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.