Broome - A Little Slice of Paradise!

Broome really is a little slice of paradise amongst a land that can be pretty harsh and unforgiving. After travelling through the hot and dirty towns of Port Hedland and Karratha, a relaxing holiday is what we needed... and Broome was the perfect place!

The town is set out in a way that's very easy to get around, with the town centre on one side of the point, the port at the end and Cable Beach on the other side. And even though the town has a population of around 14,000, Broome has an influx of over 100,000 tourists a year. With this many people flying or driving into town, the facilities in this place are great - you could eat at a different restaurant each night, spend hours shopping in all the great little boutiques or at the markets on Saturday and Sundays, have a few cocktails at the huge number of bars and pubs or just relax on the beach in your hired banana lounge, under an umbrella.


But the natural beauty of this place is what really got to us. The vast red desert meets the azure blue sea and there are white sandy beaches in between. Paradise! The weather is also a huge draw card with most winter days averaging a lovely 33degrees, with nights dipping to the early 20's. No wonder people warned us that we could quite easily slip into 'Broome' time, and in fact we did, staying eight nights instead of the three or four that we had originally planned! And we would have stayed even longer if the temptation of sitting in the lovely cafes with an iced coffee in hand and drinking beers at the Sunset Bar while watching the famous Cable Beach sunset each night, didn't take a huge chunk out of our bank account.

Cable Beach really is heavenly, but the beach was closed a few times during our week-long stay. The first was due to a shark sighting (in which there are a lot around these parts - sting rays too) and on another day, a tourist was stung by an Irukandji jellyfish, but was thankfully okay, as these jellyfish can be fatal. Yikes! Lucky our caravan park had it's own pool!

Another attraction you have to see when you rock into Broome, is the Gantheaume Point area. This point has amazing rock formations and vibrant colours and gives you a great few of Cable Beach as a whole. But the coolest thing about this point, is that when the tide is really low, you can see real life Dinosaur footprints that are over 120,000 million years old! Broome is actually one of the homes of the most recorded Dinosaur footprints in the world. Pretty crazy stuff!

I think we were able to really get into the relaxing vibe of Broome because we happened to score one of the best campsites at the beautiful Cable Beach caravan park, a 7 minute walk from the beach. The office lady was soooo sweet and actually thought we were on our honeymoon (two years too late, honey!) so she booked us into a great little powered site, right next to the amazing tropical pool, so each night we'd fall asleep to the gentle sounds of the pool waterfall! Bliss! See that scooter in the picture? More on that later! So much to say! So little time! But one thing's for sure - Broome was bliss.

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Highway Highlights

Although the days are often very long when you're trying to get from one town to the next in northern Western Australia, there are a few highlights to keep you from dying of boredom along the way.

The colours of the landscape outside your car window are breath taking. Reds, greens, blues, yellows - it's like looking at a moving painting.



The days can get long but this means you may be lucky enough to witness a few W.A sunsets in your travels. Magic.

We thought there were plenty of roadtrains across the Nullarbor but there's even more up in these parts of Oz. Some are coming from the mines, others are taking supplies to remote communities and most of the truckies who drive these monster vehicles are really nice. One guy even waited for us to get petrol at a road house so we could catch a ride on his tail (and save ourselves some petrol money and allow us to gain a little more speed - we stuck with him for over three hours! What a guy!).

There's random wild animals lining the sides of the road, like these camel-like cows that kept popping out from the bushes on the sides of the highway. Emus and kangaroos are common too, as well as eagles and wild camels, although we didn't see any. Understandable with the size of the roadtrains plowing down the roads, there's plenty of roadkill as well..

The road houses are few and far between and look a little like this... Yep, a petrol station with a few dirt filled powered sites out the back. But gee it's good to see one, when your petrol tank is sitting on empty and you haven't seen another car in either direction for 30minutes.

Yours racking up the kilometres,

Odette

The Money Mines

Way, way, away, in the middle of nowhere, there are a couple of strange towns that appear on the horizon, as if out of nowhere. These towns are hot and filthy. They're built on dirt so red, that the walls of the houses and the concrete pavements are permanently stained. They have an average yearly temperature of 30 degrees and when we passed through, the air was a suffocating 40 degrees. But despite all of this, people are flocking to Port Hedland and Karratha. These guys aren't after a sea change. They're after the big bucks.


