Roadtrip (1374km, 860m)
Day 1 895km
Exmouth to Pardoo.
Left Exmouth at 9am, nice start for a change. Off the "main" road out of Exmouth, so quiet it's scary. No traffic for miles and you salute every car
you meet, bit like west Cork that way. Meandering roads with water levels at all the dried up river beds.
That's about it for day one. Got to Port Hedland where we planned to stay the night, and found the two hostels, one burnt down, the other deserted.
Found the tourist office (Where they promote the local iron ore mining, nothing else in Port Hedland)
Managed to get us into the road house at Pardoo (they also have a cattle station). Took a stroll under the stars in one of the remotest places i've ever
been. Nothing really in between, just wild wild country and the odd roadhouse.
Next day, 500km, Pardoo to Broome.
Same as the previous day, just a jaunt of only 500km. Got to Broome at a reasonable hour. Staying at Cable Beach back packers. Nice spot.
Broome, got there just in time for the Stairway to the moon, when the moon rises over the local mudflats and makes a stairway across the mud.
Beautiful. Got some great pics, after many attempts. Got some amazing sunset shots, and the local camel rides also made great pics. Spent a few
great days relaxing in the winter sun (33 degrees). Went to Malcolm Douglas Broome Crocodile Park, great to see them up close. Even held a baby one.
Moved to Beaches of Broome for a few days, great location and new, but boring as! Then moved into the town to Kimberly Klub where we had a bit of
craic. Good spot. Got to see a movie in the outdoor cinema with planes passing overhead taking off from Broome airport. Good fun overall in Broome and
great place to recharge the batteries!

Depuis quelques temps nous pensions passer notre brevet de plongée... Et quel meilleur endroit que les récifs australiens pour réaliser cela?

Une fois la décision prise, tout est allé très vite: une demi heure plus tard nous étions déjà à l'hôpital pour un examen médical, et le lendemain, journée blocus.  En effet, nous devons étudier un syllabus de tous ce qui faut savoir sur la plongée, de la poussée d'Archimède aux poissons que l'on est susceptible de rencontrer. 

Le deuxième jour, encore un peu de théorie et d'exercices en piscine avant de plongé réellement en mer le troisième et quatrième jour.  Là, c'est magique!!  On vous laisse admirer les quelques photos que nous avons mais ca ne représente en rien la sensation d'être dans ce milieu!

Le grand problème c'est qu'on y prend goût et qu'on a super envie de replonger le plus vite possible...

Toutes bonnes choses ont une fin, nous devons quitter Exmouth pour continuer notre route, surtout qu'un cyclone se profil au Nord....

The guys left tonight on the 10pm Greyhound coach so they were up early to check out of the hostel. We couldn't really do much though, having returned the hire car and waiting to leave, so aside from Thorban who was diving again all day, we all lazed around the pool all day, me feeling both sleepy and ropey from yesterday's late night.

Another fish dinner tonight, this time courtesy of Simon, who caught so many fish he didn't know what to do with them, and pressed upon our chef, Danny, to cook for everybody in the hostel. So we had a big dinner together, a farewell dinner, before Gem, Danny and Thorban caught the coach to their respective destinations.

I am really going to miss them, we've had such a fantastic 5 days together and I have laughed more than I can remember for a long time. It's been good for the soul, and I hope to see all of them again further down the coast.

Since we rented the fishing rod for 24 hrs we decided to get up early and go fishing again from Bundegi beach. We had hoped to fish from the Navy Pier (one of the top 10 dive sites in the world) but the road was closed so we went instead to nearby Bundegi beach and fished from the beach and the pier. Danny and I took Sebastian and Hide with us, and we shared the rod while they used hand lines from the pier. Once again we were entirely unsuccessful, and aside from one major tug from a fish which sadly broke the hook with the bait off, there was nothing, not even little fish nibbling at the bait. The morning was beautiful though, and already getting hot so I was happy sat in the shallows of the cool water with the rod wedged in the sand instead of skewering my stomach and hips. I have learned that holding a rod is not as comfortable as it looks....

