Friday, May 2 2003, 3:05 GMT
Call that a beach?
Well, we've been in Darwin since last Saturday now. We haven't done a whole lot - spent almost a whole day planning and booking our way out west and south. Also spent a day wandering around the city centre and having a look at the "old" buildings, etc. It's pretty hot here, low 30s most days, and it's dry too, which is a nice plus. On our day of wandering around, we followed the signpost that pointed to Lameroo "Beach". Those are my quotation marks, because to be honest, it's not much of a beach. Rocks, grit, mud, and mangrove trees here and there. Our decision to walk along it was unfortunate, and it was naff. Sadly, you can't even swim in the sea here, because it's still stinger season. Oh well.
Yesterday we got back from a two day trip to Kakadu National Park, which was great. We visited Jabiru (which is named after Australia's only native stork), Nourlangie Rock (some great Aboriginal art there) and Yellow Water (where we took a sunset boat trip - my camera battery ran out just before sunset. Doh!) on our first day. We stayed at the YHA affiliated Gagadju Lodge in Cooinda. For $27 each, we got a small part of a portacabin, and access to fridge and a coin operated bbq. Impressed I wasn't. Yesterday we went to Ubirr Rock, which has a stunning view out across the wetlands, forests, and rock country. I'm sure my photos won't do it justice. We finished at the Bowali Visitor Centre, then drove back via some huge termite mounds to Darwin.
On arrival, we checked back in and zipped off to Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, which people have been raving about. Unfortunately, I had a splitting headache, so wasn't really taking it in that well. We wandered around a bit, I got a hotdog, then went home to bed.
Today, I think we'll do what we've been doing mostly in Darwin - sitting by the pool and reading.
Saturday, May 10 2003, 4:05 GMT
Fawning Brits and expiring Dutchmen
From Darwin, we got the Greyhound to Katherine, named for the huge gorge nearby. It's a tiny town, with not much going on. Ok, let's be honest. There's nothing going on. As soon as we got there, we got a transfer bus, driven by a loud Austrian guy to Katherine Gorge. I think it's the case that some brown-nosing British explorer decided to name the Katherine River after one of the daughters of his sponsor - either way, the Aboriginal name for the place is Nitmiluk, which means "Place of the Frill-necked Lizard", which is much more descriptive.
We took a river cruise up the gorge, and were treated to some great views; the whole area is like a grid of canyons, and the river has gouged a zigzag path through some of them. Unfortunately, our 2 hour cruise only took us up two of the gorges (I think there are over 13 in total), but that was fine. We got spat at by some archer fish, which was quite amusing, and we had a gander at some more Aboriginal rock art, which was pretty cool. Still hard to believe the paintings are between 10 and 15 thousand years old!
We were a bit knackered after our early start, so we had an early finish that day, although I didn't sleep well. In the bed underneath mine was an old Dutch guy who hadn't moved since we checked in. He was in exactly the same position when we turned in, and for a moment, I entertained the suspicion that he might be dead. I found this wasn't the case, because he tossed and turned all night, and kept the bed rocking enough to shake me awake several times. Bastard.
Saturday, May 10 2003, 4:05 GMT
Lycra swimmers and a pair of Kents
We left Katherine as soon as we could, and went on to Kununurra, the first place of any size in Western Australia, passing through the quarantine station on the way. They checked us perfunctorily for bits of fruit, then let us through to the world of an hour and a half ago. That's right, we're now only seven hours ahead of the UK.
If we thougth Katherine was tiny, Kununurra was minuscule. And worse, I had no mobile coverage!! No text messaging for me for five whole days! Contemplating the enormity of this, we checked into the YHA. We were immediately taken with the idea of getting dropped off for a sunset view of Kelly's Knob (stop laughing!), a big outcrop of rock nearby, but it never happened.
