Over two weeks on the road, heading north from Perth up the West Coast of Australia and including a side trip into the Pilbara region to visit Karijini National Park - meant many, many hours behind the wheel(s) of my rented camper(s).
(This is my third posting on Australia - you can read the previous two posts at An African Guide in Australia and Aaaahhh... the birds)
I've done a lot of solo road trips and through sheer necessity have acquired the not-quite-so-safe "skill" of taking photographs whilst driving....... If I had to stop every time for a photo I would never get anywhere! So, yes, I do take some care - the road has to be relatively empty and sort of straight before I risk picking the camera up. I have it set on the highest shutter speed possible, and it's quite amazing how good a few of the photos turn out to be. More important, I have a visual record of my journeys.
Some of that road journey through the magnificent Western Australian landscape I would like to share with you now......
It didn't take many days for me to realise that there were 3 main types of road user, with a small variation in types of vehicle used.....
The largest and most intimidating were the Road Trains. These thundered up and down the highways at a steady 110+ kph, and as a result I got overtook by many.......
Then there were the "Grey Nomads" - retired Australians spending the winter (or more) on the road, in their caravans, sometimes with boats.
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| my campervan for week 1 |
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| my "camper" for week 2 |
And of course there were the "Travellers", people like myself, mostly foreign, and in an assortment of rental campervans (although I saw so many Apollo Campervans I thought I was being haunted by them!)
Over the two weeks I came across 3 or 4 sets of amazingly brave cyclists.....
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| Thorny Devil - amazing camouflage! |
As I mentioned in a previous post, once I got further north I saw very little animal life, but apart from the birds I had these two amazing lizard sightings and I got quite close to cattle a few times although they tended to be very skittish if you stopped.
The Thorny Devil doesn't move much, and this particular one I was able to stop and move him off the road.
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| A large Goanna crossing |
On the way up the coast I stayed in a string of caravan parks, but on my trip into the Pilbara I also camped a night in a roadside rest area and another at Bullara Station.
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| 24hr roadside Rest Area |
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| next to the beach |
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| on the Station |
A road trip is all about the journey.... I visited some amazing destinations which I will post about separately, but this particular road trip was about seeing Australian landscapes....... read my very next posting to see some of my favourite photos...here
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2 comments:
the Road Trains look a little intimidating. Curious about the change in camp vehicles.
Hello Gaelyn
The campervan (Guitar Hero) was half the rental cost of the Suzuki 4WD vehicle, but was not allowed on dirt roads.
So to go into Karijini NP I then swopped the cheaper van for the 4WD camper......
The roadtrains are intimidating especially to overtake. I never went fast enough to need to overtake one!
Sue
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