Denham 1st - 2nd June 2013
We
started this month in windy Denham and woke this morning to even bigger gusts,
today we are leaving to head towards Carnarvon. The wind is making it difficult
to pack up but we ended up doing it in record time. On the road we are driving
straight at the wind and car is working hard, so hard in fact that the gearbox warning
light has starting flashing as it is overheating. No big deal luckily, you just
pull over stop the motor for a couple of minutes and then drive it in manual
mode, no further issues other than the consumption of fuel, bloody heaps of it.
We have
pulled up about 80 klms short of Carnarvon in a freestay just after lunch.
There are vans everywhere and a heap of Queenslanders. State of Origin appears
to be the main subject of choice. Cooking a beautiful lamb roast in the camp
oven coated in duka, just smells fantastic. Had a few drinks with a bunch of
people who look like joining us in Carnarvon. I think we need to visit a grog
shop. Dan Murphy's here we come.
One of
the guys who name is Dunc knows a few people we know, it is a small world.
We left
early the next morning for Carnarvon, we have about 80klm to travel. The road
is littered with carcasses, mostly roos but a few other items we could not
recognise. Crows and Wedge Tail Eagles are having a feast, we stopped to get a
photo of one of these magnificent birds, but the huge eagle just turned and
flew before we could get the cameras out.
Carnarvon 3rd - 6th June
Carnarvon
is not what I was expecting, quite dirty and not well laid out. This is a fruit
and vegetable mecca. The car is going in for a service so we need to give it a
good scrub.
The
people we met last night have shown up here as well and while we were having a
drive around town, they have organised happy hour at our van. They are a great
bunch of people. Bill and Di are into Geocaching, this is a real time treasure
hunt which takes you to unusual places within areas all over the world. It was
great chatting to Bill about this, they are in the top 10 Geocaches in NSW for
their finds throughout Australia.
Very
windy today, lucky the car is going in for a service as it is too windy to do
anything. Had a happy hour at Bruce and Maureen's place tonight. Dunc and Lyn
joined us as well.
Bloody
windy yet again, decided to run a new wire for the solar panel just for a bit
of amusement. I can understand why these trees are bent over around here. Funny
the locals are saying that this is not too bad, not too bloody bad, I recon I
could head out to the highway and head north with the ignition off.
State of
Origin tonight at our place, Trice said that I have to do the shopping for the
entertaining as I had organised it. Now I am in trouble because nobody was hungry
and we don't have enough room in the freezer for all the stuff I bought.
We had a
good night even though Qld played like dogs for 3/4 of the game. What about the
punches to the head, what the heck?
Interestingly NASA had a huge dish here which was used when the boys had a bit of a wander around on the moon.
Point
Quobba 6th - 9th June
Headed to
the Blowholes at Point Quobba, we have set up camp right on the edge of the
beach, the forecast was for a South Westerly. I have lined the van up so we can
get satellite without taking it off the van and the back of the van is pointing
due south to protect us from the wind. In the morning this worked but in the
afternoon the wind swings around to a South Easterly just to make sure we
freeze our butts off.
We went
to the Blowholes and we were not disappointed, I love these things. The water
spurts and the noise is magnificent, there are around 16 blowholes here that
all work in different tides.
The rocks
are so craggy and sharp and have these holes everywhere. As we walked over to
the HMAS Sydney memorial we spotted 4 baby goats having fun clambering all over
a large boulder.
The
memorial is placed here as this is where a lifeboat was washed ashore, the crew
of the German ship 'Kormorin' came ashore some 50klms north of here at Red Bluff.
We are
having a quiet night tonight so I am putting on a silverside roast once again so
we will have some cold meat for lunches.
The camp
area is packed with very few sites available in its entire length of around 1
1/2 kilometres.
This is a
great campground, new toilets, dump site and water views.
