EXMOUTH

Our car is a Nissan Terrano 4WD.  There's not too many of them in Australia, so when we spot one, we usually make a comment. When Geoff saw a grey one pull up at Exmouth shops, he struck up a conversation with the owners as they walked past us.  Fitting into that "isn't it a small world" category again, it turns out they live in North Ringwood.  We caught up with them a few times over the next couple of days, as they were staying close by us at the caravan park, and we shared car and travel stories.

Beautiful aqua water surrounds the entire peninsula which forms the Exmouth Gulf. There are beaches which consist of lovely white sand, some are deep with pebbles, and others have rocky outcrops.  And of course the Ningaloo Reef stretches down the west coast to Coral Bay. 

Had to throw the fish back - too small!

We drove down the west coast as far as possible through national park, until we reached Yardie Creek.  Most of the countryside is very flat and windswept, with little to no trees.  Driving back in the late afternoon we had to avoid lots of wallabies and kangaroos that were jumping across the road.  We spotted a couple of emus as well.  Earlier in the day a couple of turtles kept popping their heads up while Geoff was busy fishing.  Very cute!


Spectacular views were our reward for another bumpy drive along the escarpment of the Cape Range National Park.  This runs along the peninsula at the top of which sits the town of Exmouth.  To the east is the gulf, and to the west is the open ocean where Ningaloo Reef is situated.  We took another road into the base of the gorges later that day, and got a completely different view of the countryside.



Another feature of the area is the Harold Holt Naval Communication Centre, with its enormous aerials that dominate the most northerly point.  We couldn't go in this time, but on our last visit we had attended an Anglican service run on the base.



ONSLOW

 This is one of the little gems we've found along the way.  Our last visit was in 1996, not long after Onslow had been the victim of a cyclone.  We only stayed overnight back then, so our memories are very scant - and of a tiny settlement with very ordinary accommodation.  We stayed in some sort of ramshackle unit at the back of the pub.  The town has grown considerably since then, and has a lovely main street lined with white trunked gums. 


Onslow Hotel

The caravan park is right on the beach, at the tip of a peninsula.  So there was a Sunrise Beach and a Sunset Beach right on our doorstep.  It's more of a fishing village rather than suitable for swimming.  But plenty of opportunity to pick up a few shells.  One thing that caught our eye was this unique war memorial on the clifftop. It's positioned so that the sun rise can be viewed through the centre every Anzac Day.

Up until recently the main industry in the area has been salt mining.  However the town is about to boom with the opening of a liquid gas plant.  You can tell by the upgraded roads that something is happening.  And we discovered that the cost of housing has skyrocketed - nothing below $1 million.


Old Onslow Police Station


The town itself was moved from another location in the 1920's - so we drove along the edge of the Ashburton River to the site of Old Onslow.  Here we saw what remains of the old Police Station and Lockup. 

Lots of people were free camping beside the river, and if you were set up for it, it would have been a lovely place to stay.  We made do with a cuppa by the river, watching some zebra finches darting around in the trees. 

 At a different spot where Geoff was fishing, we noticed a pair of sea eagles had made a nest on top of a light pole.  We were lucky enough to see them come home to roost.

Towards the end of our week at Onslow, a couple camped beside us, and as usual we got chatting.  We discovered that they were from Boronia - and that we knew their son and his family.  In fact, I had taught their grand-daughters at Heathmont East.  It's a small world.

We finished our stay with a delicious meal at a restaurant overlooking the sea, to celebrate our joint birthdays.

Another year older.

THE  PILBARA

TOM  PRICE   &   PARABURDOO

Tom Price shops

It was quite nostalgic returning to these two towns.  We found the houses that Colin, Marissa, Joel and Ethan had lived in when we'd visited them.  Discovered that the shops at Tom Price had been upgraded, and enjoyed looking around the places we'd been while they'd been living up here. 

One disappointment for Geoff - both of the tips were closed!  



We stayed in the caravan park at Tom Price, near the foot of Mt. Nameless. 
We noticed that there was a 4WD track to the top of the mountain, so decided to have a look.  At first I thought we'd been there before, but once we hit the track, realised we hadn't.  It would have to have been the most difficult road we've been on.   The view from the top was well worth the effort.  And we even met up with a couple we'd camped next to at Lake Argyle - the only difference was they'd walked to the top!


View from Mt Nameless

THE  PILBARA

KARIJINI  NATIONAL  PARK

One of the pleasures of this trip has been revisiting places we've been before, and having the time to explore them more thoroughly.  Karijini is one such place.  Our previous visit had ended in one of our "disasters". (We've had a few along the way on previous holidays.)  In 1996 Colin, our eldest son, was working at Tom Price.  We flew over with Marissa, now his wife, to visit him for a week.  He lent us his very first car so that we could take a day-trip to Karijini while he was at work.  Unfortunately for us, an overseas tourist lost control of the old car he was driving, and ploughed into the front of Colin's car.  We managed to drive it 100kms back into Tom Price with the front all mangled, but it was a write-off.  (The moral of the story is:  Don't lend your car to your parents.)  This had happened straight after we'd seen the first gorge we'd come to.  So not only had we wrecked the car, we hadn't seen much of Karijini.  You'll be pleased to know that we saw a great deal more this time, and with no crashes or disasters.  Mind you, some of the roads haven't improved much.
The scenery is superb - and surprising.  Vast areas of grassland open up to reveal deep gorges.  They are rugged, and in some cases quite deep.  We climbed down into a couple - Geoff went further than I did.  And several we viewed from up on top.

