Epilogue

“A long curved wash of ripple

Left there its fingerprint

One long-before-time lost day.

I turn a dead sea’s leaves

And touch that day and look.”

Judith Wright

My time in Australia is coming to an end. In a couple of hours I shall be starting my 33 hour trip back home. For the moment everything is still fresh in my memory, but what will stay of this trip as time goes by and memories blur? Maybe I will remember when I was walking jet lagged in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney and saw the Opera House for the first time; or my first encounter with a wombat in Tasmania; the koalas in Cape Otway; the Central Market in Adelaide; the train to Alice Springs - the way Aboriginal children kept smiling for the long journey while spoilt white children would make scenes; the first time I saw Uluru on the horizon, the omnipresent ochre colour and the outback roads; the heat in Darwin, the rock paintings in Ubirr and the minutes I had Gunlom for myself; the bays of the West coast; brushing my teeth under a waterfall in Karijini, and the way everything became hot there - the water, the steering wheel, everything; the evening ceremony at the monastery in New Norcia; the many sunsets. Or maybe I will remember many apparently insignificant moments – sitting on a couch in Federation Square, crossing the road in Canberra or finding refuge from the heat in Alice Springs’ shops.

And then there are the people I met on the way: Jiayin, whom I met in Tasmania and later on the train to Alice Springs; the Israeli couple of farmers in Coles Bay who couldn't figure out how googlemaps worked on their iPad and asked me, of all persons, to help them out; Nathalya, Dave and Stephen, who not knowing me from anywhere opened me the door of their houses; Heather and Yvette in Victor Harbor, so concerned that I would be stranded on Kangaroo Island; Fei Hung and the expression on his face when we met again in Monkey Mia; Kate, in New Norcia, who found me a room to spend the night; the girl from the petrol station in Kalbarri who re-opened the station for me when I told her I had almost run out of fuel; that guy in Meekatharra who laughed and said "An espresso?? Forget it mate, you are in the bush!"

The bush. This word will never sound the same. Big wide hot spaces full of life, where the notion of time is different, penetrated by a powerful light and a deep silence interrupted only by the sounds of nature, undisturbed by man or technology or anything else, obeying ancient rhythms known only to the wise. When I visited the Australian Museum in Canberra I saw pictures of the scars left by the wounds that the Aborigines open on themselves as they progress in knowledge and understanding of the universe. Later, when I was in Uluru and Kata Tjuta, I noticed how the surface of the mountains seemed to be cut by shapes which strangely looked like the Aboriginal scars: it’s a sort of elliptic shape, a bit like the leaf of a tree, or an eye. I interpreted – but this is only my interpretation, I do not by any means pretend to be an expert in Aboriginal culture – that the Aborigines opened those wounds because they wanted their sacred landscapes marked on them, part of them. I come from a different culture/background, I am a whitefella, and yet I understand that need so well! I do not want a collection of exotic moments. I want what I lived marked on me, I want it to participate and mingle with everything that I will live next, to keep living in me, to stay present like a scar.

 

 

These are my last hours in Australia, and this is what I wish.

Rottnest Island and the quokkas

As I feared, Rottnest Island was full of teenagers who finished school and had boiling hormones. But they seemed to stay in the settlement near the jetty, as soon as I rented a bike and rode to other parts of the island it was very quiet. It’s a small island, only 11x4km and it’s not spectacular, or maybe I have just seen too many spectacular places and have become blasé. However, it’s a very pleasant place with some beautiful beaches (I did some snorkeling again), clear waters AND: an animal I hadn’t seen before – Australia surprises me to the very last moment. Meet the quokka:

The quokka is a marsupial; it belongs to the family of the kangaroo. Since the island is so small and receives so many visitors, they are used to people are not afraid of getting near you, you can even touch them, they are very curious.

One of the bays of Rottnest Island

The island is only 19km away from Perth, but it felt as if it were very far… The Western tip is amazing. On my second day I got an SMS from the ferry company saying that because of the bad weather the schedule had changed. I ended up returning to Perth a couple of hours earlier than expected. The trip was horrible, they distributed paper bags to everyone "just in case" and the service stopped in Fremantle but they put me in a shuttle that dropped me at my hostel. I had to wait one hour or so for the nausea to go away.

