3rd
May 2012
Left Exmouth and headed to Tom Price. On the way we stopped at House Creek Bridge (62k’s east of Nanutarra roadhouse) for lunch, and discovered the famous “DROP BEAR” - see photo.
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| The famous drop bear in the wild! |
Headed off
after lunch but decided to camp about 100k’s short of Paraburdoo at Beasley
River Rest area for an overnight stop. Nice spot even though there were lots
of flies and a huge moth that was trying to drink our wine. The river was dry apart from a few pools.
4th
May 2012
We
continued on to Tom Price and stayed at the only caravan park in town, it was
$38.00/night. I couldn’t believe the
fuel we used, for the trip from Exmouth to Tom Price we averaged 27Litres/100ks,
up till then we had been averaging about 18Litres/100k’s. Apparently it is
uphill all the way to Tom Price and we had head winds, the car cruises easily
at 100k’s so I guess my foot was a bit further down than normal.
Topped up the water and fuel tanks and headed off to Karijini
National Park.
5th
May 2012
What can I
say about Karijini that could even come close to describing it. The drive in from Tom Price to the Park is
amazing; if I could paint, this is the scenery I would paint, absolutely beautiful grandeur and colour. Unfortunately it is so vast a picture does not
do it any justice.
Arrived at Dales
Campground in Karijini and booked in for four nights at $10.00/night. Nice large site with the usual long drop not
far away. Just sitting outside the van
at sunset was very nice, although we did have the mozzie coils alight due to a few mozzies hanging around.
The next morning we
walked from the camp to Dales Gorge lookout then along the top to circular pool
lookout. We then continued along the top
of Dales Gorge to the top of Fortescue Falls and back to the van. |
| Barbara at Dales Gorge |
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| Another veiw of Dales Gorge |
Day three we
went down into Dales Gorge to Fortescue falls and then along to Fern Pool and
had a swim. We both loved Fern Pool - just like swimming in a post card and while sitting on the landing we had small fish giving us a pedicure!
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| Getting ready for a swim |
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| Close up of the ferns at Fern Pool |
You can climb up on the ledge and sit behind the waterfall!
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| Same view of Fern pool but not so close |
Day 5 John
walked down to Fortescue Falls and then along the bottom of the gorge to
Circular Pool. Didn’t have a swim as the
water was freezing, then back up to the top from circular pool and back to camp. A very enjoyable walk and quite easy, unfortunately Barbara's legs hadn't quite recovered from all of the previous walks.
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| Circular Pool from the bottom of the gorge |
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| Walk trail through Dales Gorge |
10th
May 2012
Reluctantly
we left Karijini and headed up the Great Northern Highway for Port Hedland and into the Big4 Caravan Park at
$52.00/night. Our plan was to stay three
days, wash the red dust off of the car, and the van and then head off again. Unfortunately we were not allowed to wash the
van here but got everything else done. Not a lot to do in Port Hedland; it is very much a port town and was not very enticing.
13th
May 2012
While at Port
Hedland we decided that when we left we would head South East a bit to Marble Bar for a look. The scenery on the way was pretty boring but
the drive made a bit more interesting thanks to the numerous road trains
heading to Port Hedland.
Arrived at Marble Bar and booked into the Caravan Park at $35.00/night. Very few people there and according to the owner it was the quietest she had ever seen it. It is a better park than you might expect for a place like Marble Bar, but definitely basic.
We had a look at the “Marble Bar” that the town was named after, the local swimming hole and a museum at the old Comet mine, on the first day.
The local pub which is called “Iron Clad” pub, no-one knows if it was named after an old mine or the fact that it is made entirely of corrugated iron with steel doors, but it is unique.
The next day we got the gold detector out and had a go at finding some gold. Had a good day and looked in a couple of old diggings but only managed to find rusted tins.
Arrived at Marble Bar and booked into the Caravan Park at $35.00/night. Very few people there and according to the owner it was the quietest she had ever seen it. It is a better park than you might expect for a place like Marble Bar, but definitely basic.
We had a look at the “Marble Bar” that the town was named after, the local swimming hole and a museum at the old Comet mine, on the first day.
The local pub which is called “Iron Clad” pub, no-one knows if it was named after an old mine or the fact that it is made entirely of corrugated iron with steel doors, but it is unique.
The next day we got the gold detector out and had a go at finding some gold. Had a good day and looked in a couple of old diggings but only managed to find rusted tins.
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| Hard to see the colours but they are stunning |
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| The old Iron clad Pub |
15th
May 2012
Left Marble
bar heading back towards the coast and in to Pardoo roadhouse for a quick lunch, then into Cape Keraudren.
There is a camp area here run by the Pilbara Shire, $10.00 entry fee and then $6.50/person per night for camping. There is about 4 or 5 kilometres of dirt road to get in which is in good shape, heaps of places to camp and a rule that states there must be 12metres between camp sites so you get some privacy.
We camped by the beach and went for a walk along it. Next morning our neighbour knocked on the door with a couple of Threadfin fillets, made a great lunch! We took a tour of the camp sites and discovered that this was the northern end of the rabbit proof fence that starts at Starvation Harbour just east of Hopetoun. The night before we left our neighbour knocked on the door again as he wanted us to take a photo of the bigest Threadfin Salmon he had ever caught, it was a beauty, just under a metre long. He then gave us a couple more fillets, we felt very privileged and before we left the next morning Barbara cooked up some yummy scones which we left for him.
There is a camp area here run by the Pilbara Shire, $10.00 entry fee and then $6.50/person per night for camping. There is about 4 or 5 kilometres of dirt road to get in which is in good shape, heaps of places to camp and a rule that states there must be 12metres between camp sites so you get some privacy.
