Towards Kalbarri

Tuesday 6^th September

Denham to Murchison River

We woke up to the sound of the wind doing its best to turn our awning inside out.  To make matters worse we realised we would be heading straight into it all day as we drove south towards Kalbarri.

While Cameron and Christel were doing schoolwork, I shot down town to get fuel before we hooked up the caravan and headed off.  Denham has two fuel stations.  When I pulled up at the first one there was a sign on the pump saying ‘Out Of Order’.  Never mind on to the second one.  Guess what, Out Of Order.  It was 150 odd km out to the Overland Roadhouse, which was the nearest fuel stop. I checked the car computer which showed we had enough fuel to do 180km without towing the caravan.  It would be touch and go.  Luckily we had a 20 litre container full of diesel for emergencies, so we decided we’d be OK.

We wanted to stop off at the Hamelin Stromatolites, on the road out from Denham to the main road.  We didn’t quite get to there before the orange fuel light started flashing, so we had to refuel on the side of the road.

The Hamelin Stromatolites are the oldest living organisms on earth.  In appearance they just look like old well worn rocks. It’s hard to believe they are actually living things. They originated 3.5 billion years ago, being initially formed from cyanobacteria.  The high density of salt in the water in which they lived, allowed them to develop.  They released oxygen into the atmosphere, and as a result of this, all other life started to form.

Obviously that’s a very brief explanation of the life cycle and importance of these rather ordinary looking rocks, but it appears they were they origin of all life on earth.   I’m not sure where Adam and Eve fit in, but I’ll leave you to argue that one amongst yourselves.

Before the Stromatolites were discovered for what they were, to the early settlers they were just a heap of rocks on the shore, which formed a handy place to load wool onto boats for shipping overseas.  They used to take the wool out to the waiting boats by horse and cart across these rather handily placed rocks.  Tracks left by the carts are still visible on the old rocks.

As a small aside, there is a sign by the stromatolites, giving a description of how the wool was delivered from the early sheep stations to the ships waiting to take the wool to England. The wool bales were first of all loaded onto fairly heavy farm carts, or Camel Trains, at the sheep stations.  They were then dragged, or carried, in some cases for hundreds of kilometres, to the coast at Hamelin where the stromatolites formed a nice hard landing.

The wool was then loaded onto small drays and taken out across the rocks to rowing boats waiting at the shore. It was then off loaded from the drays and onto the rowing boats, which would then be rowed out to bigger boats called lighters.  It was then off loaded from the rowing boats onto the lighters, which then sailed 190 km out to the sailing ships waiting in deeper water to take the wool to England.

Again the wool was transferred from one boat to another before beginning the final stage of its trip to England.  And of course in those days of sailing ships, there was no guarantee it would ever get there.  So each bale of wool was actually loaded 5 times before it departed for England.  It must have been worth a bit.

Also at the Stromatolite Site there was a shell rock quarry, where over millions of years crushed shells had been compressed and glued together into a lightweight type of rock. 

The Early settlers were able to use it for building their houses, and cut it out of the ground using cross cut saws similar to the ones used by the early timber workers.

We got out to the Overlander Road House and fuelled up both the car and the spare fuel container.  After lunch at the Roadhouse, we continued south towards our scheduled overnight stop at a free camp beside the Murchison River. 

The free camp site beside the Murchison River was huge with room for about 80 to 100 vans.  There were about 30 camped there when we arrived, and we soon found ourselves a nice spot fairly close to the river.  There were tracks leading in all directions to camp sites amongst the trees, and Cameron had a ball exploring these on his bike.  

He was also able to ride across the low level bridge over the river to another camp site on the other side.  Needless to say we didn’t see much of him except when he came back to tell us about something he had discovered.

It was while we were camped here that we saw our first flocks of wild budgies flying past.  Budgies are almost a pest in Australia, but this was the first time we had seen them in any number.  They made quite a sight as they flew over head with their brilliant green colours flashing in the sun.

Our average fuel consumption for the days travel was just under 26 litres per 100 km. Thanks to the strong head wind we had been travelling into all day; this was the highest we had experienced on the trip so far.  Normally we would expect about 19 to 20 litres per 100km.

Wednesday 7^th Sept

Murchison River to Kalbarri

About 20 km south of our overnight stop at the Murchison River, we turned west on the road down to the coast and the small township of Kalbarri.  From just south of Broome, we had been starting to notice wild flowers growing along the side of the road.  The further south we came, the more we saw, and the greater the variety.  We knew that this was the best time of the year to see them. 

