The Warm West Birthday Trip
Seven decades is always something to celebrate, even if a little late.
This trip combined two goals. The primary purpose was to celebrate, somewhat belatedly, a significant birthday for she who cannot be named (SWCBN). The second was to continue our intention to get away from the worst of Melbourne’s winter weather. Lucky we did, as a shocking cold snap hit Melbourne the day after our departure, and remained for weeks.
The original plan was to drive across the Nullarbor Plain and use our own vehicle for the camping trip. However, I was not confident enough in my health status for such a challenge. We therefore decided to fly to Perth and pick up a camper car for the trip northwards.
Perth, Jurien Bay, Geraldton, Kalbarri
After flying to Perth, we stayed overnight near the airport then negotiated the pick-up as arranged from Apollo Rentals nearby. A Toyota Hi-Lux Snail Shell (car with a house on its back).
Every town we went through along the coast road (Indian Ocean Drive) displayed large billboards advertising cheap land for sale. Perth is already a long thin city, imagine what it will be like as this coastal infill continues to creep further north.
First stop on the route north was Jurien Bay. We occupied our first powered caravan park site of the trip and began our orientation to caravan park culture. Very interesting places, variable in several ways. At the camp kitchen, the throbbing hub of most caravan parks, we swapped info about the trip (some people are travelling north, but some have been north and are heading south, so were able to provide interesting and often useful info about places we were heading).
Dinner at the Jurien Bay hotel was brilliant. Every second bloke was wearing a flannel shirt with a red and black tartan pattern. I wanted one of these. The next day, while SWCBN was out swimming with the sea lions (a fabulous tour, by all reports) I went to the local hardware store to get a couple of things our first night had revealed were missing, and noted they sold the very red and black shirts I so desperately needed. Perhaps the best $22 I’ve ever spent.
We were cold during the night, so at our next stop, Geraldton, we found a K-Mart and bought a doona. Problem solved. Our neighbours here were a Portuguese family from Perth.
Our third stop was at Kalbarri. Intermittent rain, and the ground in the caravan park was pretty muddy. A couple of nights here, so that we could look around the Kalbarri NP. Wonderful coastal cliffs just south of the town, from which we could see humpback whales. The ‘skywalk’ and Hawks Head lookout both afforded spectacular views of the Murchison Gorge. And we went on a boat ride up the lower reaches of the Murchison River. Excellent. Saw a magnificent sea eagle sitting in its nest by the river.
Before heading off we had lunch at a place that had been recommended – Finlay’s Fish Bar. Very good food in a lovely rustic indoor/outdoor setting.
Monkey Mia
We arrived at the RAC resort in Monkey Mia after dark, which made it difficult to find our allocated campsite. However, people are so helpful. The facilities here were by far the best of our trip. The camp kitchen had amazing facilities, including lots of charging points for the ubiquitous electronic devices. Finally, we have sunshine, and warm days (it quickly gets quite cold as soon as the sun goes down).
The dolphin show was twee. Not recommended, and it’s easy to see dolphins without undergoing that trial.
A whole-day four-wheel-drive tour to Cape Peron at the tip of Francois Peron NP was one of the highlights of the whole trip. Our driver, Luke, was a real character who had some great stories to tell. For example, the eponymous Peron had been assigned as a trainee zoologist to accompany Nicholas Baudin in his efforts to map the Australian coast in his 1801-3 expedition. Peron and Baudin clashed, and with Baudin’s death before his expedition was completed, Peron was able to take control of completing the official account of the expedition. There are some questions about the fidelity of his written record. He is said to have re-named several places that Baudin had earlier named, and helped cement Baudin’s legacy by naming an island in Shark Bay made mostly from bird-shit in his honour.
We had a wonderful dinner at ‘The Old Pearler’ in Denham, recommended by a traveller through camp kitchen conversation. SWCBN said her whiting was ‘the best’. Excellent restaurant, you need to book.
Carnarvon
The Coral Coast Tourist Park in Carnarvon was another big hit in the caravan park world. Our immediate neighbours were a couple from Preston who were driving a huge mobile home and towing a little four-wheel drive vehicle to explore their various destinations. The very house-proud woman of that team was so eager to show off her mobile home to SWCBN. Everything was so pristine.
At the camp kitchen, we met a young German couple with whom we had an interesting discussion about the German tertiary education sector. How many universities are there in Germany? “Hundreds”. Their biggest concern while here? “At [the place they were going next] will there be flies?”.
The Gascoyne River flows through Carnarvon, and out to see. It WA’s second biggest river, and substantial parts of it flow underground for much of the year.
The Humpback Highway - Warroora
We headed to our next destination, Warroora station (say ‘Worra’) via the coastal back road. In this part of WA much of the land is leased to huge cattle stations, many of which offer camping facilities to passing travellers. We passed Quobba station, stopping off at the Quobba blow holes, lunch at Red Bluff, and got as far as Gnaraloo station and homestead, where it became evident that the road was about to become a strictly four-wheel-drive affair. I wasn’t game, so we retraced our steps and approached Warroora via the main road.
