Broome

26/07

We arrived at Broome Thursday the 26^th. Tomorrow: Horse race J

The pictures at night

25/07

Here are 2 nice pictures I took on the camping ground after we left Karijini.

marshmallow

25/07

After 2 rough days in Karijini, we deserved some hot marshmallow.

Survival

25/07

This is basically what we need for survival camping J

Star over the camping ground

24/07

Karijini is also well known for its clear sky during the night. Well just like anywhere else in Australia. Enjoy

Karijini National Park

24/07

This park was just enormous with its landscapes, gorges and waterfalls. We did some hiking tracks full of adrenaline down in the gorges. 

Tom Price

23/07

Tom Price, the booming mining city of Western Australia, entry door to Karijini National Park.

Coral Bay

22/07

Coral Bay and the whereabouts offers the second largest coral area after the great coral reefs in Queensland. We rented a Go Pro for some underwater pictures and videos J

Kalbarri National Park

21/07

Enjoy some gorgeous pictures from our first great National Park of Western Australia

The Pinnacles

19/07

This area, 200km away from Perth, offers an interesting landscape of small rocks in a mini sandy desert along the shore.

Greetings from Perth

Those are the last pictures I have shot the day before we left Perth, city in which Quentin and Lacey joined us.

The rat hole

15/07

We arrived at Perth around 3.30pm in the afternoon. We already chose a place to sleep in for its location and cheap price. We didn't know yet that we were on the edge to live our worst service ever in the hospitality industry.

We entered the place and quickly noticed dirt and dashes everywhere on the floor. After we hesitated to move somewhere else, we decided to stay one night to try. Well... we tried.

It is almost like if everything were well designed, though and installed to disgust you, repulse you and piss you off.

Here is the list:
- dirt kitchen
- not enough kitchen pans, pots and kettles for everyone
- carpets looked like napkins (after meal)
- reception was utterly stinky
- we had to pay 20aud deposit to get a table set (caterings, plate and mug)
- the first table set of Pierre was incomplete
- the second had still food from the previous customer
- showers unleashed a brown thing on the floor first when we used those (like in the abandoned house in the movie Fight Club)
- pee on the lavatory seat
- internet unreliable and switched off after midnight (wait for it)
- and final touch goes for the post it which was given to me by the reception lady (ladyboy ?) with kitchen grease on it. I told you, everything is well though to disgust, until the last tiny detail.

I will also add the way the doorman answered me like a pig and physically threatened me when I dared asking for 5 more minutes of internet.

Backpackers have a bad reputation in Australia. I can't really explain why. Is it for there behaviors ? Their way of living ? Their unreliability ? If you deal with a backpacker guesthouse, don't expect a high service quality. This is fact. We know that. But you pay for what you got.
We decided to move the next day to another backpacker inn, where we pay 24aud for a much better quality service in a much cleaner environment. Unlike the 25aud we paid in the hostel described above.


This example is truly beyond scale. There is a difference between backpackers service quality level and... well... no service at all... or worse, to treat you like rat. This was not a backpacker inn, this was just a rat hole.

Charles

Wave rock

In the small town named Hyden, 300km from Perth, there is a touristic attraction. Hotels and restaurants all mention the name of this place. I am talking about Wave Rock.
Basically we were disappointed by the location itself. We had to pay 7 aud for the parking place to see... well a rock shaping like a wave... and this is it.
Fortunately we drove to Perth and wave rock was on the way. But I clearly don't see the point for tourists in Perth to drive/ride 300km away to see this. And 600km considering return.
Anyway, think of it only if it is on your way, otherwise it is more loss of time than anything else.

Charles

The Great Lonely Road

13/07

A very tiny part of the 1119km of the Great Central Road across Western Australia.

Barbecue in the wild

13/07

On the Great Central Road we had to improvise our first barbecues of our trip. The magical feeling to enjoy a meal we cooked with the few we found was simply speechless.
Our 5 senses are working. The silence is so strong that it becomes horribly loud. Landscapes are so monotonous that they become breathtaking. Sausages are so juicy and tasty that they become the best meal ever.
In the middle of no where, nobody can steal you this priceless moment. Delicious feeling of endlessly.

