the long way round

roebuck bay is a special place. as cameron from broome whale watching explained, it all has to do with the massive tides here in broome, which can get up to 10 meters. because of these movements there is an incredible amount of water being moved in and out of the bay twice (!) every day.…

we hinted previously that there are a few reasons to come to broome. the thing that initially attracted people – and that continues to this day – were the pearls. initially the pearls were harvested by free divers. in the 19th century the industry switched to the deep sea diving suits, the kind that’s made…

the obvious answer is that you really can’t avoid it if you want to go east across the top. well you could, it is actually a little detour (towards the west) but why would you? the sunset is just as amazing as anywhere on the western seaboard. that alone should be worth a stay. here…

the last few days we camped at 80 mile beach. sounds a little over the top? when aussies say something is an ’80 mile beach’ it probably is actually that long, or at least not far off. it does have this certain endless feel to it, and then there is also the distinct lack of…

one of the great things about the outback is … the night sky. there is very little if any light pollution like we find in the bigger cities. in europe i don’t think you will see anything like this – ever. have a look at this. on the very right side of the picture in…

maybe you have never heard of karratha and quite possibly you are unsure just about where on the map to start looking for it. there is a better chance you have a basic idea if you a/ work in mining or b/ are heavily into petroglyphs, as outlined here. there is, however, something else to…

the burrup peninsula. famous for two things: mining operations and aboriginal rock art. this tiny planet sums it up: the hills of red rocks with art among the oldest on the planet on one side, a gas plant on the other. to us this may look like nothing more than a field of rubble, and…

when we planned the trip i was adamant i wanted to spend  a lot of time in coral bay and exmouth – kris wasn’t sure it was going to be worth it. fair enough: she isn’t particularly confident in the water, doesn’t dive and doesn’t really enjoy boats either. ask her now. seeing a brilliantly…

we had to leave exmouth today. sure, we could have extended the stay but with the school holidays starting we would have had to move to another site and we figured if we have to move anyway we might … go back to coral bay. before we leave the reef we would like to do…

we still remember yardie creek from our first visit here (in late 2005). it’s one of those ‘could have been worse’ things: worse, as in ‘the car could have been swept out to sea’ which i don’t think would have qualified as covered under the ‘normal use’ insurance policy. we got stuck trying to drive…