MARION BAY

We headed off to Marion Bay, towing the caravan and taking our cat, Cheeky, with us - for the first time! We were holidaying with 3 other couples and none of them are geared up for free camping so we stayed in the Marion Bay Caravan Park.
This is a nice caravan park but they didn't offer any discounts on an 8 night booking, which I think was pretty poor.
One of my brothers also came along and his wife joined him for a few days (in between work). His daughter, son in law and grand-daughter also joined us at Marion Bay for a while.
We arrived at Marion Bay on Friday (a week ago) and the weather started coming in later that day. Saturday was very wet and our annexe was flooded! We had a tarp down and it was like walking on a water bed.  We had quite a bit of heavy rain and wind for the first few days so we spent a lot of time sitting around, chatting, doing craft stuff and evenings were spent playing games.
The evenings were pretty rowdy and occasionally heated - the women v. the men and Trivial Pursuit (SA version) was the 'best'!
The guys tried their hands at fishing as soon as the weather permitted but there was not much happening and we only had a fish feast once.
We did a bit of driving around on a couple of days - there are some really lovely spots down that way and we have sussed out some great free camping areas for future reference.  We didn't go into Innes National Park this trip (we had done that before).
The poor cat didn't like this whole driving in the car and living in a caravan thing!  She was terrified when we first took off and messed everywhere within the first 15 minutes.  After we cleaned it up and cleaned her up she waited about another 10 minutes and did it all again.  After that I managed to get her settled and she slept the rest of the trip.  We had the same problem to start with on the return trip but again she settled and slept the rest of the way.  She was pretty unsettled when she first went into the caravan and found a hiding spot where she stayed for a large part of the first day.  She was a bit more adventurous on the second day and by the third day she was quite comfortable with the caravan and was venturing out into the annexe for short periods of time. By the end of the week she was happy to have her jacket and lead put on and she went for a walk outside.  She was a little bit timid but she happily spent about half an hour exploring around the caravan. On about the third night she decided to do the whole 'mad cat' thing and race up and down the caravan at full speed about 5 times.  Unfortunately she decided to do this at about 2am!!! Another night she decided the best sleeping spot was on Royce's head.  Needless to say he wasn't amused and she didn't stay there for long.
It was a nice, relaxing trip - great friends, good location and best of all - no renovations for a week!!

