Trip Preview - Western Australia (Part 3 of 7)

Now here we go: we've gotten through most of the jungle and a little desert, but now we've got a lot of open road ahead of us. This is a big state, so it will be a long preview. Western Australia is the size of the Western US with a mere 1.8 million (1.3 million in one city). Although there are hardly any people, that does not make the driving go much faster.

We will enter Western Australia at Kununurra. At the start, the landscape is a mix of jungle and bluffs - mountains, but not extremely high. Shortly, things will dry up and offer a mix of arid and semi-arid. The first noteworthy landmark we'll pass is the Bungle Bungle range in Purnululu National Park. This is a really strange looking sandstone mountain range in which the mountains themselves have rings - as if a topographic map was drawn on top (see image, all of my images in this preview are gently lifted from the Western Australia tourism site). As an aside, Western Australia and Queensland have the best state tourism sites - I mention this not only to appeal to their lawyers in case they don't take kindly to my use of the images, but also as an FYI in case you consider visiting. The Great Northern Highway - Highway 1 - will take me near the Bungle Bungles, but the road does not go through them and I am not going to drive up into the hills. Sorry, I've got places to go and a child to entertain. I will feel like we are remote enough in a state that makes Montana seem urban - there is no need to take a dirt road during rainy season in a Camry (or comparable vehicle). Speaking of Highway 1, it will more or less take me from Cairns across Queensland, Northern Territory, and the length of Western Australia to the South Australia state line.

The most remote places I have ever driven are eastern Montana (into western North Dakota), I-80 between Reno and Salt Lake City, and Western Australia between Perth and Albany (SE of Perth on south coast). That third one is the only time I have not seen any oncoming traffic for an hour. You start wondering if they closed the road and you missed the sign. In all of Western Australia, by far the most populated part of the state outside Perth is the southwest corner of the state. This should give you a sense of what we're looking at in the northern end of the state.

Moving on, we will cruise west towards Broome. We will skirt along the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert. South of that, there is the Gibson Desert followed by the Great Victoria Desert. This is one reason I will not turn left (until I get to the coast) and I would not find anything if I did. There is so much desert from the north coast to the south coast that they needed to name three separate deserts in there. Aside from the northern coastline, it is just desert the whole way south. The scale is simply unreal. I'll get to the southern edge of the Great Victoria Desert in a few paragraphs in the Nullarbor. Just know that this is why much of Western Australia is essentially uninhabited. Broome is the only town worthy of the name along the coast between Darwin and Perth. Put this on an American map: Minneapolis is Darwin (with less than 100k people), San Diego is Perth (almost to scale), and there is a town of 20k around Boise called Broome. Alex and I will get a clear sense of what the term "the ends of the earth" really means. If I ever went into the witness protection program, this would be one of the towns I would think of. And yet I'll pull into town and be able to get online, get phone reception, and have everything I would have pulling into some town along the freeway. Being on the edge of the Indian Ocean, the climate is generally hot and sunny. As someone who loves sunshine, this will be really nice.

So from Broome we will follow the coastline all the way down to Perth. In between, there is one stop I am really looking forward to: Monkey Mia. Monkey Mia is a resort at which guests get to spend time with our intelligent mammal friend... the dolphin. No, there are no monkeys at Monkey Mia. "Monkey" was simply the name of the first boat to arrive at this location in Shark Bay. At Monkey Mia, wild dolphins actually show up for feeding three times a day. Alex will get to go out in the water and pet the dolphins. He loves water and we will finally be able to wade into the salt water (no crocs, no box jellyfish). Shark Bay sounds like it would be a restaurant next to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, but it is amazing in the National Geographic/ Discovery Channel sense. It is a relatively shallow bay that resembles the conditions in which some scientists believe life began: relatively saline, calm water, warm year-round. For that reason it is just about the only place on earth that stromatolites grow. These look like unusual rock formations, but are actually a sort of primitive coral forming right on the water's edge. Kind of a cool concept and rather humbling, if you think about it. Nearby, there is also a beach with no sand. Much like cheeseless pizza, this strikes me as a concept worth hearing about but I remain sceptical that I will be sold on the idea once I experience it. The beach is covered with nothing but shells - millennia upon millennia of shellfish living and passing on to create a massive deposit of small white shells. It is right off the main road, so we'll check this out for sure. The Monkey Mia resort itself looks pretty cool, but we will get the most fun from just swimming with the dolphins a couple times. Again, guests and their kids can be involved in the feeding, including petting the dolphins. There are rules - you can't have any sunscreen on because it will hurt the dolphins' eyes - but we'll have a heckuva a time. Then we will drive about 8 hours south to....

Perth! I am a city person. Obviously - given this trip - I am not opposed to open spaces. Still, after about 2 weeks without seeing oncoming traffic, without seeing more than 20 people at a time, without any selection of restaurants, possibly without espresso (oh the humanity!) it is safe to say that I will be VERY HAPPY to see Perth. Unlike every point since Sydney Airport, I have actually been to Perth before, so I will get a dose of familiarity as well. Perth is a very modern city with a harbor on the Swan River just a couple miles from the Indian Ocean. There is a cool restaurant district, not unlike North Beach in San Francisco. Alex and I will stay at a nice hotel using points - maybe a Hilton, maybe a Westin - and we will stay in the same place for a couple nights. It will be very cool.

