Perth to Darwin

First highlight on this big journey north and east is The Pinncales at the Nambung national park. A pinnacle is a stone pole coming out of the ground. Its size varies between few dozen centimeters to few meters. This national park is a desert area full of pinnacles.

Next we drove to Kalbari. We went snorkeling in one of its beaches (not much to see...) and visited the national park near it which has the same name. At the entrance to the park we discovered something that will accompanied most of the national parks along our way - 4WD access only. An unsealed rough road spread out from the main road to the far horizon. Our car insurance doesn't cover us on unsealed roads, but we gave it a try. We started driving the 30km dirt road as slow as we could (20km/h) but still the car bounced like kangaroo on this road, closets opened, things flew in the air. After 10km or so and after all sort of lights led up on the dashboard we gave up and turned back, promising to ourselves no to try driving on unsealed roads again. Disappointed we went to 2 other lookouts in the park (accessible by sealed roads) but they weren't impressive. Everything was dry and millions of flies bugged us every time we took our nose out of the car.

Our next destination was Shark Bay. On the way we visited Hamelin Pool and the Stromatolites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite),














Shell Beach and the Eagle Bluff. We spent the night at the boring town Denham and the morning after we went to Monkey Mia, the highlight of Shark Bay. The thing about Monkey Mia is that dolphins visit it's beach every morning (it could be related to the fact that the rangers feed them every morning). Anyway, after paying the entrance fee we went to the beach (along with 50 more tourists) and walla, 2 dolphins came. People not allowed to touch or play with them.

All we did was standing in the water (knee deep) and listened to the rangers talk about dolphins for 40 minutes. All this time the dolphins swam few meters away waited for the rangers to give them the daily fish.














Very boring experience. At least a pelican was nearby and gave us something to look at (it got fish from the rangers as well).














Disappointed we kept going north, starting to worry we'll be disappointed again...We stopped for a short visit in a place called blowholes. 1km south to the blowholes there is a blue lagoon, which is, so we've been told, a great place for snorkeling. Of course we gave it a try and of course we got disappointed... Well, actually there were few corals and few colorful
fish, but we expected more than that. Later we drove to the blowholes spot. Blowholes are few holes in rocks located by the sea. When a wave comes it enters beneath the rock and comes out from the holes in a great pressure. It looked like gazers.














We kept driving north to a tiny town called Coral Bay, which is located at the shore of Ningalo national park - a marine national park. After all the disappointing experiences we had since we left Perth, we didn't expect much. And then it finally happened - a little piece of heaven just in front of us. We stood on the beach, amazed from the beautiful sight - clear, quiet, turquoise water, no waves. exactly what we imagined about Australia's beaches.














10 minutes later we were deep in the water, snorkeling above beautiful corals, with lots of fish in all kind of colors, and all that beauty only few meters from the beach. We spent few hours in the water, until our backs became red from the sun. As the hours passed the water's level went down (low tide) and a group of big fish swam at the very edge of the water, tried get something to eat.














It was a weird sight because half of their body was out of the water.