HOMEWARD BOUND

My last post was, I believe, on Tuesday 30/8/11.  On Wednesday I received 2 bits of news - the first was that my glasses had arrived.  We were very excited because that meant we could hit the road again on Thursday.  The second wasn't as good - Royce's mum was in hospital.  We spent a lot of time trying to find out information - without much success.  We did get to speak with her briefly and she didn't sound too good.  We spent Wednesday night planning flights home (if it proved necessary) and looking at other options to get home quickly if necessary.  Thursday morning we decided to go into Karratha itself where the phone signal was better (it kept dropping out when we were at Cleaverville).  Still had trouble getting information but did find out she was transferred to the RAH.  More phone calls and still none the wiser.  It may be her heart or it may be medication related.  We decided we would have to hang around in Karratha for a bit longer to see what we could find out.  We eventually decided that there didn't appear to be a need for us to be home in the next few days but we felt we should get home as soon as possible so we planned a fast track trip home - no more sight seeing or holiday mode!
We were very disappointed that we would have to cut the trip short but it can't be helped and it is important that we get home and make sure Mum is OK and see what, if anything, may need to be done.  She doesn't seem to know herself what is going on, although she has been discharged from hospital now and I believe they have changed her medication.  She sounded a lot better when we spoke to her yesterday.
We have travelled for 3-4 hours each day then set up camp for the night, except for yesterday when we didn't like the site we had planned to stay at and didn't arrive at the next one until after 6pm.  It was dark, windy and cold and we nearly got lost in a tiny little town called Burracoppin!
At one of the camp sites (Barradale) we were hit by a 'wurlie wurlie'.  Luckily we didn't have the awning out but it seems to have done something to our caravan door and it is a bit tricky closing it now.  We will have to check it out when we get home.
On another day, when leaving Carnarvon we saw 3 'wurlie wurlies' that were very large, but luckily they were some distance from the road.
At one of the camps we met a young woman heading back to home (Northam) with her dog and two horses.  She set up a temporary corral for the horses but they got out sometime through the night.  Her dog woke her about 3.30am and when she went outside to check the horses the fences were higgledy piggledy and the horses were gone.  She spent quite a bit of time walking around with her torch and trying to see the tracks the horses might have left.  Eventually a truck driver pulled up and told her he had seen two horses up the road about 30km away!  She finally found them and got them loaded and back to the camp site.  One of the horses had a large 'hole' in his front leg and a gash on his head.  Hopefully he will be OK and we hope she got home safe and sound with them.  Royce helped her pack away the fences before we left and she overtook us on the road some time later.
The wildflowers between Wooramel and Billabong Roadhouses were amazing - whites, yellows, light pinks, dark pinks, mauves, purples and reds!
Yesterday we passed through Canderdin and got a photo of the Ettamogah Pub!  (Photo to come later).
We are currently camped at Karalee Rock (137km west of Coolgardie).  This is a great place and is noted for 'next time' to spend a few days here.
There are so many things I wanted to see - Karijini National Park, Ningaloo Reef, Monkey Mia, Onslow, and lots more but it wasn't to be on this trip.  I am already starting to plan our next trip.  Before we had to decide to head home we had been thinking we would do the east coast of Australia next year, but now we think we might come back and finish off Western Australia (fingers crossed - all being well).
No photos again this time - only a weak signal and it takes too long to load them.
This will probably be my last post until we get home.
Trusting everyone is well.
PS  I am looking forward to seeing Marshall again - he now has 3 teeth, is rolling around all over the place and not far off crawling!

ROEBOURNE / KARRATHA / DAMPIER

No photos for this blog because I am using my iPad. Other than in the towns themselves,the signal strength is very weak or non existent, so it is too hard to get an Internet connection on my laptop.
We have been at Cleaverville Beach for most of the time since we arrived on Wednesday 17/8/11 - mainly because we are waiting for my glasses to come back. The lenses were badly scratched and it was getting difficult to see properly so we dropped them off at the OPSM in Karratha and we are hoping they will be back tomorrow or Thursday. Luckily my sunglasses are prescription lenses but it is still difficult to read at night or do things on the computer - especially at night! Craft stuff (other than knitting) is out of the question.

We did leave Cleaverville when our water ran out. We filled up in Karratha then camped at Miaree Pool for a couple of nights, until we found out camping is no longer permitted there. It is right by the Maitland River but we could only catch glimpses of the river itself where we were camped. The bird life there is prolific - so many and so many different sorts - so we were kept amused mornings & evenings watching them.

At Cleaverville we have been going for long walks on the beach, exploring rock pools at low tide (lots & lots of different sorts of crabs,, large numbers of sea slugs, clams, a blue ringed octopus, fish) and collecting rocks & shells.

Royce tried his hand at fishing but lost his lure, and then something kept pinching his bait. We saw what we thought were seals but some people told us later they were probably dugongs.

The area where we are camped has been slashed, but we are surrounded by scrub and long grass so we supposed there would be snakes. This was confirmed when we saw a very long, shiny, black snake slither across the track only a few meters from the caravan.

We did a day trip to Millstream Chichester National Park where we went up to the lookout on Mount Herbert (beautiful view) then went and had a swim at Python Pool (wonderful).

The weather is warming up - generally low 30s and it gets quite hot in the afternoons if there is no breeze. The mozzies and midges are also becoming a bit of a problem. We are getting a bit fed up with hanging around and want to get moving again! I rang OPSM today and they hope the glasses will arrive tomorrow. Fingers crossed - we can then hit the road again Thursday.