We were using Kununurra as our base for exploring the East Kimberley region, and the first part of that was our daytrip out to El Questro Station. Don't reach for your Spanish dictionaries... the name means nothing. Some entrepreuneurial 21 year old Briton bought the land in the early 90s, already thus named, and turned it from an unsuccessful cattle station into a big tourist operation. Isn't it funny how you automatically dislike rich young people? I picture this guy, Will, as a bit of a twerp, for no reason other than I'm fantastically jealous. Well, he stands to lose a big portion of his land when the 99 year leases come up for land claims from the local Aboriginals in the next ten years. Hahahaha.
Anyway, we were taken by 4WD first to the Emma Gorge Resort, and from there it was a 1.6km walk along Emma Gorge to the falls, which were quite stunning. The water was quite cold though, so Matt and I, despite baiting about Brits being used to cold water swimming, only paddled a little. The Kiwi guy in our party and his wife decided to take a dip though - he did so in some bathers which I thought were inappropriately butt-hugging for a man of his years. When did I become such a prude?
From there, we returned to the resort for morning tea, then a short drive to Zebedee Springs (nothing to do with the Magic Roundabout, I'm sure). It's the best place we'd been to in ages! Cascades of water run soothingly from pool to pool, shaded by palms all around. And the pools are all about the temperature of a pleasant bath! There's nothing quite like having your head massaged by a gentle warm waterfall, let me tell you. We stayed there for an hour (much too short!), and went on to The Steakhouse for lunch, where we all chatted politely for half an hour. Chris and Rachel (Kiwi +1) were much more interesting than Iris and Ken, the older couple from Kent. Ken took ages to say anything, and what he said was of little interest; when they heard that Matt's from near Cambridge, they had a quiet row about where some of their friends live nearby. As if any of us cared!
The last part of the day was a river cruise (that's number four!) down the Chamberlain Gorge, which finished with champagne and fresh fruit; very agreeable. I guess they just wanted to soften us up for the arse-numbing 4WD trip back to Kununurra...
Saturday, May 10 2003, 4:05 GMT
Wild men of the Bush we aren't
Our second Kimberley adventure was three days of canoeing and camping! I can imagine you all thinking, "Graham? Camping? Surely not." Well, it's true, and it wasn't camping of the Julian Clary kind!
Macca (sic) drove us to Lake Argyle (a man-made inland sea in reality), and dropped us off on the other side of the dam, where the Ord River bursts out of two huge pipes in the stonework. It was a lovely sunny day, and there were only two other people on the river. We started off on our 23km, paddling in relaxed fashion downstream. The current was with us, so it wasn't hard work particularly, although Macca had warned us of two stretches of fast water ahead; it turned out that they were actually very tame, and I'd had a harder time of it canoeing with Chris Ashford on the Ardeche when I was eleven.
It was pretty spectacular scenery on each side as we paddled, and it was quite relaxing to begin with; we were like two little hobbits at the end of Fellowship of the Ring, although of course the Ord isn't the Anduin, and nobody was that interested in Matt's ring. Or mine.
It was a good 4 or 5 hours paddling on that first day, and we stopped for lunch on a little beach, where we met Katherine and James, the other people on the river. Unfortunately, we didn't know we couldn't have cooked lunches, so we had to rethink our eating plans. The first camp was pretty good, although we had to get going to make sure we had dinner ready (pasta and sauce), a fire going, and mozzie dome up (kind of a mesh dome tent) before the sun set around 5.30pm. By 7.00, it was completely dark, and we'd had enough of playing cards, so we turned in. That is, we would have, but I saw the biggest arachnid I'd ever seen in the (evil, soft, spite-filled, probably hairy and not-really-flesh) flesh; and it was on our mozzie dome. I don't know how I managed to get myself in there (quickly, of course), but the zips went down like lightning. Cowering with my eyes closed, I realised that I'd be able to hear bugs dropping on the dome all night, and my earplugs were outside! Matt thankfully had more guts than me, and retrieved them. I shut my eyes, put the plugs in, and slept.
