The Kimberleys 2

Saturday we started with the Manning gorge. Which ment that we had to swim at 7.00 in the morning to the starting point of the walk. Fortunately the water was not the coldest ever....

 After a walk of about 50 minutes we arrived at our next swimming destination: a beautiful pool with again a very nice waterfall. I really enjoy these combinations of walking/climbing and relaxed swimming in ever so gorgeous gorges..... We saw some turtles and lizards, and we had a very relaxing time before heading back...

That is the only disadvantage from gorges: the way in is normally also the way out, so you always walk the same way twice...not too much of a problem if it is either beautiful, or you are bussy rock climbing :) During lunch Hanneke and i did some dancing, and we made the entire group listen to some lindyhop music, as it is not very often you are in the Manning gorge, the ambasadour of lindyhop :) 

After lunch we made our way to el Questro, a camping side with the most expensive camping places ever...they start with 37,- for a normal stand place up to 2000,- a night for a cabin in the gorges, all inclusive...but still...

The good thngs about El Questro is that it was the firts place with some facillities: you could do the laundry, buy an ice cream, and their was a bar where a real cowboy played some cowboy music. dancing to it is pretty easy: you simply jump up and down :) I got most of my fellow travellers involved, even 64 year old Michaels, who had not danced for more than 10 years. Do you know why the mushroom went to the party? Because he was a fungi..... Do you know why he soon left ? Because there was not mushroom....

El Questro apparently doesn't mean anything: the people that set it up, likied the sound of it :)

The following day we again went for some walking, but this day was the most serious one....although it started off quite pleasant: we left at 6.30 to go to the spring wells: some 38 degree natural springs in the middle of some palm tree landscape :) 

After that we explored Emma gorge, a 2 hour wlak return to the highest waterfall so far. There were some Cane frogs: Frogs white man brought to Austrlia to get rid of the bugs that destroyed their sugar cane.... however, the bugs were to high for the frogs to eat, and the frogs appeared to be poisoness for all anymalls that ate them, which were quite a few as the look nicely fat and juicy......So the frogs are spreading al around Australia now, are extremely hard to destroy and poison all the natural wild life, a great disaster in Australian history.....

The afternoon walk was the most challenging so far.... it started with an hour of reasonable do-able walking with some rocks and palms and beautiful creeks.... Midway through we lost half of the group at the halfway springs, as that second bit of the walk was quite difficult: It started with swimming to a gigantic rock, and a hard way up that rock.... 

we needed some help with that, but that start made a natural selection for the rest of the walk: another hour of climbing on and of quite challenging rocks, some a little more scary than I am used too. However, it was all fun and beautiful, and it ended in a little piece of pardise: A small pretty  lake, surounded by a more tropical kind of vegetation. 

The way back was as challanging, or even a little more as after 4 hours of walking I started to be a bit more tired....so after 6 hours of walking, I was quite glad to reach the bus....So after some cowboy jumping at night, I was quite pleased to fall asleep :)

The Kimberleys

On Wednesday morning 6.15m it was time to meet our new group. HAlf of them knew each other alreay, as they did the Perth-Broom journey I did the week before. This group was a lot older than any group before ( we got 3 64 year olds, 2 of them have never been camping before, and the third one is Michael, a pensionated scottisch man, who started his second youth when he was 49 and decided to bungy jump from the Victoria waterfalls... since then he remained in his early thirties.....). As this is also the hardest tour they sell in Australia, I was quite surpriced. But they are all really nice and good :)

The first day brought us to the tunnel creek, where we made a 1,5 hour walk through the caves with our headlights on. Most of it went through the water, but we also climbed in higher caves with lost of beautiful stalagtites. Of course there where some bats, what is a cave without :) Do you know what bats are most afraid of??? As they always hang upside down: diarrhea..... 

At the end of the tunnel we saw some green bottomed ants, whose bottom actually taste rather pleasant... it is just quite a hard task to grab one and hold it still enough.....There were some nice and old aboriginal paintings, around 17.000 years old. They pictured the weather Spirit, but without his mouth, so he would keep the bad weather inside of him... such a clever solution! That is why it is always nice and sunny here, and so cold and rainy in the Netherlands! I know what I am going to do, when I get back home ;)

We made ourw way to Winjana gorge where we had our camp for the night. We made a nice sunset walk into the cave. Hanneke scared a crocodile, or the other way around...it started to warn her producing all kinds of sounds... After dinner we made an evening hike to spot about a few thousand spiders (their eyes lit up if you shine on them). We also saw the eys of 4-5 crocodiles, and many little frogs. We slept in our swags (short for "sleep with an Australian Guide) under the stars...there are millions of them up here.....

