Did somebody say DUCK?

This is what happens when you drive under a carport with a roof tent on the top of your car.

Day 166: Kalbarri - Perth

I left my pillow in our motel room and didn't realise until we were 60km out of Kalbarri. After much umming and ahhing we turned back. I must really love that pillow to do another 120km for it.

We have driven straight through to Perth from Kalbarri and have booked into a motel for the night. Now we just have to figure out what we do next. Time to sleep on it!

Emelie

Day 165: Coral Bay - Kalbarri

Kalbarri is gorgeous, Lovely clear blue sea and white sandy beaches. It helped that it was gloriously sunny too.

We are too close to the end of our trip now to feel relaxed and really enjoy our surroundings. All we want to do now is get back to Perth.

Emelie

Day 164: Exmouth - Coral Bay

We were picked up in a rickety old mini van at 7:30AM by Ningaloo Reef Dreaming and spent the next 30 minutes driving to the beach where we got a dinghy to the boat.

After our "how to snorkel with a whale shark" briefing we were dropped into the ocean for 10 minutes to make sure we were confident in the open water. Lunch was served and then, for the next 4 1/2 hours, we sat waiting for the spotter plane to find a whale shark. The roof of the boat leaked and what limited seating they had was not fixed to the floor so it slid dangerously as we bobbed around in the choppy sea. It was not an enjoyable experience.

To off top our day their van broke down and had to get a landcruiser to push start it.

No one can guarantee a whale shark spotting, however Ningaloo Reef Dreaming could have been more organised with keeping us occupied while we waited.

After being dropped off back out our car we snuck into the caravan park and had a shower before heading down to Coral Bay.

Still raining. We checked into a backpackers hostel, first time for us. Oly was excited at the bunk beds of our double room and bagsied the top. Of course it was party night all night for the other residents and I was glad of my earplugs.

Emelie

Day 163: Fortescue River - Exmouth

Arrived in Exmouth and managed to get a space in the over flow of the caravan park for one night, the place was heaving, every nook and cranny had a caravan or tent squeezed in.

We have booked to "swim with the whale sharks" tomorrow so yet another early to bed early to rise.

Day 162: Port Hedland - Fortescue River

There was no accommodation in Roebourne, Karattha, Dampier or the surrounding areas so we had no choice but to carry on down the coast until we found a roadhouse with space.

It's an early night tonight, we have a long drive to Exmouth in the morning.

Em

Day 161: Broome - Port Hedland

Port Hedland is very rusty. Everything is coated in bulldust which gives it that weather beaten and dry, parched appearance. Just looking at the mountains of salt made my skin wither and pucker.

Again, we struggled to find accommodation. Luckily for us 30 minutes before we arrived at the Best Western someone had cancelled giving us the opportunity to further boost the economy of Port Hedland by paying $200 for a room for the night. This town is really overpriced.

There is a lot of BIG about Port Hedland. It is the biggest port by tonnage in Australia attracting the worlds biggest ships. They also have the longest privately operated rail road in Australia, purpose-built to carry iron-ore from Newman, one of the worlds biggest mining operations. In June 2001 BHP Billiton broke the record for the worlds longest and heaviest train stretching 7.4 km and weighing almost 100,000 tonnes. It is also the end, or maybe beginning, of the 80 mile beach that stretches up towards Broome. So it's not all boring industrial boy stuff.

We stopped here mainly to see what is on offer as far as mining jobs go and have a look at the town. As it happens all the white collar jobs are recruited in Perth. After hearing about the crazy mining boom we decided it wouldn't be such a hardship to spend a couple of years up here working.

Emelie

Day 160: Turkey Creek - Broome

We covered a lot of distance today getting in to Broome just in time for the sunset. It is a very nice beach and I believe it is quite famous for these sunsets and was packed with people clicking away with their cameras, just like we were. You can drive on the beach, you just have to watch out for the camels...

With the detour to the sunset it meant that all the caravan parks where closed when it came to finding a place to sleep for the night. After many telephone calls, door knocking and apologetic rejections from caravan parks, motels and hotels, we finally got a space squeezed in between a shed with a toilet and trailers full of rubbish bins.

Everything in Broome is fully booked, of course it is school holiday time and we hadn't booked in advance. This does not bode well for the rest of our trip because I think it is going to be pretty much the same all the way down.

Emelie

Day 159: Timber Creek - Turkey Creek

It was bye, bye Northern Territory and Hello! WA.

On the way, we came across a sign for the "Beef Road Monument" so we stopped to have a look. We were slightly puzzled as to what was beefy about these concrete slabs. If anyone has any idea what this monument is for... please enlighten us!

Western Australia has a very strict fruit, vegetable, nut, honey, meat, and plant quarantine. This didn't even occur to us as we approached the border, so it was a bit of a shock when we arrived at the NT/WA quarantine check point. It was an even bigger shock when we came out the other end three carrots, four potatoes, a bulb of garlic, two capsicum and an onion lighter.

