13/4 and we make our way out of Fremantle and in the
direction of where we should be going. We refuel at Gingin – lovely little town
like our own Gin Gin and buy a pie for lunch which we eat on the side of the
road on the way out of town because someone doesn’t stop at the park in middle
of town – really don’t understand the way the male brain works or is it doesn’t
work. Our destination is Sandy Cape Nature Reserve just north of Jurien Bay and
we make it on sundown. It is a sand dune away from the water and seems very
pleasant and there are quite a few other campers. You are only allowed to stay
4 nights so we don’t have southerners who are here for the winter.
14/4 and we head down to the Pinnacles – haven’t a clue what
they are but everyone says you have to go there and they are in all the travel
brochures – and rightly so it is an amazing place. The ?soil has eroded away
around some very hard pieces of rock to leave these bits in all shapes and
sizes sticking out of the ground. It is all the same yellowish colour with a
few plants growing around. It covers a huge area and you can walk or drive
around through it. We drove around and must have done ten kilometers, with
plenty of places to stop and get out and walk around having a closer look. At
one spot there is a rock shaped like a sail on the top of a bit of rise so that
it looks like a boat out at sea. The whole place is wonderful – it is John’s
favourite place so far. They range in size from 20 feet to ½ inch and whilst
look like they are all yellow they have mould growing down the shaded side on a
few of the larger ones giving them a different colour.
We brought a pumpkin
damper with us for lunch and end up having it in the Pinnacles Desert past
dinner time – how’s that for pd’s? Afterwards we head down through Cervantes to
Lancelin and are stunned at the road. All our maps said that this was a 4WD
track so we didn’t bring the van up the coast road from Perth, but it is a 2
lane bitumen highway now. Stopping off at Lake Thetis near Cervantes we see
some stromatolites – said to be the oldest living creatures on earth. Talk
about one living fossil next to another. Wandering around the countryside
trying to find the eastern side of Pinnacles we come across the welcoming committee
at Yewadabby Springs station. There are only farms around, but head home
thrilled with the day.
15/4 todays travels take us to the Leusueur National Park
where we go for a walk through the bush and see a 1080 plant along with lots of
other very different ones. I have always wanted to see WA’s wildflowers so this
is going to be something to treasure. The southern end of the park is
completely full of blackboys. Sitting at the lookouts all you can see are
blackboys for miles.
18/4 Head up to Dongara to find Little Starfish Café and let
Paul & Chris know we are in town. Paul seems nice but Chris is a bit
offhand – hope it is just because we surprised them, however we can’t go out to
farm tonight so head off out of town to a freebie - bit apprehensive now.
19/4 Well we head into town and sit on foreshore at Dennison
till 3.30pm. It is a lovely spot and very pleasant way to while away a few
hours even if J spends his time on the phone. The drive out to their farm seems
to take ages and Paul goes a bit faster than we usually do towing the van – it
ends up being 25K north in a valley. So there is no mobile phone coverage, no
internet, the electricity is solar/wind generated and as we find out lasts till
about 10pm and the water is from tanks and a bore but Chris is a little
friendlier. Paul takes us around detailing the feeding routine for chooks and
dog and old rooster, the workings of water systems and how to start their
generator – looked too dangerous to me so we’ll use ours. We have a pleasant
dinner with them and then disappear back to van to watch the footy on tv and
Geelong loses.
20/4 Next day we head into church, find out where Lions club
meets, go to Bowls club to try to find out what time but there is a meeting on
so it takes forever; head to Laundromat and finally get back home to find a
very sad dog waiting. He isn’t used to being left at home as he normally goes
into the café and spends the day on the beach. In the local “Rag” we see an ad
for Lions so J calls Freda to let her know there will be 2 extra for dinner,
only to be told that she already knew – it is a small town! Monday is spent
around the house and in late afternoon we head into town to pay speeding fine
and order new laptop screen and then check the toilets at café and watch sun go
down till it’s time to go to Lions meeting. Everyone made us feel very welcome
especially secretary Freda, President Bob and Mike. The club has 50 members and
a disposable income of $50,000. They seem to be very similar to Pittsworth and
Clifton in activities undertaken, but had a busy time over Easter. Dongara has its
only race meeting of the year on Easter Saturday and the Lions run a raffle
which brought in $1200. On Sunday they have a big market, where the Lions had a
s/h book stall $1700, sausage sizzle $121, fairy floss $60 and a tiny tots
train $110. The driver reviver on Thursday & Monday raised $344. They also run a camp quality for disabled
children from Perth over their “Blessing of the Fleet” weekend in October. The
area has a lot of fishermen both professional and recreational as was evident
from the marina in Dennison. One point of interest was that they have recently
had their zone boundaries changed (with no prior notice or say) and it now
extends 800K from north to south. I guess they don’t go visiting other clubs –
goodness knows how the ZC gets around. The club is in MD201 W1. John gave them
a little talk on Drayton Lions and then they exchanged bannerettes. They also
hold an aortic vascular clinic where they fly a doctor in from Perth to do
heart checkups. Mike and J get into conversation and he invites us to his home
on Wednesday for morning tea so we gladly accept.
