Roadtrip to Geraldton

I took a few days off work to go on a road trip up north to Kalbarri with my friend Jason. I let him do the planning, so everything he had planned was a surprise to me with the exception of seeing some kind of pink lake and wildflowers. I was definitely in for a treat, because the last few days have been absolutely incredible.

We left around mid day on Friday and drove five hours north to Geraldton – our home base. Watching the scenery change along the way was so cool. We even saw some wild sunflowers, which always feels like a good omen in my life.

When I first saw pictures of Western Australia’s landscapes, I was a little underwhelmed because it essentially looked like sand/dirt and some shrubs/trees. This road trip definitely changed my mind about that – there was so much variety along the trip to Geraldton. Five hours went by pretty quickly and before I knew it, we had arrived in Geraldton.

Geraldton itself isn’t anything incredible. Jason and I were talking about how there’s no way we could live there. It felt like something of a ghost town. I joked to Jason that it seemed like it was a movie set and someone had paid actors to inhabit the place while we were there. That said, the town does have gorgeous beaches and views of the ocean. Had it been warmer, I would have loved to have gone for a snorkel!

One awesome thing Geraldton has going for it… sea lions!

Since we arrived in Geraldton later in the evening, we basically went out to eat at an asian restaurant and then retired for the night. Geraldton was our home base for the next few days, doing day trips from there.

Pink Day

Leaving around 9am, we got a light breakfast and then headed out for the day. Our first stop of the day? The Pink Lake of Port Gregory! I didn’t think the lake was actually going to be pink and that instead, just the slightest pink hue that people had oversaturated in pictures. Boy, did I gasp when I saw the lake come around the corner.

The lake has its color because of a certain algae that grows there. The color reminded me of my hallucinogen days haha – it was the type of pink the sky would turn on an LSD trip.

Jason sent up his drone to get some footage and I walked along the edge of the water, admiring how the lake seemed to turn a brighter pink depending on the way the sun hits the water. On overcast days, the lake may actually appear grey instead of pink so we lucked out.

After the Pink Lake, we headed to Kalbarri National Park. When we got to the town of Kalbarri, we stopped for a moment to take a look at the ocean. There was a flock of pink (well, “pink and grey”) cockatoos and we decided it was a good time to have our donuts… which were also pink. They were strawberry glazed with vanilla custard inside. It was one of the most delicious donuts EVER. I almost couldn’t finish it, it was so sweet.

By that point, we had realized it truly was a pink day… because – and I am not lying – P!nk was playing on the radio, too.

Kalbarri National Park

Kalbarri National Park is beautiful. We had a couple of attractions we wanted to check out while there. Nature’s Window, the Skywalk, and then some hikes.

Nature’s Window was really cool. It didn’t take long at all to hike to it, but the view was great, looking down at the winding river surrounded by a towering red gorge.

I spotted a kangaroo down by the river at one point, but it was very brief before it disappeared into the shade of a shrub.

From there, we drove to the Skywalk which had a great aerial view of the red dirt and shrubbery of the park. While observing the landscape, we spotted a couple of kangaroo hopping around and… surprisingly… four goats? They felt very out of place in the Australian bush haha. We watched them as they marched down to the river for a drink.

It had gotten later in the day at this point and the sun was beating down on us, but we decided to do the Z Bend River Trail hike. It did not disappoint.

On the way to the river, we had to climb down four ladders and maneuver around some large boulders. It was starting to feel like a real adventure.

The end of the trail was beautiful. There was a family looking at some fish in the river. The kids were feeding them (and proceeded to get scolded by mom and dad). Jason put up his drone for some more footage and I decided to meditate for a little while. It was a gorgeous area, with shade from the canyon walls providing relief from the dry, desert heat.

We hiked back to the car and were able to make one more stop before we would be losing daylight – Hawk’s Head. Hawk’s Head is an overlook where you can sometimes see black-footed rock wallabies. I would have loved to see them, as I haven’t yet seen wallabies in the wild (or maybe even at a zoo?) but to no avail. What we did see was five kangaroos, all very different colors. A couple of them were very pale, but one was a dark chocolate-y color. We also saw a fox!

The cherry on top of a perfect day was when I spotted an echidna along the side of the road as the sun was setting. Echidnas are quite rare to see and both Jason and my friend Liam had both said they’ve never seen one in the wild. They are the cutest little things – I implore you to YouTube footage of them because the way they move is absolutely adorable.

Echidnas are related to platypus. Those two creatures are the only mammals that lay eggs. They are called monotremes and are thought to be related to a type of dinosaur.

Honorary mention: my initial response when spotting the echidna led Jason to believe I was about to have a psychotic episode LOL!

Coalseam Conservation Park

It is currently wildflower season, so Jason wanted to head inland to see the wildflowers. We drove a little over to Coalseam Conservation Park. No one else was around and the landscape seemed like the perfect habitat for snakes. I was on high alert, but was also distracted by all the GOD DAMN FLIES!

I have heard about this before but have been waiting to mention this until I actually experienced it… and boy, have I now experienced it. When it’s warm out, there are flies EVERYWHERE in the bush. I mean everywhere. They were flying all around us, all day long. This included Kalbarri National Park, too. It’s disgusting. I’m going to have to buy one of those net-hats that keep them away haha. I’m not even joking, it is so bad.

We decided to go on a hike at Coalseam. It’s a neat experience, to hike at a location when there are no other people around. The trails were narrow and I was worried I would get bitten by a snake, but luckily I have survived without a bite.

The hike took us up to a plateau with a lovely overlook of the surrounding bush. As we rounded a corner, a kangaroo and it’s joey noticed us and then took off hopping after a beat.