Next stop was a very brief one at the beautiful Lake Argyle. It is a giant inland fresh water sea around 800 square kilometres and is the largest body of fresh water in Australia formed by the damming of the Ord River in 1972.

When we finally arrived at Turkey Creek we where just in time for a helicopter ride over the The Bungle Bungles. I know I said I would never get in a helicopter again after Uluru, however time dulls memory and it didn't seem such a bad idea. That is until I saw the helicopter had no doors...

The Bungle Bungles is a group of stripped beehive shaped domes in the Purnululu National Park covering an area of about 35 by 24km. The banding of the domes is due to differences in clay content and porosity of the sandstone layers, where moisture accumulates lichen is able to grow creating black bands, the orange bands are silica deposits.

It was very impressive and strange to think that The Bungle Bungles where only "discovered" and brought to the worlds attention in the 1980's by a film crew who where flying over the area. Since then it has received a World Heritage listing making it Australia's 15th natural wonder.

Emelie

2007-07-07 Lake Argyle, WA PHOTO ALBUM

2007-07-07 The Bungle Bungles, WA PHOTO ALBUM

Day 158: Darwin - Timber Creek

We left Darwin and drove straight to Timber Creek, winner of Tidy Town 1996 and home to about 70 people and lots of crocs.

In 1855 the explorer A. C. Gregory's boat was wrecked at Timber Creek. He is said to have named the site Timber Creek after he cut some timber to repair the hole in his vessel. Apparently the tree is still there with the date 'July 2nd 1856' carved in it. We didn't see it so I can't verify that this tree exists.

That is about as interesting as Timber Creek gets.

Emelie

Day 157: Darwin

As promised we went back to the Buzz cafe and I persuaded Ol to take my mobile phone into the men's toilets to take a photo of the one way mirror urinals.

As I loitered outside the manager came up and asked me if I had been in, "No" I replied looking decidedly guilty even though I was innocent. "You should do, we get more women than men going in to see them".

I needed no further encouragement.

Today is Thursday and Thursday nights are Mindil Beach Sunset Markets. The markets are a fusion of food, crafts, entertainers and a stunning sunset. It was packed.

It is definitely worth checking out if you are in Darwin on a Thursday or Sunday. Be prepared to be jostled amongst the many (I was stabbed in the chest with a protracted pen sticking out of a back pack, it tore a hole in my t-shirt and drew all over my bra! I was not terribly impressed as I disentangled myself from the man's bag) and be prepared to share your romantic sunset with the thousands.

I have to mention The Amazing Drumming Monkeys. They were fantastic! Two peace lovin' guys with monkey puppets and bongo drums. The kids loved them, and adults. I was too busy watching and enjoying to take any pictures so you will just have to go to their website (with the music on) and see what they are all about.

Emelie

2007-07-05 Buzz Cafe, Darwin PHOTO ALBUM

2007-07-05 Mindil Beach, Darwin PHOTO ALBUM

Photo Album

After someone asked me why I had put the same photo twice on the Sydney post I realised that my introduction of the Picasa photo albums may not have been as obvious and I had presumed...

Soooo.....

On the bottom of each post I have been putting a link like this:

2007-06-20 Sydney, Australia PHOTO ALBUM

If you click on it you will be taken to my Picasa gallery with all the photos for that post plus additional ones that I haven't managed to incorporate into the blog entry.

You can still click on the pictures in the blog entry to view a larger image as well as viewing larger images in the gallery.

I will be gradually adding albums for all the past posts as and when I get some spare time.

Until then there is plenty to catch up on!

Emelie

Day 156: Kakadu - Darwin

Jumping crocodiles Batman! (in my best Robin voice)

On the way back to Darwin we stopped at the Adelaide River Queen "Famous" Jumping Crocodile Cruise. We arrived an hour early and took a seat in the empty coffee shop while we waited. After half an hour the place began to get really busy and I started to get twitchy with the "well we were here first so we should get the best seats". So after a further 15 minutes we went and waited by the jetty. Still having the English blood in us we fought in the inner queuing demon and casually edged our way to near the front.

The cruise was great. At first I was apprehensive about the crocs leaping out of the water really fast and being scary but also concerned that it was another "taking advantage of animals to make a tourist buck" gimmick.

We got on the boat and apart from the set off from the jetty where we had to sit down, everyone stood up during the trip. You could feel the boat listing as we were rushing from side to side.

The crocs only come over if they want too, it was very unnerving to see them stalking the boat. They only get fed once during the day and the cruise changes the stretch of the river each time it goes out. A pork chop is hung over the side of the boat and the croc "jumps" to get it. They use their tails to propel themselves vertically out of the water and their movement is quite slow. I think we had about 7 come over but we saw about a dozen more lurking about.

The best bit of the cruise (after we got bored watching crocodiles) was on the way back down the river when they fed the birds of prey... Adelaide River is one scary place. There were over 100 birds circling and swooping the boat. You had to keep your hands in and off the rails in case they thought it was part of the free lunch. They were whizzing past less than a foot away from us. It was crazy! Fabulous photo opportunity though.