Danny went for a swim with his mask on and he came back and asked me which ear was less sensitive - Danny-speak for which one should he tell the bad news to. 'There is NO fish' he said, 'go look for yourself'. I swam out and looked under, and swallowed so much water I laughed so much. The visibility was great, so you could see about 30 metres around, and there was absolutely no life of any kind anywhere. It is impossible to truly convey the hilarity of the sight of miles and miles of pristine sand sea-bottom, with no rocks or seaweed or fish ANYWHERE. Nothing.

Nonetheless, we fished for a bit longer; Sebastian and Hide had little fish under the pier but they wouldn't have been big enough to take even if we'd caught one.

Back at the hostel Danny decided we should go on a picnic since Gem and Thorban were busy diving. We picked up food from IGA and drove down the east coast past the lighthouse in search of a good beach with calm surf and, we hoped in vain, a tree for some shade. So we drove into every bay between the lighthouse and the boat ramp, stopping here for a beer, there for some food, here for some swimming or a walk. We bumped into Ryan and Ryan at the boat ramp as they prepared to go out on their boat again, a boat that later would crash to the tarmac when Shay swerved to avoid a monitor lizard and threw the boat from the trailer! Oops.

We finally returned around 6pmish to go shopping for fajitas for us 4. Thorban and Gem were thrilled to return exhausted from diving to another fantastic meal from Danny and once again we all got drunk until we got kicked out of the kitchen area for making too much noise. Again.

Later start this morning; we had decided to go fishing and catch dinner for Danny to cook but realised early on none of us have ever 'self-guided' a fishing expedition and it was rather a case of the blind leading the blind. We drove into town to hire a rod, and discovered that fishing in the heat of the day is madness and totally pointless, so we opted to rest at the hostel in the afternoon and go fishing later.

At 4pm we picked up our rod, bought some tackle and bait, and some beers and drove down to the marina. Our first attempt at setting up the rod failed when we forgot to add the weight after knotting everything carefully, but eventually we had our line in the water and the music from the car stereo.

We fished from 3 different locations, speculating on currents, direction of tide etc, all things we know nothing about with regards to fishing, and we lacked patience. Apparently you just keep waiting and waiting, but I kept wanting to reel it in, to entice passing fish. We had a couple of tugs, but it was little fish nibbling our bait, so when we reeled in it was all gone every time. We had had high hopes for a fish dinner, but eventually we realised it was hopeless and we ran out of bait anyway, but it had been an extremely comical afternoon regardless.

Back at the hostel we had forgotten to buy food before we left and the supermarket had closed, so we thought we'd probably have to pool our food; a bit of rice, some spaghetti hoops (spaghettis as Thorban would say), a tin of tuna and a capsicum and make the best of it. But as luck would have it, Ryan and Ryan had caught and brought fish back with them from their boat and as they don't eat fish they gave it to us - hurrah! So we had fish and pasta (and more goon) cooked by our resident chef. Sucks to be me. :)

Today we met Thorben at breakfast to put into effect the drunken agreement from last night to hire a car with Danny the French-Canadian Iranian and drive to Turquoise Bay. We hired snorkel gear and set out on the one road that leads out of the town and to everywhere on the coastline. Amazing that on one road 5 people can get lost. The terrain was dull, low, scrubby bushland, totally flat and devoid of any interest. We saw a monior lizard, and some galahs but that was it for an hour...

Turquoise Bay is famous for being a wonderful access point to the lesser-known by better-rated Ningaloo Reef (compared to it's famous big brother, the Great Barrier Reef). The beach itself is fair, white sand, and the water, unsurprisingly, turquoise. The current across the bay is very strong, so snorkelers use it to their advantage, walking first to the far left of the beach and allowing the current to pull them over the reef so seeing everything but expending minimum effort. Snorkelers then get out before the sandbar and white water to avoid being swept off to Africa, walk back and start again.

Visibility was good, though the corals were blandly coloured. I saw many of the fishes I'd seen on the Great Barrier Reef but was especially pleased to add Reef Shark and Water Snake to the list of things I've seen. Gem was particularly pleased as her half day trip to the GBR had not shown her any of these things, while my 3 day trip had allowed me to travel further into the reef to the most inaccessible places. Proof enough if any were needed that spending more to liveaboard makes sense.

