Our last few days of our roadtrip were spent hopping from one place to another, getting closer and closer to Perth.
Day 11- We left Denham and drove back through the spectacular shark bay to the highway, in the comfort an air conditioned, fly free zone! Today was one of the hardest drives, it was 5 hours to Kalbarri, but today more than others the road seemed never ending and the sign posts were few and far between, it was a long morning. but completly worth the wait! We headed to Kalbarri National straight away, as we drove past it on the way in and thought, why not!! 28km off the highway, an unsealed road, is always a bit of fun and tests the driving! The park stretches for 1,000 sq/km and it comprised of the most spectacular gorges and rock formations that I have seen since Kings Canyon on our Uluru tour!! We stopped off at a number of different look outs and short walks. It was SO SO hot and the flys were horrific, but we stuck it out and was so pleased we did! There was a fine art, to taking pictures that day, i can assure you, to make sure there were no flys or flying hands in the way!!
When we got to the hostel and checked in, we were told it was a mild day of 39 degrees, but that it would have been 12 degrees hotter, at least, in the national park!!! crazy!! I knew it was hot, but blimey!!! By the end of the day, i was completly drained and exhausted! Kalbarri is a small seaside town where a lot of people from Perth go on their holidays. The national park is their main attraction and we only had one night here. To recover, we spent the next morning on the beach and then in the afternoon headed along the costal road to Geraldton, Capital of the mid west and civilisation!!! This was the only part of our journey that we could see the Indian Ocean from the road and made a refreshing change!
Arriving in Geraldton was like arriving in central London, after 2 weeks of nothing. They drove in lanes and everything there, which was all thoroughly confusing!! We saw our first McDonalds in 2 weeks, so knew then that we were back in the 'real' world!! Going from all the small villages that we visited to a town with a population of 19,000 it was a real shock! We arrived late afternoon on Day 12 and then had a whole day here last Wednesday, which we used to acclimtise and do some odd jobs, such as washing! We also visited the Museum of Western Australia, which was really interesting and gave an insight into the local indiginous history. It also had a temporary exhibition on HMAS Sydney, a Australian naval war ship that disappeared off the west coast in 1941 with 645 men on board. After a skirmish with a german ship, it was never found, until March 2008. It was a really interesting exhibition, and to think that it has only just been found, the history is still waiting to be written.
Our last day i drove 590km from Geraldton to Perth, capital of WA. We left early and made good time, although the last 100km were a struggle! And the last 20km seemed to take hours! We dropped the car off at the airport, thinking that would be easier, although it has to be the most unsigned airport in the world!! We only saw a sign with 3km to go, which is just ridiculous! Although on the way in we did drive though Guildford (which made Kirsty happy!) and past Heath Ledger's school, which was worth the slight detour! We got the shuttle into town from the airport, the joys of public transport!! It took for ever and was so unorganised!
So thats it, the greatest road trip ever! Completly worth every km and every kangaroo that got in our way!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment