riverECHO

A few things have changed since we arrived in southwest Australia. We sleep cuddled up in sleeping bags instead of sprawled out with the van doors open and our feet hanging out the back. We’ve found huge forests to camp in and awesome single track mountain biking trails. And we get to play and relax on the weekends instead of trying to cover a bunch of ground to the next town. We’ll be in the southwest for about four weeks until we will point it back east and drive across the Nullarbor (you got it . . . “no” “trees”) to Melbourne to meet up with my sister Shalyn and her husband Randall.

As we drove through a very rainy downtown Perth, it didn’t take us long to move along to the next artsy hip town of Fremantle. The cafes, one of which we visited every day, pubs, used bookstores, and weekly craft markets kept us entertained for a few days. But as the weekend approached we decided to head to the hills and seek out the local mountain biking trails. We found two awesome trails, Marrinup and Turner Hill, just outside of a town called Dwellingup, where we set up camp at a free campground for a few days and had our first campfire since we’ve arrived in the country. We’ve been camping our way around Australia but for some reason it hasn’t really felt like camping until we had a campfire.

Slim needed a bit of a tune up so we had to spend our short work week in the big town of Bunbury. But to our surprise, Bunbury was a pretty cool little town. Our camp was surrounded by water, the Indian Ocean on one side and a lagoon on the other, and there were tons of rabbits. Apparently that rabbit proof fence that runs north to south through Australia didn’t work very well.

After the short week, we made our way up to a place called Wellington National Park where we’ll spend the next couple of days on another series of mountain bike trails at Leonard Hill. The national park is one big Jarrah (a type of tall eucalyptus tree) forest. We are camped below these huge tall trees at Potters Gorge, which may just be my favorite campground so far. It reminds me of camping in Yosemite, minus all the granite cliff walls.

Eucalyptus trees are fire tolerant so when fires spread through the area, they leave their trunks pitch black and their leaves green. A couple of the mountain bike trails we’ve been on weave right through forest that has recently burned. The colors are stunning . . . black trunks against the bright green new growth along the forest floor.

It’s still hard to believe that it’s Thanksgiving. Jean is cooking up a turkey and oyster stuffing at our house in Victor for her sister and family and apparently our fat cat, Salsa, wasn’t going to miss out on the feast and brought in his own mouse to eat under the table. My mom, stepdad, and Anni are meeting up in Sequoia National Park and from the sounds of it, might end up at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I also just chatted to my Grandma in Arizona, whose voice I haven’t heard since last year. Our call cut out really quickly, but it was so good to talk to you Grandma! I’m not sure we’ll celebrate the holiday in any tradition and although we miss the holiday feel at home, we’ll just have to make do with campfires, mountain bike trails, and the company of each other in this large eucalyptus forest for now!

As I sat at my computer this morning, bundled up in my sleeping bag and listening to the rain fall outside, it boggled my mind that we were in over 100 degree heat just a couple days ago before we parted ways with Jean to return to the southwest.

The second part of our vacation with Jean was spent in the vast red center. Believe it or not it was vast, covered in red dirt, and in the center of Australia. Our destination was Uluru, commonly known as Ayer’s Rock, or simply known as the big red rock in the middle of Australia. But before arriving in Uluru, we made a few stops along the way.

Just south of Tennant Creek, we pulled of the road for a quick stroll through the Devil’s Marbles. It was amazing that some of these “marbles” were still balancing as they looked like they would roll away at any moment. Our walk through the marbles was a quick one as we scurried between shady patches, but we did gather a handful of cool photos from the walk.

We continued on to Alice Springs, were we spent a night and visited the Alice Springs Desert Park, which hosts a display of various desert ecosystems. The park is entirely outdoors, except for the nocturnal display. As you can imagine the desert park was pretty hot and as much as we loved watch tons of birds swoop above our heads, the nocturnal area was the best. And no, it’s not just because it had air conditioning . . . well that’s only partly the reason. Our eyes adjusted slowly in the nocturnal house, where the lighting is always set to “full moon mode” during the actual day. It is just enough light to watch critters like rats, snakes, owls, wallabies, and horny devils move around as if it were the middle of the night.

