North Western Australia - Warlu Way -
Way of the sea serpent
The Warlu Way trail
The Warlu Way follows the path of the warlu, or Dreamtime sea serpent, as it traverses North West Australia and the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia – ancient and sacred landscapes rich in natural beauty and enchanting Aboriginal stories. Your jourrney takes you back in time to the mystical Dreaming era when the warlu emerged from the sea and travelled through the pulsing red heart of the outback, forming magnificent waterways as he moved.
Beginning on the shores of the world’s largest fringing reef, Ningaloo, the Warlu Way leads you 2,480 kilometres from sapphire seas to the lush oases, soaring gorges, rugged ranges and ancient Aboriginal art of North West Australia’s Pilbara and Kimberley regions. Interpretive signage along the drive opens your eyes to the secrets of this country and its historical, cultural and natural wonders.
The Warlu Way travels from Exmouth to Broome, with side-trips to cultural sites and national parks.
Next July, we're hoping an abbreviated version,
- fly into Learmonth
- Exmouth - to swim (with whale sharks)/snorkel the Ningaloo Reef
- perhaps loop up to Cape Range National Park - camp there
- drive up to Dampier and explore Murujuga - the Burrup Peninsula (2-3 days)
- drive to Roebourne, visit the Arts Centre
- drive to Millstream-Chichester National Park
Going back either
- loop back the way we came to Learmonth
- travel on to Tom Price / Karajini National Park, back to Learmonth via P
Dive with whale sharks
Every year from April to July following the mass spawning of coral, the world’s biggest species of fish congregate in the Ningaloo Marine Park. These are the Whalesharks! The chance to snorkel with these gentle giants is the opportunity of a lifetime and visitors from all over the world head to the Ningaloo Reef during Whaleshark season. These massive filter feeders can grow up to 18m long. They cruise the world’s ocean in search of concentrations to feed on. Ningaloo Reef is one of the only places they appear regularly in large numbers. Very little is known about the biology of these creatures so research is ongoing.
Day tours to snorkel with Whalesharks depart daily during the season from both Exmouth and Coral Bay. The experience is open to confident swimmers of all ages..
| Tour Operator | Adult | Child | Video/Photo | No sightings policy |
|---|
| Exmouth Diving Centre | $385 | $299 | $60 | In the unlikely event no whale shark is sighted on your tour we do offer repeat tour on any available spot within the next 3 years. |
| King’s Ningaloo Reef Tours | $385 | $270 | $60 | |
| Ningaloo Blue Dive | $385 | $220 | $60 | If you don’t see a Whale Shark go again for FREE! |
| Ningaloo Whaleshark Swim (previously Ningaloo Dreaming) | $380 | $270 | FREEphotos of your day | In the very unlikely event you don’t see a whale shark on your tour, we will take you out again free of charge on the next available tour. If you can’t make that, we’ll give you a voucher for a whale shark tour valid for the next three years. |
| Owns and operates own spotter plane. Offers a Best Price guarantee for your tour. |
| Ningaloo Whaleshark-N-Dive | $390 | $270 | $50 | Second trip at no charge on the next available whale shark tour. Offers a non-transferable voucher valid for the next 2 years. |
| Ocean Eco Adventures | $395 | $275 | FREE tour DVD | Offers repeat voucher is valid for a three year period if they can not use it in that season. Ocean Eco Adventures is also conducting research on the Ningaloo Marine Park on every cruise that clients can get involved with. |
| Has own spotter plane. |
| Three Islands Whale Shark Dive | $385 | $265 | FREE CD of Photos from the day and a Best Of Ningaloo DVD | Free repeat tour on next available day or transferablerepeat tour voucher valid for the current and following two seasons or downgrade to ‘observer’ and receive partial refund. |
| Has own spotter plane. |
* there is no published prices for the current season yet.
It is just after dawn when we lower our kayaks into the still water of Crossing Pool - or Murlamunyjunha, its more musical indigenous name - in the Millstream-Chichester National Park. The morning mist, which the Yindjibarndi people believe is smoke from the spirits' campfires, is already dissipating. As we push off, the kayaks slice through a liquid rendering of the paperbark-lined banks, the treetops turned bronze by the Pilbara sunrise.
On the water, we are the only things moving, stealing away before even the corellas have stirred. Upon our arrival at the campground a day earlier, mobs of the white-plumed bird - the Yindjibarndi's totem - had hung like welcoming Christmas lights in the waterside trees. When we shut the campervan doors they blasted skyward in screeching clouds.
...
This morning marks the mid-point of our 2500-kilometre drive following the Warlu Way, which links the north-western towns of Broome and Exmouth. The route is inspired by the indigenous legend of the sea serpent, or warlu, which emerged from the ocean and crossed this arid land creating waterways as it moved. Where we are paddling is close to the place, at Nhanggangunha (Deep Reach Pool), where that spirit serpent is believed to live. This makes it one of Western Australia's most significant indigenous cultural sites.
It takes 20 minutes to reach the far end of Crossing Pool and, in that time, I've come the closest an agnostic can to a religious experience. The natural beauty, the palpable spirit in the surroundings and the tranquillity of dawn have combined to have more effect on me than any of Europe's great cathedrals
...
