Page 187 - Mit dem Wohnwagen durch Australien 2

don’t mind, we have never seen such a spectacle. Instinctively I lower my head while the huge front loader passes
by, only centimetres away from us. One of the pilots told us, that every now and then cars try to overtake such a
transport. It is simply not possible, there is no road left to overtake or pass. If possible, the transports drive into a lay
by in order to let the traffic pass. The transports drive from sunrise to sunset with short breaks at roadhouses, if
possible. The pilots and road train drivers sleep in their transports. Some of the pilots have chosen small mobile
homes as their vehicle. More and more women take this profession and are well accepted in this rough men’s world

KARIJINNI NATIONAL PARK
The second largest National Park from W.A. lies In the midst of the iron ore country. Some concessions to mining
had also been made here and some of the richest parts had been excluded from the park. The Pilbara belongs to
the oldest parts of the earth. 3600 Million years ago, the first landmasses were built by volcanic activities. The sea
which covered them, were bare of all hard boned or shelled sea animals or plants.

Therefore no ammonites or other fossils can be found in the hard and densely packed sandstone. The individual
layers, all about 5 to 10 thick are clearly visible and differently coloured, depending on the minerals they were
exposed to.

Immense pressure from the south has folded up the rocks. Erosion, water, glaciers and wind have built deep
serrated gorges and steep waterfalls.
We even find some blue green billabongs which beckon us to swim; a lovely cool off at 40 C at 9 AM. After lunch we
are usually back in the air-conditioned caravan for a Siesta. Later in the afternoon we emerge and take our drinks
outside. We share with Galahs, Corellas and Pigeons. Especially the Galahs are cheeky. They fly up to and sit on
without hesitation in order to get assume bread crumbs. I notice that even Galahs are hot and have warm feet.

The bird world is set on trumping this. On the next caravan Park, large black Raven come very close. One even eats
out of my hand and lets me stroke its neck. It is very thin and scrawny under the brilliant blue black plumage. He
soon retreats; because even he has to declare defeat when.... loudly booming curious Emus enter our plot. I quickly
get up and look eye to eye into large orange eyes of these ancient birds with their inquisitive gaze. Their large beaks
come very close, but they remain absolutely friendly. The Emus pass by every day and sometimes sit down majestically
in the shade of our tree to doze a little in the heat of the day.

Our Troopy has airconditioning, of course; Well, most times. Only when we would need it most, it collapses. As soon
as we pull the caravan and the ambient temperature together with a hot wind moves up to unthinkable heights, the
aircondo flops. The Toyota guy tells us, that this is normal for the Troopy. Well, we do it as the chooks do, we not
only get up with the sun when we go walking, but also when we travel on in order to enjoy cool of an early mornings.

CORAL COAST
What we were seeking at the East Coast with no success exists here in the West in abundance; beautiful, remote
and lonely, white sandy beaches, with a fringe of shady trees and crystal clear, turquoise blue balmy waters. And
Imagine, we can even swim in them. We are below the Croc line. Here are only small Riff Sharks and no (not yet)
poisonous marine stingers. At the East Coast we had to pay dear for a boats tour to the reefs. Here they are free and
only few meters from the shore away, wonderful Coral Reefs to snorkel and dive. We swim with gigantic maritime
turtles and colourful tropical fish over green, brown and blue large Venus mussels and every kind of Corals there
are. We see stag horns with light ice blue points, massive round, and yellow boulders like corals, such which
resemble large mushrooms huge cabbages or small cauliflower. Some of them have sulphur yellow, deep purple or
light green rims. Small orange rays with blue dots hover over the sand and large, over 1 m long silvery blue fish are
nosy and come very close for a good look. We forget the time and float happily over this world of wonders. However,
the world at large has not forgotten us, especially the sun. Even though we have heaps of sunscreen all over us, I
get a funny feeling towards evening. I sit on hot coals. Beat checks and is stunned. He declares me as belonging to
the Pavian tribe. He swears, he could have sizzled an egg on my sore behind. Only soothing lotions and gels can
help. Sitting is out. I lie on my belly and let the cooling draft of the Aircondo do its best. In the future I will only go
snorkelling with shorts. Well, we should have known, no paradise without its snake!