The drive from Alice Springs to Uluru takes about 5 hours and we arrived just as the sun was setting. We parked the camper and quickly walked up to a lookout to take in the view. From the distance of our campground it was hard to make out its enormity. We awoke early the following morning and drove into the national park to watch the sunrise. It’s hard to describe just how massive Uluru is. Standing roughly 2,800 feet tall, it gives us just a glimpse of the size of the entire rock which is mostly underground. Think of it like an iceberg, where about 90 percent of the rock is hidden below ground. Its many contours and groves seemed to move as the sun slowly rose and when we took a closer look along a short trail up to its edge, it seemed to tower over us. Although there is a trail to the top of Uluru, it seemed impossible to attempt it from where we stood as it was overhung at the base. We all agreed that it would be a pretty amazing sight during a rain storm.

Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, is another rock formation not even an hour drive from Uluru. Kata Tjuta stands slightly taller than Uluru but takes a different shape with many tall adjacent mounds instead of just one. Although on everyone’s “hit list” it also seemed way less busy. BJ and I strolled up a trail through one of the gorges that divided the rock mounds and it was impressive to stare up at the towering rock walls as the sun rose. We noticed that Kata Tjuta wasn’t smooth like Uluru, but rocky and rough. Turns out Kata Tjuta and Uluru were formed by totally different forces, but how bizarre that they just happen to be so close together in the middle of nowhere.

The extreme heat and the crowds took a little bit away from the experience but I think we were all impressed by the sights of the red center. Jean splurged one night and took us all out to an event called “Sounds of Silence.” A bus came to pick us up from camp and took us to a remote bush setting we watched the sun set over Kata Tjuta, drank champagne, ate dinner which included kangaroo and crocodile (Jean wasn’t about to try this bush tucker and order the vegetarian meal), and watched the stars slowly come out, complete with a presentation on the different constellations that were overhead. The entire evening was set outdoors on the outback’s sandy surface and although we feared that it would take a turn for “touristy,” the evening was one of the best we had in the red center. Thanks Jean!

After two nights in Uluru and many dips into the campground pool, we decided it was time to head back to Alice Springs. We spent our final evening with Jean at a restaurant called Overlander’s Steakhouse. It featured steak, as well as kangaroo, emu, crocodile, and camel. BJ and I ordered a sample platter and here is the verdict. Crocodile tastes a little like canned tuna but they put so much sauce on it that it seemed like they were hiding something. Emu had a duck taste to it. Camel was sort of bland. Kangaroo was the favorite, but it wasn’t nearly as good as when BJ cooked up his own version just a few weeks ago. We were surprised in the middle of dinner when the matradee approached the table with a few props that we were supposed to use in a restaurant-wide song and dance. What proceeded was pretty silly, but we made sure to do our bit and participate.

The following morning Jean flew back to Sydney for a couple of days before flying home and BJ and I flew back down to Perth. It feels like the last two weeks flew by way to fast with Jean. But as we look back through all the photos and remember little stories here and there, we actually covered a lot of ground, made the most of the heat by seeking out every swimming pool possible, and of course, enjoyed each other’s company.

Welcome to Australia Jean, let’s go see the crocodiles. After a visit to one of Darwin’s well known outdoor markets, we left the city a day early to head to Kakadu National Park. Kakadu has been recognized as a World Heritage Park because of its diverse species as well as its Aboriginal culture and history. It turns from a drastically dry and fire swept countryside in the “winters” to a bright green and flooded area in the “summers.” We arrived at the end of the dry season known as the “build up.” Every afternoon, clouds build and build in the sky, making you think a storm is inevitable. Only when it barely starts to sprinkle do the clouds start to deteriorate and float away. This is also the hottest time of year up here. Thank the Aboriginal Rainbow Serpent for air conditioning in the big RV.

Our first stop in the park was a casual stroll along the East Alligator River at Ubirr. There are actually no alligators in Kakadu, or anywhere in Australia for that matter, but … oh my god … there are crocodiles. We were not expecting to actually see one and when we got to the first lookout along the trail, not even five minutes from the car, BJ spotted a dark shadow in the water. Sure enough … crocodile. Thankfully, since we visited the Steve Irwin Zoo along the east coast, we remembered that crocodiles will not chase after anything on land as their very heavy tail makes them extremely slow. But they do strike right at the water’s edge and it is advised to not approach the edge of the water or hang out over the water on, let’s say, a viewing platform. We were well away from the water so we hung out and watched and Jean convinced herself that we invited her to Australia just so we could feed her to the crocodiles.