Anyway the water seemed so tempting we jumped again for one last snorkel, before dinner. Too bad we didn't have a waterproof camera...
The next morning we continued to the gateway of the Ningaloo national park - Exmouth. One of the main attractions in the national park is the whale sharks. They come every year to this area and you can actually swim with them, if you're willing to spend the money for it. Luckily the whale sharks arrived early this year, usually they arrive on April. We've been told that every group had managed to see them since the beginning of March. After a long indecision whether it's worth the money or not, we decided to go for it. We said goodbye to a nice amount of money and booked a tour for the next day.
We were picked up early in the morning and were happy to find out we were going to be only 8 people in the group. We got on the boat and headed to a nice snorkeling spot in the reef, to warm up before swimming with the whale sharks. We jumped into the water and spent some time exploring the amazing corals and fish. The highlight of that snorkeling was a sea turtle that swam fast next to us. It was the first time we saw a sea turtle so we were quite existed - it's a very special animal and Sarit fell in love immediately with it. We came back to the boat, satisfied from what we saw and hoping it was a good start for the day. Apparently it was...
After a nice breakfast on the boat the skipper led us to a deeper area, where we were supposed to meet the first whale shark (a plane locates a whale shark from the sky and sends the boat to the right spot). We were ready with our snorkeling gear on us, waiting to jump and swam with the whale shark.
It all happened very fast. The guide shouted "JUMP!" and everyone jumped after her, divided to two groups we waited few seconds for the whale shark to swam towards us and when it did we accompanied him from its sides and swam with him. Amazing! A whale sharks the biggest fish in the world. The first one we saw was only about 4 meters long (a young one...), but they can get up to 18 meters! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark).
Few minutes later Sarit looked back and saw Roi with his hand up, waiting to the zodiac to pick him up. Few more people were doing the same. No one expected to swim more than a few minutes with the fish. Sarit didn't give up and stayed with the fish the all way until it was too fast to caught up with. 22 minutes in total! Great experience!
We were sure that was it - just one swim, but we were wrong. About 20 minutes later the plane located another one. The guide shouted "Ready" - everyone stood in line, "Jump" - everyone were in the water. Few minutes later half of the group was in the zodiac again. That fish was faster than the first one.
Then again - a third fish, the biggest one we saw that day. We were divided into two groups in the water. Usually the fish swam straight. This one didn't. It was very curious and tried to have a close look on us, so it turned to its right - the side we were. Everyone in our side tried to clear the way and not bump into the whale shark. But then he turned right again. It kept doing so few times and everyone freaked out, bumped into each other. It was quite scary to see its huge face coming right towards you. Finally it stopped with the crazy turns and swam straight...
We were quite sure that was the last whale shark we were going to see. Wrong again. The 4Th, and the last, showed up not long after. Some people gave up and were too tired to jump. Not us (well, we were tired, but we didn't gave up. How many times you get to see a whale shark in your life?).
We turned back to an inner reef, had a lunch buffet in the boat. One last snorkeling to see a bit more small fish, a fruit buffet on the boat and we were on our back. Again, poor thing we didn't have waterproof camera...
The next day we drove to two beaches in the national park to snorkel some more. The first beach, turquoise bay, was amazing, similar to the beach in coral bay, but a lot more corals and fish.














We spent few hours there. On the last snorkeling we were lucky to see another sea turtle, this time a slower one. Sarit didn't agree to leave him for about 10 minutes. She swam with him until she was just above him and then he got scared and started to swim faster, so she finally left the poor guy... :) (Where is the waterproof camera?).
The second beach was different, very rocky. You need to jump from the rocks in order to get to the water. We enjoyed snorkeling there, but not as much as we did in the first beach.
The next morning we sadly left Exmouth and Ningaloo national park and headed north east to a town called Karratha. It was our first night that we felt a real Australian humidity. It was hot, very hot, and humid, very humid. The next day we stopped for a quick swim in a place called Honeymoon cove and kept going north towards Broome. Two days later we arrived and experienced the most hot and humid night we've ever had. We couldn't sleep, tropical rain started to fall at night. We HATED Broome!
We tried to get a nice sunset shot (Broome is famous for its sunsets) but it wasn't as beautiful as we hoped.














The only nice thing we saw in Broome was a kangaroo with its baby in its pocket.



















A few arrangements in the city (including a 12v fan we bought for the hot nights) and Broome was left behind us. It took us 3 days to drive to Darwin, the northern big city in Australia. The way was beautiful, but we spent most of it in the car. We even skipped the famous Purnululu (bungle bungle) national park, again - 4WD access only...
We went to see a small version of the landscape in Mirima national park - very small park near the city Kununurra. Well, it wasn't like the real thing.




























All the way from Broome was full of Baub trees, we stopped almost every time we saw one to take a picture of it. It's a very special tree, looks like a tree from the fairytale, or like a tree a child drew.



















Finally we arrived Darwin. One good shower (after three days without showers), new clean cloths and we were on our way to celebrate the Passover Seder in the city (that was actually the reason why we came to Darwin...). We were about 30 people - most of them Jewish people living in Darwin, one Israeli girl that immigrated to Darwin, one south African Jewish working in the city's hospital (student), one English Jewish traveler and us. We were the only Israelis travelers there. The Seder was arranged and managed by 4 Habad guys from Germany and USA. They did a wonderful job! It was a very special Seder for us.
Most of the people there cannot speak or read Hebrew, so we read most of the Hagada in English, which was quite weird for us (it sounded like a Christian prayer...). Anyway, we were glad we drove all the way to Darwin. It was worth it.

Adelaide To Perth

The minute we left Adelaide it became less and less populated until it was only us and the Australian wilderness. We drove towards Flinders Ranges national park passing a beautiful landscape on the way. We stopped in a small ghost town called Hawker and spent the night there in a deserted caravan park, where we had dinner with one of the best sunsets we saw in Australia.














The next morning we drove to the national park and climbed the Ohlssen Bagge mountain, which was exactly what we had in mind when we imagined Australia's landscape.










































Red kangaroos can be seen in the park, but we weren't lucky this time. Anyway, we met other friends on the way.




























We kept driving to the Eyre highway - the 1650km road which connects South Australia to West Australia. This is one endless road without many things to see on the way. It took us 4 days to complete it. The first night we spent at a free camp area in a town called Kimba. It was a paradise for campers - clean toilets, picnic tables, gas BBQ and lights, all for free!
A lot of motorbike riders were on the highway. At first it was a funny sight - people in their 60's riding a heavy motorbike, dressed with heavy weird coats.














We saw them on every gas station we stopped. Then it became annoying - they were always in big groups and somehow managed to arrived few minutes before we did. We had to wait about 15-20 minutes in a queue to the fuel pump every time. They even drained a gas station once before we even manage to fuel our car.
Later we've been told that all of them were heading to Albany, a city in WA, where a big convention was about to took place.
Another thing we noticed was the amount of dead kangaroos on the road every 500m. It became a routine to see them. We quickly found out the reason for all the dead kangaroos - the road trains. A road train is a 3 wagons truck driving like crazy day and night, and they don't stop no matter what's on their way. We felt so vulnerable every time a truck like this was on the opposite direction, and even more when they overtook us.
We spent most of the nights camping in rest areas along the way (except for 1 night in a caravan park in Penong).
One viewpoint worth mentioning is the Bunda Cliffs.














The road ended in a town called Norseman. Next stop was Esperance and Cape Le Grand national park. The two major highlights of the park are Lucky Bay - a beautiful white sand beach,




























and Frenchman's Peak - a mountain which provides views of the park from it's top.










































We kept going west through Stirling Range national park in which we climb Bluff Knoll mountain. It was quite cloudy and chilly that day, and for few minutes it felt like New Zealand, with all the green mountains around us.










































Next we visited "Valley of the Giants" - a board walk built using bridges and poles between huge trees.



















A little wine and food tasting in Margaret River region (free wine, free chocolate, free cheese - when traveling with a poor budget like we do, free it's like a treasure!) and we were on our way to Perth.
We spent one night in Perth waiting for our car to be fixed. It supposed to be 2-3 hours of a standard 5000km service and turned out to be building the car from scratch.
Perth seemed like a nice city but we prefer to reduce our cities time as little as we can.
It was in Perth when we started to feel the real Australian hot temperature, we learned that 35C considered nice chilly day.

As we promised - our campervan in a day mode,














in a night mode














and the kitchen.

