Short English text below.
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Karratha – Exmouth

(vrijdag 11 mei)
We zitten alweer 10 dagen hier in Exmouth; 4 in de city en 6 op Kurrajong in the Cape Range National Park. Tijd vliegt voorbij.

Vanuit Karratha (1 mei) zijn we rechtstreeks naar Exmouth gereden. De langste rit tot nu toe, 537 km. Zoals gewoonlijk weinig verkeer gezien; wat road trains, 4 handjes vol Ozzie nomaden, koeien en lots of old road kills (ouwe lijken van skippies en ossen).

Het was de bedoeling om bij Nanutarra roadhouse te overnachten (precies op de helft), maar we waren vroeg vertrokken, het weer zat mee (bewolkt) en Nanutarra was echt 3x niets. Dus na een echte Ozzie lunch (brood met kaas, worst, tonijn, bietjes, maïs, uien, zilveruitjes en ananas) met voor Tim een extra ‘joky’ drink, nog ff de laatste 300km.

Tim heeft z’n moeder lekker bezig gehouden (pa rijdt en ma zit met Tim achterin de kar hobbelend, stickers te plakken, tekenen, ,hard Nijntje zingen, duplo spelen etc.) en heeft uiteindelijk maar 1 keer geklaagd over zijn billetjes; de bink!

De 4 dagen in Exmouth (+/- 2000 vaste en tijdens het Whale Shark seizoen 4000 toeristen extra) hebben we besteed met:
– wasje draaien,
– Glasbodemboottour (koraal e.d. bekijken)
– vissen vanaf het strand
– aan het strand met zand spelen
– en natuurlijk de Whale Shark Festival bezoeken.

Festival was echt leuk om mee te maken, het hele schiereiland liep op het cricketterrein.
Stel je er niet al te veel van voor, maar motorstunten, bier (verkrijgbaar en op te drinken binnen een omheining), demo vistank vissen, valse en een hele goede band optreden en free goodies (gratis petjes en stubbyholders) was er allemaal wel ?
Leuke is dat 99% die rondloopt gewoon aan BYO doet. Bring Your Own, of te wel, neemt zijn eigen drank mee. Die Ozzies lijken net op Hollanders in de Efteling ?

In het NP op de Kurrajong campsite is er niets meer dan een longdrop (zoek dat maar eens op), zand, zee, koraal, vis, duizenden sterren zonder mozzies en … stilte. Wat ze alleen niet hebben is sandflies, voor ons dus: The place to be!

Morgen ga ik 2 duikjes doen op de Ningaloo reef en volgende week woensdag (16/ mei) 2 duikjes bij de Muiron eilanden (rechts boven Exmouth). Dan is ook Tim jarig, wordt ie alweer 2 en maakt ie samen met z’n moeder een heerlijke chocolade taart voor z’n vader ?
Voorlopig zijn we hier dus nog wel een week, daarna gaan we naar Coral Bay voor enkele dagen (snorkelen, vissen en duiken) en dan zo rustig aan richting Perth.

Ohja, vandaag hebben we ook nog een Yardie Creek tour gedaan. Weer een soort gorge, maar dan anders, meer een vogeltjes, diertjes, vooral de inheemse rots wallibi was bijzonder om te zien, en planten tour. Mocht je ooit in de buurt zijn is het de moeite waard om ‘m te doen.

Ohja 2, heb je die vis al gezien? Heerlijk eten zo’n 48 cm Golden Travelly! Die octopus/inktvis hebben we maar teruggegooid al was ie volgens de bootsman van de Yardie Creek tour ook eetbaar…..

Tot later,
John, Lia & Tim (nearly two)

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Hi again,

From Karratha we drove directly to Exmouth. We stayed there for 4 days in the town to do the necessary stuff; washing, booking tours and of course the Whale Shark Festival. It was for the size of the town (2000 locals and in season 4000 tourists) en the place definitely a good festival with as highlights a Blues singer from US and a motor stunt man that made a terrible crash. Of course you could by some beer and food but mostly the drinks where BYO.

Now we are stay already for 6 days in the Cape Range National Park with only a long drop, sandy beaches, coral snorkeling, fishing (48 cm Golden Travelly and octopus), thousands of stars (without the mozzies) and quietness; this is our place !

Saturday 12 May I will make 2 dive in the Ningaloo reef and Wednesday I will make 2 dives near the Muiron Islands. I guess we will stay here for another week or so before we will go to Coral Bay (snorkelling, diving, fishing and beaches) before we set direction to Perth.
Beside that we did already made a Coral glass bottom boot tour (and will do an other one later on again) and visit today the Yardie Creek (small gorge tour).

