Broome – Crocodile Park

by in Broome | 1 Comment

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IMG_1234-rThe Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park is around 18ks outside of Broome and the road out isn’t as cyclist friendly as those we are used to, very much unlike those in Noosa, so with some cloud building for the first time since we arrived we decided to hire a scooter for the day. The 50cc scooter wasn’t so powerful with the two of us onboard but it did the job even when the road train overtook us on the trip out of town.

Most of us have seen the films produced by Malcolm Douglas, Shelly has even seen him in person many year ago in the Kimberley, sadly he died in a car crash a few years back but his wildlife park is going strong here in Broome his home town. We entered through the large croc head and within seconds I jumped a mile high when I noticed a 4 meter croc just siting in front of me, he was behind a fence but I still jumped!

The main feeding was due to start in an hour but we noticed a group in the park so we caught up to them and joined in the grey parade led by George Negus. It turned out to be a private tour so we headed back for the main tour and before we knew it Shelly had a real croc in her hands, soft and smooth not al all like we expected. The tour guide dude gave us a run down on the park and crocs before he pulled out his bucket of chickens (dead, not live) to start the feeding frenzy.

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Australian Salt Water Crocodile

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American Alligator

The park had many crocs both fresh and salt water, one of the large pond held 34 or 35 American Alligators, not sure I was comfortable he didnt know how many they had, it was only one but that one was enough to have me looking around for number 35 on my side of the fence. The story old mate told us about the alligators was interesting, they are banned in Australia due to these yanks being able to live in the warm and cold unlike our crocs who love the warm weather like us. He told us about times when alligators had been frozen in storms where they just go to sleep for as long as required before lashing out at anything they can once they wake up pissed off and hungry or when they were washed in with Hurricane Katrina hundreds of ks and had no problem setting up home where ever they liked, these yanks are multiplying fast and becoming a real problem.

They found their way to our fine shores strapped to an americans chest who arrived in Sydney years ago, the 12 alligator ended up living in Taronga Zoo where they were bred under strict conditions, the 34 or 35 in Broome are direct descendants of the original Taronga Zoo alligators.

Press the PLAY button for our crocodile feeding video

The croc park was well worth the scooter ride to see the croc and alligator ponds and then the huge crocs they keep in separate pens, one of the largest was near 5 meters long and looked near 5 meters around his big guts, most of the big boys have found their way here as a result of relocation from populated areas, they had no choice relocate or be shot. They all had a wife some have more than one for breeding but most eat the wife or the eggs if they get grumpy and hungry. Crocodiles can live for 100 years and unlike us grow every year, they don’t grow in length for the full life but in later years grow out just like us.

Press the PLAY button for a Shelly video

Press the PLAY button for a Malcolm Douglas video

Old Mate Feeding
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Broome

by in Broome | 1 Comment

moonWe drove into Broome under the cover of darkness and possibly the roughest evening for the next 4 months, the wind coming from the south off Roebuck Bay made it difficult to set up and made it noisy as it whistled through the trees marking the shoreline. One highlight on a crap night was a phone call we got from close friends of ours with some unexpected news, news that left feeling very happy, even excited.

After a sleepless night that had us considering moving on from Broome we woke to a much calmer morning that evolved into the best day we have seen since leaving and nothing has changed since, right now Broome is the best climate in Australia.

Broome is 2225ks north of Perth (the short way) with a population of 14,000 people and located in the Kimberly region. Unlike Dampier, Karratha and Port Headland, Broome named after the then governor Sir Frederick Broome is no mining town it’s a tourist town and was established way back in 1883, 200 years after William Dampier cruised by in 1688.

We hit the road on our bikes to do some exploring and buy a TV antenna to make sure we didn’t have a repeat of no footy on ANZAC day, after a stop into the local markets and a super coffee we headed to the shopping district of Broome known as China Town that has taken plenty of its architecture from the Asian influence that has shaped this town.

The streets lined with buildings clad with the same white corrugated iron to give a clean and neat appearance. After wondering the streets for a while we picked up an aerial and headed for home to get the footy going. Much to my disgust the new $70 aerial was as handy as the crap I had used in port Headland and whilst this one picked up 3 stations none showed the football, all 3 showed the same cooking show!

