The road to Broome, continued

Rein checking in -

"Picking up from where I left off last time I wrote, I’ll focus on the highlights of our road trip to Broome.

Day one was all about our trek through the Pinnacles. We arrived around 4 pm and walked through this wondrous, alien looking landscape at sunset, taking some amazing shots (all lost unfortunately) in the yellow light against the red earth. That evening we dined on some excellent locally caught seafood at the village bowling club. Apart from the crustacean delights this had as an added bonus that we could enjoy a bit of “couleur locale”, mixing with the locals.

The next morning we set off as soon as we had packed up camp. Which of course took a bit of time as we weren’t yet experienced with the camping ways. But, after a good breaky, cooked by Simon on the camping stove we were on our way by 10 am. Day two saw us passing through some nice historic colonial towns, such as Dongara and Greenough, but the day’s highlight undoubtedly was Kalbarri National Park. 

This park, which can be reached only through a 30 k. off-road track, incorporates the beautiful Murchison River gorges. Over hundreds of thousands of years the river has carved out a 100-meter deep gorge in the red earth and we enjoyed some stunning walking trails leading us to the famous Nature’s Window. Again we took some amazing pictures but need to refer to the stock photo below to give you an impression.

After a full day of sight seeing it was getting late so we needed to find a place to camp urgently before it would be too dark to set up camp for the night. We tried our luck with a station indicated on our map. After a beautiful drive off the main road we arrived at Riverside Sanctuary where the caretaker warmly greeted us and offered us the old sheep shearers’ quarters for the night. As it turned out, Riverside is an old sheep farm converted into a wildlife sanctuary offering all kinds of ecotourism options. That night we were the only two people staying on the property, other than the three permanent staff, so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Simon cooked us a hot meal in the camp kitchen, which was based in the characterful sheering shed, which still had the entire old sheering infrastructure in place. We then retired for a well-earned good night’s sleep in the warm donger (= Australian for bush cabin) that was appointed to us.

We woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunrise of the bush lands surrounding the station. It had been freezingly cold and there was a touch of frost on the ground, so we were happy we hadn’t needed to sleep outside. Day three was going to be a long one, aiming to get to Monkey Mia, with plenty of sights along the way, so we made an early start. Monkey Mia is a small beach resort on Shark Bay, known for its daily dolphin visits to its shores. It is a well-known holiday destination in Western Australia, and as Simon had never visited it, we were keen to make an overnight stop there while we were (sort of) passing by. This meant a detour of roughly 300 km, but as the whole Shark Bay area is a world heritage listed national park, well worth the effort. On the way there we stopped at the old telegraph station at Hamelin Pool, which is famous for its colony of pre-historic stromatolites. 


These are the planet’s first oxygen producing organisms and in fact to thank for all subsequent life on Earth. Hamelin Pool is one of the only places on earth were they still live due to the absence of natural predators. In Hamelin Pool they have formed large colonies in the shape of columns or mats on the seabed, which are visible from the beach. An amazing sight; again one we cannot show our own pictures of due to the sad loss…

After this visit we continued onto Shell Beach, which is named after the bright, white shells it consists of. These shells extend to 10 meters deep and the lower levels get crushed into “shell rock” which used to be excavated and used in the buildings in the bay area. This now is no longer allowed but the beach remains another incredible sight and our chosen site for a picnic lunch that day! The last stop before hitting Monkey Mia was Eagle Bluff where there is a boardwalk along a high cliff over the azure blue waters of the bay for spotting sea wildlife such us dugongs, sharks and dolphins. Unfortunately we had no luck spotting anything but the views again were amazing.

That evening we settled into a nice camping site at the Monkey Mia resort and had a refreshing swim in the bay. Next morning we got up early to watch the dolphins visiting the pier of the resort. Admittedly, this was a bit of a circus with the hundreds of tourist, lined up along the beach to catch a glimpse, but the friendly animals did not disappoint and showed up almost on cue to perform their morning ritual of frolicking and interacting with the park rangers.

We didn’t stick around after the dolphins visit but got back on our way. That day (our fourth on the road) we decided to skip the following main attraction on the way, avoiding another detour, instead opting to make some serious distance. By lunchtime we had made it to the country town of Carnarvon, the last post of human civilization (well sort of) before making the great traverse of the Pilbara plains. After a nice picnic at the Carnarvon marina we set off on the long stretch of about 700 k. to the next town.

That night was our first experience with bush camping. At the end of the afternoon we pulled up along the highway at a 24-hour rest stop to set up our tent. While Simon prepared our dinner, I got a campfire going to keep us warm during the freezing savannah evening.  We sat and watched the amazing starry sky, drinking Billie tea (= Australian for a campfire brew) before slipping into our sleeping bags around 7. I had one of the deepest and most refreshing sleeps in a long time, waking up the next morning with sunrise at 6 am.

... to be completed at a later stage ...