The wind
has dropped and the temperature is beautiful. We walked up to the blowholes for
high tide and they are blowing and the waves crashing. One of the campers is
fishing for mackerel from the rocks. I have taken photos of the spray either
side of him, this is a serious fishing spot at high tide. I wandered around to
have a chat when suddenly he has hooked something big, he said it was a
Mackerel, he is fighting it. He seemed to be letting a heck of a lot of line
out when suddenly the line went slack, bloody sharks, there are a heap of them
out there is all he could say.
Just a
gorgeous day to be on the beach, the water is a beautiful turquoise blue and
the sand although course is almost bronze in colour.
Trice
wants to go snorkelling, so we get the gear for her, I am not so keen, still a
bit cold.
The fish
sanctuary is just brimming with fish of all different types, large, small and everything
in between.
Duncan
and Lyn, who we met in Carnarvon are up further around on the rocks pointing
down in the water. I wandered up and here are thousands of fish feeding on
bread being thrown in by Dunc.
I went
back to get Patrice to come up this way. She took ages to swim up and was
enjoying it all, Dunc started throwing bread on her which she was loving being
able to swim with all these fish around her. Then a woman asked Trice if she
saw the big Moray Eel, remember I said that Trice took ages to get up here.
Well on
Well on
hearing that she just about had a bow wave as she steamed to the shore.
The woman was left behind just saying she was sorry and didn't mean to scare
her. We were left on the rocks wetting ourselves with laughter, what a great
afternoon. Trice then found out that there was a big Wobbygong Shark and a
large stingray in there as well.
Sunset
back at the Blowholes was a great lead in to happy hour. We have decided to
stay yet another day as this is beautiful here. Pat, the woman who scared Trice
has been coming here for 28 years and said that the bay is back to what it was
like when she started coming here. Apparently the cyclones had destroyed the reef.
Another
beautiful day, you can't but smile when you are overlooking a beautiful ocean
with a magnificent cloudless blue sky.
We got the
kayak off the car, got the fishing rod out and headed down the beach loaded up
with our snorkelling equipment as well. Trice is just in her element
snorkelling around taking heaps of photos under the water. Me on the other hand
am much happier sitting in top of the water watching the traffic jam of fish
below.
We spent
all day on the beach swimming, snorkelling and paddling the kayak. I even tried
catching squid but didn't succeed. We did get oysters off the rocks and got a
stunning photo of a blue ringed octopus. 
We have
made plans to go squid fishing at dusk but the wind has come up so we dropped
that plan and hid in the van.
Apparently
the wind has returned and will be with us for 3 or 4 days. At $5.50 a night
with ocean views it is pretty hard to leave here but we are going to head north
towards Exmouth to get away from the wind.
We woke
this morning to a howling wind straight off the ocean, the beautiful ocean view
has been replaced by a cyclonic sea breeze, time to pack up and move on.
We have
travelled around 180 klm and pulled over into a free stay around 50 klm north
of the Exmouth turn off. We have hardly set up when Dunc and Lyn pull in as
well, all Lyn could say was "We are camping in a bloody dessert!"
This place is pretty baron with a drop toilet but we have a great afternoon
planning the next part of our trip.
Off to
Exmouth and Cape Range National Park tomorrow, hopefully the wind will drop.
Exmouth 10th - 11th June
We
travelled 215klm into Exmouth, interesting town. It was created in the late
60's when it was established as a US naval base. Most of the people who came to
live here were employed by the US government until the mid 70's when the base
closed down. A lot of the infrastructure from the time is still here as it has
been locally heritage listed. The radio masts are huge and they also have a
solar research station located here that simply watches the solar flares while
the sun is visible. The solar flares create havoc with radio communication
around the world and this centre is responsible for the prediction of radio
signal 'gaps' around the world.
