Roadtrip Perth to Darwin - Part 1

My journey started the day I left the Gold Coast. We got caught into traffic before Brisbane but all good and I caught my flight to Perth at night. I arrived at Perth and I spend the night at the airport, sleeping in between two or three seats. The next day I caught a bus to Perth city and I went to see the hostel I booked in the morning. It was the cheapest one I could find and when I got there I realized why… It is probably the dodgiest hostel I have ever been so far. The reception was closed because the staff was hangover and did not get up to open it so I could not check in; I was sharing a small room with 24 other people, it smelt quite badly and everything was really dirty… “it’s just one night” I thought and I tried to take it easy. I went for a walk around Perth, I went to Cottesloe beach, saw some whales jumping and I had some lunch sitting at King´s Park. After that, I went to the hostel, had a shower in a filthy bathroom with no lights and I cooked something for dinner. I talked for a while with some people at the hostel and I went to bed early because the next day I had to get up at 5am.

Day 1

The next day I got up, had some breakfast and said bye to the hostel with a huge smile. I started walking down the streets of Perth and I arrived at the Jetty where the bus was supposed to pick me up. I was a bit early as usual but luckily there was another girl there waiting. She was going to Karijini and back to Perth after 10 days and I had the trip booked for 21 days to Darwin so we did not expect to be on the same bus. In the end, however, we were all in the same bus so I sat with her and from here she became my trip mate.

Pinnacles Desert

We first started driving to the Pinnacles Desert, which is about a couple of hours drive from Perth. It is a huge esplanade covered with yellowish and orange sand and just some rock pinnacles stand there in the middle of nowhere. It was quite hot but the pinnacles were cool.

Sand-boarding in Jurien Bay

After that we started driving to Jurien Bay, the place where we did the sand-boarding. We stopped for lunch and we drove past white sand dunes and amazing landscapes that combined the magic of the sand dunes and the bushes that were growing in the middle of the desert. Finally, we arrived to Jurien Bay and to the dune we wanted. We took the boards and put some wax underneath them.

Afterwards, up the hill to get the sand-boarding started. We first went on our own and after a couple of times, Petra and I tried to go down the two of us on the same board. It was heaps fun and we had a really good time. The sand dunes were amazing and being on top of them gave us the chance to admire a beautiful view mainly featured by more white dunes that were shaping all we could see.

The only bad thing about it, was that I had sand everywhere for the next couple of days. Thanks to that, though, I learned to most useful word I could have learned in this journey: Hiekkaa Kaikkialla :)

Horrocks

When we were tired of going up and down, we started driving again and we went to Horrocks, the place where we spent our first night. It was a house just in front of the ocean and we saw the first sunset of the trip. We cooked some dinner and we introduce to each other in the group so we started to know each other a bit more. After a nice dinner, we went to bed and left everything ready for the next day because we had to leave really early again.

Day 2

We got up for sunrise in the morning and we had breakfast in the veranda, while looking at the ocean. Then we packed the bus again and we started driving to Kalbarri National Park. When we got there, we started walking towards the river track.

Kalbarri National Park

The way down to the gorge was really good and when we got there I was amazed by the landscape. It is so different to what I am used to and everything was really impressive. We crossed the river with Angela and walked next to a rock that had a crocodile shape. We climbed up the rocks and we took some pictures while admiring the views. Then we went back and we headed to Nature’s Window. The views from up there are breathtaking and you feel like you could just be there sitting and observing the river and the rock formations for a long time. It was absolutely peaceful.

Murchison Gorge

Z-Bend Gorge

Nature's Window

After that, we had some lunch and then we started driving towards Shark Bay.

Shell Beach

We arrived at Shell Beach, a beach mainly conformed by shell, after a long drive which was really fun. The tide was really low and the water was up to our knees at most. Even if we had walked for 400 meters, the water would still have been really shallow. Shell beach is really nice and the sun, the reflections on the water, and our jumping skills, gave us the chance to take some really nice pics.

After that, we went to Denham and we spent the night there. It was a nice hostel and we had an amazing dinner all together.

Day 3

Monkey Mia

Aiming to arrive early to Monkey Mia, we got up again when the sun was still down. We were there at seven and we waited for the dolphins to come. We were sitting and all of a sudden we saw the first fin. There was a small shark around that disappeared not long after the dolphins came and some sting rays and turtles.  

Monkey Mia is a fishing town and in the past, the fishermen used to share their fishes with the dolphins. Although it is not like this any more, the rangers keep feeding them a little bit every morning so they keep turning up. However, they do not give them enough food for the whole day because they do not want them to get used to it.

After Monkey Mia, we drove to Eagle Bluff.

Eagle Bluff - Shark Bay

It is a lookout from which you can have a beautiful view of Shark Bay. The water had different shades of blue and turquoise ruled the ocean; the sky was light blue and just a couple of clouds gave it a bit of contrast. We spotted a shark and some sting rays and all of a sudden we saw the sky changing. It started to get windy and we could see that a storm was coming towards us. It was coming fast but we thought it would not be that bad. 

 

Oh well, wrong thought haha. It started pouring and we had to run to the bus because it was so unexpected. In less than five minutes we had a huge storm on top of us. Crazy. Petra and I ran to the bus and we saw the others running too. Angela and Neil were missing and after 2 minutes we saw them running soaked in water. Good fun :)

Hamelin Pools

After the stormy adventure we drove to Hamelin Pools. In this place, Stromatolites can be found. These creatures are considered the ones that helped to create the atmosphere we have now, by releasing oxygen in the air. It is a really interesting place and after wandering around the pools we had some lunch.

When we finished lunch, we started driving to Coral Bay. It was a 4 hour drive journey but we had so much fun. We put some tunes and we had like a party on the bus. Good tunes, good people and 4 hours that went quite fast. We could also see a striptease from our tour guide haha.