Karijini National Park, Great Northern Highway, and New Norcia

After a 7 hour drive from Exmouth I reached the entrance of the Karijini National Park, only to drive 55km more on an unpaved road to the visitors centre.

The park is enormous and you have to drive very carefully in order not to blow a tyre - there is only one paved road and all the nice places are reached through unpaved roads, many of which in bad condition. Also, you must make sure that you have enough fuel to circulate inside the park until you leave, the next petrol station is 34km away from one of the 2 entrances, and that you have enough drinking water (you can't get it inside the park). I did have drinking water with me, the problem is that it was so hot in the car that the water quickly became hot, and the last thing you want when it's 42ºC is to drink hot water, although you do it anyway, because it's either that or dehydrate.

At the visitors centre I was told there are only two places where you can overnight inside the park, an eco-retreat where you pay something like $170 for a ensuite tent (it must be a very nice tent) or $7 to sleep on a campground, in either a tent or in your own car. Since I don't have a tent, I had to sleep in my car. The campground only had a (very) basic toilet facility, no sinks or showers, in fact no running water at all, so I had to wash myself in the waterholes of the park and brush my teeth using the water from the waterfalls!

Hotel for the night: my car

Sometimes I wished I had gone to Karijini on a tour, like I did for Uluru/Kata Tjuta/Kings Canyon or for Kakadu/Litchfield. They would have worried about all the logistics: bumpy roads (if they blew a tyre - or several - they'd have to fix it, not me), drinking water (they have these big tanks that keep the water cold), food (I just ate apples and biscuits during my 3 days there, and that was until all the apples rotted in the car due to the heat and I was left with the biscuits!), tents (I wouldn't have had to sleep in my car), fuel,... and I could have just enjoyed the waterfalls and the scenery without having to worry about all this. The positive side of going there on my own was the fact that I often had the waterfalls and pools for myself. There were not many visitors, no tours at all, and since the park is so huge I often found myself alone in a natural pool where I swam wearing my Adam's suit only! Even better, I could stay in each place for as long as I pleased. I ended up staying 3 days in this paradise.

Beautiful, peaceful, sacred Fern Pool

Fortescue Falls

View from the top of the Fortescue Falls

  

Junction Pool

  

Handrail Pool

The gorges

Then it was time to start the road back to Perth (1411km far from Karijini), and to put an end to my biscuits' diet and Robinson Crusoe lifestyle (though he didn't even have a car to sleep in)! I decided to leave on Friday. I had to go to a roadhouse in the opposite direction, Munjina, which means a 34kmx2 detour, just to get some fuel to make sure I could reach the next petrol station in Newman, 200km away. I took the opportunity to wash my clothes in the camping park's laundry and then I set off to Newman.

Munjina Roadhouse

When I arrived it was already dark. Newman is a mining town, like most of the towns on the Great Northern Highway. These are remote places where people go just for the good money that they make on a mine-related job. Obviously businesses in these towns take advantage of all the money that companies and their employees make and everything is expensive. The cheapest thing that I found to sleep was a room without bathroom or toilet, improvised in a sort of container (the kind of container they put on ships, only this one was made of wood, or fake-wood), for $95... It hurt but there was no other option.

On Saturday I woke up early and at 6:50am I was leaving charmless Newman and its prefabricated houses. The Great Northern Highway doesn't have much to see, the landscape is pretty monotonous. I was driving alone, there are no radio stations and the CD player wasn't working - while in Karijini I had forgotten one window open when driving on the unpaved roads and when I actually paid attention to the inside part of the car (instead of watching for stones which could blow the tyres), there was ochre dust covering everything! It also got inside the CD player, which stopped working.

