Round the World with Ann and Katie

The flight to Melbourne was very smooth although you lose 2 hours on the way over from Perth. Then we had to put our clocks forward an hour on Sunday. What a contrast to the west coast though. Whilst Melbourne is a pleasant city we much prefer the west coast and the outback. But we might change our tune when we venture out into the countryside later today. We are hiring another car to explore the Snowy and Blue Mountains on our way up to Sydney, stopping off for a visit to Heather’s sister who lives just north of Melbourne. We spent Saturday in the city, however. It has some interesting architecture including some very modern box-like buildings in Federation Square. One of these houses the Australian Centre for the Moving Image where we saw an excellent film called “The Lives of Others”. I hadn’t been to the cinema in the morning since we used to go to the Saturday Club when I was about 6! The film was German and was about the Stasi persecuting a playwright in East Berlin. It was very well acted and the plot had several twists. Apparently it won the Oscar this year for best foreign language film. Then we went to the Immigration Museum which followed the history of immigration to Australia. We had a walk along the Yarra River and managed to get ourselves locked in to the Botanical Gardens. We were released by a nice man with keys! In the evening we went to China Town to brush up our chopstick skills. Yesterday we went to St Kilda on the tram and wandered round for a bit. But Katie was keen to “do something” so we returned to Melbourne and went to a climbing wall which has recently been opened here. They taught us a different system for tying on and belaying. The grading system is different here so we didn’t know what we climbing really. It goes from 1-30, 1 being a walk uphill and 30 presumably being something along the lines of E10. We hovered around the 12-18 bracket. It is the only wall we have seen in Oz and we came to the conclusion that they don;t have a lot of experience in route setting as several of the routes we tried were bizarre to say the least. But it was good fun and satisfied Katie’s need for some action. We went out for a Greek meal in the evening. The hostel we are in here is not very nice and the kitchen is a bit of a health hazard so we ate out. So we are off to pick up the car in a few minutes. More news anon.

Well we finally made it to Rottnest Island yesterday (Weds). We were collected from the campsite at 6.30am and had a scenic tour of caravan parks and hotels in the Perth area before being dropped off at the jetty in time for the 8am ferry. It took about 45mins to get to the island which was named by Dutch explorers who thought that the quokkas who live on the island were large rats. An easy mistake to make we thought after we had seen some. On arrival we hired some bikes and set off round the island which is only about 11km long by (I think) about 4 wide. So you can easily cycle round it in a day. There are loads of beautiful beaches to choose from but the ones along the north coast often have jellyfish so we just looked at those. On the way over in the boat we had seen some more humpback whales. Katie is rather blase about this now. “Oh are there” she said as everyone else in the boat jumped up and down to get a good view!
We saw some other wildlife including the said quokkas and lots of lizards and Katie saw a huge snake crossing the road. But the highlight of the day was the snorkelling. We had bought a snorkelling guide to the island so we knew the good places to go. The water was quite cold (again!) but it was crystal clear and we could see beautiful corals almost immediately after getting in to the water. Our favourites are the ones that look like brains, except that they are purple. There were also masses of fish. It is difficult to find out what they are called because once on land you tend to forget exactly what they are like so that when you look them up you think “It could have been this one or it could have been that one”. But it was great fun anyway. Thankfully it was a hot day without too much wind so we could lie on the beach and dry out after our first snorkel before cycling on a little way for another one. There was a dolphin cruising round in the bay but it ignored us. But there was again lots of lovely pink coral and Katie who went out further than me (I got rather cold!) reported some huge fish. Back at the small collection of shops and cafes that they call “The Settlement” we had tea and cakes and Katie bought a pair of shorts that were half price.
This morning we have been sorting out all our stuff prior to our departure for Melbourne tomorrow. There were 4 weeks worth of dead flies encrusted on the front of the car so we gave it a hose down and vacuumed it out – so you can’t escape these mundane jobs even when travelling!
We have very much enjoyed our time in Western Australia. There are so many places to go and a huge variety of things to see and do that I can strongly recommend it as a holiday destination. I am only rather sorry that I didn’t discover Australia earlier: and we have only seen such a small part of it. Even in Western Australia we didn’t really get into the Kimberley or the Bungle Bungles – but there is always next time! The only downside are the flies: really irritating. They get all over you and in your ears and up your nose – ugh! But I have been wearing my Scottish midgy net a lot of the time to thwart them.

