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Susanne and MachielSusanne and Machiel
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  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 134

    Swimming in a gorgeous gorge

    March 19, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    We had a short night in which we didn't sleep well at all. Corona was just too active in our brains. So after a couple of hours of restless sleep, we called it a night. Could have been a good opportunity to leave early and enjoy the cold part of the day. But we were busy discussing corona and what to do with it. We are simply very undecided on what would be the best decision here. After 2 hours in the waiting line of the Dutch consulate, we actually got someone on the line. But they didn't really have any advice apart from 'if you want to leave, book a flight, it's your decision'. We also asked Susanne's family to sign us up on the Condor website for possible flights back home organised by the government. We actually don't know if they would help Machiel as well. Currently they have no program for Australia anyways.

    It was 9 and time to leave. Upon entering Karijini National Park there was Mount Bruce immediately to the right. The hike up is about 5 hours return. It was a bit too late to do this without getting a heat stroke. So we only went up a part of it. The views were nice. On one side we could see an iron ore mine in the distance. Super long trains were leaving and arriving from there to go to Karratha in the North. From there the iron ore is shipped to Europe and other areas around the world. On the other side we could get a nice view on hills and lots of bushes.

    The Karijini Visitor Centre had lots of information about the park's history and flora and fauna. We cooked lunch at the parking lot and afterwards drove to a bore tap to do our dishes. Then it was time for Fortescue Falls. A long staircase down brought us to a picturesque pool surrounded by tall red cliffs. We swam for awhile and sat at the waterfall. It was a bit like one of those tropical swimming pools with a waterfall on a timer, just without the timer. The water was refreshing but not too cold. So it was very enjoyable. A decent alternative to a shower after a sweaty warm day.

    Back at the car, we went to the circular pool lookout. A drop of several 10s of meters surrounded by steep red cliffs. There are a lot more trees and plants in the park than we had imagined, which created a beautiful mixture of red and green.

    What we forgot to mention is the incredible night sky, which we've also already seen in the Cape Range National Park. There are sooo many more stars to see here and they just feel they are only half as far away as in Europe.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 133

    Dutch couples

    March 18, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    We woke up with the news of the EU advising their citizens abroad to travel back home and messages of family to advise us driving right back to Perth and get on the next possible flight back to Europe.

    When we started this trip we had prepared for a lot. We read several travel insurance conditions and triple checked our health insurance. We counted on unexpected things like having to go back to Europe for some weeks because someone gets seriously ill. We didn't book a lot in advance because we did anticipate that things can change like riots in Chile or a huge earthquake somewhere. But how can you prepare for the biggest travel restrictions in history? And what do you do if they happen while you are on your worldtrip gap year?

    We have no clue. All we know is that no one knows. That this has never happened before. That news, restrictions, possibilities can change hourly. And that all possibilities really suck. If we stay in Australia and they close tourism altogether, that sucks. But going back to Europe where we have no job and no home doesn't sound any better to us right now.

    The evening before we had spoken to a Dutch couple who immigrated to Australia 45 years ago. They stayed at the same free camping as we did. When they heard of our situation in the morning they were very kind offering us tea and stroopwafels but also to stay with them should everything else fail. Apparently they have a super nice house at the sea south of Sydney. It was nice to share our thoughts and fears and hear their opinion. But mostly it just felt nice to also hear about their interesting adventures all over the world, taking our thoughts off corona for a short moment.

    Eventually we had to continue. We registered ourselves in the German Krisenvorsorgeliste. Then we decided to not go straight back to Perth and continue for now. We drove direction Tom Price. Either way around, Perth is still far. At one of 2 petrol stations on the way we came across another Dutch couple who were on a shorter trip. They planned 2 more weeks rental car in Western Australia and then a flight to Japan. They seemed very relaxed about the situation and wanted to continue as planned for now. Potentially skipping Japan if the flight there gets canceled but neither panicking nor worried.

    We felt reassured and travelled further. The way to Tom Price went through the bush. You might think we have seen that enough by now. But this was different. There were hills and some parts were super green. Apparently it had rained a whole lot lately and everything was growing. Would we have not been in corona depression mood, this would have been incredible. It was very hot and lots of flies as well by the way. So the view was nicest from the air conditioned car.

    In Paraburdoo we wanted to stop for the night. The second Dutch couple had recommended a very nice camping here where they had slept last night. It primarily offered accommodation to the mining employees, but apparently that wasn't too noticable. When asking at the office however, we were told that it had closed to non mining workers due to Corona. So there it went again our good mood. Our fears of not being able to travel much longer when deciding to stay in Australia was getting real. Defeated we continued to Tom Price, another 80km north. So after more than 350km of driving today we went to a campsite there. We bought groceries, made wraps and at the same time tried to get information about the Dutch and German government actions. Are they going to organise flights to get us back to Europe? If we would ignore those, would we lose all rights on support afterwards? So that seems to be a pretty obvious thing to take. Otherwise, isn't it better to just stay and travel here as long as we still can?