We rocked into Karratha late, after travelling some 600km from Exmouth (with nothing but two petrol stations in between) and were told that there was only one powered site left at the only caravan park in town (the other park has been transformed into a permanent-only park, cashing in on the accommodation shortage) and it was going to set us back $42. Now, even at the most touristy of places that we have visited over the past few months, the most we have ever paid for a powered site is $35 (at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania). So $42 for a patch of dirt for less than 12 hours at a town where the biggest tourist attraction is a guided tour of an iron ore mine, seemed seriously pricey. But as we found out the following day, it wasn't just accommodation that was a little steep in the mining town of Karratha. A cup of coffee was around $5 and the rent for a very average looking three bedroom house advertised at the local real estate was $1800 a week. Yes, a week! Yikes! Check out the price tag on this average looking three bedroom twenty year old house...



But if you're like the other three out of four people who are employed by BHP or the other mining giants or the gas shelf project in these towns, then money isn't your biggest worry. What to do in a town as small and as isolated as Karratha or Port Hedland when you have your next week off (after working 12 hour days for the past three weeks straight) and what to spend your massive pay check on is what will keep you awake at night.

If you're interested in the W.A resource boom, wondering where China gets all their iron ore from or wanting to know where some pretty heavy duty environmental damage is taking place, then you'll find these two towns (which are about 250km apart) worth a visit, and if you're a tradie of any kind, an engineer, an apprentice or a machinery operator, then the huge pay checks and attractive working conditions - fly in, fly out work, food/ transport/ uniform allowances (as an indication as to what you could be in for, second year electrical apprentices were being paid around $150,000 a year in Karratha) then you may find yourself living in one of the many demountable-type temporary housing options that fill both towns and trying to make your fortune. But unfortunately, for all the guys who return to the east coast and pay for their first home in cash, there are just as many who develop a bit of a taste for gambling, alcohol and other guilty pleasures and finally get sick of the heat and dirt, leaving with not much more than they arrived with.

Luke and I couldn't wait to hit the road as soon as we drove into Karratha and even spent a night out at Point Sansom, a holiday-style town on the outskirts of Karratha, so we didn't have to take out a loan for another night at the Big Four caravan park in town. Port Hedland was a little better but it became clear to us, that we'd never be making our millions out here.

Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette

Swimming With Whale Sharks

For those who have decided to make the long trek to the town of Exmouth and it's amazing Ningaloo Reef, a good proportion have done so for one reason and one reason only - the opportunity to swim with the world's largest fish, the whale shark.

Every year from April to July following the mass spawning of coral, whale sharks congregate in the Ningaloo Marine Park. These massive filter feeders can grow up to 18m long as they cruise the world’s ocean in search of concentrations of plankton to feed on. Ningaloo Reef is one of the only places where they appear regularly in large numbers, so lucky for us, Exmouth can offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity to get in the water and swim with these gentle giants.

Now, I was a little hesitant to sign up for a whale shark tour when we first arrived in Exmouth. And this is why:
1. Swimming with a whale shark is not cheap. The average price of these tours is $350 per person and when you don't currently have a job, $700 for Luke and I is alotta powered sites and alotta sausage sangas.
2. You're not guaranteed to actually see a whale shark on any tour (these ARE wild animals we're dealing with here and not some trained circus pony that arrives on cue) and there's no refund policy, just the opportunity to join another tour when the next spot is available (which could be two or three weeks away!).
3. Apparently the waters get pretty chopping out past the reef where we would have to go, so sea sickness was a good possibility.
4. And finally, and the most obvious reason for my apprehension -we would be willingly swimming with sharks! Hello? I know whale sharks are harmless but jumping in open water where whale sharks reside holds the very real possibility that OTHER less friendly and more bitey sharks could be happily crusin' around looking for lunch too!

But the opportunity to see a whale shark in the flesh, in their own habitat and before they become extinct (these guys fetch big dollars on the black market - in some Asian countries a moderately sized shark can sadly come with a $200,000 price tag, if caught) was just too exciting, so we booked a tour with Ningaloo Whaleshark-n-Dive.

The tour bus picked us up at 7:20am in the morning (At this point I wondered whether everybody in the caravan park was coming on this shark tour? I could have sworn the company said a maximum of 20 people were allowed... but why else would so many people be up at such a ridiculous hour? Hmmm) and we made the 40minute drive to the boat harbour on the edge of the Cape Range National Park. Once we were ferried out to our boat in a black rubber zodiac (very James Bond), morning tea was served while we were driven to our first snorkeling spot on the reef. We all went for a practice snorkel (so the tour guides can determine your level of confidence in the water) and checked out some amazing 'bommies' (sections of coral reef with a high density of marine life that are usually only accessible by boat). This was great and it was amazing how much sea life we got to see - and so early in the morning.

Luke only just awake after such an early morning start!

Luke, Jenna and myself, tucking into some morning tea while waiting for 'the call'.

At 10am, the company sent a spotter plane into the air to search for the whale sharks. Now this is when the tour guides brief you about what to do when they actually find a shark (be ready to jump in the water within a few minutes of the 'call', follow your whale shark spotter in the water and remain 3 metres away from the shark at all times and 4 metres away from his or her tail, be prepared for the shark to dive if it gets scared and swim like you've never swam before - these guys can be quick!) and what NOT to do (attempt to touch or ride the shark (Darn, that riding a shark sounds like fun!) or swim in front of the shark because these guys tend to swim in a straight line and as a 12metre king of the ocean, they ain't movin' for anyone!).

The day we went out was pretty cloudy, so we were starting to think all the whale sharks were playing hide and seek, when the call came over the radio at about 11:30am that they had spotted a 6 metre shark about half an hour up the coast. We were all told to hold on, as the boat slipped into top gear and sped up the reef so fast I was sure we were going to blow a motor.

Holding on as the boat races up the coast to the whale shark's location.

When the skipper wasn't too far off the spot where the shark was swimming (oblivious to the crazy mayhem happening above the water in order to find him!) we were divided into groups of ten and told to get our snorkel and flippers on ready to go. Each group had it's own 'whale spotter', who was a fully qualified marine biologist and who's job it was to swim out and find the shark and then swim along side it with one arm in the air (not an easy task - but these girls were so fit!), so the boat and the next group of swimmers were aware of where the shark was at all times.

We were in group one, so we were up first. When we reached the shark, the skipper parked the boat in the path of the whale shark, so when you jump in, the shark is pretty much coming directly for you. The mix of adrenalin, excitement and nervousness was crazy!! While the boat was still going, we were told to line up along the back marlin board of the boat and when the tour guide said "Now!" we all jumped into the water and swam for dear life!

Now, lets just say on the first dive, things are a little crazy. People are kicking and splashing all over the place trying to follow the 'spotter', while keeping their eyes peeled for this big fish and attempting to take gulps of air from a water-filled snorkel. So I'm swimming like a crazy person, and there's bubbles from the person in front's flippers in my face, and I'm finding it hard to breathe because I haven't swam this hard or fast since the 50metre freestyle swimming race back in high school but then... I see it! And it's coming straight for me! I quickly paddle backwards in a fury as if I'm about to be eaten alive by a garbage compactor but the whale shark is oblivious and sails right past me, as if I'm a boring billboard on the ocean highway. Wow! These things really are huge! And super fast! Our first shark was so quick that after our whale shark spotter told us to stop so the next group could take their turn to swim with this fish, I was gulping for air, with heart palpitations and a thousand thoughts running through my mind. But mostly I was thinking, "Oh my god. That was amazing! Can we do it again?".

Gear on and ready to go!

Simo and me, on the boat marlin board ready to jump!

And we're in! The spotter is the girl in the blue rash shirt - she's outta there!

We were lucky enough to have two dives with this first whale shark and then the call came over the radio that another, bigger shark had been sighted. We decided to race up the coast and get up close with this whale shark as well. We ended up having five more swims with this next whale shark, who was, lucky for us, much slower and more relaxed then our first friend. Each time we'd dive into the water, my adrenalin kicked in and I kept saying "Wow, wow!" into my snorkel, which roughly translates to "Roowowerwo" in underwater English. It was just such an honour to be able to paddle next to this huge, unusual creature, which dates back to prehistoric times.

The tour guides can recognise some of the sharks by their crazy injuries (although this guys only eat plankton, this doesn't mean they're immune to a little bite here and there from other marine life). Mostly it's other sharks like the Great White or Tiger shark that inflict injuries on the whale shark, with one poor guy sporting a huge chuck out of his dorsal fin, and another with a bite mark out of his tail. But they don't seem too phased, and just seem to mind their own business, swimming along with grace.

What a day! We ended up being dropped back at the caravan park at about 6pm that night, so it's definitely value for money (oh and you'll be pleased to know I did feel a little queasy at times but there were no over-the-side fish feeding sessions going on from me - phew!) and the banquet lunch was great.

What an amazing day!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Exmouth Was Excellent!

After hanging at the very laid back Coral Bay for a few days and exploring all that was on offer of the south end of Ningaloo Reef, we were very excited to drive the next 180km to the place where the famous reef begins - Exmouth. We'd talked this place up since leaving Perth as we'd heard nothing but good reports of how amazing this part of Western Australia is, and this would be the place where after a week in the sun, Simo and Jenna would leave our little travelling convoy and head back to Perth for work.

The drive between Coral Bay and Exmouth is kinda interesting too, with hundreds of bright red earth termite mounds lining the road, plus the remains of a the once huge Australian Navy presence (random war-looking bunkers included). But as we drove into the town of Exmouth itself, we couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. The town is set back from the beach, so there were no lovely ocean views, the main street of Exmouth consisted of a few fish and chip and dive shops next to an IGA and the reef was a good 40 minute drive from town! We were starting to think we should have extended our stay at Coral Bay...

First impressions aside, we booked into the Big 4 Caravan Park which had great facilities (including an outdoor cinema with free movies, a beautiful pool and a good camp kitchen) and decided to explore Cape Range National Park and the Ningaloo Marine Park the next day.

And this is all it took to win our hearts and make every single kilometre of our long trip from Perth and every sandfly bite and every burnt coffee at the only cafe in all the small towns along the way, worth it.

Cape Range National park is a spectacular place of rugged limestone ranges, breathtaking deep canyons and 50km of pristine beaches. You can look one way and see red earth and deep rocky gorges teeming with wildlife like red kangaroos and huge eagles, and then turn the other way and the contrast of aqua ocean with amazing coral reef gardens just metres off shore is amazing.

We did a self guided drift snorkel at Turquoise Bay (you can get a brochure about this from the National Parks headquarters) but basically you swim out onto the reef at one end of the beach and the gentle current takes you all the way around to the next tip, while you look down through your snorkel at sea turtles, sting rays, manta rays, coral, tropical fish that put Finding Nemo to shame and even the odd reef shark and sea snake. It's like swimming inside Sydney Aquarium, only you can get so close to the fish (I reckon they're totally onto the fact that these waters are a marine sanctuary and we can look but not touch or eat!) that you could stay in the water for hours. I kept making this funny "Aw! Ooo! Wow!" sound into my snorkel because the marine life was so beuatiful, forcing Luke to set up some sort of hand signal, so he didn't freak out and think I'd spotted a Great White Shark every time he heard my weird underwater noises!

But the reef is only one amazing aspect of Exmouth which sees people travel from all over the world to visit this tiny town. Exmouth is also home to some pretty unreal diving spots. The old Navy Pier, just 20 minutes out of town, is rated by many world famous diving figures as one of the top ten shore dives in the world. At last count there were at least 200 different species of fish, including big schools of trevally, snapper and barracuda, as well as highly photogenic specimens such as graceful firefish, colourful angelfish, moorish idols and large Queensland gropers. The site can only be accessed if you join a tour and you have to have at least six months worth of diving experience to go along. This place is so amazing, that the site has a 24 hour security guard (armed with a gun, mind you!) patrolling the area to keep out unwanted fisherman who would have a field day at this marine wonderland.