Melbourne To Adelaide

From this point our journey gets "new wheels", a caravan! Actually it's called a Campervan. It's a Toyota van that has been modified so it has a sink with a tap, cooking stoves, cupboards, a table that covers to a bed and couches. The main reason why we choose to hire this kind of a car is because we didn't want to stay in hostels (the Australian hostels disappointed us) and still wanted the comfort of one (kitchen, bed, etc.). We hired the cheapest Campervan we found (from a company called Travellers Auto Barn), said goodbye to Melbourne and headed west to the scenic route called "The Great Ocean Road".
We spent our first night in our new caravan at a town called Geelong, In a parking lot near the beach, in the middle of the city. It wasn't a proper campsite but it has toilets and at the tourist information they told us we won't be fined for camping there.
The next morning we started the route (Geelong is it's one of the starting points). We drove along it and at noon we arrived to a town called Lorne. After a short break we started the car and wanted to continue the drive but we noticed that one of the lights on the dashboard is on (a sign that something is wrong with the car). We called the rental company and they said this light indicates that there are water missing. We told them we just filled up water and it's impossible. The answer we got was "keep going and keep monitoring water levels". That's what we did, but 5km after the car overheated and we had to pull over. 24h after we took the car it broke down... Roi hitchhiked back to Lorne and called Road Service, an hour later a mechanic came, checked the car and found out the radiator was completely dry. He asked us to stay in town and come back to his workshop the next morning for some tests.
We spent the night at nearby campsite. We noticed at night that the lights and the refrigerator are not working unless the engine is running. At the morning we went to the workshop. We told them about the new problem and they found out the battery was dead. After replacing the battery and radiator cap we could continue our holiday.

The next thing we did is to see Koala bear,



















and 12 apostles




























and spent the night at Port Campbell (at expensive holiday park). The day after we stop to see The Arch














and few more lookouts,














and headed to the Grampians national park. On the way there a small stone hit the windshield and made a massive chip in it. We called the rental company and they said that as long as we could see 70% of field of vision it is safe to continue and we don't need to replace the windshield. Since our insurance covers only one replacement we had been advised by them not to replace it.
We kept going, stayed the night in one of the park's campsite. Few minutes after we arrived Roi saw 2 Kangaroos not far from us. we were so excited - our first time to actually see this special animal. Sarit grabbed the camera and started taking thousands of photos.



















We noticed nobody around us cared about the animals. First it seemed strange. Few hours later we understood the reason - there were kangaroos everywhere, we just sat in our Campervan, ate our dinner and smiled every few seconds when a kangaroo hopped around our car.
Another animal that came to visit us -














Later we tried our first bush shower. It was a shower place where you need to fill water in a bucket. The bucket has a shower head in it's bottom. You hang the bucket above you and there you go - a shower :). The water was cold, but it was worth it.
At the morning we noticed that the chip in the windshield got bigger. There was another 10cm crack in addition to the chip. We quite panic, and decided to do only one short track in the park and keep driving to the closest town, so someone can check it and say if we need to replace the windshield or not.
We climbed mt. William - the highest peak in the park. It was a bit disappointing to find out we need to share the summit with few big antennas. The views were nice but not more than that.

We drove to a town called Horsham, a short look on the windshield and we've been told it will be a big mistake to replace it since we're going to travel for a long time and it will probably happen again during this time.
We continued our way, more relaxed, and spent the night on a rest area on the side of the highway - our last night in Victoria state.
The next day we crossed the border to South Australia state. In the border we saw the white kangaroos - it's a special kangaroo with white fur and red eyes, just like a white bunny.














A quick visit in a touristic town called Hahndorf and we finally arrived to Adelaide - the capital of South Australia. We arrived same night as the opening night of one of the festivals. There were lots of people in the streets and the special thing about this festival is that they light the old town's buildings in different colours. It creates new visual front to the building. The lights changes every couple of minutes.

Here is a poor attempt to catch the event on camera:

On our next blog we'll put some pictures of our dear Campervan from the inside, it will be easier for you to understand what it's like to live in such car.

We know that we're a bit late but - Happy Purim!