will probably discover the underwater world of Coral Bay and drive up to Exmouth. We will probably write our next blog post in a week (or so). ;-)
We wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Warm regards,
Erik & Annemarie
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten