Trip Log Part 3
Arrived: 14 January 2007
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Tassie to Melbourne and the end of the trip
Arrived: 14 January 2007
After meeting
Jen and the girls in Devonport we stayed a couple of days to get
reorganised before continuing on to Launceston. With Christmas
looming there were presents to buy and things to organise so this
occupied most of the days leading up to Christmas.
The rain set in pretty hard in the couple of days before Christmas and did not subside until boxing day. Needless to say our camp was very wet although the Tambo did an admirable job of keeping us dry. We managed to setup a small Christmas tree in our camper for Santa to put the presents under and he even managed to keep them dry despite the wet floor.
After watching the girls delight in their new pressies on Chistmas morning we headed into a hotel (which shall remain nameless) for a 5 star Christmas lunch. When we called to make our booking a week earlier they had put us into the 1:30pm sitting which was fine by us but unfortunately by 2:30pm all of the buffet had been cleared and the staff were packing up tables around us. Very dissappointing, especially at $80 per head plus drinks.
During the week after Christmas we spent a lot of time with our good friends Simon, Briony and Billy and their family who live in Huonville and Bruny Island. What great people. They couldn't have been more obliging or hospitable and we had a ball. Some highlights included trout fishing in the Russell river, abalone catching in the bay and new years eve on the boat in Constitution Dock where we had pole position for the fireworks.
After all of the festivities of Christmas and New Years we packed up and headed north east, staying at Mt Field National Park for 4 days. This central national park is a great base for exploring the Styx Valley, Florentine region, Lake Pedder as well as many walking tracks and places of interest in the National Park itself. The camp ground in the NP has powered sites which was the first time we'd come across that.
We had planned to move on to Strahan and stay a few days but all of the camping in town was full due to a bushfire threatening the free camping areas by the beach. This left us staying in a deluxe room in Queenstown where we lived large for a night before moving on to Rosebury for 3 nights.
During these last couple of weeks of the expedition our mood tended to be a little sombre. The realisation that we were so close to the finish line didn't create a great deal of excitement. On the other hand in many ways we were ready to get stuck into the next stage of our life and tried hard not to wish the trip away. After so long on the road it was a time of mixed emotions, uncertainty, relief, dread and a few others all mixed together.
Rain was an ever present factor in the last weeks but fortunately it held off for most of the last week and on the last morning we were able to pack up the camper completely dry.
The night before we had an end of trip party for the four of us and reminisced about the great times we had. After the girls had called it a night Jen and I set the video camera up and talked for an hour and a half about some of the highs and lows of the trip. After numerous Coronas (me, not Jen), I don't think much of what we talked about will find it's way into the final film
The last day, day 482, loomed and we had a slow drive into Devonport where we had to be on board the ferry in the early evening. Our last official stop was a chocolate factory just outside Devonport where we indulged in some very nice chocolate.
The next morning we drove off the ferry and met about 30 of our closest friends and relatives in the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne where we had a welcome home party.
It had been the adventure of a lifetime, exceeding our expectations in every way, but it was good to be home and we were ready to get busy with the next phase in our lives, moving to Adelaide and getting Savanna to school on Monday 29th January.
The rain set in pretty hard in the couple of days before Christmas and did not subside until boxing day. Needless to say our camp was very wet although the Tambo did an admirable job of keeping us dry. We managed to setup a small Christmas tree in our camper for Santa to put the presents under and he even managed to keep them dry despite the wet floor.
After watching the girls delight in their new pressies on Chistmas morning we headed into a hotel (which shall remain nameless) for a 5 star Christmas lunch. When we called to make our booking a week earlier they had put us into the 1:30pm sitting which was fine by us but unfortunately by 2:30pm all of the buffet had been cleared and the staff were packing up tables around us. Very dissappointing, especially at $80 per head plus drinks.
During the week after Christmas we spent a lot of time with our good friends Simon, Briony and Billy and their family who live in Huonville and Bruny Island. What great people. They couldn't have been more obliging or hospitable and we had a ball. Some highlights included trout fishing in the Russell river, abalone catching in the bay and new years eve on the boat in Constitution Dock where we had pole position for the fireworks.
After all of the festivities of Christmas and New Years we packed up and headed north east, staying at Mt Field National Park for 4 days. This central national park is a great base for exploring the Styx Valley, Florentine region, Lake Pedder as well as many walking tracks and places of interest in the National Park itself. The camp ground in the NP has powered sites which was the first time we'd come across that.
We had planned to move on to Strahan and stay a few days but all of the camping in town was full due to a bushfire threatening the free camping areas by the beach. This left us staying in a deluxe room in Queenstown where we lived large for a night before moving on to Rosebury for 3 nights.
During these last couple of weeks of the expedition our mood tended to be a little sombre. The realisation that we were so close to the finish line didn't create a great deal of excitement. On the other hand in many ways we were ready to get stuck into the next stage of our life and tried hard not to wish the trip away. After so long on the road it was a time of mixed emotions, uncertainty, relief, dread and a few others all mixed together.
Rain was an ever present factor in the last weeks but fortunately it held off for most of the last week and on the last morning we were able to pack up the camper completely dry.
The night before we had an end of trip party for the four of us and reminisced about the great times we had. After the girls had called it a night Jen and I set the video camera up and talked for an hour and a half about some of the highs and lows of the trip. After numerous Coronas (me, not Jen), I don't think much of what we talked about will find it's way into the final film
The last day, day 482, loomed and we had a slow drive into Devonport where we had to be on board the ferry in the early evening. Our last official stop was a chocolate factory just outside Devonport where we indulged in some very nice chocolate.
The next morning we drove off the ferry and met about 30 of our closest friends and relatives in the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne where we had a welcome home party.
It had been the adventure of a lifetime, exceeding our expectations in every way, but it was good to be home and we were ready to get busy with the next phase in our lives, moving to Adelaide and getting Savanna to school on Monday 29th January.
Cairns to Tassie
Arrived: 05 December 2006
From Cairns
we headed south through sugar cane country stopping in briefly at
Townsville on our way to Airlie Beach. I must say that Airlie is
one of my favorite places in Australia so of course we had to spend
a few days there. When I was 20 years old and backpacking around Oz
a mate and I spent several weeks in Airlie before scoring jobs out
in the Whitsunday Islands - fond memories!! As luck would have
it,while we were there this time the Fantasea Reef Festival was in
it's final days and we managed to catch a great street parade,
Saturday night street party and even a day trip to the reef on the
Fantasea Cruise Ship - great stuff.
Airlie is a top spot with the Whitsunday Islands on your front doorstep, rainforest on your back doorstep and heaps to do in the town itself.
Heading south again we powered on through to the Gold Coast where it was time to catch up with some more friends and family including a trip to Movie World which the kids loved (and the grown ups too of course). If you've been following our trip since the beginning you may remember we came up as far as the Gold Coast in the first part of our trip so this officially meant that we had completed a lap of the continent and were from here onwards on the start of our second lap.
Byron Bay is an exploding tourist town and it is obvious why with it's surfing/cafe lifestyle and amazing beaches. We caught up with more friends, Tara and her boys for a few days at Byron and ticked off another of our goals for the trip, the eastern most point of the continent at Cape Byron. This was by far the easiest one being a casual 30 minute walk from the caravan park we were staying at. Byron's the kind of place that if you'd bought a nice seaside house here 30 years ago, you'd be a retired multi millionaire today - that would be nice!
Coffs Harbour was our next stop and a stay at the Darlington Beach Resort where we stopped the first time round was on the cards. The place is as beautiful as ever and we spent a few days chilling out and catching up on some work for our film that was needing doing. The girls made the most of the two pools and whereas last year Savanna could barely be coaxed onto the water slide, this year we could not get her off it. 12 months makes a big difference. Jen had a go at Bingo again but no luck.
Our friends at Out Of Town 4WD in Newcastle have been busy and in the time since we were here last year have opened a new store called ARB Newcastle. We managed to time our visit with their big opening day and spent the day talking travelling and 4WD stuff to a bunch of people. Always a good way to spend some time.
From Newcastle we drove straight on through Sydney and down to the south coast stopping in briefly at Batemans Bay and Cann River on our way to achieve our final goal for the trip - to visit the southern most point of the continent, which is in Wilsons Promontory National Park.
We set up base camp at Yanakie Caravan Park just out of the park and I prepared for the 40 km round trip hike to the South Point. while it is feasible to complete the walk in a day by starting early and finishing late, I instead opted to make it an overnighter and camped at Roaring Meg campground for the night. Mission accomplished! It was also a good training exercise for the "big One" a week later in Tasmania - the 80km Overland Track.
Dropping Jen and the girls in Melbourne I headed over to Tassie on the ferry with the car and camper trailer getting off at Devonport and driving up to Cradle Mountain where the famous Overland Track starts. Meanwhile Jen and the girls spent some time in both Adelaide and Melbourne catching up with friends and family, preparing for Christmas and also visiting our future home in the Adelaide Hills.
They recommend you allow at least 5 to 6 days for the Overland Track which runs down the Cradle Valley from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair. Being in no particular hurry and wanting to experience it as best I could, I allowed 8 days to complete the walk and I'm glad I did. I've seen some great walks in Australia but none as good as this. The countryside is spectacular varying between alpine mountain button grass moors and lush green rainforest. The entire valley has been carved out by glaciers as recently as 10,000 years ago and when you know what to look for the evidence is everywhere. I met some great people along the track and made some new friends too (Kristen, Robyn, Ian, Raf, Christian, Paul, Fiona, Carrie, Ange, Daryl, Marion and several more) which was an unexpected bonus. I even had the privilege of meeting Paul and Fiona Adler who climbed Mt Everest earlier this year - Fiona made it all the way but Paul missed the peak by only 100 metres due to a lack of oxygen so is heading back for another go next year - gutsy stuff! Along the track we experienced everything from warm to hot days to freezing temperatures and snow storms and everything in between. I saw 5 snakes and countless wallabies and paddymelons, possums and birdlife. If you are into hiking then do yourself a favor and walk the Overland Track, it is truly an amazing experience.
After making it all the way to Lake St Clair I bussed back to Cradle Mountain to pick up the car and camper then drove back to Devonport where Jen and the girls met me the next morning off the ferry from Melbourne.
Airlie is a top spot with the Whitsunday Islands on your front doorstep, rainforest on your back doorstep and heaps to do in the town itself.
Heading south again we powered on through to the Gold Coast where it was time to catch up with some more friends and family including a trip to Movie World which the kids loved (and the grown ups too of course). If you've been following our trip since the beginning you may remember we came up as far as the Gold Coast in the first part of our trip so this officially meant that we had completed a lap of the continent and were from here onwards on the start of our second lap.
Byron Bay is an exploding tourist town and it is obvious why with it's surfing/cafe lifestyle and amazing beaches. We caught up with more friends, Tara and her boys for a few days at Byron and ticked off another of our goals for the trip, the eastern most point of the continent at Cape Byron. This was by far the easiest one being a casual 30 minute walk from the caravan park we were staying at. Byron's the kind of place that if you'd bought a nice seaside house here 30 years ago, you'd be a retired multi millionaire today - that would be nice!
Coffs Harbour was our next stop and a stay at the Darlington Beach Resort where we stopped the first time round was on the cards. The place is as beautiful as ever and we spent a few days chilling out and catching up on some work for our film that was needing doing. The girls made the most of the two pools and whereas last year Savanna could barely be coaxed onto the water slide, this year we could not get her off it. 12 months makes a big difference. Jen had a go at Bingo again but no luck.
Our friends at Out Of Town 4WD in Newcastle have been busy and in the time since we were here last year have opened a new store called ARB Newcastle. We managed to time our visit with their big opening day and spent the day talking travelling and 4WD stuff to a bunch of people. Always a good way to spend some time.
From Newcastle we drove straight on through Sydney and down to the south coast stopping in briefly at Batemans Bay and Cann River on our way to achieve our final goal for the trip - to visit the southern most point of the continent, which is in Wilsons Promontory National Park.
We set up base camp at Yanakie Caravan Park just out of the park and I prepared for the 40 km round trip hike to the South Point. while it is feasible to complete the walk in a day by starting early and finishing late, I instead opted to make it an overnighter and camped at Roaring Meg campground for the night. Mission accomplished! It was also a good training exercise for the "big One" a week later in Tasmania - the 80km Overland Track.
Dropping Jen and the girls in Melbourne I headed over to Tassie on the ferry with the car and camper trailer getting off at Devonport and driving up to Cradle Mountain where the famous Overland Track starts. Meanwhile Jen and the girls spent some time in both Adelaide and Melbourne catching up with friends and family, preparing for Christmas and also visiting our future home in the Adelaide Hills.
They recommend you allow at least 5 to 6 days for the Overland Track which runs down the Cradle Valley from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair. Being in no particular hurry and wanting to experience it as best I could, I allowed 8 days to complete the walk and I'm glad I did. I've seen some great walks in Australia but none as good as this. The countryside is spectacular varying between alpine mountain button grass moors and lush green rainforest. The entire valley has been carved out by glaciers as recently as 10,000 years ago and when you know what to look for the evidence is everywhere. I met some great people along the track and made some new friends too (Kristen, Robyn, Ian, Raf, Christian, Paul, Fiona, Carrie, Ange, Daryl, Marion and several more) which was an unexpected bonus. I even had the privilege of meeting Paul and Fiona Adler who climbed Mt Everest earlier this year - Fiona made it all the way but Paul missed the peak by only 100 metres due to a lack of oxygen so is heading back for another go next year - gutsy stuff! Along the track we experienced everything from warm to hot days to freezing temperatures and snow storms and everything in between. I saw 5 snakes and countless wallabies and paddymelons, possums and birdlife. If you are into hiking then do yourself a favor and walk the Overland Track, it is truly an amazing experience.
After making it all the way to Lake St Clair I bussed back to Cradle Mountain to pick up the car and camper then drove back to Devonport where Jen and the girls met me the next morning off the ferry from Melbourne.
Cobourg to Cairns via Cape York
Arrived: 29 October 2006
Lake Argyle to Cobourg Peninsula
Arrived: 17 July 2006
The untimely
death of Steve Irwin put a dampener on things a couple of weeks
back and had more of an effect on us than I would have thought. It
was a bit like when Princess Diana died, it took a couple of days
to sink in that he was really gone.
He was such an amazing character and judging by the tributes he received the world over, he was high on many peoples favorite celebrity lists. He will be sorely missed but his legacy will live on.
We ended up spending 6 weeks at Lake Argyle after planning to stop there for 4. We just couldn't tear ourselves away!! Our pancake breaky idea was a real hit and we ended up making nearly 2000 pancakes for over 600 people. It was a great opportunity to meet a heap of people and talk about travelling around Australia, their experiences and ours. After a while we had people showing up saying they had heard about the Famous Lake Argyle Pancake Breaky as far away as Katherine and Broome which certainly gave us a kick.
Many people asked for the pancake recipe and as promised, it is on our website - click here to take a peek.
After Lake Argyle, Jen flew out of Kununurra for Sydney to do some work at a conference for one of her consulting clients from pre "The Big Lap" days. Steve and the girls packed up camp and drove on to Darwin meeting Jen there a few days later.
We spent a few days in Darwin including a day trip to the beautiful Litchfield National Park, a trip the the Mindil Beach Markets and dinner at the Darwin Sailing Club where we watched the sunset over the sea with all the sailing boats in the foreground (this was my favorite spot when I lived up here 16 years ago).
We've arrived back in to Kakadu late last week after 7 fantastic days up at the very tip of the Northern Territory in Garig Gunak Barlu National Park on Cobourg Peninsula. It is a really special piece of Australia and I'd been itching to get back there since spending a couple of weeks up there back in 1990. Little had changed other than the extensive damage caused by Cyclone Ingrid early last year which knocked over thousands of trees. Still a magic place despite the damage.
Fishing is by far the main attraction of Cobourg but we didn't get the boat out much due to it being windy most of the time making the sea fairly rough. We did brave it a couple of times though and with a little assistance from Dad, Savanna caught her first fish while we were up there, a decent size snapper which we promptly cooked up on the fire and ate for lunch.
Next we are driving down to Mataranka for a dip in the thermal springs before heading east through Roper Bar across into Queensland and Gulf country. We'll then follow the track to the top of Cape York, the next milestone in our trip.
He was such an amazing character and judging by the tributes he received the world over, he was high on many peoples favorite celebrity lists. He will be sorely missed but his legacy will live on.
We ended up spending 6 weeks at Lake Argyle after planning to stop there for 4. We just couldn't tear ourselves away!! Our pancake breaky idea was a real hit and we ended up making nearly 2000 pancakes for over 600 people. It was a great opportunity to meet a heap of people and talk about travelling around Australia, their experiences and ours. After a while we had people showing up saying they had heard about the Famous Lake Argyle Pancake Breaky as far away as Katherine and Broome which certainly gave us a kick.
Many people asked for the pancake recipe and as promised, it is on our website - click here to take a peek.
After Lake Argyle, Jen flew out of Kununurra for Sydney to do some work at a conference for one of her consulting clients from pre "The Big Lap" days. Steve and the girls packed up camp and drove on to Darwin meeting Jen there a few days later.
We spent a few days in Darwin including a day trip to the beautiful Litchfield National Park, a trip the the Mindil Beach Markets and dinner at the Darwin Sailing Club where we watched the sunset over the sea with all the sailing boats in the foreground (this was my favorite spot when I lived up here 16 years ago).
We've arrived back in to Kakadu late last week after 7 fantastic days up at the very tip of the Northern Territory in Garig Gunak Barlu National Park on Cobourg Peninsula. It is a really special piece of Australia and I'd been itching to get back there since spending a couple of weeks up there back in 1990. Little had changed other than the extensive damage caused by Cyclone Ingrid early last year which knocked over thousands of trees. Still a magic place despite the damage.
Fishing is by far the main attraction of Cobourg but we didn't get the boat out much due to it being windy most of the time making the sea fairly rough. We did brave it a couple of times though and with a little assistance from Dad, Savanna caught her first fish while we were up there, a decent size snapper which we promptly cooked up on the fire and ate for lunch.
Next we are driving down to Mataranka for a dip in the thermal springs before heading east through Roper Bar across into Queensland and Gulf country. We'll then follow the track to the top of Cape York, the next milestone in our trip.
Alice Springs to Lake Argyle (return visit)
Arrived: 02 July 2006
You could
easily spend three months wandering around the red centre and not
run out of things to do and places to visit. Even after 3 or 4
weeks we felt like we were really only scratching the surface.
Alice Springs is a great town with a real positive spirit and a
colourful history and I'm looking forward to getting back there for
another visit.
Jen flew out of Alice for a week catching up with good friends Anita (you remember her), Tara and Tundra in Brisbane and the Gold Coast while I headed north up the Stuart Highway with the girls where we planned to rendezvous in Katherine. The satellite phone came in handy for Jen and I to have a daily catch up as the trusty digital mobile was all but useless outside of the major centres (Alice, Tennant Creek and Katherine). The girls and I stopped in at Ti Tree, Devils Marbles, Dunmarra, Mataranka and finally Katherine before giving Jen a very big cuddle when she stepped off the bus in Katherine.
By all accounts Jen had a great time on the east coast and after a couple of days in Katherine had wound back down the the "Big Lap" pace.
At this point our itinerary had us zipping back to Lake Argyle in WA to pick up our boat before working our way up towards the Top End but . . . we've made a big change to our plans.
While we were at Lake Argyle 6 weeks ago we were talking to Charlie (the owner of the Lake Argyle Resort) about coming back sometime in the future and making a small documentary about Lake Argyle. The other issue is that the spiralling cost of fuel has severely eaten into our budget - over $7000 in the tank so far!
Putting these together, and following a conversation with Charlie, we decided to stop back at Lake Argyle for an extended stay of around 4 or 5 weeks, make the doco and do some work that would earn us some money and help to offset the fuel deficit.
It turns out that work is not hard to come by in peak holiday season and we've been back here at Lake Argyle for a week and a half and are working hard. Jen is working two part time jobs while I am doing some desktop publishing for a Melbourne client, and best of all, we are running a pancake breaky every morning for the other visitors in the caravan park which has turned out to be a real hit. On Saturday morning we made 91 pancakes for 41 hungry travellers.
So, it's been a busy couple of months and while we are now working hard we are enjoying staying put for a while.
We won't miss much of the rest of our trip by staying here as we've managed to compress some of the stops by a few days here and there to make up for the time at Lake Argyle, and by late September we'll be back on our original itinerary.
Jen flew out of Alice for a week catching up with good friends Anita (you remember her), Tara and Tundra in Brisbane and the Gold Coast while I headed north up the Stuart Highway with the girls where we planned to rendezvous in Katherine. The satellite phone came in handy for Jen and I to have a daily catch up as the trusty digital mobile was all but useless outside of the major centres (Alice, Tennant Creek and Katherine). The girls and I stopped in at Ti Tree, Devils Marbles, Dunmarra, Mataranka and finally Katherine before giving Jen a very big cuddle when she stepped off the bus in Katherine.
By all accounts Jen had a great time on the east coast and after a couple of days in Katherine had wound back down the the "Big Lap" pace.
At this point our itinerary had us zipping back to Lake Argyle in WA to pick up our boat before working our way up towards the Top End but . . . we've made a big change to our plans.
While we were at Lake Argyle 6 weeks ago we were talking to Charlie (the owner of the Lake Argyle Resort) about coming back sometime in the future and making a small documentary about Lake Argyle. The other issue is that the spiralling cost of fuel has severely eaten into our budget - over $7000 in the tank so far!
Putting these together, and following a conversation with Charlie, we decided to stop back at Lake Argyle for an extended stay of around 4 or 5 weeks, make the doco and do some work that would earn us some money and help to offset the fuel deficit.
It turns out that work is not hard to come by in peak holiday season and we've been back here at Lake Argyle for a week and a half and are working hard. Jen is working two part time jobs while I am doing some desktop publishing for a Melbourne client, and best of all, we are running a pancake breaky every morning for the other visitors in the caravan park which has turned out to be a real hit. On Saturday morning we made 91 pancakes for 41 hungry travellers.
So, it's been a busy couple of months and while we are now working hard we are enjoying staying put for a while.
We won't miss much of the rest of our trip by staying here as we've managed to compress some of the stops by a few days here and there to make up for the time at Lake Argyle, and by late September we'll be back on our original itinerary.
Trip Log Note
Arrived: 01 July 2006
The rest
of the log from here to the end of the trip is still a work in
progress. I have included some summary entries to give you an idea
of what happens between now and the end of the expedition. Soon the
entire trip log will be updated with each camp on a separate page
along with more information and photos and if you are a
subscriber I'll
email you to let you know when that happens.
Stop 51 - Trephina Gorge NP, NT - 4 nights
Arrived: 30 June 2006
After the Old Ghan Railway,
the drive out to the Eastern Macdonnell Ranges was a walk in the
park. Bitumen all the way and only about 70 or 80km.
We also found a great camp spot in the Trephina Gorge NP. Running water, a fire place and a flat topped bench we could use for sitting, cooking on etc. All this and a shady site to boot. Excellent! No showers though but the pit toilets were clean and a whole lot better than the traditional method. We setup our shower tent so we could make use of our under bonnet shower and prepared to spend a few days exploring the local countryside.
Our first foray was a hike down the gorge itself which was a relatively easy 2km round trip. The gorge is carved out of rock with sheer sides and a very sandy base up to about 80 metres deep in parts. We had a picnic lunch (see, with us it's all about food) on the rocks at the end of the gorge and I taught the girls how to make a sun clock with a stick in the sand while Jen chilled on a flat rock and read a book. It's tough but someone has to do it.
On our way back several hours later we stopped and watched some abseilers working their way down the side of the gorge wall and they seemed to be having a good time of it. There is a circuit track that runs for several km around the top of the gorge which looked more challenging and out of reach with the girls with us. There were also a couple of other longer tracks that looked interesting but agiain too hard with the girls. They are okay for a couple of km but Sara will generally give up after about 3km and insist on being carried. This is okay for a while but the fun wears off pretty quick carrying an extra 15 or 20kg.
Back at camp we met our neighbours, Adam and Kerry from Melbourne who were also on their way around the country and by all accounts loving it. They were in their 20's and met at college where they were both studying surveying and had decided to take a year to see the country before settling in to have kids etc.
That night, one of the Rangers gave us an interesting insight into the life of a ranger and all that came with it. They certainly need to be jacks of all trades but I could not help but envy the adventurous lifestyle they lead.
One of our expeditions out from Trephina was to Arltunga, an old mining area further out east. We learn't about the struggles of the early pioneers to find gold and garnets with fairly limited success. We managed to get on board a walking tour with the same ranger into one of the old mines and had a glimps of how hard it was for these old diggers. Many of them coming up from Adelaide in the south had caught the train as far as Oodnadata and then walked cross country pushing their belongings on wheelbarrows for the last 600km to Arltunga. Yes, 600KM!! Hard to imagine how hard that must have been for them back then. I actually entertained the idea of reinacting the trek one day to gain a real appreciation of their efforts. Okay, call me crazy!
Many of the these miners came looking for Rubies after hearing they had been found lying around in creek beds. Rubies were and are quite valuable but these rubies turned out to be garnets which have very little value by comparisson. Having come this far they stayed and searched for gold and while they did find some, few if any fortunes were made.
We had no choice but to stop at the newly rennovated Arltunga Hotel to take some time to reflect on these early achievements and how much more civilised we are these days. I reckon those guys would have given a weeks pickings for one ice cold beer like the one we enjoyed at the pub that day.
On the way back to camp we stopped in at the Ross River homestead for an ice cream and collected a roof full of firewood along the side of the road.
In the evening we made popcorn for the first time on the trip figuring it was a cheap, easy and compact snack we could make on our travels. Jen and I munched into it with gusto but the girls were not as excited. Guess we'll try again another time.
The National Park brochure points to the site of the largest ghost gum in the East Macdonnell Ranges which was impressive. What was more impressive was another tree about 50 metres away that had been hit by lightning. The entire tree had split down the middle and was completely burnt to charcoal on the surface. Amazingly the dry tinder like bush around it was unburnt. I can only conclude that it was raining or damp at least when the lightning hit which kept it from becoming a bushfire. The ground around the tree was sand and apparently when lightning hits sand it melts it into a big chunk of glass which would be impressive to see. I couldn't find any though despite looking pretty hard.
As with everywhere we have been there was plenty more to see and do in the area but we had to keep moving, choosing to save something to come back for next time.
For the third time in as many weeks it was back into Alice Springs where Jen would be leaving in a plane in a couple of days while the girls and I carried on alone up the Stuart Highway.
We also found a great camp spot in the Trephina Gorge NP. Running water, a fire place and a flat topped bench we could use for sitting, cooking on etc. All this and a shady site to boot. Excellent! No showers though but the pit toilets were clean and a whole lot better than the traditional method. We setup our shower tent so we could make use of our under bonnet shower and prepared to spend a few days exploring the local countryside.
Our first foray was a hike down the gorge itself which was a relatively easy 2km round trip. The gorge is carved out of rock with sheer sides and a very sandy base up to about 80 metres deep in parts. We had a picnic lunch (see, with us it's all about food) on the rocks at the end of the gorge and I taught the girls how to make a sun clock with a stick in the sand while Jen chilled on a flat rock and read a book. It's tough but someone has to do it.
On our way back several hours later we stopped and watched some abseilers working their way down the side of the gorge wall and they seemed to be having a good time of it. There is a circuit track that runs for several km around the top of the gorge which looked more challenging and out of reach with the girls with us. There were also a couple of other longer tracks that looked interesting but agiain too hard with the girls. They are okay for a couple of km but Sara will generally give up after about 3km and insist on being carried. This is okay for a while but the fun wears off pretty quick carrying an extra 15 or 20kg.
Back at camp we met our neighbours, Adam and Kerry from Melbourne who were also on their way around the country and by all accounts loving it. They were in their 20's and met at college where they were both studying surveying and had decided to take a year to see the country before settling in to have kids etc.
That night, one of the Rangers gave us an interesting insight into the life of a ranger and all that came with it. They certainly need to be jacks of all trades but I could not help but envy the adventurous lifestyle they lead.
One of our expeditions out from Trephina was to Arltunga, an old mining area further out east. We learn't about the struggles of the early pioneers to find gold and garnets with fairly limited success. We managed to get on board a walking tour with the same ranger into one of the old mines and had a glimps of how hard it was for these old diggers. Many of them coming up from Adelaide in the south had caught the train as far as Oodnadata and then walked cross country pushing their belongings on wheelbarrows for the last 600km to Arltunga. Yes, 600KM!! Hard to imagine how hard that must have been for them back then. I actually entertained the idea of reinacting the trek one day to gain a real appreciation of their efforts. Okay, call me crazy!
Many of the these miners came looking for Rubies after hearing they had been found lying around in creek beds. Rubies were and are quite valuable but these rubies turned out to be garnets which have very little value by comparisson. Having come this far they stayed and searched for gold and while they did find some, few if any fortunes were made.
We had no choice but to stop at the newly rennovated Arltunga Hotel to take some time to reflect on these early achievements and how much more civilised we are these days. I reckon those guys would have given a weeks pickings for one ice cold beer like the one we enjoyed at the pub that day.
On the way back to camp we stopped in at the Ross River homestead for an ice cream and collected a roof full of firewood along the side of the road.
In the evening we made popcorn for the first time on the trip figuring it was a cheap, easy and compact snack we could make on our travels. Jen and I munched into it with gusto but the girls were not as excited. Guess we'll try again another time.
The National Park brochure points to the site of the largest ghost gum in the East Macdonnell Ranges which was impressive. What was more impressive was another tree about 50 metres away that had been hit by lightning. The entire tree had split down the middle and was completely burnt to charcoal on the surface. Amazingly the dry tinder like bush around it was unburnt. I can only conclude that it was raining or damp at least when the lightning hit which kept it from becoming a bushfire. The ground around the tree was sand and apparently when lightning hits sand it melts it into a big chunk of glass which would be impressive to see. I couldn't find any though despite looking pretty hard.
As with everywhere we have been there was plenty more to see and do in the area but we had to keep moving, choosing to save something to come back for next time.
For the third time in as many weeks it was back into Alice Springs where Jen would be leaving in a plane in a couple of days while the girls and I carried on alone up the Stuart Highway.
Stop 50 - Alice Springs, NT - 2 nights
Arrived: 28 June 2006
Next morning I was up early
to film the sunrise over Chambers Pillar before a quick breaky then
packing up to hit the road. Jen's knee has been giving her trouble
lately so she was not up for aggravating it on a walk around the
pillar. We'll save that for the next visit. I managed to capture
the dawn light on the pillar which, like Uluru is pretty
spectacular.
On the way out through the dunes our gas extension pipe fell out of the PVC pipe on the top of the trailer. I didn't realise it had gone until a tour operator announced on the UHF he had found it and had anyone dropped it. I was thinking of the poor bugger that had dropped it when I figured I'd just double check and make sure it wasn't us. Doh!
I jumped on the UHF and owned up to dropping it and arranged to pick it up from him in Alice in a couple of days.
We left the UHF on as we made our way slowly back to the OGR to continue north into Alice Springs and were entertained by the banter of two groups communicating to each other over the radio. The female passenger in the lead vehicle would come on the radio every few minutes and tell the following vehicle about some obstacle or another they had just passed. This is good practice but it was getting ridiculous and we could not help but laugh at the replies from the other vehicle which were getting shorter and shorter. They were no doubt feeling that they were out here to have an adventure too and knowing what was around every corner in advance was diluting their expereince somewhat.
The OGR Road condition north of the Chambers Pillar junction was not as bad as the southern section and we made better time . Stopping for lunch under some nice big shady trees we watched a car full of aboriginals splutter past us and break down in the middle of the road about 400 metres further up from us. I could see from our spot they had the bonnet up and were working on something so we finished our lunch and packed up and hit the road, fully expecting them to be asking for assistance as we approached. To our surprise they got their car going again and drove off just as we turned back onto the road.
We trundled into Alice Springs mid afternoon and headed back to the McDonnell Range CP again (adventurous aren't we??). After again being squeezed into one of the last available spots we setup camp then headed into McDonalds for a coffee and to check emails using their wireless broadband.
We ended up staying out for dinner and it was well after dark and freezing by the time we made it back into camp. Playing right next to our camp on the basketball court was the Bulldust Brothers Bush Band and we caught the last few songs before they called it a night. They play every week and are one of the attractions that keep this caravan park full during the toutrist season.
A couple camped opposite us came and went a few times while we were camped there and they were on motor bikes. We didn't have a chance for a chat with them but Jen and I got to talking about riding around the country one day on motorbikes. Jen reckons a big Harley trike with a couple of kiddy seats on the back would suit her. I reckon a couple of BMW GS1200's would be better but Jen just doesn't see it that way.
As usual there was plenty of laundry after a week or so in the outback so Jen got stuck into this while I took the girls into BiLo to restock our food supplies. We also indulged in a trip to the cinema to watch "Over The Hedge" which was a good laugh. I have to say thank goodness they make good kids movies these days that adults enjoy as well. If I had to sit though Black Beauty and other vintage animated classics I'd probably go nuts. The likes of Shrek, Monsters Inc, Toy Story etc. are great for kids and good for us grown ups too. By the way we have all these on DVD which the girls have watched over and over in the car so I reckon I know them all off by heart by now. The words at least, I can't see the screen from the drivers seat. Which brings me to another bit of trivial information. I am probably the only person on earth over 30 years old who hasn't seen The Sound Of Music. Not only have I not seen it, I have not even seen a single frame of it besides the one of Julie Andrews running across the mountain tops. But, the other day Jen caught me singing one of the songs from it and we had a laugh when I realised I knew the whole movie very well from hearing it half a dozen times from the front seat despite never having seen any of it.
Anyway, after a couple of days in Alice restocking, cleaning and emailing we hit the road again, this time heading East towards Trephina Gorge National Park where we setup our base camp to explore the Eastern Macs.
On the way out through the dunes our gas extension pipe fell out of the PVC pipe on the top of the trailer. I didn't realise it had gone until a tour operator announced on the UHF he had found it and had anyone dropped it. I was thinking of the poor bugger that had dropped it when I figured I'd just double check and make sure it wasn't us. Doh!
I jumped on the UHF and owned up to dropping it and arranged to pick it up from him in Alice in a couple of days.
We left the UHF on as we made our way slowly back to the OGR to continue north into Alice Springs and were entertained by the banter of two groups communicating to each other over the radio. The female passenger in the lead vehicle would come on the radio every few minutes and tell the following vehicle about some obstacle or another they had just passed. This is good practice but it was getting ridiculous and we could not help but laugh at the replies from the other vehicle which were getting shorter and shorter. They were no doubt feeling that they were out here to have an adventure too and knowing what was around every corner in advance was diluting their expereince somewhat.
The OGR Road condition north of the Chambers Pillar junction was not as bad as the southern section and we made better time . Stopping for lunch under some nice big shady trees we watched a car full of aboriginals splutter past us and break down in the middle of the road about 400 metres further up from us. I could see from our spot they had the bonnet up and were working on something so we finished our lunch and packed up and hit the road, fully expecting them to be asking for assistance as we approached. To our surprise they got their car going again and drove off just as we turned back onto the road.
We trundled into Alice Springs mid afternoon and headed back to the McDonnell Range CP again (adventurous aren't we??). After again being squeezed into one of the last available spots we setup camp then headed into McDonalds for a coffee and to check emails using their wireless broadband.
We ended up staying out for dinner and it was well after dark and freezing by the time we made it back into camp. Playing right next to our camp on the basketball court was the Bulldust Brothers Bush Band and we caught the last few songs before they called it a night. They play every week and are one of the attractions that keep this caravan park full during the toutrist season.
A couple camped opposite us came and went a few times while we were camped there and they were on motor bikes. We didn't have a chance for a chat with them but Jen and I got to talking about riding around the country one day on motorbikes. Jen reckons a big Harley trike with a couple of kiddy seats on the back would suit her. I reckon a couple of BMW GS1200's would be better but Jen just doesn't see it that way.
As usual there was plenty of laundry after a week or so in the outback so Jen got stuck into this while I took the girls into BiLo to restock our food supplies. We also indulged in a trip to the cinema to watch "Over The Hedge" which was a good laugh. I have to say thank goodness they make good kids movies these days that adults enjoy as well. If I had to sit though Black Beauty and other vintage animated classics I'd probably go nuts. The likes of Shrek, Monsters Inc, Toy Story etc. are great for kids and good for us grown ups too. By the way we have all these on DVD which the girls have watched over and over in the car so I reckon I know them all off by heart by now. The words at least, I can't see the screen from the drivers seat. Which brings me to another bit of trivial information. I am probably the only person on earth over 30 years old who hasn't seen The Sound Of Music. Not only have I not seen it, I have not even seen a single frame of it besides the one of Julie Andrews running across the mountain tops. But, the other day Jen caught me singing one of the songs from it and we had a laugh when I realised I knew the whole movie very well from hearing it half a dozen times from the front seat despite never having seen any of it.
Anyway, after a couple of days in Alice restocking, cleaning and emailing we hit the road again, this time heading East towards Trephina Gorge National Park where we setup our base camp to explore the Eastern Macs.
Stop 49 - Chambers Pillar, NT - 1 night
Arrived: 27 June 2006
Having had a small taste of
the road conditions the previous afternoon we decided to get going
early today to avoid the need to rush. We were heading for Chambers
Pillar which is 45km off of the OGR and a total of about 165km
drive from our camp.
There are two main tracks that follow the OGR. The actual easement itself where the train used to run has become a track since all of the rails and sleepers have been removed. It weaves gradually through the sand dunes and despite being severly corrugated and rough most of the way, is the easiest of the two options. The other is the service road for the railway line which runs alongside most of the way. This track has now been re-purposed into the Finke Desert Race track and while not as corragated, is narrow and sandy and filled with mogul style humps. Presumably these were put in to make the race more challenging, to great affect.
We pounded along the easement stopping at an old siding for a look around. There are remnants of the original buildings and old sleeper spikes and sleepers lying about everywhere.
There are more ruins at Rumbalara, Engordina and Bundooma which we stopped and explored. Mostly old buildings that were now being used as bush camps by travellers up the line. No doubt during the Desert race they are a hive of activity as camps or pitstops for the race.
There is some interesting history surrounding the Old Ghan Railway which is displayed on information boards at the various sidings along the way and we took the time to read a lot of it on our way through.
After stopping for lunch under the shade of some large trees we spoted a heard of donkeys running across the track up ahead. I managed to get within about 70 or 80 metres of them and got some good video. I've heard there are tens of thousands of feral donkeys roaming around central Australia but this is the first ones we have seen.
Did I mention how rough the road was? Well it didn't improve and we pounded through some huge bull dust holes, corrugations and the occasional wash out. One of these washouts caught me completely by surprise as I came over the crest of the road and it was laying in waiting just down the other side. We we travelling at about 40 - 50km/h which was not particularly fast but had hit the washout before I even knew it was there. The car and trailer bounced and went airborne crashing nose first into the road pulling us up almost instantly. I got out and headed to the front of the car expecting to see bits of suspension and steeering gear everywhere but was amazed to find no obvious damage at all. I guess that's one of the advantages of having a big solid truck like a Landcruiser.
After the turnoff west towards Chambers Pillar the road improved to being just corrugated and we collected some firewood along the way. The last 10km or so into the camp area at Chambers Pillar involves crossing some sand dunes and a sign advises tuning into channel 10 on the UHF to communicate with other travellers coming the other way in the hope of avoiding a head on collision at the top. Which we did.
We could actually see Chambers Pillar from several KM away as it stands out quite prominently on the flat plains. The pillar is a column of rock being a remnant of the original surface of the earth here that is almost all but eroded away.
John McDouall Stuart passed this way on one of his three expeditions to fiind the north cost and named the pillar after one of his sponsors.
We found a nice spot in the small campground and enjoyed a great sunset and very starry sky that night.
There are two main tracks that follow the OGR. The actual easement itself where the train used to run has become a track since all of the rails and sleepers have been removed. It weaves gradually through the sand dunes and despite being severly corrugated and rough most of the way, is the easiest of the two options. The other is the service road for the railway line which runs alongside most of the way. This track has now been re-purposed into the Finke Desert Race track and while not as corragated, is narrow and sandy and filled with mogul style humps. Presumably these were put in to make the race more challenging, to great affect.
We pounded along the easement stopping at an old siding for a look around. There are remnants of the original buildings and old sleeper spikes and sleepers lying about everywhere.
There are more ruins at Rumbalara, Engordina and Bundooma which we stopped and explored. Mostly old buildings that were now being used as bush camps by travellers up the line. No doubt during the Desert race they are a hive of activity as camps or pitstops for the race.
There is some interesting history surrounding the Old Ghan Railway which is displayed on information boards at the various sidings along the way and we took the time to read a lot of it on our way through.
After stopping for lunch under the shade of some large trees we spoted a heard of donkeys running across the track up ahead. I managed to get within about 70 or 80 metres of them and got some good video. I've heard there are tens of thousands of feral donkeys roaming around central Australia but this is the first ones we have seen.
Did I mention how rough the road was? Well it didn't improve and we pounded through some huge bull dust holes, corrugations and the occasional wash out. One of these washouts caught me completely by surprise as I came over the crest of the road and it was laying in waiting just down the other side. We we travelling at about 40 - 50km/h which was not particularly fast but had hit the washout before I even knew it was there. The car and trailer bounced and went airborne crashing nose first into the road pulling us up almost instantly. I got out and headed to the front of the car expecting to see bits of suspension and steeering gear everywhere but was amazed to find no obvious damage at all. I guess that's one of the advantages of having a big solid truck like a Landcruiser.
After the turnoff west towards Chambers Pillar the road improved to being just corrugated and we collected some firewood along the way. The last 10km or so into the camp area at Chambers Pillar involves crossing some sand dunes and a sign advises tuning into channel 10 on the UHF to communicate with other travellers coming the other way in the hope of avoiding a head on collision at the top. Which we did.
We could actually see Chambers Pillar from several KM away as it stands out quite prominently on the flat plains. The pillar is a column of rock being a remnant of the original surface of the earth here that is almost all but eroded away.
John McDouall Stuart passed this way on one of his three expeditions to fiind the north cost and named the pillar after one of his sponsors.
We found a nice spot in the small campground and enjoyed a great sunset and very starry sky that night.
Stop 48 - Old Ghan Railway Track, NT - 1 night
Arrived: 26 June 2006
127km east along the road
between Kulgera and Finke we turned off north towards Lamberts
Centre of Australia. The 14km track to get out there is narrow and
sandy and there are many stretches where two tracks run parallel to
each other through the bush.
Arriving at the centre we were greeted by about 5 other vehicles and a dozen or so other people who had also made the journey. Most of them were travelling together in convoy.
The centre marker is a steel spire around 5 metres tall in the shape of the flagpole that sits on top of Parliament House in Canberra. Similarly there is an Aussie flag flying proudly on top. Sitting at Latitude 25 degrees, 36 minutes, 36.6 seconds and Longditude 134 Degrees, 21 Minutes, 17.3 seconds, Lamberts Centre is described as the "planimetric centre of gravity of mainland Australia". The site was located and marked in 1988 after more than 2 years of complex computer calculations by the Royal Geogpahic Society of Australia (QLD) Inc.
After some lunch and photos it was time to go and after the 14km back to the Finke road we turned east on our way to Finke to find a camp spot for the night.
Our plan from here was to head back towards Alice Springs along the Old Ghan Railway line which runs from Finke, 245km north into Alice Springs. The Finke Desert Race had been run a couple of weeks earlier and we would actually be following the race track back into Alice.
Not finding much in the way of good camp sites in Finke itself, we decided to start heading north along the OGR and bush camp. We managed to find a good spot about 10km up that had obviously been well used by other campers during the race weekend. In fact evidence of the race was everywhere with track markers and even the finish line in Finke still in place.
While we had only tackled 10km of the OGR it was very rough going and indicative of what the remainder of the track would be like over the next couple of days.
After setting up the camper the girls helped me collect a pile of firewood. They love getting involved and as they get bigger it is easier to find jobs for them to do. Jen filmed as the girls waddled into camp with armfulls of firewood and we enjoyed a nice big camp fire to keep the freezing night at bay.
That night we enjoyed absolute silence for the first time in a while.
Arriving at the centre we were greeted by about 5 other vehicles and a dozen or so other people who had also made the journey. Most of them were travelling together in convoy.
The centre marker is a steel spire around 5 metres tall in the shape of the flagpole that sits on top of Parliament House in Canberra. Similarly there is an Aussie flag flying proudly on top. Sitting at Latitude 25 degrees, 36 minutes, 36.6 seconds and Longditude 134 Degrees, 21 Minutes, 17.3 seconds, Lamberts Centre is described as the "planimetric centre of gravity of mainland Australia". The site was located and marked in 1988 after more than 2 years of complex computer calculations by the Royal Geogpahic Society of Australia (QLD) Inc.
After some lunch and photos it was time to go and after the 14km back to the Finke road we turned east on our way to Finke to find a camp spot for the night.
Our plan from here was to head back towards Alice Springs along the Old Ghan Railway line which runs from Finke, 245km north into Alice Springs. The Finke Desert Race had been run a couple of weeks earlier and we would actually be following the race track back into Alice.
Not finding much in the way of good camp sites in Finke itself, we decided to start heading north along the OGR and bush camp. We managed to find a good spot about 10km up that had obviously been well used by other campers during the race weekend. In fact evidence of the race was everywhere with track markers and even the finish line in Finke still in place.
While we had only tackled 10km of the OGR it was very rough going and indicative of what the remainder of the track would be like over the next couple of days.
After setting up the camper the girls helped me collect a pile of firewood. They love getting involved and as they get bigger it is easier to find jobs for them to do. Jen filmed as the girls waddled into camp with armfulls of firewood and we enjoyed a nice big camp fire to keep the freezing night at bay.
That night we enjoyed absolute silence for the first time in a while.
Stop 47 - Kulgera, NT - 1 night
Arrived: 25 June 2006
Last week in Alice Springs
we heard on the news that a Japanese man had died when his car had
left the Lasseter Highway on his way out to Uluru. On the way back
out along the highway heading for Kulgera it was easy to see the
site where the accident had happened with dark tyre marks and piles
of debris on the edge of the road. Having encountered a number of
accidents on our trip so far, including one of our own, I was
interested to see what had caused the accident.
The road was straight and smooth and the cars skid marks made it appear that the driver had either fallen asleep or swerved to miss an animal. The car or van had ended up rolling over off the road.
We stopped again at Erldunda for some lunch (not fuel which we bought much cheaper back at Yulara) and picked up a bag of oranges from a pallet that an entreprenurial farmer from the riverland down south had brought up on his truck. Oranges are one of the best fruits to carry while travelling as they are very durable. We nearly always have a few kicking around in the fridge and they are great to eat on a hot day.
Kulgera is another 74km south of Erldunda on the Stuart Highway and is where we planed to turnoff east heading for Lasseters Centre of Australia.
Tonight however we were content to camp the night at the Kulgera Roadhouse where we had some beers while the girls pumped coins into the duke box and set the dance floor on fire.
Next morning we were back on the road by about 9am and I let the tyres down to about 30psi as the smooth bitumen reverted to corrugated dirt once again.
The road was straight and smooth and the cars skid marks made it appear that the driver had either fallen asleep or swerved to miss an animal. The car or van had ended up rolling over off the road.
We stopped again at Erldunda for some lunch (not fuel which we bought much cheaper back at Yulara) and picked up a bag of oranges from a pallet that an entreprenurial farmer from the riverland down south had brought up on his truck. Oranges are one of the best fruits to carry while travelling as they are very durable. We nearly always have a few kicking around in the fridge and they are great to eat on a hot day.
Kulgera is another 74km south of Erldunda on the Stuart Highway and is where we planed to turnoff east heading for Lasseters Centre of Australia.
Tonight however we were content to camp the night at the Kulgera Roadhouse where we had some beers while the girls pumped coins into the duke box and set the dance floor on fire.
Next morning we were back on the road by about 9am and I let the tyres down to about 30psi as the smooth bitumen reverted to corrugated dirt once again.
Stop 46 - Yulara (Uluru), NT - 4 nights
Arrived: 21 June 2006
Tearing ourselves away from
Dinkys performance we continued south destined for Yulara and our
redezvous with our good friend Jackie who was due to meet us there
tomorrow.
Erldunda is a roadhouse at the turnoff to Yulara and Uluru, 200km south of Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway. We stopped in for some snacks and a drink and I checked the fuel price as I always do, not that I needed any. $1.75 per litre for diesel!!! This was about 38 cents more than we'd paid in Alice Springs 200km back up the road. I must admit it seemed pretty opportunistic to me. Fair enough you expect a premium at remoter places due to transport costs etc., but 38 cents a litre. No thanks.
The rest of the drive to Yulara was easy and uneventful with 244 km of good straight bitumen road running across the flat desert plains.
Mt Connor fools most people on their first trip out to "The Rock" as it resembles Uluru. We caught our first glimpses of the real rock through the sand dunes about 50km out and it gradually loomed larger as we got closer to Yulara.
Yulara is the resort town purpose built to service the Ulura NP tourist trade. It was built back in the 1980's by the NT government at a cost of around half a billion dollars and was recently sold to the Voyages company for apparently under $250 million. The resort consists of several hotels ranging from 5 star luxury down to backpacker standard and a large camp ground to cater for the camping travellers, caravanners and tour groups. The resort was designed with environmental consideration and sits low and unobtrusively in the landscape and is a great base from which to explore the region.
We headed into the camp ground and Jen managed to negotiate us into a powered site despite there being officially none left (she's pretty handy to have along).
Setting up camp we chilled out and escaped the night cold in our heated annex (nice).
Jackies plane landed at the nearby Connellan Airport around lunchtime next day and we were there to meet her. Big hugs and back slaps and we had her bags in the cruiser and were heading back to Yulara for some lunch. Taking an unintentional walking tour of the resort we eventually made it into the central "piazza" area where the supermarket, shops, cafe and restaurant are to be found. Not having seen Jackie for many months there was plenty of catching up over pies, chips and coffee for lunch. Jackie has known Savanna and Sara since they were born so there is a strong bond there and Jen and I sat in the sidelines most of the time while the girls monopolised her. There followed some obligatory shopping and a drop into the only place in the resort you can buy take away alcohol, the backpacker hotel. Due to problems with the local indigineous folks abusing alcohol, the local community has imposed limits on the amount of take aways that can be sold to everyone so we were limited to a 6 pack of beer and 2 bottles of wine per camp site per day (should have stocked up in Alice). This would have to suffice and so sipping techniques would be endured to eck out this meager ration.
Next morning (not surprisingly without a hang over), Jackie and I braved the freezing temperature to drive out and see the sunrise over the eastern side of the rock. Admission into the national park is through a check point on the way out where we parted with $25 each for our 3 day pass and then drove around to the back of the rock to join several hundred other like minded rock watchers. The sunrise is as spectacular as the sunset with the rock glowing a deep orange as the sun peaks over the horizon. I managed to get some great shots but due to commercial photography restrictions with this side being particularly sacred, can't include these in any of our published works - so you'll just need to go and see it for yourself.
Back at camp we tucked into breakfast and managed to convince Jen and the girls to escort us out there again tomorrow morning to take in the spectacle with the promise of a tailgate cooked breakfast of pancakes and coffee offering some extra incentive.
I had decided that a decent haircut was in order and dragged out the shears, this time going for the shortest option, a number 1. Jackie videoed the event while Jen did the honours and 10 minutes later I was left looking like a freshly recruited marine soldier.
Later in the day it was back to the rock where we walked past the start of the climb hike and instead wandered a km or so around the base. The actual climb of the rock is frowned upon these days by the traditional owners, although it is not prohibited unless the wind is too strong. I've climbed it several times in the past so have no compelling desire to leg it up there again. Not that you would take 2 and 5 year old kids up there unless you were completely stupid.
It's a personal decision to climb against the wishes of the traditional owners but it is a very challenging and hence rewarding climb. The first section where there is a chain to hold onto is the hardest and is where most of the accidents (heart attacks and falls) have occured. Making it past the top of the chain the climb gets easier as it weaves it's way across the top of the rock to the centre and highest point. A visitors book is there to sign your name and some photos and a rest are essential. Coming back down, the last section with the chain (the start as you went up) is difficult as your legs are tired and stepping constanly down the steep drop for several hundred metres has your knees threatening to give way.
Anyway, we explored around the base for a few hours finding some nice rock art and some sheltered nooks which have been used by the aboriginal people for 40,000 years or more. Sitting under a rock overhang it was easy to imagine how much of an oasis in the desert the rock would have been for the local tribes over the millenia. It really is an awe inspiring place and justifiably a sacred site.
That evening we headed for the sunset viewing carpark with chairs and table and a fridge full of "patio" and drinks. I've mentioned "Patio" before. You won't find it in the dictionary yet but it is the act of finding a nice spot to watch the sunset and settling in and enjoying some dip, biccies, drinks etc. Well, it was Jackie and her former partner Matt who introduced us to the concept many years ago, so it was appropriate to indulge while we were together.
We setup our table and layed out the spread and enjoyed another spectacular Uluru sunset - magnificent. Being the last to leave, we stopping in for some more drinks on the way back to camp we ended up having quite a session despite being on rations. This didn't prevent us from getting up early the next morning and heading out to see the rock sunrise again. The heater in the car soon had us defrosting on the way out and we found a good spot to watch the sunrise and cook up a pancake feast.
Feast would actually be an overstatement as my little hiking stove and frying pan struggled with the concept of making many pancakes and boiling water for coffee and tea as well. Nonetheless it was fun again we were there carrying on long after most others had left.
Most of our travelling activities revolve around food and today was no different with breakfast, lunch and dinner organised around one attraction or another.
Kata Tjuta is the other major attraction which cannot be missed. Rather than one being rock like Uluru, Kata Tjuta is a collectrion of about 28 domes which the aboriginals look at as heads. Kata Tjuta actually translates to "many heads". It's an easy 53km drive from the rock along a sealed road and after a stop back at camp to get organised and restock for lunch and dinner we meandered out there.
We had lunch in the picnic area while Sara spent most of the time asleep in the car - must have been the early start. There are a couple of walks in and around the domes. One is longer and more challenging and the other is a relatively easy 2 or 3km stroll in and out. Having the kids in tow we not surprisingly opted for the easy one which still gave us a great sense of the awesome spectacle of these domes. The walk took us up a gorge in between two domes where ther is seats for a rest at the top.
That evening we watched the sunset over KataTjuta after a dinner of lamb chops cooked on our camp kitchen which we'd relocated from the camper to the back of the car for the occasion. Again, magnificent!
Tonight was our last night and we made the most of our time with Jackie over a few more drinks back at camp.
In the morning it was time to break camp and sadly drop Jackie back at Connellan Airport on our way to Kulgera, back on the Stuart Highway.
Erldunda is a roadhouse at the turnoff to Yulara and Uluru, 200km south of Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway. We stopped in for some snacks and a drink and I checked the fuel price as I always do, not that I needed any. $1.75 per litre for diesel!!! This was about 38 cents more than we'd paid in Alice Springs 200km back up the road. I must admit it seemed pretty opportunistic to me. Fair enough you expect a premium at remoter places due to transport costs etc., but 38 cents a litre. No thanks.
The rest of the drive to Yulara was easy and uneventful with 244 km of good straight bitumen road running across the flat desert plains.
Mt Connor fools most people on their first trip out to "The Rock" as it resembles Uluru. We caught our first glimpses of the real rock through the sand dunes about 50km out and it gradually loomed larger as we got closer to Yulara.
Yulara is the resort town purpose built to service the Ulura NP tourist trade. It was built back in the 1980's by the NT government at a cost of around half a billion dollars and was recently sold to the Voyages company for apparently under $250 million. The resort consists of several hotels ranging from 5 star luxury down to backpacker standard and a large camp ground to cater for the camping travellers, caravanners and tour groups. The resort was designed with environmental consideration and sits low and unobtrusively in the landscape and is a great base from which to explore the region.
We headed into the camp ground and Jen managed to negotiate us into a powered site despite there being officially none left (she's pretty handy to have along).
Setting up camp we chilled out and escaped the night cold in our heated annex (nice).