Back on the mainland we find our way to one of Australia's most prolific Aboriginal art sites, Deep Gorge, on the Burrup Peninsula, just north of Karratha. There are more than 10,000 petroglyphs on red boulders, some depicting thylacines, extinct here for 4000 years. We have to tread carefully to avoid stepping on images of emus, turtles and human figures etched into the rocks.
If this extraordinary gallery represents the Pilbara's distant past, its present is symbolised by the Karratha gas plant, sprawling like a giant, fuming space-station nearby. That evening the glow from the plant, part of the North West Shelf Venture, which produces more than 40 per cent of Australia's oil and gas, forms the background as we barbecue dinner at Hearsons Cove, overlooked by the rock engravings.
The next morning we follow the Warlu Way inland again, towards its spiritual heart in Millstream-Chichester National Park. The landscape becomes reminiscent of Arizona, with the Chichester Range protruding out of the coastal plain in cone-shaped hills and ochre mesas.
We spend the next two days exploring the 200,000-hectare national park. Much of it is a desert oasis, with deep waterways, such as Crossing Pool, winding through it, fed by an underground aquifer. Other sections, as we see when we take the coiling road up to Mount Herbert in the park's north, are characterised by spinifex-covered hills and spectacular oblong-shaped escarpments.
The Yindjibarndi roamed this area before the Pyramids were built but it wasn't until 1861 that it was discovered by British explorer Francis Gregory, who recommended it for grazing. At its peak, Millstream Station covered 400,000 hectares and ran 55,000 sheep. The station homestead is now the visitor centre and is linked to Crossing Pool by the 6.8-kilometre Murlamunyjunha Trail, which threads between red gums, white tea trees and palms.
From one special national park we journey on to another, Karijini, 150 kilometres further south. We start at Hamersley Gorge, in the park's north-west. It is a broad, boldly coloured fissure dropping down from the plateau in a succession of shallow falls and blue-green pools. Waves of rock, ranging in hue from purple through ruby to terracotta, run through the gorge walls. After a short climb, we find a grotto, hollowed out of an overhang. Brimming with cool, fresh water, it's an ideal spot to spend the hottest part of the day.
Later, we peer down into an even more profound split in the earth at Oxer Lookout, where three ravines meet, before descending deep into Hancock Gorge, a lean, water-filled chasm with 100-metre walls.
On a previous visit I'd stayed in the campground at the newly opened, Aboriginal-owned
Karijini Eco Retreat and eyed its safari-style tents. This time, after eight dusty days on the road, we are happily booked into one.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/activity/drives/way-of-the-sea-serpent-20100813-122eb.html#ixzz2jUmQqcE2
Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula)
“The Burrup,” as the locals call it, is only 28 kilometres northwest of Karratha, which again necessitates some four-wheeled means of transport. The name was chosen in 1979 after the island’s highest hill, Mt. Burrup, because the former island was then connected with the mainland by a causeway for a railway line and a road.
The Aboriginal name of the peninsula is Murujuga or Murrijuga.
Aboriginal petroglyphs
Hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal petroglyphs (rock engravings) are distributed over an area of 88 sq km, inviting you to discover them. They range from small engravings of Emu tracks to very large ones representing some kind of corroboree or ceremony, Aboriginal figures climbing a ship’s mast. They depict a Tasmanian Tiger (thylacine), whales, kangaroos, emus and thousands of Aboriginal ceremonies
[1].
The number of petroglyphs is estimated to be between 500,000 and 1 million. The National Trust claims that about 10,000 of them have been destroyed in the last 44 years
[2].
The artwork done here by Aboriginals will stun you.
For Aboriginal people the rock art is a tangible expression of their people’s ancestral knowledge
[3]. They are of profound importance to the local Ngarada people.
But sadly, the people are long gone, so that no-one will ever know what the engravings really represent. The Jaburara people who once lived here have been wiped out.
Read more: http://www.creativespirits.info/australia/western-australia/karratha/murujuga-burrup-peninsula#ixzz2arnao7i3
18 February, 2010 4:12PM AWST (ABC Radio - North West WA)
Off the beaten track
The Burrup Peninsula is an incredibly sacred site, famous for its rock art.
There is quite literally a new piece of rock art around every corner.
But how much do you know about the islands that are just off it?
Mike Donaldson is avid bushwalker and rock art connoisseur.
Listen as he tells Rachel Fountain that the Burrup Peninsula provides a lot more than just good fishing.
Burrup's rock art: the protracted World Heritage listing
For decades people who have been aware of the vast and precious outdoor art collection known as the Burrup rock art, on the Dampier Archipelago in Western Australia, have been calling for World Heritage listing. Six years ago the area became Australian National Heritage-listed. Last year the Australian Heritage Council recommended World Heritage listing. So what's holding it up? While mounting pressures from industry and visitors potentially threaten the engravings, the Federal Government has issued some new challenges it wants met, before it will approve the listing.
* turn on WiFi on device & choose AdelaideFree -- 
