Well, I’ve been back from my trip to Western Australia and South Australia for about 3 weeks now and in two days I leave for Singapore. Since returning I’ve been helping my parents with jobs around the house, not major things but things that need to be done.  I’ve also had to take care of some issues relating to the trip - forgot the charger for my camera batteries and this week my computer died! Still, it could be worse – this could have happened later in the trip when I might have had difficulty getting a cheap (the operative word here) replacement. But it’s all good again so onwards and upwards.

It’s probably way past time I wrote about the trip out west so I’ll spend this blog post talking about some of the things that happened along the way. It was a learning experience that has given me some ideas about how to handle the rest of the trip. I did actually manage to see most of what I set out to see, although I did miss out on one thing. But thereby hangs a tale which I’ll tell in this post. There’s a lot I could write about and maybe I’ll add posts about what I did see (with pictures) at a later date. But for now, let me tell you the tale of my travels.

The flights from Sydney to Perth and on to Port Hedland went off without drama and I arrived in Port Hedland at about 5:00pm with about 1.5 hours of useful daylight left and 200km of driving ahead to get to Marble Bar. First, to AVIS to pick up the rental car-I would have preferred a 4 wheel drive but AVIS only had sedans available. Having signed up for the car, headed into town to get supplies then headed for Marble Bar.

Not the natural environment for this vehicle

Now, you have to understand what a major highway in the Outback is like-two lanes, one in each direction, separated by the centerline and traveled at all hours by road trains. These trucking monsters consist of a primemover (semitrailer truck) followed by up to 4 trailers, stretching over 50 meters (160+ feet) and traveling at 100 kph (about 60 mph). Then, in most areas outside major cities, you also have to contend with kangaroos, emus, and livestock wandering across the road – during the day you have at least a fighting chance of seeing them coming but from dusk to dawn the only thing you can do is slow down, drive inside your lights and hope you see them in time. Any collision at road speeds is not going to turn out well and can easily total a car.

A small road train - only 36.5 meters long

On the trip out to “the Bar” I did see several ‘roos on the side of the road, a cow and, walking down the middle of the road, a scrub turkey or bustard. Fortunately, none posed a threat and I made it safely to Marble Bar about 8:30 that night. Within 5 minutes of arriving I was welcomed to town by flashing blue lights and a random breathe test – no problem, just a reflection of being the “new boy in town” in a town of 150 people.

Having dealt with the test, I went looking for the motel, following the directions the police had kindly provided. I had previously arranged with the motel manager to leave a key in the door of my room because I was going to arrive after the office closed. When I checked the room, no key! With no other options, I spent the night sleeping in the car. Again, no problem, this is a common practice when traveling the long distances between towns in remote Australia and I’ve done this before. In fact, the road authorities create parking areas well off the road, and out of sight of the roads, expressly for this purpose, and truckers and caravaners/RVers routinely use these areas. 
 

The next morning I finally got checked into the hotel and set out to plan my days in Marble Bar. I had previously mapped out where I wanted to go and when, but having arrived in town a day earlier than originally planned I had an extra day up my sleeve so I decided to add something else to the schedule. And that was the first mistake. Rule one from now on is to make sure that I get to see what I really came to see first up and leave the other stuff for later. Instead of going to see the stromatolite fossils (which I planned to see over the next two days), I decided to do a little sight-seeing and take it easy after a long night. I looked over the possibilities I had looked at previously and chose what appeared to be the shortest and, therefore, easiest (hah!) trip. The road was rough but passable so long as I took it slowly and I had no dramas on the way out. However, trying to cross a dry creek bed on the way back I managed to get stuck in loose sand in the water channel but with the help of some folks in a SUV I was able to dig out. Later, the “road” proved to be beyond the capabilities of my car, or more pointedly the tires on the rear, and I wound up shredding one tire and driving a shard of basalt through the other tire on the rear (see the pictures below), all within about ½ hour on the way back. I was able to replace the shredded tire with the spare and the punctured tire held air just long enough to limp into town before it was flat.

But it's only flat on the bottom!!!

