Go West Young Man (2015 Travel Blog of my trip to Western Australia Pt 1)
I've lived in Australia since 1970, but only managed to get across to Western Australia in August 2015. Can you believe it, 45 years! I decided to go because I really, really needed to get away from it all and travel, which is the one thing that soothes my soul. I drove my Ford utility 13,000 kms on this round trip. It was really good. The distance between some places was quite far. Hours at times, but I really didn't mind. Being on your own for any length of time is a real head clearer and forces you to take in your surroundings and appreciate the world. From Central Victoria I headed west to Adelaide, South Australia initially to visit with some friends. From there I began the long stretches towards Perth, Western Australia.
My first surprise was as I traveled across the famous Nullabor Plain. I imagined a long lonely highway that could be one's final resting place if your car broke down, but as I discovered, you would only need to wait no more than ten minutes before another traveler, grey-nomad (retired folk towing a caravan) or a truck would come by and sure to give you a hand with whatever your predicament happened to be. In one way I was a little annoyed by the actual amount of traffic that existed. I was hoping for more solitude.
To get some of this solitude I headed north off the Eyre (Nullabor) Highway to an abandoned homestead called Koonalda. There I found a car graveyard of historic vehicles that never made it across the old further-inland Nullabor Highway decades ago. Travelers are allowed to stay at the homestead, but are asked via a sign to keep the doors latched upon leaving so as the feral cats and other wildlife don't enter and cause any mess.
The toilet was flushed with water that you poured in yourself. I would've stayed there the night if I hadn't arrived as early as I did. As it was, after taking a few photos, I decided to venture further west while I still had plenty of daylight. One thing you don't want to really do is travel at night along the Nullabor for you are sure to collide with a kangaroo, wombat, emu or even a camel. During the day I found it a rare site to see any of these animals, but did spy plenty of eagles, roadside parrots and quite a number of abandoned cars that were either dented up from an animal collision, smashed up against a tree or burnt out after most likely having been stolen. On one 300Km stretch I counted 13 such vehicles. No point trying to arrange an expensive tow I guess. I was amazed at how flat the country was.
The horizon being a flat straight line with big skies. There wasn't much tall vegetation around at all. I visited caves that bore down into the earth that you couldn't see from a hundred metres away, then the great cliffed coastline of the Great Australian Bight, and miles of straight road with its shimmering mirage-like haze. As I passed through decrepit old towns that made you wonder why people still lived there as no apparent industry remained, I got closer to Perth and veered my way south a little to Esperance, across to Albany, then up through Bridgetown. This was particularly a beautiful area with glorious oceans, verdant tall forests, rolling pastoral land and some European-influenced townships that made one feel at home.
I made accommodation arrangements only within a few hours of reaching a destination I decided on. Mostly I used my phone to find a place to stay and booked ahead, or I stumbled across a caravan park, or sometimes I even just slept in my car.
Wave rock was a site I always wanted to see, and I wasn't disappointed. The weather wasn't the best, but I made the best of it. It's a popular destination for tourists, but it wasn't inundated with them, perhaps due to the weather. The great thing about my trip around Western Australia is that I was on no time schedule. I was in no hurry, although there were times when I did enjoy a little bit of speeding. The roads were amazing, even later when I go onto the wide red Earth mining roads further north.
So I got to Perth and did some walking around areas like Freemantle, the yuppie area with coffee shops and a Bohemian feel. Even though one felt comfortable walking about, it was a little disheartening to see the homeless in very public areas, often sleeping off their alcoholic stupor. More often than not the homeless were the indigenous, which I noticed to have more of a dislike towards white people than back east. In some ways I felt that Western Australia was caught in the 50's or 60's era. With the style of buildings and bleakness in some areas, all because of various mining ventures I guess, which caused rushes here and there and then abandonment.