We spent just one day in Geraldton which seems to owe its existence to the fact that it is quite a large port and also to the lobster fishing industry. We went for a short walk near the campsite and all of a sudden we saw what looked like two ospreys sitting on a log by the beach – and they were ospreys! They had a nest up a big pole with a chick looking out of it. Apparently they stay there all year round and don’t migrate like our ospreys. Then we went to the museum where the main attraction was a large display about shipwrecks, mainly of Dutch East India Company ships in the 17th century. They used to go to Cape Town and then sail across to the west coast of Australia before turning north for Indonesia to collect spices. Sometimes they misjudged it and ran onto the many reefs along the coast. One of the wrecks (The Batavia) was the subject of a particularly gruesome film which we watched. Many of the survivors including women and children were murdered by some of the crew who had mutinied and then when the remaining people were eventually rescued there were rather brutal executions. Two mutineers were however marooned on the coast of Australia and could have become the first settlers but nobody knows what became of them.
We also visited a very moving memorial for the HMAS Sydney which went down with 645 crew duriing WW2. It consists of a metal dome made out of 645 flying seagulls and there is a bronze of a woman looking anxiously out to sea.
The next day (Weds 15th) we set off from Geraldton but only drove for about 20 mins before stopping near Greenough for a walk along the river, about 17km. We nearly tripped over a snake on the path – only the second one we have seen so far. Then on to Cervantes where we had quite a lot of rain in the evening which put a bit of a damper on our swimming plans. I had to get my thick fleece out! The thing to see near Cervantes are the Pinnacles. There are thousands of limestone pinnacles in the desert, all shapes and sizes. They reminded me of stone circles like we have at Avebury etc but of course they are entirely natural. We arrived in the Swan Valley later that afternoon.
The Swan Valley calls itself the valley of good taste and is primarily a wine producing area, although there other nice goodies on offer such as nougat, beer, cheese, chocolate etc. As I mentioned previously It was Katie’s idea that we should go on a wine tour so I had to go along to keep an eye on her. We booked a tour for Saturday through the tourist information office. Many of the places round here have very English names – Guildford, Caversham, and even High Wycombe!
Friday: Off to Perth today. We started off in the museum which, in common with most of the others we have visited is very good indeed. Museums have really improved a lot in recent years I think. The best bit was a display called “From diamonds to dinasaurs” which traced the history of the universe from the Big Bang through to the present day (and all before lunch too). I learned a lot that I didn’t know about meteorites and it was interesting to relate the displays to places we have actually visited in Oz.
We have walked such a long way in 4 months that I had to buy some new sandals! They threw away my old ones at the shop – most embarassing.
Then we went to King’s Park, which overlooks the city and has great displays of native flowers ( it is Spring here) including lots of everlasting flowers.
The wine tour was a great success. We visited 5 wineries and had tastings at each one. In this area the main wines seem to be Shiraz and Chenin Blanc, although we had a very acceptable Grenache at one of the wineries as well as a wine called Voignier that I had never heard of before. Also Verdelho is popular here but we weren’t impressed. Included in the tour was an excellent lunch of bread, cheese, cold meats and salad with a glass of sparkling wine. Then we sampled the nougat and chocolate before finishing up with the beer which was unfortunately German lager, the only down side of the day. We were dropped off at the campsite and didn’t really need any dinner that evening! Just a lie down.
We met a rather nice Canadian couple at the campsite. They are going to travel up the west coast reversing our trip so we gave them our map and pointed out the best places to go for snorkelling.
Fremantle is apparently the place to go on Sundays so we followed the trend and went there on the train. Katie had a wish to visit the prison which is now a tourist attraction. It originally housed convicts until they stopped sending them in the 1860s and then it was a maximum security prison until 1991. Some of the cells were displayed as they would have been set up for convicts and I think they had a better deal than the modern day prisoners. Even when the prison closed there was no plumbing in the cells and conditions were appalling. They were even worse for the women prisoners who were housed there until 1970. They only got one cold bath a week and had to spend 8 hours a day in cages in the yard if they weren’t washing sheets or darning socks, the only occupations which were thought to be appropriate for them in those days. It really was very depressing. We also heard about all the escapes and attempted escapes. Not many people succeeded in getting out and then most of them were recaptured. Unfortunately, the next morning I realised that I had left my camera in Fremantle, probably on a bench outside the prison where we had lunch. All my photos of our trip down the coast! So I reported it to the police (about as useless as they are back home) and then phoned the prison as soon as they opened. And somebody had handed it in! So off I went to Fremantle to retrieve it – what a relief! In the afternoon we had a great walk of about 10km in a national park not far from the campsite. There were lots of lovely wild flowers and more kangarooos than you could shake a stick at. Very tame ones who posed for photos.
Today we should have gone to Rottnest Island but they messed up our transport to the ferry so we are going tomorrow instead. It is about 45 mins by boat from Perth and has some lovely beaches and wildlife. So instead we are in Perth again this time for a tour round the WACA. We even got to stand on the pitch! This will I know only be of interest to cricket lovers but they have a museum there with lots of cricket memorabilia (signed bats and lots of photos etc). And they still have an old-fashioned scoreboard (not an electronic one) and no big screens so it is like stepping back in time.
After lunch we went to the art gallery and joined a tour on Aboriginal Art. This included dot paintings on bark but also “Western” style paintings. And lastly we attended a lecture on Tutankhamun. So we are feeling very well-educated and cultured at the moment. Oh, and I didn’t mention the display of wildlife photography, rather like the Wildlife Photographer of the Year that we have at home.