Our second day was a much shorter paddle, but I was pretty over the whole canoeing thing by then. Ok, I'd managed to shower in cold water, surrounded by Orb Weaver spiders, and eat instant noodles for breakfast, but my arms were getting weary. Our second camp didn't even have running water! Our third day was another 25km (groan), and both of us were fed up with paddling. Matt had got to the point where it was ten strokes, stop, rest, sigh. We did a lot of drifting that day, where the current was strong enough to take us downstream (which wasn't often). Our largest effort was to paddle towards the first shop of the trip - a proper rest, some ice-cold milkshakes, and scones :o). Our second big effort was to get into the last lagoon - effectively, the finish line! All the stops came out, and we entered the man-made lagoon, complete with eerie drowned trees, and were out of the water by 2.30pm! It wasn't that long before we were back at the YHA and in the pool.
So I'm pretty done with the whole outdoorsy thing. Every time someone mentions 4WDs, walking, or canoeing now, Matt and I just share a look and we both know we're thinking, "I don't want anything that includes effort or dirt ever again."
Saturday, May 10 2003, 5:05 GMT
Oooh, Geoffwey! Zippy is soooo wude!
Rosemary: I see you're all packed, Mum. Where are you off to?
Helen: Just a quick painting trip to the Bungle Bungles over the weekend.
(Incredulous British audience: Guffaw! As if such an unlikely-named place could really exist!)
It really does exist. Of course, I had heard of the Bungle Bungles early on when thinking about what we were going to do in the Kimberley region, and even if I thought I'd never come across a more bizarrely named place, we drove through a place called Humpty Doo on our way into Kakadu. And that wasn't even an Aboriginal name.
The Aboriginal name for the Bungle Bungles (I'm tired of typing that already) is Purnululu, which is nothing to do with Big Brother Jade's naughty bits. Our last Kimberley adventure was a two hour flight to Purnululu in the tiniest plane you can imagine: the cabin was about as long as mum's living room, and as wide as her bathroom, and she doesn't live in a big house! So you can imagine I was slightly anxious as we boarded the plane, and pulled my seatbelt tight enough to cut off circulation...
The flight wound its way down the Ord River (sickeningly covering our 3 day trip in about ten minutes) to Lake Argyle, which is a truly spectacular sight. It was created by damming the river in 1971 and flooding a million acres. It currently holds the equivalent of 19 Sydney Harbours, and could hold 54! From there, we flew on over the closed Bow River Diamond Mine, to Purnululu. If you were ever in doubt about plate tectonics, a flight here could convince you; the land is rippled like waves, shoved up into ranges, and you can see clearly what's been happening with the earth's crust over several million years. It's like nothing I've ever seen.
The Bungle Bungle Massif was a bit further on, and consists of loads of stripey beehive shaped domes of rock; the stripes are actually alternating feet-thick bands of lichen and silica which have prevented the erosion of the fragile sandstone beneath; if not for those layers, the domes would have disappeared millennia ago.
By the time we got to Lake Argyle Diamond Mine (which is a huge scar on the rockface), I was feeling pretty queasy. It was actually quite fortunate that the German lady in front of me didn't barf any earlier than she did, because if she had, she might as well have shoved two fingers down my throat herself, because smelling sick is like flicking my own vomit switch. As it was, I wobbled off the plane, and almost unerringly found my way to Chicken Treat, Western Australia's naff version of KFC, for a burger and chips.
So that was the Bungle Bungles - too easy!
Saturday, May 10 2003, 5:05 GMT
Ripped off, and it's not even lunchtime!
Ok, so I didn't let myself get ripped off...
We got our overnight bus from Kununurra to Broome at 5.45 yesterday, and got here at 7.30 this morning. I slept tolerably well. I'm not sure why I was so excited to be back in mobile range, because I only had three texts waiting for me, and one of those was a wrong number!
So we wandered into town - Broome is more than double the size of Kununurra, so we were expecting somewhere that I could exchange my last second-hand paperback. Sure enough, Woody's Book Exchange offered to do just that, but the skinflint old cow inside only offered me a lousy $2 for a book that cost me $8! And do you know what the criterion for that valuation was? The book was published as long ago as 1988! I wasn't about to take that rubbish, so I made it clear that I'd suffer the hardship of carrying those extra grams all the way to Perth than let her diddle me. Bitch.
Friday, May 16 2003, 5:05 GMT
Vindicated!
Hahaha. I just sold that same paperback for $4, double what that miserable old crone was offering me in Broome!
Anyway, more interestingly, we had a good time in Broome. Cable Beach (so called because one of the overland telegraph lines left Australia to go to toward Java from that beach) was nice, and got some pictures of the camels (I don't know why they're there either) walking along at sunset. Also caught The Hours at the open air cinema, periodically punctuated by Qantas jets flying overhead! If you haven't seen it, you should. It's quite cleverly done, and it's left me wanting to read Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and get the soundtrack (hint hint), which is mainly pleasantly haunting piano. We also visited Pearl Luggers, which was very interesting. Broome only exists as a place to go diving for pearls, and more importantly, mother of pearl, and produces the most in the world. I didn't realise that they were still using those huge rubber suits and diving helmets (that Captain Nemo probably felt comfortable in) right up until the 60s! The full equipment would have weighed around 80kg, which I'm pretty sure is much heavier than me, and it was all pretty dangerous. If your air pipe got punctured, the pressure at 80m (recreational divers only go to 30m) would mean your whole body got squished into the helmet and up the pipe. Nice.
From Broome, we jumped on the Easyrider bus which took us first to Port Hedland, via 80 Mile Beach, a convenient stop-over. It's an iron mining town, and we were "treated" to an exotic dance show during our evening drinks. I've heard that there is one woman for every eight (or 30, depending on whom you believe) men in Port Hedland, but we were rather disappointed with our dancers. They just didn't look like they were enjoying their jobs, they didn't dance well, and their heels didn't really go with their outfits... Pathetic showmanship.
We left Port Hedland to stop off in Karijini National Park, and walk along the gorge from Circular Pool (nice place for a cold swim) to Fortescue Falls, and Fern Pool (much warmer). You can stop off here and do a full on camping thing in Karijini, but we were quite camped out really, and didn't stay at Tom Price (our overnight stop), but ploughed on.
I had still been hoping to spot kangaroos and the like hopping along by the roadside on our journeys, and was disappointed to note that the only wildlife we really saw was roadkill, and lots of it! Poor little roos dead, bloated/decapitated/decomposing all the way; that is, until we left Tom Price, and then I saw lots! Probably mostly euros (a type of kangaroo, also called wallaroo - macropus robustus!), a few red kangaroos, as well as emus and even a bustard! It was pretty amazing to see them outside the zoo though.
I was spoiled for wildlife that day; we drove to Turquoise Bay for some snorkelling next. The current was quite strong, and the tide was low, so I was busily trying to avoid kicking/hitting coral, when I blundered upon a turtle having a snack. I stopped to watch it, munching slowly, and another one shot out of nowhere and zipped off! Fantastic :o) And just before that, we'd all gathered to look at a white tip reef shark, and another came along to sit next to it before they both swam off in different directions. I decided to follow one, only to have it turn around and swim probably 30cm underneath me! I was nervously giggling so much, I had to stop to empty my mask...
We stayed last night in Exmouth (you've got to say the "mouth" bit properly, not just "muth" here), and were meant to be snorkelling with whalesharks today, but it's been too rainy (hmph), so we're just mooching around passing the time until swimming with the biggest fish in the world tomorrow!
Saturday, May 17 2003, 11:05 GMT
Swimming with the big fellas
Whale sharks.
Wow. Stupendous. Getting as long as 13m, they're the biggest fish in the world, and even bigger than the great whites of Jaws fame. But they're gentle things - they only eat jellyfish, plankton, tiny things; and their teeth are only about 6mm long anyway. They swim along, feeding at the surface, and looking marvellous! I'll have some photos on here eventually, but you can find some on http://www.google.com if you do a search.
