We hope to see big sea-turtles, Mantas, whales, unfortunately we are too late to see the biggest fish in the world - the whaleshark.
P.S.: As it is always me - Alex - writing the post, I will make it easier for me and report from my perspective. Meaning too, you have to cope with my sometimes funny 'Alex-english'.
Cape Leveque, just North of Broome spoilt us with stunning scenery of aquamarine water and white-sand beaches, which we were looking forward to. We spent a lot of time in the water snorkeling around, the sun was so strong that we had to cover up not to get badly burnt lying in the water and watching the colorful seaworld underneath.
Our Beach Shelter at Cape Leveque
One morning while we were still lying in bed and looking out to the see, we were witnessing three humpback whales, playing around and pirouetting out of the water.
What a very special moment!!!
Picnic at Cape Leveque
Andy must have been naughty again!
At some stage I thought I finally get a bush-freakout, when our camp was invaded by the tiniest ants; they were all over my toilet-bag, inside the fridge, all over our roofrack, cutlery box, bags….
Additionally we were visited by an exceptional curious big spider that night which followed me around and even climbed up Andy’s chair…eeeek! But we still will never kill one; we just catch it and release it near another camper….
It was at 'Middle Lagoon' that we met Jessica and Roland from Cologne, which were on there Honey moon along the Westcoast. We had a lovely evening together; Andy and I hadn’t done so much talking in german since a long time. We arranged to meet again in Broome to catch up for the staircase to the moon(which was unfortunately covered by clouds).
Middle Lagoon
At Brooms’ ‘Willie Creek' Pearl Farm we got an inside into Pearlfarming in order to get those world renown Pearls, after the tour we appreciate saltwater pearls now a bit more.
A$100.000 pearl necless, that Andy wouldn't buy for me
We left the beaches behind to turn inland again, where we gave Australia’s hottest town ‘Marble bar’ a short visit before entering ‘Karijini Nationalpark’. And sure enough we saw some spectacular gorges, probably the best we had seen so far. We really liked those ancient geological formations not at least because we had to climb down and scramble along the gorges, swim through water holes to find the hidden track in ‘Indiana Jones’ style.
After what seemed to be a long time in flat country, we even found a mountain to climb up - Mt. Bruce(Punurrunha) at 1235m. Great exercise and great view.
By now we are used to the fact that at least one very active spider (we guess it is the Wolfspider) visits our camp every night after sunset. We might become friends after all!
Karijini NP
On our way to Millstream-Chillchester Nationalpark, we stopped in Tom Price to refill our empty food and fuel storage, have a shower(you wouldn’t believe how dirty our clothes look sometimes….) and drive and ride up ‘Mt. Nameless’. Where I have to ask the question, how can you honestly name something ‘Nameless’? It is paradox; first of all - by the time you call it nameless, you have already given it a name and could have used that time to think about are real name; secondly it already had a name! The Aborigines that had been to the place long time before white Europeans invaded the country, called it ‘Jarndumuha’. It is another great example of the disrespect during the time of early european settlement in our point of view!
Tom Price is yet another mining town, that was established in 1962 and has developed into a leafy green neighborhood with manicured lawns all situated in the most unforgiving interior.
We follow stories about the early European settlers (between 100-150 years ago) with astonishment, it can not be imagined by us today what they had to go through in this harsh and dry country without having any of those modern comforts we are used today.
And again it wouldn’t have been possible without the bush skills of Aboriginal people which didn’t get anything or only little in reverse for as long as the middle of this century!!! We have seen a great deal of old and modern Australian history by now and we have the greatest respect towards the oldest culture in the world, the first Australian inhabitants – the Aboriginals.
After three months it looks like we have developed a travelling routine (in a positive way), we are used to have far less comfort, not having regular showers, turning the underwear inside out and to live outdoors no matter what weather, fighting of flies all the time, getting bitten by mosquitoes, hit by huge bugs that can't navigate and fishing ants out of our food.
Its funny but it looks like we can relax now, we are so relaxed that we are even missing work. We are hooked on playing chess (which I just recently learnt), we can’t stop reading books(finally I take the time to read and read and read) and listening to Harry Potter and other Audio books during the long drive. Apart from that we are very active, go hiking, running, a little bit of riding (not enough though…), swimming and do some core exercise to hold our muscles together for the photos. We talk a lot of our familys and friends here and overseas and what it would be like to leave our Australian friends and life behind. On that note: We miss you all very much!
And last but not least and most importantly, we still like each other very much!
On our way back to the coast, we spent two very nice days at a tranquil water hole at Millstream-Chichester Nationalpark. Our camp was in a lush oasis in the midst of arid, spinifex-covered plateaus. Until a herd of German grey haired tourists arrived, stripped of their clothes to jump naked into the water. We were stunned to see them acting as if they would be alone…We felt a bit embarrassed for our fellow country people.
You have to wait for an update on photos, it takes soooo long to upload them on flickr.com, that I better resize them first.
Cheers, Alex