We have now made it as far as Geraldton, the largest place we have been to since Hong Kong. In a couple of days we will be in Perth so our outback adventure will be over which is very sad. Already the scene has changed a lot and we have been driving past fields of sheep and crops: it looks a bit like the south east of England in a very bad drought year.
But on our way down the coast we have been doing lots of snorkelling. We went on the trip in the glass-bottomed boat that I mentioned in my last bulletin. The coral was rather different to what I thought it would be as I was under the impression it was all brightly coloured. There were some coloured bits (blue, purple and red) but in the main it was a sort of grey colour. But the fish were spectacular. Dozens of different types of fish, all colours and sizes. The water was rather cold though and we had an hour to snorkel so we shivered all the way back to the beach in our wet things. On the way out to the coral reef though we saw a humpback whale with a calf really close up. So we did the coral tour and the whale tour all at the same time! Back at the campsite we bought a mask and snorkel each so that we could have a go whenever the opportunity arose. Exmouth also had a mini-golf course, something which we have always felt was an essential part of a holiday.
The next day we drove down to Carnarvon, stopping off at Coral Bay on the way as it promised some good snorkelling. As we drove into Coral Bay it actually rained! The first rain we have had since arriving in Oz. But it brightened up and although the water was cold we did go in and were rewarded with a huge variety of beautiful fish. We needed a coffee and a piece of cake afterwards to warm us up.
In Carnarvon we went for quite a long walk in the afternoon. This culminated in One Mile Jetty which actually is about a mile long. There is an old lighthouse there and a lighthouse keepers cottage and a train museum (we didn’t go in as it is not really our thing). The jetty was rather ricketty but there is a little train that runs along to the end. We walked though: it goes out over mangroves and then out over the sea. It was very windy but our experiences in the Cairngorms served us well and we battled our way to the end. On Wednesday (10th) we went to Blowholes which is about an hours drive north of Carnarvon. We went passed a huge dried up lake with salt flats. The coastline was dramatic with huge waves breaking against the cliffs. In a few places the waves had made holes through the rock and these formed water spouts (the blowholes) when big waves came in. Then we went on to a more sheltered beach and did some snorkelling. This was our best snorkel so far as there were lots of different coloured corals and brightly coloured fish and anemones. But again the wind was very strong and the water was cold. However we did go in twice if only for about 10 minutes each time.
On Thursday we drove down to Denham: it is actually twinned with Denham in Bucks! On the way we stopped at Hamelin Pools where they have some of the world’s only living stromatolites. They are made by cyanobacteria which have survived in that particular place because the water is so salty that the snails which normally eat them can’t survive. They produce weird rocky structures in the water. They were the original form of life on earth and produced oxygen, thus changing the atmosphere so that other forms of life could evolve – including us! You can bubbles of oxygen rising up through the water. In the same place there is a shell quarry where they remove blocks of small shells for building. The rain water dissolves calcium carbonate out of the shells and then sticks them all together like cement. Our next stop was Shell beach, which is made entirley of the same small shells, in places 10m thick. In Denham we went to the Shark Bay World Heritage Centre which provides a very good display explaining why Shark Bay is a world heritage site. There is a wide variety of different habitats there both marine and on land. One particular feature is a huge area of seagrass which apparently supports all the other creatures in the sea in the area. There are lots of sharks and rays and dolphins and dugongs and varieties of fish that don’t occur elsewhere. On land there are many rare animals and plants. They are trying to reintroduce some of the rare species and are getting rid of foxes, feral cats, rabbits etc. A lot of the interesting bits are only accessible by 4WD. We toyed with the idea of hiring one but were talked out of it by a guy at the visitor centre. So we booked a 4WD trip for the next day and went up into the Cape Peron National Park.
