North Western Australia

Route:- Perth, Pinnacles Desert, Greenough, Geraldton, Kalbarri, Carnarvon, Coral Bay, Exmouth, Tom Price, Karijini National Park, Meekathara, Perth

Distance Covered:- 4000 km approx

After a refreshing night and rest bite from driving our North West adventure began. Dawns navigational skills managed to get us heading south again, so after a 10km detour, we were on the right freeway. A stop at Joondalup and yet more great navigating from Dawn, some cross words from Jay, we eventually got out of the town and were on our way to the Pinnacles Desert. It was a very unusual sight, an expanse of sand dunes with thousands of wind eroded limestone pillars. It was late evening when we arrived so we had the place to ourselves, it was kind of eerie. Probably the strangest place we will ever drive. On the way to Kalbarri we stopped at Greenough, the location of a historical settlement providing an example of the colonial expansion in the mid 19th century. It was like ghost town but very interesting to walk around and see how people lived back then. Due to the wind in this area the trees grow sideways, a unique sight. Leaning Trees of Greenough.

We also stopped at Geraldton for a quick look at Point Moore lighthouse which jay insisted upon as it had been constructed in Birmingham. We also visited the magnificent HMAS memorial built to honor 645 soldiers who died in WW2 in 1941. It was a truly beautiful memorial.

Kalbarri has to be one of our favourite places of the entire trip. The coastal drive in was beautiful. Whilst here we hired a tandem to explore some of the coastal park areas. This was so much fun and an alien experience. We took it in turns to sit at the front and rear and were both disappointed at the fact that you couldn’t get away with not pedaling at the rear. We saw the Pelicans being fed by the Murchison River and helped with the feeding. Dawn managed to get bitten by one of them!!! (a slight exaggeration, she had a scratch on her arm…I still have the scar! We took the van off road into Kalbarri National Park to visit Natures Window and the Z Bend. Probably the most spectacular scenery we have seen Natures Window is a natural rock formation which superbly frames the view of the gorge and river – ‘picture postcard’ Look at the photos to appreciate this description. Z Bend was a 150m deep gorge in the shape of a Z (surprisingly!) Before leaving Kalbarri we look a Quad Bike Safari, which was awesome. We razzed around the National Park for 2 hours with two other girls and our ozzy guide. It was so much fun, the first time either of us had been on a quad and probably not the last. Kalbarri comes highly recommended.

On route to Coral Bay we visited the Blowholes just outside Carnarvon, these are a unique phenomenon set amongst a desolate rocky lunar type shoreline. The Blowholes occur as the ocean waves crash into the rocks and jets of water spurt up through the holes eroded in the rocks. It was quite a scary experience watching them, we certainly didn’t want to get too close to the edge as warning of ‘killer waves’ had been posted around the area.

Coral Bay is home to Ningaloo Marine Park, it is a very small quiet beachy area where we snorkeled with the fish, some of which were big.

Exmouth was our next stop where Emus freely roam the streets. We chilled by the pool and had fun, took a drive along the cape and did the Mandu Mandu gorge trek, 3km walk along the gorge, and then up some steep inclines, it took us about 2 hours, we then attempted to walk the Yardie Creek trail, however, rangers in the area had decided that this was the day to shoot feral animals and closed the trail.

The next stop was Tom Price which was inland so we were expecting high temperatures and this is what we got. Tom Price is the highest town in WA at 747m above sea level, and is the gate way to the magnificent Karijini National Park.

Our last stop was Karijini and we certainly saved the best to last where National Parks are concerned. It covers 100,000 sq km and encompasses many vast trails including gorge descents and some amazing scenery. We partook in 3 gorge trails, Hancock Gorge, Weano Gorge and Fortescue Falls. These saw us navigating steep rocky steps, ladders, trekking, wading and swimming through the gorges some 300m down. The highlight was a swim in Fortescue Falls after a night of bush camping ie pit toilets and no showers, plus 40 degree heat. That swim was heaven. The lowlight was the snake that Dawn saw in Weano gorge although it was probably more scared of her screams that she was of it.

We traveled south on the Great Northern highway back to Perth, a very hot journey home but it was more direct. We stayed in Meekathara overnight, where it was that hot, the cold water from the shower was actually hot and the hot water, scalding.

Back to Perth, ready to refresh in a nice hotel for a few days before our next flight…..only to find our that we couldn’t find a hotel to accommodate us (apparently there was an apec conference, and it was Valentines Day) After several hours of trying to find a hotel and up tine hotel lobbies later we gave up and resigned ourselves to the fact that our campervan was home for another 5 days. We ended up in Scarbrough on a cool campsite with a massive pool and spa all included.

A great Western Australia adventure has been had and we hope you enjoy reading about it as much as we have enjoyed experiencing it. Melbourne here we come.