We stayed
with Len and Mav who have 10 acres right on the beach. A beautiful couple who
we met in Albany and are so accommodating. We are heading off to Cape Range
National Park for 3 nights and Len and Mav are wanting us to come back and stay
on our return.Cape Range National Park (Kurrajong) 11th - 14th June
Packed up
from Len and Mav and headed off to Kurrajong Campground, it is a generator free
camp ground which is great. It is quite a relief to get away from the incessant
noise.
The camp
ground is brand new and the sites are huge. 80 meters straight over a sand dune
is the ocean, all this for $14 a night.
We headed
off for a drive to get our bearings and found Yardie
Creek, a beautiful gorge
full, of water and wild life. About every 3 years the creek opens to the ocean
and small sharks stingrays and the like head into here for protection from
larger prey.
As such from on top of the cliffs you can see turtles, large fish,
stingrays swimming silently along the cliff edges. There are a variety of bird
life including sea eagles and kites and these unusual Rock Wallabies that
manage to scale the cliffs looking for food.
Creek, a beautiful gorge
full, of water and wild life. About every 3 years the creek opens to the ocean
and small sharks stingrays and the like head into here for protection from
larger prey. 
As such from on top of the cliffs you can see turtles, large fish,
stingrays swimming silently along the cliff edges. There are a variety of bird
life including sea eagles and kites and these unusual Rock Wallabies that
manage to scale the cliffs looking for food.
We were
told about a small gorge that you access by a rough track, in here were 2 guys
rock climbing up the cliffs, I think one of them was rather inexperienced from
the little squeals he was giving out on a regular basis and the fellow on the
ground trying to reassure him.
Back to
camp and we bump in David and Dianne and Jo and Lisa who we have met in
various campsites on our travels.
The
weather has turned again with wind and rain, we are hoping that we will get a
chance to snorkel and kayak the reefs tomorrow.
Happy Birthday Sam, he is 24 today.
Overcast,
raining and wind, may lie in and watch Sunrise for a bit.
9.00am
and the clouds are breaking up and wind is dropping, we can only hope.
We
decided to throw in the snorkel gear and drive north looking for phone service
to call Sam for his birthday. Well we got to the lighthouse some 52 klms, we
hope he appreciated his call. Got a hell of a fright with the car bouncing up
and down, Dunc and Lyn have found us yet again.
The
original signal tower is here along with the original sandbags from when this
site was established in 1942 as a support station to assist the USA in the Gulf
War.
In 1963
the Harold Holt Naval Communication Station commenced and the town of Exmouth
was formed.
Headed
back to Turquoise Bay, it is packed so we decided to go to Oyster Stack, still
crowded but not as bad. A little disappointing as the colours are a bit dull,
very few fish and the water is cloudy. We headed back to Turquoise Bay and
while there are very few fish, it was a bit clearer. The water temperature is
beautiful and the sky is a beautiful blue.
We spent
the sunset on the beach with me on the kayak looking for fish, I did go fishing
and nothing, zip, zilch. Just heard that a Malaysian tourist has been taken off
the rocks at Point Quobba by a large wave.
Went to
Mundu Mundu Gorge, a good level 4 walk of about 3klm which is predominately
rocks and smooth stones, short sharp climbs and a great view of the Ningaloo
Reef coast line.
We
returned to Oyster Stack determined to snorkel but it is still cloudy and
rough. I have a slight trepidation of snorkeling, I don't know what it is but
most times I am underwater I am shitting myself. I am swimming along when this
bloody parrot fish comes along and bites my leg, why me? Did it sense the panic
in the water? I did let a little squeal out in my snorkel and headed to the
shore. My leg is bleeding, this bloody fish has seen a scab on my leg where I
stabbed myself with a stick and decided that the scab would be good eating so
it helped itself. I am sticking to the kayak, I can look down and get just as
good a view without worrying what is going to bite, sting or eat me.
The waves
are quite rough and while Trice was getting back in over the rocks she has
accidentally opened her waterproof camera. We pulled the battery out and can
only hope that we can dry it out.
We headed
back to Kurrajong and put the kayak in and saw a turtle, stingray and dolphin.