After a couple of sweeps we walked round to the second bay which is a lagoon and not subject to the same currents. Again we almost had the pristine white beach to ourselves. It's so easy to become complacent about these beaches and sunshine. I reminded myself how stunned and envious my home friends and family would be to see this snapshot of a moment.

After a snorkel and a float here we decided to make good use of the car and visit also Lakeside, another beach with a dried-up billabong beside it, which sadly was rocky and jagged and we didn't see much to snorkel. We were later told however that it has sharks and turtles but you need to know where to look...

Then off to the Lighthouse where we had views over the sea and the red earth countryside, and the submerged wreck at high tide, and then a brief stop at Bundegi beach where we plan to fish tomorrow, and the town beach near the marina.

It had transpired during the day that Danny is a chef by trade so we all went in for some t-bone steak and vegetables at the supermarket and Danny cooked a fantastic steak with secret sauce and vegetable stir fry. We managed to get through about 7 litres of wine between us, and met various people that came to join us throughout the evening - Tamara, Ryan, Ryan, Julia and Sebastian.

The bus pulled in at 5am and the weary travelers dumped unceremoniously at the 24 hr petrol station in Exmouth sat bleary-eyed and palid over their weak tea in polystyrene cups till 8am when we could check in. We made a group of 4 girls; Gemini, a Buckinghamshire girl, Denise from Germany and Cecila the Kiwi lady and checked into a room together at Pot Shots, one of only 2 hostels in town. While the other girls napped I checked the noiceboard which was empty, and feeling depressed about the hopelessness of the situation, took all the brochures and leaflets down to the pool and worked out my contingency plan for seeing the west coast. I found a tour leaving Friday (5 days from now) that would take everything in and booked it, though if I find another lift I would rather do that.

Feeling better about having a Plan B I popped into town to buy food, and realised that Exmouth is a tenth of the size of Broome, and Broome is hardly a sprawling metropolis. I had put aside a day to see Exmouth, rather like I had spent a day seeing Broome, but realised that walking to the shops and back in 10 minutes had pretty much taken in all there is in Exmouth! I left a note on Gem's bed to come and join me at the pool and spent the rest of the afternoon reading and wondering where the 50 or so backpackers and hotel guests could possibly be hiding out in a town so deserted...?

That evening we bought some wine and marvelled at the appearance of so many people all sitting at the outdoor tables, barbecuing and drinking. We befriended a lovely German guy Thorben who has the bizarrest accent I've ever heard; part German, part Cockney Londoner, part Queens English and part Scottish! Listening to him talk makes me chuckle, how one sentence can simultaneously sound like he has a plum in one's mouth, and a mockney geezer...

Early bus this morning to Exmouth. I had been hoping to hitch a ride with other travelers going south to Perth from Exmouth or Darwin but I hadn't factored on it being the 'off' season, and that most travelers fly into Perth and then drive north, not fly into Broome/Darwin and drive south. Consequently I had to pay $270 for a 21 hr bus journey, a fact made more painful by the offer late last night of a lift to Port Headland (about 5 hrs closer) the following day. I had walked to the 4 hostels in Broome town and put up notices asking for a lift but with only offers of a lift via the inland (hot, dry, dusy and unevenful route) and was told that Exmouh would have more travelers passing through so reluctantly I left the beautiful, quiet hostel and pool in Broome in search of better things...

The bus journey was mostly uneventful, and when I say uneventful, I mean, hours and hours and hours of the same straight road with the same flat ground, and the same scrubby trees. It really is hard to comprehend the concept of a country so large that you can have unchanging landscape for so many hours on end. I hear the Nullaboor Plain is 8 hours of flat salt-wash. I'm told it has to be seen to be believed, but only once, or that way madness lies....

The only events of interest were the 10 minutes driving through clouds of giant bee/butterfly things that splattered themselves across the windscreen and the 'roo bars at the front of the coach smearing a bright yellow goo in splat patterns on the glass, their black lacy giant wings fluttering in the breeze. They remained there for hours; the driver wouldn't risk putting the wipers on and smearing the yellow stuff across the glass.

