LIFE UNLEASHED

We had just traveled around the world and gotten back to our starting point, Australia. We could go back to our regular life, get jobs in offices and book into a routine…but that’s not living a life unleashed!

So what did we do? We planned a crazy road trip that would take us half way around the 3^rd largest country in the world. One that would take us on a remarkable adventure to unusual rock formations, agricultural regions feeding this great nation, some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world, several of the world’s top beaches, deep gorges which would bring untold adventures, to the far north where tiger sharks, crocodiles, bats and snakes abound and then back south to a premium wine region and huge Karri forests. And what better way to do all of this but in a campervan.

We learned early that campervaning the way to see great nature through trips in New Zealand and Tasmania. We also learned that every camper needs a name and for this epic journey we took a girl named Wanda. Wanda because she was bound to wander (“wanda” as the aussie’s would say!) and because she was taking us from the south of Western Australia (WA) to the city of Darwin (DA) in the Northern Territories.

Life on the Wild Side (Part 1)

We checked out Fremantle in Perth for a couple days, enjoyed the great café, Little Creatures brewery and seafood restaurants, got stocked up on some essential supplies and went to pick up Wanda (the campervan). Our first stop on our drive 5000km up the Western Australia coast was a bizarre rock formation desert called the Pinnacles. It was the kind of place that old sci-fi shows like Buck Rogers or Star Trek would use to represent an alien planet.

Hundreds of 3 meter pillars of rock standing like trees filled this sandy desert wasteland. I half expected to see Cap’n Kirk himself doing his famed back flip kick to a lizard man. The best part was that you could not only do a 2km walk through this wasteland but also a 4 km drive. I imagine this is what Neil Armstrong felt like the first time he took his moon rover out for a spin.

Western Australia is the most remote state in Australia and as a result has some of the best national parks in the country. Kalbarri National Park ranges from stunning coastal cliff walks where you can watch whales play just off shore to in-land canyons you can hike through to your hearts content. Another “few” hours (5 hours is a short drive in WA!) north is Monkey Mia where you can wade in to your knees with wild dolphins and even hand feed them fish. It was a truly amazing experience that lets you see up close the intelligence and humanity of these amazing creatures.

Do you enjoy breathing???

If you do you owe a lot to a little 3 billion year old clump of muck called a stromatalite.

We had to stop at Hamlin pool to pay our respect to the little single celled organisms that gathered together and created 80 percent of the breathable oxygen on this planet. Hamlin pool was one of the few remaining places you could see stromatlites in the wild and was the only place to claim to have one in captivity. Considering that they are a grey brown lump of rock I don’t know how they managed to capture it or keep in reigned in in it’s little fish tank but it was impressive none the less. We took quite a long walk through a very hot lime stone desert and then out on to a pier to gander at these wonders of nature.   Apparently, if you look real close and wait along time you can occasionally see one send up a little bubble of oxygen, Whoooooohooooo! None the less, all hail the stromatalite…founding member of the planet Earth!

Our next major stop was Cape Range National park in Exmouth. What a wildlife extravaganza it was! Turquoise Bay is perhaps THE best snorkeling spot in Australia. Picture a beautiful white sand beach with an outer reef breaking the waves about 300 meters off shore. In between the outer reef and the shore is a beautiful turquoise bay filled with heaps of coral and marine life. Seriously, the most fish we’ve ever seen snorkelling! Now, I said it was the best snorkel spot but I did not say it was the easiest. The trick here is too head about 300 meter along the shore, swim out 100 meters and let the current drift you back south while you float as if in a giant aquarium watching the fish and coral beneath you. As the current picks up you swim frantically back towards shore in the hopes you’ll reach the sand bar allowing you to climb out. Failing to reach the sand bar results in you being sucked out to sea through the gap and getting to see a tiger shark from the inside (i.e. do not miss the sand bar!). We saw turtles, reef sharks, octopus, trumpet fish, blowfish and huge schools of coral fish. We never did miss the sand bar but on our third pass Lisa did see a very large shark that she could not identify. Our best guess was Bull or Tiger, both of which are classed as your “leave the water” varieties. So that was the end our snorkel trip at Turquoise bay. After that Cape Range was all kangaroos, rock wallabies, echidnas, brown snakes and other cool creatures. It is a definite - Do Not Miss - kind of place.

Before leaving Exmouth we decided a bit more adrenilin was in order and dove one of the top rated dive sites in the world at Navy Pier.  Not only is the dive full of huge schools of fish & large grey nurse sharks within cm of your face — the adventure begins out of the water with a 4 m drop off the pier dressed in full diving gear on.  One of the best dives for uniqueness and for Lisa nearly bumping face first into a 3m shark before I yanked her back by the fin.  So when you’re diving Navy pier try not to get too distracted by the multitude of life around you or you may become a permanent fixture.

From Exmouth, we headed back south to Coral Bay for some relaxation on a crystal clear bay (Yes another one!  Also a bit busy but beautiful none-the-less) and to swim with Mantas. Yep Mantas! We hopped on a snorkel trip early one morning and quickly found 2 Mantas to jump in the water with. We swam above them as they gracefully motored along the ocean floor. It was pretty impressive floating along above them and occasionally free diving for a closer look. They are definitely one of our favourite see creatures.

After all this excitement you’d expect that things would settle down a bit…. BUT with so many adventures to be had, why would they?

But in the words of Hammy the Hamster — “That’s another story”.

(For those that are not familiar or Canadians/Pommies that want to relive a bit of their childhood look for the original 1960s “Tales of the Riverbank - Hammy Hamster” clips on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM5PjQW16r0

Hammy was the lead “actor” in a kids TV show which used live animals that sped around in toy cars and went on all sorts of hamster adventures.  There was a British and Canadian narrated version with the Canadian version always ending “but that’s another story….”)