About
Wayne lives in Perth and often drops in to say hello to us when doing business trips to Melbourne. Back in August 2015 we were having a few drinks and discussed the boys turning 50 and going on a holiday together – Wayne and Nadine and David and I. We talked about meeting in Adelaide and catching up there.
After a few more drinks the idea of doing a 4WD trip from Perth and visiting the amazing North-West – Karijini and Millstream National Parks was concocted. We all looked at pictures online of the beautiful scenery. Wayne rang Nadine in Perth to see if she would be in it – and she immediately said yes. Wayne and Nadine had traveled from Perth up North camping many times, and Dave and I had been camping once when we were first dating ( long time ago now).
Flights booked – no turning back
In the middle of our discussions David’s mum rang to have a chat and found out about our latest North-West holiday idea. She told us that Virgin were having a sale on flights to Perth. That night we booked our flight from Melbourne to Perth and also flights from Parabadoo – Perth – then back home to Melbourne.
Perth to Carnarvon and all the way to Paraburdoo
The plan was for us to fly to Perth and to meet up with Wayne and Nadine and the four of us would drive up in their 4WD on an adventure that would end for us in Paraburdoo. They would then continue their 4WD journey back to Perth, while we would go home to Melbourne.
Melbourne
Perth
1. Carnarvon, Quobba
2. Karratha
3. Millstream National Park
4. Karijini National Park
5. Tom Price
6. Paraburdoo
Perth
Melbourne
Check it out on Google maps…
Afterthoughts -Wow! We had just booked an adventure that involved:
- lots of sitting in a 4WD driving 1000’s of km
- camping in remote outback areas of Western Australia
- walking/climbing up and down dangerous gorges
Was this going to be fun? What are we in for? It was all foreign to both David and I – we had never been on a holiday like this before and I think right from the start we referred to it as our “Perth adventure”.
Looking back at the whole experience
Now looking back it has to have been the most amazing adventure I have ever been on. There were many hours looking out of the passenger seat window of a 4WD driving 1000’s of km enjoying the ever changing landscapes and magnificent scenery.
Camping was fun. Great food cooked on the gas stove, relaxing sleeps on the self inflating mattresses in the shelter of the tent and the weather was mild at night. All good.
Some of the gorges provided the most amazing scenery to look at and to be surrounded in. To really experience this required walking/climbing, down steep rocks and cliffs to the bottom and then back up again. Once at the bottom the rocks were slippery and very easy to fall over. For me it was extremely challenging as the fear of misplacing a foot and falling down to certain serious injury or even death was very real. I did slip once but it was at the bottom of the gorge ( Just near Kermit’s Pool) in a stream of water. I survived this and had a massive sense of achievement and knowledge that I can do what my head tells me is “impossible”.