My experience with them was exhilarating to say the least. The boat spots a shark, then stops a way in front of it, and a crewmember "spotter" jumps in, finds the shark, and swims along with a fist in the air. Then we all jump in, looking frantically around; of course, you have to swim to the spotter, looking for the shark that they're swimming next to, and usually, your first glimpse is this metre-wide mouth approaching you at speed, so you have to get out of the way sharpish. On one occasion, I swam right up to the spotter, but still couldn't see anything, then realised I was right over its head! Scared the bejesus out of me, I can tell you!
So once you've found it, you swim along at the surface, trying to avoid everyone else in your group, marvelling at this monstrous fish which seems to be having a relaxing swim, but is in fact motoring along at a pace that can leave you exhausted. Our first shark was cruising at a leisurely speed, but the next one was obviously in more of a hurry, and left us all a bit flat out.
I'm still on a bit of a high, some 4 hours later... They're amazing creatures, and I'm so pleased I've had a chance to swim with them. If you ever get the opportunity, take it!
Thursday, May 22 2003, 13:05 GMT
Can't get enough of that lovely pavement.
Ningaloo Reef is frequently touted as the new Great Barrier Reef, so when we moved a little way down the coast to Coral Bay, we had to do a bit of diving from there, since we had no chance at Exmouth. We were not disappointed. Dead turtles aren't everyone's cup of tea, but we also saw a frogfish, some sailfin catfish, and other pretties. It was also a great place to relax for a bit and lie on the beach. It was also meant to be our first lie-in in ages, but generosity on my part meant I left my earplugs in my locker instead of making noise to retrieve them, and I hadn't banked on being hearing some schmuck packing everything he owned into carrier bags, then pressing the air out of the remainder and methodically folding them up. Don't get me wrong, I admire neatness, but I like my sleep! And if hostel dorms are palaces of selfishness, hostel kitchens are temples of inconsideration, but don't get me started...
On the way to Denham, we had a look at the Stromatolites, which are little stone things built by cyanobacteria that are 350 million years old, and the neat things increased the oxygen content of the planet to make it breathable for us. They still just looked like rocks though, and were rather dull. We also stopped at Shell Beach, which is (as you'd guess) made of shells, but 3 or 4 metres deep shells! Denham was our overnight stop before visiting Monkey Mia, where we all stood in a line, shin-deep in the waters of Shark Bay, and cute bottlenose dolphins came to check our our legs! They were so tame! They'd literally just slowly swim past us, some on their sides with an eye out of the water having a look at us. Unbelievable. I got lots of pics :o)
We continued to Kalbarri, stopping to have a look at a few gorges on the way, take some photos, and then enjoy sunset with champagne before a fish bbq (I had the veggie option instead) and lots of wine. Today, we've had a long journey, only really stopping to see The Pinnacles, which are a bunch of 1500 odd rock spikes sticking out of yellow sand. I was a bit weary by the time we got there, so I can't remember how they're made, or how old they are. But I naturally took photos...
And now here we are in Perth! Such a relief to be back in civilisation, with tall buildings and pavement, and reliable mobile coverage! However, it doesn't have a supermarket open, so I guess we're eating out tonight. Life's hard.
By the way, thanks everyone for your emails, keep them coming - it's great to hear what you're all up to at home, and I'll get round to replying to you all eventually!
Thursday, May 22 2003, 13:05 GMT
Sunday 25th, 8.30pm on SBS
You guessed it, that's when I'll be watching...
The Eurovision Song Contest!
I may be on the other side of the planet, but these delightful Aussies still get "culture" even here. ;o)
I'll be thinking of you all watching Europe's "finest" and hearing good old Tel's cynical commentary. I hear Tatu are representing Russia (how exciting), but I'm sure you all already know that. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know I won't be missing it, so please, no-one text me who wins!
