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I read a book a few years back; A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. The core message of the book is the advice to Live a Better Story.
Six weeks ago, I left for Perth. Invited by my friends Allan & Sakshi to spend my summer in Australia. A stellar foundation for living a good story, I think.
One line from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years has always stood out to me.
A story is a character who wants something, and does something to get it.
What did I want? What was I willing to go through in pursuit of that goal?
Sydney was the first Opportunity for me to live some story. My plane touched down just before 7 am. The novelty of Australia hit me the moment I stepped out of the airport. The people, the accents, the feeling of the air, the strange little bird stealing people’s French fries (the Australia White Ibis, which is locally and semi-affectionately known as a “bin-chicken”.)
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I wanted, so badly, to see the Sydney opera house. My layover was longer-than-strictly-necessary and I thought I could fit it in. It went perfectly. I rode the train into town, got off at the inland end of Hyde Park, walked through Sydney as the sun rose and the city woke up, basked in the strangeness and wonder of it all, made it to the Opera house, asked a young woman to take my photo, and boogied back to the airport. Security was quick and I had an hour and a half wait for my flight!
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I’m not convinced that A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is the last word on Stories. Either the living or telling. But more on that later.
Perth welcomed me with open arms; or rather, Allan did. He met me at the airport and in a show of great hosting- which would set the tone for the entire trip- made sure that I continued to have an absolutely wonderful first day in Australia.
After a much needed shower, cup of coffee, and snack, we did some prep work on the Toyota Hilux which would be our residence and transportation for the next four weeks.
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Allan had invited over a friend to help us lift up the rooftop tent. When he arrived I noticed he was wearing a “Utah” hat. His name is Hunter, and as it turns out, he knows my longest-time friend, Benjamin Lyddall; they are fellow Mining Engineer graduates from the University of Utah! They went to Greenland together some years back on a school trip, and he is well acquainted with Mike Nelson, the former head of the department of Mining Engineering- and my parents neighbor!
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Meeting Hunter immediately helped me to feel more comfortable and excited to begin the trip. While not someone I knew from before, he was a great reminder that in today’s world, our planet is small and our connections are many.
In a bid to keep me up long enough to adjust to the jet lag we headed to one of the Mount Lawley “Locals”; a pub called Queens. Formerly a gay bar, now a neighborhood staple. I don’t think Queens changed, rather there has been a culture-wide shift towards pluralistic respect for formerly-fringe communities.
Queens is a Local. And a Local is something of a third space for its neighborhood; a hangout for the people. Everyone has “their Local”, which really just means the closest pub to their house. And every bar that isn’t your local gets compared to your local. “The mulled wine here is better, but the music at the Local can’t be beat!”
At around 9am Allan woke me up with a call-to-action, “Coffee walk! Coffee walk! It’s time for a coffee walk!” He’d warned me the day prior that he wasn’t going to let me sleep in too late, and that I should look forward to him being my alarm clock the following morning.
If a story is a character who wants something and does something to get it then the story of my mornings is a simple yet powerful one.
I want coffee, and I will happily get out of bed for it.
Allan is early to bed, early to rise. In fact, the whole of Australia seems to be. Even the pubs start closing up by 9pm. Who ever heard of that? Allan’s early wake up meant a freshly brewed French press waiting each morning as I awoke. As I said; an incredible host.
Thursday was something of a blur after that first cup of coffee. It was chock full of errands; rotating tires, buying groceries, picking up a new pair of shoes, and doing our final packing.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit how many pictures of cars I took on this trip. The GR Yaris was a really neat vehicle to finally see in person.
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Allan and I did not actually go on a coffee walk on Thursday. By the time we were finished with our errands we were famished and instead drove to an excellent cafe; Sayers Sister, where I had the most delicious Fried Chicken Croffle! It’s like chicken & waffles except the waffle is a croissant which has been through a waffle press!
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Thursday finished up with some wonderful Indian food cooked by Sakshi, and a glass of white wine. A cane-cut semillon from a vineyard just south of Perth. I’m not sure what a semillon is- I assume it’s the type of grape? But the cane cut portion was interesting; by keeping the canes attached to the grapes when they are cut from the grapevine a far larger amount of sugar winds up in the grapes! It makes for a very natural tasting sweet wine.
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The day the trip really began.
I went to Australia to visit Allan & Sakshi, and while scheduling the trip Allan invited me to co-drive the Gibb River Road trip with him and the Land Cruiser Club. I didn’t really know what I’d signed up for, but I trust Allan, and followed his guidance on what to pack. I hadn’t even googled the Gibb River prior to the trip!