Initially the track was quite good and we stopped off first of all at the Peron Homestead which until quite recently was a sheep station with 15-20,000 sheep. We looked at the shearing shed which was still in working order and at the accommodation for the shearers. The we carried on up the peninsula. I was really gad we hadn’t tried to drive it ourselves as the track was very narrow and went through really deep, soft sand. We also drove across some gypsum clay pans (called birridas) which have a crust of hard salt on the surface and then underneath it is just soft mud. So if you break through the surface you get bogged down and it is very difficult to get out. At Skipjack Point, the most northerly point of the Cape, we saw dolphins, sharks, rays, a turtle and a sea snake. Then we walked along to Cape Peron (about 1.5km) where we had lunch. The flies were terrible so I wore my Scottish midge net. Unfortunately we didn’t see any dugongs.
Next day we went o Monkey Mia, about 25 km from Denham. Dolphins come into the beach to be fed there and when we arrived they were already there being given fish. You can paddle into the water and they swim up to you and you give them fish. Then we went for a bird walk and saw the most rare bird in Australia – the thick billed grass wren. In fact we swa 4 of them. They are quite big as wrens go – certainly a lot bigger than ours at home.We laos saw white-winged fairy wrens and some bar-tailed godwits. And pelicans. We like pelicans but it seems that if you are a proper birdwatcher you shouldn’t like pelicans. We did some more snorkelling but there wasn’t much about under the sea at Monkey Mia. But the water was warmer!
The next day we drove down to Kalbarri. We stopped off on the way to look at the Murchison River but the flies were appalling so we didn’t hang about. The river flows into the sea at Kalbarri and there is a picturesque estuary and then beyond that huge waves breaking on a reef. We walked about 3 km along the cliffs to a seahorse sanctuary where they breed seahorses – but it was closed. So we went to parrot breeding centre instead. In the evening we went to Finlay’s which is quite an institution in Kalbarri. It is a restaurant in a tin shack sort of place and they mainly do barbecued sea food. We bought a bottle of wine and walked down and had a huge platter of sea food (two different types of fish, prawns, mussels, rice, chips etc). Everyone here seems to eat very early so by about 8pm we ere about the only ones left in the place.
The next day we went to the beach to watch pelicans being fed. About 6-7 of them turned up for some fish and the woman in charge gave an interesting talk about pelicans. I don’t know why people don’t like them because they are quite fascinating really. Children are then given pilchards to feed them with. After that we went to Blue Holes where there are sheltered rock ppools which are good for snorkelling. We then toured on down the coast stopping off at places of interest along the way. There are huge sandstone cliffs all along the coast here and the waves crash in and send up lots of spray. The last major feature of the day, as we drove down to Geraldton, was Lake Hutton which is bright pink (and I do mean shocking pink) because of the algae in it.
Tomorrow we head down to Cervantes and then the next day should see us in the Swan Valley, near Perth. Katie wants to do a wine tour – I will just tag along out of interest!
By the way I have discovered a new musical genre – Australian country. It is all about gravel roads and utes and faithful dogs and rounding up cattle and so on. Great stuff! I have even bought a CD. It was our only CD for a few thousand km but I bought a new one yesterday.
And I have written a poem: what do think? Pam Ayres had better watch out!