When traveling to these remote locations, it’s really important to make sure you have enough fuel in your car. And we did not. Luckily, there was a town about twenty minutes away that had a gas station. The town itself was called Mallowa. I’m not even sure I can call it a town, it was so small. Have you ever seen The Hills Have Eyes?

Having the worry of potentially running out of fuel was actually a blessing in disguise, because we ended up taking a different route back to Geraldton. On this route, we got to see an emu dad and his babies near the side of the road. Jason stopped the car and I was able to observe them for a moment and click a few pictures. They disappeared into a field, but Jason set up his drone and followed them for a while. He got some amazing footage of them. He had never seen an emu before in the wild, so it was a treat for the both of us. I had secretly been hoping really badly to see an emu on this trip, so I was ecstatic. Emu can be quite elusive!

As we continued along, I saw another daddy emu and his chicks in another field, but at that point we were chasing sunlight and wanted to get back to Geraldton. It can be dangerous driving at night because similarly to deer, kangaroos can hop out into the road and really damage your car.

We went to eat at Brown Boys Curry House in Geraldton and then crashed early since we had to wake up at 7am to head back home the next day. One thing to note about the food in Geraldton – everywhere we went, the food took at least 40min to get to our table. Our second night we went to a Mexican restaurant, and it took well over an hour. The food was all great, though!

Pinnacles Desert

On our final day, we were backtracking to Perth from Geraldton. Along the way, we stopped at Jurien Bay, Pinnacles Desert at Nambung National Park, and Lancelin.

I’m sure Jurien Bay would have been gorgeous on a sunny day, but it was overcast and didn’t compare to the beaches around Geraldton and Kalbarri.

Lancelin is a town where people go sand boarding down these huge, white sand dunes. I wanted to check out the beach because the white sand dunes go out into the ocean. I was a little underwhelmed at the place where the dunes meet the ocean because I had thought the dunes leading to the water would have been much taller and dramatic. They were not – but were still beautiful.

Pinnacles, though… I had seen glimpses of images of Pinnacles here and there, but I was not prepared by how awesome of a view it was. We parked our car and started a hike. The first few limestone formations were small and unimpressive, but after turning a corner, I had the same reaction as when I saw the Pink Lake. Incredible!

We spent longer than anticipated hiking around the Pinnacles Desert, taking in the amazing formations.

Seeing the Pinnacles was a great finale to our road trip.

Reflections

Shire = county
Sparky = electrician
Chippy = carpenter
Lollies = candy

It has now officially been over two months since I’ve been in Australia. Can you believe it? It feels like I’ve been here for a long time, so two months doesn’t seem too long. But still – the Steven who lived in Chicago was worried I wouldn’t be able to hack it. And I have so far, at least for two months. There’s so much more I want to see on this travel journey but I’ve seen a LOT already. I’m really grateful for the time I’ve spent in Perth so far. I think I definitely made the right decision by starting in Western Australia.

I also returned to Mettam’s Pool prior to my Geraldton road trip and… the water was actually much clearer this time! I was able to get some GoPro footage of some large, white fishies and some tiny, little guppies, too. I’m going to have to learn the names of these fish haha.

I was thinking recently about the UK vs America vs Australia. Americans and Australians both “spawned” from the UK, yet the three of us are all so different. Not counting aboriginal people, but rather the colonisers. It’s interesting to think about how we all were originally part of the UK.

It’s also funny that people out here watch American TV. Hollywood, of course, makes some great films, but it’s funny how Australians listen to so much American music, watch American TV, and yet in America we are not really watching/listening to Australian things for the most part.

I’ve also seen people wearing Chicago Blackhawks hats and New York shirts out here which is so wild to me.

Have I mentioned that I am the ONLY person out here who says “oh, my God!” That expression is so engrained in me, but it is certainly not a commonly used expression here in Australia.

They don’t have a Burger King here in Western Australia, but they do have what’s called Hungry Jack’s. Apparently, someone had a business called Burger King decades ago and they refused to sell it to the monolith that we Americans know as Burger King. Hungry Jack’s is essentially BK but without the name.

Speaking of chains… there are no Starbucks in Western Australia. Crazy, right? Coming from America, where there is a Starbucks on every corner.

Before I went up to Geraldton, I also went to dinner with my Estonian friend Liisi (from the hostel) to catch up. Her travel buddy (also named Liisi) went to go work on a farm down south. It was nice to catch up with her and I’m glad we’ve kept in touch even though I moved out of the hostel.

Briefly going back to flies… there is actually something called the “Australian salute,” which is a hand gesture that people use to wave flies out of their face. So ridiculous. So necessary.

They have what are called “road trains” out here, which are essentially semi trucks with multiple trailers on them. Jason pointed out they look like little caterpillars!

At our Geraldton AirBnB, there was a copy of the Blue Day Book which had me smiling. When I was first getting sober, my parents got me a copy of that book. It’s just a little picture book with lots of different animals in it and is basically like “don’t be blue – there’s a lot in life to be happy about.” Seeing it warmed my heart.

Lastly, big thanks to Jason for an amazing trip. He drove the whole way (I will learn how to drive on the other side of the road… one day) and used his car, and got everything planned and situated for the trip. You’re awesome, Jason!

Art of the Week

A little art for y’all!

That’s all for now, folks! I hope you enjoyed this week’s share – I know it was a lot.

I had such an amazing time up north and it has made me fall even more in love with Australia. It was kind of my first big “adventure” out here – and it did not disappoint at all. Emus, echidna, a fox, kangaroos, beautiful views, fun hikes… It has been an amazing time. I can’t wait to see what else Australia has in store for me.

Sending all my love!