Our trip was scheduled to begin on the 12th, but in hopes of outpacing an impending rain storm we pushed our schedule up one day. We hit the road at 11.54am. Allan Anderson & Miles Schaffer, callsign FIDO.
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Now, I'm going to pause here for a moment of meta-commentary. Indulge me.
We tell stories. We share stories. We also live them; and in choosing to live a story we may lead better lives.
To repeat the quote from earlier:
A story is a character who wants something, and does something to get it.
As we hit the road, I wasn't sure whether I was really living a story. I didn’t know what my motivations were. If I'm the character, well, what do I want?
Is living in the present and having a great time while learning about the world truly a character motivation? That's the dao I was intending to live by; not a thing I wanted.
This isn’t really a story; it’s just a narrative. Is that worth reading? I will only say that I hope it’s worth writing. If it proves to be valuable in the eyes of a reader, well that’s wonderful, but I suspect I will experience some meaningful personal benefit by taking the time to write it all down. To remember what I’ve lived these weeks; and to remember who I’ve lived it with.
On with the narrative.
Heading north took us to our first stop; Bindoon Bakery. Supposedly, one cannot drive by Bindoon Bakery without stopping. I tell you; we drove by it three times, and we stopped three times. Empirical evidence.
At Bindoon Bakery I had my very first ever meat pie. And by god it was delicious. Beef, jalapeños, and seasoning; steaming hot and encased in a lightly-salty flakey layered crust.
At Bindoon Bakehaus we met Yvette & David (Marren), callsign ORANGE. Yvette is a spunky Dutch woman who swims with dolphins. David is an Englishman and a marine engineer. ORANGE was a great introduction to our traveling companions. Yvette reminds me a great deal of my friend Petra; another European expat with a huge personality and a very pragmatic sense of morality. David is an engineer. Practical. Easy to talk to. I found myself admiring how he picked a career path at such a young age and made it happen.
We split off from ORANGE as we went north; they started their drive two hours south of Perth and stopped their drive further south than us. Our destination that first day was a fairly nondescript roadside camp a few hundred meters off of the great northern highway. It had a name, but I don’t remember it.
What I do remember from that night was meeting Julie & Mark Myles, callsign MAULA, and how much I immediately liked them. Julie is a retired teacher; she used to work with children with learning disabilities. Mark is a retired policeman, and it really seems like he went into it for the right reasons. “I was out to change the world.”
My first morning waking up in the bush.
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And by god, it was beautiful.
When telling friends in the USA about my upcoming trip to Australia, I would say, “I am doing a 10,000km overlanding trip through the Australian Outback.” And as it turns out, that was wrong. Firstly, we only went 8,000km. Secondly, we never went into the Outback!
Australia is an Island. A really, really big island. And around the coastal perimeter of Australia there is a donut of lush, prosperous, arable land. And it is called the Bush. The Outback is the hole in that donut, and it is a dry, dry place.
The coastal perimeter is lush because when the ocean gets hot in the summer that heat becomes storms. Monsoons at best and cyclones at worst. At the northernmost end of Australia those storms are so intense as to create pockets of rainforest!
Australia is in the southern hemisphere, which means that its seasons are inverted, Winter starts around July and ends around October. Summer starts around December and ends around April. Strange, isn’t that?
The far, far stranger thing about being in the southern hemisphere is that the sun is in the northern sky. I did not realize how much I depended on the sun's relation to the zenith for a sense of direction, but those first few days were spent getting my bearings time and again- if only to sink into the sense of my first time being in the southern hemisphere!
I digress. Day two of the Gibb River trip was underway.
We met with Ian Pound, callsign PENNYWISE at a fuel station called Payne’s find.
Ian was one of my favorite people to travel with, hands down. He was the oldest member of our group at 70, and was a prime example of the kind of lifestyle I aspire to at that age. He never wavered on any of the hikes, making it each of the destinations as fast or faster than Allan & I, the young guys. Ian is retired now, but he had a fruitful career in environmental protection and industry; contributing to the operation of ports, the establishment of of national reserves, and the handling of hazardous wastes (among other things). Ian has lived a life worth being proud of, and is living a retirement worth celebrating.
I don't have a photo of Ian or his Prado from that day, but here's a photo of one of the oversize loads we saw at Payne's find!
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From there our troupe of three headed to Nallan Station Stay.
Station Stays are former or current cattle grazing stations which began to offer beds or campsites to passing travelers. We stayed at a lot of station stays and they all had an impressive suite of amenities. These remote WA roads are growing increasingly touristy, and I am not ashamed to admit my gratitude for the regular showers and proper toilets.