One of the Karijini roads

There are not many "private cars" on the Great Northern Highway. The only cars you see are those of the people working in the mines, they all seem to drive the same model of 4WD. However, there are lots of trucks and also "oversize trucks"... These are huge trucks that carry big machines, platforms or even prefabricated houses (yes, a truck carries a whole house on it), which makes them occupy more than just their own side of the road: they take your side of the road too! These giants are always announced by a car which precedes them with an "oversize" sign. You have to slow down and keep as much as you can to the side of the road to allow them to pass, or you'll get a prefabricated house on your face, which is an interesting way of dying - he was driving when a house hit him.

An oversize truck parked near the Great Northern Highway

When I had been driving for a couple of hours already, the sky became clouded, the air heavier, and I could see amazing lightning on the horizon. Soon it started pouring to the point where I couldn't drive faster than 80km/h. It was a beautiful storm that cleaned my car from its Karijini dust, but it was also scary, since I had these "oversize trucks" coming (or driving in front of me) and could hardly see them. In a couple of minutes the temperature dropped from 39ºC to 19ºC (according to the car). After an hour or so, it stopped raining, the sun came out again, and it was 37ºC!

I drove approx. 1000km from Newman to New Norcia, with only 3 stops to eat something and buy water. I didn't want to spend the night in another expensive and depressing mining town, so I just decided to make that effort in one day.

I arrived in New Norcia by the end of the afternoon. New Norcia is a tiny monastic town only 132km far from Perth. There is a Benedictine monastery founded in the mid-19th century and little else, everything revolves around the monastery. I had read that the latter actually had a guesthouse where you can sleep, so I asked at the museum/visitor centre about that, but they told me that both the monastery and the only hotel in town - which is owned by the monks - were full and that I'd have to drive 30km farther to another town to find accommodation. I was a bit upset both because I had planned to sleep in New Norcia (I liked the place from the moment I arrived) and because I was tired after my 1000km journey. Then the desk officer - the name of this angel is Kate - said she might have another option. She made a phone call, left for a few minutes, and when she came back she told me that I could sleep at the Old Convent. She took me there to show me around. It was a huge house with a big living-room and a kitchen and I don't know how many rooms. She told me this was usually for groups only but I could have one of the rooms if I wanted. So thanks to Kate I had not only a place to sleep, I had a whole convent for myself (I confess it was a bit intimidating at night - me alone in this big old house... hmm). I was so happy that I could stay there and didn't have to drive anywhere anymore! Only because someone CARED! Then I wanted to phone home to say I'm still alive but I had no coverage and the only public cabin in town only accepted cards. When I asked at the hotel's reception if there was internet anywhere, the receptionist said there wasn't. I explained that I hadn't given any news for several days and was afraid that my family would be worried and... she invited me to send an email from her (the reception's) computer! I have had many such experiences with Australians, where people just do their best to help you when they see that you need help, they are not indifferent to you. This is one of the things I shall never forget about this trip.

Southern Europe? Mexico? No, New Norcia, Western Australia

The Benedictine convent

New Norcia hotel

After sending a short email I went to the monastery and attended the 6:30pm prayer (the Benedictine monks give it a name but I can't remember it), the monks welcome visitors. There are only 8 monks left in New Norcia. Besides myself there were a couple of people attending who were staying at the monastery's guesthouse. As the ceremony went on (they basically sing some psalms) I kept having these flashes of a documentary I saw a couple of years ago, Le grand silence, even though those monks belong to another order. But I'd need to write all night if I were to talk about that. When the ceremony was over I went back to the hotel to taste the Abbey Ale. The monks also produce wine, bread and plenty of other delicious stuff. Then I slept as I hadn’t slept for ages.

Abbey Ale

The next day I took my time to visit New Norcia before I started driving back to Perth, 132km away. The traffic increases as you approach the town and the speed limits are stricter, so it does take a lot of time. It was already dark when I finally reached the hostel and for the first time at any hostel that I’ve been, I was told they were fully booked and was given a list to try my luck elsewhere. I suddenly remembered that the school holidays have just started – I’m glad I’m leaving Australia in a couple of days! I tried my luck at two hostels that were a dump – I’m being nice when I say dump. I ended up at a third hostel that was less a dump than the two previous ones. Then the next morning I had another unpleasant surprise when returning the car: they told me that because the car was “exceptionally dirty” (of course it was, I had been driving in the bush for almost two weeks, there was dust everywhere) I would have to pay $110 extra for cleaning costs (it’s in their rental conditions); but the next surprise was worse: in spite of the fact that I was returning the car 2 days earlier than expected, I would actually have to pay more per day than foreseen because their prices change according to the number of rental days: so for a difference of 2 rental days I paid $38 instead of $20 per day – I found this totally dishonest, but it’s in their rental agreement too, so there was nothing I could do! Had I known, I’d have just parked the car somewhere and returned it on Wednesday as foreseen! I was really angry.