The following day was my favourite one :) We went into Bells gorge, where we had a fantastic walk. We climbed into the gorge which was a lovely rocky walk to reach a nice plateau with little lakes and waterfalls. From here we started our swimming tour: first around the beautiful little lake, then up the rocks, and sliding back in the water via a very flat steep rock, like a natural slide with a free fall into the water at the end. some swimming, down a waterfall, over some rocks, another little lake etc, untill we reached our final destination: a rock like the one the lion king is standing on, with a beautiful view over the valley woth more little lakes. It was simply beautiful! 

Our afternoon walk in Galvans gorge was nice again, but less special than the previous one. Except that it had a beautiful boab on top op the gorge, with a nice reflexion in the water. That night we stayed in the Manning gorge :)

To get the stories not to long, I will continue the rest of the KImberleys in a different story

Flying the sky

This Sunday Hanneke arrived, a little jetlacked and jetbored after she left the Netherlands on Friday night.... so we had a lazy day :)

On Monday we went whale watching, which was the best whalewatching ever! Unfortunately I didn't bring my ioad, so you have to wait untill I am back to see pictures and video's.... but basically we saw whales all the time! There were many mums with calves, teaching them how to clean themselves : with hitting their tail on the water.... some were breaching, but a lot were playing around in the area we were... we would just observe one couple for 15 minutes and would then go to the next.... I think we saw about 20 in total, but the special bit was that they all played while we were watching :) A mother whale is pregnant for 11 months before she gives birth to her calf that will weigh between 1-2 ton......The will stay with their mum for a year, who will feed them 600 liters milk a day.... that is an awfull lot of milk!

These whales are from the following day from the air.....

The following day we went flying :) Because Hanneke worked for 5 years at swig in Utrecht, she got this as a goodbye and thank her present....and I had to go with her :) We went with a lovely elderly couple, and our 20 year old pilot, who started flying when he was 17... his mum brought him to his lessons, while he was not allowed to drive, but he could fly solo :) 

It was a great experience! We flew to the horizontal waterfalls, which are formed naturally by the change in tides. They were surrounded by hundreds of small lovely islands with deserted beaches....

we had a stop in Cape Laveche where we had morning tea. We had nout two hours to explore this beautiful place with red rocks, white sand and a blue sea.... I photographed the dutch flag :) We went for a quick swim in the warm sea and were a little disappointed to leave after 2 hours..... But the way back was even more special...we flew among the coast and saw about 25 whales ( a group of nine swimming together), dolphins, many turtles and a manta ray! But the most special was that I was allowed to drive the plane for about five minutes :) That was super fantastic great!!! I could go a bit up and down, no loops ;) But you really could feel the wind :) Unfortunately he wanted to land himself ;) But the total was an unforgetable experience!

Broome

On sunday we arrived in Broome, the first place with a Mac Donalds since we left Perth..... In total Broome has 15.000 inhibitants and a beautiful beach..this week it is very bussy as the cup in horse racing is this Saturday. 

I was quite happy to finally unpack my suitcase for a bit, not going anywhere for the next ten days.... put all my stuff in the cupboard, made my bed.....After unpacking we went to the beach to watch a super pretty sunset, followed by real thai food :)

 When I came back, I found a girl in my bed..... she was tiny and Japanese, but nevertheless...the beds weren't that big ;) So they made a mistake and put seven girls in a room for six.... so I had to move for the night, to come back the following day :(  

At least I could experience the feeling of unpacking again :) The following day was quite relaxed in town, with the highlight in the evening: the staircase to the moon! This event happens less than once a month with full moon...because there is a lot of still water here, the reflexion of the moon create stairs in the water. Soooooo pretty!!!! There was a market with the event, where they sold all kinds of art and nice food . A band played didgeredoo music to make the experience compleet....

When I came in the hostel, my bed was taken again! So I had to move again, but I bargained myself a free icecream per day for the rest of my 10 day stay :) Which I really enjoy every day :)

 The following morning we went camel riding on the beach...that is THE Broome thing to do. And it was actually quite nice, 8.00, no one else on the beach just you and the slow moving camels....

At night we ate at the brewery, where you could taste different kinds of bears and ciders in 99 cc cups... I tried 6 but my heart was stolen by the mango apple cider with a hint of chili and lime :)

On Wednesdaymorning the rest of my tourgroup went of to Darwin, while I was satying for another week to catch the same tour a week later with Hanneke. It was sad to leave the group, as it had a really good vibe...there were quite a few people of my age, which is rare on this kind of tours.... but it was nice to have some more time to relax :). I visited the pearl farm, went kayacking at sunset, but also read a lot of books...

Pearls

Today I went to a pearl farm as Broome is the pearl capital, and I learned some very interesting fact about pearls. Up till now I have never shown any interest in pearls, which made it all quite new and interesting...