During the very hot afternoon, BJ and I strolled to the Ubirr rock art sites, a number of galleries depicting drawings that were made thousands of years ago using either ochre or blood. Aborigines used rock art to share stories and the act of drawing the art was more important to them than the artwork itself. They would paint directly on top of an old drawing. So each rock art “gallery” could have hundreds of layers of drawings. The figures and forms were mostly obvious and included different kinds of fish, kangaroos, crocodiles, turtles, as well as humans with dilly bags and spears. One of the things that distinguish Aboriginal art is the depiction of internal organs and bones in each of the animals or human figures. They refer to this as x-ray art. We made one more stop before heading back to camp to walk to the top of a lookout over Arnhem Land and Jean, the trooper that she is, grabbed her walking sticks and made her way up the steep incline along with us.

We stayed in Kakadu National Park for two nights and on the second morning took an early morning boat cruise up the Yellow River. It was an awesome tour and way better than we expected. We saw tons of birds. Some of them could walk across lily pads and looked like they were walking on water. The Darter had a very long neck and actually spent most of his time spearing fish under water. Another one, called the “fire starter” learned that it could move a burning stick to a new area if it wanted to eat escaping grubs and bugs. But even with so many birds it was hard not to be constantly scanning the waters for another set of spikes or a pair of eyes barely breaching the surface. Once again we were surrounded by crocs and for some reason they always seemed to appear closest to Jean. The boat captain assured us that the crocs are used to these boats, but they looked pretty hungry to me. At one point a crocodile splashed out of the water and was heading straight towards a flock of geese along the shore. It made us all jump until the boat captain started yelling out “get a duck, get a duck, get a duck!!”

We left Kakadu and drove towards Katherine Gorge, where BJ and I had spent a couple nights about three weeks ago. We felt like we had the entire campground to ourselves and spent much of the day in and out of the salt water pool. After two nights in Katherine we made our way south to the popular outback pub of Daly Waters to set up camp for the night. It definitely felt like the off season at the pub but it was easy to picture the place bumping with people. Jean encountered tons of frogs in the bathroom, one of which was hiding out below the toilet seat and got a bit of a ride when she flushed the toilet. We had dinner at the pub and then hit the sack as BJ and I had to be up at 1:30am for a quarterly meeting at Vertical Media. We attempted to sleep for a few hours and then woke up to coffee and breakfast just before the meeting. With the very loud hum of the air conditioner, Jean managed to stay asleep on her bed in the back of the rig as we jabbered away on our computers in the wee hours of the day. Needless to say, we were pretty tired throughout the rest of the day.

We are now in the outback town of Tennant Creek, slowly making our way down to Alice Springs and Uluru. We explained to Jean that there is no sign that announces that you’ve arrived in the outback. It’s just a feeling that overcomes you. You might be spacing out for a while, watching the scenery go by, and all of a sudden, you announce “hey, we’re in the outback.” Jean experienced this epiphany today as we crested the top of a small hill. “Okay,” she said, “now we are in the outback.”

We made it to the local tavern in Cervantes right in time for the Melbourne Cup to begin and as exciting as it was to watch those horses run their hearts out, I had barely had a sip of my beer when the race was over. It was especially entertaining to watch our friend from the evening before, who apparently forgot meeting us or was too drunk to remember, yell out “go horses!” in the middle of the race.

We had one destination in Cervantes, other than the unplanned Melbourne Cup outing. The Pinnacles is a large sand dune covered in hundreds of mini limestone pinnacles.  Most of them were about our height but a few towered above us, almost giving us the feeling that they were watching us. We arrived just as the visitor center closed, so I still don’t know how they formed or why they are there, but you could drive the skinny sand road through the park and walk anywhere you pleased.

From Cervantes, we quickly drove south to Perth to catch a plane up to Darwin, where we will be picking BJ’s mom up from the airport in a few hours.  She will be joining us for two weeks as we explore Kakadu National Park and make our way to the Red Centre to see Uluru (Ayer’s Rock). We left Slim behind in Perth and have rented a monster of an RV for the three of us to live/travel/work/cook/lounge in for the next couple weeks. This thing is insane; it has two “lounge” areas and air conditioning. Slim would be very disappointed in our extravagant ways. We better not get too used to it, but I’m sure it won’t be too hard to enjoy living the high life.

Oh boy, BJ just discovered that we have a Playstation/DVD player and guess what game it came with … MotorX World Tour. Looks like we suddenly have plans for the next couple hours.

10,403 kilometers around Australia

From the Ningaloo Marine Reserve to Shark Bay World Heritage Park, BJ and I explored beaches that I thought only existed on honeymoon brochures. The water was the lightest shade of blue surrounded by a deeper turquoise set against a white sand beach and the encroaching outback desert. Unlike up north there are no crocs or stingers, so we got our “snork” on in a couple different places, once at Turquoise Bay and once in coral Bay, where we ended up camping for three nights. There were tons of fish but not the brilliant coral that we found near the Great Barrier Reef along the east coast. The highlight for us has been the larger sea creatures that we have spotted from the shore, like whales, dolphins and even sharks.

Monkey Mia, in the heart of Shark Bay, has been made popular by its daily dolphin feedings. It sounded pretty touristy but ended up being one of the coolest things we’ve done and we both got a chance to feed one of the dolphins. For those skeptics out there, they actually only feed five of the dolphins that come into the bay and they feed them a very small amount so they are forced to continue hunting and fending for themselves. A local resident started feeding a dolphin in 1965 and this dolphin taught its calf who taught its calf to return to the area for food. So they now only feed these five related dolphins and you can stand right there with them in the water.

Before leaving Shark Bay we stopped at eagle Bluff and finally saw the sharks that give the bay its name. The bluff looked down over a huge shallow bay where we must have spotted at least a hundred shards cruising the waters below. I’ve never seen so many sharks. According to a sign, the sharks that we were watching were of the “Nervous Shark” species. This is one place in the park that posted a large no swimming sign.

As we made our way further south the terrain changed drastically. Rolling hills, large trees, tons of greenery filled the landscape. Our first destination was Kalbarri National Park and before setting up camp for the night we watched the sun set over the Kalbarri River Gorge.  We continued our tour of the park this morning along the Coastal Cliffs, an area that reminded me of Moab if it were located along a beautiful ocean. It didn’t take long to spot dolphins, whales and seal lions. But we finally encountered the notorious Australian flies. There is not much you can do to keep your sanity when the flies come and you almost feel violated when they leave. You have to talk out of the side of your mouth as they love crawling around in any facial orifice that they can get to. Although we had planned a second night in Kalbarri, the only way to escape the flies was to drive and we found ourselves suddenly on the way to our next destination. The flies literally drove us out of town.

We are now in the small town of Cervantes where we will hopefully be able to call home for two nights. We have a campsite right on the beach and after going out to a so-so crayfish dinner at the only cafe in town, we already seem to have plans to watch the Melbourne Cup, a huge annual horse race, at the local tavern tomorrow. The strangest thing about the area is that there are no waves. The ocean is completely still here as if we were on a giant salt water lake. We’re not sure if this is normal or not, but we’ll have to ask our new friends at the pub.

Click on the dolphin image below to take a look at our Coral Coast photo album (oh, and be sure to watch the Pelican Drinking Fountain video):

8,683 kilometers around Australia

We have covered some ground and I can’t believe we woke up on an island off of the east coast just two weeks ago. As we left Katherine to head further east we drove into a part of the country called the Kimberly. The terrain of red cliffs and rivers was much different and a nice change to the vast flat outback. It was still just as hot. We managed to drive through a full on downpour as well as a bush fire and every night we watch the sun turn into a glowing red ball and the clouds produce an incredible sunset.

When we reached Broome it was as if someone had hit the humidity switch. We were sticky all over and later heard a report that Broome was at 80% humidity. We also heard that this wasn’t even close to how hot or humid it becomes during the “wet.” We spent two nights in Broome, just a short walk from Cable Bay, where at low tide you can see dinosaur prints from roughly 120 million years ago.

The nights are cool again now that we are back on the west coast and we took advantage by going out to outdoor dinner and an outdoor movie. At dinner we sat at a picnic style table with two other couples who were actually surprised to hear that we were from the U.S. They actually thought we were Australians on holiday. We must really be doing a good job of fitting in. One of the couples was already planning on going to the cinema and it wasn’t hard to convince the third couple to join. So we spent the evening on a triple date with a group of Ausies we had only just met. I love Australians.

The “picture garden” is actually the oldest outdoor cinema in the world and it was awesome. It was partially covered but all open air. There were rows and rows of lawn chairs as well as a grassy area up front. The best part is that it is located right next door to the local airport and in the middle of the film we watched a noisy plane fly way to close for comfort over our heads. It drowned out the movie for a few minutes but it was more like a bonus feature. To top it all off we watched the moon set behind the cinema screen.

Before leaving town yesterday morning we hopped on our bikes for a ride out to the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point and back along the firm sand on the beach. The water was a beautiful sea green and was particularly stunning set against the bright red dirt and rock around Broome. We quickly showered, jumped in the car and drove straight to Port Headland, where the only mean Australian in the country checked us in to a campsite for the night. We drove through the rest of our weekend and now find ourselves in the small town of Exmouth, near the famous Ningaloo Reef. We have about four days in the area and we are excited to get exploring. We were already greeted by a giant emu who seemed to be holding our campsite for us. He/she was not afraid of us one bit but I can’t say the same the other way around.

5,721 kilometers around Australia.

Once we reached the Stuart Highway just north of Tenant Creek, we turned 90 degrees to the right and started driving straight north towards Darwin. We spent one night in back of a Shell gas station in Camooweal (don’t worry mom, it was an official campground) and another night at the Dunmarra Roadhouse, where two beers that we purchased at the bar cost the same price as our night of camping – $11. We pushed right on through to Katherine the following day, knowing that we would be returning to this deserted land with BJ’s mom in about a month. As we drove north, about 1,000 km above the Tropic of Capricorn, the landscape instantly changed from wide open brush where you could see on for miles to dense but short trees. The air also seemed to thicken. I suppose all along we were expecting the outback to be barren, desolate, and in no way survivable. Perhaps desolate, with only the occasional town of population 20, but it sustained much more life than I was expecting. We especially loved coming upon intersections with dirt roads where about ten different signs would name a town and its distance. We couldn’t in fact see anything off in the distance but it was pretty cool to think about the people living just that much further out in this arid part of the country.

Is it a bad sign when you seek out a hot spring because it is actually cooler than the air temperature? My entire body seemed to swell up as we entered Katherine. The heat hit me like a wall and it was all of a sudden hard to think straight. Everyone who knows me well knows that I am not the most cheerful person in the heat and having anticipated the heat for a while, I am doing my best to not move any more than is necessary. We have also found that hot springs and swimming pools are our new best friends. We took a delightful dip in Mataranka, about an hour south of Katherine. The thermal pool was crystal clear, the perfect cool temperature and surrounded by thousands of noisy flying foxes dangling from their feet in the trees overhead. It was completely free and well worth the detour. We stayed in the Katherine Gorge National Park campground last night which also happened to have a pool (slightly murky but refreshing) and a poolside bar and grille where a T-bone steak by the pool after our sunset stroll was definitely in order. Tonight we are camping closer to town, but within walking distance to the local hot springs a.k.a. cold springs. This is another series of free pools of crystal clear water that flows through a narrow gorge with a rocky bottom. The temperature is just about perfect and we will definitely be returning to these healing waters again in the morning.

4,341 kilometers around Australia

We had a few unexpected wildlife encounters today that are worth sharing.

Last night BJ came back from the bathroom and reported having seen a poem posted to the wall about a frog named Graham that lives year-round in the bathroom. Sure enough, on his way out he almost stepped on him. This morning, I was eager to investigate and found that the same frog apparently lived in the ladies bathroom as well. It sounds like people have tried to remove him and his family from these bathrooms numerous times, but they just keep coming back. And guess where their favorite spot to “chill” is – the toilet bowl. I lifted the seat in the very first stall and, although somewhat expecting to see a frog, I jumped as this little green creature about the size of my palm stared up at me. I left him in peace and used the next stall down.

