One Heck of a Road Trip: Karijini & Coral Bay

Callum had mentioned frequently (all the time) about checking out Karijini. It is his dream to see the whole of Australia through the windscreen of his beloved car. Apart from Japan and Canada, his desire to go around the world is not nearly as strong as his urge to witness and appreciate every land, hill, rock and ocean that our beautiful country has to offer. 

Slowly we have been making our way around Western Australia. Most of the difficulties derive from our full time jobs and the fact that our state is freaking massive and a long weekend still wouldn't allow us to get very far before needing to return in time for work. 

That hasn't discouraged us one bit however. 

If it means we use our three weeks of annual leave to pack the car, fill the esky and take off in the early hours of the morning - then so be it. 

We packed as much as we could into the car the day before. When our alarms went off at 3am, we rolled ourselves out of bed and took off. It was still extremely dark and very few cars were driving around when we left. 

Knowing that an eighteen hour day of driving awaited us, our first order of duty was to stock up on energy drinks and yet I still barely managed to stay awake for more than an hour. 

My fear of hitting a kangaroo which is very common at dusk, meant that we didn't swap seats so that he could rest, until the sun was undeniably high in the sky. The first half of the driving seemed to go by quick, especially as I slept majority of the time. Early noon we stopped in a very small rural town called Meekatharra for lunch and a beer. We dined in their only pub, feeling grateful to be able stretch our legs and allowed the excitement to start hitting us as we soaked in our unfamiliar surroundings. 

After many encounters of stray cows wandering across the road, glaring at us territorially as we passed, we finally made it to Newman at 9pm. Disappointingly we were still over two hours away from Karijini and the lateness of the time would mean even if we did make it there, it would be near impossible for us to find a place to sleep and despite the many hours of napping, we were very tired and cranky - tiranky? Crired? Let's go with tranky. 

Luckily Callum is well accustomed to this mood and had wisefully decided to remain quiet and say as few words as possible to me as I try to google overnight stops to get a proper sleep. Quite a few suggestions came up, however, many did not seem to be legitimate resting stops and the frequently cutting out internet connection meant we had to choose a place and go there quickly and hope that the 40 minute drive there would be worth it. 

Thankfully, Callum's last name being Robinson, meant that Mt. Robinson Rest caught my eye so I said "Well heck, it must be a sign so we will go there," and used the last bar of signal to get directions and were on our way. We were not disappointed.

For a free rest stop with plenty of spaces and quite a lovely view, honestly, our first night couldn't be better. Of course as soon as we arrived, we set up the tent and the beds and hit the hay immediately. But waking up with a hot cuppa and the views Mt. Robinson had to offer was just the thing we needed to recoup after our endless day of driving. 

Next Stop: Tom Price. 

As a word of advice, when heading to Karijini, keep in mind that Tom Price is the closest town to the main camping area but even then, it is over an hour drive away. Try to gather as many supplies as possible in order to reduce the number of times you need to 'run into town for something' which for us, was twice too many. Nevertheless, Tom Price was a much larger town than I had expected. 

The posters for community events and children safety gave the sense that it was a close-knit town and it was obvious to see how popular the area was becoming for tourists when majority of the vehicles in the car park were overfilled utes and jam-packed vans. 

We arrived to the campsite late that morning and booked our campsite for a total of four nights. We stayed at Dales Gorge Campsite. Western Australia's fauna becomes very dry and scarce up north so this meant there were very few trees providing even any shade in our spot. Luckily, we had both the awning on the tent and on the car so lack of shade didn't become too much of an issue. 

Luxury shower with a view ;)

Even with three full days to explore, it was not nearly enough time to check out every gorge the area had to offer. Not only are some of the gorges massive, requiring several hours to finish the track, enjoy the scenery, struggle back up the track and then have a breather before you do it all over again, but they can also be quite some distance apart. 

Knox Gorge

We aimed to see three gorges a day and I laugh at that thought now because seriously, I am so unfit, I could barely manage two. 

What was also quite surprising was just how different all these gorges are. I felt such a strong sense of appreciation for our country seeing the land change from dry and scarce to tropical and abundant metres below the land level. 

Karijini truly is a magical place.  

At night the sky is sprayed with misty stars, lighting up brighter than imagined - especially when you get up in the middle of the night to go to use the dunny and there is not a single light on from any of the other campsites. 

Callum was very fond of Knox Gorge. It was definitely the most unique gorge we had. Little sun seeped through the narrow rocks, making it dark and wet but completely otherworldly. 

As for me, my personal favorite was Hamersley Gorge. The water looked spectacular and magical. It reminded me of fairy tale stories involving sunbathing mermaids and I wanted nothing more than to glide in, but we had visited early morning and the water was freezing :( I hope to return again soon with a packed basket of goodies and will spend the entire day there. 

Knox Gorge

Hamersley Gorge

Bidding Karijini farewell was an unwelcomed occasion but thankfully the thought of going to Coral Bay for the first time (for me, not Callum), managed to keep our spirits high. 

The first day of our trip had miraculously made me a lot more patient when it came to the seven hours ahead of us as as we began towards Coral Bay. For once I actually learnt to enjoy the ride, sitting in silence and dotting poetry in my phone as the landscape inspired me with each change. 

We arrived to Coral Bay around 6pm. We drove around, getting a glimpse of the town and found the place was beyond busy. From the road, the caravan parks appeared to be overfilled and we began to panic, unwisely assuming that we could just rock up and find a place to sleep easy. I decided to call around and found that most of the accommodations were already closed for the day, except one caravan park who would be open for another ten minutes and thankfully had a spare site for us to set up camp. 

Callum and I aren’t too fond of camping in caravan parks, especially after our ‘industrial’ experience in Albany. However, the Coral Bay caravan park was definitely a treat (there were much needed showers for starters). The park was very well tamed with and our site was grass which was a welcomed change from the red dust we had began to grow accustomed to in Karijini.

The next day we went to beach and hired snorkel gear to check out the Ningaloo reef. At lunch time we went back to camp to make some food and get a bevvie, when we recognised a car several sites away. It was a car we had seen in our apartment building a few times. Callum was 100% sure they lived in the same complex because it was the only other 4WD vehicle in the building. 

After a couple beers I felt confident enough to stroll up to the car belonging to a young couple.

After a moment of excitement and introducing ourselves to each other, the rest of the afternoon was spent with our new friends where we shared camping and adventure stories. They topped all ours when they announced that their time in Broome concluded with an engagement proposal. She said yes. 

10 stars to our trip.