Karijini - Handrail Pool

After Hancock Gorge we grab a quick self made lunch at the top of the gorge.  The flies are incredible.  Monbill cannot eat.  He goes and sits in the car.  The rest of us suffer with our fly nets on.  You can't imagine how many times you forget you have a fly net on and you get a mouthful of sandwich and fly net. *sigh*

Ant Hero, bringing a giant chip home

The way narrows.

After lunch we push on to see Handrail Gorge.  Monbill is tired, so he sits this one out.  The format of the gorge is the pretty much like the last one...big scary sign stating that if it threatens rain, or you are not in shape, or you don't have good shoes etc etc don't attempt this hike.  A little overstated.  Brent takes a 5 second look at the sign then starts the decent.  Steep at first, but then it calms down.  At this point we're thinking, "I wonder why they call this 'Handrail' pool?"  Is it a long thin pool like a hand rail?  I don't know.

The way narrows to something similar to the Spider Walk.  The water that you see there is usually a rushing stream.  We, however, in the beginning of summer, have only a small stream to deal with.

Maybe you can see why it's called "Handrail"

Perfect pool

I started walking ahead.  On both sides are the smooth rocks and we start to have to spider walk again.  You can hear signing emanating from the pool in front of us.  The voices of the two girls signing reverberates with an echo through the small tunnel.  At the end of the spider walk there is literally a handrail bolted to the side of the canyon.  Holding on to this handrail allows you to make the absolutely vertical decent down a couple of man made ladder rungs (again bolted to the wall) to a flat landing and a perfect natural swimming pool.  It doesn't take long for us to jump in.  Brent takes this motivation to a new level where he climbs up on a 20' ledge, scopes out the landing, and performs one of the loudest cannonballs you have ever heard.  Whoooosh.  Monbill later tells us that he also heard it from the top of the gorge.

Dinner this night was much less of an adventure.  Monbill cooked up an incredible Massaman curry using potatoes, zucchini, carrots and kangaroo meet.  Ok, it's not your typical curry ingredients but it was delicious. It felt like a complete luxury to eat outside, dry, with a plate.  You start appreciating the little things out here.  We had extra curry and our choices were put it in the trash and carry it around for a couple more days, or put it in Tupperware and maybe eat it for breakfast tomorrow.  When you don't have trash, you start thinking curry for breakfast might be a good idea.

It's still early and the little store is open, so we go over and grab a couple beers and play some cards.  Monbill invests in $30 of Coke Zero for the next day.  While playing, a couple who had actually cooked some food with us in the Monsoon the night before came looking to buy food at the store.  The store had since closed.  They looked distressed.  It turns out that while they were hiking dingoes broke into their Ute (truck) opened their cooler and ate their food.  Yeah, did I mention that we're really out in the Outback?  Packs of dingoes roam Karijini and we will eventually see them (little cute ones) in our campground.  Anyway, they were more than happy to eat our left over curry so we don't have to have it for breakfast.  Win Win.  We play cards under the light until about 8 then go to bed.  We have a long day tomorrow...actually much longer than we had planned.

Karijini - Hancock Gorge

This may not be a national park that you have heard of.  I think there are probably a lot of Australians who have not heard of it, and definitely a lot of them that have never been there.  Karijini is a set of gorges that are cut out of the red rock.  The park itself is big and spread out (Australia's second biggest).  The idea is to drive to a gorge, descend into it, then hike along the floor.

Drying our towels on the tents

Up at 5am again.  The storm is gone and the sun is coming out.  The girls desperately try to boil water for coffee and the boys all pray that we don't have to deal with the women without their coffee.  The water does eventually warm enough to make some instant coffee.  Phew, crisis averted...off to the hike.

Monbill On the Ladder

First stop Hancock Gorge.  The trail markers at Karijini really try to emphasize how dangerous it could be.  This trail is rated 4 out of 6 where 6 requires helmets, rappelling gear etc.  It sounds a little daunting, but we decide to take a look.  After about 5 minutes we get to a ladder that we have to climb down.  OK this looks fine.  We continue on and the scenery is beautiful.  The red rocks go straight up to where we camped, but the floor is covered with greenery and even huge trees shooting up.  Everything out here is a "Gum" tree.  A Gum Tree is a Eucalyptus tree.  When we'd walk by a tree, I'd pick some leaves and smell them.  They all smell different; there is a lemon gum, a Tea Gum, Red,White,Blue Gums.  All together a whole set of foliage that I did not know existed.

