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Western Australia 2

Along the Goldfields Highway, we are heading south. It's almost 1000kms from Wiluna to the sea near Esperance. Day and night many road trains are driving on this highway, to bring fuel and supplies for the staff of the thriving mining industry. It's absolutely stunning how unbelievably rich this country is in terms of natural resources. We rename the road to 'Dead Kangaroo Highway'. There's thousands of skeletons along the way and also a lot of fresh road kill bloated from the heat of the day. The smell of carrion is in the air, even inside a driving vehicle.

The Super Pit in Kalgoorlie is 3.5km long, 1.5km wide and 360 metres deep.  The Caterpillar 793 haul trucks carry 225 tonnes every load. In each load, there's a average of 450 to 500 grams of gold. Seen from high above, those trucks with wheels 3.5m in diameter look like childs toys. 

Lots of water in the Esperance region. We're not used to this anymore.

Vast flora variety in the Cape Le Grand and Fitzgerald River National Park.

Frenchman Peak in the Cape Le Grand National Park und its shade seen from the summit.

Massive waves are pounding against "the Gap" and the natural bridge in Torndirrup National Park.

You're right, this looks pretty similar to the place we are originally coming from, but this is Western Australia, mate!

Shelley Beach, a beautiful spot in West Cape Howe National Park. If you're lucky, like we have been, your single friendly Aussie neighbour will bring you fresh fish for dinner or, like in our case, for breakfast!

For obvious reasons, this bloke must belong to one of the six blue tongued families. It looks different than other stumpy taileds we've seen, so we haven't been sure who he actually is. But thanks to Doug we now know he is a Shingleback, thanks mate! Anyway, we better remove him from the the road and then leave him alone, as he seems to be afraid of us.  

The White Ibis is often seen in the wetlands of the Great Southern Region.

View from the Bicentennial Tree in Warren National Park. There are no mountains in this region rangers could climb to watch out for bush fires. Hence, for many years they used fire trees in their fight against bush fires. This particular tree has been equiped after the days of fire trees have already been over. Anyway with a heigth of 75m its the highest of the trees. On the top platform you're 68m above the ground.

No place for those of us scared of heights. Climbing the nails for 53m you arrive at this first platform. Then follows a further climb over ladders and even more shaky platforms to the top. In high winds, the top is moving with an amplitude of about 1.5 meters. I'm lucky concerning the wind today, but it's scary anyway. Although I'm a rock climber, this is certainly different. Been there done that! So as a matter of fact, I'm absolutely happy that I'll never have to do it again.  

Bremach and OKA near Margeret River, WA

Just like a smaller sister, our Bremach is looking next to Corey and Jasmine's OKA. Only the size and brand of the shoes is identical, 255/100 R 16 XZL Michelin. Many Aussies like our little bus, as similar vehicles are hard to find and it suits the needs of this beautiful country just ideally. "She's a beauty" is a sentence we hear quite often, some Aussies straightforwardly say  "I love your rig mate".

Fremantle, der Port of Perth is a very nice town with a friendly atmosphere. The West Australians are very much into vintage cars like this aged Volkswagen. A vehicle in a condition like this would cost you an arm and a leg in it's home country. 

 

Perth, the most remote and incredibly likeable metropolitan city on earth, as seen from Kings Park.

In Perth we're obtaining urgently needed spare parts for our Bremach. Due to an inadvertence of the bloody driver, the original wastebasket had been damaged beyond repair. Luckily the spare part is available from stock. Ahead of us, two blonde Swedes step out of their almost new Volvo. Presumably, they have been magically attracted by the smell from Köttbullar and Swedish biscuits. What a wonderful multicultural country.

Irrigation plants are getting more common again, we are heading north.

Bremach at Pinnacles WA

The Pinnacles in the Nambung National Park are well worth the detour, although (unusual for WA :-) it's quite long.  Thousands of limestone cones are rising from the sand and provide an absolutely bizarre picture.

The view through "nature's window" in Kalbarri National Park.

The Z-Bend of the Murchison River. After the rainfall of the last few days there's plenty of water. Initially, we thought the Cormorant is drying his feathers, because he can't fly when they are wet. In fact he is showing-off with the size of fish he pretends to have catched today.  You live to learn.

Die Aussies like their country and show it.

Big rush at the daily Pelican feeding in Kalbarri.