So natural pearls are only found one in 10000-100.000 oysters. not having more perals is mostly due to little anymals that like to shelter inside the oyster and as some kind of rent they clean the oyster shells...

Pearls are formed from a slimy material called nacre that is clotting around irregularities like sand, so cleaning the oyster prevents the formation of pearls...

So what do they do at pearl farms? They collect oysters, and put a little piece of shell covered with the nacre producing organ inside the gonad of the oyster ( a true operation through a two cm opened shell...) ... in this way the cleaning animal cannot touch it. Nacre will be formed and will cover the little piece of shell. The oysters are turned over every day by hand to get a round shape of the pearl. After 30 days they are put in the more nutrition rich shalow water, where they clean them by hand during 2,5 years.... They are packed with ten in a cage and cleaned by backpacker looking for a seasonal job.... After 2,5 year the pearls are collected.... about 85% will have formed a nice round pearl. The price range varies on how shiny, round and perfect the pearl is and can be worth more than 10.000 dollars! 

There are also fresh water pearls from China, produced in bulks in tanks and therfore a lot cheaper. I bought a very imperfect pearl on the market, but I love its imperfections ...just like real life ;) 

About shoes

Here a short story about my shoes.....I have these really really nice Iowa walking boots, about 8 years old, but hey...I live in the Netherlands, so not much used at all.....

So on my second trip, I saw that from both shoes the front border of the sole was getting a bit loose.... As I am the most prepared Jojanneke ever,  i brought some super glue :) So at night I thought to repair my shoes.... as it was a diffilcult bit to hold, I put my hand on the inside of the shoe towards the nose to give some compression from the inside....but apperently I got a tiny little bit of superglue on my indexfinger.... so NO way i could get my finger out, it got superglued to the inside of my shoe, which was not reachable at all!!! My first call for help was for Chris, the plastic surgeon on our trip.... I thought at least he could cut me out in a rather nice way ;) Fortunately he was not there, so I asked Tjilpie, the guide.... Apperently you need nailpolish remover....  we were with 15 girls, so we had enough of that!  it took a full bottle of nailpolish remover, but then my finger finally let go :) And when the alcohol was evaporated, my shoe actually really smelled nice...

I had to take all the jokes for granted, but at least I got repaired shoes and my fingers back :)

The following day we had our next hike, but unfortunately withing the 2 hour hike, both of my sole completely detached...apparently superglue is better for fingers than for shoes.... So I had to hike on walkingboots without soles, a rather new experience :) 

karijini

The next three days we spent at Karanjini national parc. This was definately the highlight of our trip! This is a swim paradise made by nature, with different gorges and little swimiingpools everywhere....ok...they could be made a little warmer ;) 

All pictures are from Hammersley gorge. As I cannot connect my camera to my Ipad, I sometimes bring my ipad on my walks to have some picture for my blog..... but the otherones you will see when back :)

The first day we arrived quite late so went only for a small walk in Joffrie gorge. According to our guide it would be a simple stroll that could be done on any type of shoes but flipflops.....how glad I was I wore my walking boots.....the steep rocky descent down ino the gorge was beautiful and manageble, but the walk down the gorge went along overhanging rocks.... how glad I was I did the rockclimbing in hte hall the day in Perth as it made me definately more confident. We arrived at a beautiful little lake, but only few of us were brave enough to swin in the ice cold water. We went the same way back, just to be in time for sunset. After nice couscous and frech fish from exmouth market that morning we fell asleep in our swags. A swag is an outside sleepingbag, which is made of tentcanvas and a bit of air to sleep on. We had two sleepingbags, and I wore termal underware and 2 fleeces....which was just enough to keep me warm under the stars

The second day we drove to Dales gorge, another beautiful hike in a gorge.  It brought us past al kinds of water and waterfalls in all different kinds of colours and reminded me of Pitvice in Croatia, one of my favourite places, but without the many tourists. We pst many different kinds of trees, figtrees in which you could climb and play, untill we came at one of the most beautiful lakes. Here we all went to swim, still a bit cold but it was a nice and sunny day. We washed ourselves in the waterfalls as the dusty red sand of the ground here is everywhere! After a visit to the visitor centre, which told us the story of the aboriginals, we went back for a well deserved icecream in the sun. The days here are around 28 degrees, while the nights are still only a few degrees above zero, although the second night was already warmer.

The third day in Kimberley was my favourite day of the entire trip. We started in Hammersley Gorge, one of the Gorge even our guide had never been too. This was the most beautiful Gorge of the ones so far....

We hiked along the water that changed colour all the time, untill we reached our own little swimming paradise: a small pool in which we just all fitted together, connected with a natural slide of stone to a bigger swimming pool. 

