If you could realise a birthday wish, what would it look like? Would it be 8 metres long, weigh 10 tonnes, be covered in spots and utterly beautiful? Mine was.
Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the world, growing up to 14 metres long and weighing over 30 tonnes. Each one has unique markings – their own thumbprint – and every year they take up temporary residence in the warm waters of Ningaloo Reef in Western Australian. I have always wanted to swim with one. This year I got my wish.
The beautiful whaleshark with us on the far right
It was my surprise birthday present from Geoff, but first we had to drive 1300km from Broome to Exmouth, a two-day race down to the beautiful Western Australia coast, passing slow cattle musters, scuttling monitor lizards and arriving to glorious sunsets.
Bringing the cattle to muster stations en-route to Exmouth
Very orderly cows
A two-metre long monitor lizard scurries out of our path
The sun setting over Ningaloo Reef
Glorious sunsets are a daily expectation
But never mind that – what about the whale sharks. We were at the very end of the season and though they said there were still big fish around, we would be lucky to see them – but we are very lucky people, so we got to see three!
The shark was totally unfazed by our presence
Their spots are their fingerprint; each whale shark’s marking are unique
We were as up close and personal as you can get, as you will see from our video below and on our YouTube channel.
Whale sharks mouths can be up to 1.5 metres wide, so it is fortunate that they have a taste for plankton and not people. They can be found in tropical waters around the world, but Ningaloo reef is famous for these gentle giants.
In addition to the whale sharks, we also saw dozens of humpback whales, hammer head sharks, and turtles. It was a glorious day!
One of the many humpback whales we saw
Humpback mother and calf swimming on Ningaloo Reef
Obligatory cheesy snorkelling couple photo
Happily snorkelling with Geoff in the background
A humpback calf showing off to the crowd
A fine fluke
All of the ocean-based photos in this blog and the video are courtesy of Blue Media in Exmouth. The snorkelling tour was with Ningaloo Blue and they were fabulous.
All the memories and joy are courtesy of Geoff – thank you for this and oh so many other things.
We spent a week in Broome, drinking in the colours of the Indian ocean, admiring the view and marvelling at rather lovely birds. Oh and there were the barking owls. They were nesting right next to our tent…. gotta love them owls!
Broome is the perfect place to relax between outback trips. Clear, clean seas, bright sunshine, white sandy beaches and lots of lovely chirpy birds – as well as the barking ones!
Before we got to Broome we stopped by in Derby, which has the third highest tidal rise in the world – at over 11metres and a very large Boab tree that used to be a prison!
We also managed to be in Broome at full moon, to witness the so-called Staircase to the Moon phenomenon. Not to appear cynical, but it’s just the moon reflected on the water with very good marketing. Sadly on our day, the marketing was more powerful than the reflection and we got more of a pantry step than a staircase!
It’s hard not to take nice pictures around here as everything is so photogenic, and the birdlife was very obliging so we hope Broome brings a little sunshine into your lives as it has for us.
PS. Barking Owls really sound like they are barking. Of course ours wouldn’t bark when I tried to record him, so here’s a youtube video to give you an idea.
It’s a 1000km of dirt, corrugations, gold mines and road trains. The Tanami Track is also the fastest way from the Centre to the west. It took us three days.
Here we go – see you in a 1,000km
The first two hundred km are tarred, but after that it is nothing but red dirt as far as the eye can see.
The last of the tar
800km of this
Fair warning to fuel up
There is one roadhouse and one aboriginal community along the entire length of the Track. There used to be more, but as with many other outback areas – the life was just too hard for too little and stations were abandoned.
The ruined remains on an old station
Nature is now in command of the machine
Relics of another era
An abandoned cattle station vehicle
We spent our first night looking out across the salt pan of Lake Lewis and the last of the West MacDonald ranges in the distance and enjoyed a spectacular moonrise.
A blood red moon rise over the Tanami
Red moon rising in a black sky
The fading light glinting off the troopie
Our first camp spot on the Tanami Track
The morning was pretty special too!
Far from the crowds
A ghost gum and the moon early in the morning light
Black kite
Desert mornings glow
The West MacDonald ranges in the distance
We liked it so much that we are willing to share with other travellers, so entered it on the Wiki Camps app, which is the camping bible in Australia.
Nimmo’s Rest WikiCamp entry
Day two and the corrugations on the dirt road were pretty bad. The tyres kick up ruts in the dirt, which become deeper and more cut up the greater the traffic and the faster the speeds. Sometimes our speed was down to 20km just to minimise the shakes.
