Trevor & Jonathans Cruise & Trip to the Far East and Australia 2016

Day 70 - Monday July 18th 2016 - Geraldton to Monkey Mia, Western Australia

We were awake before the alarm of 0730 but had not moved. It had been a little cold in the bed last night and we were both tugging at the duvet at different stages through the night. The shower block here on this site was a pleasure to use and we were soon packed up and ready to hit the roads again. It takes a hell of a lot less time to put the bed away than it does to put it up!

We headed up Highway one for an hour or so before making our first stop of the day at a place called Northampton. The drive up had been more of the same scenery as yesterday, perhaps it was a little greener, a little more lush and there was a little more livestock in the fields but on the whole it was the same.

It really is so different form our other journey in the camper in Australia. At time it feels like you are driving through New Zealand rather than Oz it’s that green and it looks like they have plenty of rain but then you realise that

everything is still growing out of the sand o it’s a really quite remarkable eco system here, that this much green can survive growing out of the sand.

So back to Northampton.

Its only of those one street Australian villages that exist to service a remote community and this one dates way back in time and the buildings are all of that traditional Australian design. The row of shops came complete with a metal veranda protecting the shops from the sun. Inside the general store was the original pressed tin tiled roof with the original wooden floors underfoot, really trapped in time. The town also had a church and an old nunnery that had since been converted into a guest house but these had been wonderfully restored and the old stone work of both buildings looked as good as new. Times were clearly tough in the town though as every shop was displaying action posters asking the local community to support the local traders rather than nearby Geraldton. Charity shops had already moved in on this small stretch of shops so you could just sense the way that this was going to go in the future. It’s a real shame as these small towns are the real life blood of these rural communities and I’m sure that when they have gone they will really be missed.

It was another hour or so drive to our next port of call, Port Gregory. Now this stop had not previously been planned. It was only down to Facebook power than we were here at all. A friend who lives in Portsmouth (Gordon Hooper) is actually an Aussie and is from W.A. so after mentioning it on the book we headed off to discover the pink lake. It was quite a drive that would take us in a big loop but it was worth it. The pink lake is exactly what it says it is a lake that is pink. Now there seemed to be no explanation of why the lake was pink anywhere that we saw but we are guessing that the colour is caused by sediment. As the soil is so richly red in this area we guess that it is the colour of the soil transferring into te water system making it appear pink. What ever the reason it is quite a site when you see it, the lake is also quite big and you have to catch the sun in the right direction to really appreciate just how pink it is.

After stopping by the side of the lake for a while we headed down to the end of the road that took us into Port Douglas itself. Now I have to be honest and say that this has to be one of the smallest towns ever, there was one shop, a camp site, a few houses and that was it. Of course there is a beach and the beach was another white sand spectacular but there was no sign of an actual port…..you would guess that being called Port Douglas you would find a port but all that we could find was a single wooden jetty, this does not a port make but maybe we were just in the wrong location? (we didn’t find any other roads in Port Douglas either).

We drove back out of Port Douglas and on what was called the scenic route to Kalbarri. This took us right around the lake and then ultimately right along the coast. The scenery was greener again, a real acid kind of green that looked more like the colour you used as a kid from your felt tip pen set to recreate grass.

We passed some wild emu and even turned the van around to try and photograph them but as soon as we tried to get near they scarpered into the bush and were gone form human eye. We were motoring today, hitting an average of 100km per hour as we still had a long distance to travel and much to see and we could really feel the clock ticking.

Kalbarri was our lunch stop and what a really lovely little coastal town to have lunch in. It had a great broadwalk /promenade and the whole town seemed immaculate, really clean and tidy and presented. The views out to the ocean where into a bay surrounded by white sand dunes covered in bush with a really deep beach.

You could hire boats or go on quad bike safaris here, there were campsites right opposite the beach and it just felt like a really nice place to be, it also has an amazing national park right behind the town so lots to see and do here.

Lunch was in a little café overlooking the coast (all be it on the wrong side of the road) with Trev tucking into some fish and chips whilst I had a really yummy roast beef roll with hot thick gravy…..yum yum ! The food didn’t stop there either, after we finished at the local café we visited the local bakery to satisfy our need for sweet with me having possibly the largest egg custard tart I have ever eaten and Trev having a coffee cream filled iced donut.

There really was no time for hanging around today so as soon as we had eaten it was back to the van and back to the roads this time taking the loop road through the Kalbarri National Park to take us back to the main highway. As I said before we had driven in a big oval to get to Port Douglas and the town of Kalbarri so this was pedal down time once again.

We couldn’t go through the National Park though without making at least one stop to see what it had to offer and we chose the Gorge at Ross Graham (named after a local headmaster that taught conservation in the local area).

It was a really sunny afternoon and we could really tell that the weather was warming up and this made the gorge even more impressive.

We parked up and made the short walk down the track to a clearing in the trees and bush that let you look right into the gorge itself. There was quite a fast flowing river in the base of the gorge and the rock face was all jagged and red in colour, just what you expect from Australia.

We walked the path and climbed over the loose rocks to reach the river itself. As I said it was really fast moving but being in the base of the gorge was just really lovely and we both wished we just had more time to walk the trails and see what else there was to offer in this magical place but as ever we had choice to make and we still had to get to Money Mia preferably before darkness set in so it was back to the van once more with the foot pressed firmly down to try and make up some time.

We drove through really lush country, acid greens and yellows. The meadow grasses were greener than I had ever seen before but the soil was still red terracotta in colour or sand.

As we reached the highway and presumably left the fertility of the river behind the landscape changed again back to sand and bush and red soil and it remained like this all the way to Monkey Mia.

Other than stopping for petrol and the off photo stop we didn’t do anything else but drive, and we drove as fast as we could. The sat nav has a warning system on it when you go outside the speed limit and I’ll be honest and say that the bings warning us that we were going to fast were on more than they were off. We needed to get to the campsite before nightfall so we weren’t killing Skippy if he ran out into the road attracted by the headlights of our van. (Fort those of you that are too young to remember Skippy, he was a kangaroo and over here you see the odd one every now and again dead on the side of the road). We really did not want to hit a roo, it would hurt us as well so foot down it was.

We made the campsite at Monkey Mia around five in the afternoon and it goes dark around six so not bad time at all although our petrol consumption took a lot to be desired.

Monkey Mia is also a national park so you have to pay an admission fee to the Australian Government. Our fee here for two nights was $32 which you just leave in an honesty box and take a slip saying that you have paid. Obviously it’s very open to abuse and you could just take the slip and not pay a bean but we are not that way at all.

It was just before check in that we discovered the fatal flaw with our plan, Trev was convinced that he had booked us in for two nights at this campsite but when we pulled up to the entry gate he realised that somehow we were only booked in for one and they would not be expecting us until tomorrow night.

Normally this would not be much of a problem, there is normally room on a campsite but as we are travelling north in search of the sun they are extra busy with all of Australia seeking warmer climates and the fact that there is one camp site in the whole of Monkey Mia means it busy, rammed in fact. Where else in Australia can you go to interact with wild dolphins?

We explained our error at the check in desk and they almost laughed at us when we asked for a powered site, clearly we did not understand just how popular this place is. The only option and we had to take it was to park up against some railings for the night all for the princely sum of $40. Well we get to use the bathrooms etc and to be honest after a really long day at the wheel we would have taken anything.

So the bad thing was that we had no power, Trev ended up spending forty minutes in the laundry room trying to get some power into all our gadgets, phones and computers. We could use the light in the van as the leisure battery was completely charged but no plug sockets, thank goodness we also had a kettle we could use on the hob for the morning.

The campsite floor was sand and as we all know sand gets everywhere so within an hour of being on site the floor of the van resembled a play pit for kids but there was no way of keeping it out. Trev cooked pasta (they one we should have had the other night) and it was delicious, we washed the dishes in the busy communal kitchen area, it’s so much easier than trying to use the potty sized sink in the van. The sink is fine for cups and glasses but once you have a couple of saucepans and a sieve it’s just too much and you get it done in half the time.

It had been really pleasant all day, I won’t say it was hot but it was certainly warm and t-shirts had been fine for exploring the gorge earlier on. The downside of this though was that the nights felt much colder due to the contrast in temperatures to the point that it was going to be a two duvet night tonight! Normally e had been putting one duvet beneath us to make us a bit warmer and even out the puzzle of cushions that make up our bed but tonight we needed maximum warmth to combat the sea breeze.

The campsite was actually huge with a real mixed bag of accommodation on offer from apartments to stand alone chalets to all the powered and unpowered sites and it felt really busy. They had a restaurant and bar on site and pool and a tennis court so it was definitely one of the posher ones. We were lights out early though. It had been a long day and we had to be up super early tomorrow with the alarm set for 0630 so we could be down at the beach for the first dolphin encounter of the day. We had no idea what to expect but for now that didn’t matter it was lights out and rest. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz