Gibb River Road

With our last break over it was time for the actual beginning of our Grand Tour across the Top End. One of the great highlights in our itinerary and definitely a road we both had been looking forward to was the infamous Gibb River Road.


Though I have been here 2 years ago, the Gorges and landscapes are just beautiful and the challenges of the road itself were already reason enough. Adding to the equation that Laura hasn’t been her yet and the only alternative being another eventless highway there was no way round it. With good reason this is a road with a bit of a reputation. Though a large budget is being spent on maintenance, its popularity and high traffic throughput cause a hell of a lot of wear and tear ever changing road conditions and reports. A statement I got a good reminder of on this visit, sections that were smooth on my last visit have become badly rutted and corrugated while some previously bad areas turned out to be as smooth as the German Autobahn.


While we do prefer to be “off the beaten track” which the Gibb isn’t anymore, we did enjoy the benefit of finding people to spend some time with. A great thing about this region/road is the mix of accessibility and discomfort. Not everybody likes it, increasing the likelihood of meeting some interesting characters.


This was the case with a group of fellow travellers we spent a couple of days with. Mainly Aurelie and Gael who joined us nearly all the way till Darwin. They both had a quite inspiring history: Gael was training to become a professional sportsman but recently developed a circulatory condition making it impossible for him to walk long distances and Aurelie has background from half way around the globe. The thing that made these two so interesting is what they made of themselves.
While Gaels disability stopped him from doing his sports, he turned his attention. He is so focused to it that his clarinet and saxophone became permanent companions no matter where he goes. He would walk as far as his legs could carry him to a gorge and start to play at every stop he did – You would nearly always know if he was somewhere within the next few kilometers.

Back on the road

Eventually it was time to start the trip we have come for. Our first stop was Port Hedland another place I lived for a while and where we planned to revisit a couple more friends - My Greetings to Alice and Fan!. With limited time and a lot to see were soon enough on the move again, passing through one of Australia’s most desolated main roads – Highway 1 to Broome.

Broome Bird Observatory

Here we had a chance to meet Martin, an interesting character as we find. He currently dedicates his Life to traveling the globe on his motorbike. It was him who with a bit of email contact persuaded us to cross into Vietnam.

Through his recommendation we spend a couple of days in the beautiful bird observatory, which turned out to be so much more than just a good camp spot. We made friends with a good few other campers comprising of some birdoes and joined them for a couple of memorable get-togethers including 2 days of mud collecting (it’s all for research).

This was also the spot where I first started to work on a programming project that Ashley had organized and we both hope will turn out into something we can make a living with in the future.

Return to Oz

Our return to Australia was a purposeful one. With our mixed history in the country there were a good few Areas that neither of us haven’t seen yet or would have liked to revisit. To make this entire task a lot easier we left the Van in the hands of a lovely Maori family in Karratha.

But there was also the idea to emigrate to this country. Although we had been here for so long, it was a bit of a culture shock once we landed in Perth. First it was all so amazingly clean and tidy (which changed once in the outback). This all changed fairly quickly once we noticed how expensive and of a low standard everything seemed to be. Food costs 5-10 times as much and is usually restricted to unhealthy fast food. We also got a shock with when we noticed how crappy Australian accommodation can be when compared with the cheap as chips rooms we have gotten used to in Asia.

We had booked an 80 dollar room (one of the cheapest in Perth) and had to wait till 10:00 until we finally got the key for our scruffy little room which didn’t even have a heater. Another shock came with a 300$ emergency treatment at a dentist for 1 filling.

We also feel a lack of culture - this is not really a country of engineers and academics, food can be quite boring and is usually quite unhealthy. So despite the benefits this continent has (it’s mainly jobs and the way you get treated at work), we temporary lost our desire to live here permanently.

Enough with the moaning, we still enjoyed our return here. The people here are as friendly as only Australians can be and as the best in Life is free, Australia has lots of free attractions. For example we rented some bicycles for Free in Fremantle for a couple of hours so are the lovely rest areas and public facilities.

Karratha

After a limited stay we flew to Karratha, with very positive impressions. The cooler season magically transformed the place. There were nearly no insects and the cooler temperatures were just a dream (especially considering we spent the last 12 months in the tropics mainly during the summer).


It was great, we had a chance to revisit a good few friends we made here. In a way it felt a bit like a home. To some degree travel tired we decided to stay for a month giving Laura a chance to use a little more of her “Working” holiday and me to work a bit on the Van that needed some work doing for our planned trip across the continent. During our spare time we took it easy for once and visited the area around.