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During a severe but short-lived bout of man-flu while camping somewhere near Pemberton in Gloucester National Park (WA) I decided warmer weather would cure my ailments.
Apols for not knowing the exact month off-hand, but we were not fully equipped to camp at such latitude in this relatively cold weather. I may have overlooked the page on weather in my Lonely Planet (Western Australia edition) at the time. We were in a hired car (white corolla) provided by a well-known firm beginning with H and ending in Z. And, despite the commitment I made to drive on asphalt only, we made use of the many unsealed roads in WA over the course of the hire period. It was 1998 during their 'winter' - when many/some move north for a few months to escape to warmer climes - for example, Ningaloo reef (where we eventually ended up).
This generalisation was poorly derived from a sample of one, a couple who had a vineyard near Margaret River (WA) and were encamped in Ningaloo for this very reason. On a side note, they invited us to dinner at their camp to celebrate our surprising arrival through the sand dunes in the hired corolla, and the successful erection of our humble 2-person dome tent. My main take-aways from that evening were long-forgotten details of the annual migration north, and that a good Port after a meal aids digestion.
Back to the story. On the day of our escape north, we departed a hut in the middle of some part of this vast forested area. I not sure how we found it - it was a few hours on a forest track away from anything resembling civilisation. Writing this now, I am relieved all over again to come home unscathed - not even a puncture througout the whole trip after near 2.2K kms, no mobile phones, sat nav etc.
We (myself and Mrs DMM, the GF at that time) shared the car but I did the driving - from Gloucester National Park north to somewhere beyond the Pinnacles (Numbing National Park) -which google maps tells me is near 600km, in about 7-8 hours with one stop for man-flu tablets and fuel.
The trip continued for a couple more weeks as far as Exmouth and then inland a bit... where those vicious corrugated red dirt roads threw their all at the corolla but miraculously never made a dent in her progress.
I used to notice the odd looks received from locals in Landcruisers and the like on these tracks, but on reflection it was very risky - so I am just glad that we had zero issues.
Of course the main achievement when returning said vehicle was not incurring penalties for my deviations from the asphalt. The words ' no I don't know where that red dust all over the underbody came from' come back to me now
Apols for not knowing the exact month off-hand, but we were not fully equipped to camp at such latitude in this relatively cold weather. I may have overlooked the page on weather in my Lonely Planet (Western Australia edition) at the time. We were in a hired car (white corolla) provided by a well-known firm beginning with H and ending in Z. And, despite the commitment I made to drive on asphalt only, we made use of the many unsealed roads in WA over the course of the hire period. It was 1998 during their 'winter' - when many/some move north for a few months to escape to warmer climes - for example, Ningaloo reef (where we eventually ended up).
This generalisation was poorly derived from a sample of one, a couple who had a vineyard near Margaret River (WA) and were encamped in Ningaloo for this very reason. On a side note, they invited us to dinner at their camp to celebrate our surprising arrival through the sand dunes in the hired corolla, and the successful erection of our humble 2-person dome tent. My main take-aways from that evening were long-forgotten details of the annual migration north, and that a good Port after a meal aids digestion.
Back to the story. On the day of our escape north, we departed a hut in the middle of some part of this vast forested area. I not sure how we found it - it was a few hours on a forest track away from anything resembling civilisation. Writing this now, I am relieved all over again to come home unscathed - not even a puncture througout the whole trip after near 2.2K kms, no mobile phones, sat nav etc.
We (myself and Mrs DMM, the GF at that time) shared the car but I did the driving - from Gloucester National Park north to somewhere beyond the Pinnacles (Numbing National Park) -which google maps tells me is near 600km, in about 7-8 hours with one stop for man-flu tablets and fuel.
The trip continued for a couple more weeks as far as Exmouth and then inland a bit... where those vicious corrugated red dirt roads threw their all at the corolla but miraculously never made a dent in her progress.
I used to notice the odd looks received from locals in Landcruisers and the like on these tracks, but on reflection it was very risky - so I am just glad that we had zero issues.
Of course the main achievement when returning said vehicle was not incurring penalties for my deviations from the asphalt. The words ' no I don't know where that red dust all over the underbody came from' come back to me now
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