They are especially prolific in this part of Australia, and we had heard that as a result of the extremely wet winter Australia had just experienced, this was expected to be one of their best years ever for wild flower displays.

The road to Kalbarri goes through Kalbarri National Park for most of the way. As we came closer to Kalbarri, there were several places along the side of the road indicating good places to photograph the Wildflowers. 

We stopped at a couple of them and did our best to capture the natural beauty we could see all around us.  We learnt from one of our brochures, that some of the plants in the Park do not exist anywhere else in the world.

Kalbarri is situated on the coast at the mouth of the Murchison River. Our camp site was right by river, which is about the same size as the Mokau River; in fact the whole place somehow reminded us of Mokau. 

The whole area is surrounded by the Kalbarri National Park, and besides the wildflowers, tourists come to the area to see some of the spectacular cliffs and gorges in the National Park.

After setting up camp we had a look around town, and then Cameron and I decided to try our hand at catching a fish from one of the wharves across the road from the centre of town.  The wind, as usual was blowing a gale which didn’t make conditions very pleasant.  We persevered for a while, but the fish weren’t biting, so we gave up and went back to camp for beer and bikkies.

Denham and Monkey Mia

Friday 2^nd September

We woke up to a squally shower rattling the awning and rocking the van.  We quickly pulled down the awning, but by the time we got it down the squall had passed.  After breakfast we packed up and headed south towards our next destination Denham.  As we drove south there was a heavy overcast sky and showers all around us.  We drove through one or two light showers but the road showed signs that heavy rain had recently hit the area.

Strong cross winds buffeted the caravan so we travelled a bit slower than usual. We stopped for diesel at the Overlander Roadhouse, where the road to Denham meets the main north-south road, and then after some lunch, headed northwest towards Denham and Monkey Mia, famous for its dolphins.

We got into Denham at about 2.30 and set up camp.  Then we drove into Denham Township for a look around.  Denham is a small seaside town with the main street running alongside the water front. It is the main service centre for the Shark Bay area which includes Monkey Mia, Peron Peninsula, and the Hamelin Stromatalites. We picked up some brochures on things to do and see from the visitors centre, and bought some groceries. 

The wind was blowing a gale making things fairly unpleasant.  The forecast was for more of the same.  Things weren’t looking all that good for our planned visit to Monkey Mia and the dolphins.

Saturday 3^rd September

The caravan rattled and shook all night, but the wind had eased a bit by morning. We decided to check out a couple of the local attractions which were advertised on the brochures we had collected from the visitors centre.  One was called Eagle Bluff, where a board walk had been erected along the cliff top overlooking a shallow bay where sharks, dugongs and manta rays were known to frequent, and the other was the Ocean Park Aquarium where we could see shark feeding and various other fish that frequent the Shark Bay area.

Eagle Bluff was about 20 km south of Denham. We drove out to the Bluff and looked down into the shallow water of the bay beneath us.  There was nothing to be seen.  We walked along the boardwalk with about half a dozen other tourists, all expecting to see something. 

Finally through the binoculars we saw a shark swim lazily across the shallow waters of the bay.   From our position about 300 m away it was impossible to judge how big it was or what kind. 

A waste of time but never mind. We had long ago learnt you just have to take what you get when it comes to nature, and so far on this trip we hadn’t done to bad.

We then drove back towards Denham and down to the Ocean Aquarium.  The Aquarium consisted of several large open tanks each with different varieties of fish representing the various parts of the ocean.  Sea Shore, Coral Reef, and open sea.  The guides were very informative, and really knew their stuff.  There was everything from tiny brightly coloured tropical fish, to huge lobsters, moray eels,

rays of all shapes and sizes, dozens of different types of fish, and of course sharks up to about 2½ meters in length.

The shark tank had about a dozen different varieties of sharks, and we fairly quickly identified our friends from our snorkelling trip by the Blow Holes. 

They were indeed Reef Sharks and we learnt they would only attack if provoked.  When we told the guides about them, they were surprised to hear of so many congregating in one area, and suggested that they may have gathered there for mating.

One tank specialized in venomous fish including a Stone Fish who was so well camouflaged even the tour guide took some time to find him in his tank.  It took a good hour to do the tour, which included feeding the sharks.  A very interesting and educational tour.