Then it was time to plan my last 3 days here. I didn’t want to stay in Perth for 3 days, so I decided to book a trip to Rottnest, an island just an hour way by ferry where you can do snorkelling, go to the beach, rent a bike, hike or do nothing. I knew this wasn’t the ideal period (school holidays) but I didn’t have many options near Perth.

Exmouth and Cape Range National Park

I love Exmouth. I arrived almost at sunset and the light was beautiful. It looked like a ghost town, nobody in the streets, and the landscape reminded me of the desert - ochre sand, dusty, empty space. I was told there was a restaurant with internet access, so finally I was able to check my emails and write these lines. I have willingly chosen, since I arrived in Australia, not to check any media online, I have no idea what's been going on in the world in the last few weeks.

 

You feel far from everything here. True, you could reach Perth from here in a couple of hours if you took a plane, but still the feeling here is that one is on the moon.

 

Near Exmouth there is another wonderful park, Cape Range National Park. You can choose between hiking in or over the gorges or going to one of the beaches for snorkeling - the Ningaloo Reef extends to this area (which apparently becomes very busy when the whale shark visits the reef). I did both and lazied on the Turquoise Bay beach. This was probably my last day on the beach in Australia, as tomorrow I'm driving approximately 700km inland to Karijini National Park, and then it'll be time to slowly start driving back to Perth, which is about 1400km (yes, one thousand four hundred km) from Karijini... My plan had been to return the car at a small airport near there in a town called Paraburdoo and fly to Perth, but since this option was ridiculously expensive - not the flight, but returning the car in Paraburdoo - I have no choice but to drive back to Perth.

 

Gorge, Cape Range National Park

 

Turquoise Bay, Cape Range National Park



I wasn't the only one lazying on the beach...

... but they always run away from me, snif!



For the moment I think I'll have some wine and enjoy the evening breeze after a day when the temperature was 36ºC (but very dry, so it's bearable). A word on alcohol: as in other Anglo-Saxon countries alcohol is viewed almost as a drug: you must be over 18 to buy it (like everywhere else, but here this is really enforced), they only sell it in "bottleshops" (which are often an annex to a supermarket; it's a place that only sells alcohol), you can't drink it in public places (or have to hide the bottle with a bag) and it is so highly taxed that it is very expensive, especially in restaurants. The latter often allow you to bring your own bottle ("BYO"). the outcome of all these strict measures, of this taboo, is of course (as in the US, Ireland, Britain, Canada,...) that everyone has a drinking problem and alcohol becomes not a natural element of social, and namely gastronomic life (as in Southern Europe), but something that people look for for its own sake - going out to get drunk seems to be a national hobby here, judging from what you see and hear.

 

Wow, pig ears for $2!

 

The West coast: from Perth to Exmouth

The first thing I did when I arrived in Perth was run to a pharmacy to buy some antihistamines. Apparently while in Darwin I was the victim of the peeing mosquito. Who's the peeing mosquito? Well, basically it’s a tiny insect that lands on you, pees on you and then flies away (I wonder why nature decided that these creatures were necessary?), leaving your skin irritated for at least a week, so you scratch yourself all the time, which can cause bleeding and subsequent infection. I got my antihistamines and started feeling better. Bless cetirizine 10mg!

After Darwin my plan was to go to The Kimberley (a huge region in Northern Australia), reach Broome and from there go down the coast until Perth as much as possible (I’m talking about huge distances). However, the wet season has started in the North, so I was told I could forget about The Kimberley, even with a 4WD. I thought I could still go to Broome anyway but all the flights and buses that I found to get there were ridiculously expensive; finally the cheapest option was to fly to Perth (or go to Queensland, but I had decided from the beginning of my trip that I would not go there and I’m very stubborn).