At dusk the kangaroos came out in force, and while I couldn't spot them in the failing light, Cecilia (someone I would meet properly the next day) counted 150 in the light of the headlights, not including the one the driver mowed down. In Australia, it's a well-known fact that you should't drive after dusk because 'roos make pretty big dents in cars and often kill people (roo-assisted suicide). If you have to, the rule is, you don't swerve, for anything, because in the dark you may end up ploughing straight into a road-side tree.

I slept a little, though not as much as I'd have liked on a 21 hr drive stopping to swap coaches as 1.30am. I had fitful dozes listening to the gentle thumps of some unknown insects crashing into the sides of the bus at a rate of several a second. Later inspection of the bus revealed no clues, so they clearly weren't the spattering kind...

Gooday!

Well after exploring Exmouth and the Ningaloo Reef it was time to head back down south. We set off from Exmouth on Friday 8th and had planned to stop in Carnavon for the night but when we got there we decided to carry on down to Kalbarri instead, making our total journey that day about 8 hours long and 850km!! The driving doesn't seem that bad though (well not for me anyway with Ads doing all the driving) as you are able to do the speed limit all the way. Anyway to keep Adam from falling asleep I entertained him by singing along to one of the 2 CD's we bought for the journey (Bon Jovi - Crossroads & Micheal Jackson No.1's). There was also the 'ID the roadkill' game which is always fun yet gruesome... North of Gereldton you probably only see 1 or 2 other vehicles each hour and its really lovely cos the drivers all wave to each other! Imagine that in England!!!

So, we arrived in Kalbarri late on Friday evening and loved it so much that we stayed 2 nights there. Kalbarri is where the Murchison river meets the sea and the caravan park was opposite the beach and we had a lovely view! We started off the next day with a spot of pelican feeding (one of Kalbarri's famous attractions) then went and explored the Kalbarri national park. There are wonderful views of gorges and a rock formation which arches over so the space in between is called 'Natures window' as you get a lovely view of the gorge through it. We didn't stay very long there though as it was 45 degrees in the shade!!! But luckily I had my sensible Ozzie hat which protected me from the sun a bit!  Streeewth !!

The next day we set off down to Jurien Bay. We decided to stay in Jurien again because we liked it so much when we stayed there on the way up. And also because it has the bouncing pillow! On Monday we went on a sea lion tour to an island just off shore and we got to swim with them! It was one of the best things we have ever done! They are so playful and curious and as soon as we got in the water we could see them lolluping down the beach and into the water to come and play with us! There was about 8 of us in the tour and when the sea lions turned up I really couldn't tell who was what as there were so many flippers in the water! The tour guides don't even feed the sealions - they just really want to come and play and they reminded us of big puppy dogs! There were a couple of pups too which weren't botherd by us at all! It was ace!

Anyway we didn't realise how tiring it would be so ended up staying in Jurien another night before doing anymore driving.

The next morning we set off back to Perth. On the way we stopped off at the Stromatolites near Cervantes to take a picture for Sam (wow she's a geek). These are rocklike organisms that are identical to organisms which existed 3,500 million years ago!! So basically the oldest lifeforms on earth!!! Wow! I must say though that they do just look like rocks... we tried to find some sort of souvenir to bring back but they didn't seem to have much in the way of cuddly stromatolites!!! So I got Ads an Echidna instead. He is called Kev.

Our next stop that day was Yanchep national park. There is a nice lake there called Loch McNess (!) and some lovely caves etc but the main reason we stopped there was to see the Kolalas!!! They are really cute and really dosile during the day so weren't really up to much. They are alot bigger than I thought they would be though!

We decided to stay in Freemantle for a few nights before taking Fluff back, so we carried on south via my Dad's old house on Scarborough beach road. I must say that the Scarborough beach here, and Brighton beach for that matter, are much nicer than in England!!!

The next day we spent wondering around Freemantle and we visited Freemantle prison too, then spent the day after on South beach. And because it was valantines day we treated ourselves to fish and chips by the sea front! How romantic!