Jackies plane landed at the nearby Connellan Airport around lunchtime next day and we were there to meet her. Big hugs and back slaps and we had her bags in the cruiser and were heading back to Yulara for some lunch. Taking an unintentional walking tour of the resort we eventually made it into the central "piazza" area where the supermarket, shops, cafe and restaurant are to be found. Not having seen Jackie for many months there was plenty of catching up over pies, chips and coffee for lunch. Jackie has known Savanna and Sara since they were born so there is a strong bond there and Jen and I sat in the sidelines most of the time while the girls monopolised her. There followed some obligatory shopping and a drop into the only place in the resort you can buy take away alcohol, the backpacker hotel. Due to problems with the local indigineous folks abusing alcohol, the local community has imposed limits on the amount of take aways that can be sold to everyone so we were limited to a 6 pack of beer and 2 bottles of wine per camp site per day (should have stocked up in Alice). This would have to suffice and so sipping techniques would be endured to eck out this meager ration.
Next morning (not surprisingly without a hang over), Jackie and I braved the freezing temperature to drive out and see the sunrise over the eastern side of the rock. Admission into the national park is through a check point on the way out where we parted with $25 each for our 3 day pass and then drove around to the back of the rock to join several hundred other like minded rock watchers. The sunrise is as spectacular as the sunset with the rock glowing a deep orange as the sun peaks over the horizon. I managed to get some great shots but due to commercial photography restrictions with this side being particularly sacred, can't include these in any of our published works - so you'll just need to go and see it for yourself.
Back at camp we tucked into breakfast and managed to convince Jen and the girls to escort us out there again tomorrow morning to take in the spectacle with the promise of a tailgate cooked breakfast of pancakes and coffee offering some extra incentive.
I had decided that a decent haircut was in order and dragged out the shears, this time going for the shortest option, a number 1. Jackie videoed the event while Jen did the honours and 10 minutes later I was left looking like a freshly recruited marine soldier.
Later in the day it was back to the rock where we walked past the start of the climb hike and instead wandered a km or so around the base. The actual climb of the rock is frowned upon these days by the traditional owners, although it is not prohibited unless the wind is too strong. I've climbed it several times in the past so have no compelling desire to leg it up there again. Not that you would take 2 and 5 year old kids up there unless you were completely stupid.
It's a personal decision to climb against the wishes of the traditional owners but it is a very challenging and hence rewarding climb. The first section where there is a chain to hold onto is the hardest and is where most of the accidents (heart attacks and falls) have occured. Making it past the top of the chain the climb gets easier as it weaves it's way across the top of the rock to the centre and highest point. A visitors book is there to sign your name and some photos and a rest are essential. Coming back down, the last section with the chain (the start as you went up) is difficult as your legs are tired and stepping constanly down the steep drop for several hundred metres has your knees threatening to give way.
Anyway, we explored around the base for a few hours finding some nice rock art and some sheltered nooks which have been used by the aboriginal people for 40,000 years or more. Sitting under a rock overhang it was easy to imagine how much of an oasis in the desert the rock would have been for the local tribes over the millenia. It really is an awe inspiring place and justifiably a sacred site.
That evening we headed for the sunset viewing carpark with chairs and table and a fridge full of "patio" and drinks. I've mentioned "Patio" before. You won't find it in the dictionary yet but it is the act of finding a nice spot to watch the sunset and settling in and enjoying some dip, biccies, drinks etc. Well, it was Jackie and her former partner Matt who introduced us to the concept many years ago, so it was appropriate to indulge while we were together.
We setup our table and layed out the spread and enjoyed another spectacular Uluru sunset - magnificent. Being the last to leave, we stopping in for some more drinks on the way back to camp we ended up having quite a session despite being on rations. This didn't prevent us from getting up early the next morning and heading out to see the rock sunrise again. The heater in the car soon had us defrosting on the way out and we found a good spot to watch the sunrise and cook up a pancake feast.
Feast would actually be an overstatement as my little hiking stove and frying pan struggled with the concept of making many pancakes and boiling water for coffee and tea as well. Nonetheless it was fun again we were there carrying on long after most others had left.
Most of our travelling activities revolve around food and today was no different with breakfast, lunch and dinner organised around one attraction or another.
Kata Tjuta is the other major attraction which cannot be missed. Rather than one being rock like Uluru, Kata Tjuta is a collectrion of about 28 domes which the aboriginals look at as heads. Kata Tjuta actually translates to "many heads". It's an easy 53km drive from the rock along a sealed road and after a stop back at camp to get organised and restock for lunch and dinner we meandered out there.
We had lunch in the picnic area while Sara spent most of the time asleep in the car - must have been the early start. There are a couple of walks in and around the domes. One is longer and more challenging and the other is a relatively easy 2 or 3km stroll in and out. Having the kids in tow we not surprisingly opted for the easy one which still gave us a great sense of the awesome spectacle of these domes. The walk took us up a gorge in between two domes where ther is seats for a rest at the top.
That evening we watched the sunset over KataTjuta after a dinner of lamb chops cooked on our camp kitchen which we'd relocated from the camper to the back of the car for the occasion. Again, magnificent!
Tonight was our last night and we made the most of our time with Jackie over a few more drinks back at camp.
In the morning it was time to break camp and sadly drop Jackie back at Connellan Airport on our way to Kulgera, back on the Stuart Highway.
Stop 45 - Stuarts Well, NT - 1 night
Arrived: 20 June 2006
While we were heading in the
direction of Uluru, we didn't actually make it that far. Many
people have the impression that Uluru is just down the road from
Alice Springs, which I suppose it is, albeit 445km down the road.
We opted to break it up and, not having stopped their before, we
pulled into Stuarts Well for a look.
Quirky is a word I would use to describe many of the roadhouses you find in the outback. They are often resplendent in unusual attractions like snakes in jars, car wrecks and comical signs. Stuarts Well is no different except it is animals that make it special.
Next to the free camping area (yes, FREE!) is a large fenced area housing a motley collection of both native and feral animals, some of which like the Wedge Tail Eagle were rescued from the roadside by the caring owners of the roadhouse.
Sitting proudly in the yard is an old bus that looks like it has been around the continent a dozen times in it's long life. By the hand painted signs adorning it we could see it was once a travelling camel show and was now retired to be a fixed home for the small herd of camels in the yard. The camels handler was very helpful explaining to us how he finds and manages the camels and we all learn't a lot about these amazing creatures. I've always had a soft spot for camels, not that I've ever had much to do with them. it's just that they are so well adapted to the harsh desert environment I can't help but respect their abilities. That and the fact that they have a bit of attitude which makes them all the more interesting.
The roadhouse is also becoming famous for "Dinky" their trained singing dingo and we were promised a demonstration the next morning.
That night we enjoyed a few coldies and some dinner in the bar before settling in to watch the final episode of Survivor (my favorite show). We had picked up a little $30 BW tele in Freemantle some months back to attempt to watch the Survivor series along the way and had encountered mixed success. Tonight however we were stopped somewhere with TV reception so we were glad to be able to watch the finale in colour. Jen and I have a track record over the years of missing the last episode of just about every TV series we've ever watched. We don't know how anything ends!!
Unfortunately tonight would be no different. Being the final it was a 2 hour episode and the roadhouse owners, not sharing our passion for the show and feeling no sympathy for us, closed the door around 9pm, half and hour from the end of the show. We bolted back to our camp and dragged out the little back and white from the depths of the camper trailer, dusted it off and attempted to tune it in, but the best we could achieve was sound. so at least we heard who won even if we couldn't see it. Doh!!! Another in our list of "didn't see it end" TV series.
Next morning, still disgruntled about being shoved out at 9am, we headed back to the bar to see Dinky. Savanna was called up to play the piano and Dinky was led up to stand on the keyboard beside her. Right on cue, as Savanna started tickling the ivories, Dinky started howling a tune and I have to admit it was impressive to see. Apparently Dinky just started doing this one day. No training! If we could get the three camels in there to do backing vocals then we'd have some world class entertainment.
Quirky is a word I would use to describe many of the roadhouses you find in the outback. They are often resplendent in unusual attractions like snakes in jars, car wrecks and comical signs. Stuarts Well is no different except it is animals that make it special.
Next to the free camping area (yes, FREE!) is a large fenced area housing a motley collection of both native and feral animals, some of which like the Wedge Tail Eagle were rescued from the roadside by the caring owners of the roadhouse.
Sitting proudly in the yard is an old bus that looks like it has been around the continent a dozen times in it's long life. By the hand painted signs adorning it we could see it was once a travelling camel show and was now retired to be a fixed home for the small herd of camels in the yard. The camels handler was very helpful explaining to us how he finds and manages the camels and we all learn't a lot about these amazing creatures. I've always had a soft spot for camels, not that I've ever had much to do with them. it's just that they are so well adapted to the harsh desert environment I can't help but respect their abilities. That and the fact that they have a bit of attitude which makes them all the more interesting.
The roadhouse is also becoming famous for "Dinky" their trained singing dingo and we were promised a demonstration the next morning.
That night we enjoyed a few coldies and some dinner in the bar before settling in to watch the final episode of Survivor (my favorite show). We had picked up a little $30 BW tele in Freemantle some months back to attempt to watch the Survivor series along the way and had encountered mixed success. Tonight however we were stopped somewhere with TV reception so we were glad to be able to watch the finale in colour. Jen and I have a track record over the years of missing the last episode of just about every TV series we've ever watched. We don't know how anything ends!!
Unfortunately tonight would be no different. Being the final it was a 2 hour episode and the roadhouse owners, not sharing our passion for the show and feeling no sympathy for us, closed the door around 9pm, half and hour from the end of the show. We bolted back to our camp and dragged out the little back and white from the depths of the camper trailer, dusted it off and attempted to tune it in, but the best we could achieve was sound. so at least we heard who won even if we couldn't see it. Doh!!! Another in our list of "didn't see it end" TV series.
Next morning, still disgruntled about being shoved out at 9am, we headed back to the bar to see Dinky. Savanna was called up to play the piano and Dinky was led up to stand on the keyboard beside her. Right on cue, as Savanna started tickling the ivories, Dinky started howling a tune and I have to admit it was impressive to see. Apparently Dinky just started doing this one day. No training! If we could get the three camels in there to do backing vocals then we'd have some world class entertainment.
Stop 44 - Alice Springs, NT - 8 nights
Arrived: 12 June 2006
Driving into Alice Springs
seemed like driving into a city after months and months of the
outback. Of course Alice Springs is really just a big country town
relative to a real city but it just depends on your
perspective.
We had heard about one of the caravan parks running a free pancake breaky on Sunday mornings and given that we would be here on a Sunday we decided to check it out. Turned out to be the McDonnell Range CP so we headed over there to check in.
We'd timed out arrival into Alice to coincide with the end of the Finke Desert Race weekend when we figured the town would be full to overflowing and hard to get into. We were sort of on the right track except still a day early as most of the participants and spectators were still there. The caravan park managed to squeeze us in but we would have to move sites the following day for the remainder of our week stay. The things we'll do for a few free pancakes!! The park certainly impressed us with the quality of it's facilities and frankly you could not find anything to be unhappy about. But at about $43 a night it was the most expensive place we'd stayed on the whole trip and you'd expect a little comfort.
We set up camp as temporarily as we could and spent the remainder of the afternoon organising gear, checking emails and making phone calls as you do when touching down in civilisation for the first time in a while. What we should have been doing was going out to buy a small fan heater as we were to discover after it was too late to do anything about it.
As the sun went down, so did the temperature and by about 6pm it was freezing, maybe not literally but close enough. So cold we couldn't stand to be outside the camper making dinner or doing anything else for that matter. A vote was taken and it was decided to send me out to get some take away for dinner and given that I would get to enjoy the heater in the car for a while I was glad to go.