After lunch back at the caravan, we decided to have another look around Denham and go for a walk along the waterfront.  As we were driving around town we saw a sign advertising the local speedway which was just starting.  We drove out to the track and joined a huge crowd of six other cars watching the action.  The first race was juniors, and six basically ordinary street cars with the windows knocked out, raced around the track.  This was followed by the seniors with another six similar cars doing the same thing.  These guys were a bit faster, and Cameron had great fun watching them drift around the bends at either end of the track.  After about 5 races everything stopped for some reason, so we moved on.

After a drive around town and a walk along the waterfront, we took shelter from the wind in the pub, and enjoyed a beer and chips.  Then it was back to the van for tea.

Sunday 4^th September

We had found out that the Monkey Mia Dolphins came in for their first feeding of the day at 7:45, and as it was 25km from Denham across the peninsula to Monkey Mia, we were away from camp by 7.00. 

We arrived at Monkey Mia by 7.30, and stood on the verandah of the information centre overlooking the beach where the dolphins would be fed, with about a dozen other early arrivals.  We could see several dolphins playing around in the water just off shore, obviously waiting for the feeding time.

By 7:45 when the Ranger arrived, there were about 100 expectant people milling around, waiting to watch the dolphin feeding spectacle. The Ranger gave us talk about how to behave near the dolphins, and then we all moved down to water’s edge, ready to watch the feeding.  Remember what happened when we went to Eagle Bluff yesterday, and saw nothing?  Suddenly there were no dolphins anywhere.  The sea was empty. 

The Rangers weren’t worried saying they had probably just gone on a small fishing expedition and would be back soon.  So we waited, and waited.  The Rangers kept reassuring us the dolphins would return any minute, so we continued waiting. After about half an hour at least half of the crowd had gone. Some to board cruises around the bay, which were obviously timed to follow on from the expected feeding.

I happened to look well up the beach and spotted several Dolphins apparently playing near the water’s edge.  With the video camera in my hand I walked up to see if I could catch some of the action.  Three or four dolphins were swimming back and forth along the beach about 2 meters from the shore.  I soon realised they had several small fish trapped in the shallow water, but couldn’t get at them because the water was too shallow.

Each time the trapped fish would try and escape by going left or right, one of the dolphins would be there to head them off.  They gradually moved down towards the feeding area, but by now there was only one fish, a bream, still trapped.  They finally managed to grab the fish when it got into slightly deeper water.

It was a fascinating experience watching these very intelligent animals working as a team to catch the fish.  Now that they had caught a fish, they weren’t interested in being fed so they all disappeared out to sea again.

We went to the resort cafe and had a coffee and then spent some time lazing on the beach.  The dolphins finally came back at about 11.00 and at long last we got to see them being fed. 

The Rangers selected people to come out and hold the food while the dolphin came and took it from their hands, and of course Cameron was one of those selected.

We spent the rest of the day lazing on the beach watching the dolphins playing right by the shore, and the big sailing catamarans taking tourists out for harbour cruises.

Monday 5^th September

After school work we headed back to Monkey Mia. The wind was still blowing a gale and doing anything in Denham was out of the question as the wind was blowing straight onto the shore.  Monkey Mia being on the other side of the peninsula was quite a bit more sheltered.  Again the dolphins kept us entertained cruising up and down about 2 metres from the shore.  We tried a bit of fishing, but the dolphins must have scared all the fish away. 

When the tide went out we went for a long walk along the mud flats discovering all sorts of interesting things, including some moray eels hiding under some coral rocks. At the end of the day we reluctantly packed up and headed back to windy Denham.  Tomorrow we would head south again towards Kalbarri.

Carnarvon

Tuesday 30^th August

 After a good session of school work we decided to go and have a look at Miaboolya Beach which was about 20 km north of Carnarvon, on the northern side of the Gascoyne River. We finally found the beach after driving down some hairy dirt and sand tracks through sand dunes.  There was a strong wind blowing and the place looked quite uninviting.  The sea was a dirty brown colour, probably caused by dirt stirred up from the nearby Gascoyne River. 

The beach itself stretched for miles to the north and looked quite desolate. We had a bit of a walk along the beach but seeing as it was so unpleasant decided to go back to camp, where we had a very enjoyable swim in the pool and spent the afternoon doing very little.