We paddled until the sun went down and joined other campers for happy hour.
We tried
Trice's camera this morning after letting it dry out all night and it is
buggered, I think she will double check the safety catch next time. Left for
Exmouth this morning, been raining most of the night and is raining now.
Arrived in Exmouth and ordered a new camera off the Internet, I was considering
buying the camera here and realised that I may have to pay a bit more but 40%
more is a little overboard.
Exmouth 14th - 17th June
Pulled
into Len and Mav's place and it is raining quite heavily, I guess it may be a
lazy day leading up to happy hour tonight. Went for walk on beach, collected
Shells. 
Just had
a cruise around town, having a nice coffee and beautiful lunch in a local cafe.
We headed down to Charles Knife Gorge, what a site, I reached over to get my
camera, bugger it is not there. We drove to the end to where they drilled for
oil in 1955, I didn't realise that this area has some of the biggest oil reserves
in mainland Australia. There is an opportunity to do the Shothole canyon but
Trice has had a sore hip from all the walking we have been doing. 
So we have
driven here and have no cameras. We head back to Len and Mav and search the van
for the camera, it is not there. It was in the car the whole time, bugger. We
went for a walk on beach collecting more shells. 
Back to
Charles Knife Gorge to get the photos we missed. The marina next to where we
are staying is large and modern. We can understand why they call this Pebble
Beach, there is no sand, it is just layers of smooth stones. As we drove along
the beach we came across a large turtle that had perished, someone has made a
RIP sign in the sand.
We left
Len and Mav after 3 lovely days with 2 great people. It would have been great
to catch up with Ron and Bett but we do need to move on. We drove about 200 klm
to a 24 hr Rest Stop called Barradale. This was once a road house built in the
1960s and is now just a big flat area with a toilet block beside a wide river
which is dry as.
Tom Price 18th - 20th June
We are following the Hamersley Range, we were going to stop in Beesley River but it was far too wet and
it was only lunchtime so we decided to drive another 300 klm into Mt Tom Price. We have driven 440 klms and have gone from very flat dry country on the coast to ranges, red mud and miners everywhere.
Picked up
Trice's camera from Post Office, Digital Camera Warehouse is fantastic, cheap
and sent from Sydney on Friday and delivered to Tom Price on Monday. We visited
where my Uncle, Aunty and Cousins lived in the 70's and also the hill nicknamed
Shag Hill due to parking episodes as young blokes. We met a local up there who said that unfortunately all you find here now are syringes rather than canoodling couples.
As you
look around all you see is red, everything is stained. We are going on a tour
of the mine tomorrow.
Back to
the van to put the heater on, the temperature has dropped to 13c. Brrrrr.
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| The Speedway where my cousins raced |
Went a on
mine tour today, it was fantastic. We headed off at 10.00am in a bus and went
deep into the workings of Hamersley Iron, which is now subsidiary of Rio Tinto.
Everything is big and red, not painted red, just stained red from the dust and
now mud. We were informed today that this is the coldest and wettest June since
1996, just our luck. The mine is based around Mt Tom Price and South Ridge.
Mount Tom Price is now 59 metres shorter due to the mining. What was once a
small valley separating South Ridge and Mt Tom Price is now part of a large pit
from the massive extraction of iron ore.
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| The Highest Vehicle Access in WA |
Each
train that pulls out of here to Dampier holds over 216,000 tonne of high grade
iron ore destined for export. It takes 4 hours to load and another 5 1/2 hours
to get to Dampier on the 1,600 kilometres of railway line.
When
driving around the town all houses are numbered from when they were built, house
numbers are now over 1,000.
We headed
off to Mount Nameless to drive to the top. The drive was pretty rugged but when
we got to the top we found a plaque stating that this was the highest vehicle
access in Western Australia.
From up
here we had views of the mine, the town and surrounding areas, quite
spectacular.