OUTBACK TRAVELS

Travelling through the outback
On the road since break of day
Highway stretching straight and clear
To the blue sky far away

Past tortured trees with blackened bark
Through a land parched, dusty and red
Looking out for straying cattle
And kangaroos on the road ahead

Past termite mounds and dried up creeks
Black kites circling the sky
Past flowers purple, yellow and blue
Clinging to life through the dry

Past desert oaks, acacias and gums
The green of their leaves defying the heat
Clouds of dust fill the air
Where gravel and bitumen meet

The sun dies orange in the west
The moon and stars our only light
As we lie safe in our swags
Listening to the sounds of the night

We are still enjoying ourselves in WA – how could one not! We went to the open air cinema in Broome on our last night there and saw “La Vie en Rose” which is all about the life of Edith Piaf. I wanted to go just for the experience of sitting on a deckchair under the stars watching a film but in the event it was an interesting film if a bit disjointed in places. The cinema had opened in 1916 and is the oldest open air one in Oz.
On 4th October we left Broome. We have got into the habit of getting up early: it is good to get some driving done before it gets too hot. We drove down to Port Headland, a town based on mining and shipping. Apparently it is the biggest commodity port in Australia and the 4th biggest in the world. The town itself is nothing to write home about so I won’t bother. But it was just a stopover for us on our trek further south to the Karijini National Park. We arrived at the park by lunchtime the next day and headed for the campsite. In contrast to the one at Port Headland which was very plush with a swimming pool and all mod cons this was a bush camp with only a bush toilet and a BBQ (all Aussie campsites seem to have a barbie even if they have nothing else). We did some hiking in the afternoon, the big feature of the area being Dales Gorge which has 3 pools in which you can swim. So we hiked the gorge in the heat and jumped in all the pool as we came to them. You don’t have to worry about crocs there either. The highlight of the walk for me though was seeing some huge bats hanging in the trees in the gorge. And the trees themselves were amazing: collosal paperbark trees which must be very old indeed. There wasn’t much else we could do in the park without a 4WD vehicle so we decided to head for Exmouth the next day. We were serenaded by dingos again in the night.
Although the drive to Exmouth was over 600km it was quite pleasant and we went through some of the most remote country we have encountered so far: over 200km without any signs of civilisation at all. And then all you get is a roadhouse. There were lots of cattle on the road and also a huge lizard wandered across in front of the car. I thought the dinosaurs were extinct but not here! I saw a dingo standing at the side of the road too.
Exmouth is emu territory: it says in one of the tourist brochures we picked up that they are unpredictable in their observance of the Green Cross Code! Let’s hope we don’t have a similar experience to Michael Parkinson. Our campsite in Exmouth is lovely and has a huge camp kitchen. Katie has been dying to get her hands on a barbie so we bought some sausages and she singed them for us for dinner. We then sat down to watch England v Australia in the rugby but were thrown out of the TV room at 10pm (halfway through the second half) because it has to close at that time. So there are “jobsworths” even in Oz. We didn’t find out until the next day that we had won! So we can hold our heads up again for a while.
Yesterday (Sunday) we drove to the Cape Ranges National Park on the other of the peninsula to our camp site. This is an amazing place ( I know we keep being amazed but everywhere here is amazing!) and we visited Yardie Creek, a limestone gorge which runs down to the sea. From the rim of the gorge you can see the sand dunes and beyond that the blue sea with waves crashing on the coral reef. Magic stuff. We then went to Sandy Bay where I had to have a swim because it was so beautiful. A curve of lovely sand with water so clear and blue and white waves on the reef. We were the only people there apart from one guy fishing. You see pictures of places like that but I didn’t believe they really looked like that in the flesh.
Then on to Turquoise Bay, which lived up to its name, for yet another swim and lunch. We thought we had better do something worthwhile as well so we went to the visitor centre and learned all about turtles, which lay their eggs on the beach nearby and the humpback whales that you can see offshore (we saw one the night we arrived). It is apparently a bit too early in the year for the turtles to lay their eggs yet.
We are going out in glass-bottomed boat to the coral reef this afternoon and we can also snorkel as well from the boat.