Wednesday 31^st August

Happy Birthday Lara.  The day started as usual with school work.  While Christel and Cameron were educating each other, I gave the van a well overdue wash.  We had to pay $2 to wash the car, and $4 to wash the van, but at least, at long last, there was sufficient water to do it.

After lunch we decided to go and check out Carnarvon’s jetty. 

At a mile long, it was for a long time Australia’s longest, and today is still one of the longest jetties in Western Australia.   In the early days it was an essential part of Carnarvon’s history with huge amounts of livestock being shipped out.  A cattle race was built along the entire length of the jetty and cattle and sheep were driven along it to waiting boats.

Later a railway line was built along the jetty, and part of it is still used today to take lazy tourists out to the end for a look.  We decided to walk it.

We were back at camp, just before three o’clock in time to ring Lara at the prearranged time of 7.00pm New Zealand Time.  What a thrill to be able to talk to Lara, George, and the boys, and catch up on all their news.

Thursday 1^st September

After school work we headed north along the road towards Exmouth, and then turned off onto the road leading to Lake MacLeod and Point Quobba.  Our destination was the Quobba Blowholes, on the coast at the southern tip of Lake MacLeod.  We stopped off at a lighthouse overlooking the coast where the blowholes were, and could see them erupting even though we were still more than a kilometre from them.  We could also see whales spouting out at sea.

Down on the rocky cliff tops, we watched the holes do their stuff.  The blowholes are activated by the sea pounding in against the cliffs.  Over millions of years, the sea has worn away the softer parts under the cliff, enabling the waves to crash in under the cliffs into caves and tunnels, where they become trapped.  The huge pressure that builds up then cases the blowholes to activate with huge geysers erupting into the air through holes along the top of the cliff.

Some of the blowholes are about 30 or 40 metres back from the cliff face, so there is about 30 seconds between the time the wave hits the cliff face, to when the blowhole erupts. 

It was fascinating stuff.  Equally fascinating was watching the pure power of the waves as they crashed into the cliffs.  Made you feel a bit insignificant watching nature do her stuff as she has done along this coast for millions of years.

While we were watching the blowholes do their stuff, we could see turtles out in the waves, and further out to sea several whales spouting and sounding as they made their way up the coast.  Just as we were leaving, Cameron spotted a pod of dolphins playing in the waves.

After spending about an hour watching the blowholes, we headed south for about 5 km to find a beach we had been told about, that was great for snorkelling.  We soon came across this beautiful little sheltered bay with a small island about 100 metres offshore. 

The bottom of the lagoon between the shore and the island was completely covered with coral, perfect for snorkelling. The contrast between this beautiful peaceful lagoon and the violent sea we had been watching at the blowholes just a little way up the coast was amazing.

We had lunch on the beach and then went snorkelling.  The coral was brilliant, equal to any we had seen.  It was growing so thick on the sea floor there was just nowhere to stand. We worked our way over to the island and clambered out on its sandy beach.  About 50 metres away on the south end of the island was a wide flat sand bank covered by knee deep water.

We could see hundreds of dark shapes in the water, and as we got closer realised they were sharks all about a metre to a metre and a half long.  We presumed they were Reef Sharks which were known to frequent these waters.  As they were known to be basically harmless, we quickly took the opportunity to snorkel amongst them. 

What an experience lying in about half a metre of water, with literally hundreds of 1 to 1½ metre long sharks all around you.  They were pretty timid and would swim right up to you, then suddenly veer away when they saw you.  Looking at them through goggles made them seem even bigger than they were, and sometimes, when they came swimming towards you, you started thinking “Shit, I hope these are Reef Sharks and not some man eater”.    Cameron showed absolutely no fear, and just loved it, even though some of the sharks were almost as long as he was.  It was at times like this that we wished we had an underwater camera.

Eventually we had to head back to Carnarvon.  About 30 km down the road we suddenly ran into a swarm of locusts. They sounded like large hailstones when they smashed into the windscreen.  We drove through them for about half a kilometre.  Luckily I think we must have just caught the edge of the swarm, as we had heard stories of cars having to stop and wait for a swarm to pass because the locusts were so thick they just couldn’t see.

The coast at the blowholes is the furthest west you can get by car in Australia. So now we have touched the coast on all four points of the compass on our trip around Aussie.  We must be on the home stretch now.