We got cleaned up had a feed and walked 30 steps from our site to Town Beach for the show that a few hundred people had lined the shores of Roebuck Bay for.  A few times every year the moon and tide align to put on a show known as The Staircase to the Moon where a full moon rises in darkens on a low tide creating the illusion of golden step on the sandy flats leading up the moon. The tides in these parts are pretty amazing, not the 1.5 to 2 meter tides we are used to in the East, here in Broome they rise and fall from 1 to 8 meters, even more further up the coast where Shelly was born in Derby where it can be 12 meters at times.

So on this Saturday evening with the beaches full for natures show it was nature itself that let everyone down, clouds! We left the beach still wondering what all the fuss was about.

Sunday morning was hot, 33c at 8am when old mate Gordon from Goulburn came over to help get the TV going, we had ran into Gordon and his wife in four different parks over the last month, a nice old guy in his 70s who loved to tell a joke. We worked out the aerial was crap so we left for town to swap it for a bigger one.

DSCN1683-rWe stopped at a memorial in the center of town to read the story of March 3, 1942 the day the war came to Broome. On this day 10 Japanese planes departed Koepang in Timor to the North for the short journey to Broome where they flew into Roebuck Bay at 9:30am to bomb the airfield and 15 floating planes in the bay, which housed around 40 Dutch civilians. The surprise attack killed 100 people and destroyed 22 aircraft before Broome was evacuated incase a land raid was next.  Surprisingly none of the death toll was made up of Australians in this raid or the following 3 raids in Broome.

We are told many of the planes destroyed in Roebuck Bay are still visible at low tide, I will pack a bag with water and a camera and make the one kilometer trip on a morning low tide soon.

After some lunch a swim at Cable Beach was a must since the mercury had climbed to 38c, Cable Beach on the Indian Ocean is one of the nicer beaches in WA, 22ks of white sands and clear water. It was only a 7k ride with a stop half way to change a flat. Cable Beach was named in honour of the telegraph cable laid from Broome to Singapore in 1889 that allowed communication through to England.

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The sign as we entered the beach showing the conditions told us the water was 28c, surprisingly hot considering the water down south can be 14c at this time of year. Shelly as usual floated on top of the water rather than under it, and no it’s not for the reasons some of you may think, she just floats on top unlike me who sinks to the bottom fast.

I had to change a second flat tire before we rode home! We hadn’t noticed the Japanese cemetery on the way out but stopped on the return trip to check it out, like the Chinese the Japanese had spent much time walking the ocean floor in search of pearls the main industry of Broome, the cemetery located next the Chinese cemetery was the resting place for 919 Japanese pearl divers. It was strange to have read the story of the a Japanese air raids on Broome earlier in the day and now standing at the gates of the perfectly laid out Japanese cemetery and reading the story of the strong ties between Broome and the Japanese going back to the 1800s.

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IMG_1217-rWe spent the afternoon in the Roebuck Bay Hotel watching the Roos get rolled in a close one before we rode home and went a few steps out the front gate of our park to the Town Beach Tavern and the 20 year old Sunday night Crab Races. A guy stood at the microphone with the worst looking hat in the shape of a crab calling the names of the crabs in each race, a hundred or so punters gathered around to purchase tickets into the raffle for crabs, if you were lucky enough to be pulled out in the raffle you got to choose a crab and hope it was first to run off the table to claim your prize of around $100 each race.

After 2 crab races and not even getting a starter we rolled around the corner to the street food market next to our caravan park and the venue for the last moon show until June. Loads more people gathered tonight with no clouds insight we knew the show would go ahead.

When the large orange moon cast its light upward before it appeared the crowd got excited and rushed down on to the beach by the time the moon had broken the hold the horizon had on it the broken staircase was visible for a kilometer, unlike when the sun sets on the water and a full line reaches back toward you this one was a broken line the width of the bright moon reaching back across the sand flat and shimmering of the little left behind by the fast running tides. It is hard to explain why this was so good to see but to say, its something you should try to see once in your life. I took many pictures some almost capturing what see were looking at but none captured the feeling we were feeling sitting on the shores that night.

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High Tide

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Low Tide

The plan was to spend a couple of days at Cable Beach before heading to Derby but its now a week since we arrived in Broome and we have no plans of moving in the near future. It’s Wirralbura on the aboriginal weather calendar now, one of seven seasons that seems to make more sense than our traditional seasons, the locals tell us the days should drop to the low 30s and nights much cooler, the sky will stay blue and the winds low for the next 4 months, if that’s that case we will be staying in the best climate in Australia a little longer.