At Nallan we joined Louisa Boekelman, callsign PAWS. Louisa, a retired Veterinarian, was our trip leader. She planned the whole thing, and was responsible for the success of the endeavor. As the day drew on more of our group made their way to Nallan. Sharon & Collin, callsign BEARS. Ken & Deb, callsign RICHO. By the evening we had all but one member accounted for; Anne, callsign PAVLOVA. Her departure had been delayed by a faulty battery, and she met up with us the next day.
These first few days were all about eating up distance. We were driving up to 750km per day to get north as fast as possible.
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This was the first night with the whole group together, we camped at Juna Downs and enjoyed a remarkable sunset. Downs are like station stays, but not quite. I didn’t fully grasp the distinction.
The next day took us to Port Hedland. Port Hedland is a huge ore shipping port, and watching the ships fill up and be tugged out to sea was rather impressive.
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From left to right; Sharon (BEARS), Louisa (PAWS), and Ian (PENNYWISE).
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Continuing on from Port Hedland we headed to Eighty Mile Beach; a long, beautiful coast with a very long shore. Once the tide receded it was almost a kilometer from the high tide line to the new shoreline!
Our first off-roading; to James Price Point, north of Broome. A rough road, untamed corrugation (or, as Americans usually refer to it, 'washboard') for some 40 kilometers.
So worth the reward! Absolutely terrific! James Price Point is a campground right along the beach; elevated, and thus safer from crocodiles.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
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Waking up at James Price Point was breathtaking. It began to make sense just how far I had travelled, and how much I had yet to see.
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Leaving James Price Point we headed back to Broome. There were errands to run and beers to buy, but we had a few hours left to enjoy a stroll along Cable Beach.
Cable Beach is notorious for wildlife sightings, with sharks, crocodiles, and jellyfish regularly wandering up to shore.
Next, we went to Derby. Derby is a neat little town; home to an odd little under-utilized port. Some years ago PENNYWISE used to run the port in derby. It’s in a tidal estuary and the tide change is significant enough that the port can only be used for a few hours each day at high tide.
We saw the Prison Boab; a large, hollow Boab tree which may have been used to jail aboriginal prisoners.
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We stayed that night at Birdwood Downs. True to its name, Birdwood Downs has a huge number of birds.
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A really big day! Waking up bright and early at birdwood downs to the sound of a rooster crowing Allan, Anne, and I piled into the Hilux and headed to the Derby airport.
Our itinerary had us flying in seaplanes out to the Horizontal Falls, where we’d be riding in speedboats, feasting on barramundi, and swimming with tawny nurse sharks.
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The horizontal falls are a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. Two pinch points between natural reservoirs are the site of a huge amount of water ingress and egress each time the tides change direction. The northern Australia archipelagos are home to some of the largest tides in the world; as much as a 10-12m delta depending on season.
The pinch points cannot keep up with the rate of flow, so a differential height, or waterfall, forms, and that differential changes direction with each tide!
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I can’t do the day justice with words or photos. We caught a perfect day where the tide was big and the directions reversed while we were out, so we had the opportunity to see both directions of flow. My first taste of the legendary Barramundi delighted. My first ride in a seaplane was also thrilling.
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We returned to birdwood downs in the mid afternoon, around 2 o’clock. Half of the group, the half which hadn’t come to see the horizontal falls, had already headed to the next stop. Allan and I each took a quick shower and then hit the road, making it to the next stop with just enough light to set up our sleeping quarters and enjoy the sunset.
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Making it to Derby for the Horizontal Falls tour had been critically important, but now we could slow down our travel. The next few days were to be spent at Purnululu National Park, also known as the Bungle-Bungles.
We stopped for the first night at the Purnululu Caravan Park some 75km from the national park. After a few beers and some deliberation the group decided it would split in two; PAVLOVA, BEARS, RICHO, and MAULA would make a single day trip of Purnululu. FIDO, PENNYWISE, PAWS, and ORANGE would stay a night in the park. PAWS had to leave her caravan behind, but that proved to be a small sacrifice.
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The road into Purnululu was pretty corrugated. We left very early- wheels up at 6am- with the goal of beating the traffic and avoiding the dust. The result being driving directly into the rising sun. Despite the visibility issues, we “survived the road into the bungle bungles” (a sticker sold by the park visitor center) and made our way to the north end of the park.
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That first day we went to Echidna gorge and Palm gorge. Palm gorge blew my mind. It was so familiar, yet so uncanny! So much like Zion or Snow Canyon in geology and color, yet overflowing with life! There were mosses, ferns, and palm trees everywhere. This was an area of extremes; and they have created a remarkable equilibrium.