Tonight we are camped in the town of Mount Isa, pronounced “eye” “za.” Smack dab in the middle of town is a huge copper ore plant which looks like it could just swallow up the rest of the town. BJ read that the mine has 1,000 kilometers of underground roads. 1,000 kilometers! We haven’t even driven 1,000 kilometers since we left the coast and that was three days ago. We set up camp on a slightly shaded field on the outskirts of town, with a view of our trusty internet tower. It is still getting chilly at night which immediately makes up for the sweaty days. Tonight, just as the cool air settled in, we noticed a swarm of birds flying overhead. At closer look they were hundreds and hundreds of bats. They barely make a sound when they fly and they just kept coming; we must have watched them for at least five minutes.

We are looking forward to much anticipated evening of watching Crocodile Dundee. We purchased this two disc set (the original and the sequel) about a week ago and we were sure that we would get lots of laughs. But the guy behind the counter simply nodded his head and said “What a classic. Great Choice.”

4,203 kilometers around Australia
Tonight’s Home – Gilbert Park Tourist Village

Just before entering the town of Cloncurry at the end of a scorching day in the van, the monotonous landscape of flat golden grasslands with the occasional cow or dry creek bed suddenly transformed into small rolling hills with shrubs and trees and the air was immediately cool. It was hard to believe the sign we saw as we drove into town claiming the national record for a high of 127 °F (53.1 °C) in 1889. Quoting Wikipedia: “Recent investigations have revealed that this temperature was measured in an improvised screen made from a beer crate and that it equated to 47–49 °C under standard conditions.” We hopefully won’t be here to break another record as the cool desert night is already settling in.

A complimentary lesson on outback social skills for your enjoyment:

Have you ever noticed the low subtle wave that two motorcyclists exchange as they pass each other on the open road? Well prepare yourself to learn about the Outback White Van Wave. I probably shouldn’t even be sharing this so if anyone asks, you didn’t learn this from me. Keep in mind that you also have to be driving a white van for this to work properly. Here it goes.  If you see another white van approaching you along an Australian outback road, remain still until you are just about to pass. At that moment, jump as far forward in your seat as you can and thrust your hand forward with fingers spread so that it almost touches the windscreen. Shake if vigorously, which is the wave portion of the Outback White Van Wave, and smile. There you have it. Now if you pass any other car, rig, or road train, keep your hand on the steering wheel and acknowledge the passing driver by lifting your index finger.

3,802 kilometers around Australia

A quick visit to the local mechanic and we were ready to get back on the road again with a working radiator fan – whew, that was an easy one. As we left Charter’s Towers we managed a quick drive through town to see if there was anything exciting that we had missed during our less than 24 hour stay. But after a few photos of some old buildings and an iced coffee, which is basically a coffee and ice cream shake, we decided we were ready to move on down the road towards the west coast.

We officially crossed the invisible line into the Outback today. Although the red dirt along the road and the thin but shady eucalyptus forest didn’t seem to change at this border, it was a moment of high excitement. Imagine driving at about 55 mph through the hot desert, passing an occasional roadhouse advertising “hot food, cold beer” and sometimes gas, taking pictures over and over again of the straight road stretching out front because you think it captures the scenery just a little bit better than the last photo, being passed constantly by road trains (what they call semi’s that have 3 trailers), enjoying the feeling of the wind whipping your hair if every direction and singing along to the sweet sounds of Michael Franti. I suppose we are still outback virgins and the thrill of this vast and empty land may not last forever. But for the time being, we are pretty excited to be right where we are.

If you look at a larger map of Australia it seems like we haven’t even made a dent on our trek inland, but it feels like we are a world away from the coast. We are staying on a brown patch of grass under a big shady tree in the town of Hughenden, home to roughly 1,000 residents. As we drove into town we had to capture the skyline . . . flat and dusty with a few scattered trees, houses and a huge communications tower. The tower is our internet connection and its existence is the only reason we are able to make camp for the night. We’ll spend tomorrow morning working in camp and then head to the tiny local library so we can poach their air conditioning while we wrap up the rest of our work day before moving on down the road again.