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ANZAC Day

by in Port Hedland | 3 Comments

The alarm woke us at 4:45am to remind us its ANZAC Day and Bills Birthday, (Happy Birthday Bill) the Port Hedland dawn service was around an 8k ride for us campers with a tent bolted to our vehicles roof. With the moon only a couple of days short of full and the WA landscape so flat we set out ridding into the moon light near its brightest, it looked very similar to when a full moon rises, large and bright with a tinge of yellow or orange.

A trip difficult in the dark with half the towns population heading to the service, all driving Toyota 4WDs with company logos of all sorts. We got the dress code horribly wrong and stood out like tourists with our lack of fluro yellow or orange, maybe it was the work clothing that coloured the perfect moon this morning?

DSCN1615-rThe large sandstone block Esplanade Hotel and the Iron Ore Shipping Port was the backdrop for a recently completed RSL Memorial not like the Cenotaph we are used to in the East with a statue but good in its design with stone walls listing WW1, WW2, Korea, Borneo, Malaya, and Vietnam in large writing.

Around 500 people gathered around the memorial as proceedings got under way, we got the standard church talk, I’m still not sure what the church has to do with ANZAC day but they keep turning up as I do.

A few readings and the soothing sound of the Last Post blasted out the speakers to fill the void left by the silence of the gathered crowd paying their respects. Then we got something I had never heard before at a dawn service, The New Zealand national anthem, it was great and should be played at all dawn services. Next up was Advance Australia Fair, again a first for a dawn service we had been to, we got the full version even the verse no one knows!

Shelly later told me she thought the last post was the best version she’d heard, I waited a little bit before I told her it was a recording (blonde moment #1178)

By this time the sun had lit up the town of Port Headland and by the time we began our ride home along the water the sun was a full fire ball rising above the glassy water stretching out to Cooke Point and our home for the next couple of days.

IMG_2897-rWe showered up, I put the Bombers jumper on and had breakfast, then a quick chat to old mate and his miss’s from Goulburn that we have seen in most places for the last few weeks. I called Jezza Watts to say g’day and see if we would catch up at a local pub to watch the Bombers. Jezza moved from Noosa to Port Hedland 12 months ago in his job with Reece Plumbing and he’s in the Bombers circle of trust. Jezz told me how good the local pubs were so we decided we would catch up tomorrow.

I ripped the TV out and set the scan for the local channels… NOTHING!!!

Sitting in the hot sun with no great options when a guy in the park dropped in when wandering by and noticed me trying to fix the TV, he had a satellite dish and was getting channels from Brisbane and Perth but not the footy. He said he was heading to the Pier Hotel and offered for us to join him and his Collingwood wife. We decided we would head to the local around 2ks down the road and save riding to far whilst drinking.

We arrived to find only a few in the bar a good size flat screen with a fuzzy at best picture with the pre match on. I ordered the beers and the young barman to volume-ise the TV. We pulled up a couple of stools and a table to observe a minutes silence and the always amazing Last Post.

Before the ball was bounced the guy, his Magpie wife and 2 young kids walked in “what happened to the Pier Hotel mate?”  I asked, he raised a brow “shit pub with SKIMPIES not great for the wife and kids” he said as a large smirk came across his face. As he came past us on his return from the bar he stopped to ask me “who will kick the first goal” Not being a punter I hadn’t given a thought to this point. I watched the camera smoothly roll past every player as I ponderd an answer.

“David Zaharakis” The Magpies husband nodded his head and moved on.

As the game got underway 8 younger guys (30’s) wandered in and ordered cans of rum and coke, bourbon and coke and made more noise than the 93,000 at the G before the juke box burst into song to piss everyone off watching the footy, all 4 of us!

When number 11 for the Bombers slotted though the first major I noticed the Magpies man going off and thumping the table to his wife’s disgust, being from Perth I knew he was an Eagles man, soon after he appeared “what are you guys drinking? its my shout” I said we are ok but thanks. He insisted “I want to buy you a drink, without you I would never have backed Zaharakis for the first goal, I didn’t even know who he was”

We should have accepted the offer because the next drink I got was the warmest beer ever served from a tap! We stuck it out to half time before riding home to watch the remainder on the iPad, small picture but clear and we could hear the commentary. If anyone missed it the Bombers cruised home to make it 5 from 5, things are going ok at Windy Hill unless your listening to Caro!

