THE BIG DASH: Backing blind
From the vastness of Karijini to the crowds at Coral BayFor the first time since Kakadu in May we turned concertedly east, moving from Exmouth to the mining town of Tom Price as our base to explore the Karijini National Park.
This was a place we’d been told repeatedly had to be on our list of must-dos, even if it meant heading 666km (woah!) inland to the heart of the Pilbara.
All those people weren’t wrong. A vast multi-coloured landscape is cracked open by deep, sheer gorges. It’s a stunning place.
From there it was back the way we came, but turning south to Coral Bay rather than north to Exmouth when we reached the coast and the Ningaloo Reef.
A big week then, with lots of kilometres and lots done and seen.
Also read:
THE BIG DASH: Why we went Chinese
THE BIG DASH: Buying all the bits
THE BIG DASH: Sorting the tow tug
THE BIG DASH: Hitting the scales
THE BIG DASH: On the road, finally!
THE BIG DASH: Onwards and upwards
THE BIG DASH: Do we have to go?
The Tasman
Up to this week the Kia Tasman X-Pro – or Tas – has been the absolute epitome of reliability. And then, suddenly, he wasn’t.
It happened on an undulating piece of two-lane bitumen called the Nanutarra-Munjina Rd (State Route 136), headed toward Tom Price from our overnight stop at the Nanutarra Roadhouse.
A series of single-lane bridges with a marked 80km/h speed limit are interspersed along its length.
We normally travel at 95km/h on the flat when towing and, approaching about the third bridge for the day, I did the usual thing, cancelled out of cruise and throttled back to 80km/h.
When we crossed the bridge I hit the return to cruise and nothing much happened. The car had dropped into some form of limp mode. No matter what I did with the gears, the throttle or the cruise, it wouldn’t accelerate to over 70km/h and it was glacial doing it.
I wasn’t in speed limiter, the ambient temp was about 27 degrees, the oil, trans temp and water temps were all in the correct zone and no warnings had popped up on the dash that either Jane or I could see.
We got to a safe pull-off space and turned everything off. I then checked all the fluids were okay, there were no leaks and nothing like hoses had come loose in the engine bay.
The owner’s manual advised giving the car a minute to reset and then starting it up again. So after a couple of long minutes pondering what happens next, I turned it back on and we proceeded like nothing had happened.
Tas ran fine for the rest of the day. It got hotter and the hills got steeper and there was no hint of drama.
The next day I reached out to Kia Australia and via Kia Connect went through the diagnostics check, which came up 100 per cent okay. The instruction was to proceed on; there should be no problems.
So far since then, there haven’t been. In fact, freed of the 'van on the long dirt road runs to and from Karijini, Tas excelled, rolling smooth and quick through the big, drifty corners and chewing the straights at a steady 130km/h.
So a glitch in the machine? An operator error? Hopefully at some stage there’s an explanation.
Here are this week’s fuel numbers: Actually, these are more than two weeks’ worth of numbers, covering the run from Onslow to Exmouth, the Karijini and return excursion and plenty of van-free cruising.
Litres consumed: 498.67
KM travelled: 3136km
Consumption average: 15.9L/100km
$ paid: $1172.29 (best price paid: $2.138 per litre)
KM per $: 2.67km (was 2.35km per $ last time)
Karijini National Park
It’s been a while since we’ve been inland. It’s all been about the ocean lately.
So the red dirt country of the Pilbara was a real change for us. It is huge in scope, vast in its age and stunning in its colour palette.
We swam at Hammersley Gorge in the freezing cold, then walked the rim and floor of Dales Gorge before peering into Weano Gorge on the way home.
Dales was the centrepiece and undoubtedly our favourite experience. The walk is rugged and rewarding.
Do it the right way and it ends with a swim at a beautiful pool topped up by a waterfall. It’s nowhere near as cold as Hammersley.
This is yet another place we’ve marked down for another visit.
Swimming with Manta Rays
In the way you go about it, this was a similar experience to the whale sharks of Exmouth.
