Travelling from Perth to Darwin (West Coast)

I had been looking for work and was not having much joy in Perth so I decided to move on and see a little of Australia while I was about it. A girl from Madrid had bought a clapped-out Ford Falcon and was planning to travel by herself from Perth to Darwin - a journey of 4,040 kilometres or 2,510 miles. She was leaving in a couple of days and was happy for me to share the driving and costs with her, by the time we left a girl from Berlin joined us too.

None of us knew each other and both women had been travelling alone and it was clear that they were very independent. We set off early from Perth only stopping briefly for groceries. We drove (very cramped conditions with no air-conditioning) for several hours and stopped in the middle of nowhere for some lunch. When we tried starting the car, nothing happened and both of my companions immediately turned to me and asked how much I knew about engines. Not knowing much, I opened the bonnet, wiggled the battery cable, flicked the fan and said "try it now". Of course it purred into life immediately.

We drove to the pinnacles - stones in the desert. It was supposed to cost $9 but the girls used some charm and we were allowed in for free. We saw an amazing sunset there before carrying on driving. That first night we stopped at a petrol station, used the facilities for lorry drivers and cooked pasta in the dark.

Arriving late that night in Geraldtown, we pitched our tent on some lovely green grass. As soon as we had done so we noticed a large sign saying "NO CAMPING" and suddenly some sprinklers turned on repeatedly showering the tent for two hours. We found out in the morning that you can be fined $1,000 for camping.

The highlights after that were "natures window" in Kalbarri National Park - which again is an impressive rock formation that looks like a window (nice, but a long drive to get there). Next were the "stromatolites" at Hamelin Pool. These were the first link in the evolutionary chain and were also impressive as Bill Bryson rightly said.

Monkey Mia was my first experience of seeing Dolphins in the wild - one swam less than a foot away from me. We found a free campsite in Coral Bay. I went snorkelling there the next day and it was the most terrific, pristine snorkelling experience I've had before or since (including Thailand and the Great Barrier Reef).

We saw lots of wildlife on the drive, many giant termite mounds (they have an example of one in the museum in Perth), large flies buzzing all over you, lizards and snakes, stray cattle and goats. Of course there were many kangaroos and wallabies - sadly many dead on the verge after being hit by traffic. Our Falcon (or "Ragged Rocket" as we named her) didn't have any bars on the front meaning we couldn't drive too much in the dark as having a kangaroo arriving through the windscreen into your lap is a dangerous experience.

The road was so hot that we had a blow-out in one of our tyres and later that day we experienced a mini-cyclone. Further north we came across locusts that completely covered the road. We had to press on with our journey and must have killed millions in the process.

Travelling from Perth to Darwin was a great experience. Most visitors spend their time on the East coast of Australia and don't make it to the remoter West coast. In all, this epic journey cost me $250 (AUD). If I had travelled in style by coach it would probably have been six times as much and not nearly as adventurous.

BY: Blue

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z GENERAL

Disclaimer
These articles have not been written by an attorney, they are not intended as legal advice and not meant to be relied upon. The articles are written by many different authors and do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of GlobalGophers. Global Gophers is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You may copy the information provided in these pages so long as you create an html link back acknowledging the source. Copying of images is not permitted unless stated otherwise. Questions to articles@globalgophers.com