On my arrival to Perth I had a message on my mobile from the rent-a-car saying they had no GPS for me. This made me cancel my booking – I decided there was no way I would be driving alone in Western Australia for 16 days without a GPS – and I had to lose a lot of time searching for another company with an interesting price and a GPS. After I found an alternative I went for some sightseeing around town: Kings Park, Fremantle, the CBD… I can’t say that I was fascinated; I found Perth a pleasant town, but nothing to be crazy about.

Perth seen from Kings Park

The next day I started exploring my last Australian state, Western Australia. I took the Indian Ocean Drive and stopped in some empty beaches along the way until I reached Nambung National Park, where the famous Pinnacles Desert is. A 4km road around the Pinnacles with a few stops allows you to visit the area by car and on foot. It was about 1pm and there were not many people around.    

 

 

 

Pinnacles Desert

After I drank a 1,5l bottle of water almost on a go I continued up the coast, watched the sunset on the Indian Ocean and finally found a cheap place to sleep in Port Denison. By the end of the day I had driven about 350km.

The next morning I headed to Kalbarri National Park. Again, lots of beautiful beaches on the way there. When you finally reach the park, it is divided in 2 sections: the spectacular red cliffs, and the walks in or around the gorges. The latter are accessible by an unsealed road of 25km, it’s hell to get there with the car that I have, praying for the tyres not to blow, but at the end you are rewarded with otherworldly views.

 

 

 

Appropriately named Nature's Window

Kalbarri National Park

There was nobody around, I only met a couple and a wallaby who ran away as soon as it saw me… I drove back to Kalbarri and at the youth hostel I met Fei Hung, from Taiwan, who is here on a working holiday visa, as half of the travellers I’ve met. This is a visa offered to people under 30 y.o. from certain countries which allows them to live, work and travel in Australia for a period of up to 2 years. You cannot work for the same employer for more than a certain period of time (6 months, I believe). The idea is that you work for a while, then you travel, then you find work again somewhere else. Usually these people take jobs unwanted by the Australians in sectors where there is a need for labour force, such as fruit picking, farm work and so on. Although for Australian standards these jobs are not well paid, in practice they mean a lot of money for these “working tourists”, who go back home with some important savings. For instance, Fei Hung told me that he earns $30 per hour here in Australia for one of those manual jobs, whereas in Taiwan he would earn about $4 per hour for a “good” job. I met a French girl in Alice Springs who had earned $55000 in a year fruit picking, a fortune for a European in his/her 20s. Many use the money they have saved to travel in other parts of the world once they leave Australia, mainly in Southeast Asia. Other just use the money to get drunk.

The next morning I drove to Shark Bay, a huge national park which is world heritage, in the direction of Monkey Mia. Monkey Mia is a resort-hotel-hostel-caravan park-camping place on a wonderful beach overlooking the Eastern part of Shark Bay. The place is known for the dolphins that show up each morning at the beach to be fed. They swim literally to the beach, in very shallow water; you can stand 1m away from them. Whereas I certainly enjoyed the experience, you’re not free to interact with the dolphins – for instance touch them or get into the water with them. Also, forget about a solitary encounter with these incredible animals: 70 people or so will also be there to have the same experience… Still, I enjoyed seeing them so close to me, posing!  They do pose, spontaneously (these are wild dolphins living at sea, they’re not trained for that, the only thing they know is that if they come to beach in the morning they get fish), and one would say that they smile at you.

The biggest colony of stromatolites (Earth's oldest living form) in the world (Shark Bay)

Monkey Mia

 

Look at me, ain't I pretty?

After the dolphins I spent some time with Fei Hung, who had forgotten his car key inside the car, which was locked. In spite of this place being pretty remote (the nearest town is Denham, 27km away, there’s only a street and some shops, then you have to drive around 340km to reach Carnarvon), some came to help open the car, I guess it has happened before…

In the afternoon I joined a 3 hour cruise, followed by a 1 ½ hour sunset cruise (the whole thing for $89, a reasonable price – I’m not used to reasonable prices anymore!) in Shark Bay.