Gum Trees on the Gorge Floor

Continuing on the trail, it dead ends at a river.  Huh.  I thought this would have been a longer trail.  Turns out that the river is the trail.  Brent, with his adventurous attitude and the best set of shoes for this trip, walks right into the river.  We hesitantly follow.  It's not deep and we can easily walk through it.  After the river we get to another impasse, where there is a deeper river but on the right are some rocks that it looks like we can climb over.  Brent goes ahead.  Annette and I cautiously follow.  Monbill and Heike wait to see if it is worth it.  Turns out it's worth it.  Brent and I go back to get the others.  Just around the corner from the rock wall the gorge opens up to the impressive Amphitheater.

Annette and Dan carefully navigating

Brent and Dan in the Amphitheater 

Again, it looks like the trail ends.  Again, Brent pushes on.  The gorge narrows so much (we're talking 3 feet wide) that you have to put your hands and feet on opposite sides of the gorge to keep yourself over the running water below you.  The rocks are worn smooth from the years of rushing water and it feel surprisingly safe on your bare feet.

The spider walk

A little further we find where the trail actually stops.  They don't have many signs out here.  When there is a sign, they mean it.

Annette can barely contain her excitement.

This hike is the best hike I have ever done and was the highlight of the entire trip for me (achem..besides the wedding).  Again, with the jet lag.  It's only lunch time.  But for the rest of the day, you'll have to check in to the next post.

Into the Bush

We have a long day ahead of us.    Quick breakfast, then on to Port Hedland.  Did I mention the flies?  I wasn't kidding.  That's right, breakfast with fly nets on.

Karijini, our destination, why we've driven 12 hours from Broome has no supermarket and no drinkable water.  So before our 3 nights in Karijini we need to stock up.  Before going to Karijini we did our homework.  It is the desert after all.  It's going to be hot, really hot.  Check out the averages here.  Low around 19 Celsius, Highs in the 40s.  At the supermarket we bought 80 Liters of water.  Port Hedland (look it up on the map) has a giant mine directly in the town!.  This image below is from the salt mountain that you can see from miles away.  Otherwise it is a shit-hole and should be avoided if possible.

We leave Port Hedland around 11 and should get to Karijini around 4pm.  Just enough time to set up our tents, put the lamb on the grill and enjoy a great dinner under the stars in Karijini.  On the drive to Karijini we meet the road trains.  You have to picture this.  The road is narrow.  The road has grooves where these road trains drive, so the car is jerking around on the road, there is no shoulder, you are driving on the left and your passenger thinks that you're going to drive off the road at any minute.  Then one of these, filled with gasoline comes at you at 70mph.

Road Train

Taken from Monbill's car.  Do you see us in front?

Just after this near death experience with the road train we get out of the car and stretch our legs.  It's 43C (109F).  The heat is incredible.  Feels like an oven.  You can see that the landscape has changed; greener more trees, and clouds.  Uh oh.  It doesn't rain in the desert does it?  Nah...this is going to pass.

Sign on the road.  That is a Kangaroo crossing sign.  420km is 260 miles.

We pull into Karijini right around 5 (one hour to sunset).  The campsite that we are staying at is 45K from the entrance...going 110kph we should be there in 30 minutes.  Oh, and it's pouring now.  I guess it does rain in the desert.  10 K into the park the paved road ends.  Brent acutely points out, "Well, this is going to change our time estimates."  Yeah.  About an hour and a bit later (right around sundown) we pull into the reception of the campsite.  Now there is massive lightening, wind, and rain.  At the reception I ask if it is safe to be out there.  The most unhelpful receptionist states, "Woah...I don't know...doesn't look good out there...don't know what to tell you."  Thanks!  We'll take 2 campsites.  So now it is getting dark and absolutely pouring rain.  Huge drops are falling hard.  We sit in the car (Monbill sits outside in a chair) and wait it out.  It finally subsides and we jump out and set up our tents.  Heike and I win, getting our tent set up the quickest.  Go HD.  Annette and Brent do eventually get theirs set up, but they get a little wet.  HD however could not get the stakes in the ground, so I put one 10L thing of water in it to hold it down and I start cooking with Monbill.  Now it is cold (18C , 64F).  It dropped 45F in a matter of hours.  It is raining sideways and is now officially dark.  Of course we couldn't get the BBQ hot and it took over an hour to cook the lamb steak and potatoes.

