Dates, February 26- March 2nd
Shark Bay- Broome Area
2000 kilometers traveled
We traveled up the coast and even farther west onto the Shark Bay Penninsula. We stopped for breakfast on a deserted beach, just us, the sea, and our Wheaties cereal. It was a pretty unforgetable experience. The road was long, straight, and flat. Everywhere you looked you saw 2 large stripes, a thick blue sky, and a rich red earth. You know those yellow signs that warn you of hazards on the road, like deer or pedestrians? We noticed larger versions, forecasting kangaroos, emus, enchidnas and bilbys! I didn’t even know those were animals! We found some free campsites after a day on the road. The first was perched on a dramatic cliff with spectacular views of the coast but was so windy it was hard to stand. We didn’t want to risk setting up our feeble second hand tent in wind like that! We found a more sheltered spot, cooked some beans, and went to bed. It was a good first night camping!
The next morning we had all of our gear packed and in the car before the sun had climbed above the horizon. Nick and I weren’t too tired because we had an exciting day ahead. We had to be at Monkey Mia by 7 and had an hour and a half drive. Our car pulled off onto one of the many dirt roads that intersect with the interstate. While Michele and Justin started eating breakfast, Nick and I went for a little run to stretch our legs before the heat of the day. Dad and I decided to start a photo collection of him eating breakfast.
Once we got to Monkey Mia we had to wait a bit for the dolphins to arrive for their breakfast. It’s one of the big touristy must do’s of coastal WA. Every morning a pod of wild dolphins come for some fish. This tradition was started 50 years ago when fisherman began to share their catches with the sea mammals. After a while the dolphins started to rely on unhealthy amount of the handouts and regulations had to be put on how much food people and rangers could give them. Today they are given less than 10% of their daily fish consumption. It’s the off season here so the crowds were a fraction on what they usually are. While volunteer rangers prepared fish, we learned all about the regular visitors. Legally only 4 dolphins are allowed to be fed but more come to watch. The curved fins would gracefully break the surface of the gentle waves before disappearing. I noticed most of the fins had scars, one dolphin was missing most of hers! This is because the area is called Shark Bay for a reason. 3 in 4 dolphins in the region bear evidence of shark encounter, usually on their backs. As a last resort, they will turn their backs to the shark to protect vital organs and vulnerable under bellies. Dolphins can manage without dorsal fins and are fast healers. Once the food was ready the dolphins would win right up to the shore, on their sides in the shallow water. Nick and I got chosen to be one of the lucky few who got to give them a fish. The bottlenose dolphin, Surprise, was 40 years old. She was larger than I thought they would be, 5 feet or so. Many of the dolphins had calves with them. Water has to be a certain depths to nurse so rangers would set 20 minute intermissions between the three feedings so that the pod could swim out farther to take care of their calves. While we waited for the next feeding we caught a glimpse of an enormous sea turtle and a pelican patrolling the beach.
The next sightseeing spot on our agenda was Shell Beach. A large natural barrrier off shore of this beautiful spot traps a ton of seawater. Once that water evaporates it is slowly replaced and creates and super salty zone, maybe a kilometer long, on the coast. Those conditions are perfect for a certain type of cockle and the high salinity levels fend off natural predators. Over hundreds of years generations and generations of cockles have lived and died here and now, instead of sand, the beach is composed entirely of little white shells. We took a short walk and read about Shell Beach on some nice displays.
A bit farther down the road we took another stop at the stromatolites, the oldest living organisms on earth. They are actually responsible for creating the atmosphere. In the shimmery turquoise water (that looked very inviting in the noon heat) the stromatolites formed a labyrinth of dark black. They looked like rocks but are actually huge communities of tiny life.
We encountered our first road trains that day. I’m not sure if you have heard of them but imagine an American semi truck with two or three more containers hooked on the back. At one point Dad had to pass one transporting a very, very large piece of mining machinery taking up the whole road (both lanes of traffic). It was pretty stressful. That night we stopped in Quobba, a little spot on the coast. Our free campsite was right near the beach and there was a German family that we played bocce ball with.
In the morning Nick and I got up early and went for a run on the beach. The sand was soft and deep and made it hard to walk. Everyone worked together to miraculously cram all our gear into the truck. On the way back to the main road we decided to give the blowholes another try.