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The bungle bungles are the eroded beauties of a millennia’s-old highland or plateau. Water from the monsoon season flows across the area each year in it's return to the ocean, forming countless incredible “finger gorges”- twisting branches of canyon, lush with life and as bright a red as any Utah red rock.
What’s more, the iron rich soil has striations of clay-rich areas. Where the clay holds moisture it has allowed a bacteria to thrive on the surface of the red rock, forming zebra-stripes of red and black along the walls.
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That night we stayed at the Purnululu National Park campgrounds. I didn’t get a great photo of the area, but it was beautiful. Right along an incredibly large seasonal riverbed and well-shaded by paper bark and river gum trees.
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I really like this photo of the truck, and it’s a good opportunity to explain FIDO.
FIDO is a base model 2012 Toyota Hilux. She has a 3.0L turbo diesel. No sound deadening, no power windows, and all the reliability you could ever ask for.
The rear box is a custom piece, totally aluminium. It’s a terrific setup. Allan is very well organized and has been doing this sort of travel for longer than I’ve been alive, so he’s plain just good at it. Allan sleeps in a tent which he puts under the awning. I sleep in the rooftop tent, which isn’t easy to see in this photo. It’s a James Baroud tent, and it was excellent.
Each night we would set up much like this. The group would gather at whoever set up in the most welcoming way, or whoever built a campfire. We would share snacks and chat until it was time to eat. Allan and I ate a consistently delicious vegetarian diet of basmati rice and Indian fare.
When pressed, morning teardown took only around 20 minutes. By this point I had a system for how to close the rooftop tent consistently and quickly.
Gosh, writing about the Hilux really makes me miss it, and miss the travel. What an incredible journey.
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Our second day in Purnululu was a great one; a nice long hike, about 10 miles. We started with the whip snake gorge. Bright and early to beat the heat. Whip snake gorge was much like the previous days gorges.. Only moreso. The hike took us along a beautiful river bed, with some of the most remarkable shapes of stone and rock.
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By god, what a beautiful place!
That night we went back to the Purnululu Caravan Park, took showers, washed laundry, and had an over-filling buffet dinner of steak, barramundi, sausage, salads, bread rolls, and six different types of cheesecake.
Kununurra was farthest northeast we made it. Not quite to the Northern Territory! But very close, within 40km. We stopped in Kununurra for groceries, fuel, beer, and a few other odds & ends. We were about to start the Gibb River Road, and needed to be very well prepared.
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We took the opportunity to do the iconic Ivanhoe Crossing. Well known for the crocodiles that hang out here (though we did not see any), the Ivanhoe is a concrete semi-dam. It was a long crossing, but not particularly deep. This photo of PAWS driving through is an absolute favorite.
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Following the Ivanhoe BEARS got a flat tire on their caravan.
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There were a few water crossings along this road after Ivanhoe.
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Our destination this day was El Questro Station; the first of our stays along the Gibb River Road, and an absolutely excellent station. But first we had to get there. And before that we had to take photos with the Gibb River road signs.
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El Questro station is some 50km off of the Gibb River Road, and it’s a tough road to get out to it, with multiple water crossings.
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Unsurprisingly, everyone made it without issue. This is the land cruiser club after all!
El Questro station was our base camp for a few days. Day one we did Emma Gorge.
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Emma Gorge wasn’t a very difficult hike, and at the top we were rewarded with an incredible swimming pool. Larger than an Olympic pool and only a bit chilly. It had a waterfall at one corner, and a wall of moss on the opposite side. The waterfall was cold but where the water was running down the moss wall it had time to absorb heat from the rocks and was rather warm!
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In the afternoon some of our group went off-roading, and another part of the group went on a boat ride. I read a book.
El Questro gorge, the second hike, was more technically difficult than Emma Gorge.
One tricky section required us to cross a pool of water holding our bags and shoes out of the water and then scale the “V” between two boulders. Anne, Ian, David, Yvette, Allan, and I were the ones who chose to go on.
I really loved hiking with Anne and Ian. At 69 and 70 years old, respectively, they are still out doing difficult hikes and challenging themselves and pushing through. They were inspiring, and I hope to exemplify their attitudes and health when I am their age.
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“Woah! I found some neat little green ants.”
Ian; “those are green tree ants, you can eat them.”
Little boy next to me, promptly grabbing an ant; “but only eat the back side of them, like this. They taste like sherbet!”
The little boys mom; “are you eating ants again!?!”