As you would have expected every day since leaving Kalgoorlie has been in the 30’s with reasonable humidity, ANZAC Day in Port Hedland was HOT around 38 with high humidity the highest we had encounter since coming to WA 12 months ago. To top this off the night didn’t cool off and it was dead still, in our Penthouse we can open windows on all 4 sides to allow it to cool us, no good on this night! The most uncomfortable night I have spent in many years. HOT & HUMID!

We had planed on staying in Port Hedland so I could play footy on Saturday Night, I had trained with the Karratha Falcons and they would be playing in South Hedland and offered me a game after seeing my blistering pace on the track. But the HOT night and the lack of things to do around Hedland had us thinking we would head to the Eighty Mile beach to the north for some camping in the wild.

We packed up and drove only a couple of blocks to 41 Moore Street, Port Hedland where Shell lived in 1971c, we took a photo of her out the front to match the one that Rob tells was taken out the back of 41 Moore St with her sister Sam.

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We then drove the 10ks to South Hedland in search of a TV antenna for the next Bombers game.

I stopped just short of town to get a quick snap of the blue water tower bearing the towns name like those in the movies, before taking a short cut around the back of the water tower to the town center. As we drove under the water tower I noticed a Reece plumbing ute with a guy on the back, hard to believe but Jezza turned around to see me giving him a wave from behind our bug stained windscreen. We spent 15 minutes chatting to Jezza and Mrs Jezza about life in the Pilbra before heading to the local shopping center to stock on supplies for the wild (and the TV antenna).

We headed North past Port Haven a BHP accommodation camp that I once stayed at whilst working, towards Pardo and the Eighty Mile Beach. After the dead calm and humidity of last night the weather was turning for the worst when we arrived at the Pardo Roadhouse and our turnoff for the beach the wind was whipping up the red dirt to create a red canvas reaching up the sky, we filled our 165 liter tank @ $1:98 per liter as an old Grey Nomad couple sat in the open air bar of the roadhouse enjoying an Emu beer stared out at me.

No camping in the wild for us tonight we are heading north for Broome.

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F#@king picture with iPad!!!
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Karratha

by in Karratha | Leave a comment

After talking to a few people in Karijini we were pretty much told don’t bother going to Karratha there’s nothing there and it’s too expensive, we decided not to take their advice and headed there anyway. We had to go nearly all the way to Port Headland and then head down again, RIO Tinto have a road going to Karratha, it’s a (red dirt) service road for their train line but you need to sit a 20 minute induction course to use their road, with us trying to avoid the red dirt roads the long way it was.

There’s not much on the way to look at just a few cows dead on the side of the road all puffed up looking like their about to explode and a lot of road trains some with up to 5 trailers on the back.

Arriving in Karratha we decided it wasn’t as bad as we were expecting there’s a lot of new building going on and the caravan parks were the same as everywhere else, after getting cleaned up (there’s nothing nicer than a shower after a few days in the wild) we tracked down a pub to watch the Bombers beat St Kilda.

As Chris was waiting at the bar he got talking to the barman and it turns out his from Noosa and used to work at Zackary’s, then about 1\2 an hour later a young guy comes up to us and says “don’t I know you didn’t you used to coach me in footy back in Noosa “he’s just moved here with his girlfriend to work for a while, it’s a small world. (the young guy was Jack Troddel)

IMG_2862-rWe found out the local footy started at 6.30 because its to hot to play any earlier so of course we had to go and check it out, it was the two Karratha teams playing the Falcons beat the Kats that’s about all I have to say about that, we stood watching the footy in a tiny little roped off area where you could buy a beer I think there was about 100 people in this little area.

The next day we drove out to Dampier for a look, on the way we passed a statue of the Pilbara Wanderer, Red Dog the northwests favorite canine. Dampier is named after the English explorer William Dampier, he arrived in WA in early 1688 after a violent storm had blown him and his ship the Cygnet on to the coast where he found shelter to repair his damaged ship.