Highly recommended!

Emelie

2007-07-04 Jumping Crocs, Adelaide River PHOTO ALBUM

Big: Jumping Crocodile - Adelaide River, NT

Day 155: Kakadu National Park, Ubirr

We set off from Jabiru around 3:30PM to catch the Ubirr sunset. First we did the rock art walks before setting off up to the top of rock.

The panoramic views and sunsets from the lookout are said to be breathtaking so we were really looking forward to this.

There were a lot of school groups around, all teenagers, making the rock crowded and really noisy. Not quite the spiritual, peaceful atmosphere we were hoping for.

We had arrived two hours before the sun began to set. I had stared at the sun for so long my eye sockets were smouldering pits cradling two blackened lumps of coal that were once eyeballs...

When the sunset finally came we were ever so slightly disappointed. Maybe we were expecting too much. After seeing the sunsets on the west coast... well no wonder the rest of Australia struggle to live up to them.

Emelie

2007-07-03 Ubirr, Kakadu PHOTO ALBUM

Email subscription

In a couple of weeks this part of our trip is coming to an end.

We have decided to stop in Perth for a while, get used to a proper bed that we don't have to fold away every morning and showers that don't require thongs/flip-flops.

We still have James' visit in September to look forward too where we will do some more exploring most probably on the west coast as we have sort of skipped it.

Also in October we are travelling around India for 5 weeks.

Then England in December...

So really, we have only just begun our adventure.

With this all said, you may want to subscribe to the blog updates by email. This means that when I update the blog you will receive an email and you wont need to keep checking back to see if I have posted any entries.

All you have to do is enter your email in the box provided and when the pop up window opens just type in the text verification letters and you will be sent an email to respond to.

Any problems email me at emelie.grimwood@gmail.com

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Day 154: Kakadu National Park, Jim Jim Falls

Today we did the perilous journey to Jim Jim Falls. 60km of unsealed road with no spare after getting a flat tyre in Litchfield. The road was really bad and it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get to the camp site where we bagsied our pitch before setting off down the treacherous road to the falls.

Once there it was a 1km walk across huge rocks to get to the falls and plunge pool. The signs which we had seen on the way informed us that estuarine (salt water) crocs were known to move into this area and swimming was not advisable.

We were treated to this fabulous view as we made our way across the rocks. I was very conscious of being close to the river edge and wondered if there were crocs. The water was beautiful and crystal clear, I would have seen a croc coming a mile off if there were any.

We eventually got to the end. There were a few children swimming near the waterfall with all the adults safely on the banks waiting to see if the kids would act as bait.

Even when there was no sign of crocs we still didn't go in, it was far too cold and you never know if they are waiting for a main course to come along instead of an entrée.

In the sun it was wonderful. What an oasis! We found a suitable rock to pitch our stuff against and read our books. Oly soaked up some rays.

While I added to his sunshine with my smile!

We tackled the rocks again on the way back. It wasn't any easier. We lost the track a few times and ended up having to come back on ourselves as we were not able to go any further. We had done the same on the way there.

Safely back at our camp, Oly hunted and gathered some firewood for our barbie and we enjoyed our much deserved dinner.

Our camp site is nice, loads of room and the kids that I can hear are far enough away to not annoy me too much. I don't suppose many people bother to come as far as Jim Jim falls as it is arduous with the 4WD drive and the rocks you have to tackle to get there. We did see a retired couple turn back as they couldn't negotiate the rocks. We highly recommend coming here and making the effort to get to the falls if you can, it really is an oasis.

Emelie

2007-07-02 Jim Jim, Kakadu PHOTO ALBUM

Day 153: Kakadu National Park, Cooinda

This morning, before the sun rose, we got up for the Yellow Water cruise at Cooinda.

We had heard many a great thing about this cruise. People who we have met along the way were almost wistful about it. Yellow Water billabong is one of the two most anticipated sites in Kakadu, the other being Ubirr rock art and sunset.

Yellow Water was so named when there was an over-abundance of water buffalo in the area. They would stir up the silt in the water making it appear yellow. That is one theory, another is it is named after the algal bloom found floating on its surface. Not so many water buffalo or algal left now allowing the water to remain blue and very still.

The cruise was great. We were freezing though, even with a jumper and socks with our sandals (we were desperate!). The commentary from the barge operator was good. There were three barges in total all doing their own thing so we didn't feel like we were missing out by being behind another barge. It also enabled us to take barge free photos.

Much to our amusement there was a tiny Japanese man with a lens bigger than himself. It was HUGE. He had to use a large tripod as he was unable to hold the weight of the camera and lens. Shame we didn't get a photo!

There was a plethora of bird life. It is said that 30% of Australia's bird life can be found in the Kakadu region. We saw only about five crocs, rather disappointing as we would have preferred to see more. Croc watching is far more exciting than bird watching!

Em

PHOTO ALBUM

2007-07-01 Yellow Waters, Kakadu