Well so far my trip seems to have been made up of mostly driving. Australia is a huge place, and the things worth seeing are far between. I don’t mind the drive when there is something interesting of beautiful to see, but there have been some pretty long boring stretches. You can easily drive for hours at 110 kph without ever seeing anything or anybody (aside for the odd handful of oncoming vehicles). Perhaps I’m being unfair: I’ve found myself taking on extra long distances just to find warmer weather as I drive hard towards the equator.
The first day of driving was quite nice this time of year. The drive from Perth to Geraldton was full of beautiful rolling green pastures and sheep. Traffic wasn’t even that bad, with only a few giant trucks to deal with (transporting massive mining equipment) and lots and lots of SUVs pulling caravans. You think you’re cutting edge venturing out into remote parts of Australia, and all you bump into are friendly, elderly retirees doing “The Big Trip” (as it’s called) around Australia.
I spent my first night at a Youth Hostel in Geraldton. I was able to get a private room with key for $27. Not bad. In an historic old hotel right on the beach (which was unfortunately undergoing rehabilitation). But $27 is a lot more expensive than camping, and with all the fuel I’ve been having to purchase, I’ve been looking to cut a few corners. Now that I’ve invested in the right camping equipment, I’m enjoying camping a lot.
From Geraldton I traveled through Kalibarri past spectacular gorges, natural bridges, and cliffs on up to Denham, a tiny tourist town with roots in the pearling industry. Denham’s claim to fame is that it is the western most town in Australia. It is a beautiful spot, but I got there fairly late and had to settle for a less than ideal camping spot in a tent slum — but with an ocean view. I packed up at dawn and made the obligatory side trip to Monkey Mia to see what all the dolphin fuss was about, and I just happened to get there at the perfect time. They feed dolphins there from the beach every morning at the crack of dawn and have been doing so for at least 40 years. It was a pretty cool setting, actually. I think CALM (Western Australia’s Conservation and Land Management) does a pretty good job designing facilities to blend in with the environment. Afterwards I took my time driving the 150 kilometers back out to the main road, visiting what there was to see along the way. Yes, it was a 150 km dead end street!
After my camping slum experience in Denham, I vowed to never stay in such a place again. I always thought it was peculiar how Australia was so empty, yet there were millions of people who insisted on congregating around little pockets (like they do in the cities). As soon as you drive out of a place like Perth, you find yourself driving for miles and miles without seeing anything or anyone. Then, all of the sudden, you stumble across a recreational park or tourist destination and it’s wall-to-wall people all huddled together. And they all seem happy that way. I find it very odd.
So sure enough, it looked like Canarvon would have to be my next sleepover, and I’ve camped in a tent slum there before (13 years ago) — so I vowed to make the effort to get outside of town and find something special. After taking a late day gamble, I ended up on a really cool station (ranch) about 70 kilometers north of Canarvon. It was along a very rough coast that seemed to attract regular onslaughts of 20 foot waves that were really spectacular (and dangerous, of course — lots of warning signs). The facilities on the station were a bit rustic, but that was all part of the charm. I slept in a tent, but other people were staying in sheep sheerer quarters. I felt like I had a lot of privacy there — even though there were other people around, mostly fishermen. They had hot and cold running water, including showers in demountable trailers heated by burning wood, which were really all I needed.
So I’ve now found myself in yet another tent slum, but this time in Coral Bay, just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Once again I found myself driving all day to get to this little town — far isolated from anything else. You don’t really have any other choice but to settle for what you can get if you don’t have time to get to another town or legal camping spot. It a little odd being here because so many people are visiting from Perth, even though it’s a three day drive. There are still plenty of other people visiting from other parts of the world. A few young women from Perth pulled into the tent site next to me. They are also getting started on their six month “Big Trip” around Australia and are making Coral Bay one of their first stops.
Coral Bay is a nice little laid back place. It is famous of its protected reef and associated snorkeling and diving. I will have the chance to check out what’s below the water this afternoon when it warms up a bit more. After all, it is still winter here. The nights are still pretty cold — even if the days to warm up into the upper 70’s. The really hard part of winter camping to get used to is the 14 hour nights and 10 hour days. Since all you can really do at night is sleep while you’re camping — it makes for some long nights waiting for the sun to come up again.
Anyway… I really am enjoying myself (even if it doesn’t sound like it). I will have lots of pictures to see soon. From here I am planning to head to Exmouth for another few days. Exmouth is at the northern end of the same protected Ningaloo Reef, but there appear to be far more camping options in national parks.