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Of course I had to try the ants. They taste a little bit like a warhead candy. A slight sourness, but mostly sweet!
Emma gorge was my favorite hike because of all these felled trees to balance on and walk along.
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Keeping Allan cool & shady.
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Allan, Ian, Ann, David, Yvette & I.
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We spent that evening enjoying the bar, I met a few girls from England and played card games (Go Fish!) with them for a while. The group got dinner together at the bar and Allan and I shared a tasty barbecue meat lovers Pizza!
Leaving El Questro Station we headed for Ellenbrae station. Ellenbrae had some absolutely incredible scones. Australian scones are a lot like an American biscuit except not as salty and oily. They’re a light, fluffy biscuit roughly the size of my fist made with lemonade and heavy cream. No clue how that works. They’re served with unsweetened whipped cream and jam. And wow, so tasty. I ate three.
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That night we went looking for crocodiles. We didn’t find any, but we did see loads of Cane toads and thousands of spiders. Cane toads were introduced to Australia in a foolish attempt to deal with some beetles which were eating the sugar cane crops. The cane toads didn’t do anything about the beetles and have instead become a nuisance, spreading across the continent and damaging the ecology.
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Killing cane toads is an act of public service. The Australian government encourages a humane killing process; catch and freeze until dead, but some people take a more creative approach that I will not explore here.
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Beautiful, beautiful stars. These pictures were taken with my iPhone 13. It's incredible how bright the stars are, and how many are visible. I spent hours gazing up at them on many nights.
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Ellenbrae wasn’t terribly exciting, aside from good coffee and great scones. We visited a small water hole on the second day and enjoyed a swim, but mostly we lounged and enjoyed a day of rest.
As we continued west along the Gibb River road Allan noticed a strange noise from FIDO. There was an excess of air noise audible from the engine bay. We checked the intake, cleaned the air filter, and double checked everything again. When nothing changed we jumped back into diag and Allan found a crack in the exhaust downpipe.
We were at a junction, both literally and figuratively. Literally, because we were about to head north off of the Gibb River Road to Mitchell Plateau. Figuratively, because FIDO needed an exhaust repair.
Allan made the snap decision; I would tag along with the others while he sorted out the exhaust. I was ready to stick with him, but I’m very grateful he proposed this; sending me north meant I got to see Mitchell Falls. Louisa, Ian, and an Anne all offered me a spot in their passenger seats, and I rode with each at various points. With a box of food, a tent and sleeping pad, my clothing, and a daypack, Allan and I parted ways.
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On the drive north we stopped to see some aboriginal art, which was rather neat. Unlike indigenous art in the US, aboriginal art is actively maintained; redrawn regularly.
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Mitchell falls. One of the icons of the Kimberley. Really, one of the icons of Australia!
I should explain, the Kimberley is an ecological region in Australia. It covers much of the north and northwest of the country and is characterized by a tropical climate with significant rainfall in the summer months and a dry winter. The Kimberley is interesting for myriad reasons, and beautiful for just as many. Most curious to me was learning that the Kimberley formed some millennia ago when a piece of Africa meandered across the surface of the planet and smashed into what is now the northern section of the Australian Continent. The collision tiful mountain ranges as the seabed was forced upwards, and the land mass brought with it some remarkable flora; most identifiable being the Boab tree, a close cousin to the African Baobab tree.
We had already seen a taste of the Kimberley with our excursion to Horizontal falls, and this was to be another opportunity to explore its beauty,
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The hike to Mitchell Falls from the national park campgrounds is 6.2km and we started right at 7am. We had a flight to catch that afternoon, a scenic helicopter ride back from the top of the falls, and it was important that we made it in time to enjoy some swimming before our flight!
We weren’t rushed, but starting early kept us cool. As the sun rises, it grows ever more unforgiving.
The intensity of the sun has a strong effect on the Australian people. It motivates, almost universally across the continent, a tendency to early rise and early rest. There is a great circadian alignment baked into the culture, an alignment which I hope to learn something from. I certainly enjoyed the early rise. I struggled to sleep at a reasonable time.
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The helicopter ride was short, sweet, and memorable.
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Our trip to Mitchell Falls thus complete, we returned to Drysdale station. Caravans are not permitted at national parks, and so our group had split up, with RICHO and BEARS taking a flight from Drysdale up to the national park. PENNYWISE, ORANGE, PAVLOVA, PAWS, and myself made the drive. We had wondered at whether we would see our fellows on the hike, and when they hadn’t made it to the top in time for our flight out we began to wonder if we might beat them back to Drysdale. Sure enough, despite the 3-4hrs of driving, we beat them back to Drysdale!