MARBLE BAR TO KARRATHA & DAMPIER - PHOTOS

 Doolena Gorge

Cows at Doolena Gorge

Near Port Hedland

Cleaverville Beach - view from the top of 'our' sand dune

 An ore train - Wickham.  this is only half of the train!

At the Cossack Cemetary.  Look closely in the hole and you will see the lizard looking back at you.

Near Withnell Bay - between Karratha and Dampier

Hearsons Cove - should be called Shell Beach! Between me (with camera) and Royce on the rocks it is all shell and the beach stretches for a very long way!

Nearly trod on this little fellow at Deep Gorge

This will have to do for photos for the time being.  My laptop ran out of battery charge while I was at the Roebourne Visitor Centre and before I could get all the photos uploaded.  I am now back at Cleaverville Beach and with a bit of careful manouvering I have managed to get a very limited signal so I could finish this off.

Take care everyone.

MARBLE BAR TO KARRATHA & DAMPIER

We left Marble Bar Monday morning and decided to camp at Doolena Gorge. 

PHOTO TO COME LATER

 You have to drive through the Coongan Gorge (narrow, up and down and lots of curves - road trains are restricted to 40kph and other vehicles to 60khp) then turn off and drive approx 1.5km on a very narrow, pretty rough dirt track.  We set up camp by a couple of beautiful trees.  At that time we were the only campers although by late afternoon there were 4 other caravans there.  The water in the gorge doesn’t appear to be flowing and although our reading material says it is a good swimming spot – and the water was probably deep enough – it was a bit dirty because of cows visiting it so I decided against a swim.  I did mention to Royce – before the other campers arrived – that we should strip off and go for a swim!  He wanted to know if we got naked and went for a swim would it still be called ‘skinny’ dipping????  There were quite a few egrets and some other slightly larger wading bird, whistling kites (their nest was across the river), and a lot of other smaller birds, including Spinifex pigeon which is quite a pretty bird.  Several cows came down to the river and stayed for most of the day.

PHOTO TO COME LATER

We had to reverse out when we left and it was a bit tricky because we had to reverse the caravan into some pretty soft sand and almost got bogged!

It was very windy Tuesday morning so had to roll up the awning quite quickly and keep fingers crossed the wind didn’t catch it.  Luckily it all turned out all right – other than Royce lowering it onto my head while I was trying to get underneath it to hold the rope!

We encountered a wide load on the road back to Port Hedland and had to pull right off the road.  It was a very large mining truck on the back of another truck and it took up the whole width of the road.  Luckily we had room to pull right off the road.  A bit further on, or a bit earlier (through Coongan Gorge) it would have been pretty tricky!  We saw our first Sturt Desert Peas – quite a few small pockets of them on the Marble Bar – Port Hedland Road. 

Not far out of Port Hedland you encounter a group of termite mounds which someone has ‘decorated’ with miners helmets.

PHOTO TO COME LATER

We drove into South Hedland, picked up a few provisions then headed to the Yule River (Herbert Parker Rest Area).  The turn off wasn’t well sign posted and we had gone past it before we realised, so had to do a u-turn and drive back.  It is a smallish area and by late afternoon we had 3 motor homes, another caravan, and some tenters!  We ended up having a fairly long, rowdy happy hour with 10 of us (including 2 people in a bus who camped up top).

Wednesday we headed off to Cleaverville Beach.  We continued to see pockets of the Sturt Desert Pea and lots of other wildflowers all coming into bloom.  We stopped briefly at the Whim Creek Hotel and said hello to Harry (one of the major mitchells there).  We drove across the Sherlock River which seemed to have a lot of water in it – about the only one we have seen with water in it for some time. 