    In the meantime we got a call from Dagmar, a cousin of Susanne's mother who lives in Australia. We originally wanted to meet her during our time in Melbourne which didn't work out. Now we called to ask for emergency help should we need it thanks to being stranded in Australia. Always nice to know your options. During dinner then again, we meet another Dutch couple and joined their table after dinner to discuss the new favorite topic of the whole world. They have a flight scheduled for March 27th and they will simply follow their original plan until then. Sounds easy enough. Nonetheless nice to share some thoughts again.

    It got a bit later than planned but we still went for a shower. Thanks to the amount of rain they had here lately, there are lots of crickets, frogs, and other insects. It's pretty alive everywhere. Despite a fly screen we even shared the bathrooms with many crickets, a frog, and lots of smaller flies or insects. They mostly stayed at the entrance though, so it wasn't too bad.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 132

    Corona depression

    March 17, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    The plan was to leave Cape Range today and go either back to Coral Bay for a better snorkeling vision than on Machiel's birthday or go direction Karijini National Park immediately. The morning started with corona news. That seems to be part of the new daily routine of the whole world. Being infected with corona depression, we made our way back to Exmouth. Groceries, fuel, information on the Karijini National Park. The information centre had some new measurements in place to keep distance between employees and tourists. Unfortunately most parts of the park were also still closed due to a cycloon from February and roads and tracks being destroyed. So you can imagine the mood was pretty down.

    Instead of Franzi's famous brownie moment for tough hiking days, for us it was an instant noodle lunch moment of Susanne's favourite type. We didn't really feel like more snorkeling at Coral Bay either, so we drove further towards Karijini. Whenever we cross another Traveller's Autobarn van we wave hysterically, which is a thing apparently as everyone does 😊

    It was also already afternoon by now. Seems like corona also kills time. 200km further we found the rest stop for the night. At the rest stop we hurried to get our fly net into the driver's window, and started cutting the vegetables inside to avoid most of the flies. But it didn't end up being so bad and we could make our pasta meal in relative ease.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    11
    Day 131

    Drift snorkel

    March 16, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Besides snorkeling we also wanted to see a bit more of the landscape here in Cape Range. There's generally not much to hike in this area which is mainly infinite fields of sand and bushes. But at the southernmost point of this ocean road there was an actual creek (water!) where we could hike to. There were a lot of flies so we once more had to wear our head nets, but that also made us realize that we hadn't really needed them much in the past few days. We naturally started as early as possible to avoid the heat, but nonetheless it was very warm, especially on the way back. But the walk was nice, and we even saw a turtle swimming in the creek at the turnaround point.

    We drove to Turquoise Bay, where we had been 2 days ago as well. Back then we snorkeled in the bay, but this time we'd snorkel on the other side of it, in the so called drift. There's a strong sideways current here, so you can go in at one end, mostly float to the other side, and walk back to the starting point if you want to go again. It was an interesting way to snorkel, although the first time we felt like we were passing the coral so quickly due to the current that we struggled to really get a close look at everything. The second time we turned around a few times to swim against the current in order to give some areas a better look. The fish weren't anything special, but the coral reef was probably the best we've seen. Huge amounts of it and easy to get lost on. A very blue patch, several green ones, some tiny pink ones and for the rest lots of brownish but interestingly shaped corals. The tide was spot on so we were very close to it.
    However especially at this drift snorkel it was important to have frequent looks at the beach to know where we were, so that we'd return to it on time and not get dragged away to open sea.

    After lunch we had another try at the bay side for snorkeling. It was nice to swim without a current, but the visibility was clearly worse than on the drift side and there was also nothing new to spot. In the evening we again had a try at spotting hatching baby turtles. But third time wasn't the charm. Perfect sunset though, finally!    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 130

    Money laundering

    March 15, 2020, Indian Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    When you're down because of reading the news, it's welcoming when cockatoos try to cheer you up. And they were trying!

    We again went to the information center as we wanted to rent fins for snorkeling. Then we went snorkeling at Lakeside. What we didn't anticipate was that the reef required a 750 meter walk through sand. Which is quite tough in 30 degrees and full sun while carrying snorkel gear. But we were happy we took it because the snorkeling was worth it. The visibility was good and we saw a huge ray hiding in the sand. It must've been 4 or 5 meters long. There was a strong current so we definitely needed our fins. Afterwards we were quite exhausted. So instead of preparing for another beach we went back to the campsite.

    Susanne manually washed her pants after she walked into a dirty tire. She didn't realise she also washed the cash that was in them. It's totally normal to hang up your money on a drying line, right? It doesn't at all look suspicious how we are able to afford this fancy campsite.