We camped by the beach and went for a walk along it. Next morning our neighbour knocked on the door with a couple of Threadfin fillets, made a great lunch! We took a tour of the camp sites and discovered that this was the northern end of the rabbit proof fence that starts at Starvation Harbour just east of Hopetoun. The night before we left our neighbour knocked on the door again as he wanted us to take a photo of the bigest Threadfin Salmon he had ever caught, it was a beauty, just under a metre long. He then gave us a couple more fillets, we felt very privileged and before we left the next morning Barbara cooked up some yummy scones which we left for him.
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| Pretty Spot Cape Keraudren |
17th
May 2012
Headed for
Eighty Mile Beach caravan park, another dirt road, the van is looking very
unloved! Nice van park, grassy sites,
cost $37.00/night. Lovely beach but if you’re
not into fishing that’s about it.
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| 80 mile beach |
19th
May 2012
Left for Barn
Hill station and down yet another red dirt road. At Barn Hill you get a choice of powered sites
4amp, 6 amp or 10amp and the price increases depending on which one you choose,
however even with the 10amp you cannot run the electric hot water heater or
electric kettles etc. We chose an
unpowered site at $20.00/night. The
beach here is very spectacular but again it is all about fishing. There was a green tree snake hanging around
the toilets here so Barbara decided she didn’t like this spot too much. J.
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| Another beach - this time Barn hill |
21st
May 2012
Headed into
Broome and into the Broome Vacation Village for a few weeks. The rate here was $34.00/night for May and
$45.00/night for June (Peak Season). Again
a nice park. We spent the first two days getting the van clean and everything in order ready for some serious sightseeing.
On Friday we wandered
into town and spent half a day wandering around Chinatown, had some lunch at a
nice little cafe off one of the lanes and looked at some very nice but very
expensive pearls. On the way back to the
van we stopped at Matso’s boutique brewery and shared a real Ginger Beer, with
alcohol. I am not a big beer drinker but
this was very nice. We looked at the
lunch and dinner menu while we were there but decided against coming back as it
was not cheap and the serves were small. Finished off
the day with a drive to the town beach and a bit of a wander through the
suburbs.
Saturday we
took a drive down to the Port and looked at a nice seafood restaurant there,
decided we would come back for lunch some other day before we left Broome. From there we headed to cable beach, had some
morning tea and then went for a walk along the beach. Nice beach with some pretty rocks, I was
disappointed that we didn’t stumble across the "clothes optional" part but had a nice
walk anyway.
Sunday and
Monday were lazy days. On Monday night we
went into town to see a movie at the famous Sun Pictures outdoor cinema. Saw “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” which
was a bit of fun, although the deck chairs aren’t all that comfortable after a
couple of hours!
Tuesday we
drove to Cable Beach and watched the sunset and then had some fish and chips.
Thursday we
headed back towards the Port to Kimberley Fuels to top up at $164.9/litre,
cheapest fuel in Broome! From there we
went into Chinatown and had a great ice-cream, looked at the old pearl luggers,
then off to the Broome museum, which was interesting as far as museums go.
After a touch of history we were getting
hungry so we went to the 12 mile cafe, which is 20k’s out of town towards Derby. Really nice food based loosely on Indonesian
so a little spicy but we loved it. The
location was very peaceful as well and we lingered for a while to enjoy.
After lunch we went a few hundred metres back towards Broome and visited the Mango Farm, but although it all looked very nice, nothing took our fancy, although I was tempted by the mango jam-YUMMY!
After lunch we went a few hundred metres back towards Broome and visited the Mango Farm, but although it all looked very nice, nothing took our fancy, although I was tempted by the mango jam-YUMMY!
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| One of the pearl luggers |
On the way
back to the van we decided to have a look at Gantheaume point as we intend to
go back at very low tide to look at the Dinosaur footprints and then we drove
along the back road to the van park just enjoying the scenery.
Friday
afternoon was a Kayak tour out of Gantheaume Point which was fun, but we were
not lucky enough to see any turtles or other sea life. The tour finished off by watching the sunset
while in the kayaks on the water.
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| Stopped for morning tea at a nice little bay |
Saturday and Sunday were quiet days, just visited the market for a quick look and had another tasty icecream.
Monday we
went back to the wharf and had a great seafood lunch and a nice bottle of wine.
After this we had a walk out the jetty and then back to the van. Later that
afternoon we drove out to Gantheaume Point with the intention of looking at the dinosaur footprints in the rocks as it was low tide. Got there along with about 50 million other
people and walked to the end of the path, but too many people for me so we
turned around and went back to the van.
Tuesday we
were up early for a tour with Red Dirt photographic tours, got picked up at
07:40 and first spot was the jetty again to learn about sunlight, angles and
heaps of other photographic stuff. Had
morning tea at an artists gallery and then picked up lunch and headed out to
James Price Point, past the protesters camp to a nice spot and had lunch sitting on a mat looking out over the beach. Here we
took lots of arty type photographs and learnt more about how to use our
cameras. After this we went back into
Broome and out on to Cable Beach to get photos of the camels, sunsets and learn
about night shots. Got back to the van
about 7:00PM that night. Really enjoyed the experience, not sure if our
photographs will be any better but at least we will know where we went wrong.
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| Cable Beach at Sunset |
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| Camels on Cable Beach |
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| One of our shots of the staircase to the moon |
Thursday and Friday we just got ready to head off to Derby on Saturday.
Thats it for now; the next blog will be from Derby to Kununarra and the Gibb River road, be sure we will keep smiling and having heaps of fun.
Cheers
John & Barbara
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