A lightly shredded tire

The next day I called Avis to see what I could do as it turns out Marble Bar has no tire stores, the nearest being in Port Hedland 200km away. With two bad tires and only one spare, Avis’ answer was to send a tow truck which I would have to pay for, along with replacement tires. This was not the answer I wanted and just when it looked like the only choice, a solution appeared. If I could somehow get the car to Port Hedland, I’d only be on the hook for the two tires (!!!), but there was still the problem of two bad tires and only one spare. The hotel manager and her husband first tried to find a wheel and tire that would fit the car, even being willing to give up a brand new tire knowing that it would not come back. This did not turn out to be possible as the wheels were not compatible.  As it turned out, the husband (also called Graham - that's his spelling) was a former field geologist for several mining companies and he would go out gold fossicking in the desert for recreation (he had found a 1.5 kg nugget worth $65,000 just a week prior). He was only to familiar with field patching punctured tires and so he spent 1.5 hours wrestling the stone out of the tire (a chunk about 2 inches long and sharpened at one end-a perfect tire spike) and then plugging the hole repeatedly until it stopped leaking. This was on Sunday and I was scheduled to head back to Port Hedland the next day so I had to give up on seeing the ancient stromatolite fossils (I did later see examples in both the West Australian and South Australian Museums and saw stromatolite fossils from a more recent period in the field in South Australia). Graham also suggested that I swing by the police station on the way out of town on Monday and get one of the constables to check how legal the damaged tires were. As it turned out, the constable who did the check already knew about the problem (bush telegraph!). His opinion was that while the tires were technically legal, they were not adequate for driving to Perth (a distance of over 2,000 km) and Avis should have done better.

Stromatolites in Hamelin Pool

I set out for Port Hedland and arrived without any drama. The manager at the Avis desk was very helpful and set me up to get the tires changed asap. As it turned out, the tire place got me taken care of much sooner than expected and the young man who did the job took extra time to go over the two “good” tires on the front. It was just as well as one of the tires had a nail in it, which he repaired with a “belt and braces” approach, and found that the other tire was grossly under inflated (about ½ pressure). So about 1pm I was back on the road heading for the town of Karratha, which is the center of the mining boom in Western Australia (if you’re not in mining why not seems to be the motto in the west these days). I stayed in a caravan park in what used to be housing for “fly in, fly out” mine workers – very basic but comfortable in a minimalist way, then on to Hamelin Pool and the living stromatolites (a trip of over 670 km in one day). I was encounter more living stromatolites (different species) south of Geraldton two days later as well.

Another type of stromatolite growing in a saline lake near Cervantes, W.A.

From there to Geraldton, with a side trip the Hutt River Province and an afternoon talking with Prince Leonard (I must write a post about this). From Geraldton it was on to Perth for two days before flying to Adelaide.

Prince Leonard of Hutt River Province

The second day in Perth I went up to King’s Park, a large tract of park land on the heights overlooking the Perth CBD and within easy walking distance of the CBD. I spent the afternoon there before driving back to the hotel and I as I did so I heard a familiar tunk-tunk-tunk coming from the from passenger tire – it turned out to be another nail in the same tire as before. It was too late to get it repaired so I crossed my fingers that it would stay up (it did!!!), and next morning turned the car in to Avis without comment. To say that I was glad to see the back end of that car is an understatement.

Downtown Perth from King's Park

The South Australian leg was far more successful. I firstly upgraded to a 4-wheel drive vehicle (a Nissan X-trail with nearly all the bells and whistles, leather interior, heated seats, etc) as I was going into the bush again in the Flinders Ranges. Then, everything went far better than planned and I was able to see/find everything I wanted to and then some. 

On the road to Flinders Ranges National Park

The visit to the South Australian Museum was great and I got to see, handle and photograph many of the holotype fossils of the Ediacarran biota (these are the original – first found – fossil of the species used to describe each new species) and I was given some original fossils from Kangaroo Island of the coast of South Australia, that have some early Cambrian examples of trilobites and other simple animals in them. I also purchased some plastic replicas of three of the Ediacarran animals to use in class in the future. Altogether a very rewarding time.

Dickinsonia - the archtypal Ediacarran fossil

2.1 billion year old stromatolite fossil in the Western Australian Museum

~800 million year old stromatolite fossil in Brachina Gorge, Flinders Range, S.A.

So what did I learn? Well, apart from rule number one (see above), rule number is, and must always be, always make sure you have the right tools for the job at hand. Trying to make do only leads to trouble and usually invalidates rule number one. I also learned a lot more about myself and my capacity to see this adventure through to the end. As I explained in my first blog post, I have been a little nervous about this trip but I feel more confident that I can deal with the almost certain “inconveniences” that will appear in the next 3 months. So, until next time, onwards and upwards,

Doc