Charles

Aborigines villages

Over our drive on the Great Central Road, we had the opportunity to cross several towns in which aborigines represent roughly 80% of the population.
We have heard about the tragic reality of the aborigines peoples in Australian history but we, as foreigners, had never had the occasion to sight it, until recently.
The level of poverty we saw in those towns, especially in our first stop, Dock River, was truly beyond imagination for the persons who know the level of development in Australia.
We first were intrigued to see ironed gates around petrol pumps in stations. Actually it is to keep away some people who are addicted to sniff petrol. The supermarket was barricaded and looked more like a remote convenient store in China countryside than the fully automated Coles and Woolworth we used to in Australian cities.
People themselves were dirtier, lost, wandering in the streets with crossbreed dogs.
We get used to Australian remote villages since the start of our trip. Few people, everything close by 5pm.This was definitely up to another scale.
We didn't take pictures, first because it was not allowed, second as a respect toward those people. However we will let you have a look at this picture we took briefly leaving Dock River.

Charles

The Great Central Road

12/07 and 13/07

Here are on the Great Central Road. This mystical and quite unknown road which cross the Great Western Australia for 1119km from Dock River to Laverton.
Amazingly enough, we crossed quite a lot of vehicles (1 every 2 hours ?) all along the way. Fuel is well supplied every 220km on average amounting nonetheless 2.5aud/ liter (We noticed up to 2.6aud/L in Warakurna).
All along the way, we notice 117 tyres and 35 abandoned vehicles, among which an abandoned tow truck (with an a car on it ^^).

The drive lasted 2 days, we have the very deranging experience to sleep in Warburton which is a small aborigines city. We arrived around 6.30pm, everything was closed, including the petrol station, the roadhouse and the police station. There was a camping park, which was also closed. We had clearly no where to sleep. We hesitated to set up a camp on the parking area, fearing to commit an offence and upset the locals. I decided to go knocking on a house with light inside (which basically means there is at least one person in). The trick is that I just never found the entry door, but several iron gates with no ringer. Then I decided to ring the Police Station, no answer as well. I then rang another house next door in which I saw clearly the living room inside with full light (no iron gates or jail things...), again, nobody.
What was really frightening in this town was not the fact that we didn't meet anybody. We would have named it a ghost town. It was that some houses were lighted and we still found nobody. It looked more like a zombie town or a town in which something sudden and apocalyptic happened in the hour before we arrive.

We finally met a group a aborigines on the street and I asked where we could sleep. They indicated us the parking area behind the petrol station. We didn't dare to set up the camp, we just took our sleeping bags, laid down the front seats and watched a movie with Pierre's mac book. We saw "Safe", an excellent Statham  movie. We then definitely fell asleep "safe".

Charles

Below, Pierre 

Ayers Rock

Ayers rock (also known as Uluru) is a sacred monument for the aborigine people. The site is protected with a natural park which covers from Uluru, Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas in English) which is another massive rock 43km away to the Western Australia s border. We will drive tomorrow to this border to go on the Great Central Road, a sandy road which will cover most of our way to Perth.

Above : Uluru

Below : Kata Tjuta

Charles

Kings Canyon

stars in sky

The Australian outback is well known to provide some of the best spot to observe the sky overnight. Here is one of my numerous samples.

Charles

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is a mining city. As a tourist, particularity for us is to sleep underground in rehabilitated hostels. The region offers also gorgeous landscape, as you can see below.

Charles

Driving at night

It is well known that animals all go party on Australian roads at nightfall. This is why it is highly advised not driving during night time. Unless :

You drive a truck and you just blow up every single kind of life on your way on the road
You have a protection on the front of the car which can save your vehicle in case of collision, or at least lessen the damage.
Or you can install those simples and smart plastic whistles. Disposed on the front the car, they release ultrasounds from the wind when you drive. Those ultrasounds then scare kangaroos and other wombats, all of which get away from the road before you arrive. 10 bucks. Unlike 400 aud to buy and install the equipment to protect the front of your car. Definitely value for money. Unless we end up with a kangaroo in the front screen in the next couple of days J

Charles

The Great Australian Road Trip started today.

We had some fears about place in car, when Kasia and Karolina joined us. We figured out to pack everything inside. Experience in Tetris is a prerequisite.We wondered how to add tanks for petrol reserves when we will drive in the outback. We were looking for a rack in an Auto Barn in Geelong, on our way to The Great Ocean, so that we could put the tanks on the top of the car. Quick quote: 400aud. We quickly figured out that it was much more value for money to pay petrol twice in the outback. We finally invested in one simple 20l tank. Especially after reassuring words from the salesman who had a lot of experience at driving to Perth. The size was just enough to go in the back of the car. Perfect..


We could then chill out, watching the gorgeous Great Ocean Road landscape and enjoying the Ipod playlist with sweet music teaming up with our Tomtom sexy voice and speed alarm

We finally arrived just in time to observe the sunset. Tomorrow we will go back for sunrise. Then we have a 7h30 trip to Adelaide.

Charles