Our own swimming pool :)

In the afternoon we had the most fun walk in Hancock Gorge. We had to walk and swim through ice and ice cold water along the way. Part of it went through the spider walk: so narrow that you had to put your feet on either side of the rock to get through. To get to the end bit of the walk you had to swim through the coldest water so far, although if we had to believe our guide it already warmed up quite a lot over the last week....I still thought it was pretty cold, and am quite proud of myself I did it all without any complaints :)

Out whirlpool with slide :)

It was sad it was laready our final day in this beautiful area..... the following day we just had a long driving day to Pardoo cattle station.... the good thing about it: it had really nice and warm showers :) We had a BBQ, homemade cake to say thank you to our amazing guide Tjilpie, and a real campfire :)

The following day we drove to Broome, the end of our first tour. We made a short stop at the 80-mile beach, with really beautiful shells there :) In Broome I will stay for 10 days, while Hanneke will join me later this week :) After a few trips here we will head towards Darwin throught the Kimberley national parc, which is supposed to be really beautiful too. But I will have 10 days of access to the world :) so more stories to follow. It will be a bit lonely without my fellow tour people, so any stories from the other side of the world are welcome :)

On the road

I am already 5 days on the road, and the first available wifi :) Quite nice to be cut of the world for a bit, but today I miss my friends and family.....

We started with a lot of driving.... we already did a few thousend kilometres of endless roads.... a very very good way to relax. I often sit in the seat next to the driver and let my thoughts pass to relax....

The first day we drove to the pinniclec, who where formed many many years ago from lime stone around branches of trees. That gives weird shaped stones all over the national parc. Even more important, it was the first nice sun we had since I arrived in Australia :)

From there onwards there was a long drive to Geraldton that was only interrupeted by some sand boarding :) There is silican sand everywhere here, super soft and small sandgrains...they put it in little bags along stuff you buy as it will absorb water, but it has the nasty habbit of getting stuck everywhere else, as it is soooo tiny....like in the lens of my camera, that has some problems now....But the feeling between your toes was great, and the sand boarding even better :) On snowboard like sledges going fast from sand dunes :) We were not allowed to stand as too many people broke their legs on past tours, which is quite annoying in the middle of noweher according to our guide :) 

We arrived quite late, and I think because of our early start, everybody went to bed at 2100.....

The following day we had breakfast between 4.00-5.00 ahhhhh!!! We had a couple of hours to drive to Karilon national parc. Here we did some good hiking in the gorge....not very long, but great scenery and big rocks. Half way there was some real abseiling to do, something I had not done for many many years, but still quite enjoyed. The guide was quite good at asking some very anoying questions during the scary bit of going over the edge to keep your mind of being scared :) The walk ended at a beautiful lake. Although the sun was out, it was definately too cold to swim yet although they were trying hard to convince us for a quick dip..... but nobody was brave enough.....

From there on we drove to shell beach, an enourmous beach entirely made out of shells. The water is most of the day detatched from the sea. During the sunny part of the day, the water evaporates which makes this water 10 times more salty as the normal sea. And these little shells are the only creatures that enjoy that, so they have no enemies. they die nevertheless quite quickly, thus forming the endless beach of shells. 

We ended the day in Shark bay, for again an early night...

The following day started a little later, we drove of at 6.30 to go to Monkey Mia for some dolphin watching. The people there are overly proud that they have a natural side where dolphins come every day, and they take quite good care in not disturbing their natural habbits. Which is a pitty, as I quite like some tricks ;) We were only allowed to feed 2 of the dolphins 5 fish, the rest they need to catch themselves, not to disturb their natural habbits..... It was just such a weird not natural thing to stand there with 120 people watching something so natural.....

NExt stop was the favourite of our tourguide: the stromatolites! Some bround and black coloured stones in the sea..... he stayed for a nap ;) I actually found them quite interesting, as they are the microbiome of the sea: billions of bacteria holding small particals together thus creating a stone like material...

Fortunately on our way to Coral bay we found his favourite animal (he has even tattood it on his back :) The Thorny devil

This creature has not many enemies, but likes crossing roads quite a lot, not being particulary fast..... they like the sunny feeling of it.....how stupid.....

That night we stopped at Coral Bay, from where we did a great snorckling tour the following day. It started off a bit cold, but the corals were amazing! Many coloured fish, an eagle ray, a sea cow, many baby sharks, some turtles, we sat it all.... some swam along, some tried to get away as soon as we swam too close.... we were supposed to swim with Manta Rays as well, who are getting about 4 meters in width....but we were one of the 5 tours each year that didn't see them.... Nevertheless, the swimming with all these other animals was already a real treat!

That day we only drove a few hours to Exmouth, where I am at the moment. 

We have quite a relaxing day, as tomorrow we will go to Karanjini, one of the most beautiful national parcs of Australia ;) Looking frowards to that! We will sleep a few days under the stars so I imagine not to be in contact with the world for a bit..... see you in Broome :)