I
couldn't stand it anymore and had to wash the car, $8.00 to use the hose, but
the car looks so much better.
The car
looks so good so I decided to pack the van up and wash it as well.
Karijini 20th - 23rd June
Off to
Dales Campground at Karajini National Park, I hope there is no mud.
On our
way out of town we found RIP Hill, this is a hill devoted to lost ones. Patrice
found a lovely rock and wrote a message to leave in this sacred spot.
The camp
ground is great with large private bays, toilets and a dump spot but no
showers.
Went on
our first walk to Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool, you would give your eye tooth
to have this as landscaping in your back yard. The reds, greens, browns and
blues are blended so beautifully. The rocks are in perfect layers and are
fractured into square edged blocks. You couldn't have 
Happy
hour with Bruce and Maureen.
Woke this
morning to freezing temperatures, so we snuggled up in bed and waited for it to
warm up a bit, currently 6.4c.
Walked
the gorges today, left the campsite on foot for the Dales Gorge Rim walk,
beautiful views. We could see the Circular Pool way down in the gorge so we
headed down the steep decent into the floor of the gorge. Circular Pool is
beautiful, it looks so tempting but the water is like ice. Even young tourists
who would normally be frolicking in the water are staying rugged up.
We
started the Dale Gorge Walk which is a 2klm Class 4 walk, the rocks look like
building blocks, seams of different colours demonstrate the sedimentary layers.
We even came across a seam of asbestos, Wittenoom Gorge is just up the road and
was a major source of asbestos mining so it is only natural that you would see
some here.
At the
other end from Circular Pool is Fortescue Falls, the water is warmer here as it
is coming from deep down in the earth. There are people swimming but not as
many as you would expect as it is unseasonably cold.
Back up
the climb to the rim and back to camp, we have covered 5.2klm in 3 1/2 hours, it was great to sit down.
More
happy hour and crawl into bed as the temperature suddenly drops once again.
It is
colder this morning, we are laying in bed laughing as we are blowing fog at other
due to the cold, there is ice on the car and van.
Off to
Hamersley Gorge. What can I say other than just beautiful. We were warned not to go on the back road as a few people had blown tyres. In the morning we went out along the highway adding an addition 60 odd kilometres. On the way back I decided to chance the road, what were they talking about? I just let the tyres down to around 25 and it was a great trip back. 
Time to
leave Karijini so we left for Port Hedland, Why? did I hear you ask? We were asking the same question, this place is stunning. We have had to pick the pace up a bit as we need to get to Darwin to fly home on the 17th August and there is a fair bit of country to see between here and there.
As you
drive out of Karijini you are treated to more spectacular gorges along Karijini
Drive. it is though this was the epicentre of the collision of the continental
plates. Huge mountains of stone eroded with spectacular gorges everywhere.
We
entered the Great Northern Highway linking Newman and Port Hedland and stopped
at Albert Tognalini rest area. This is one of the most spectacular outlooks I
have seen. The rest area even though it doesn't have toilets is a must stay.
You can even get a water fill up at the roadhouse just down the road. I
immediately thought of a mate of mine Jeff who was an environmental engineer
with Main Roads in Qld, he would have wet himself over the engineering through
this massive gorge.
What a
day, started off so well.
With that
we decide to wander into Port Hedland just on dark, I haven't driven in the
dark for nearly 9 months, this is difficult. There are only 3 caravan parks in
"The Port" and all have FULL signs, what now?
We drive
43 klm out of town to a parking bay, it is dark, we are tired and there are 2
big 8 1/2 metre dump truck trays on the back of 2 wide load trailers. Stuff it
I am not driving any further, I even set up the satellite dish so we could
watch TV.Port Hedland. 24th - 27th June
Well not
the best nights sleep, I didn't realise how many trucks have been made and that
most of them drove past here during the wee hours of the morning. Now remember
those large 8 1/2 metre dump truck trays, well they left just before sunrise. Trice was able to get a beautiful shot of the sunrise and the trucks leaving due to the constant roar of trucks, me on the other hand could sleep through a cyclone.