 Now the wind really picks up.  We're talking hurricane strength.  For example, I tried to pull out a piece of tin foil, and the wind caught it and I had a tin foil kite.  Shit.  You know, maybe I should go check on the tent. I get back to the tent to see the whole tent in the air being held down only by the 10L of water.   Shit.  I grab some heavy shit from the car and put it inside, I find some rocks and put them on the tent.  What are we going to do?

We do not have many happy campers.  The girls and Brent are hanging out in the car while Monbill and I complete the lamb.  Once I put some rain gear on, I feel better, but have no idea where to sleep.  The wind is still blowing everything around and the tents are absolutely whipping in the wind.

We eat in the car.  The lamb is beautiful.  Delicious.  Potatoes are great too.  Eating conditions in the car?  Suboptimal but OK.

Now where are we going to sleep?  We can't all sleep in the cars, and the wind and rain are still howling outside.  I venture into our tent.  We are not campers.  We are summer, nice weather campers and bought a cheap tent on Amazon, so I'm not expecting greatness.  The tent, however, is warm and dry, and wonderful.  The stone ground was radiating wonderful heat into the tent.  Beautiful.  Good night.  Tomorrow, maybe the storm will blow out.

Karijini eco retreat campsite, 3am

Moon over Karijini

On the road

The beauty of jet lag is that 1. It lasts for a long time (13 hour difference to Perth), 2. You wake up at 5:00 am rearing to go.  At low tide you can supposedly see dinosaur tracks in the stone at Gantheaum Point.  Low tide was set for 7:00am, so we were able to get there easily. At 7:00am it was 33 Celsius with blazing sun.  It was hot, but it was beautiful.  The red dirt, the blue ocean and the heat.  Although we wandered the grounds for 30 minutes we were unable to locate anything looking like dinosaur tracks.  Still the view was worth it.  And the feeling of getting back into the car with the AC was worth it too.  At this point, we are thinking, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" We're heading inland to Karijini and we hear that the coast is "a lot" cooler than inland.  Oh boy.

What is the first thing you want to do when you are in a beautiful spot on the Indian Ocean, miles away from civilization?  You guessed it, go to Target.  Yes, they have a Target in Broome.  We had to pick up supplies for the trip.  Bec's parents had recommended a fly net, and we found some for $2 at a cheap store next to Target.  We didn't think that we would really need this...but since they recommended it, and it was only $2 we thought we'd get them.  Otherwise, we picked up some cooking stuff, a cooler, some towels and other basic necessities that we would need on our trip.  I should mention that the cooler...obviously Broome has learned the basic concepts of supply and demand...was $65!  We also bought ice for our cooler. $7.

Now we have a 5 and a half hour drive to Pardoo ahead of us and the sun sets at 6:00pm.  We have been told by almost everyone, that we SHOULD NOT DRIVE IN THE DARK.  Skippy (a kangaroo) likes to come out when it's cooler and likes to bounce out onto the road.  Ok, let's get going.  The speed limit out there is 110kph (~70mph).  We get on the road, set the cruise and go straight.  It would be relaxing if the road weren't barely big enough to fit two cars, we weren't driving on the left, and if you didn't have to pass road trains (more on road trains in the next installment).

Rest Stop.  Seriously, see the trashcan?

Our front grill.  Seriously, where are we? Jurassic Park?

Peacock at the gas station

Monbill had gotten some good advice prior to our trip.  If there is a gas station, fill up.  Even if you are a quarter tank down, fill up.  Great Advice.

Just before the pitch black of night, we roll into Pardoo Roadhouse.  Where we get a room.  For the night.  A roadhouse is like a trailer park , on the road.  The "motel room" we slept in was a 7'x7' room, with a bed, and AC, a TV with one channel, and a fridge.  The bathroom was in a separate trailer.  Pardoo Roadhouse has a restaurant, so I had some dinner, Heike had a snack and a beer and we were off to bed.  Another long day tomorrow, Supermarket in Port Hedland and off to Karijini.

Just before going to sleep I was able to talk to they guys staying next to us in the "motel rooms."  They are all miners (Iron ore) who come from all over Australia to work for 2 weeks then get 2 weeks off.  Must be a rough life.  The next morning they left at 4:45am.

EWART - Broome

To get to Broome we had to first fly to Perth (4 hours), then fly up to Broome (3 hours).  It's a big country.  On the flight up, the plane took a sharp right turn two hours outside of Perth.  The captain later informs us that there is a large sandstorm that we are trying to avoid.  An hour of turbulence ensues.

Landing into Broome is quite a view.  You can see the Great Northern Highway, a single strip of asphalt cutting in an absolute straight line paralleling the ocean.  As far as you can see is red dirt, the one road, and the ocean.  Getting off the plane (this is one of those airports where you take the stairs down to the tarmac) you feel the full power of the outback.  It was 5pm, about 95 degrees and 80+% humidity.  Phew, let's get into the airport to get out of this heat.  The "airport" is a single room with a place to collect your bags, about 150 people, and no air conditioning.  Luckily our bags came out quickly and we were able to escape the sauna.

The car rental agency that we rented from was not allowed to pick people up in the airport for some reason, so the nice man told me to simply "Walk out of the front gate of the airport and meet him outside."  When he told me this, I was picturing Logan airport, and was wondering what the front gate would be (near the tunnel?).  "It's OK, the Broome airport is fairly small," he reassured me.  Sure enough, we were able to walk out and find the cars.  Two white, Mitsubishi Outbacks parked next to each other.  But...no keys.  No agent.  Crap.  Friends say, "Oh we should just call them."  I say, "That'd be great, but I brought no numbers/directions/anything useful with me."  Luckily they had their number at the airport and we were able to contact them.

The cars.  White cars are not the best choice for the outback...get a red car.  Monbill's car was pristine and had no scratches, but did not come with unlimited miles!  Um...you know we're driving to Perth.  My car however, had scratches on the doors, on the trunk, a small crack on the windshield, and a hole (!) on the underbody.  What are you going to say when you're out in the middle of no where, and there are probably no other SUVs in Broome anyway.  "Great! Car looks good.  I'm sure we'll drive it 3000km with no problems"

And we are off.  Monbill, living in Bermuda, has taught him to drive on the left.  Dan just tries to follow.  On the way to the Hotel I think I put my windshield wipers on 6 times.  The hotel, which was gorgeous, did not, however, have a sign.  No where on the Hotel Mercure, did it say so.  Brent happened to notice a sign for "Reception", where he cautiously walked in.

OK, car--check, place to sleep--check, Did I mention it is Thanksgiving Day?  Let's find some dinner.  Through the use of the Lonely Planet on a Kindle we found a place called Matso's (http://www.matsos.com.au/about-us) . Great place.  Make their own beer, have great food.  A real Broome dining experience.  Note : The further from civilization you are, the more expensive everything is.  Fish and Chips? A$35.

All right.  This has been a long day.  Let's get some sleep 'cause tomorrow we're driving to Pardoo.

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Epic Western Australia Road Trip (EWART)

After being back for about a month I have realized that there is no way that I'll be able to tell all my friends and family about all the details of our trip.  So, I'll try to write it all down as I remember it.  If you are not familiar with what we did; we drove from Broome to Perth in 14 days.  It's about 3000km and can be seen here: http://goo.gl/7JKcc .  Take a look.  Zoom in, you'll notice that there are not a whole lot of roads or cities on our journey.  We were literally off the grid.  It is a world that is hard to imagine.  Western Australia has 2.2 million people 1.9 of which live in the southwestern corner of the state.  That leaves a mere 300,000 for the rest of the state (which is about a third the size of the US).

So, Broome to Perth.  Why?  People say, "There's nothing on that side of the country."  Well that's kinda true.  And nothing is beautiful.  Really, if you live in a city, you should go out to nothingness.  It's incredible.  Kangaroos everywhere, cattle farms the size of states, 100s of miles without seeing any structures, highways the width of regular city roads, ants, 6' ant hills, flies, wild peacocks,emus and parrots at the gas station.  Just a world you cannot imagine still exists.