Letho's Blog

May 04, 2011

After waking up in the Hutt River Province, a sovereign state within Western Australia, the way wasn’t long for some exploration of this mini-state. To be precise, it was only a few hundred meters from our campground to the governmental buildings. The HRP central area is not that big.

We now have an official visa stamp from the HRP in our passports! We informed ourselves about the unique history of the HRP and the relations and functions to other international states. The HRP has not only its own flag, heraldic emblem, army and airforce (albeit enormously small), but as well its own currency. However, payment with AUS-$ is accepted everywhere in the HRP.

We left for our next destination after this somewhat surreal experience: the Kalbarri National Park. On the way to Kalbarri itself you can find lookouts and sites with great views every couple hundreds of meters, or so it seemed. We stopped at least at Red Bluff, Castle Cove, the Natural Bridge, Grandstand and Pot Alley. Always accompanied by an unbelievable number of oh so annoying flies, even worse than what we had encountered before in the Red Center or other places in the Outback.

Another one was Eagle Bluff which provided a nice panorama view:

The township of Kalbarri wasn’t particularly interesting, thus we headed on to the Kalbarri NP itself. The dirt roads within the national park were of the worst sort concerning corrugations, 30 or 40 kilometers shaky and bumpy road without a rest…

Our first stop was at the lookout of “The Loop” where you can see a river meandering around in an almost oval-like form.

To give you a better impression we shot 2 panorama views of the western and the eastern sides of the loop. Look at the western side first:

Then enjoy the eastern side:

The scenery and the landscape was really amazingly beautiful! We decided to go to the “Z-Bend” next, thinking the “Natural Window” would be along the way. We were mistaken, though, meaning we returned to the Loop later on to take the walk down to the Natural Window.
But now for the Z-Bend which has its name from the river flowing here in an almost z-like shape. You can see the middle and lower part of the “Z” in this panorama view:

The way to the lookout was fairly easy, but the climb down into the bottom of the gorge was quite challenging and involved a lot of climbing up and down a lot of smaller and bigger rocks.

At the bottom of the gorge you can go for a swim in the water or just enjoy the scenery:

On our way back up we encountered more kangaroos and gathered some interesting impressions how things grow even in such a rocky environment:

As previously mentioned we had to drive quite a few kilometers of badly corrugated roads to get back to the Natural Window, not knowing wether it was worth the hassle or not. We finally decided to go. And what we would have missed! A gorgeous view from the top of a mountain range into the gorges left and right to the ledge .. stunning! That’s what lies left:

And to the right:

Not to forget the primary highlight itself – the Natural Window. It is a very unique rock formation on top of the mountain with a small arch that you can easily look through:

We noticed the signs forbidding to climb up the rock arch only when we were about to leave. All of us were too excited to climb around, get on top and have some impressive photos taken. We were right in time to see the sunset at the Natural Window, leaving all of us really happy to have gone back here…

Already in the dark we made quite some kilometers further up north to get early to Shark Bay the next day. Again we camped at a free campsite called Nerren Nerren Rest Area after arriving there late.

This day was tremendously packed with sightseeing, don’t you think?

May 03, 2011

Our first campspot was not only free on a public rest area, but only 20-30 meters away from the Indian Ocean. As we arrived late the evening before, we could not really see the area. We would camp a lot on these formally recognized free campsites with allowed overnight stay in the following weeks. Travel distances are simply too far in Western Australia, and you always meet a lot of caravans, campervans and 4WD’s at these spots.

On our way to Geraldton we passed the so-called “leaning trees” at Greenough. Their name is derived from their shape: due to the strong south-western winds the trees are unable to grow up straight. Instead they lean onto the ground, sometimes in almost absurd positions and formations:

Afterwards we visited Geraldton for some shopping and refueling. We also took a short look at the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, built in a Byzantine chapel style:

Further up north we searched for Little Bay, time to take a first bath in the Indian Ocean. The 4WD track to get there was pretty easy. The path up the sand dunes was extremely steep and exhausting, however. Without holding on to a rope you would probably slide back halfway up ..

The view over Little Bay was definitely worth it. And the way down could be absolved within 20 seconds, as opposed to 5 minutes hard climbing.

Near Port Gregory we passed along the Pink Lake in the Hutt Lagoon, expecting to see a large lake in very pinkish colour. Maybe the photos we saw of it were a bit reworked, or the lake was in a bad mood that day. The colour is a result from bacteria excreting carotene which gets accumulated in salt granules. Altogether it was not very impressive, we had seen much pinker lakes in the Nullarbors:

With the sunlight slowly fading we made our way to something awkward even within Australia, i.e. Western Australia. We tried to find the entrance to the Hutt River Province, an independent sovereign state within WA. Not formally recognized, as you might guess.

After using some serious navigational skills and driving along the badly signed gravel roads we finally found it and were greeted by His Royal Highness, Prince Leonard, himself.

He then showed us the way to the campground where we resided for the night .. not like kings, but very down to earth (literally) in our tents.

May 2, 2011

After getting the LandCruiser’s carburator fixed early in the morning we met with Sebastian and his team of travel mates in the northern suburbs of Perth: Bieke, Marjolein, Frank, Brian and Travis. They are from Belgium, Holland, Scotland and the USA. Together we would travel for the next ten days to visit all the exciting places along the Coral Coast of Western Australia.

Our first stop was the Yanchep National Park only an hour away from Perth. It was good for having a lunch, other than that it is not really worth mentioning…

We bought a “Holiday Pass” as well for 40$. This would give us free entry to all the National Parks in Western Australia in the next 28 days – a good bargain!

Our next stop definitely provided for more entertainment: the Nambung National Park with the famous Pinnacles. Within a small area you can find thousands of limestone pillars that formed as a result of an erosion process specific to this area. We did the self-drive through the park, only a few kilometers long, but showing all the main features:

We timed our arrival exactly so that we could view the sunset. And it was really worth it, as you can guess by the next pictures:

We constructed two nice panorama views for you. The first was taken shortly after our arrival near the first sightings of pinnacles:

The other one was taken when the sun was about to settle:

Deeply impressed we used the upcoming night to get on with some boring driving. After a few hours on the road we found a free rest area close to Geraldton, set up camp, made a nice campfire, had a few beers .. all in all a really good first trip day!