Australian Bush (because Aussies don't call it outback)

After we left Carnavon, we have been in Coral Bay, Cape Range National Park, Exmouth, Tom Price, Port Headland, Broome, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek and made it to Kununurra by now. Coral Bay has been one of the the most beautiful beaches we have seen so far. Turquoise waters, white sands and even a bit of a breeze going on to cool at nights. But this was the place where the portugese man-o-war kind of occupied the waterfront, which we have seen while walking down the beach in the mornings. Hundreds of them dead and most of them have taken a fish with them....nasty animals.

Swimming in the ocean is now definitly done, as here up north not only sharks are there, but saltwater crocodiles. It even feels weird to come close to a river. Australia has so many nice beaches and so many dangerous animals which kind of destroy the pleasure. Broome had the box jelly-fish, the southcoast the sharks and now there are crocs everywhere. Not to talk about the spiders, flies, mozzies and snakes.

After we have left Coral Bay we went into Cape Range National Park to spend another night without facilities. There was a toilet, but a spider living in there and not knowing if she’d be poisoned or not, so we decided rather not to use it. The beaches have been awesome and the wildlife as well. We even had roos licking the condensed water of the car at nights, because we couldn’t give them all our drinking water, which we tried with a few little ones, because they are thirsty like we are.

Desperate for a shower and clean clothes we booked in for a cabin (luxury with ensuite bathroom) in Exmouth the following night and didn’t regret it. A full afternoon chilling at the pool and a night with temperatures below 40degrees (thanks AC) gave us back our energy to go on.

Now we were about to head back into the outback. Next stop Nanutarra Roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. The day had about 60degrees and it didn’t cool down at all, but we got a bit of rain which didn’t change the slightest, but gave us hope for a cooler night. Disappointing. But the place was really lovely and the lightning at the skies all around us made it up a bit. Tom Price was the next stop which was again just hanging out at the pool after we have got the information that Karijini National Park (the reason why we came the long ways down) was closed due bushfires. All we could do is take the main road through the park to get at least a slight impression, but this made it even worse as it looked gorgeous. The gorges are supposed to be stunning and we wouldn’t see them.

Port Headland wasn’t nice either but really really humid, which made the breakfast kind of a torture. Going all the way up to Broome the next day, expecting a lovely place, was a long ride, but not exactly worth it. At least the pool had about 60degrees water temperature (Déjà vu) which was really refreshing. Dirty kitchen, a fridge where you’d rather put everything in plastic bags and of course mozzies. We met a new animal, the frilled lizard, but unfortunately he wasn’t scared enough to frill.

As the 4WD Gibb road through the Kimberly Ranges has been closed for the wet season, we knew that we’d go around anyways but that we won’t see a thing wasn’t expected at all. But we have seen places which I highly recommend to go to: Fitzroy Crossing (largest frogs ever seen) and Halls Creek (spiders all over the ablutions) and again heat, heat and heat.

But as always we managed to get past it and are in Kununurra right now, relaxing in a backpacker for a few days, to get some sleep and a bit of a rest from the weather. I’d never expected to struggle that much, as I normally really love the hot temperatures, but I guess, age is taking its dues :-)))

Hihihi.