Red Rooster and their family sized "traditional roast dinner" won and I made it back to camp about half an hour later with an armfull of hot food. We ate dinner huddled on our bed rugged up to the max and soon after crawled under the cover fully clothed to try and get warm which we almost achieved.
Next morning I reached out of the cocoon for my watch which has a temperature gauge on it and saw that it was -4 degrees. Not a lot of incentive to get up.
Suffice to say first on todays to do list after moving camp as planned was to buy a fan heater which we did - $35 well spent, and it made all the difference. The remainded of our stay in the red centre where we had power available was quite cosy. Incidentally we found out that Alice Springs recorded its coldest June on record with 10 days below freezing.
In town I picked up some info about the Larapinta Trail from the information centre. I had long been planning a 3 night hike along a section of the the 240km trail which was the main reason for our one week stop in the Alice. Jen and the girls would chill out at the McDonnell Ranges Caravan Park while I went and wandered around the actual McDonnell Ranges themselves.
There were a few gear items I needed so a stop into the local camping shop took care of them. We picked up a new table to replace our other one which, having fallen off the roof of the Landcruiser a few times including during our rollover last year, was ready to retire. The new one was much better, smaller in size, lighter and had adjustable height legs so we could bring it up to working height while making dinner etc. much easier on the the old back.
Jen got stuck into the washing which would take about a dozen loads to get on top of. In caravan parks that are busy there is often a race on in the mornings to get to the washing machines and get the clothes onto the lines where they can then stay all day. If you don't get that line space early, you're buggered as it goes fast. Jen's become quite adept at working the system to make sure our clothes get the primo full sun line space and these days she hardly ever has to resort to violence to get it. See why I love her so much.
I sorted my pack and as usual had way too much stuff. Every time I go on hike like this I take too much and spend the whole time thinking about how next time I'll carry much less. But do I ever learn? No!
With my pack overflowing Jen and the girsl dropped me off at Simpsons Gap, about 20 or so KM out of town. My plan was to walk along the trail to Standley Chasm about 40km down the track heading out of town. Walking alone, I had the sat phone for emergencies and planned to call Jen every day to touch base.
There really is nothing I love more than to get out into the bush for a decent hike and while going with other people is good, going it alone is something different altogether. There is something about being totally independent and reliant on myself that I find enjoyable and challenging every now and then. I'm certainly not into taking unneccessary risks but sometimes you have to push the boundaries a little to really appreciate life at it's most simplest level.
This hike certainly didn't dissappoint. The countryside is rugged and spectacular and surprisingly devoid of animal life. Not that it isn't there, it is just hard to see. The McDonnell Ranges run west to east with Alice Springs in the middle. I was in the western section on section 2 and 3 of the 12 sections that comprise the full Larapinta Trail.
I met a few people along the way, the first being only about an hour after Jen dropped me off. The guys name was Sylvester and he was going solo like me but in the other direction.
I also met a couple fo guys one from England and the other from Germany who were doing the entire 240km. We shared a camp one night and hearing some of the walks they had already done, had no doubt they would get all the way through.
I took plenty of photos and some video but it is hard to capture an experience like this as it is more about how it makes you feel than what you see along the way. For the most part the track was quite easy going and I was not exactly setting a cracking pace at about 12 to 18km per day. On the third day there was a section of the track where you could go up and over the ridgeline (the hard way) or down through the valley (the easy way). Feeling confident I opted for the ridge track and was rewarded with some amazing views over the ranges. I sat up top and had lunch and felt pretty damn good about myself.
The climb down was way harder than the one up and seemed to go on endlessly winding down a cycad infested gully. Rock hoping and sliding on my backside for much the way I reached a point where I had to get my pack off, let it down in front of me to a ledge with some rope then climb down after it. All was going well until I swung around and whacked my thumb on the edge of a rock which resulted in a fairly colourful display of language. Nothing broken but it made it pretty hard to use my right hand for most of the rest of the crawl down.
Camp that night was not far from the bottom of the climb and needless to say I slept pretty well. I had arranged to meet Jen at the car park at Standley Chasm the following morning and figured that 3 hours would be plenty of time to walk the last 5 or 6 km. I actually figured I'd get there about half an hour early and boil the billy while waiting but it didn't pan out that way. The walk down through the gorges towards Standley Chasm was probably the most stunning views of my walk so far and I needed to stop and get photos around just about every corner.
There was one section where the track approached a vertical rock waterfall about 5 or 6 metres high. There was no water flowing over it but the track seemed to turn right and head straight up the side of the hill into the scrub. Feeling a little nervous I started climbing up with the reassurances on the track guide sheet running through my mind that there were no dangerous sections. It kept going and going, real hands and feet stuff, and after about 10 metres of climbing I could see that there was at least another 15 or 20 metres to go but there was no way I could climb back down as it was too steep and slippery. Not being much of a mountain goat I was quietly %$#*@$ myself at this point but determined to get to the top and not end up sprawled on the rocks at the bottom. Slowly but surely, one hand/foot at a time I kept telling myself as I edged to the top. The surface was loose dirt and rock and many of the apparently sound rocks I held onto for leverage moved once I put some weight on them. There were alo plenty of other peoples tracks and slide marks where they had obviously made the same manouvres as me.
After about 15 minutes I could see the track levelling off not far above me and I resisted the urge to sprint to the top. Standing up on both feet finally was a big relief - the thrill of having made it mixed with the after affects of an adrenaline rush.
I found the remnants of the track running up over the ridge and down the other side to meet up with the creekbed about 200 metres upstream from the water fall.
All the way down I was disbelieving that this was the track as it was just too dangerous and not clearly marked like the rest of the track. My suspicions were confirmed when I joined the main track running down the creek towards the top of the water fall. Not content to let it go, I walked back down the track to the top of the water fall and looking over the edge I could see that the track actually came up the edge of the water fall! I had missed the marker at the bottom, as had many others judging by the wear and tear on the hillside I'd just climbed. I made a mental note to write to the people who maintain the track and suggest they do some more work on the markings at the bottom of the waterfall.
The last challenge before the end was on the way down through Standley Chasm. The track actually goes up and around but I had met a group the day before who said it was possible to get up and down through the Chasm so, feeling bolstered from my cliff climb and hour or so earlier, I figured I'd give it a go.
The Chasm is amazing with sheer rock walls either side and some real tight squeezes and rock scrambles. The best spot was where I literally needed to lower my pack down through a gap in the chasm floor onto a rock ledge, then follow it down onto the ledge. A slip would end in a 4 or 5 metre fall into a shallow rocky pool so I edged my way around the rocky ledge and eventually down to the chasm floor. Like crawling through a cave with actually being underground. I imagine this is something what canyoning is like in the Blue Mountains (perhaps I'll give that a go when we get over that way).
Continuing on I knew the tough stuff was over when an elderly couple came walking up the chasm towards me and 10 minutes later I was reunited with Jen and the girls in the carpark where after much hugs and kisses we spent half an hour competing to tell each other what we'd been doing for the past 3 days.
While I was out on the trail, Jen and the girls had met another family in the park. In fact Sara had initiated the contact by wandering off from Jen and inviting herself into their camp where Jen eventually found her.
Niel and Libby were travelling with their three kids, Emma, Robert and Thomas and they were on a one year trek from Canberra to Perth where they planned to stop for 12 months. Neil had picked up a heap of glow sticks from eBay and treated the kids to glow stick walks around the caravan park after dark which they loved.
Back at camp I had a chance to meet Neil and Libby and their small tribe and we all hit it off - great people. I even got treated to a glow stick walk as well. Cool!!
Jen and the girls had also enjoyed some pancakes with strawberries from a pancake van setup in the park and enjoyed a didgeridoo show one night. They would have spent some time in one of the parks pools but the water was icy cold, even too cold for Savanna which is saying something (not sure why they don't get some solar heating going given that most of their customers are there in the winter months!!)
The "Cars" movie was playing in town so Jen had treated the girls to a matinee which I got a long and detailed account of from the girls. I actually feel like I've seen the film now
With a few days left in Alice Springs after my hike I was determined to get some things done, the first being to take the girls out to dinner at the Italian restaurant for some pizza and the best home made vanilla slice we've ever eaten (it was sensational!!)
Next was some washing of the clothes I'd been hiking in for 3 days and a resupply trip to BiLo. We also dropped in to see an open air kids circus which was amazing. A troupe of local kids entertained us for a couple of hours as they performed acrobatics and stunts.
Finally Sunday morning came and it was time for the free pancake breaky. With plates and cutlery and mugs in hand we joined the queue and had the chance to have a chat with the others around us. Despite cooking 16 dinner plate sized pancakes at a time on their purpose built trailer, the line moved slowly. Not that anyone was in a hurry and enjoyed the chance for a chat.
The pancakes were great and I ended up going around three times before calling it a day. There were a group of enthusiastic competitors trying to beat the pancake eating record to raise some money for camp quality. I say enthusiastic because they started that way but the motivation started to wane after 5 or 6 pancakes and was completely gone as they approached 10. One by one they dropped out of contention retiring to the wings to ponder their folly and in the end the final two competitors made it to a respectable 11 pancakes each. That's an amazing effort considering I was full after 3 and I can eat.
That afternoon we had a small birthday party celebration with Neil and Libby and kids for Emma's 6th birthday followed that night by a glow stick walk.
After a lazy day on the Monday we hit the road on Tuesday morning heading South on our way to Uluru.
We had heard about one of the caravan parks running a free pancake breaky on Sunday mornings and given that we would be here on a Sunday we decided to check it out. Turned out to be the McDonnell Range CP so we headed over there to check in.
We'd timed out arrival into Alice to coincide with the end of the Finke Desert Race weekend when we figured the town would be full to overflowing and hard to get into. We were sort of on the right track except still a day early as most of the participants and spectators were still there. The caravan park managed to squeeze us in but we would have to move sites the following day for the remainder of our week stay. The things we'll do for a few free pancakes!! The park certainly impressed us with the quality of it's facilities and frankly you could not find anything to be unhappy about. But at about $43 a night it was the most expensive place we'd stayed on the whole trip and you'd expect a little comfort.
We set up camp as temporarily as we could and spent the remainder of the afternoon organising gear, checking emails and making phone calls as you do when touching down in civilisation for the first time in a while. What we should have been doing was going out to buy a small fan heater as we were to discover after it was too late to do anything about it.
As the sun went down, so did the temperature and by about 6pm it was freezing, maybe not literally but close enough. So cold we couldn't stand to be outside the camper making dinner or doing anything else for that matter. A vote was taken and it was decided to send me out to get some take away for dinner and given that I would get to enjoy the heater in the car for a while I was glad to go.
Red Rooster and their family sized "traditional roast dinner" won and I made it back to camp about half an hour later with an armfull of hot food. We ate dinner huddled on our bed rugged up to the max and soon after crawled under the cover fully clothed to try and get warm which we almost achieved.
Next morning I reached out of the cocoon for my watch which has a temperature gauge on it and saw that it was -4 degrees. Not a lot of incentive to get up.
Suffice to say first on todays to do list after moving camp as planned was to buy a fan heater which we did - $35 well spent, and it made all the difference. The remainded of our stay in the red centre where we had power available was quite cosy. Incidentally we found out that Alice Springs recorded its coldest June on record with 10 days below freezing.
