All posts tagged Western Australia

Unexpected Rainbow
Rainbow Albino
At the End of the Rainbow is a _
Lake Macleod
Coral Bay
Seagull at Coral Bay
Kings Wave
Blowholes
Carnarvon Waterside

Coral Bay, Lake Macleod & Carnarvon

It was a rainy night last night. I heard it this morning on the radio that storm hit the southern part of WA pretty bad. Rain was heavy at times where I was but nothing too severe. Also heard on the news that a 37 year-old Victorian woman fell 60m to her death at Mitchell Falls yesterday. I felt sorry for the woman πŸ™ It was also a destination I was going to visit but skipped all that part of WA because meeting up with Greg and a friend, Eamon, in Perth.

I left Exmouth around 7am. While I was driving, I saw a rainbow and quickly pulled over. Took a few photos. Got back into the car and drove again… but couldn’t go very far. I noticed something at the corner of my eye and thought it was some reflection on the car window. I opened the window and there it was….  a rainbow arch with no colour. I named it “Rainbow Albino”. It was the strangest thing to see. I had to get the shot of it and whoala… it came out just how I saw it. Trust me…. wasn’t photoshop effect πŸ™‚

Continued driving and again…pulled over for more rainbows. I love this shot that I took and later Greg told me there’s a legend saying: At the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold. LOL… I am sure that wasn’t a pot of gold… or was it? Nah,..

Finally the sky cleared up a bit so no more rainbow stops and arrived at Coral Bay, my first destination for the day. It’s very tranquil here… white sandy beach and turquoise water. However, I didn’t stay for very long as I had my next stop to go to.

Lake Macleod, saw some images on Google that the lake is pink at certain time. So I wanted to see if I could see it. Well…. the lake was mostly dried or just a shallow bit of water. However, I did find one pool that was what I was looking for. It was pink as I saw on the web.

One of the surprises today for me came after Lake Macleod. I knew it was only just over 10km from where I was to the edge of Australia shore and I saw the sign says “Blowhole”. I had to see what it was. It’s the power of nature alright. A big sign “King Waves Kill” stands at the T-junction. Here you can really feel the power of those waves slamming onto the shore. Honestly, it was brutal.

Among all the battered rock cliffs; there was this stream of water shooting up into the sky every now and then. It was really like a whale blowing water through it’s blowhole. So… that’s the Blowhole

I took many shots of water shooting out of the Blowhole but the one I love the most was this older man tried to see it in close proximity. I love the shot πŸ™‚

It was only about half an hour from here to Carnarvon where I will be spending the night. Did some grocery shopping at Wollies then checked in to a caravan site which I booked last night. Once settled, I did a load laundry and a shower. Now I have clean clothes again πŸ™‚

John @ Carnarvon, W.A.


Images: 1. First Rainbow I Saw This Morning; 2. Rainbow Albino; 3. What’s at the End of the Rainbow? 4. Lake Macleod; 5. Coral Bay; 6. Seagull in Flight; 7. King Waves; 8. The Blowhole; 9. Carnarvon Water Front
Exmouth Gulf
Vlaming Head Lighthouse
Pelican at Cape Range
Parrots Self Cleaning
Yardi Creek
Yardi Creek Gorge
Sunset Behind Vlaming Head Lighthouse

Exmouth Gulf

I had a quick look around Dampier but didn’t find any interesting things to photograph. It would be nice going to the islands but didn’t really have time. So got myself ready and left Dampier. I have to say from Port Hedland all the way to Dampier is not very photogenic or could be just ‘me’ πŸ™‚

I decided to follow the coastline down and my destination was Exmouth Gulf. I mainly wanted to visit Cape Range National Park. I tend to get drawn to more remote places. Exmouth is definitely one of those places. It is definitely not easy to get to. Either 2 hours flying from Perth or 1300km of driving. Your choice..

Besides driving through a rain storm; the drive to Exmouth was quite boring. However, things started to change when I entered the gulf itself. I started to noticed turquoise water over my right. It was quite lively here, many visitors around.

I first headed to Cape Range National Park which is about 10km from Exmouth. If you like fishing, corals, dolphins… this is the place to be. Unfortunately, all camp sites were full by the time I got here and I could understand why. It is a great place to camp for a few days or even a week, There are many different sites here so you could stay at different every night. You can snorkel and see coral and fish.

The main landscape attraction here is the Yardi Creek Gorge. It is the only gorge in this park that is with water permanently. I guess the water would be from the Indian Ocean when the tide is high.

This place gives me a feeling of Byron Bay but without the hussle and bussle. Just the bare nature and a lighthouse. πŸ™‚

I really enjoyed this place today but sadly I have to leave tomorrow πŸ™

John @ Exmouth, W.A.


