Coral Coast Part 1

The next morning we packed up early and headed north. Firth stop was Lancelin, a town that’s not much of anything, but is well recognised for its surrounding sand dunes that tower over everything nearby. We explored the dunes, ran down several and wished that we had a boogie board with us to slide down them (there’s always next time!). After being sufficiently covered in sand we decided that it was time to move on and headed to The Pinnacles. The Pinnacles Desert is roughly 190 hectares and contains thousands of limestone pinnacles (weird tall rock heebys), some are up to 5 metres high, and is absolutely stunning to look upon. The stark relief of the pinnacles against the backdrop of the sand dunes creates a mesmerising landscape, where the colours are constantly changing. We felt dwarfed at times walking through these huge stones and also took great delight being able to take the Hulk winding through the desert.  The Pinnacles is definitely worth a look, be it at sunset, sunrise or somewhere in between. As quite often happens, plans to return at sunset were hampered by the cloud cover, however with a dozen or so 'sunny' pictures from lunchtime on the camera we were happy with our visit.

That night we headed to Sandy Cape Recreation Park – quite a way from The Pinnacles, however in Western Australia everything is pretty far from everything else so in comparison it was just around the corner.  Of course we couldn’t settle without checking out the WHOLE site and exploring the various tracks that arose, but that turned out to be for the best. We met a lovely couple who admired our rig whilst we admired theirs and then we all started to talk about where to go and what to see (the Camps books were out in seconds!). It was nigh on dusk before we settled and finally went for a walk on the beach. The coastline of Western Australia is beautiful; we are yet to find a beach we don’t like.

The next day we decided to head inland to Stockyard Gully National Park – well known for its caves. Now that Michael and I have traversed several caves we think we are budding young cavers who should explore these dark mysterious places where ever possible! The main cave was amazing as it followed the course of a river (but currently dry). We were able to walk through the cave from one side to the other immersing ourselves in complete darkness – though thankfully we took some torches with us and avoided being lost in the cave forever. Once out we also looked at a couple of the surrounding caves. The curious thing about caves in the outback is bees go wild for them and you often spot hives along the cave entrance walls. Well we found one cave with literally thousands of bees on its walls. It was spectacular yet also quite scary. Although 4wd is recommended, we found the way in was fine, the way out to the north however was quite sandy and needed all four wheels spinning to get us through. We took a few quick photos and set off to spend the night at Green Head North, a camp spot that came highly recommended.

We were soon nestled in amongst some trees with a fire blazing, oh and did I mention that we were only metres from the ocean?! Pretty sweet. The next day we were in Geraldton, poor Brucie had to go to the mechanics (we’d already racked up enough km’s for a full service) and we were legging it around town for the rest of the day. For some silly reason we thought it would be a pleasant walk from the mechanic back to town, some 5+ km’s of noisy main roads later, slightly sunburnt I might add, we made it to town and headed straight to maccas :/ We explored Geraldton and then eventually taxied back to Brucie and left town. Geraldton 4x4 are now my favourite mechanics – they leave a tub of lollies on your dash to thank you for going there (and a sneaky bumper sticker on the tow bar)! That night we rolled into Coronation Beach rather late, searched for a site by torch light and were soon in bed.

The next day we were up early as we had a lot of ground to cover – the story of W.A. We followed the coast for a while and soon were in the country, still driving. We briefly stopped at a couple of rest areas and then eventually turned off into Shark Bay World Heritage Site. First stop was Hamelin Pool, a truly bizarre place in the middle of nowhere that provides a window into our past and possibly our existence. Hamelin Pool is home to a large population of Stromatolites, considered living fossils since they have not really changed in the last 3.5 billion years of existence as the world’s first single celled organisms, that are also believed to be the cause of oxygen in the atmosphere and are consequently the reason for our being. After a relatively lacklustre appearance by them at Lake Thetis (Cervantes) (there were a couple of colonies that looked like pebbles…) Hamelin Pool’s population was far more interesting, complete with Mr Stumpy the resident Stromatolite on the interpretive signs talking about his “cousins” and “dead ancestors”.  A pretty strange idea when they look like this:

On the way out we briefly stopped at the caravan park (term used loosely) and talked to one of the fellows there. Word on the street is that there is currently a ten month wait to camp at Steep Point (western most point of Australia) and the ferry trip to Dirk Hartog Island will set you back several hundred dollars and also a lengthy wait (operates once a day, if you have a trailer you are too long). Turns out our noncommittal approach to this optional extra worked well, and so we settled for the most westerly town in Australia instead (Denham). Maybe next time we’ll come prepared?!

Our 'camp site' at Whale Bone Bay.

That afternoon saw us settle in one of the council administered camp grounds, Whale Bone Bay. Although not necessarily part of the grounds we locked the hubs, followed a track around the headland and found ourselves our own slice of paradise, just ten metres from the water. Absolutely stunning. That night saw a massive downpour of rain and huge gusts of winds. In the morning our track had turned into a small river and we were trudging the Hulk through several puddles, much to his and our delight.  The road closed sign was easy to skirt around on our way out, albeit a bit troubling. We decided we’d figure it all out at Denham.  

Lesson of the week: Once is never enough, another trip and another season is in order.