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Dampier was built by Hemersley Iron in 1965 and is now one of the largest tonnage shipping ports in the world, there not a lot out there, a few beaches with lots of rocks and a pub, and of course a very big ship loader and a gas plant.

We then traveled out to Point Samson for a look it’s a nice quiet little town with a few nice beaches the sand in the Pilbara is more of a reddish brown colour than white and there’s lots of jagged rocks at low tide.

The next day we decided to go bush again, so we headed about 20 kms north to Cleaverville, we found ourselves a nice secluded spot right on the beach and settled down for some peace and quite, we had a nice relaxing day, I did a bit of exploring among the rocks and found the skeleton of a turtle, he must of come in on a high tide and got stuck when the tide went out, when I turned his shell over there was his little head tucked away inside poor little thing.

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Next stop, Port Headland.

PS: When traveling in the Pilbra leave all your white clothes at home.

The Amazing Pilbra
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Local Derby
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Karratha Caravan Park Sign!
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Walking home with a drink

Ranger Dan

by in The People You Meet | Leave a comment

During our trips into remote locations and National Parks we have come across many Camp Host’s, a camp host is always a couple who keep an eye on the place and collect the $7 a night from the campers as they arrive. Bob at Ningaloo Reef near Exmouth was a ripper, he and his were not about when we arrived and when he returned we were out on the beach fishing. Bob came stomping up the beach looking like Jane Saville with a beard in a race.

This turned out to be an excuse to come and check out the new people, Bob stopped to part with his knowledge on everything from the Boston bomb to the bait we used and they way I lay my fishing rod down in the sand. Bob and his wife would be the camp host for the month of April before moving on another National Park to host again.

We left Bob and Ningaloo for Karijini where we noticed a sign “Camp Hosts Wanted” I mentioned to Shell maybe we should hang around and be a camp host here. When we pulled into Dales Camp Ground next to Dales Gorge we were greeted by camp host Mike and his wife from Emerald. The sign behind Mick was the same sign we had seen at the visitors center but this one had “URGENT” written above it. I asked Mike how do we go about filling the role of camp host?

Mike explained it was 2 days on, 2 days off and we got to use the hut we now stood in whilst on duty, a hut or semi permanent tent came with a kitchen, toilet, shower and a generator for power. Mike said he would get the Ranger to drop in on us and have a chat about it.

We set up camp and had just sat down for lunch before we headed into Dales Gorge when a 4WD pulled up and a Ranger introduced himself as Ranger Dan. From under a hat like that worn by the Bush Tucker Man, Les Hiddins came a warm friendly smile. As it turns out Ranger Dan had just come out of a meeting and they had worked out they wouldn’t need any further camp hosts for now.

Shelly offered Ranger Dan lunch and cold water that he declined says he’d just had his lunch as he crouched down to get comfortable under our shade and settle in for a chat. Ranger Dan had a friendly exterior a day old growth and apart from the great hat work standard green shorts and shirt to suit the bush, a very positive person that talked with great passion.

“Thanks mate but this is not a job – it’s a lifestyle”

Dan grew up on a farm in Yarrawonga on the Murray River 270ks north of Melbourne, he looked to be around 35 years of age and had been a ranger at Karijini National Park for the past 12 months. Dans first job after the farm was as a fitter and turner before he joining the FIFO crowd to work in mining. This life didn’t suit Dan even if the money did.

FIFO Dan pulled the pin and went to uni to become Ranger Dan, he decided the money wasn’t everything and the fact that your like a sheep when your mining, fly in, get shunted around on buses to work for 12 hours before being pushed back onto a bus so you can sleep in a little hot donger to wake up and follow the others back onto that bus. Ranger Dan said the hardest part of leaving mining and going to uni was picking up a computer for the first time in his life, we didn’t use computers up on the farm he said.

Shelly and I both said WOW what a story and what a great job to which he replied, “Thanks mate but this is not a job – it’s a lifestyle”.

I told Ranger Dan the story of Shelly’s choice of work experience back in school when asked to write down 2 jobs in preference. No 1. Park Ranger, No 2. Chef, the school couldn’t find her a rangers position for the 2 weeks work experience so a chef she became and been trying to get out of since.