We camped at Dale's Gorge, and with no power, we were glad to have the 12 volt system up and running.  Facilities were basic, but surprisingly included gas BBQs.  The days were warm and sunny, but at night the temperature dropped to at least zero.  In fact, we heard that one night it was -4 degrees.  It certainly felt like it - we were cold, even inside the van.  We were really glad we weren't in the tent.



HEADING  SOUTH

EIGHTY  MILE  BEACH

With the caravan back in tow, we headed south from Broome to Eighty Mile Beach.  It's certainly a long stretch of white sand.........    and we struck it at its windy best.  Not much in the way of fishing, although we saw a couple of big ones pulled in off the shore.  We had a go at driving on the sand - a first for us.  Still don't think we like the idea of the beautiful beaches being used as roadways.

You can't book ahead to get a powered site here, so it's first come first served.  So we spent the first night on an unpowered site.  As it turned out, this was a good thing for us, as we discovered that our 12 volt battery in the caravan was as dead as a dodo.  It was O.K. for one night, but meant that we would have to buy a new one down the track before we went to Karijini, where we wanted to spend several nights unpowered.

Phone reception was patchy here - it was quite funny to see people with their mobiles and laptops on top of the sand dunes, trying to make contact with the outside world!  After a restful week, (let's face it, every week has been restful so far) we hooked up again and hit the road to Port Hedland.

PORT  HEDLAND

It's definitely an industrial city.  Red dirt everywhere - trucks - iron ore - large ships in the port - roadtrains - saltpiles. They're redoing the city centre, so at the moment it's a mess of wired fences and detours too.  It's sure to look great when it's finished, but meantime it's hard to manouvre.

 

One unexpected bonus was that we saw the Staircase to the Moon.  We'd heard about it in Broome, but were there at the wrong time.  So we were pleased to find out if also happened at Port Hedland - just when we were visiting. 

After finding a new battery, refuelling the car, and filling up the fridge and pantry, we were ready to head off to Karijini.



DAMPIER  PENINSULA

We left the caravan at Roebuck Roadhouse, just out of Broome near the turnoff to the Great Northern Highway.  With the car packed with the tent and camping essentials, we headed north up that wide red dirt road we'd been on to Willie Creek.  But this time we kept going for about 85 kms of dust and bumps.  Fortunately the grader had been at work - can't imagine what it would have been like otherwise.

We were grateful that the indigenous people had used some of their  allocated funds to have a sealed road built for the rest of the trip to the top of the peninsula.

Just after we hit the bitumen again, we turned left to Beagle Bay Community.  There's a lovely old Catholic church here, nearly 100 years old.  It is beautifully decorated inside with thousands of local shells.

There has been a Catholic mission here for over a century, and the community is well cared for, with many houses, a school, a local shop, and of course the church.

We decided to take another detour a bit further on, which meant hitting the dirt road again.  But it was well worth it, to see the gorgeous beaches at Middle Lagoon.  This is a fairly basic camping area owned and run by aboriginal people.  There were a few off-road caravans and tents set up overlooking the bay.  A bit exposed - but fabulous views!  We were a bit sorry we hadn't decided to stay here.

Middle Lagoon

But we had another 90kms to go to reach our destination - Kooljaman at Cape Leveque.  So back to the bitumen, and up the track.  We arrived late in the afternoon, and couldn't believe the site we had been allocated.  We pitched our tent on the top of a cliff, looking directly out to sea.  Amazing!

Great campsite!

This camping area is also owned and operated by aboriginal people.  It's more developed than Middle Lagoon, so we had no regrets about our choice.  There is even an upmarket restaurant onsite, but we chose to cook on our little camp stove.

After a long day's travel, we sat back and enjoyed the sunset from the comfort of our camp.

The weather was just about perfect.  No sign of the wind we'd experienced in Broome.  There are beaches on both the west and east of Cape Leveque, so we explored them the next day.  The colours were exquisite, expecially at the end of the day.   

Geoff tried his hand at fishing, and managed to provide entree for dinner.

We also had a look at a pearl farm at Cygnet Bay, on the tip of the peninsula, at the end of yet another sandy road - even worse than what we'd been on before.  It's hard to imagine the hardships the people endured to set up this venture in the early 1900's.   The setting is beautiful, but access is still difficult - so what must it have been like back then?  Now there is even a little cafe, complete with Norwegian chef.  So of course we had to enjoy a coffee and cake!  

Cape Leveque is probably the last place we'll camp in our tent, as we can get the van in to the rest of the places we plan to visit.  We really enjoyed the experience - and it gave us the opportunity to see places we otherwise couldn't have accessed.  But we must say we enjoy the comfort of our home away from home.  The caravan is so comfy!