    At sunset we once again tried our luck at spotting baby turtles. A different beach this time. There were some other people searching as well this time, but nobody found any. They did tell us that the evening before they had seen some at this very beach. Grrr :)    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 129

    Oyster Stacks

    March 14, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Snorkel time! First we made a visit to the information center of the National Park to know a bit more about the snorkeling places and the tides. Then we quickly decided to go to Oyster Stacks. Sounds fancy, but it's just one of the 20 or so beach access places in the park. This one in particularly was a rocky one, but that had the advantage that the coral reef started almost immediately.

    When we got underwater we immediately noticed the visibility was much better than at Coral Bay. The current was stronger so it took some more effort to go in the direction you wanted to go, but at least it was safe as in that the current pushed you back towards the shore. We saw many big fishes, definitely bigger than what we've seen in Fiji or South East Asia. We spend around an hour in the water before relaxing in the van.

    Since this place didn't have any toilets, we went further to Turquoise Bay, another fantastic snorkel spot. We didn't want to go in when the sun is the strongest to avoid getting burned. So we cooked ourselves a lunch on the parking lot. Then it was time for our daily dosis of jumping dinosaurs and corona updates. We're feeling quite safe ourselves, not only because we are not part of the risk group but also because we are in remote Western Australia and there aren't even that many cases in Australia generally yet. But we don't know how our world trip can continue after Australia. More and more countries are closing their borders (which is of course understandable and necessary) and we think that by the time we want to leave Australia, we might not be able to anymore. Measurements and restrictions are changing basically at a daily rate making it impossible to predict what's smart to do in 2 weeks when we return the car in Perth. So daily discussion about corona news are also part of worldtrip life now.

    Anyways, it was time for our second snorkel session of the day. This time in Turquoise Bay. There was no current here but a whole lot of sand. We had to swim in for a while before we reached the first coral places. We again saw big fish, although mainly the same types as before. The visibility was a bit worse probably due to the sandy ground and big tides. So that was a bit disappointing at first. At the end however, Machiel proved his spotting skills and magically managed to distinguish a rock-like looking thing from the rocks. Turned out it was an octopus that looked like a rock in one moment and in the next it turned super red and stared at you with a huge eye. Creepy but super cool.

    After a quick shower at our new campsite we headed to a nearby beach to try our luck with spotting baby turtle hatching. It was nice to be at the beach with sunset but unfortunately no turtles were spotted, only their tracks.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 128

    Cape Range National Park

    March 13, 2020, Indian Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    It rained a bit in the night, and there was more rain predicted. As the wind was also strong, we decided against staying at our campsite for another day. The snorkeling wouldn't be good. We packed our stuff, filled our water bottles and water tank, and drove north.

    In Exmouth we restocked at the supermarket, filled our fuel tank and cooked lunch at the town beach. We thought the latter was a good idea to avoid the flies, and have some wind to feel colder. Turned out we had a lot of wind and still some flies. Overall not the best experience but we made it work. Interestingly enough though, despite the fact that they tell you how valuable water is everywhere, just when we had lunch, a truck drove by to water the gravel street and us. We drove further and via the northern tip of the peninsula we got into the Cape Range National Park. We proudly hang up our purchased 'Park Pass' on our rear view mirror, but it seems like in every park we've been so far, nobody cares to check it. And Cape Range wasn't any different, no employees were present at the park entry station.

    In the park we had booked a basic campsite. From there it was just a few minutes walking to the beach, where we enjoyed a medium sunset. The location was nice, with only 8 camping spots in total, some trees for shade and just nature around. Less nice were the amount of cock roaches around the toilets at night. At least we could also spot a big ghost crab.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 127

    Snorkeling at Coral Bay

    March 12, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    It was Machiel's birthday. So the day started with a call to home. On the way to Coral Bay we saw more and more termite nests, most of which were taller than we were. It gave us a new variation of the Australian bush desert to look at while driving. In Coral Bay we checked into one of their expensive campsites and relaxed in the shade. The bush flies gave Machiel a nice present by not being present, so we could use our table and chairs and sit outside without a headnet! After a few slices of regular bread lunch we went to have some birthday pie and cake at the local bakery until our stomachs felt too full.

    After our stomachs felt better and the worst heat of the day was over we went to the beach, just when it was also getting cloudier. We first wanted to go into the water a bit outside of the bay to then drift with the current back. While walking through the shallow water we saw three blue spotted rays very close to us buried in the sand. One got between us and the beach and felt cornered so swam away with hyper drive, quite close to us. As there was nobody else around in the water there and we didn't feel too confident, we walked back to the bay where there were more snorkelers. Like the brochure says: "when in doubt, don't go out!".