Ta.
Monday, May 26 2003, 11:05 GMT
Disappointment after disappointment...
Yes, Eurovision wasn't all I'd dreamed. For starters, the pub Angie and I were going to watch it in wasn't showing it, and we had to rush back to our hostel and then tune in a crappy tv to the right channel, and even then it was wobbly and in black and white. And we didn't get Terry Wogan! We had some Aussie nobody muttering rubbish at us. We soldiered on, devising a quick drinking game, but with 13 countries each, we were bound to get slightly trashed... To cut a long story short, I thought UK was crap (weren't they flat all the way through?), but not that crap, and Turkey certainly didn't deserve to win. I was behind Netherlands and Sweden, but I'll go for anything that sounds like Abba or Steps...
But other than that, we've had a great time in Perth so far. We've had a good wander around the city centre, snapped the skyline a lot, and looked at the Perth Mint, and some other interesting buildings. Yesterday, a nice guy called Dave drove us around the suburbs, all around the Swan River, and up to the northern beaches, just out of the goodness of his heart! Whattaguy :o) I'm really impressed with Perth; it's a lovely city, got the right amount of stuff to do, and it's very pleasant to wander round - lots of open spaces that are pleasing to the eye. It's very isolated though. The next place of any size, Geraldton (28000 people) is 4.5 hours drive away!! Of the 1.8m people who live in WA, 1.3m of them live here. And I can see why...
Tomorrow we're off to do some diving off Rottnest Island (so named because Mr Vlaming, who first saw it in the 17th century, mistook the resident quokkas for rats).
Friday, May 30 2003, 10:05 GMT
Freo
I forgot to mention that we went to Fremantle for the day last Saturday; that's Freo, if you're a local. In fact, you're probably ok sticking an o on the end of any abbreviated name. Similarly, Geraldton is Gerro. Matt becomes Matto. God knows what happens to my name...
Anyway, we really liked Freo. It's a small town that's got lots of trendy bars, cafes, and shops, as well as plenty of buildings that are old by Australian standards. Also had a look at Fremantle's prison (closed recently), and a retired submarine, before finishing off with two jugs of sangria and a plate of nachos for dinner.
Friday, May 30 2003, 10:05 GMT
One of Australia's Great Train Journeys
The "Mighty" Indian Pacific is the route that goes from Perth to Sydney on the transcontinental railway, and we got on on Wednesday. When the pre-recorded documentary/commentary (available on CD) came over the speakers and told us that they weren't into breaking any speed records, I had a horrible feeling. I knew the journey took 2 days, but I didn't realise we'd be crawling along and frequently pulling over to let other trains past (it's only a single track). Still, we had stuff to do - mainly reading, playing cards, and eating food loaded with calories. However, it's a little hard to read when the train's juddering so hard it makes your cheeks wobble. Sure enough, it made sleeping interesting. Or another word beginning with I, and ending with Mpossible.
Along the way, we stopped at Kalgoorlie, the heart of the gold strike country; however, it was 10pm and pretty cold, so we just went straight to the local Irish pub for a few drinks. Yesterday we passed through the Nullarbor Plain, and sure enough, it had no trees (nulla arbor - no tree! You see? You poor miseducated wretches...), which was large, flat, red, and pretty monotonous to look at after about five minutes. Our last stop before Adelaide was Cook, a refuelling station, which allowed me to get off and use a real toilet; the ones on the train have this novel feature of spraying what's in the pan back at you when you hit the flush. Then it was back on the train for the rest of the journey, trying to ignore the freaky git on our right, who shambled around like he was drunk, talked to anyone who might be listening like he was drunk, and stank like hell. He also had a scraggly beard and a mullet. Why do they always have to sit near me?
Anyway, we arrived today. When you consider they had more than 48 hours to get here, it was annoying that we were an hour late, but what the hell, I was just happy to get off the train! (Whinge over - positive stuff coming later!).
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