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Ranger Dan lives in the rangers quarters in the park and has all of the things that the campers do not, hot water, power TV reception and internet but I have no doubt Dan would have no problem being Ranger Dan without all of these things. His work is maintaining the park to its clean and wild state, making sure the access to the gorges are safe and that everyone has a great venue to visit all year.

Working 3 weeks on and 1 week off gives Ranger Dan plenty of time to wander around in the wild, “I love finding remote gorges on Google Earth and hiking in for 2 days knowing I may be the only person to have seen this place in the last thousand years or more”. Ranger Dan was very appreciative of us enquiring about being camp hosts and said so 3 or 4 times during our hour chat.

Ranger Dan recently returned to Melbourne to see his Mum who had left the farm to live in the city, he told how much the place had changed in his eyes since last being there we are picturing Ranger Dan flying to Melbourne to see mum before flying back, not Ranger Dan he had never driven the Nullarbor Plain so he headed to Esperance where he picked a friends car who wanted it sent back to Melbourne not a new car either an old ute.

Over the next 3 days Ranger Dan had crossed the country doing near 5000ks in the old ute, well mostly in the ute, crossing the Nullarbor a tyre gave out so a quick change and he was on his way again before the old spare gave out leaving Ranger Dan stranded 30ks short of Ceduna at 4am. Everything I have read in the outback is, if you breakdown stay with your car until someone comes along. Not Ranger Dan, he set off on foot and walked all the way into Ceduna to get help.

I had to ask about some of the sights he must see with so many people and backpackers running around in these gorges on hot day with clear fresh water and water falls. A large grin came across Ranger Dans face, he didn’t answer immediately like normal he took a long breath his smile growing even winder “YEAH we see some sights”

Not going to detail he shared some stories of the sights at Karijini, part of his job is to walk into the gorges daily to make sure things are ok with the tracks and the visitors are behaving. The international backpackers he said they are not afraid of nudity Range Dan explained (again not detailed) of the many sights where he will drop in at Fern Pool or others and the backpacker will jump out of the water and come up to say hello or have him take a picture of them in the nude. Other times he has wandered in and a couple will be taking the opportunity of the remote location to get a little closer to each other.

Ranger Dan shared a story of a fellow male ranger who returned to the rangers station one day swearing to never go into the gorges again, the ranger had gone into do a routine check at one of the gorges to find 2 guys doing a spot of yoga in the nude, Ranger Dan said the ranger took some time to get over the sight.

Ranger Dan left us to finish our lunch of sandwiches that had by now toasted in the heat, but he left us like when we had met Mike we felt great, like we had met someone special.

Before he left we got a picture and I mentioned I would write about him on our blog, Ranger Dan told us he had just written a blog for ABC Open and they had come up and made a short video of him at work, that video is below and you can read his blog by clicking here

The Fisherman and his GOLD

by in The People You Meet | Leave a comment

We were cooking a Sunday morning feast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and a real coffee thanks to the pod coffee machine donated by Ace & Anni in the BBQ area of the Karratha caravan park when Steve wandered in and started cooking his breakfast.

He was around 60 years of age with a sad look on his bald head, we got talking and it became clear he’d had more wine last night than he should have due his wife Jenny being away for a bit, Steve was feeling and looking a bit dusty.

Steve was from Southern South Australia and a fisherman who chased the sharks but tossed it in to become a gypsy as he put it, “they call us trailer trash” he added as the first sign of a smile broke on his face. He and his wife packed up and hit the road like most grey nomads before picking up work.

In Karratha after 5 months off Steve was due start work again in a couple of days locally driving a water truck to keep the red dust blowing from the road during works before he heads to Onlsow to do the same thing in a month or so. During Steve’s stay down in Onslow his wife Jenny is heading to The Daly River in NT where their friends have just started managing the local pub.

After trading a few stories on each other travels Steve talked gold, he was the owner of a fine ($6500) Minelab 5000 Gold Detector and he unlike us had found what he was looking for mixed up in all that dirt! “Jenny is into it more then me but its addictive” he said.

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He had done his prospecting all over the place but had recently found 17 small pieces in Karratha in an area your car would cover but it was his wife who had found the larger nuggets. I asked him how much he had sold it for knowing what the answer would be “we haven’t sold the gold we wont sell gold” none do, well none of the people we have talked to have sold.

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We parted company and were going about our business when Steve appeared out of nowhere with some treasure to feed our disappointment of not finding any gold when hunting for it back in Kalgoorlie.