Images: 1. Exmouth Gulf; 2. Vlaming Head Lighthouse; 3. Pelican at Cape Range; 4. Parrots Self Cleaning; 5. Yardi Creek; 6. Yardi Creek Gorge; 7. Sunset Behind Vlaming Head Lighthouse
Port Hedland
Salt Farm in Port Hedland
Sunsetting at Dampier

Port Hedland & Dampier

Not much had happened today…just mostly driving. I was planning to go to Dampier Peninsula but apparently it only open to visitors Monday to Friday. So another destination bite the dust πŸ™ Never mind…plenty more places to visit. So the only choice was to head south. Port Hedland pretty much was the only town after Broome and it was over 600km away. I left Broome at 6:30 and arrived just after midday.

Had another scare today with the tyre when I arrived Port Hedland. I thought another tyre might have a puncture as well as it looked a bit flat. All services in Port Hedland (maybe the whole WA) closed half day for Saturday and don’t open until Monday. So what do I do?? Panic a little…

Greg suggest checking the air pressure so I did. All 3 tyres except the one I changed the other day were way over the recommended pressure. It dawned on me that the service I had in Alice Springs. They must have bumped all the tyres way too much and that’s probably why the tyre blew on the dirt road. It simply had no give….. damn. So set all the tyres to what they should be and the car felt much better and… I felt much better πŸ™‚

Didn’t really want to stay in Port Hedland as it is a major mining town. BHP, Rio Tinto…they are all there in force. Another product here, salt. So drove another 200 odd km to Dampier where I planned to get to today. It has a much nicer settings. I could also see that salt is one of this town’s (or Rio Tinto) main source of income. The salt farm here is huge.

I got here just before sunset so didn’t have time to look around. Will do that tomorrow. So a short and uneventful post today.

xox

John @ Dampier, W.A.


Images: 1. Port Hedland; 2. Salt Farm in Port Hedland; 3. Sunsetting at Dampier
Cable Beach
Where Outback Meet the Sea
Sun Pictures
Sunset at Cable Beach
Cable Beach Just After Sunset

Broome

Broome, a country town by the sea. It is a happening place, people is everywhere here. I would think they are mostly tourists. There are some great looking resorts by the beach. I spent a lot of time today at Cable Beach. I suppose it is the ‘Bondi’ of Broome. It is over 20km long, beautiful light coloured sand and stunning blue water from the Indian Ocean.

But right next to Cable Beach is a place called Gantheaume Point. It is a completely different experience. The soil is bright red like the outback. They called this is ‘where the desert meets the sea’. Honestly, it is quite a sight. You have all this red sandstones and dirt but only a few km away the sand are light colured. It is almost like 2 different worlds join together somehow.

I had to visit some of the pearl farms and shops here as it is part of Broome’s history. The Broome Pearl does look so much better than the fresh water ones. Of course, they are lot more expensive as well.. πŸ™‚

In the town centre here, there is an old movie garden called Sun Pictures. It says it is the worlds oldest operating movie gardens and I might just believe it. I was able to walk in during the day when it was not opened and took some pictures of it’s interior. I love the few antique camera equipments in there.

To end the day, I went back to Cable Beach to watch the sunset. We don’t see sunset over the ocean in the eastern states so this is quite an experience. You can even drive onto the beach and have a picnic. Wish we could do that in Sydney. It was the first time I tried shooting sunset over the water. I tried but didn’t really like the results… guess will have to try again.

This will be my last night in Broome. Hopefully will come back one day.

John @ Broome, W.A.


Images: 1. Cable Beach; 2. Where Desert Meets the Sea; 3. World’s Oldest Movie Garden; 4. Sunset at Cable Beach; 5. Indian Ocean at Dusk
Cave Walk at Tunnel Creek
Windjana Gorge National Park

Tunnel Creek & Windjana National Parks

After finished the last post this morning. It was time to decide where to go today. First I thought going to Derby or Broome but then I just wanted to see a couple more National Parks. So I decided to go to Derby or Broome through the back roads rather going on the highway. That way I could visit Tunnel Creek and Windjana National Parks. They are only about 35km from each other.

Tunnel Creek is the oldest cave system in Western Australia. You can walk into the cave and come out at the other side of the range. It is about 800m one way. The only thing is that you will need to get wet as there are a few permanent pools that you need to wade through. The cave is the only attraction in the park so it was a very brief visit.

Next, Windjana and it was only 35km away from Tunnel Creek. But about a km before Windjana, I thought the car felt a bit funny and I smelled something burning. Pulled over, got out and found that the same tyre that were punctured was now blown. Smoke were coming out from holes on it. I kinda knew it would happened sooner or later after Bungle Bungle. That trip really gave the car the full workout. So today, the extra 200km of off-roading finally done it. So pulled everything out the the boot to get the spare tyre and changed it. Now I have no spare so guess have to stay on the bitumen for awhile until I have the spare replaced.

After changing the tyre, I went to Windjana as planned and that was a short visit to as part of the walk was closed due to damages during the wet season.

John @ Broome, W.A.


