Geraldton and Exmouth Australia

We’ve reached one of Australia’s lesser-known corners. In Exmouth we asked someone if many cruise ships stopped here and the answer was “You’re the first”. It’s hot (most days over 100 degrees this time of year) and dry and places are far apart. But there are beautiful places to see if you’re willing to jostle around on a rickety bus for a couple hours. Tour companies are not as sophisticated as in larger cities, but it’s fun, nevertheless.

From Geraldton we travelled to the middle of nowhere—Kalbarrie National Park. Kalbarrie is also a little seaside town, which hosts vacationers in the summer, who enjoy the wonderful beaches. The National Park has 2 sections: the Murchison River Gorge and the rugged, rocky coast between the beautiful beaches.

The Hawk’s Head section of the Murchison River Gorge is shown in Picture 1. It’s named for the rock feature on the right side that resembles a hawk’s head. A close-up of that feature is shown in Picture 2. The red rocks and vegetation remind you of the United States’ desert southwest.

We stopped for a picnic lunch in the town of Kalbarrie, in a park at the beach. In this case, the bus driver’s wife had prepared 2 kinds of quiches for lunch, popped them in the freezer and left town on vacation. The bus driver delivered them to the site, neglecting things like utensils to eat them with. We enjoyed eating them with our hands, while he ran across to the market to find napkins. He also popped out for some Freon to repair the bus’ AC!

We missed the excitement, though. Someone went into the bathroom and met a kangaroo in there!

We traveled on down the coast and enjoyed looking back at Kalbarrie in Picture 3. We also enjoyed the rocky coast in Pictures 4, 5 and 6. Picture 5 shows a natural arch and Picture 6 shows Castle Rock.

Further down the coast we found the Pink Lake shown in Picture 7. The color comes from algae in the water.

Our final stop was at the HMAS Sydney Memorial in Geraldton, shown in Picture 8. The HMAS Sydney was sunk by the Germans in WWII. The dome is made up of 643 gulls, representing the 643 lives lost. The taller column, with the Australian flag, resembles the prow of the ship.

Exmouth was our next stop—even more isolated than Geraldton. The area is famous for 3 things: a military base that was used as a submarine base in WWII, the Ningaloo Reef and the westernmost point in Australia. Picture 9 shows all 3: in the far distance on the left is the westernmost point, the upper right shows the 13 VLF radio antennas that listen to submarine “talk”, plus a beautiful beach in the middle. The Ningaloo Reef stretches along the shore here. Here’s some new cocktail party chit-chat that we learned: VLF (very low frequency) is the only set of radio frequencies that can penetrate water and be used for submarine communication.

Our destination was Turquoise Bay in Cape Range National Park, where we snorkeled the Ningaloo Reef. Given our lack of underwater camera, we can only show you the beach where we entered the water (Picture 10). The coral was interesting: lots of different types, but all a rather dull green-gray-brown color. We have snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef and found vibrant colors of coral. Our guide explained that the coral on the western side of Australia is soft coral, while the Great Barrier Reef is hard coral, with different types of algae that provide the colors. There were not masses of fish, but a good variety. The water was warm with a brisk current, which provided an easy ride in one direction or required a good deal of paddling and flippering, when going in the other direction.

We’ve really enjoyed being in Australia: gorgeous scenery, amazing animals and wonderful people. We enjoy the wonderful Australian sense of humor and occasionally can understand what they’re saying! Is there anything not to like in Australia? I’ve thought of 3 things:

     1) The Australian dollar is very strong, which means that things are very expensive. A $10 beer????

     2) They have the poorest excuses for hand dryers in bathrooms. We could blow on our hands and dry   them faster (or use the seat of your pants)!

     3) The bloody flies….. Picture 11 shows one of Rick’s shoulders with a flock of the little buggers. They don’t bite, but they climb all over you (face included) and enjoy invading ears, nose and mouth. Betsy accidentally ate one and was immediately proclaimed an official Australian.

Fortunately, the likes way exceed the dislikes. We’ll be back.

On to Indonesia.