The 17 small pieces were ok but 1 in particular was a small nugget and had soft but shinny edges, it had the weight of something 4 times it’s size. Then he produced a small clear container full with cotton wool but for the 2 pieces of gold 1 shaped similar to a piece of coral.

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These pieces disappeared back into his pocked before Jennys gold appeared, these pieces larger and very impressive as they sparkled in the hot sun. Steve said he’d be in real trouble if Jenny knew he’d touched her gold, I guess that will only happen if she see’s this blog…

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Or we tell her when we drop in at the Daly River Hotel on our way past in a few weeks.

Coral Bay and Exmouth

by in Coral Bay, Exmouth | Leave a comment

G0030090-rAfter leaving Carnarvon, we headed North to Coral Bay, we were only gong to pass though and have a look but after arriving we couldn’t resist staying for a couple of days.

There’s only 2 caravan parks, a hotel motel and a backpackers, its all tourists, they run a few tour boats out of there to swim with the Whale Sharks we chose the closer of the two caravan parks, set up camp, then spent the afternoon snorkeling and relaxing on the beach (with a beer or two).

coralbay4-rThe next morning we listen to Adam Scott win the US Masters during breakfast then Chris had a bit of work to do so I left him to it and went off snorkeling, it was amazing the amount of fish swimming all around they kept me entertained for hours, in the afternoon at about 3.30 everyone on the beach started walking over to a big group of people standing in the water, we looked at each other wondering what could be going on over there, so after watching for a while we couldn’t resist so we went over for a sticky beak. We were standing in water up to our knees and all these Spangled Emperor’s they were about 60 to 70 cm and they were just swimming around in and out of everyone’s legs it was the most amazing sight, it turns out that every afternoon at 3.30 they get fed, we were very glad we let our curiosity get the better of us it was one of the highlights of our trip

After packing up the next day we headed for Exmouth, Exmouth was established in 1967 as a support town for the Harold E Holt communication station a joint venture between the Aussies and the USA, it passes messages between Australia and the USA command ships in the western pacific and Indian Oceans.

IMG_2711-rAfter having a quick look around we stocked up on supplies and headed out to the Ningaloo National Park, there’s a few different camp sites to choose from and we chose Tulki Bay it was closest to Turquois Bay where we could do some more snorkeling and on the other side we were allowed to fish, we caught a couple of nice bream and a long tom which I wasn’t sure I was allowed to keep but he swallowed my hook so I had no choice but to decapitate him, a very hard thing to do now after swimming with and feeding all the beautiful fish I think ill let Chris win our fishing comp, he was winning anyway.

As I was cleaning the fish Chris noticed 3 fins swimming in our direction and the next thing you know this 2 meter long shovel head shark swims right up to us with his head half out of the water it scared the s— out of us.

After a little debate on where our next destination should be we headed for Karijini National Park, we stopped to talk to Mike about his bike then drove 600 km east to Tom Price the highest town in WA and spent the night in the only caravan park amongst the ants, we passed through Parrabadoo a little mining town where the whole town seems to wear the same clothes, florescent yellow and blue shirts, and drive the same cars.

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Mike on a Bike

by in Exmouth, Mike on a Bike | 4 Comments

DSCN1451-rSomething great happened out on the road yesterday. We decided that we were heading to Karijini National Park a place that everyone we had run into said “it’s a must see the most beautiful you will visit in WA maybe Australia.

Shelly is driving we are around125ks into our near 600 kilometer day that we started pretty late compared to other days, in fact we haven’t yet done this distance, it a holiday and not meant to be hard work, our plan has always been to be off the road early afternoon, anyway we come around a bend and down into one of the many flood zones this flood zone (a dip in the road or an dry river bed) was actually a dry creek bed and had a tree or two trees.

Trees are not common in WA but down in this little oasis we noticed a guy sitting down with a mountain bike between him and the road under the only shade for a long way as a car approached from the other direction and with the bike intruding into our space we slowed as the other car pulled to the side as it slowed. We continued on and I couldn’t get this out of my mind, what’s he doing out here by himself? Where has he been? Where is he headed? And the main question kept going around in my mind…

A few kilometers up the road I looked at Shell and said we have to go back “what all the way back” I said yeah I got some questions that I would love to ask him. Lucky for me my driver agreed, we turned back so I could get some answers.