So if diving or snorkeling is your thing, you have to get over to Ningaloo Reef...well...now! (It's the best time to visit and you know you deserve a holiday, don't cha?) And if underwater action isn't your thing, come anyway, because the fishing, bush walking, camping under the stars in the National Park and the history of Exmouth (Like did you know it has a tower as tall as the Eiffel Tower which was set up in the 1970's by the Australian and American Navy that detects any submarine movement for two kilometres underwater, all the way from our west coast to the west coast of America? Or that Exmouth is home to the only collapsible set of wind turbines in Australia, so if a cyclone hits, the turbines can be folded to the ground to prevent being damaged? Crazy, I know!)

So c'mon, yeah it's expensive and this place is in the middle of nowhere but tomorrow we're diving with whale sharks! Where else can you do that, hey?!

Yours starting to resemble a mermaid after so much snorkeling,
Odette

Coral Crazy At Coral Bay

For anyone making the trek up the Coral Coast of Western Australia, it's easy to bypass the little turn off to Coral Bay and continue on the extra 155km to Exmouth. But this would be a big mistake. Huge! Coral Bay is the southern gateway to the world renowned Ningaloo Reef and it's a little slice of paradise.

I'm not sure if you could call Coral Bay a town. The whole place consists of two caravan parks, a resort, a pub and a tiny shopping centre with an IGA and a dive shop. There are a few houses nestled in the sand dunes but this whole place is strictly monitored by the government, and you can only live in Coral Bay at one of the few houses if you work in Coral Bay. You can never buy your own home in the town either - they are all on 99 year leases to prevent further development. So basically, there's no retirees, just a big tourism trade which sees both caravan parks jam pack full and weddings and things held at the resort (there was one on when we arrived).

But the very best thing about Coral Bay, is that the Ningaloo coral reef is just metres from the pristine white shores, bringing the amazing underwater world into easy reach of even the most inexperienced snorkelers.





The reef at Ningaloo is widely described as ten times better than the Great Barrier Reef and you really can walk up to your waist in water (which is a beautiful 26 degrees in temperature), put your head down with your snorkel on and see sea turtles, sting rays, a huge range of tropical fish, colourful coral, the odd reef shark and the enormous snapper that this place has become renown for.

Because much of the reef and ocean front in Coral Bay is a sanctuary zone, you can't fish in the area and this has lead to a really friendly bunch of norwest snapper making these sandy shores their home. Every day at 3:30pm, you can feed the snapper and it really is a fantastic experience. They'll eat the fish food right out of your hand and rub up and down on your legs like a puppy dog. And they have the most friendly, lovable faces and look you straight in the eye as they splash around your feet. But I couldn't help but notice the drool on the lips of a lot of the people feeding these magnificent fish, and the thought too, did cross my mind as to what a lovely dinner one of these guys would make!

A few tips and suggestions for your next stay at Coral Bay:
- The place has no town water and this means after a lovely day swimming in the ocean, you can enjoy a bore water shower in the caravan toilet blocks, with the water smelling something like a black sand mine and almost as salty as the ocean itself. Gross. We found a dip in the salt water pool to be more refreshing!

-Bring your own snorkeling gear with you. It's sooooo much cheaper to buy some flippers and mask at KMART in Perth, than at the super dopper expensive dive shops in town.

-Fill up with petrol before you arrive, as we paid $1.89 to get us to Exmouth.

-Bring bottles of aeroguard and some mozzie coils as the sand flies, normal flies and mozzies are really, really friendly.

-If you're keen to do a glass bottom boat cruise, do it here instead of Exmouth as it's cheaper and you see the same things on the reef, but if it's whale sharks you're after, wait until you hit Exmouth as there are four times as many tour operators and the prices drop by around $60 per person.

-If you can't afford the $35 for a powered site, join the flocks of other Wicked vans and hire motorhomes on the beach foreshore carpark, all sleeping under the STRICTLY NO CAMPING signs.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette