Karijini National Park

So as you can see I've been pretty bad about finishing this Northwest trip update. My internet in the student village is absolutely horrible and it hasn't worked all weekend, so I'll try to finish this in the library now before I head off to BALI tonight!

The last major place we stopped on our trip was Karijini National Park. It took us a day of traveling to get there after Ningaloo, and we stayed for two nights. After Karijini there isn't much to write about- we spent 3 days traveling back down to Perth. Along the way we drove through some deserted towns. There was this town called Cue that was the strangest thing. Only about 150 people live there now, all spread out around the town. The town center is perfectly manicured and very pretty and old fashioned, but there is literally no one around. It was kind of creepy- it felt like we had stumbled upon a ghost town, where people had just disappeared into thin air. We also had an adventure going to a new spot that the tour guides hadn't been before. While trying to drive through a wide ditch, our tour bus got wedged in and we spent a while digging it out, building a bridge of rocks, and all the guys had to push it. It was quite the experience to be completely stranded hundreds of miles from anyone and having to get it out!

Back to Karijini- I actually had to do a 3,000 word report on it this week. Not fun, but it was interesting to work on researching a place I had actually been. Karijini was the most hardcore camping that we experienced. There were drop toilets, no showers, deep red dirt, and we had to wear socks and sneakers at all times because of snakes. We also had to keep an eye out for dingoes and the tour guides had to check the toilets for red back spiders (extremely venomous). It was also probably my favorite part of the trip. We got to hike down into the gorges, swim in pristine freshwater pool and sit in waterfalls, and saw some amazing stars at night so far away from everything else.

Karijini is in the Hamersley range, and the drive in was breathtaking. As you can see, it was also extremely bumpy.

After our first night in Karijini, we were able to hike down into the gorges. We split into two groups and for the first part of the day hiked down a steep, long path with my favorite tour guid Ray to visit Circular Pool (sacred to the 3 Aboriginal groups that have joint ownership of Karijini with WA) and Fortescue falls.

Ray with a termite mound.

Circular Pool from above.

The gorge.

Kimbra, Emily and I along the way.

Circular Pool

Fortescue Falls

The walk back up.

We didn't see any dingoes at our camp, but we did see one in Karijini after we were driving away, walking around off the side of the road.

After lunch, we headed out with Barry the tour guide to the Karijini visitor center, then to Fern Pool. Fern Pool was much bigger and you had to swim across to get under the waterfall. There were also rocks you could stand on. Apparently there were water pythons in the water, another thing I'm really glad I did not know at the time!

Coral Bay and Ningaloo Reef

Day 4- Arriving at Coral Bay

We woke up at 5:30 am to start a long day of driving up to Coral Bay. We stopped at Carnarvon on the way through to break things up a bit, but overall there was nothing much to report from this day. We saw two wild kangaroos jump across the road, a male and a female. You can tell the difference because the males are a darker reddish color. We also saw seen some goats and sheep. Barry, one of the tour guides, explained to us that many farms are about a half million to a million acres, and that the sheep and goats just roam free. Their movement can be controlled by where the water is placed. They need a lot of land because of food scarcity and harsh conditions.

Earlier in the day we stopped at a plateau in the middle of the outback to get a few pictures. The photos really don’t do the view justice.

We also stopped at Gwoonwardu Mia, a Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre. We saw some great aboriginal artwork there and hung out for a bit next to the café.

There was a shopping centre where we saw a “Target Country,” which was pretty funny. We went inside and I really have no idea why its called that.

The cafe at the Aboriginal center- designed by the local kids.

Our next stop was at a harbor riverside for a picnic lunch before pulling into the Coral Bay campsite. The campsite was beautiful, and the town is incredibly tiny- pretty much just one street in front of the beach with a few shops (dive shops and cafes), a trailer park (where we camped), and a backpackers hostel. The campsite was really nice and I was glad we got to stay for two nights. Before we set up our tents we got to hang out at the beach for a while, wading in the shallow water. Because the reef is so close to the shore, stingrays were swimming around in the shallows so you had to watch where you stepped. We also spotted a bunch of large, colorful fish.

Day 5- Exploring Ningaloo Reef

The next day I signed up for a five-hour snorkeling tour with Manta Rays- the first time I had ever been! We got up early to head over to the dive shop, got our gear, and took a bus over to the tour boat.

Onboard the boat.

Once we were over some coral we jumped in to test out our gear for 45 minutes before we began looking for the Mantas. It was fun, but kind of stressful getting used to the gear for the first time. I saw a small reef shark and a few fish before my mask started fogging up- when the tour guide started pointing out “the biggest jellyfish she’s seen here” a few feet away from us and I couldn’t see it, I knew it was time to swim back to the boat and switch gear!

After the test run we all got back on board, had “morning tea,” then they sent up the small plane to spot the Mantas. It was a full moon for the few nights we were there so the reef was really active, and the Mantas were in to be cleaned. As soon as they spotted one we split into 2 groups and took turns swimming behind it- it was a massive female, about 4 meters wide- pretty much as big as they get! It was incredible because she was swimming nice and slow with the current while getting cleaned by fish, so it was easy to keep up. Most of the time I was floating only a few feet above her back. Definitely my favorite part of the day!

The Manta!

Awesome picture my friend Kimbra took.

We let the Manta go on her way and got onboard for lunch, where they drove over to a turtle breeding ground. We saw a bunch of different turtles surfacing, as well as a 9-foot Tiger Shark…or as the driver put it, “big enough to eat a man.” We went and warned some locals who were swimming and I actually didn’t think too much of it, but when I got back and looked it up the Tiger Shark is pretty much second most dangerous to the Great White! Good thing I didn’t know that at the time, haha. We then drove over to the outer reef, where the waves are breaking, for another 45 minute snorkel. This was where I realized that I am definitely not as strong of a swimmer as I thought- the current was really strong so I just decided to chill over this one section of coral near a long rope with a buoy they had hanging off the back of the boat.

The Tiger Shark.

The top of the boat- chasing the Tiger Shark to get some pictures!

Warning the locals- got back on the boat to go look for it.

Shantee, Me, and Emily

When we got back to the dock, we saw a huge Queensland Grouper while waiting for the bus. I thought that was awesome because it’s really similar to the groupers that I worked with at the aquarium.

What a Queensland Grouper looks like- bigger than the Goliath Groupers I would feed at the aquarium.

When we got back to the dive shop we got free snorkel rentals and explored from the beach- we really didn’t have to swim too far to see some coral, although it wasn’t as bright as the reefs farther out. It was another great night of hanging out with friends and sleeping under the stars at Coral Bay!

Day 3- Monkey Mia

The next morning we were all excited to set out for Monkey Mia bright and early to see the dolphins come in. They are the major tourist attraction- at 7:45 every morning several female dolphins swim in to be fed a few fish for a snack. We saw a 34-year-old female named Puck who has been coming her whole life, and brought her 1-year-old calf with her. Another 35-year-old female and Puck’s 12-year-old daughter each came with their calves as well. The tourists stand on the edge of the water, and nobody touches the dolphins. Nobody is allowed to swim in that section of the beach either, so that the dolphins can have their own special area. The speakers give them a few fish each day, nowhere near enough for sustenance so they are not dependent on it- they only feed five females who have made it a tradition to start their day by coming into Monkey Mia. It was really cool to see them that close! It was hard to get a good picture of them in the water, until they began looking at us.

The Monkey Mia Resort.

Afterwards, we went out on a catamaran called the “Aristocat 2” for about an hour and a half. There were cool nets to sit in on the front of the ship, and in the back there was this awesome net you could ride in for a while. It was really exciting trying to hold on and being pummelled by the water...and the ocean was really warm! For the rest of the time we cruised around trying to find dugongs (sea cows, like a manatee), and before we got into shore we spotted 2!

Sitting in one of the front nets.

Being dragged in the back net! I'm the closest one to the camera.

The rest of the day was spent driving around to a few different spots. We stopped at the Eagle Bluff cliffs overlooking a small bird conservation island, and we stopped at an old abandoned sheep station.

The Eagle Bluffs cliff area.

A sheep dip- used to get rid of parasites on the sheep, the ranchers would make the sheep swim across and dip them before they could climb out. Sheep have to roam huge areas to sustain themselves here, so along the way we would often see groups of sheep in the middle of nowhere that looked like they were wild.

A female orb weaver that we saw in the sheep shed. Their webs are so strong you can stretch them a few feet and they snap back. I will never complain about spiders in MA again! :)

Another random stop along the way- I think it was a marsh.

We also stopped at Shell Beach, one of only 2 beaches in the world made entirely of shells. The salinity of the water is really high so the ocean was crystal clear, and the water was shallow and still. We were the only ones on this incredible, huge beach. It was really nice.

