West Coast Roadtrip - 1.0

Posted by Ray

Posted on August 20, 2009

Looking back maybe a diary would have been the best way to keep up and remember all the events of the roadtrip. Hindsight is a wonderful thing alright. To make it a little easier I’m breaking down the trip in two sections as there’s allot to get through and nearly a thousand pictures. First part is Perth to Carnarvon, the second Exmouth to Broome.

The roadtrip idea came about pretty much after staying too long in Perth. I spent the best part of six months there and needed and a change. After the marathon was finished I was lucky to find a group going two days after on Tuesday the 7th July. A week before we had met in the pub to discuss the plan and what we needed supplies wise. I would be travelling with Jonas, Simone and Emma.

Jonas was the main organiser and who owned the 1983 Hilux we would be taking up the coast. Betsy and Apollo 9 (explained later) as she was known had done 365,000km so we figured another 3,000km wouldn’t big such a big deal. He had recently bought it off his uncle for $300 and we all chipped in $125 to get her in tip top shape. Jonas himself built a wooden sleeping area for his mattress in the back of the Ute, which would also double up as storage for all our gear. A big tarp was then used to make it all water tight. The rest of the group had there own tents for sleeping. We didn’t spend to much on extras for the trip. A couple of necessities were got and we were ready to go after spending a hour sorting the best way to get all the gear in the back of the Ute and on top of the roof rack.

We set off from Perth around midday after buying easily cooked camping food like noodles, pasta in packets and beans. Our first stop we pulled into was Dangara. We stayed there on our first night after a couple hours driving that day. In the morning we began the routine we would have down to a fine art over the next few weeks, packing up. A quick look at the beach, a photo and we were off in the Kalbarri direction.

Only an hour in the journey disaster. Driving north down the main highway we passed a roadtrain going around 90km/hr. I was riding in the passenger side and after we had passed the roadtrain I checked the improvised wing mirror to check if anything had been blown off the roof rack. My mouth dropped when in fact the whole roof rack had blown straight off …... "Oh F^*k". About ten different scenarios passed through my mind at that point. I thought the worse for whatever vehicle was travelling behind use. We pulled in and walked back about 500m back up the road. Thank God there was no one directly behind use and there wasn’t an accident. An Ozzie father and son had stopped by the roof rack on the side of the road. They described as when the roadtrain had blown off the roof rack another truck coming in the opposite direction had to slam on followed by another truck slamming on. We were so lucky the whole trip was finished on the second day. The funny thing was everything stayed on the roof rack but it didn’t stay on the Ute. The name “Apollo 9” was thought up after this event. The Hilux Ute looks like a NASA spaceshuttle being white and silver and it did literally take off (the roof rack that is) and number nine stood for how many lives we gave ourselves on the roadtrip. We’d use a few more along the way, lol.

With the help of the nice Ozzies we tied down as best as possible the roof rack and went to Geraldton to make some much needed repairs. It turned out that when making the wooden compartment water tight with the tarp back in Perth we didn’t put back in the four main bolts, thinking the weight of a big metal table, chairs, surfboard and mattress would hold down the roofrack. How we were so wrong. In Geraldton we found a sound garage who let us use their tools and bolts to fix the major roof rack problem. A new tarp was bought and fixed properly along with cable ties (best invention ever) and jockey straps.

We made it to Kalbarri late into the night. In the rain we setup the camp and had some much needed food. Kalbarri does have a nice national park, but in the morning with most the gear wet we packed up and pressed onto Denham where the weather would be warm and sunny.

Denham was the first place on the trip with some character. A nice little seaside town with enough to do for a couple of days. Fortunately for us when we were there the WA Speedway was in town and this was the big event on the calendar. We spent about five days in Denham managing to get a few days free on the campsite and free through the backdoor into the Speedway. By night we went to the local pub and metup with the locals and fellow backpackers.

Next stop was the more famous Monkey Mia where we stayed the night, just north of Denham. Here we feed the local friendly dolphins, visited the “Blue Lagoon” and made a nice sign on “Shell Beach”. At this stage the Dutch girls Jonas had known from Perth and joined us, Else and Eitja. The girls were great fun and would spend the remainder of the trip with us in convoy.

Other noted stops along the way was the oldest living thing in the world, the Stromatolites being millions of years old and are only found in one other place in the world. Google to find out more, I wasn’t overly impressed as Emma was. She read about them in the Bill Bryson “Down Under” book so we popped along for a look. We stopped over in Carnarvon aswell deciding to camp rough for the first time. We parked in well off the main road, but the police came along for a chat. It wasn’t to do with us, some people close to us had let off stolen flares and we were questioned. No biggie. Coming into Exmouth we ran out of fuel. Lucky with the Dutch girls behind us we only had to wait twenty minutes to pop into town and bring back some much needed unleaded petrol. For the whole trip we had to add lead to the petrol as the engine uses only leaded petrol, this shows just how old Betsy was.

End of part one.

Dangara

Packing Up The First Morning

Re-Attaching The Roof Rack

Meeting Mickey The Local Speedway Champ!

Denham Night Out

Camping In Denham

Denham

Big Game Fishing

Speedway Cars

Enjoying Denham At Sunset

Getting In The Back Door At The Speedway

Speedway Action

More Action

Emma, Jonas, Else, Ray, Eitje & Simone

Monkey Mia

Friendly Dolphins

Ray On Feeding Duty

Pelican

No Luck With Fishing That Day

Monkey Mia At Sunset

Human Pyramid

Betsy & The Blue Lagoon

Shell Beach

Eitje & Else

Millions Of Years Old Stromatolites

Stromatolites In The Indian Ocean

Sunset In Carnarvon

Camping In The Outback

Wild Emu

Running Out Of Petrol Outside Exmouth

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