Port
Hedland is very much a BHP town and relies heavily on iron ore being
transported into town by rail and big semi trailers with 4 trailers and being
transported out of town by sea by enormous ships. The harbour has been dredged
to 60 metres to accommodate these massive ships.
The first
night bucketed down, this is supposed to be the dry season and we are having
record breaking rains. Just down the road at Karratha they have had the largest
amount of rain in one evening since they have been keeping records.
Just
around the corner from us a mini tornado has ripped through the speedway
complex and picked up a poor woman's car as she was driving to work. Luckily
Trice was up as I slept through the whole thing, told you that I could sleep through anything.
The next
morning there is water everywhere with roads cut so we had a quiet day doing a
couple of things to the van and catching up on some washing.
The
comings and goings at the wharfs are amazing there are trains
each and every day and ships are lined up on the horizon although it looks like things have come to a stop as the trains are not coming into town. Apparently there is water over the tracks further out of town. There were no ships going out but plenty coming in.
each and every day and ships are lined up on the horizon although it looks like things have come to a stop as the trains are not coming into town. Apparently there is water over the tracks further out of town. There were no ships going out but plenty coming in.
We have
now driven around most of the town and there is water everywhere, shops have
been sandbagged and the construction of the new intersection for the road to
Broome has been washed out with red mud. I bet the excavator driver who sank
his excavator beside the road works will not be popular.
The stark
difference are enormous piles of salt being mined from large pools, between
South Hedland and the city centre. The salt is not used for domestic use, it is
used in the manufacture of plastics.
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| Trice getting a lift |
Our last morning
I went on a tour of the loading facilities at the port. This tour was run by
BHP and gives you a bit of an insight into their operation, mind you Rio Tinto
also loads from here.
38 trains
come and go each day 365 days per year, of which 24 of these are BHP. The
locomotives cost around $6M each and the ore cars around $250,000 each. A
typical train coming in from Newman has 6 locomotives, 336 ore cars, is 3.75
klm long and carrying 42,000 tonnes of ore.
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| Most homes have cyclone shutters |
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| Trice making friends |
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| Great place for coffee |
The ships
are typically 325 metres in length and carry 250,000 tonnes of iron ore all
crushed and washed. There are on average 850 of these ships coming and going
each year, they turn these ships around in just over 36 hours.
The
operation is mind blowing and huge and it makes you realise how dependant this
country is on mining.
Degrey River Freestay. 27th - 28th June
Great
spot right on the river, pity the river is now about double it's width. We went
for a walk after pulling in late in the afternoon. We went for a walk around
before setting up camp and have decided on camping on the lower level nearer
the river.
Apparently everyone left this area 2 days ago as the water was
rising far too quickly. We have checked the levels and it looks like the water
level is falling. As we go to bed tonight I am hoping it is not my famous last
words.Even comes with a free cow on every site.
Cape Karaudron 28th - 30th June
What a gorgeous site, you are faced with a choice of 3 areas. On the creek, Sandy Beach or the headland better known as 'Snob Hill'. We chose Sandy Beach and had a spot right on the beach, our awning is overhanging the sand, we can lay in bead and look at the ocean through our side window at the foot of the bed, this is heaven
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| Our Camp Site |
The is the start of 80 mile beach, the beach has been eroded quite a bit from the cyclones earlier this year. There are craggy rocks lining most of the beach which makes it almost impossible to swim or fish. The first couple of days are a little windy but bearable. There are a great bunch of people here and most of the time is taken up chatting or walking amongst the rocks looking for shells and octopus. Trice has collected a mountain of shells, I can see this being a problem the longer we stay. Initially we were only going to stay 2 nights but it is so beautiful here we have decided to stay longer.
I will cover the rest in my July update.
