Dear bird lovers,
On Sunday the 13th of July I drove the last 110km to Katherine where we headed for the Visitor Information Center. Luckily we were able to use their FREE Wifi for half an hour and so we connected to the world again! We had no internet for the last ten days. After some grocery shopping anf fueling up we drove to the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park for lunch at 1pm. There we were surrounded by bats just hanging around in the trees...
Dear lake lovers,
After our rather disappointing visit to Wyndham we decided to stay overnight at Lake Argyle. After securing a spot at the only caravan park we drove to the Dam lookout for the sunset. We had a really nice view and it was surprisingly beautiful for an artificial lake. Lake Argyle is Australia's second largest dam lake.
Dear lookout lovers,
On Day 20 of our West Coast trip after our day into the Bungle Bungles Charlotte and I got ready to depart the rest stop area at 9am. I drove us 3 hours (270km) to Wyndham in the East Kimberleys.
I headed for the Five River lookout which we have been told by Carol that it is really nice. There you find the whole history of Wyndham on just two signs.
Dear strange formation lovers,
Well, getting up early is definitely not my cup of tea but if it needs to be than I will get up at 6:30am. Charlotte and I got breakfast and everything ready by 7:45am to walk around Leicester's rest stop area. We were looking for someone who has a 4WD and would possibly have some spare seats available to take us into the Bungle Bungles. After just a few minutes we approached a man who just checked the engine of his car and asked him if they are heading into the Bungle Bungles.
Dear driving lovers (again),
On Wednesday morning after our West Kimberley daytour we had another long day of driving ahead of us and set off at 8am. I drove the 250km to Fitzroy Crossing where we filled up our little car. Then Charlotte took over the steering wheel and got us to Geiki Gorge. We didn't plan this stop, so we were only able to do a short 800 meter loop walk where you don't have a view of the gorge itself. The walk was still nice.
Dear Kimberley lovers,
After a rather bad first night sleeping in the small Johnny Cash car we got up at 6:15am to be ready at the Derby Busservice Depot at 8am to be picked up for our day tour to the West Kimberleys.
We were quite shocked to see so many older people on the bus as this tour was advertised as being suitable for a moderate fitness level with rock climbing involved.
Dear small town lovers,
Everything turned out differently than expected!
Charlotte, Bastian and I got to Wickedcamper at their Broome depot shortly after 9am which was probably too early. Our Tankgirl was still on the trailer and the depot looked more like a graveyard of to-their-limits-and-beyond-used vans.
Dear easy life lovers,
I can tell you: it wasn't an easy life for us driving our "new" Batman van. What? Where is Tankgirl? Well, read the sad story about her here in my last post...
The batmobil had a manual gearbox and not an automtic one. That's not the problem as such, the problem was to get into the gears, especially the third one was difficult. The steering wheel wasn't straight, the brakes didn't seem to be how they should be, it had over 430,000km on its clock and pieces were falling off everywhere.
Dear van lovers,
The title says it already: Tankgirl didn't wanted to complete the journey with us but I give you the full details of the sad story anyway.
It all started very normal on Friday the 4th of July, on Day 13 of our tour. We got ready to depart Port Hedland at 8:30am in the morning as we had a 600km journey in front of us to get to Broome. After a few hours (and a fuel stop at Pardoo Roadhouse) as Bastian drove on the Great Northern Highway we noticed some strange engine noises and Bastian told us that the steering got funny as well.
Dear walking lovers,
On our second day in Karijini we drove to Dales Gorge and started the circular walk clockwise. So we walked towards the Circular Pool first along the rim of the gorge.
Dear mountain climbing lovers,
After a "nice" full day of driving the day before we set out early in the morning again towards the Dale Campground in Karijini National Park as it is a busy time of year. Then we drove on further towards the Visitor Information Center and have been told that the gravel roads are really rough. As our Tankgirl is not a 4WD (four-wheel-drive) we have been advised to test a bit of the road first. And so we did.
We were afraid about the conditions of the tyres from the very beginning and everything in this van was rattling away as we drove just 200 meters or so on this road.
Dear driving lovers (do these exist?),
The day after our awesome WHALESHARK swim we got organised again. We put away the tent, bought groceries, fuelled Tankgirl (1st), picked up the CD with the pictures from the swim the day before and then Bastian drove. And he drove and drove until about 280km along the road we stopped at the Nanutarra Roadhouse to fuel up again (2nd) and then another 270km landinwards to Paraburdoo for fuel (3rd) and then it was a very short 80km drive to Tom Price to the Tourist Park Caravan Park where we arrived just in time to make dinner (rice with tuna, chick peas, beans and curry paste). Well, then we settled for a very cold night again. Yepp, that was our tenth day on our West Coast Tour. I took some pictures of the road and changing landscape along the way. But, seriously, there is nothing more to say about this day except that the fuel got immensely more expensive with every fuel stop.
Dear Whaleshark lovers,
On Monday the 30th of June it was time for Charlotte, Bastian and me to go for a swim with these guys:
WHALESHARKS! The biggest fish in the sea and on visit in the Ningaloo Reef every winter.
Dear beach lovers,
On Sunday Charlotte drove us about 150km to Exmouth where we had to fill up our Tankgirl near the Visitor Information Center where we got lots of information about the area. After a short visit to a small market we set off to the Cape Range National Park. We first stopped at Hunters Beach, apparently good for surfing but this day the waves were not too high.
Heyho reef lovers,
Everyone knows about the Great Barrier Reef on the East Coast of Australia. But nobody ever told me about a big reef system on the West Coast called Ningaloo. I was very surprised during my research before this tour to find out about it. Surely it is not as big as you could see it from space but everybody here was raving over it.
Anyway, as we drove the last 100km to Coral Bay from our free camping overnight stay we bought some snorkel equipment there. After lunch we headed onto the really nice beach and took some pictures with Charlotte's underwatercamera.
Dear animal lovers,
On Thursday the 26th of June we got up really early to be at Monkey Mia at 8am just in time for the first interaction with the dolphins. People were lining the beach.
And the dolphins got REALLY close! It was so exciting to spot more and more coming in and circling around in front of us.
Greetings to all history and photoshooting lovers,
On Wednesday the 25th of June we got up at 7:15am and left the caravan park at 8:40am to be just in time for the pelican feeding. Only problem: no pelican turned up...
Quite disappointed to have gotten up so early to not see any pelicans we settled into the van and Bastian drove three hours straight to the Billabong Roadhouse where we girls got a picture taken.
Dear walking friends,
At 8am in the morning Laura and Charlotte walked
over to the car rental to pick up our car for the day. They arrived at the
caravan park with this:
Alrighty folks,
On the morning of our second day after a seriously freezing
night with just two hours of sleep we at least had a very nice breakfast and
then I drove us into the city of Geraldton where we visited the HMAS Sydney
memorial.
