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We were up early to start our trip up north to Broome. We met our guide and the others in our group. It was a lot of driving the first day to get out of the Perth area and into the bush. We stopped at Nambung National Park to see the pinnacle formations and continued the drive up along the coast. I managed to badly jam my finger playing footy at lunch which became a gruesome purple/black color. We stayed the night at a little place on the beach in the tiny town of Horrocks.
Next morning we were up and out before the sunrise...the sunrise over the desert was gorgeous. We headed to Kalbarri National Park where we did two smallish hikes: Z-Bend Gorge and Nature's Window. The gorge there was great and the color contrast between the red rock and blue sky was awesome. After lunch we were back on the road passing through some pretty empty space on the way to the Shark Bay area. First stop was Hamelin Pool which contains one of the very few, and the only visible, colonies of stromatolites in the world. Stromatolites were the first living thing on the earth to use photosynthesis. Starting 3.5 billion years ago and lasting about 2 billion years, stromatolites breathed oxygen into the atmosphere changing it from no oxygen to ~20% and making it possible for humans to eventually come along. Pretty important little guys! A gorgeous sunset over the ocean (so good to be on a west coast!) and then a BBQ at our stop for the night in Denham in the "Shark Bay" area.
We woke up early the next morning (a theme for the trip) to drive to Monkey Mia in Shark Bay where every morning, a group of up to twelve wild dolphins swim up to shore and are fed (I was initially concerned about this because it doesn't sound very environmentally responsible, but on further research they actually do a great job. For example, they only feed the dolphins about 10% of their daily food need so the dolphins still fish and teach their young to fish like normal). Had some great views of the dolphins close up, it was really cool. Afterwards went out for a quick kayak in the water before we drove on, making a stop at Shell Beach, which, as the name implies, is a beach of only small shells, no sand. After this we hit the road for a looong drive through the middle of nowhere up to Coral Bay. We managed to keep ourselves entertained pretty well on the bus and spent a small bit of time down on the beach at night before calling it a day.
The next day we spent almost the whole day at Coral Bay. Coral Bay has spectacular turquoise water and i went for a very long walk along the beach and up into the sand dunes for views of the bay. After hanging out on the beach a bit, we then made the short drive up north to Exmouth, at the northern tip of the Ningaloo Marine Park. Exmouth was originally built by the U.S. military as a communications center in the 60s I believe to monitor movements out in the ocean. The Aussie military now has a base their but its become mainly a tourist town.
Next morning up early to take a boat out on the reef. After a snorkel we went past the breakers to snorkel with whale sharks, the purpose of the trip. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the sea...they can get up to 18 meters (~60 feet). Every year they swim through the Ningaloo reef to feed on algae so they run these trips using a spotter plane in the air to find and locate them. We snorkeled with a ~8 meter (a little under 30 feet) whale shark for a few hours. Even through this was a "small" whale shark, it was huge and impressive! Really amazing to be in the water with something so gigantic (and thankfully completely indifferent to snorkelers!)
Up early the next morning for the long drive inland to Karijini National Park. It was 8 hours of drive time through almost completely empty land. At the end of the drive we climbed into the Hamersley mountains ranges and into the park. We camped and about half of us slept outside in swags under the stars. It was awesome! The stars were unreal.
The next morning we set out to explore some of Karijini and went to Dales Gorge. We descended into the gorge and walked the length of it. The views were spectacular and we went to three different pools for swims during the hike. First to Circular Pool, then to Fortescue Falls and then to Fern Pool, which is the most sacred aboriginal site in the area. All three spots were gorgeous, it was really an unreal hike and I had numerous "Australia" moments throughout the day where the surrounds were just so uniquely Australian. When we got back to camp a few of us went for another short sunset hike into Joffres Gorge, near our camp. Another lovely spot...then BBQ for dinner to end a fantastic day and another night out under the stars.
The next day was another full one of hiking through Karijini's gorges. First through Weano Gorge which led to a small abseil down a rock face to get to Handrail Pool. We took a swim through the pool to the narrow gorge that continued on to the other side which led to a ~40 foot waterfall into a pool below. You could keep going at that point only if you were fully equipped to abseil down/climb up tall rock faces which we weren't unfortunately. After lunch we went across to Hancock Gorge where we hiked along rock ledges and through pools. As the hike continued the gorge got narrower and narrower until we got to the portion named the "Spider-Walk" because its so narrow you can press your hands and feet against each wall of the gorge and hold yourself up off the ground. It was awesome...very reminiscent of the Virgin River hike in Zion Park in Utah. The Spider-Walk opened into a small area called Kermit's Pool. Not many swimmers there because the water was frigid and it was getting late in the day. We climbed back out and up from the gorge back to camp. A great camping dinner from the BBQ and a great sleep under the stars (another really cold night...very happy to have my super warm sleeping bag!)
The next day we drove away from Karijini back to the coast and through Port Headland to a huge cattle station where we slept for the night. The following day was the final push to Broome...we stopped at 80 mile beach which is the longest beach in Australia (its actually about 90 miles long). We finally got to Broome in the afternoon and it seems to be a lovely little town. Really cute streets with shops and pubs and restaurants and we're staying right near the beach which is fantastic. The beach is named Cable Beach because its where the telegraph line connecting Australia with Asia (at the end of the 19th century) came ashore.
A link to a few more photos for Perth to Broome:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/
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