To get to Cleaverville Beach you drive through Roebourne and 13km on there is a turn off onto a 13km long gravel road.  It was a bit rough in patches but overall not too bad.  We drove around for ages trying to find a camp site that wasn’t really crowded.  All the really good ones (right on the beach front) were taken and very crowded.  We eventually found a reasonably good spot but we do have to climb over a sand hill to get to the beach.  We are away from everyone else though and that is good.  We went for a walk on the beach (boy is that sand hill steep!) and collected some nice stones.  Almost no shells but lots of interesting stones and rocks.

PHOTO TO COME LATER

Thursday morning was very windy with quite a few very strong gusts but the awning held up OK (thank goodness).  We packed a lunch and drove out to Point Samson which was a bit disappointing.  To be fair we probably didn’t see it at its best – it was very,  very windy and not at all inviting to walk along the beach or be outside.  The water looked pretty dirty and not really good for swimming.  We drove back to Wickham and up to Tank Hill Lookout where we ate our sandwiches and watched an extraordinarily long train come it – it had to be at least 3km long, if not more.

PHOTO TO COME LATER

 We then headed out to Cossack and spent a couple of hours following the heritage trail.  It was a fascinating place and there are lots of signs along the heritage trail to tell you all about the history of the town.  We went to the old cemetery which is a pretty sad place but someone certainly looks after it.  We encountered a lizard which desperately dug into the sand to try to hide from us.

PHOTO TO COME LATER

On Friday we drove to Karratha and on to the North West Shelf Venture Visitor Centre (between Karratha and Dampier).  The whole process of finding, drilling, and converting the gas from gaseous form to liquid form was amazing!  So much capital, infrastructure, and employment tied up in this. The gas is converted to liquid form for transporting – one ship full of liquid natural gas would require 600 ships if transported in gaseous form!  A short trip down to Withnell Bay and we found a lot of Sturt Desert Peas and a couple of wallabies (mum & joey)

PHOTO TO COME LATER

From there we went out to Hearsons Cove.  The entire beach is shells and in some places they must be several feet thick! 

PHOTO TO COME LATER

We explored nearby Deep Gorge where there are over 1M aboriginal petroglyphs. 

PHOTO TO COME LATER

We almost stepped on this little fellow walking back to the car

PHOTO TO COME LATER

We drove out to Dampier, which is quite a nice town, even though it is a working port.  There were 3 very large ore ships in – one just leaving, one being loaded, one waiting to be loaded.  Out further was another ship waiting to come in.

Back to Karratha where we had to get the car serviced (added cost we didn’t really need!).  They told us afterwards that our tyres will need replacing very soon so it looks like we will have to book in and get that done soon.  My glasses are very scratched and it was becoming very difficult to see through them so we found an OPSM in Karratha who will organise new lenses as an urgent job.  Unfortunately I have had to leave my glasses there so for the time being I have to wear my sunglasses all the time.  They are prescription lenses so that does help but it is a bit strange wearing sunglasses at night!  OPSM have promised to have the new lenses ready for me by next Friday so we have decided to either stay a couple more days here at Cleaverville then go to Millstream Chichester National Park for a few days then back into Karratha and hopefully pick up my glasses and get new tyres on the car, or we will simply stay put at Cleaverville Beach until next Friday.

We have limited phone and internet service here at Cleaverville Beach so we have driven into Roebourne to post this blog.  I am sitting in the carpark doing this!  I am having trouble getting the photos onto the blog so have posted this Post and will try separately to do the photos - fingers crossed!

MARBLE BAR

We stayed at the Des Streckfuss Rest Area last night.  It is set back from the road quite a bit but there were so many road trains (in and out of the mines) that it was a bit noisy at times.  Because we were staying only one night we just camped at the 'top' but there were a few reasonable spots in further by the river (what is left of it - still some water but not flowing).  There are a lot of birds and quite a few cows as well!

