Im on a months road trip up the west coast of Australia. Most people would drive up the east coast and see all those famous spots - gold coast, sunshine coast, great barrier reef and the cities. Well, we chose the outback on the other side of the country. Perth was where we left from, the most deserted city in the world. You kinda get used to the red dirt, the small, tough bushes that grow around Perth, and you think you know what the Australian outback is when you set off.
But its when you look out the window two days later, when the road is one long, long stretch and it smells sweet from road killed kangaroos from your open window that you get the feel of it. That rawness of the Australian landscape, the lonely animals that jump around by themselves and the eagles that eat whatever the cars have killed them for dinner. Thats when you start to wonder how the Aboriginals have been able and are still able to survive out here. How did they find their billabongs (water holes in the desert) and how did they survive the heat in summer? It is winter now, May and only around 35 degrees in the day. In summer it gets up to 50 degrees. Im swetting like a dog already.
And, if Simon would have stopped the car and put me out there in the desert by myself, I would have died. Im sure of it! How can you survive in an endless wilderness of red dust, bush and striking heat? There is around 200 km between every gas station. Even with a car you´ll have to stock up with water or gas or whatever you need to get through the next distance to the new station. Further up north you´ll have to stock up even more. Some areas you´ll have to drive 500 km to get to the next gas station. The distance from Sand Fire Petrol Station to Broom is so far that your petrol tank ALMOST isnt big enough to make it. Make sure you have some extra petrol in the back of your car.
Anyways, we´ve stocked up and are ready for the outback. This time to a camp site with no facilities. It will be the bush, the kangaroos, the waves and us. If a creepy man wants to steal your stuff, you can be sure no one will hear you scream. A perfect setting for a scary movie. The movie "Wolf Creek" is set here in Western Australia and is about three young people who go on a road trip up the coast. Two of them never come back from the desert after meeting a creepy guy that wants to help them when their car breaks down. Wooooo.... Simon wanted to bring a machete cause of that movie just in case, but he ended up bringing a screw driver under his drivers seet "just in case, if i need to protect ya". Im sure the most dangerous things we will encounter is a curious kangaroo or a little desert rat, but you never know do ya. Especially not in the Australian outback. Cause I really do understand that people can go nuts, living their whole life out here. Just dont take our water and our petrol supplies! Cause we´ll die in that bloody hot desert.
We´ve reached Red Bluff. A kangaroo greets us on the beach. The water is bright blue, the sky orange. There is one little light from another car further up the beach. Time to put up the tent and get those coronas out of the carton. And hope that no crazy men from the outback steals our water. Good night!
Lets get the hell out of Bug Bluff!
We were gonna spend three days but only spent a few hours in that camping ground the next day. When we got there last night there were thousands of moths flying around the tent area. They flew inside my bra, in my ears and in my mouth. Alright, thats just the moths, I thought. We cooked dinner and went to sleep with the stars gazing down on us through the thin mosquito net. As we woke up the day after and went outside, hell was loose. This was insect paradise, with all sorts of insects loving the dry, hot area and no birds to eat them. And I do understand why there were no birds, if I was a bird I would never live there. Id get the hell outa there. Just like we would do later that day. But first, we drove over to a different beach to check out the surf. As soon as I opened the car door they invaded me. My hair, my eyes, my mind. Well, at least it felt like they were in my mind as well. I usually love seeing dragon flies and butterflies. But in the sand dunes on the way to the beach they were everywhere. In every half meter of air. Circling around my head, and I dont know why. Maybe they were wondering if I was running out of water and was about to die soon? So that the flies could eat me and put their white, little eggs in me while i was rotting. Well, I was NOT ready to rot yet. I was ready to fight. At least for five minutes. I waved my hands and tried to talk to them. Then walked faster and waved faster. But they were obsessed with flying in my hair and my mouth and my eyes. I shouted "fuck off!!!" a few times - not because the flies would understand but in pure desperation. Like "can you bug off??" But bugs dont like to bug off i guess.
Below: Emu visitors in our camp in Exmouth. They wanted my green apple!
I sat down on the beach after fighting my way across the dunes. As I choked on a flie and tried to spit it out, a wasp found its way between my boobs. It decided to sting me there. Now THAT was the drop! I yelled "fucking bugs", and ran into the water with a swarm of flies, dragonflies, new wasps following me. Dipped into the water to chill my head and my freshly stung boobs. When Simon suggested we´d pack our stuff and leave Red Bluff, I said yes and laughed at the bugs - haha, Im off! Driving out of the dunes I named that place Bug Bluff, and thank the God of the aussie wilderness that we still had air in our tires and gas to take us out of insect land. And so, we are on the road heading for Exmouth, leaving Bug Bluff for the kangaroos and others who can cope with thousands of annoying insects. What I learned in Bug Bluff: 1. It will take me a while before I think dragon flies and butterflies are pretty again. 2. I admire the aboriginals even more for being able to live in the australian desert. 3. I laughed when I saw a photo of a norwegian girl with a flie hat on the beach in australia before i left home. I will never laugh of people with flie hats again. I want one, no matter how stupid it looks with a big net on your head.
Petting a kangaroo at a wild life park on the way up the coast.
Below: Wild dolphins come in the Monkey Mia every morning to be fed.
Claustrophobic in the enormous outback
Its funny how lots of lots of space can make you feel really claustrophobic. You are driving in the outback. There is no one around for miles. Only a cow here and there and a smelly dead kangaroo every 200 meters. I think I feel claustrophobic because I cant get out of here whenever I want to. At least not within a short amount of time. Its actually worse than being stuck in an elevator, because in an elevator you would get help and get out pretty fast comparing to how many hours you would have to drive to get to civilization here. You can reach the next gas station in one and a half hour, but I wouldnt call that civilization. The gas station will have gas (as to the name gas station), toilets, and a man behind the counter who hasnt seen a blond, skandinavian girl in a long, long time, maybe never in his life. He looks at your boobs when you buy your coffee and stutters "have a good one" while looking at your bum when you leave.
If there is a God out there, it kinda makes you wonder what he wanted to do with THIS area. Humans cant really live here, birds wont come here even though there are insects everywhere and the trees dont grow higher than a few meters.
I do understand why the white man settled in Australia pretty late compared to other parts of the world. It must have seemed pretty rugged and tough when they first came here. Imagine seeing land after a long, long trip across the indian ocean. The sailors start exploring the New Land by foot. They walk but cant see anything else but bush and red dirt. The first people who came to Australia must have been pretty tough to survive, without the skills of the aboriginals.
Even though it feels like an endless land of bush and red dirt, the outback knows how to show off its beauty. At sunset, the sun goes down over red hills and makes the trees orange. The sky is still in a light shade of blue. I feel like I am on another planet.
I guess some spots on earth are there to remind us that we live on a planet in space. A spot that kinda looks like the moon at night, and like the planet Mars in the day. Its beautiful, and - when I think about it, I kinda like feeling claustrophobic in the Western Australian outback.
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