Tuesday
22nd we have the car booked in for its 45,000Klm service so we head off to
Geraldton leaving Mackie at home again. Have an interesting morning wandering
around Geraldton; the foreshore is very pretty with a few great cafes, the
Library has a display of aboriginal art which was very good, and the Art Gallery
had some great paintings on display. It is an annual event and the public get
to vote for their choice. John decided on a black and white picture of an old
aboriginal man was very good and I had to choose between a painting by an
aboriginal woman entitled white womans’ folly – stylised doyleys done as
flowers, and one entitled warnings which had a lighthouse and lightning in a
storm which was also very effective. Our creative instruction was not over as
we wandered up to the museum and they had a photographic display was fantastic.
How the photographers managed to get into the right place at the exact moment
is unbelievable. It’s fish and chips (with a hazelnut gelato) on the foreshore
and then we collect the car and head up to the HMAS Sydney memorial. This is
one of the most amazing and moving places. On top of a hill overlooking the
ocean with granite walls etched with the names of all 624 men lost. There is a
dome made up of 624 doves over an anchor with a large steel (pole) depicting
the bow of the Sydney. On the western side there is a statue of a woman looking
out to see, representing all the wives and mothers waiting for the ship to
return to port. The designers have done a magnificent job and it is well worth
a visit.
Its home to a very forlorn dog but Rooster is eager for his
titbit of dog sausage. Rooster is blind in one eye and gets picked on if he is
in with the other fowls so he got let out and wanders around the house yard
with the peahens. His treat every night is to get an inch cube piece of Mackie’s
sausage and then he finishes off Mackie’s biscuits. He quickly develops the
habit of sitting with us at meal times too. We collect the dog and head off to
Wakeford road to go fishing. With Paul’s mud map we take a few wrong turns and
then get to the top of a sand dune with a sheer drop on the other side – we
would have got down ok but not sure whether you would ever get back out so we
reverse the 500 metres back down to a spot where we can turn around – all very
hairy. Heading towards Geraldton we go into Flat Rocks, which were flat but
covered by the tide and blowing a gale so there was no fishing, but Mackie
enjoyed a run. 3AM Wednesday and it is blowing such a gale that J goes and
winds up the awning before it and the van are blown over – would have been a
good sight for the neighbours (if we had any) this naked man running around
trying to dismantle annex. When J opens the back of the ute this morning Mackie
jumps in and IS NOT Leaving. She has had enough of being left at home so she
comes into town with us. This is where we learn that everyone knows Mackie from
the café. Loris has made us pikelets with mulberry jam and cream for morning
tea which was heavenly. We have been on diets trying to lose some weight so
have not had any vanilla slices for AGES so it was a real treat. Mike and Loris
are wonderful people, they are from Victoria originally and came over to Paraburdoo
in 70’s to work in the mines. They moved to Port Headland and Perth before
retiring to Dongara, so were a wealth of information on the Pilbara area. Mike
invites J to go fishing the next day as Loris is going to the patchwork shop in
Geraldton, and I get invited along too.
We clean the loos and head home again. Mike takes J on a tour of
Dongara-Dennison and shows him the fishing spots and I get to wander around the
patchwork shop getting pieces for a Pinnacles Quilt. At breakfast J asks why
don’t I do a little quilt of the pinnacles to hang on a cupboard in the van –
so why not. Lunch at the Dome takes on another twist when I buy a Chai Chiller
to drink. It is a milkshake made with a chai tea extract, cinnamon and cloves
and is so wonderful that when we go back to get a new jockey wheel I take J
there for lunch and he has one as well. This is now my favourite drink – all I
have to do if find other places that make them. While J is in town Barb phones
to let us know that Sophie died in her sleep early this morning, so when I
return we head up the nearest hill to make a sad call to Shannon. I am always
expecting a call to say Mother has gone, and was not prepared for Sophie
leaving us. Shannon isn’t going to have a very happy birthday on Saturday but
is a little more cheerful when we call. She has had a handbag party and it
seems it was successful – hope that it gets off the ground and earns enough
money so that she doesn’t have to go back to full time office work until the
boys are at school. The priest here was so offhand with us when he
found out we were travellers that we decide not to go to church, and take
Mackie and go driving. We turn left at road gate and end up on the Allanooka
road which went to Mingenew and then down to Three Springs. There were some
hills around here but it was so dry, you wonder how anything lives. Heading
through Eneabba where there were donga camps for the miners working in the
mineral sands mine we call into the café and clean the loos before getting home
too late to feed the chooks but rooster is waiting for his tea.