Friday morning was very sad. We took Fluff back to the hire shop and said a tearful goodbye. But all sadness was forgotten half an hour later when we met up with our friends Conor and Louise to spend the day with them on Rottnest Island. We took the train (back) to Freemantle then hopped on the Rottnest express. It takes about half an hour to get over there and when we did we hired some bikes to cycle around (some) of the island! It was so much fun! There are loads of little beaches and coves to explore and we settled down on one of these and did some snorkelling. Luckily it was cloudy so we didn't get too hot cycling around. We searched all day for Quokkas and then when we got to the pub at the end of the day one was under our table!!!! Typical!

After our lovely day on Rottnest it was time to go back to our hostel in Perth. We were so looking forward to sleeping in an actual bed in an actual room after being in the van for over two weeks! This morning we've had a nice lie in and are looking forward to a night out tonight with Conor and Louise and some of their friends who live in Perth.

Bye for now!

Early start, some people went for a chilly snorkel. Then road trip to Exmouth for the best snorkling in WA.
Great driving and some beautiful scenery. Straight to Turquoise Bay to enjoy the beach. Finally some really warm weather and
amazing swimming. Last stop for me on the Easyriders tour, but we got a few days together in Exmouth.

Easyrider Itinerary
fourth day
Ahhh, beautiful Coral Bay!! This morning we’ll have a leisurely start to the day with a snorkel amongst the beautiful coral on the Ningaloo Reef (free option). We’ll be going straight past Exmouth (for now) to the Cape Range National Park and a magnificent snorkelling spot over the Ningaloo Reef at stunning Turquoise Bay. After our beach swim we’ll head back into Exmouth. Overnight : Exmouth

Things we did

Snorkelling, Kayaking, Swimming, Beach, Photography, Fishing, Pearl farm, National Park, Photography.

Blog to be updated soon

after another day at the beach yesterday i thought i should actually do something! so today i'm going on a glass bottomed boat with a bit of snorkelling thrown in. even as soon as we left the shore the coral and fish were amazing. my photos dont do it justice. luckily i had an underwater camera to get some better shots. apparently if you get outside the reef its really colourful and there are bigger fish.

so the first snorkel was good, lots of pretty fish. but the second snorkel was much more interesting! just before we got off the boat there were heaps of snapper under the boat. snapper are about 2 feet long but are harmless, quite yummy but harmless! the skipper did tell us they are very inquisitive though so not to flap! well, as soon as you get in they bump around you loads! a little scary (ok, i screamed like a little girl!) but kinda cool.  once i get back on the boat i realise that the fish arent that nosey, its the skipper chucking fish food on you as you jump in the water! funny to watch him, not so funny when its you!

after a lazy start to the day christine and i head down to the beach. just to give you an idea of where i am.... the weather is hot, the beach is sandy, the sea is turquoise and crystal clear. the reason people come here is ningaloo reef is easily accessible from here. ningaloo reef is the closest fringing coral reef system in the whole world for you information buffs! now, im not sure exactly what that means but i read it heaps so thought i'd put it in! basically, ningaloo reef is just as fab and gorgeous as the great barrier reef but a whole heap closer to the shore. to get to the g.b.r. you have to sail for a good couple of hours where as this reef is just a hop, skip and a jump from the beach. you can see the waves breaking over the reef and hear the roar of it too. few!

so we chilled for a couple of hours on said paradise, and even go into the sea! the first time since i was in sydney! even in the shallows there are fish around your feet, even big fish!

so after an early start to catch the dolphins (christine hasnt seen them yet). hang on, have i even told you about christine? well, christine is from denmark and worked at grass valley tavern 4 years ago. she loves oz so much she comes back every year! so we hooked up through shane and tina and the rest is history! christine bought a car and is travelling up to broome. ok, back to the story.

after a brief stop in carnarvon (banana town) we get to coral bay at tea time. i know the map shows me in exmouth, thats because they dont know about coral bay- unbelievable! coral bay is about 250km south of exmouth to give you an idea.

have a few beers then hit the sack ready for my few days in heaven!

Just remembered something funny that happened the other night. We were driving home from the beach and in the middle of nowhere there were these people walking on the road. We drove past them as they did not seem in distress. About 2 hours later these people arrived at the caravan park and they were bogged in the sand about 5km out. Andrew(Russel coite) had to save the day and got to use his 4wd skills to pull these guys out. later on we found out that these guys bought their 4WD off a backpacker and the 4WD system did not work.(loosers)