Geoff dropping the tyre pressure for the rutted road ahead
The corrugations have rattled a few bolts loose on the car
The photos don’t do justice to the road, so here’s a short video to give you an idea of what it feels like. This isn’t the worst part, I couldn’t hold the phone for that bit!
But there is much more to the desert than ruts and dust. And there’s always time for a cup of tea, regardless of the state of the road
A nice cuppa tea
Our second night was even more glorious than the first. On a full moon we found the only raised section of desert for miles. With 360-degree views we watched the desert colours change with the rising and setting sun and moon.
Sunset on our stony knoll – the highest point of the desert for miles
The International Space Station shot through our night sky
Sunrise with the last dot of the moon still on show
The desert sunrise
About 5km away was The Granites Gold Mine.
The Granite gold mine in the distance
Home to the world’s largest road train. For the nerdy among you, it is so big it can pull 400tonnes of gear, with a 650HP prime mover at the front and a remote controlled 400hp engine trailer in the middle. We didn’t see the truck, although we heard many ploughing up and down nearby tracks, but we did manage to steal their wifi signal and took great delight in phoning home from the middle of the desert!
The desert below our vantage point
The delicate blond grasses transform the landscape
A golden grassy shimmer
The winter rains have brought golden grass and green trees to the desert
Parts of the Tanami Track feel a little samey in terms of view, but there are also endless surprises and wonderful places to pull up.
Not a bad spot for lunch
Our shadow was longer, but he loomed larger
The brahmin-crossed cattle have a serene, but definite presence
The wedge-tail eagle has a wing span of nearly three metres
Termite mounds come in many shapes and sizes
A very large termite mound
A Boab tree
A little bit of trucker road art on the Tanami Track
Day two and we were on the fuzzy end of another road train. One of the things that is good to avoid on a dirt road is getting stuck behind another vehicle – especially a large lorry.
Road trains blot out the view as they pass
This is what it is like trying to get passed one. Turn up the volume to hear Geoff and the driver’s discussion and some under-the-breath swearing from me!
The driver was our eyes ahead, when his clouds of dust were making us blind. It was a little hairy, but you put your faith in the guy who can see and go for it!
Towards the end of the Tanami Track is Wolfe Creek – the world’s second largest meteorite crater.
A sunset arrival didn’t give much away
A mere 300,000 years ago a 20,000 ton meteorite, travelling at 15km per second, or 54,000km per hour (considerably faster that we managed on that road), slammed into the earth and exploded a crater 140m deep and 850m wide. Today the crater has been filled with dust and only sits 11m deep – but it is still an impressive and mind-boggling sight to imagine what happened here.
The second largest meteorite crater in the world
Wolfe Creek is also the scene of a slasher movie where hapless road trippers are tricked into a mass murderer’s house. The fake bloodied hand on the sign for the crater was a little reminder of the movie.
Thankfully, we have a mechanic on board and we were more awed by what a meteor could do, than a Hollywood manic.
Look closely and see the “bloody” hand
Although I did think this dude floating in the air near our tent was pretty scary.
Floating cobwebs, with attitude
The Tanami Track is interstate – crossing from Northern Territory to West Australia.
The boundary marker between West Australia and Northern Territory
The unassuming sign is a major landmark for us, as we now venture into states unknown. From now on everything in this ancient part of the continent is new to us both and already we have seen some extraordinary places.
There’s the so-called Red Centre of Australia – which includes Uluru. And then there’s the Dead Centre. We shot down the aptly-named Gun Barrel Highway to pay it a visit.
If you look at a map you can seen why the Gun Barrel was so named. Len Beadell – surveyor and road builder extraordinaire – wanted it to be as straight as the very same.
The aptly named Gunbarrel Highway
Nice work Len!
Despite its appealing straightness, it is now a road less travelled.
One of only two vehicles we saw on the entire stretch
We found a lovely example of another Australian classic along the way. Water-pumping windmills have been a lifeline for farmers across the country. The Southern Cross windmill was first built in 1876 and the steel-bladed water-bringers have been cranking through the outback since.
Another great Australian outback invention
Shadows on the wind
The windmills of the outback kept the water flowing and the people and cattle going.
The windmills are vital for pumping water in remote areas
Just a little bit of water is all it needs to keep the desert growing too, it seems. Far from being an empty wasteland, plants and flowers spring up at the sides of the track.
Even the tiniest blooms burst into life
Some plants almost merge with the soil for the last drops of moisture
Wild flowers bloom at the edge of the track
Yellow and purple dance along the Gunbarrel
A gaggle of zebra finches at a truckstop water tank
A yellow honeyeater well disguised
A welcome waterhole
Of course water is great for flowers and cows, but not so great for 3 ton wagons like ours and we had to pick our way carefully.
One of the many hazards of outback tracks
An unavoidable soaking
We found some slightly bigger hazards too, but thankfully they were behind a fence.
A proud looking camel
It wasn’t much interested in saying hello
Having travelled a short section of the Gun Barrel, we turned up onto the track leading to Lambert’s Centre – the geographical centre of Australia.We can only assume that visitors aren’t very welcome at the Centre – it took us more than a hour to travel 14km on one of the worst roads we have covered so far.
A long haul up a short road to the middle
Getting to the dead centre of the Red Centre doesn’t seem to be encouraged
We imagined a notable place might have a notable road in. I suppose it did
Bruce Lambert (of the Centre) was one of Australia’s most decorated surveyors and explorers, but ironically never made it to the landmark that bears his name. Perhaps if he had, he might have had something to say about the road.
In honour of the master map maker and surveyor, who never made it here
Lambert’s Centre – the heart of Australia
Unlike Bruce – we set up camp for the night. Another compass point ticked off the list.
Setting up camp at sunset at the centre of Australia
Speckled stars on a moonlit night in the outback
The road to the centre was not the best. The road from the centre didn’t get much better. We did as good travellers should and took advice from the locals.
Travellers: “Is the Old Ghan Track, (now called the Finke Desert Track) okay at the moment?”.
Man at Finke gas station who’s also just taken $90 off us for diesel: “For sure, it knocks two hours off the trip to Alice Springs. You can sit on 60-80kmph. Some people even do 100kmph”
It would take too long to go back to Finke to correct the gas station guy, but suffice to say he should probably get out more.
Never mind 80km per hour – it took us three hours to do 80km! The road is 247km long.
A small hazard
As well as the hideous corrugations in some sections, parts of the Finke Desert Road run directly over the top of the old Ghan Railway line. We had to be careful to avoid the original steel bolts that littered the route and would have taken out a tyre very quickly. The famous railway was a lifeline for outback communities when it was laid through the centre of Australia. Working parties lived on the line for months on end. But much of that history is lost in the desert now.
Weed-tangled fence posts are all that’s left of the old Ghan railway track
We can’t imagine why fewer and fewer men wanted to live and work out here
The new Ghan line still runs. Perhaps fittingly it was one of the first things we saw when we finally arrived in Alice Springs a mere six hours later.
The new Ghan
You may be amused to hear that the Finke Desert Road is also the route for the Finke Desert Race. Apparently they can make it from Finke to Alice Springs in two hours, but then they are driving like this:
The race was a couple of weeks before our trip, so the road had been well chewed up by support crews and spectators. We ended up driving the race route, which had huge ruts, but because of the spacing and depth, it was more comfortable than the road.
The camera doesn’t show the waves of giant corrugations down the track
So however long it took, we can now legitimately say we have driven the Finke Desert Race track!
Geoff has been busy working on the Troopy – our new adventure wagon – and I have been measuring it up for curtains and mossie nets. But there’s something missing….
They say your home is your castle. Our home for much of the last couple of years has been a nylon fortress – our trusty tent, Chubby Coleman, so named for its significant girth when rolled up.
It is a fine tent and has kept us sheltered from everything the elements could throw at us, from sandstorms to hurricanes.
On a sunny day in the north of England the awning gave us great shade. It was also long enough to park the car under when we needed to pack up in the rain!
Camping in the shadow of Scafell Pike
And it looked pretty cool in the middle of the mountains of Morocco.
One tent, one rock, one mountain
Some of you reading this might scoff at our fondness for our tent, but how could you resist the romance of it?
By moonlight and camp fire
And when the dust smothered any thoughts of romance during a Saharan sandstorm, at least it all stayed on the outside. The $75,000 motorhome camped nearby got sand in through every window and door, we did not have a speck of dust inside!
Trying to shake off some of the dust
We have been talking a lot in the last week about our next adventure – around Australia. And before we have even begun, we are missing our great tent.
We sent it back to the UK with Charlie Charleston the 2CV, because it was too expensive to ship it and other camping gear to Australia. We assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that we could buy the same model here – a Coleman Mackenzie 4.
We haven’t given up looking yet and while we are still searching we are amusing ourselves with a daft video we made a while ago of how to raise a tent in under a minute (well, not really!)
Kick back and relax with our video of life at Lovett Bay. And if that whets your appetite, there are even more delicious photos in the slideshow below!
