23 juli 2013

Darwin

Last few days in Australia were spent in Darwin not doing much. Felt completely touristed out and simply wanted to go 'home.' So I just hung out with these lovely ladies, went to food markets, fed wild possums, went for a morning run, sat in cafés and slept on the beach (well more like tried to sleep on the beach).

What I love about travelling is that you meet these amazing people and because you only have a short amount of time together you really savour it, you get to know each other, you don't judge, you simply enjoy each others company.

James Price Point

We finished off our trip very fittingly by staying at James Price Point - the place we have all been fighting to protect from a huge gas plant. Thankfully it is safe for now but the Premier is dead set on turning this beautiful location into another industrial hub serving short term economic interests. The Kimberley is deemed on of the last wild places remaining on Earth; that in itself should be more valuable than all the gas in the world...

Not a bad view to wake up to...
 Now that's what I call a good camping spot!
 Walmadan Camp - the heart of the force against the gas hub.
 The photos couldn't quite capture how trule red the rocks are and how beautiful the contrasts between the green vegetation, the blue sea, the white sand and the deep-red rocks truly are.
 NO GAS agreed!
 I will miss the sunsets of the Australian west coast.
 A very happy surprise on the last night. Thank you guys for sharing your special moment with me!

WA it has been a pleasure to get to know you. Take care. You will always have a special place in my heart.

To all the amazing people I had the honour to meet and get to know. I love you and I will miss you dearly but this is not the end of the journey. 

14 juli 2013

The Kimberley

After a tyre hunt in Port Hedland (sad sad town...) we headed up to Broome, Cape Leveque and the Gibb River road.

The view from campsite at the Whalesong Camp area and cafe. Such a beautiful and remote place. The cafe is tiny and they grow most of their food, everything is fairtrade, organic and delicious!
Watch out for salties! Slightly scary walking on the beach knowing that a croc was spotted just a couple of days before along the coast. It knows you're there long before you'll ever know... But it didn't deter us! The kids and Jimbo (the dog) joined us for a walk as well, bless they were so cute! Showed us some bush tucker and did cart wheels with us.

After two relaxing days at Whalesong and Middle Lagoon we headed up to Cape Leveque where we camped one night and tried to recondition the dying battery. Didn't work so we had to jump/pull started every time we stopped haha
The colours of the coast are just so incredible...

We went back to Broome, replaced the battery, got a second spare tyre refueled with some Matso's ginger beers on the beach... When we finished stocking up we headed off onto the Gibb River road to explore the Kimberley!
We had to drive through a fair few river crossings, unfortunately we didn't see any crocs...

Our first stop: Bell Gorge. It was a beautiful walk there and we were so hot so we just wanted to get into the water but jeez it was cold! Refreshing but brrrr...
We visited a couple of other gorges, Galvan and Lennard, but I didn't bring my camera along, can't be a tourist all the time... Galvan was absolutely amazing, just this little tucked away waterhole with a beautiful waterfall as taken out of a film and to the right we could see aboriginal art on the rock wall, so picturesque! Lennard was pretty average in comparison with the others but we got to do some scrambling to get down to the actual gorge to go for a swim and once we got there we saw a big lizard/guana sunbathing on the rock (we made sure it wasn't a croc haha)

Manning Gorge was my favourite out of the above mentioned, it was just breathtakingly stunning, the photos really doesn't do it justice...

On our way to Windjana and Tunnel Creek we stopped at March Fly Glen again and met a really nice dutch couple, the girl had poi's so we ended up having a bit of a circus cirle going, it was great fun!

Windjana Gorge - words cannot describe the beauty and sense of this place.
The freshwater (freshies) crocs are considered harmless unless agitated but they are so used to humans here that you could easily get within a couple of metres of them and they seemed like they couldn't care less...
You really feel like you are walking where dinosaurs have walked before you. The feeling of the place just makes you full of awe and peace. This is probably one of my favourite places of all times. Ah the West Coast of Australia, such a remarkable place. I will cry the day (fingers crossed it never arrives!) the industry succeeds in industrialising the Kimberley, one of the last untouched places in the world.
Boabs in my heart

not all places need to be 'developed'
some are too precious to plunder

12 juli 2013

Karijini

Our next stop on the trip was Karijini National Park... Leaving Red Bluff we had a couple of days of bad weather....
 But it was still beautiful
 Lucky we had a 4wd...
Walking through some beautiful gorges
 Lunch break!
 Some beautiful sunsets. We saw a dingo sneak around our campsite early one morning too, quite exciting!
 Trees grew in the most remarkable spots...
 Our first swim in a little waterfall
 Dinosaur land...
 Circle pool, so beautiful!
 We left Karijini (one surf board short - poor Brett) heading towards Port Hedland to pick up a tyre when we stopped over at this little rest area...
 Wasn't long before this guy joined us. I really feel like this photo represents this area perfectly in the way it juxtapositions the great wilderness and the great industrial expansion. I swear there were at least one roadtrain from each direction every 1-2 minutes throughout the night. Such a waste...
Live export - a whole other issue.....
 Pretty happy roadtrippers all in all though!