    Back in the bay getting in the water was easier as it was steeper. It was completely cloudy at this point and there had been some strong winds earlier, which didn't help the underwater visibility. Nonetheless, the fish activity was amazing. There were many decently sized fish right at the shoreline, curiously swimming around our feet. Then when we put our heads under water we were immediately greeted by a 1 meter long spangled emperor. Turns out he wasn't alone either, and even while standing on the shoreline we could see many of them swim by. They were intimidating at first but they seemed nice and we got well used to them. The fish and the coral was nowhere near as colorful as in Fiji, but we did see several lionfish, which are cool but also creepy being venomous and all. The water was also noticeably colder than in Fiji, where we figuratively could stay in the water the whole day without getting cold. After going in and out a few times we were losing temperature and at some point had to call it a day.

    After a shower in somewhat OK bore water, we went to the café next to the camping for a nice pizza, salad and birthday beers.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 126

    Space exploration

    March 11, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    In the morning we drove straight to the big city of Carnarvon (4500 inhabitants) to do some grocery shopping. As we plan to do snorkeling in the upcoming week we also went to a shop to buy snorkels. We figured it was worth it.

    Then we quite spontaneously decided to visit the Space and Technology Museum. Turned out to be really good. Carnarvon played a role in the lunar Apollo missions in the 60's and they had loads of information and props about it. When we first entered an employee showed us a NASA launch simulator, in which we were sitting/lying on our backs in a control capsule while listening to the radio transmission of the actual launch in real time. We had a countdown and even 'windows' that turned real fiery at lift off. Right when we were convinced we were on the way to the moon, the employee opened the door behind us. "How was it?" Little did he know we were secretly looking forward to spend some time away from Earth, away from the bush flies, the heat and humidity, and corona. We enjoyed the rest of the time there with some more learning and playing some oldschool space games.

    It was around 14:00 when we left and we still wanted to cook ourselves some lunch. We drove back to the coast in the town, found a great shaded lunch spot at the sea and made a lentils curry. We really enjoyed relaxing outside in the shade without too many flies bugging us. We actually enjoyed it so much that we left a bit later than we should have. We still wanted to drive 200km further to the next free camping but noticed quite quickly that we wouldn't manage within daylight. Unlike other rental company insurances we are allowed to drive in the dark despite the higher chance for wildlife collisions. So we were driving and already doubting to stop earlier when the sun was setting. When a kangoroo jumped on the road in front of us and we luckily managed to brake on time, the decision was made. We pulled into the earlier rest stop, it was already dark, so no flies, great spot and all we had to do is eat some slices of bread and go to bed.    Read more

  • TravelerHalf around the world and back
    Day 125

    Dinosaur jumping

    March 10, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Susanne really wanted to swim somewhere. So we thought we'd use the early morning before checkout and check out Little Lagoon which was rated very well as swimming area on Campermate. Arriving there Susanne went in with her feet. It wasn't bad but simply too shallow to think about a swim without walking hundreds of meters. Our next try was the local town beach but here it didn't look any better. The Internet actually confirmed that the sandbar is between 500 and 1000 meters wide before the sea actually gets deeper. So that simply wasn't really worth it. Disappointed we picked up our food from the camping kitchen and left Denham. Ironically the town on the peninsula west of Denham is called 'Useless Loop', but we headed back thinking that the town of Denham was neither really worth the detour. We especially don't understand why in towns like these they don't facilitate better swimming spots. It's so hot yet the local population doesn't seem to care much about using the sea to cool down, contrary to the Australian South Coast or New Zealand. We've been at loads of beaches here but haven't seen a single person in the water, which also doesn't make it inviting to go for a swim alone being a tourist.

    We had a short visit to Shell Beach on the way back to the main highway. That was actually pretty cool and lightened the mood. The beach consists of shells only. In some places the shells have piled up several meters thick. And the water was super clear. Again very very shallow but good for a feet bathing walk. While walking you are not being followed by the usual hundreds of flies but by hundreds of tiny fish. Which is so much nicer because the don't swim into your eyes.

    It was already super hot again. No point in trying any other activities. We picked a free camping along the highway but thought we'd rather arrive late to avoid the flies. So we first went to a random rest area along the road and tried to relax there for some hours, which wasn't easy due to the heat. We couldn't open the van too much or else too many flies got in but it was doable and there was some wind coming in. After a while we anyways wanted to continue. We arrived nonetheless early at the campsite and of course the flies found us again. However, back in Geraldton we had bought a 2m fly screen which we now somehow squeezed between the drivers door and viola we could open a second window now without getting them in. So at least in the van we were now save.

    After dinner we had some time left but no Internet. So we stumbled upon this nice dinosaur jumping game Google provides you with when it can't load a website. Guess what, we ended up spending the rest of the evening playing. Current highscore around 800. Then the birds get too challenging.    Read more

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