A lot has happened since we were last on line. The bus trip back from Alice to Darwin was quite pleasant for such a long trip. We slept quite well and the bus stopped frequently so that we could stretch our legs and get food and drinks. During the night there were lots of kangaroos on the road and we had to brake hard a few times but we didn’t hit any. There are however lots of marsupial casualties all over the roads (and the occasional cow) so it is a definite hazard of driving at night when they tend to be active.
We have hired a car in Darwin and are now drving down the west coast to Perth which will take about 4 weeks. We headed first of all for Kakadu National Park which is to the east of Darwin – not on our way at all really but too good to miss. We are now camping rather than using hostels. We haven’t had to put the flysheet on the tent at all yet. Some of the campsites have been very nice with swimming pools etc. Anyway we spent the first night in a place called Jabiru which is really small and hasn’t got a lot to recommend it except that it is near some things that are well worth seeing. One of the main things to see in the area is Aboriginal rock art of which there are many examples. We visited one site where there was a large cave shelter with paintings of kangaroos and other things on the walls. They have been dated back about 20,000 years. There were also lots of other paintings in the same area, many of them showing characters in the Aboriginal stories of the creation of the landscape and animals etc. They are very striking and use 3 colours, red, white and yellow. We also did a short walk to a large billabong where there were lots of birds but you have to be careful of crocodiles and not go near the water. It was only a short drive then to Cooinda where we had a really good campsite with 2 swimming pools. We lazed away the afternoon wondering what you were all up to at home!
The next day we were up early for a boat trip on the nearby wetlands where there are thousands of birds and lots of crocodiles. We set off from the jetty and the guide announced that he was really excited because he had just spotted 2 seagulls. I began to have misgivings at this point thinking “I’ve paid $50 for this!” However, it was a language barrier problem again and it was actually two sea eagles which were a lot more impressive. In fact we saw 3 altogether and a huge nest. Amongst the other birds we saw were jabirus (black necked storks), Australian pelicans, 4 types of egret, wandering ducks, a kingfisher, red-necked darters, herons, jacarandas, ibis and lots of others. And loads of crocodiles, the salt water ones that attack people amongst other things. One jumped out of the water near the boat. Even without the wildlife the scenery was stunning. We saw a jabiru’s nest which made the eagle’s nest look tiny.
The next day we went on a 4WD trip to see Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. This was quite exciting as we had to drive throuogh a deep creek with the water nearly up to the windows of the vehicle. The falls were not really very spectacular because we are right at the end of the dry season. Twin Falls was at least running a bit. You have to go up a narrow gorge in a boat to get there. The sandstone cliffs are about 200m high on either side. Then you walk up the falls which drop into a large pool. There is a sandy beach there but you can’t swim because of the crocs. Jim jim Falls was ahrdly running at all – just a trickle but the best bit is that you can swim there – very refreshing after clambering in ver large boulders in the heat. We swam across to the other side of the pool (about 100m) and spent some time jumping in off the cliffs. There were some cane toads there which apparently can survive the drop from the top of the falls (about 200m) and just swim away.
After we got back to Cooinda we drove on to Pine Creek arriving at about 7pm. There we went out for dinner as we didn’t have any food left and had barramundi and chips which was really tasty. Everybody in the area fishes for barramundi and it is one of the things you have to try.
Since then we have been driving and drving and driving. With the odd bit of exploration thrown in. But you don’t realise how big Australia is until you start to drive across it. Hundreds of km between anything that resembles civilisation and then you just find a roadhouse with a caravan park attached. The roads are dead straight and seem to go on forever. We come over the crest of a hill and the road just goes on into the distance. And very little traffic so the highlight of the day is when a car comes the other way or we have to go round a bend! But in some ways it quite enjoyable just seeing the immense size of the place and although it is very hot the car has air conditioning so it isn’t too bad.
And the reward was getting to Broome which has a 22km beach and a beautiful turquoise sea which is lovely and warm and has huge waves. So we have been for a long walk along the beach today and had a swim. We saw a lovely sunset on the beach last night and tonight we are going to the open air cinema. And then on to Port Headland tomorrw – another 600km away – en route for the Karijina National Park.