Get into a wetsuit, flippers on, snorkel on, sit on the boat’s marlin board and, when the instruction is given, jump in the water.
This time it was a calmer experience than the threshing and rough-housing that took place with the whale sharks.
We floated on the surface and watched a ray ghost past maybe two or three metres below us.
It reminded me of the searchlight the hapless Gotham City cops put up when Batman’s needed to fight crime.
The manta was grand and elegant, unfussed by our presence and soon eddied off into the blue.
During our cruise we also had the chance to snorkel well out on the reef. This is important because close in to Coral Bay it’s looking very worn and tired.
Out here there’s more colour in the reef and the variety of sea life is epic. Cruising with turtles is a very cool experience.
Backing blind
Reversing. It’s a crap shoot every time we turn up at a caravan park.
At Tom Price it was a tight site between trees and other vans and it was done without drama; a 90-degree reverse from the driver’s side was a little wide first time, quickly corrected and in. High fives all-round.
But then at Coral Bay … the worst experience of the trip so far. We arrived during the second week of WA school holidays and the park (called the Bayview) was rammed.
The access roads are narrow and endless SUVs and boats hemmed them in even more.
We could only access the site from the passenger side (the wrong direction), with millimetres to spare as we made our way along the access road.
It was so tight Jane was dashing about giving me instructions on the radio.
When we lined up to reverse, I had to get a bloke to move his Prado to give us swinging room.
Trouble was, he also had a boat parked in the way and he didn’t offer to shift that.
Boats aren’t actually meant to be parked on-site, but he was hardly alone in breaking that rule.
So we crept in, Jane on the walky, me hopping in and out to physically check every few metres. With the turn angle limited by the obstructions I eventually made it without hitting anything but ended up at an 80- rather than 90-degree angle
I tried to push the van straight on the jockey wheel but it wasn’t going anywhere on grass. At that point we were both pretty tired and agreed we were going to leave it at that.
Of course, after I uncoupled, I should have just reversed in from the other direction, coupled up again and pulled the van round the couple of metres to be straight.
Or maybe I should have positioned the van further to the right side of the site. My instinct is always to go left side so we can roll out the awning and fit the car.
But all that’s what you think of later when the pressure’s off. Good learnings I guess.
Jeez it was fun having everyone watch this performance – not! It was nice that a few people came up to us afterwards and quietly commiserated, saying we’d done a good job. But the bloke with the boat told Jane the Tasman was too big. Nice.
Battling schoolies
So to say our feelings about the Bayview were somewhat influenced by our first hour or so on-site is fair. But really, what we learned was to stay away from Coral Bay during winter school holidays.
This tiny and beautiful place is overflowing with people – not just our caravan park but the whole village, which is basically one street stretching around a small bay where the coral does pretty much come to shore.
There’s a giant new hotel being built as well, so gosh knows what it’s going to be like when it’s finished.
Hopefully it doesn’t wreck the joint. We spent hours every day on white sand beaches, swimming and snorkelling in warm turquoise water. It’s not hard to understand the attraction of the place.
A lot of the commercial activity is controlled by one company – the pub, the shopping centre including the supermarket, the caravan park where we were staying, the manta ray tour we went on.
Needless to say, they charge top dollar for everything. We paid about $80 per night for a powered site that came without fresh water (it’s a very limited commodity in Coral Bay) and had no choice but to book in for a week – take it or leave it.
As we’ve previously mentioned when talking about our Exmouth experience – where the RAC caravan park is a much better organised and sensible layout – school holidays bring a different vibe here.
Further north it’s all big trucks, big vans, big tinnies and couples doing the big trip. Here there’s more canvas, more big groups – 20 plus – who come here year after year from Perth.
People are in their groups and doing their own thing, which is fine. We still met some lovely folks, but there were not that many long-term travellers like us.
In fact, lots of grey nomads who know about the school holiday thing make themselves scarce for these two weeks, then return to the coast when the rush is over.
Happily, the school holidays are coming to an end and our journey continues. From Coral Bay it’s time to trek further south to Monkey Mia, a place that’s long been on Jane’s must-visit list.
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