First thing, I will take the car to a local version of Jiffy Lube (or Hertz if they'll look it over). We will have come about 5,000 miles/ 8,000 km and I really don't want the car to break down in an inopportune moment. While we're on the subject, I've gotten some questions about my travel precautions. Yes, I will travel with at least a week's worth of water and plenty of food at all times. Alex & I will wear sunscreen and some sort of mosquito repellent, and we'll even buy those goofy fly nets that you can put on your hat. To those who have no idea what I am talking about, Australia has more than its fair share of flies - the persistent, land on the same spot on your lip kind of flies. In response, Australians have these mini-nets you can put on your hat - keeping flies off your face and neck. Last time I skipped it because they look ridiculous, but waving your hands around in an agitated manner looks ridiculous too.

So we'll take half a day wandering around Perth, probably in the late afternoon/ evening. It's a good city. We will also probably do some sort of cruise up the river. Aneta and I did that and visited a pretty good winery called Taliancic. Depending on the options, we may choose a more kiddie friendly version. We'll see. Speaking of kiddie friendly, we will probably go to Rottnest Island. This reminds me, not nearly enough explorers were good marketers. "Shark Bay" may sound challenging or intriguing, but Rottnest Island? Rotting Nest? Yeah, let's go have a picnic there! It gets better, it is actually from a Dutch explorer, so it means "Rat Nest Island". It was named this because there was a marsupial that the Dutch guy confused for a rat. Fact remains this is apparently a beautiful island with white beaches, no cars, and great for a day out. We'll see how it fits in, but it is on the preliminary itinerary.

Perth is connected to Fremantle, maybe 10 miles away. Fremantle was an old port city that has ultimately merged with Perth as Perth has grown. Fremantle has an old fort, mostly 2-3 story buildings, no skyscrapers, and for lack of a better comparison it looks kind of like Charleston, South Carolina or the French Quarter. This will also be a nice place to spend a few hours.

Once we've had a few days to unwind and refresh in Perth, we'll be off for a day in Margaret River. Margaret River is the premier wine region of Western Australia, located 3-4 hours south of Perth. It has a unique microclimate as the Indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean and it is ideal for several wine varietals. There is a string of little towns reminiscent of Sonoma county (to me, at least). There are plenty of activities such as surfing and lighthouses to run around - Alex will like this place and if he's enjoying it (and we're feeling lucky) we may stay an extra day around here. At the very least, we will have lunch in Margaret River, visit a couple wineries, and then continue on towards Walpole. Walpole is known for the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. At the Treetop Walk, you go up on an elevated steel mesh walkway that is a couple hundred feet high and walk amongst the tree tops (see image, thanks again Western Australia tourism), and you can look straight down to the forest floor. Don't worry - it is enclosed on the sides, it is kid friendly, and Alex will have fun here. This region should also be know for a series of unpronounceable town names: Nornalup, Manjimup, Gnowangerup, ... so I will simply refer these towns collectively as "after Margaret River".

So after Margaret River (and after Walpole), we'll get to Denmark. On a previous trip, Aneta and I stayed the night in Denmark and it was instructive about how most of Australia outside Sydney & Melbourne works - and how likely we were to spend much time outside those cities in the future. Denmark is a town of 7,000. It has its own little tourist office in town. Every accommodation listing (motels, bed & breakfasts) chose to describe itself in romantic terms: quaint, quiet, secluded, isolated... Well, after not seeing many towns on our drive down, Aneta wanted people. As each B&B described itself as more remote than the last, it resembled a horror movie to her and all Aneta could think was "nobody will hear you scream". She asked for a hotel with a lobby (preferably a marble lobby and lots of people). If you are not familiar with 7,000-person villages near Nornalup, there are no hotels with lobbies. We settled on a place offering a few rooms. There were in fact other guests and we still got cornered on a dock by a kangaroo. It was really nice in a quaint, quiet, secluded, isolated way. Aneta & I enjoyed ourselves, but we both became acutely aware that while my wife can feel equally at-home in most any setting on the globe: the Balkans, London, New York, Latin America, or Melbourne...she fits in anywhere like a native. Well, Denmark, WA was a bridge (or an empty road) too far. It is like the moment when I realize I have put too much spice on my food - both I and those eating with me realize that it is a rare and special moment.

This area - Southwest Australia - is cooler (temperature) than anything we've seen so far and anything we will see again until we enter Victoria. Cool breezes come in off the ocean and Albany (despite the name making me think of New York) feels very much like a touristy fishing village in New England. Albany is also where the overlap with my previous visit ends. We'll follow a beautiful coastline to Esperance. Esperance is a decent-sized town (maybe 20,000) on the water and the last town for about 1000 miles. From here, after a relatively populous southwestern corner of Western Australia, we will dive back into one last stretch of the great empty. If you are looking at the map, it is due south of Kalgoorlie. From Esperance, we will drive north about half way to Kalgoorlie and turn east - ultimately following the coast to the state line along the Nullarbor.

The Nullarbor is a nearly 1000 km (600+ miles) straight open plane stretching from the southern edge of the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia into South Australia. The name is from Latin, translated roughly as "No Trees". This sparse tract of land is home to the longest golf course on earth. There are 18 holes located about every 30 miles. You pay at the first and just show your scorecard at each subsequent hole. Drive up, pull out your clubs, play a hole, and get one with it. Certainly this could be a good way to stay alert as you drive across a vast, open expanse. If I remotely cared about golf, this would be a cool "merit badge" to brag about to my friends. In reality, even if I brought clubs, I would be searching for lost balls and discovering strange, new, and exotic animals to scare me while chasing Alex into the desert. There are giant sand dunes and the attached photo shows a sand dune overtaking what had been the telegraph station in Eucla. Even by Australian standards, the Nullarbor is pretty remote. Eucla is located at the state line with South Australia, and that's where we'll stop this preview (and probably stop for the night - there are not many options!).

The next chapter will cover South Australia - finishing up the Nullarbor and getting to the best wine country on earth.