On our way into Geraldton on Monday we go to the Allanooka road and turn left
which takes you through Walkaway. On the way home we decide to go the same way
only take the wrong exit off a roundabout and after passing the Moonyoonooka pub,
I’m thinking I don’t remember this on the way in so we get out the map and you
guessed it we are miles away on the road to Mullewa. However; all good trips
come from somewhere unknown so I plan a route back down some dirt roads and we
pass a little chapel at Kojarena and meander through some hills towards
Ellendale Pools which we can’t find; pass the Alinta windfarm with 54 wind
turbines and back onto Allanooka road so we weren’t lost at all.
Tuesday we return to the loos, and then call on Mike and
Loris for coffee. Have a great afternoon sitting on their back verandah
chatting. They showed us some very interesting rocks that they collected in Pilbara.
A 6 inch lump of iron ore weighed a ‘ton’, and a 8” piece of tiger eye was
beautiful. It had red stripes with a gold stream through it and after being
polished it looked fantastic. They also had other small cubes of a black rock
that had grains going in different directions on adjoining sides – very intriguing.
We promise to call in on our way south and go wildflower spotting with them.
Paul and Chris arrive home about 10pm after a very relaxing holiday. Since they
haven’t had a day off since Christmas they really enjoyed themselves. Chris is
very talkative next morning so all is well and we are invited back. As they are
trying to sell the café and the farm who knows whether they will still be here.
They have $435,000 on the farm – why anyone would want to spend that sort of
money on a scrub block with so much needing to be done to make it ‘liveable’ I
don’t know, so maybe they won’t sell too quickly. I wrote a little poem to put
in their guestbook and here it is.
BANKSIA
DALE FARMSIT 2012
For Paul & Chris a holiday beckons. But there are
animals to care for so what do you reckon
John & Robyn can come and bed. With hens, rooster and
peahens to be fed
The lawn to water and pot plants to tend, Let’s hope the
pump doesn’t need a mend.
Along with Mackie to feed, water and amuse, There is no
time to be confused.
The windmill goes creaking around and around, Pumping the
water from out of the ground
The wind vane is spinning at a much faster pace, Than the
turbines on the hill that are not in your face
The bees are so carefree, like the red breasted robin When the sun goes down the roos come a hoppin
Paul’s sweet peas are growing, the snails have not won A
cackle from the hens tells us their work has been done
But with Dean on the prowl, or maybe a chook No eggs for Mackie no matter how hard we look
I guess we should mention Dora the ghost, Opening and
closing the doors is her boast
We’ve been to church and Lions the locals to meet, Mike
& Loris’s pikelets with mulberry jam were a treat
We’ve fished at Wakeford, Flat Rocks and 7 Mile beach, Only
dart were caught at the town reach
After checking out Greenough, Walkaway and Mingenew; It’s
time to move on to pastures anew
We wish you well in your future endeavours, As we journey
along discovering more of nature’s treasures.
We head off to Northampton, where we plan to spend 3 days
and catch up on all the computer work and go back to Geraldton to exchange the
jockey wheel – it didn’t fit. Linda the receptionist at caravan park talks us
into staying for a week – cheaper – so I think good, I will catch up on the
blog and photos. That was Thursday’s job; Friday we drive down to Horrocks
beach and then it’s time for the sausage sizzle to benefit the local RSL.
Saturday is to be spent around the van as the Geelong football match comes on
at 11am and it is a good game for the first half, but the Giants wilt in the
third quarter so J can breathe again. Sunday is a repeat of Saturday as the
Lions match is on at 11am followed by the Broncos at 2pm. Can’t believe the
Lions game, we WIN over the Eagles who are on top of table, and do a lot of
screaming at the tv. Then the broncos get ahead, go to sleep, get some more
tries and go back to sleep again but eventually win over Bennie and the knights.
31/5 and Pat rings to tell us that there has been a drug bust and Wyreema has made national news – so much excitement and we are not there to take part.
31/5 and Pat rings to tell us that there has been a drug bust and Wyreema has made national news – so much excitement and we are not there to take part.
Pot Alley was also stunning and we could imagine eagles
having a lot of fun with the updrafts in Eagle gorge. The next beach we walk on
is Red Bluff where we go and stand in the water and just about get swept away
with the waves. I thought the cold water would have been good for my sore ankle
but had great difficulty walking back up the beach. I’m very glad we don’t have
to walk up Red Bluff as it looks as if it is 100 metres high. As we are nearly
at Kalbarri we head into town for a look around – it is very tourist orientated
and expensive and then head home.
