Link to the previous page outback/5-e 
To the Westcoast 12. November ’18
Another breakfast with an unobstructed view of the ocean. Then it’s time to top up the fuel tank, disconnect the power, retract the water and waste water hoses, stow everything with mm precision, retract the awning and then say goodbye to the beautiful place that allowed us to digest our experiences and offered relaxation and recreation. There was no more sea, the tide had shifted so much that it would have been too late. We did some more shopping, refuelled and then set off at 12 noon.
After 350 kilometres we spent the night at a roadhouse, otherwise there weren’t even any parking facilities the whole way. We try to stop every hour to drink, but if you don’t take your time you forget to do so, plus the danger is quite great on such straight stretches with hardly any traffic and then there’s the heat.
The roadhouses are very important – sometimes only after more than 200 kilometres without a place – for refuelling, refreshing and spending the night. Usually simple and cheap – in the middle of nowhere. -G.
Of course, some peacocks also spread their feathers into huge wheels and you got the impression that the more you admired them – the more they twisted and turned. It was delicious. The highlight was when a peacock jumped over a 50 cm high fence with a full wheel. They were no less noisy than the geese, especially at dawn, when they were joined by various other birds. Here, the birds don’t just beep, no, they hurl whole words into the air without even taking a breath. No, we haven’t yet managed to switch off the light early enough to get up cheerfully with the sun and the first birdsong (squawking).
Here at least my vocabulary is sufficient for the description, in contrast to the landscape, where my vocabulary is far too small to describe it all and the camera is barely able to reproduce the enormity and only ever shows a section of the kilometre-long formations. Sometimes the stones, slabs, pillars, fragments lie there as if a city has collapsed, sometimes a site, sometimes they form hills, mountains, ruins, sometimes the stones lie there as if the gods had been mumbling.
Yesterday 2 camels between a herd of cattle, as they had the same colour as the cattle I had to look twice, no they were definitely not humped cattle!
What is here? Some say nothing. And yet there’s something fascinating about the way the slowly retreating sun is silvering the road and this shining ribbon of silver optimistically runs through the scorched brown steppe on dark brown earth. When the first rain comes, fresh green in all colours will sprout here again. On the horizon, kilometre-wide hills that turn into metre-high rocks, mountains, stone outcrops, bare or overgrown with moss as you get closer. A silhouette of pointed ridges, sometimes lying there with curves like an elephant, notched or whatever. Today, the road was not simply milled into the landscape with a ruler as usual, but lived with it, it was winding, it was undulating, it was hilly, sometimes it went up, sometimes it went down, it nestled into the landscape. It was very relaxing.
We took the last detour to „80 Miles Beach“. There were only 2 anyway, we had missed the first one. And what luck. Because what awaited us here once again exceeded our expectations. We drove through a landscape on a sandy road past salt lakes, a stark contrast to the red earth of the road, which continued on to white sand and opened up over lagoons to the deep blue sea with green gradations. We walked alongside a river, which later turned out to be a sea inlet. The tide had gone out and the water was receding at high speed, but we made it to the other side of the „river“ and were able to continue walking there, as the beach was closed on one side to protect the turtles. After a bend, the Indian Ocean revealed itself ……
We no longer even ask: do we take the turn-off or is there nothing there? There is always something, even if it’s the colours of the earth. From dark red, red, orange, yellow, beige, white, light brown, dark brown, black-brown, the grass, which has a wide range of colours from light beige, yellow orange, poison green and blue-green. The colours of the earth are indescribable. But there is also the feeling of experience. We say get out of here, it’s unbearable, far too kitschy, with a little more effort they could have made the whole thing a bit more realistic.
Continue briefly via Port Hedland. This is the harbour, a transhipment point for ore. The goods trains that leave here pull 120 (!) wagons and the road trains, extra-long lorries that normally have 3 trailers with a length of 53 m, have 4 trailers here.
Exmouth 15. November ’18
Almost freezing temperature tonight: only 22°. But too loud to leave everything open.
Through to Exmouth today. It was quite exhausting. It was also over 40° again
We only just made it to the information centre and despite the time, everything was still arranged for us to get on the glass-bottom boat the next morning. And apart from the fact that it was pretty cold, yesaaa and raining, which we would have loved on all the other days, it was great, beautiful and interesting. We went over a coral reef, which is part of the barrier reef, and there were places with huge corals that were over 100 years old.
Unfortunately, my camera is only suitable for underwater photography once. As I still wanted to take dry shots, here is the poor quality through the glass bottom. As a consolation, here are some pictures from the CD we received – it can look like this….. -G.
There was nothing like it on TV. Gerhard bravely went on the snorkelling tour, it was just too cold for me, and others too. From time to time, the skipper counted from the boat whether all the snorkellers were still visible, which he had sent 20 metres further to a snorkelling spot.
We’ve booked here for 3 nights and it’s really relaxing to just hang out here for a day – Gerhard is back to tinkering.
This is the first RV park that has sunbeds by the pool, only there are lots of big white parrots sitting in the palm trees above the sunbeds ……, which also have voices like an old man disappointed by life.
Yesterday, by chance, we ended up in an original brewery pub as we cycled into the „centre“. Since Gerhard had fitted lights to our bikes, we were able to cycle in the dark. You can’t cycle in Aussi without a helmet. It really costs. Having alcohol only in the car costs a lot in some areas, up to prison, but there are no regulations about lights on bikes.
Tomorrow we leave early, we want to go through the Cape Range National Park and don’t know if we can stay there overnight, as it’s the weekend we can’t contact anyone and our internet blocks access. In other parks you just throw the money with your personal details into a box. This is very practical. Not so long ago, a whole campground disappeared due to a cyclone on the coast, which is now missing.
We extended for another 3 nights. Realised we needed it. At the moment the water level is also too low for snorkelling, you need a certain water height here, otherwise you get too close to the corals. We have now postponed the whole thing until the day after tomorrow, when the water level will be a little higher again and only after 10am. Tomorrow we should be there shortly after eight and the walk is about 50 minutes with our big box, maybe a bit more and we also have to have breakfast in between.
Maybe one day I’ll understand about the tides, until now it was enough for me to know that ebb and flow have to do with the moon, I thought that was enough, no it’s not enough and I bet that no teacher knew about it either, or do any of you know???
Anyway, we still have time to look for snorkelling equipment tomorrow. Otherwise we would have had to hire it, but we still want to snorkel the coast.
Today we first hike along a deep gorge.
Here is our hiking trail – also correctly signposted
Then we went snorkelling. I was too shy to swim out to the reef, but in the shallows at the front you could swim with whole schools of fish. When I was standing, I couldn’t get rid of a big fish that was constantly busy with my foot.
I haven’t even mentioned the emus, who feel so safe here that they stroll through the RV Park unperturbed and we have breakfast with them every morning. It’s delicious to watch them. They strut elegantly past us, putting one foot in front of the other like a model. Has anyone ever thought about how an emu goes into a resting position? After all, a small fly has 6 legs, what’s the point? This relatively large bird has 2 thin, overlong legs without any musculature, with long lower legs, no wings, no front feet to support itself. So, it looked quite strange, it bends, bends, bends away like hinges, then the ball of feathers sits on the ground.
Yesterday we cycled to the harbour and suddenly an emu with little ones stood in front of us.
When we drove out of the village this morning, an emu ran after a dog with very short legs, which also had the same colour as the emu. We don’t know how that turned out. It certainly looked amazing. But now we know that emus don’t like dogs at all.
Here is the urgent advice to all those who have come across the dog – Under no circumstances should you buy another emu !!! -G.
Also in the national park, a billabong with various bird species.
Coral Bay 21. November ’18
So, on we went towards Coral Beach. After about one hundred kilometres in total wasteland, for kilometres only steppe, 40°, no trees far and wide, only grass and the occasional bush.
Then suddenly there was a bang – a stone hit the ground. To be on the safe side, we stopped and inspected everything – no damage to be seen. So we carried on, slowly at first and then at full speed again at 80 km/h. Suddenly our „stone“ started to smell of rubber and also interfered slightly with the steering. Stopped again – front left – flat tyre! -G.
And the front. We have two tyres in the back, so it wasn’t a problem the first time, and it wasn’t in such a remote area. So Gerhard climbed under the RV in the heat, because that’s where the spare wheel is attached, and not only was it so hot, but there had also been a strong wind blowing for days, gusting the sand against your legs like little pinpricks. And if you’re still lying on the ground and have to screw…. With a lot of cursing Gerhard got out the spare tyre and then it happened: the broken wheel couldn’t be removed and there was no suitable spanner in the toolbox!!!
Now we’ve had a good late breakfast in the hope that we can think of something.
There is very little traffic on the road and even less lorries, but a lorry arrived with an order from Universum. And at Gerhard’s beckoning, it drove a long way and there was an angel in it!!! He really dragged his tools all the way back and forth until the big, tight screws were finally loosened. The whole thing took about an hour, but the angel didn’t lose his patience. Another half an hour and we were able to drive on. And our eyes were once again bathed in colours that the earth produced in many shades.
A word about the blog: I categorically disclaim any responsibility for the content and wording used by „external“ parties! -G.
However, when we got to the water, it was too much again, a turquoise colour that doesn’t exist in nature, no, we won’t be fooled, they went too deep into the colour pot again!
The protruding pillars are the remains of the first landing stage from the middle of the 18th century.
Carnarvon 22. November ’18
We took the quickest route to the nearest tyre service, which was in Carnarvon, so that we could get our spare wheel back in order. The first one didn’t have a suitable tyre, the next one we caught just 5 minutes before closing time on Friday and he actually found a suitable one. On Saturday morning it was done quickly and we took the opportunity to drive around with the Motorhome. Normally you don’t drive away from the RV site with such a big thing. Here you can finally get fresh fish from the area and lots of fruit and vegetable plantations. We shopped at a biodynamic farm and have never eaten such juicy, sweet papaya. It was mango season in the north. And you could find them everywhere, it was delicious. Unfortunately for us, the mangoes here only ripen in January.
Carnarvon boasts the longest jetty (approx. 1 mile) on which a railway has been supplying the landing ships with freight and passengers from the town since 1891. In the meantime, everything is not only getting on in years and unfortunately also run down.
Unfortunately, the bridge was no longer accessible. There was even a small stopover on the short journey from the city. -G.
After 4 days ( 4 days stay, 3 pay ) we drove very close, 75 km – that’s how it is seen here, to the blowholes. The blowholes are in a large slab of rock that juts out into the sea and when the gout hits the rocks with great force, it pushes the water through large holes and it shoots out in fountains up to 20 metres high. Impressive.
And now – ice on the puddle ???
With a strong wind and somewhat rugged ground – a great natural spectacle.
A little late – here is the video sequence of the „spectacle“. The strong wind prevented a steady hand and a sound. -G.
After a free overnight stay at a very nice place, where I would have liked to stay, but we couldn’t have done anything, no internet.
A very strong, fresh wind has been blowing since Exmouth, which gets stronger at night and sometimes really battered our campervan. We can no longer eat outside, the wind blows the salad right off the plate and we have brought the awning in at night for fear that the brackets won’t withstand the pressure.
Our next destination is Shark Bay. We hope that the wind won’t blow us away too much.