A free Rough Guide to the first three subscribers each week
A free Rough Guide to the first three subscribers each week.FACT FILEGETTING THEREPerth is served daily by BA and Qantas and Darwin a few times a week. Eco Beach is a luxurious yet simple resort built among the dunes of Cape Villaret Access is by four-wheeled drive or boat. Cabins have no air-con and washing facilities are shared, but the communal meals are sumptuous, the beach gorgeous and the tropical ambience idyllic.Chris Scott did research for 'The Rough Guide to Australia'. Keep up with the latest developments in travel by subscribing to the free newsletter 'Rough News', published three times yearly.
Grumpy rangers insist they choose to come but the event has all the thrill of feeding pigeons in Trafalgar Square.Best place to stayEco tourism is a buzz word across Australia, whose pristine wilderness is seen as an untapped asset. After another 200km you'll hit the Great Northern Highway just north of Wittenoom. You've only saved around 20km, but you'll feel a lot better for it.Biggest rip-offEven Perth-based tour guides admit that the 500km trek up the coast to "interact" with the dolphins at Monkey Mia is over-rated. The same group of "wild" dolphins has visited almost daily for over 20 years. You'll encounter the distinctive hues of the Pilbara: rolling hills of pale yellow spinifex grass and ranges the colour of ox blood. Halfway along is the only town, Marble Bar, its Ironclad Hotel a functional drinking pen.
Hideous.Scenic short cutIf you're heading from Broome towards "must miss" Port Hedland, leave the monotonous North West Coastal Highway 100km after the Sandfire Flat Roadhouse and head south to a lonely 500km network of sandy and corrugated tracks that's passable in a robust car if it hasn't rained. What's more it's cheap.Vilest hairstyleIn Australia's outback, but especially in daggy Darwin, you'll spot tattooed guys in over-tight shorts sporting the top end trim: short top and sides but long and unkempt at the back. Captain Finlay and his crew run an al fresco establishment that typifies the Australian character with all its spontaneous irreverence Finlay's stands alone as a relaxing, sub-tropical eatery. We picked out 400kg of "A-grade" for as many dollars and I got it shipped home, feeling pleased with myself.Coolest restaurantFinlay's Fresh Fish Barbeque in the coastal resort of Kalbarri is the coolest restaurant in the west, and not just because it's set inside an old ice factory. For once one of my schemes panned out and that night I met a sheep shearer with a shed full of seasoned jarrah. It was re-populated by clock-watching civil servants, failed entrepreneurs-cum- politicians and second-rate tour guides.Best bargainI'd been admiring lovely hardwood jarrah furniture for years and one afternoon had a brain-wave to buy some cut timber and get furniture made back in the UK.