Marty Horak runs Warroora. He has lived in the area most of his life (a very interesting life story) and has established a variety of accommodation options at the station. The coastal strip has been excised from the property by the Parks and Wildlife authority, so they now control the wild camping options behind the dunes that had been established by Marty et al at various points along the coast.
We stayed in one of the Warroora houses for four nights, captivated by the parade of whales traversing the ‘humpback highway’ along the Ningaloo Reef visible out our window. Spectacular.
Exmouth
Exmouth was our primary destination – a date with the whale sharks. Luxury cabin accommodation here, at the Exmouth Escape Resort, and we were joined by three friends to help celebrate the triggering birthday event. This is a place with a very interesting history and has become a thriving tourist hub. We didn’t find an easy way to explore the gulf waters, but we went several times past the Northwest Cape naval communications facility, and explored the coastal stretch parallel to the reef, south as far as Yardie Creek. Heaps of beaches along that part of the coast, inside the reef, suitable for snorkelling. Inland on the Cape Range also brilliant.
The excursion to whale shark territory was another huge highlight. I went as an observer, nevertheless, I was able to experience snorkelling on the outer Ningaloo Reef. Amazing. Also boat tour up Yardie Creek was very interesting, with birds and rock wallabies easily visible as we travelled up the gorge.
Coral Bay
The gang decamped to Coral Bay for the next stage of our journey. We stayed in cabins at one of the caravan parks. It’s a strange little village, basically purely for tourists, and there’s plenty to do. Snorkelling off the beach, various reef tours, and one of the trip highlights for me was an afternoon excursion on quad bikes to nearby cliffs from which turtles were visible, and then on to a beach for snorkelling with the turtles, coral, and heaps of fish.
The Pilbara
We decided to head back to Perth via the inland route, as so many travellers had raved about Karijini NP. Cheela Plains station is another large cattle lease that offers various forms of accommodation to travellers. We took the ‘wilderness camp’ option a few kilometers from the Cheela Plains homestead and set ourselves up in a dry riverbed inside a gorge that was a bit reminiscent of our trip to Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges a couple of years ago (see https://www/rossturner.me/blog/birthday-trip-of-a-lifetime). Something about the colour of the light reflecting off the red and brown sides of the gorge.
Next day, heading to Karijini NP, we stopped off at the caravan park in Tom Price for a night, and took the opportunity to do a tour of the Rio Tinto mine there. Horrifying to be confronted with the reality of the ‘rip it up’ source of so much of Australia’s (and indirectly my) wealth.
Dales campground is in Karijini NP. While in the neighbourhood we stopped in at Hammersley Gorge, as well as viewing spots along Dales Gorge.
We wrapped up our visit to the Pilbara region with a stop in Newman. What a fabulous spot, not. We stayed in a donga (accommodation designed specially for itinerant mining staff, not much better than a fitted-out shipping container).
Karalundi, Meekatharra, Mount Magnet, Wongan Hills, York
There are big stretches of road where you don’t see much other than (sometimes) spectacular scenery. Our intention was to avoid driving stints in excess of about 4 hours, and we used that principle to find suitable stop-off places. Of course another requirement of such a trip is regular fuel stops. For this we have been introduced to Roadhouse World. Like caravan parks, roadhouses also vary in interesting ways in addition to their fuel prices. They often have accommodation options for travellers, ranging from motel rooms through to caravan or tent space, and they always sell food and often quite a range of grocery and other items, presumably at least in part to supply the local remote inhabitants.
Karalundi is a small aboriginal community on the road south. There was a Seventh Day Adventist boarding school there that is now more or less managed by the small Karalundi community. About 40 students attend mostly as boarders from places as far north as Darwin. There were four or five houses in which the members of the community lived, a small café and shop, a small caravan/camping park, and some form of business enterprise that might have been a small farming operation. Quite adequate camping facilities including nicely grassed sites (with power), a couple of fully self-contained cabins, a good amenities block, laundry, and the ubiquitous camp kitchen. Not a bad stop-off place.
About 60 km south is Meekatharra, which, as reported by one of our friends, was described by Tammy Fraser as ‘the arse-end of the earth’. The locals immortalised this with a sign, but we couldn’t find it. A couple of hours further south is the little town of Mount Magnet. Between Meekatharra and there we passed swathes of wildflowers – huge patches of yellows, greens, cream, white and pink patches of wildflowers. Very pretty indeed.
Our last stop before hitting Perth was a motel room at the Wongan Hills pub. Obviously an important community hub, and the food was more than decent.
We took a scenic route through York (the oldest inland town in WA) towards Perth. Very pretty little town, even having good quality sourdough available.
Fremantle
By this time, SWCBN is getting a bit jittery (work deprivation syndrome), so we finished off the trip with a few days of acclimatisation to city life in Fremantle. We found an excellent apartment and enjoyed the eating and sightseeing pleasures of Freo for 4 nights, including a restaurant near Freo Markets named after Emily Taylor, the wife of a ship’s captain.
On returning the camper car, we noted the trip involved a total of just under 6000 km.