Monkey Mia

I saw dolphins again, giant rays, green turtles, two sharks and a dugong, but with the exception of the dolphins they are all pretty shy and you have to be quick to spot them before they’re gone once the boat approaches.

Most people make Coral Bay their next stop after Monkey Mia if they’re going to the north. However, between the two the coast is really beautiful, with cliffs and bays. I hesitated in going there because the road to get to those places – Point Quobba and Gnarraloo - is largely unpaved and I don’t have a 4WD. I asked around and was told that some of the sites were accessible for normal cars if you just drive slowly. I decided to go. As soon as you leave the main road to go there you have the impression you are at the end of the world. The road goes from sandy to stones and gravel and all around you it’s very dry and you don’t always spot the ocean and do feel pretty isolated. Again, I kept thinking “What if I blow a tyre HERE?” (no mobile coverage).

The main road from Shark Bay to the north

Leaving civilisation
 



Reaching Gnarraloo

 

 

However, after some tens of km, there was the reward: Gnarraloo Bay, with turquoise water, an immense beach, the sound of the gentle waves and 5 people besides myself. You see giant rays passing near the beach and also lots of fish if you snorkel. A paradise almost for myself… I spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach and then it started becoming dark. In Gnarraloo there is only a place to stay, Gnarraloo Station, with cabins overlooking the sea, but they cost $120 and that was out of the question, so I decided I’d just sleep in the car and drive back the next day. I was in my car getting ready to sleep when this guy with a dog showed up. He was one of the 5 people I had seen on the beach but I thought he was a visitor too. Actually he was the ranger of the park. He told me I couldn’t sleep there (in Australia you get fined if you sleep in public places) and would have to drive to Gnarraloo Station, sleep in the car if I didn’t want to pay a cabin and pay $20 for the privilege of using the disgusting toilets and showers of the station! So I drove back in the dark in that horrible road, the only lights were those of the car, reached the station (the reception had closed by then), slept (more or less) in the car and the following day I left very early, around 5 in the morning, without paying the $20 and without using their facilities neither. I saw plenty of animals on the way back – this is when they’re out to feed: goats, kangaroos,… Well, goats and kangaroos! I can’t get enough of the kangaroos, each time I have to stop and we just stare at each other! The sun was rising and the light was beautiful, I still did a detour to visit another beach called Red Bluff, had an improvised breakfast there (crackers and an apple, wow) with the beach for myself and then drove back to the main road – civilisation again!

Gnarraloo Bay

 

I reached Coral Bay in the beginning of the afternoon. Coral Bay is known as the best place in the world to swim with the whale shark, who visits every year from April to July. Apart from him, you can also see plenty of other animals (other sharks, mantas, turtles, all sorts of coral fish,…) in the area, which is a national park, Ningaloo, stretching all the way up the rest of the West coast. I was too late for the snorkeling tours, so I had a long walk to the northern part of the bay and reached the sanctuary zone of the reef shark. This is an area of the bay where reef sharks come to breed and it’s forbidden to swim. I saw lots and lots of them from the beach, they swim very close to shore, and I thought I would never in my life swim there anyway!! But I stayed there a long time watching them, they are indeed beautiful animals, it’s a shame that for most of us the word shark mostly evokes… sharp teeth! I walked back to the tiny town – there’s one street, that’s all – and booked my snorkeling tour for the next day, then went for a swim in the safe area of the bay and I did see some fish (but no sharks).

Tropic of Capricorn

 

Coral Bay

Meanwhile I got a text from Fei Hung saying that he was already on his way from Exmouth to Karratha, where he hopes to find a job… Since Exmouth was our last common stop and he left before I got there, this means that we won’t see each other anymore… This is the sad part of travelling, you’re constantly meeting people, sometimes there’s empathy but you have to say goodbye shortly afterwards…

 

The next day, after a boat tour for snorkeling, I left for Exmouth, in the extreme Northwest of Australia.