Then we left and I was on dinner duty for that night. Once the setup was complete we walked over to the beach to see the stromatalites. The flies were pretty bad when it was light out so we started out wearing the super attractive fly nets. Stromatalites are some of the oldest known living organisms on Earth, reaching 3.5 billion years old. The ones in Shark Bay are about 2,000 to 3,000 years old but are pretty much the same as their ancestors. Stromatalites provided much of the Earth’s oxygen- they were cool to see, even though they were just rock. It was a really pretty beach and dock.

Shantee, Emily, and I with the latest Northwest fashion.

The dock leading out to the stromatalites.

They had these super corny cartoon informational signs showcasing "Stumpy the Stromatalite"- this one was definitely the best.

Me with the really exciting stromatalites! Ha.

Some living stromatalites.

The Northwest Trip- Days 1 and 2

I’ve been putting off writing these blog posts for a while because it seems pretty daunting writing this whole 10-day trip down, but here I go. I’m going to try to break this up into multiple posts because there’s so much to write about!

Anyway, last week I got back from an awesome 10-day excursion in the outback of WA. When I mentioned in previous blog posts how isolated Perth is, it hadn’t quite hit me just how much. We drove about 4,000 km total, or 2,500 miles the whole trip up to Coral Bay and back, and barely saw a soul except for some roadhouses and random towns we stopped in along the way. It really was just endless expanses of wilderness. That being said, I was definitely thrown headfirst into a new experience. We slept in tents every night, were inundated with swarms (literally, SWARMS of thousands) of flies and crickets, and every other insect imaginable in the outback. It was great to be unplugged the whole trip…definitely the longest I’ve gone without the Internet. We spent a LOT of time on the bus each day travelling from place to place, especially on Day 1 and Day 2.

Day 1

On Friday, March 18^th we left Murdoch and drove through Perth, going from city to deserted outback in a surprisingly short time. The scenery was incredible the whole trip. The first few days we took a scenic drive along the west coast. On day one, we made our way up through the town of Geraldton to our Northbrooke farm stay. We didn’t see anything too exciting because we were focused on making our way up north, but we did stop for lunch at a small park next to a gorgeous beach. How a beach this pretty could be so empty I have no idea, but that thought was repeated the whole trip.

We also saw a beautiful war memorial for the HMAS Sydney II ship that was sunk off the coast, overlooking a tiny coastal town. The Northbrooke farm stay was a really nice campsite, with a big mowed lawn for us to pitch our tents.

The beautiful war memorial, made out of silver gulls- when it was dedicated a huge flock of rare silver gulls flew over the ceremony.

Day 2

On the second day, we began another long day’s journey up to the Hamelin Pool campsite inside Shark Bay, which is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region. It is 800 km north of Perth. The entire area’s population is less than 1,000 people, occupying less than 1% of the land. No wonder WA’s sometimes referred to as “the last frontier.”

I sat up front with the tour guide Ray, who was an awesome older guy from Belfast, Ireland, who's been in WA for 30 years and loves nature. He swerved out of the way of this Blue Tongued Shingleback Skink and pulled over so we could see it. The skink kept sticking its tongue out to scare us off, and did it to the bus too when we first pulled over! Brave little guy.

I took a lot of shots of the road. Here's just one of many:

Along the way we stopped at Nature’s Bridge off of Kalbarri National Park.

Nature's Bridge.

We also spent some time exploring Murchison River in Kalbarri National Park. Aside from the beautiful scenery, we also saw a wild goat and kangaroo hopping in the valley below.

We finally made it up to Hamelin Pool, where we stayed for 2 nights. The first night we got there I was not excited at all about the campsite- the small grassy area was a bit overgrown and it was getting dark when we got there, so it was quite a surprise to step on the grass and find a jumping mass of grasshoppers. I’ve literally never seen so many in my life…you would step down and about 20 would jump. It was like all of us were setting up our tents on a popcorn hotplate. They would just constantly jump and crash into you, and if you know how I am about bugs you can probably imagine me flailing and hopping around while trying to set up the tent with my friend Emily Tucker. To make matters worse, all of a sudden my friend Cori screamed and limped out of the campsite…bit by a spider. Nevertheless we threw shoes and socks on, set up our tent, and threw everything inside as fast as possible! After that it wasn't so bad and we all just hung out until we crashed for the night.