Wow! I’ve hitchhiked more than 6,500 kilometres and I still had another thousand or more to go. Despite all the places I’ve been, Karijini is one of those rare places where I can purely scream out WOW! at the top of my lungs. It is simply breathtaking. The park ranger yesterday told me that I have to go to Hancock Gorge, so I’ll be saving that for a future trip when I have a bit more time and (hopefully) without road closures due to bushfires. Before long, a couple of guys picked me up and they were going to Auski Roadhouse. At first I was going to have them drop me at the turnoff to Karijini but I figured at the roadhouse I could have a shower, a coffee, a bit to eat, and charge up my phone. Very dusty it is in Karijini, and I scrubbed every part of my body. Refreshed, and with a tall cup of coffee, I was back on the hot, fly-blown Western Australian road. My plan was to hitchhike the coastal route and perhaps stop at one or two places along the way, but with the road to the west of Karijini still closed, my only option was the inland route to Perth unless I wanted to do a long loop around. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I was picked up by a man named Kerry who was driving all the way to Augusta (not to be confused with Port Augusta), three hours south of Perth. A retired dairy farmer, Kerry is on his way back from Broome after visiting a friend. When I told him about my goal of finding a geocache in every Australian shire, he was intrigued by the game. It’s only fitting that the first cache he ever saw is one of my favourite containers: an ammo box. Shires in the Northern Territory and in the northern part of WA are huge, therefore my map looks better with those filled in. At the Tropic of Capricorn we stopped, and I’ve now crossed the circle in three different places in Australia.
There was no way we’d get all the way to Perth in one day, so we’d be making camp somewhere along the way. We pulled into a rest area and I set up my tent for what would be the final time on this journey. Kerry would cook up some pork chops, and it’d be a great evening for a few glasses of merlot. Red wine just works better on cooler nights.
It was very cold last night and I don’t have a jumper. At least six trucks pulled up and parked, so it was really damn noisy. Up bleary-eyed I was, ready for the final push to Perth. When the sun rose is was only 12 degrees. As you go further south, the shires get smaller so I had to plan my geocaching mission carefully. At an awesome place called the Granites we stopped.
After a brief stop we were on the road again. Just a couple hours out of Perth, you’re no longer in the Outback but in the Wheatbelt.
The landscape is flatter and far less rocky. I wonder if the WA police have a sign somewhere with "wear your seat belt in the Wheatbelt." The most interesting town we stopped in is New Norcia, Australia’s only monastic town. I'd never heard of anywhere named "Norcia" only to discover it's a town in Italy. After a lift of more than 1,500 kilometres, Kerry dropped me at the turnoff to Joondalup. He invited me to stay at his home after I return from Christmas Island, so I’m really looking forward to seeing him again and spending some time in the area. I've never been anywhere south of Perth. Whilst I planned on signing a geocache to check off another shire, I was picked up by an electrician even though I didn't put my thumb out. A short time after being dropped off and collecting a few geocaches, Dave's girlfriend, Angele would pick me up.
In all, I hitchhiked a grand total of 8,119 kilometres from Airlie Beach to Perth. It was my lengthiest hitchhiking journey to date. What a fabulous journey this was, with so many different places and landscapes along the way. My top highlight is Karijini National Park, and I also thoroughly enjoyed the Quarry, the area around Broome, and the Dampier Archipelago. After I return from Christmas Island I plan to hitchhike across the bottom and then go up through the NT but for now, it's time for some R&R in Perth as I get ready for the annual red crab migration.