We drove to Marble Bar this morning and checked into the caravan park.  We would have preferred to do a bit more free camping but there isn't really anywhere in town you can just leave the caravan and do the tourist stuff.  The Visitor Information Centre isn't open on weekends either so you have to go to the caravan park to get the town map etc.  It is a bit annoying for us to have to go into caravan parks so frequently but we hope to be able to stay away from them for a while after this (fingers crossed).  Once we set up the caravan we drove out to Marble Bar.  This is actually jasper, not marble, and when you wet the rock the colours are just beautiful.

I went for a swim in the pool near the Bar, but was the only one!  It was a bit cold but was very refreshing. There were hundreds and hundreds of small fish in the pool but they left me alone so that was fine.

We ate a picnic lunch then drove out to an area where you can fossick for jasper (there is a $10,000 fine if you remove any from the Bar).  We picked up a few rocks but don't really know if they are jasper or not - I just liked them!).  From there we drove out to the old gold mine but it is all closed up so we went up to Flying Fox Lookout.  The view from there was nice and there actually is a flying fox which crosses the river.  It has been made inactive and is not used but obviously was once upon a time.

View from the lookout

At the top of the lookout.



We then drove out to have a look at the solar farm.  It is a large 'farm' of solar panels which was established in March 2010 and at the time it was either the first of its kind world wide or the largest of its kind world wide - I cannot remember which.  There are over 1100 solar panels which track the sun and they supply between 60% and 90% of Marble Bar's daytime electricity use.

We then went to the pioneer cemetary which is a bit of a sad place.  There are a very large number of unmarked graves and quite a lot of graves of babies or small children. It is very overgrown and looks like it needs a lot of tlc!

Bye for now.

BROOME TO PORT HEDLAND

As promised – a photo from our visit to Gantheaume Point in Broome.

On Friday 5/8/11 we drove to the Goldwire Rest Area which is about 120km SW of Roebuck Plains Roadhouse. It is a good size area set back from the road. There are quite a few trees but not much shade, although we managed to score a reasonably level patch of dirt with a small scrub area on both sides. On Saturday when we ventured outside about mid morning we noticed some very strange looking ants swarming all over one side of the caravan. They were a gold/yellow colour and the tail end curled up a bit like a scorpion.

We used the small broom to brush them off and put talcum powder down around the caravan legs, tires and awning rope but the powder didn’t seem to deter them too much. We would brush them off and they would climb right back on again. We didn’t want to use the insect spray unless we really had to so Royce became the ‘ant monitor’ for the rest of the afternoon and they eventually disappeared. We couldn’t see a trail to or from the caravan and they didn’t show up again for the rest of our stay!

The WA Variety Club Bash cars called into the rest area on Sunday and managed to disturb the peace for an hour or so!

They had started from Port Hedland and were driving to Kunnunurra via the Gibb River Road. None of their vehicles were to be younger than 1980 and none were 4WD so the Gibb experience would be very interesting!

One patch of scrub by our caravan was home to quite a few birds and we spent a lot of time watching little honey eater type birds flitting around and there was another group of very hyperactive birds (about the size of a small magpie) busy nest building. There seemed to be about 8 of them in this group and they all seemed to share in the work. They were fascinating. We were also visited by a beautiful green parrot

And we saw several parrots which were mainly green but had black and red/orange on their wings. They were just beautiful. Unfortunately it was hard to get a good photo and it doesn’t do them justice.

A chap in a ute called in on Monday and started chatting. He is managing a nearby station (Munro?) and was heading out to check a couple of bores. After talking for a while he asked Royce if he wanted to go with him and Royce didn’t hesitate. He had shoes and socks and a hat on faster than I have ever seen him move! As soon as they drove off I started having some uneasy feelings – what if this chap was a bit of a psycho! I decided to give them 3 hours but if they weren’t back by then I was going to call the police. I had written down the registration number. As it turned out I had just worked myself up into a frenzy over nothing – they were back about 2.5 hours later after checking two bores. Paul was a nice guy and just seemed to want some company. He stayed and chatted again for about another half hour and then headed off (it seemed quite reluctantly). When they were out and about they saw two very large flocks (50-60 each) of brolgas! Unfortunately Royce didn’t have the camera with him. The toilet at the rest area is starting to fill up too much (it relies on a rake system to enable it all to compost and the rake is broken) and the rubbish bins are all overflowing and people are leaving bags of rubbish on the ground around the bins. I managed to get a very small signal on my phone so rang Main Roads who promised to get their contractor out.