I spent a few days in Perth staying in a B&B run by a Polish couple. I visited the nearby Wildlife reserve, which had more fauna than I had seen in the wild up until that point. I did manage to see a big mob of kangaroos while searching for the Koonalda Homestead, but usually they didn't make themselves visible.
Apart from the wildlife reserve in Perth, the only emu I came across was walking through the town of Exmouth, way up north. It was holding up the local traffic lol. Some people go across to Rottnest Island to see the quokkas, a marsupial native to the island, but I wasn't motivated enough to take the trip over there. Instead I set off north towards Geraldton.
Along the way I stopped to see The Pinnacles in Nambung National Park. Quite worth the stop if you like unusual geological structures. While I stopped at a reserve to check out the flora I read a sign that stated to keep to the path in case you brush up against the plants and make contact with ticks. I came across a park ranger who assured me that the ticks in the region are prevalent wherever there are kangaroos, but that the ticks aren't a real concern as far as poisoning and paralysis goes. Our ticks pretty much just cause some itching. Just north of Geraldton is a lovely holiday park called Sunset Beach. I'd recommend it highly.
Along the western edge of the country I experienced wonderful sites like Monkey Mia where tourists can hand feed dolphins (but I chose to just take pictures from the jetty of that as there were too many people), Ellendale Pool (beautiful free place to camp), the old settlement at Greenough, horizontal growing trees cursed that way by the strong winds, talking about wind I saw quite a few wind farms also. Carnarvon has an impressive one mile jetty that is very worth the small price to help the upkeep.
I stayed at a remote place on the coast called Quobba Station. Very affordable private property where you can camp. It was a beautiful peaceful place with a wonderful beach to explore. I was disappointed when I got to Cape Range National Park as there were no camp sites. A check-in point person wouldn't even let me drive further in. That's the trouble with the grey-nomads, they leave their sites very early in the morning to get to their next site early, so by the time I reached the place in the late afternoon, all the spots are gone. Grey nomads hate it when younger people stay up late and the younger people hate the grey nomads getting up early, both for the same reason; the noise.
Anyway, I ended up staying in Exmouth, which was a bit of a letdown apart from the emu walking around town and two lovely ladies who posed for a photo for me. I was traveling at a good time because I became very aware of the abundant amount of road signs that said "floodway" and the many rivers and creeks that were dry, but were spotted with very much alive and prospering trees and bushes. Another prominent road sign was "stray sheep" or "stray cows" or even "stray horses" because there weren't really any fences to keep these animals confined to a particular farm property. The sheep will eat grass right on the edge of the road without even flinching when a car goes past. Apart for a variety of bird life I saw along the way, with one awesome sight of a falcon or similar flying only metres above my windshield for maybe a kilometre as if to show me the hunting prize it carried in its beak.
I also saw many termite nests made of the changing earth colors of the regions. Most stood around five feet tall, but I came across one that was about twelve feet tall. I was constantly wondering what the termite would be eating in such bleak surroundings. I don't know how I did it, but I was running on empty for over twenty kilometres when I reached Port Hedland. I got a bit annoyed when I got misdirected to a service station that was supposed to have LPG, but it didn't and I had to travel even further on empty. I don't know how I made it, but I finally found the LPG I needed. That was one thing I never really thought about, fuel, specifically LPG. I just assumed it would be available everywhere I went, but many places in northern and middle western Australia had closed down their LPG fuel pumps and a couple of times I had to re-route my trip. That's the problem with having a LPG dedicated vehicle. People are helpful though and I did ring ahead a few times to make sure I could get LPG.
Heading back south from Port Hedland through the centre of Western Australia was great. The roads were wide, red and dusty, but so smooth that I could comfortably drive at 120kph. These roads are often maintained by the big mining companies. Some are actually private and you're supposed to get a permit, but I didn't realise this until I was well down the road on a Sunday and I took the risk. I had plenty of mining company vehicles pass me and not one gave a hoot about me, they just waved. There was some beautiful scenery heading towards Karijini National Park, which is where I was heading to see Hammersley Gorge.