We pulled in just short of the rider under his tree, Shelly stayed back and made lunch, I grabbed my phone to record the conversation and a camera to get a picture. As I approached he put his head up and gave me a smile, I said g’day as I crossed the road explaining we just passed him and had to come back for a chat.

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I introduced myself and he told me his name was Mike. I had already hit the record button on my phone so I can record it and post the audio from my roadside meeting with the lone rider, I asked if he minded to which he had no problem.

Mike is from Melbourne and had rolled out of Melbourne mostly on bike tracks, then crossed the Nulabour to Norseman, down to Albany and along the Leeuwin bike track into Perth, I couldn’t help but be inspired by Mike and feel I was doing this the easy way in the comfort of our 4WD, the Rooftop Penthouse and a TV I could whip out when the Bombers are playing.

This lone rider who’s been out on the road for the past 12 months didn’t get up from his seated position with his back against the tree so I placed my phone down in front of him on the box of Vita Wheat biscuits sticking out of his bag to make sure I picked up his soft voice.

He talked about riding the track from Albany to Perth to which I shot off “you would have knocked off 150 to 200ks a day” Mike was quick to point out it’s a mountain bike track not a paved road and he did 50ks a day at best.

A story he shared about the trip from Albany to Perth was a good one, he met a Frenchman on the track, they struck up a friendship and decided to ride as one, where Mike was drinking many liters of water a day the Frenchman had a cask of red wine to sip on as they rode. Mike had a huge grin on his face telling the story, they would pull up by 2pm each day and the French would bring out bring out the wine and all the nibbles for a fine French feast each afternoon.

Before I asked the main question I had for him he told his intention was to get to Darwin before leaving our fine shores and continuing his ride all the way around the world, north of Australia up through Japan and let it lead him around, I wanted to rip my bike of the top of our car and join him, I was inspired by this tired man sitting on a rock between Exmouth and the Pilbra.

I must ask the obvious one Mike? “Oh yeah that’s easy, much of life is a waste, I worked in IT back in Melbourne for the past 30 years and it was a waste of time, so I left” “I come into towns now and notice everyone is moving so fast, talking so fast, I guess I was part of that“

Mike had just returned from Exmouth a town of 1800 people is not what you would call a fast moving town but when you ride from Melbourne to the North West at 50ks a day most things would seem fast, I couldn’t help but agree with him and admire him and his efforts even more.

We talked about the footy back in Melbourne and other things but I couldn’t help but wonder what had delivered him to this spot other than what he had told me, a marriage break down, a lost partner to that thing starting with C we all hate but touches us all in some way over the years? I didn’t ask the gentle but friendly cyclist. He did mention he had met a lady in Norseman that may change his plans, as much as he seemed keen to go back I hope he continues on for the trip of a lifetime around the world.

Mike followed me back to our car where I introduced him to Shelly and gave him a bottle of cold water from our esky, a bottle he was thankful to receive and excited to drink, he had plenty of water attached to his bike but none cold in the 40 degree heat. The bike was well decked out with a basket on the front and water bottles and water bags attached in the middle with a few packs hanging over the rear tyre holding his food, tent and sleeping gear.

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After getting a picture with him we said goodbye to Mike who was also headed to Karijini National Park, (we will be long gone by the time he arrives) we headed up the road with another 400ks ahead of us.

The outback doesn’t offer much in the way of radio so we have podcasts going something I can usually listen to and follow well, today I had no hope, I couldn’t get Mike out of my mind. What a ripper, what an effort to be out here by himself with only what he can carry on his bike, I was inspired to the point I couldn’t think of much else for the rest of the day.

Around an hour after the meeting I decided to play the audio back that I had recorded, my phone had heated to the point it had shut down and had that iPhone notice with the yellow triangle about the temperature being to hot! Once it cooled I searched for the audio to realise that due to the heat it hadn’t saved my recording that was running when it shut down! I was so pissed off!

So the above was done from memory, I had hoped to bring you the recording Macca on Sunday morning style of this guy out in the wild who did treat the first part of our conversation as an interview and did all the talking to tell his story. Even though I was pissed off at missing out on the audio but I very much enjoyed talking to him and enjoyed the rest of the day thinking about his journey.