Waves crash into underwater caverns and the pressure pushes the water up through small holes in the roof of the chamber. The effect is a lot like a geyser. We had checked them out the previous night but had been disappointed, something about the tides had been wrong and nothing was happening. Thankfully, that morning Nick had insisted that we give them another chance and we got to see them in action. Justin and I noticed a lot of interesting rocks around the sight. Soft stone had been eroded in interesting formations in the path of the constant spray. Natural divots in the rock collected sea mist and formed beautiful salt crystals. It must have been a good 45 minutes we spent poking around that area. There was all this cool sedimentary rock- pebbles cemented together. A few possible fossils too. And coral. Our family has a bit of a problem with rock collecting. Justin carried geologic treasures in his back pack all around Asia until we could find a country that would mail them. Our backpack, quite a bit heavier, we continued on our way.
The rest of the day we stopped for some stretch breaks, listened to music, read and enjoyed the never-changing scenery.
That night we got acquainted with the flies. They look like houseflies but come in swarms and prefer to sit on your face than your food. We struggled to set up our tent (which has been remodeled by the way so that it won’t fall over. It’s more like a teepee tent hybrid held together with tire inner tube and Yankee ingenuity) while we were swarmed by the insects, swatting with one hand. Fortunately as soon as it gets dark the flies go to bed. There was lightning in the area but no rain and Michele, Justin and I enjoyed the show. Suddenly, I noticed an odd glow on the horizon. It wasn’t where the sun had set, nor where a town was located. With all the lightning I was a little worried about fires but we climbed a hill, saw no flames and dismissed it as possible late night mining operations.
Later Dad observed that the glow had grown brighter and redder. We sent Michele up the hill to check on it.
“You bettter come see this.”
A red column of flames lapped at the dry flora, distant but concerning. We were in new territory here. Should we drive away? Wait until we smell smoke? We settled on staying, both in place and alert. There were similar glows all around us too, but not as red. I was put on first watch, occasionally walking up the hill to make sure it hadn’t gotten closer. An hour later an alarm clock woke Dad and it was his turn. Then mom. It was a long night. even around 1 am when we decided there was no more risk and no more light it was 90 degrees. The soil there is mostly iron ore so it was like sleeping on a skillet. The ground was much hotter than the air.
In the morning the flies were back. On the count of three we all jumped out of the tent or car or wherever we were sleeping and packed everything up as quickly as humanly possible with one hand. (The other was employed doing “the Australian Wave”) It was unanimously voted that we deserved a treat so we drove into the podunk town of Paraburdoo for coffe and chocolate milk. The AC sure felt good. a quick errand needed to be run after that. Our car’s fuel pump was making some weird noises and Justin wanted to make sure it was ok before we headed even deeper into the outback. We went to a garage and Justin explained the issue to the mechanic. He said it was fine and we got our day underway, course set for Karijini National Park.
Karijini is an expansive protected piece of land about 300 kilometers inland. During March when we visited it’s almost deserted apart from a back packer or two and a ranger. We went first to the visitors center (The first day it opened for the season). It was over 100 degrees and and the flies where there too. The four of us were educated on the wildlife of the park as well as the interesting landscape- red
earth and stone eroded by a meandering river. The ranger kept warning us about the snakes and how common dangerous encounters are. You can see how every rustle in bushes made us jump when we left. It was over 110 degrees now. We tried to decide what to do, nobody wanted to hike in conditions like this. The allure of swimming brought us down into a gorge to Fortescu Falls and the cool pool there. The whole family was irritated by the flies, heat and each other’s attitudes. Just as we were about to jump in there was movement, just to the right. And it wasn’t the wind. A long, thin, scaly form draped over the edge of the terraced rocks. Dad was closest and without glasses. then in a flurry of activity the creature scurried up the rocks. scurrried, not slithered. Few! what we thought to be a deadly snake was just the tail of a large monitor lizard. Once we were in the water everyone chilled out. Our body temperature was back to normal and the flies didn’t like water. Ahhhhhh.... We should just stay in this pool, up to our necks in safe, jellyfish, crocodile, shark free water for ever. The setting of our spot was stunning. stone walls with every shade of red rose on every side. Water cascaded over the rocks and on the other side of us the pool dropped off giving us a panoramic view of the gorge. Delightful.
There was nothing to do besides a multi hour hike and that wasn’t happening in this heat. We had two options. One, pitch our tent and sweat it out in the lovely company of the flies until the next day or two, get the heck out of there. The later was acted upon after a 3 to 1 vote. We put Karijini in the rear view mirrror and drove until it cooled off a bit. Once we got our camp set up we played bocce ball. Nick is pretty good!
Our last day on the West Coast we went to 80 Mile Beach. It was so windy, the breeze coming off the Indian Ocean picks up grains of sand and pelts them against the skin. It was a little painful. There was absolutely no trash, just shells and more sand dollars than I’ve seen in my life. The white sand stretched off farther than I could see. After we walked down the beach a ways we decided to head back to the car and say goodbye to the beautiful coast of Western Australia.
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