The Month of June - Denham to Cape Keraudren via Mt Tom Price

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

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.

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.

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.

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  
 

designed this stairway into the falls any better.

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.

We pulled into a parking bay some 20klm out of Port Headland, did I say that there are a bloody lot of BIG trucks around here? All is quiet, we are all alone so I put on the camp oven to cook up a nice chicken curry. Next thing a huge 4 trailer road train pulls in behind us, a ute drives in from the other direction to meet the truck, I wander up to the truckies to have a chat. Turns out that this is a truck change over point and he asks if we are staying here as it does get a bit noisy. I say to him "that's OK mate", more trucks start arriving and this place is getting busy. Another truckie walks over and says mate this place is busy up until 8 tonight and then starts again about 1 in the morning, you will hate us.

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.

I have rung around and the only park we can get into is Blackrock, not the best or cleanest park but we have got somewhere where we can bunk down. We ended up booking 3 nights so that we can watch State of Origin on power. Interesting place this, all sites have tie downs for cyclones so that you do not lose your caravan.

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.

 

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 town has a red tinge to it everywhere, the loading area has enormous sprinklers beside the roads. When the sensors pick up too much dust going towards the town centre these sprinklers activate to dampen everything down.

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.

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.

Most homes have cyclone shutters

Trice making friends

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

 

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.