Tuesday
sees us go up the highway and into National Park for some of the most amazing
scenes. I think they rival the Pinnacles. Our first port of call was Hawks Head
which is an island in the middle of Murchison river that does look like a hawks
head, but the cliffs along the gorge were stunning.
The
sheer size and shapes and colours were so breathtaking that I stay sitting on a
rock at Ross Graham lookout while J ventures down the side of mountain to the
river. There are 2 huge rocks that look like they are tumbling down the cliff
face. As with the cliffs along the coast they have holes where some of the rock
has dropped out – why didn’t the rest? The sign post tells us that the top
rocks were laid down by the river and the bottom ones are tidal made –
unbelievable.
Another panorama unfolded at the lookout on way into
Natures Window and the Loop. I couldn’t walk down to the Z bend and see the
gorges down there but on our way to the edge we saw some goats on the opposite
cliff. They looked huge from so far away I am glad I didn’t meet them on a
small path. It was one of those days when you are in awe of the world around
you. Coming home from Kalbarri we pass a car accident and get brought back to
earth. There were skid marks where the car had hit the brakes for 50M but still
the front drivers’ side was badly caved in and 2 ambulances raced back into
Kalbarri. We couldn’t work out what had happened, but hope they all survived.
Didn’t get to watch the news as we decided to go to the Miners Arms for tea.
They have a special on Tuesdays and Wednesdays where you buy one meal and get
second at half price, so we had the most mouth-watering snapper for $33.00.
Afterwards we wander down to Eagle Bluff and see all the
pied cormorants on Eagle Island, and then wonder at all the black stuff on
beach at Fowlers Camp. Eagle Island is also supposed to be a nesting ground for
the ground parrot, a fairly rare parrot but we didn’t get to see any. We decide
that if we are ever back this way we would stay at Whalebone or Fowlers Camp,
both lovely spots on the bay.
It’s
Saturday and we are up really early to go to Monkey Mia as the first feeding is
at 8am. There are hordes of people there when we get there so we are down one
end and as it turns out all our photos are into the sun and are rather black.
It was rather good though. The people next door at van park have told us that
the resort does at buffet breakfast for $23.50 so we head in there for a meal
very similar to City Golf Clubs Sunday breckie. While we are eating the people
start filling up the beach for the next feeding so we hurry out and have
another great time watching the interaction between dolphins and the rangers.
There were 9 dolphins in the immediate area though they only feed 5 females.
Research discovered that some dolphins became too reliant on humans feeding them
and forgot how to feed themselves and died as a result. As it was a calf was
becoming very stressed before the 3rd feeding because he couldn’t
get under mum in the shallow water and he wanted some milk. Wandered through
the information centre and then went back to beach to see if any dolphins had
come back for the 3rd feeding and they had. Female dolphins stay
together for life and the males only come near at mating time. Young male
dolphins leave mum at 4 years and go off in a loose male only group. This was
amazing – we could get so close in the water that John nearly got run over when
a dolphin chased a fish that swam behind all the spectators. The rangers pick
people out of the crowd to feed them and J got selected this time. You hold the
fish by the tail on the top of water and a dolphin will come up and take it out
of your hand – it was wonderful. They are only allowed to do 3 feedings per day
(all before lunch) so we headed back.
There is no change in the countryside between Northampton
and Monkey Mia and as we later find out it is the same into Cape Peron. There
is only the resort at Monkey Mia but your entry fee $8 gets you in the
following day if you wish. Heading into Cape Peron we get stopped at the
Homestead turnoff and have to let down the tyres – it’s all sand and
corrugated. Our first stop is big lagoon – not so much a lagoon as we know it
but a big bay with a very small entrance from Shark Bay. Talking to some people
fishing we learn that the road was only opened yesterday after the rains last
weekend. A commercial fishing boat came in while we were there and unloaded
lots of crates of whiting – we couldn’t work out why you would call in there to
unload when it is quite close to Denham. We have lots of fun in the sand
getting to Cape Peron and another great view. Climbing to the top of the hill
we look down on millions of pied cormorants and lots of seagulls.
On our way back we call in on the other spots and see the
beacon at Skipjack point, and some interesting rocks at Gregories. J thinks they
are part of a petrified forest. At South Gregories we see 3 canoeists paddling
towards Monkey Mia but they had a long way to go. We also go into Herald Bight
but Gregories and Bottle Bay have the best camping spots but you won’t get our
van into them. When we got back to the tyre station and pumped up the tyres I
suggested that we go around past the homestead to see what was there – what
else. They have a building with an artistic mural around the walls depicting
the stages of life on the station and the aboriginal inhabitants. They have a
very good area with stuffed animals that were once prolific in the area as well
as the feral ones. It was all very well done. On a bit further we find an
artesian tub where we sit for a while. It is a lovely spot and the water is
quite warm 40*. We decide that we will come back late in afternoon and have
dinner as well as a soak.
Sunday at church we have morning prayer as they don’t
have a priest. Once a month a priest or the Bishop comes over for Holy
Communion. We spend 2 hours over morning tea talking to Mark & Liz who were
formerly happy clappers and became Anglicans because this is the only church in
town. This was the first time in our travels that we sang May God’s Blessing
surround you….. after the service. It was like being back at St Matthew’s. Then
it was home to see the Lions getting beaten.
Tuesday we head down town to try to find out what is the
go with getting to Steep Point (the most westerly point of Aus mainland) The
girls in DEC (Dept Environment & Conservation) were very helpful and we
leave with a mud map and lots of other info. After lunch we wander down to the
jetty where J had fed some fish the night before and see lots of juvenile fish
swimming around but not many large ones. Driving out to Little Lagoon we spend
some time trying to get bogged in the sand and then sit and look at the water
for a while. There were no birds around so we left and then had the idea to go
back to our hot tub. It was a very popular spot – while we were there we chatted
to a family from Vic travelling around for a year with their 2 kids, a couple
from France, couple from NSW and a mother and son from Canada. Unfortunately it
was only 2 – 3pm and the sun was still high so it got a bit hot and we had to
get out.
Oh no at 2am Wednesday the rain comes down and the road
to Steep Point is closed so we can’t go – will have to put it in our list of
things to do when we come back. So I have spent 3 days here in Denham trying to
bring the Blog up to date and get it working.
We
had been told that when Woolworths came to Carnarvon they undercut the prices
of goods so much that the butchers and health food shop as well as other
grocery stores went broke and closed up, and then they put prices back up and
limited the variety of goods sold, so we stocked up beforehand. Just as well as
when we arrived they had closed off most of streets in main shopping area to
rejuvenate the town centre, but we found our way to 1 mile jetty and museum
with the top of old lighthouse put on to another bottom and a new light onto
top of tower, both next door to each other. The railway museum was a bit of a
let down but they did have some photos of a gun shearing gang who worked the
area in 1950’s. Someone had carved a train out of a single log of wood which
was really good as was a replica shearing shed carved out of wood. The Gascoyne
area is sheep territory so we will probably see more of them on our way south
again – haven’t seen any around here. They also have one of the life boats off
the Kormoran which sank with HMAS Sydney off the coast here and it is all
steel! Bit rusty now though.
A sign outside a motel advertises Sunday night roast
smorgasboard special so we go in to investigate - $35.00 head and at the moment
we have the Todd tavern advertising on tv for their Sunday roast at $13.50
each. Another example of the exorbitant prices of food in WA.
At precisely (if camera is correct) 12.43pm on 25/6 we
cross the Tropic of Capricorn – seem to have been travelling for ever and have
only got level with Rocky. It’s too far to go all the way to Exmouth in one day
so we stop at Ballara station for the night. Not as nice or clean as Hamelin
but still ok. The young girl who came to office was a wwoofer (willing workers
on organic farms) from Norway and was having a ball. She showed us to the camp
ground and pointed out the showers etc one of which took J’s fancy so we had to
have a communal clean up. When I was a young girl I had a cubby house under a
tall tank stand and it was never that cold. The iron came up to about 7 feet
off the ground and there was a big gap between it and the bottom of the tank so
the wind had a free go. The shower rose was about a foot across and attached to
the roof so we had to run around to get wet as the wind was blowing so hard it
blew the water across the room. Oh well it was a good idea just didn’t work out
too well this time.
The
internet says that there is a caravan park at the Vlaming Head Lighthouse and
as I love lighthouses and would love to stay in one, the next best thing would
be to stay next to one so that is where we end up. It is a great spot and the
lighthouse is very popular at sunset when everyone takes their chair and drinks
and goes up to watch the sun go down and look for dolphins and whales across
the water. During WW2 they erected a radar tower there and it is still standing
too. On our way up here we passed the RAAF base at Learmonth where they leave
to patrol the Indian ocean and north of Exmouth is the Navy Communications base
Harold E Holt where they relay all the messages about asylum seeker boats, and
talk to all our ships around the western Pacific as well as Indian ocean.
John loved the 13 radio towers as he has erected many of
them over his army years. There were also a couple of wind vanes ready to be
erected and now we know how they do that – there is a pole at the base to lever
them up with. It was a fascinating area naturally too. We went for a swim at
Budegi beach which is next to the Navy Jetty where ships leave to go and pick
up asylum boats and the water is freezing. While lunching in Exmouth we come
across a sports store having a closing down sale so I score a pair of size 11
netball boots for $27.00 marked down from $90.
28/6 and we head off down the west coast of peninsular
through Cape Range NP. There are some lovely spots along here to camp out but
you would have to be here early or be very lucky as every day the sign says
campgrounds full. This area is full of termite mounds and we finally saw an echidna
– I thought there should have been lots with all the white ants around. Have
also seen lots of half grown emus but they are very flighty and don’t want to
pose for me to take their photos! We finally make it to Yardi Creek gorge and
wander up it. It is a little like Katherine gorge only a lot smaller and the
rocks are just as stunning. Heading back we stop in at a bird hide and have
several hours looking at all the birds around the lagoon and have to take lots
of photos so we can look up what they are when we get back to the book in the
van. One that took our fancy was a Nankeen night heron who had a wonderful blue
top on his head. This is where we see our first euros feeding on the side of
the road.
29/6
Next day we head south of Exmouth to the Shothole canyon – where they drilled
holes in the rocks and filled them up with dynamite trying to find oil. Another
picturesque area with lots of rocks in all shapes and sizes, though the picnic
area was a bit sparse. Leaving here we head further south and meet lots of fat
tail sheep eating along the side of road. They always get me – how you can have
sheep with tails and not get fly blown is mind blowing. Next was the big prawn
– don’t know why the price of them is so high, on the way into Charles Knife
Drive.
The views on road up were spectacular but we decide to
keep going to the end of the road and see where it takes us. Eventually!!! We
get to an old oil well where they drilled for oil in the 1950’s, another
building near the top of range we worked out is a weather station. The cliffs
and views from the road over to the ocean were stunning. At one point we could
just make out the RAAF base. Stopping off at the hotel to stock up we decide to
go into bar and have a cold drink - $23.00 for a schooner of VB and a lemon
cruiser, so we watched the last of rugby union match and left. We had been told
to go to the wreck of the Mildura to see the coral and often there are dolphins
swimming around so we swam off – fortunately it wasn’t too cold but the reef is
so close to the shore I had heaps of trouble walking on it and had to get out.
I found a nice spot on the beach and sat down next to a rock lobster that had
been washed ashore. It would have been lovely to catch it fresh - it was so
big.
4/7
Tony’s 60th birthday so we call him early (our time) and have a
great chat before heading into Onslow. The main caravan park in town is $45 so
we head out to a miners camp at $35 night. We only came into town to make sure
we can get tv for the state of origin final. The woman in office makes a big
deal out of how they are all going to the recreation room to watch it on the
big screen, and that the caravaneers can cook on the barbeques there and join
in so we decide to do that and don’t bother to set up our tv and satellite dish.
Onslow has a big salt farm and very long conveyor taking it out along the jetty
to waiting ships. We see a prime mover with 3 containers on back fill with
salt, and when you compare the size of them with the stockpile waiting there
must be many years supply waiting. We are also very lucky in that it is the
full moon and the stairway to the moon should happen tonight, so we find that
the best spot to view it is from War Memorial park and check it out. A lovely
spot looking over the bay where they have a rising sun positioned to capture
the dawn on Anzac day – it would be very moving. Someone has also made 2 bronze
soldiers hats and attached them to a seat for a very fitting touch.
Still
have a few hours to fill in so we head off to Old Onslow – they moved the town
in the 1920’s because the old port kept silting over and ships couldn’t get in.
The only ruins left are the Police station, stables and lockup where there were
3 interesting rings cemented into the floor. We couldn’t see any way for
prisoners to get out so can’t figure why they had to be chained to floor, especially
in the exercise yard (all of 3 metres square). Back in town we go for a drive
and find the Anglican church that had been moved in from old Onslow and has the
wire ties stopping it from being blown away in a cyclone, and then take up
prime position in car park to watch the moon rise – it is a little chilly.
At 6.30pm it eventually rises above the land and the
stairway starts to appear over the mud flats. It is quite spectacular. It is
the reflection of moonlight in water broken up by the strips of mud showing
through the water. Hopefully one day we will see it over bigger mud flats
around Broome. At 7 we race back to grab
our food and drinks and head to the rec room for the big party. There is 1 guy
in barbie area skypeing his wife and us. I cook dinner and a big Maori turns up
to help J get the tv working – no show, in disgust we leave and head to our van
to put up the tv and get it working. We miss the first 20 minutes but it was
worth it – WE WON.
5/7
Crossing the Fortescue river we find some more interesting rock formations –
all very red, and still more ant hills. This is still mallee scrub country but
there are more wattles coming into flower. At one point we see some desert pea
on the side of road but it is only a small patch. Stopping for lunch at the
Robe river we are treated to a lovely green bird with black wings flitting from
tree to tree. Still can’t work out what it was but think it may be a bee eater.
We had planned to spend the night in Karratha, but when we saw the place (just
another big mining town full of dongas) we decided to head straight to
Millstream NP. Tom and Wendy had told us about this place when they came across
several years ago and after we liked their recommendations at Jurien Bay we had
to come and see. This is where we meet up with our first iron ore train. 3
engines and 237 ore trucks each one carrying 100 tonnes good aussie rock.
Millstream is where we have our first campground hosts
and as we are parked next to Charlie & Helen we become good friends. It is
now school holidays so we decide to stay and wait for them to finish as we have
been told that you won’t get a spot in caravan park between here and Broome. It
is quite easy and J loves it. As a treat on Sunday we have damper and our
Banksiadale honey for lunch. (the fact that we had run out of bread had nothing
to do with it). We had wandered over to Millstream Homestead, which is now the
visitor centre, and had a look around there. The house was basic with 4 bedrooms
off a central dining/lounge room – quite large rooms and when the Gordon’s
lived there it had a bathroom and schoolroom off corners of back verandah. The
?kitchen was in a separate building in case it caught on fire, and was it basic
– no mod cons here. It must have been freezing in winter with all the cracks in
the walls, and a furnace in summer with the huge stove and iron walls and roof.
There is a track that leads past the tennis court, orchard and chinaman’s
veggie garden to the mill stream. It is lovely and cool and green but the date
palms planted in early 1900’s have gone feral and there are millions of them.
There are a few Millstream palms but I don’t know why the ranger and Dept don’t
make an effort to get rid of the others so that the native ones can grow and
multiply. The white waterlilies haven’t become such a weed and were just
starting to flower in Jirndawurrunha Pool. It would have been a magic place to
grow up in. Next to the kitchen was an old bore drilling rig that had some red
eyed desert pea growing around it. These were really different and we have
since learnt that there is a white eyed and brown eyed versions as well which
would be something to see. There are lots of different flowers starting to
bloom and we spend lots of time trying to get birds to sit still long enough
for us to focus the camera and take their pictures but they are more interested
in other things. We did manage to get a picture of a chestnut shouldered Fairy
Wren which was lovely. They also have a blue winged wren that is a little
different to our superb fairy wren.
9/7 and we decide to go for a drive into Pannawonica to
see what’s there. Lots of red rocks and red dust along the road and we pass 3
utes. About halfway we come across a yard full of pipes. BIG pipes – we roughly
work out that they are 40 metres long about half a metre in diameter and there
are about 12,500 of them!!! What are they doing here in the middle of nowhere?
Also what is a big water tank doing on the side of road in middle of nowhere?
Questions, questions and no one around to answer them? Even though it is a
mining town and there are donga camps everywhere, they got into the spirit of
raising money for Breast cancer and decorated the front of a dump truck with a
very large purple bra. Pannawonnica also has a drive in theatre – guess it
doesn’t rain too much or get too cold so why not. After lunch we check emails,
make phone calls and still can’t get onto Beth to find out what they are going
to do about the cancer that has returned so talk to Barb for all the gossip
from home, and June for all news from Geelong. Then it is off to service
station to fill up and get a new gas bottle and you get driveway service – no
self serve here – it is owned by Rio Tinto so everyone is in their highvis
shirts and steel capped boots, but the woman is full of info and we learn that
they have drilled into the artesian basin for water and the pipes are going to
take it from 30K’s east of Panny into Karratha. This is to supplement the water
they are pumping out of millstream and piping to the coast. The big water tank
is to provide water for the guys who spend their days watering the roads to try
to keep the dust down. Money can buy anything out here. Going home we pass 8
utes and 3 overtake us – it must be knock off time. All the big loads have to
have a pilot ahead to warn oncoming vehicles and they are all very friendly. We
stop at the pipe ‘dump’ to take a photo and some young guys come along and want
to know if we are alright. We have a policy of waving to all caravaners and
have now included everyone else on the road and most of them wave back. The
utes are all white, hired and have yellow stripes and a red flag on a stick
attached to roof. This is so that if they are parked anywhere near one of these
big rigs, the driver can tell. Evidentally quite a few dump trucks reversed over
utes without even knowing. It would be rather easy as some of the loads we have
passed have been massive.
Back in Millstream we go off exploring again and cross
over the Fortescue river and marvel at the level it reaches at the causeway
when in flood because at the moment. We find Crossing pool with a lovely camp
ground (no generators here so we will have to have our solar panels before we
come back) and then Deep Pool picnic area and wonder where the water goes to as
it was very shallow over the causeway. There were quite a few families here so
we moved on. Stargazers campground is very dry and dusty and all we could find
were some lovely little diamond doves so we moved on to the Cliff lookout where
you get some more views of deep red gorges leading down to the river.
11/4 We are having a lovely time wandering around the
park here every afternoon and are
endeavouring to lose weight, so today we set off to explore a little further.
Being wary of hurting my ankle again we stick to the track we think is going
down to the fishing spot. After quite a while J wants to turn around and go
back but I think the noise we can here is the diesel generator from the rangers
place behind Millstream homestead, so we press on and on and on. Well we get to
the diesel generator it is pumping the water to Karratha! We head on up the
road – it is dirt but well used, so it must go somewhere! It does – several
Klms later we arrive at the front entrance of Nat Park (we left at other end of
campground). All this and I bet I didn’t lose 1 gram of fat.
Friday
the 13th and we tempt fate and head into Karratha to empty the
rubbish and toilet, shop and wash and have a look around. Karratha tells us
they think there is a dump point in Dampier so as it is on our list we head off
there. Dampier salt have some big salt lakes along the road and someone with a
sense of humour has put Nessie in one of them, the next has a sinking titanic
and lifeboat with a shark circling and the third has a miner with lots of
sharks circling. Dampier was the home of red dog so we visit his statue at the
info centre and then head to the lookout to see the bay. Wandering around to
the jetty we find the Mission to seafarers next to Road runner café so stop
there for lunch. The lady in mission office tells us the dump point and
Laundromat are in Roebourne. The girl in café charges $46 for 2 fish and salads
and 2 drinks. Fish was very nice but salad very ordinary. On the road back to
Karratha we see a sign for the rubbish dump so we head in and empty the toilet
there – stuff them. It is all about mining they want tourists but don’t cater
for them.
Heading
north we stop off at the lookout in Wickham and see all their dongas and across
to the Jarman Island Lighthouse. Tom & Wendy had also suggested that we
stay at Point Samson instead of Karratha and they were right again. It is a
lovely spot even if honeymoon cove didn’t look too comfortable. Darby gets his
daily workout going up a very eroded hill to a lookout where we hope to see
Cape Lambert Jetty but only saw a lookout tower where the eagles had built a
nest. Heading down hill by a different road we find a bitumen road that takes
us right to the jetty – oh well if we hadn’t gone across country we wouldn’t
have seen a lovely rainbow bee eater collecting lunch.
Cossack
was the original town but also closed down when the port silted over and ships
couldn’t get in. The school had 1 class room and 1 for the teacher and only 2
windows. When it closed down the pupils took a horse drawn train to Roebourne.
It would have been very cold and wet at times. They have now restored 1
building and it is the museum, another is a backpackers and I think the other
is a private residence. It is a lovely spot with views over the water.
Just outside town is the cemetery where William
Shakespeare has his grave next to the gate. He is buried with his wife and 3
sons. At the back of the cemetery is the Japanese one with the graves of 9
pearlers who lost their lives when Cossack was a pearling centre. It was a very
peaceful place with lots of birds and our green bird flower shrubs. After
driving around Roebourne and not finding a Laundromat or shop and realising it
was a black town we headed into Karratha to get some food. J wanted to stop and
the pub for dinner but I thought we should head home so we did – into peak hour
7pm on the mining highway. I was worried about hitting a roo or the feral cattle
in Nat Park but they wouldn’t have been anywhere near that road. Our campground
hosts met us when we drove in – they were ready to send out a search party. You
guessed it after a day in town I woke on Saturday with a sore throat and by
Monday had the flue.
19/7
We bid farewell to Millstream and head to Port Hedland as Mark and Linda Gillam
from Wyreema are heading down the coast. We have been getting their emails
since they left home in May and plan to meet up with them to get the gossip
first hand. The Black Rock Van Park in South Hedland is the only one with
vacancies and we manage to be close to each other. After lunch we head our
separate directions to shop and visit rock off and have a look around. The main
streets of Port Hedland are closed for renewal of their streetscape but we
managed to find a park overlooking the port, and get to compare 2 ore carriers
1 empty and 30 metres higher in the water than the full one. The pilots on tug
boats earn their money as the entrance to harbour is a very small channel and
there were 4 boats in port and 12 out to sea waiting to come in. They have made
an effort and have the metal sculptures that I like in a park at the entrance
to town. Dogs, sheep, cows, goats, ducks a pig and a horse this time. Spent the
evening chatting to Mark & Linda and arrange to meet up again when we are
in Brookton and they are heading east. Mark had a phone call from a work mate a
few days ago to say that the Govt is closing Westbrook prison down and it will
be closed before he gets home. As he is younger than I am, he will have the fun
of trying to find another job – won’t be easy when you have been a soldier and
prison warder for your working life.
They
are heading south and we decide to go to Marble Bar – just because it is the
hottest place in Aust. On the way in we go through the Coongan gorge – a narrow
strip of bitumen separates the two rock faces and semis have to call up on
their two way to let oncoming vehicles know they are entering gorge and you
stop and wait for them to come through. With the size and height of some of the loads we weren't about to argue.
No comments:
Post a Comment