See you later.
John, Lia & Tim (nearly two)

Kununurra – Karratha

Hi,

It was our intention to do again a scenic flight (to see Lake Argyle, the Bungle Bungles and the Argyle Diamond mine, but we decided not to it because the flight takes more than 2.5 hours and we don’t think Tim will do it better than last time . Next to Kununurra you have the Mirima National Park that claim to have the mini Bungle Bungles. And indeed they have 2 kind of Bungle Bungles domes in the park; it made us happy ;). Because Kununurra is a agriculture environment thanks to damming the Ord River and Lake Argyle we did a agricultural tour and skipped Windham

In Kununurra campground I found a flyer of a 1.5 hour scenic fight with a water plane –from Derby- to the Horizontal Falls in the Buccaneer Archipelago. These ‘waterfalls will exist when seawater is pushed through a small channel in combination with the extreme tide difference in this region (apparently on of the highest tidal movements in the world). So up to Derby!

On our way to Derby we visit Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing.

Driving through Australia itself gives you already a vacation feeling. The roads are good, great scenery till the horizon and no traffic jams. The only traffic you meet are people from the south who are heading north for their hibernation. Zippers (bypass operation), Gray nomad (pension) are some of the names for these travelers with their tow caravan and big four-wheel drive Nissan Patrol (of other 4wd Asian brand) including an boot on the roof of their car.

Halls Creek itself is not shocking same as Fitzroy Crossing. Both a lot of Native Australians on the street hanging around a tree or supermarket. Halls Creek is the town to the south entry of the Bungle Bungles. Fitzroy Crossing is the thon to Geikie Gorge National Park. In Fitzroy Crossing we did an Aboriginal tour on the Geikie Gorge through where the Fitzroy river flows. In the past (350 million years) the Gorge was a reef system. We also did got some lessons in the family traditions of the Aboriginals, which give you an other (more understandable) view of today’s native Ozzie’s. Geikie Gorge is worth visiting (see pictures)

And Derby, I would say skip Derby

In the Visitors Centre we heard that the two scenic flight operators had irregular flights because it was still April, the season starts in May. She also told us that the flights plan was changes a couple of times during the last 2 week. After ringing both tour operators we heard that one will do a flight next week and the other had change his tour from 3 to 6 hours (flight, power jet boat, fishing and flight again) so … no scenic flight for us ?. To overcome this disappointment we went to the town pool and see the famous Derby jetty twice; with low and with high tide. Beside that jetty, they also have lots of sand flies thanks to the big mud plain.

In Broome there is enough to do so staying some days is recommended. Here they don’t have a low and peak season, most of the good attractions where already fully booked days before we came in town. And the natural attractions like the ’stairway to heaven’ and the by low tide visible dinosaur footprints where not visible anymore. BTW the ’stairway to heaven’ can be watched between Derby and Karratha as long as you have some empty mud plains, low tide and full moon. Beside the precious Cable Beach and other self guided attractions incl. great mango ice cream and liquor on a mango farm, we did the famous Broome Camel ride and an Astro-tour. The Astro-tour was fantastic. See some great stars from both the Southern & most of the northern Hemisphere like the Moon, Southern Cross, Saturn, Uranus, Jewel Box and more. Only the next day my whole back looked like the Moon. Although I had a long sleeve pants and sweater (with 30 degrees) and I covered me fully with insect repellent; except my back ?

Frome several people we heard the “Eighty Mile Beach” or ‘Eety Bijl Niets’ the way Tim pronounce it was nice but not spectacular. A huge camping with (according to one of the annual visitors this year for the first time) a huge amount of flies. (see the picture with the anti-fly cage). You can fight against sand flies with repellent, but normal flies…. nose, mouth ears, eyes…. Brrrrr.

Although we would like to see a huge big mine (like Tome Price) we thought it would be nicer for Tim to see big ships and other big machinery and it saved us about 700 kilometres.

Via Port Hedland and Point Samson we arrived (April 29th) in Karratha. In all these three peninsula’s they have a huge port of transhipment for iron ore. Most of the ships have Asia (China & Japan) as their destination. In Karratha they also have a port of transhipment for industrial salt and natural gas(destination mainly Asia). The trains that brings the iron ore to these ports come from the 10 iron ore mines in the neighbourhood (3-500 km) and are about 210 carriages long = about 2.4 kilometres long. In Karratha we visit the port side of Pilbara ore which is part of Rio Tinto. It was a really interesting and fascination tour.

Before the weekend of May 4-7 we would like to be in Exmouth for the WhaleShark Festival.

Till soon
John, Lia & Tim