On Tuesday 9/8/11 we drove to the Stanley Rest Area (about 80km further on) and set up for the night. This is a very large rest area, set back from the road, with quite a few smallish trees (not a lot of shade) and two very gross toilets. We had been told the area was very dusty (no more so than any other places we have been, and in fact better than some) and other people had said the flies were really bad (again no more so than any other places we have been, and better than some of them). On the way here we noticed the burnt out shell of a 5th wheeler in one of the parking bays on the side of the road. There wasn’t much left of it and I doubt whether anything would have been salvageable! We hope the people were insured. Some other South Australians pulled in near us just after lunch and ended up staying and chatting the whole afternoon. We had our Census forms delivered to us that night.

On Wednesday 10/8/11 we left Stanley. Between Stanley and Sandfire Roadhouse we saw a wallaby on the side of the road, one blue tongue lizard trying to cross the road, several small lizards sunning themselves on the side of the road, a very large flock of some sort of birds (200-300) and 4 camels! This was all in a 80-85km stretch! We stopped at the Sandfire Roadhouse and dropped off our census forms, bought a 20L fuel container then headed on to Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park. You have to travel on 10km of dirt road but most of the time it wasn’t too bad. There were a few patches of small corrugations and a couple of more heavily corrugated spots but we arrived all in one piece. At the end of the road you crest a hill and the view of the ocean and the beach is just magnificent! We booked in to for two nights and as soon as we set up we walked over the sand dune and down to the beach. What a truly breathtaking beach. The tide was on the way out so we just went for a bit of a walk and collected a few shells. This beach is renowned for its fishing and shells and apparently many shells are deposited on the beach after high tide and you can just go and collect them to your hearts content. We saw hundreds of tiny hermit crabs and a few sea snails. I managed to find a few good shells on that walk. That night Royce tried his hand at fishing and managed to lose his new lure. A beautiful sunset as well!

We did some more shell collecting on Thursday, cleaned the awning (underside and top) and otherwise had a bit of a lazy day. It is quite amazing – there is a dune between the caravan park and the beach so the sea isn’t visible but at night, when the tide is coming in, the noise of the sea is very loud. It sounds like there are massive waves but when we went for a walk about 11pm on Wednesday night there are only very small waves. We assume, though, that there must be a lot of water coming in on high tide but because it is a shallow area the waves are quite small.

We left Eighty Mile Beach on Friday morning. We were going to head to Cape Keraudren but we had been told the sand flies were really bad there at the moment so we decided to go to De Grey River. We stopped at Pardoo Roadhouse and bought a milkshake (one between us – at $6.50 we couldn’t afford two!). We arrived at De Grey Rest Area shortly before 12 noon. There are new toilets and a black water dump point which is also new. These are on the flat, cleared area just off the road. There is a track that leads down to the river and we had been told by a large number of people that we should head down there and that it is beautiful – so off we went. The track is a bit rough in patches and we had to go slowly, but it isn’t too bad. What a disappointment! The river is pretty much dried up – other than a few water holes and if there are good spots here, they are all taken! We ended up finding a spot back from the river, in among the bush and normally that wouldn’t bother us but this has shoulder high grass and weeds and prickles everywhere so it wasn’t even comfortable to sit outside at all. There was a nice breeze for most of the afternoon.

Perhaps we are here at the wrong time and in the wrong place and it might have been a lot better if there was more water and less people! All along the river bank the place is pretty packed out.

We decided to stay at De Grey one night only and are now in Port Hedland for a few hours, where we will replenish food stocks then head out to Marble Bar for a while.