Images: 1. Cave Walk at Tunnel Creek National Park; 2. Windjana National Park
Bungle Bungles Ranges
View Looking Up at Echidna Chasm
Echidna Chasm
Mini Palm Gorge
Cathedral Gorge
Track to Piccadilly Gorge

Bungle Bungle (Purnululu National Park)

It took me 3.5 hours to get to Purnululu National Park and almost half of that time was to travel on this rough dirt road for only 60km. Guess you can see how slow I was going on this road.

I have been to many places in Australia in the last few weeks that words and pictures just cannot do them any justice. This is another one of them, the Bungle Bungles. It was impossible to capture what I saw with my bare eyes. It was as spectacular as I thought it would be. It made the 60km rough off-road track worthwhile at the end.

First went to the visitor centre to book myself the camp sites. They have the North and the South side. I decided to stay at the North the first night then the South the next.

I went on the walking tracks before heading to the camp site. They were the Echinda Chasm and Mini Palm Gorge tracks.

Echinda Chasm – I simply could not take photo of this place to show the ‘wow’ness of it. The only way I could describe it is that the feeling like being in the movie ‘Indiana Jones’. Truly, I felt like I was.

Mini Palm Gorge – The track to wasn’t very difficult but you do have to climb over some big boulders that were bit dangerous when you have a backpack, camera and iPhone in your hand πŸ™‚ The gorge was dried already and I have to say it wasn’t as impressive as it should have been. The walk was fun though.

Day 1 in Bugle Bungle was over and was time to head over to the camp site. Fixed myself some simply dinner and watched a movie on my iPad then went to sleep.

Wake up on day 2 with a headache and I know it was caffeine withdrawn. I have them all the time if I don’t have coffee for a couple of days. I soldiered on and did my third Bungle walk, the Cathedral Gorge walk. To get here, I had to drive another 30km from the camp site to the Southern side of the park.

Cathedral Gorge – The walk was relatively easy after the walks the previous day. It was a little bit longer so the return trip took about 2 hours for me (walking slowly and taking pictures). The walk eventually ends at gorge with this rock amphitheatre. It was absolutely amazing place thinking that nature had created it.

I didn’t really have time to do the Piccadilly Gorge and Creek walk. It was a 20km return trip. I would have walked it if I wasn’t push for time. Greg is meeting me in Perth next week. That gives me just less than a week to get to Perth. I had to skip part of my trip, the Gibb River Road. I guess will have to do it some other time.

I decided after Cathedral Gorge that I won’t stay the night. I would use the time to drive to Fitzroy Crossing. It was basically where I would have end up if I take the Gibb River Road. I was exhausted when I got in and couldn’t possibly finish this post. I parked on the side of the highway and just ‘crashed’.

Bungle Bungle Range is definitely one of those places that should be in everyone’s bucket list. Look for people in a couple of the images and you will have the sense of just how big they actually are.

John @ Fitzroy Crossing, W.A.


Images: 1. Typical Bungle Bungle Domes; 2. View Looking Up Inside Echinda Chasm; 3. Fallen Rock Stuck Between Echinda Chasm’s Cliffs; 4. Mini Palm Gorge; 5. Cathedral Gorge (can you see the people on the bottom); 6. Track to Piccadilly Gorge 
Lily Creek Lagoon
Lake Argyle
Ivanhoe Crossing
Lunar Eclipse

Kununurra

I was up this morning at 4:30am… bloody time zone changes. πŸ™‚ It actually not too bad because the sunrise here is lot earlier than the other states. It rises at about 5:30am so I got up and took some dawn photos of the Lily Creek Lagoon from the camp site. I also decided to stay in Kununurra another day so there was plenty of time to go places.

After extended my stay with the park here. I went to Lake Argyle, the largest body of fresh water in Australia. It was BIG… You can only drive to a couple of places there. To see it really need to take the cruise but I wasn’t going to do another one. So just drove to wherever I could and took my pictures and check out the dam structure. The wall wasn’t very tall but I suppose it is the area it covers.

Came back to the camp site after Argyle, made myself a sandwich for lunch. Chatted to my ‘neighbour’ camper. He’s from Fiji and was working here in Kununurra. He told me many places to go around here so I did.

Ivanhoe Crossing, a river crossing, was closed and the stream was flowing strong. There would be no way any car could made it across. It was the biggest river flow I’ve seen so far. Also, I went to a lookout here called Kelly Knob. I know… weird name. You have a birds eye view of the Kununurra township. It looks beautiful from up there.

It was a partial lunar eclipse tonight and got myself all ready to shoot a proper time lapse. It will need to be properly processed so stay tuned. It consists of over 2500 images of the eclipse. Too bad it wasn’t a full lunar eclipse. It would have been so much more epic.

Ok… tomorrow I am off to one of my ‘most wanted’ destination, the Bungle Bungles. I can’t wait…. hopefully won’t be too long before I get to show you some photos of it.

xox

John @ Kununurra, W.A.


Images: 1. Lily Creek Lagoon at Dawn (taken right from the camp site); 2. Lake Argyle; 3. Ivanhoe Crossing; 4. Tonight’s Lunar Eclipse