In town I picked up some info about the Larapinta Trail from the information centre. I had long been planning a 3 night hike along a section of the the 240km trail which was the main reason for our one week stop in the Alice. Jen and the girls would chill out at the McDonnell Ranges Caravan Park while I went and wandered around the actual McDonnell Ranges themselves.
There were a few gear items I needed so a stop into the local camping shop took care of them. We picked up a new table to replace our other one which, having fallen off the roof of the Landcruiser a few times including during our rollover last year, was ready to retire. The new one was much better, smaller in size, lighter and had adjustable height legs so we could bring it up to working height while making dinner etc. much easier on the the old back.
Jen got stuck into the washing which would take about a dozen loads to get on top of. In caravan parks that are busy there is often a race on in the mornings to get to the washing machines and get the clothes onto the lines where they can then stay all day. If you don't get that line space early, you're buggered as it goes fast. Jen's become quite adept at working the system to make sure our clothes get the primo full sun line space and these days she hardly ever has to resort to violence to get it. See why I love her so much.
I sorted my pack and as usual had way too much stuff. Every time I go on hike like this I take too much and spend the whole time thinking about how next time I'll carry much less. But do I ever learn? No!
With my pack overflowing Jen and the girsl dropped me off at Simpsons Gap, about 20 or so KM out of town. My plan was to walk along the trail to Standley Chasm about 40km down the track heading out of town. Walking alone, I had the sat phone for emergencies and planned to call Jen every day to touch base.
There really is nothing I love more than to get out into the bush for a decent hike and while going with other people is good, going it alone is something different altogether. There is something about being totally independent and reliant on myself that I find enjoyable and challenging every now and then. I'm certainly not into taking unneccessary risks but sometimes you have to push the boundaries a little to really appreciate life at it's most simplest level.
This hike certainly didn't dissappoint. The countryside is rugged and spectacular and surprisingly devoid of animal life. Not that it isn't there, it is just hard to see. The McDonnell Ranges run west to east with Alice Springs in the middle. I was in the western section on section 2 and 3 of the 12 sections that comprise the full Larapinta Trail.
I met a few people along the way, the first being only about an hour after Jen dropped me off. The guys name was Sylvester and he was going solo like me but in the other direction.
I also met a couple fo guys one from England and the other from Germany who were doing the entire 240km. We shared a camp one night and hearing some of the walks they had already done, had no doubt they would get all the way through.
I took plenty of photos and some video but it is hard to capture an experience like this as it is more about how it makes you feel than what you see along the way. For the most part the track was quite easy going and I was not exactly setting a cracking pace at about 12 to 18km per day. On the third day there was a section of the track where you could go up and over the ridgeline (the hard way) or down through the valley (the easy way). Feeling confident I opted for the ridge track and was rewarded with some amazing views over the ranges. I sat up top and had lunch and felt pretty damn good about myself.
The climb down was way harder than the one up and seemed to go on endlessly winding down a cycad infested gully. Rock hoping and sliding on my backside for much the way I reached a point where I had to get my pack off, let it down in front of me to a ledge with some rope then climb down after it. All was going well until I swung around and whacked my thumb on the edge of a rock which resulted in a fairly colourful display of language. Nothing broken but it made it pretty hard to use my right hand for most of the rest of the crawl down.
Camp that night was not far from the bottom of the climb and needless to say I slept pretty well. I had arranged to meet Jen at the car park at Standley Chasm the following morning and figured that 3 hours would be plenty of time to walk the last 5 or 6 km. I actually figured I'd get there about half an hour early and boil the billy while waiting but it didn't pan out that way. The walk down through the gorges towards Standley Chasm was probably the most stunning views of my walk so far and I needed to stop and get photos around just about every corner.
There was one section where the track approached a vertical rock waterfall about 5 or 6 metres high. There was no water flowing over it but the track seemed to turn right and head straight up the side of the hill into the scrub. Feeling a little nervous I started climbing up with the reassurances on the track guide sheet running through my mind that there were no dangerous sections. It kept going and going, real hands and feet stuff, and after about 10 metres of climbing I could see that there was at least another 15 or 20 metres to go but there was no way I could climb back down as it was too steep and slippery. Not being much of a mountain goat I was quietly %$#*@$ myself at this point but determined to get to the top and not end up sprawled on the rocks at the bottom. Slowly but surely, one hand/foot at a time I kept telling myself as I edged to the top. The surface was loose dirt and rock and many of the apparently sound rocks I held onto for leverage moved once I put some weight on them. There were alo plenty of other peoples tracks and slide marks where they had obviously made the same manouvres as me.
After about 15 minutes I could see the track levelling off not far above me and I resisted the urge to sprint to the top. Standing up on both feet finally was a big relief - the thrill of having made it mixed with the after affects of an adrenaline rush.
I found the remnants of the track running up over the ridge and down the other side to meet up with the creekbed about 200 metres upstream from the water fall.
All the way down I was disbelieving that this was the track as it was just too dangerous and not clearly marked like the rest of the track. My suspicions were confirmed when I joined the main track running down the creek towards the top of the water fall. Not content to let it go, I walked back down the track to the top of the water fall and looking over the edge I could see that the track actually came up the edge of the water fall! I had missed the marker at the bottom, as had many others judging by the wear and tear on the hillside I'd just climbed. I made a mental note to write to the people who maintain the track and suggest they do some more work on the markings at the bottom of the waterfall.
The last challenge before the end was on the way down through Standley Chasm. The track actually goes up and around but I had met a group the day before who said it was possible to get up and down through the Chasm so, feeling bolstered from my cliff climb and hour or so earlier, I figured I'd give it a go.
The Chasm is amazing with sheer rock walls either side and some real tight squeezes and rock scrambles. The best spot was where I literally needed to lower my pack down through a gap in the chasm floor onto a rock ledge, then follow it down onto the ledge. A slip would end in a 4 or 5 metre fall into a shallow rocky pool so I edged my way around the rocky ledge and eventually down to the chasm floor. Like crawling through a cave with actually being underground. I imagine this is something what canyoning is like in the Blue Mountains (perhaps I'll give that a go when we get over that way).
Continuing on I knew the tough stuff was over when an elderly couple came walking up the chasm towards me and 10 minutes later I was reunited with Jen and the girls in the carpark where after much hugs and kisses we spent half an hour competing to tell each other what we'd been doing for the past 3 days.
While I was out on the trail, Jen and the girls had met another family in the park. In fact Sara had initiated the contact by wandering off from Jen and inviting herself into their camp where Jen eventually found her.
Niel and Libby were travelling with their three kids, Emma, Robert and Thomas and they were on a one year trek from Canberra to Perth where they planned to stop for 12 months. Neil had picked up a heap of glow sticks from eBay and treated the kids to glow stick walks around the caravan park after dark which they loved.
Back at camp I had a chance to meet Neil and Libby and their small tribe and we all hit it off - great people. I even got treated to a glow stick walk as well. Cool!!
Jen and the girls had also enjoyed some pancakes with strawberries from a pancake van setup in the park and enjoyed a didgeridoo show one night. They would have spent some time in one of the parks pools but the water was icy cold, even too cold for Savanna which is saying something (not sure why they don't get some solar heating going given that most of their customers are there in the winter months!!)
The "Cars" movie was playing in town so Jen had treated the girls to a matinee which I got a long and detailed account of from the girls. I actually feel like I've seen the film now
With a few days left in Alice Springs after my hike I was determined to get some things done, the first being to take the girls out to dinner at the Italian restaurant for some pizza and the best home made vanilla slice we've ever eaten (it was sensational!!)
Next was some washing of the clothes I'd been hiking in for 3 days and a resupply trip to BiLo. We also dropped in to see an open air kids circus which was amazing. A troupe of local kids entertained us for a couple of hours as they performed acrobatics and stunts.
Finally Sunday morning came and it was time for the free pancake breaky. With plates and cutlery and mugs in hand we joined the queue and had the chance to have a chat with the others around us. Despite cooking 16 dinner plate sized pancakes at a time on their purpose built trailer, the line moved slowly. Not that anyone was in a hurry and enjoyed the chance for a chat.
The pancakes were great and I ended up going around three times before calling it a day. There were a group of enthusiastic competitors trying to beat the pancake eating record to raise some money for camp quality. I say enthusiastic because they started that way but the motivation started to wane after 5 or 6 pancakes and was completely gone as they approached 10. One by one they dropped out of contention retiring to the wings to ponder their folly and in the end the final two competitors made it to a respectable 11 pancakes each. That's an amazing effort considering I was full after 3 and I can eat.
That afternoon we had a small birthday party celebration with Neil and Libby and kids for Emma's 6th birthday followed that night by a glow stick walk.
After a lazy day on the Monday we hit the road on Tuesday morning heading South on our way to Uluru.
Stop 43 - Tilmouth Roadhouse, NT - 2 nights
Arrived: 10 June 2006
Today we set our sites on
Tilmouth Well, 416km down the track. The track started out as it
had ended the previous day. Rough! There are different types of
corrugation. Sandy corrogation is bad enough but gives a little and
is bearable. This stretch of road either side of Rabbit Flat is
that hard red rocky ground which jars every bone in your body.
Fortunately it improved soon enough and we were back to the
relatively easy driving we had experienced most of the way so
far.
We even encountered a few stretches of bitumen which seemed pretty out of place all the way out here but perhaps offer an insite to what the road will be in 5 or 10 years from now. Certainly easier to drive but nothing like the adventure it is today.
We stopped in at Renahans Bore for lunch which was a pretty rough and ready roadside stop. A water tank, shelter and fireplace surrounded by the remnants of thousands of visitors and the rubbish they have left behind. Dissappointing.
The gradual shift in terrain from the Kimberly style country in the north through the flat plains of the Tanami Desert started to look more like the red centre country as we approached Tilmouth Well. Taller trees and redder sand and a few hills to break up the plains.
A few km out of Tilmouth we saw our first herd of wild camels and I jumped out of the car (after pulling over of course) and bolted after them with the video camera to get some shots. It's easy to see why, for feral animals, they thrive in our country. 30 or 40 metres off the road and they were practically invisible in the trees. I followed in the direction I saw them go and it was only when one moved it's head that I realised they were standing about 50 metres away in full view. I recorded some shots and headed back to the car triumphantly. Content to remain in the car and leave me to it, I proceeded to regale the girls on the dangerous camel stalking expedition I'd been on and the many close calls that I experienced, nearly being trampled by wild frenzied camels on several occasions. Some how I just couldn't convince them it was all true.
If Rabbit Flat is a a traditional outback roadhouse, then Tilmouth Well, established on the banks of Napperby Creek, is the opposite. Modern and new with all the facilities you'd find in many east coast caravan parks it is a great spot for a stoppover on the way up or down the Tanami.
We setup camp and quickly decided to make this a 2 night stop. That evening, after shooing away a very inquisitive dingo from our camp we headed over to the bar/rec room for a beer and a chat while enjoying the warmth of the wood fire.
Next day Sara helped me do a scheduled oil change on the Landcruiser while Jen and Savanna made the most of the hot showers to wash hair and bodies and the ability to get a couple of loads of washing done. The word from the staff there was that more camels could be spotted down by Lake Lewis and so we drove on down there for a look.
Jens eagle eyes spotted them first, a herd standing off the edge of the track about 1 km in front of us. As we slowly approached they headed inland but we still managed to get a good look and some more shots as we cruised past. The lake had some water in but not much birdlife that we could see. It was fairly salty around the edges and the girls and I spent some time identifying some of the many animal tracks in the surrounding salt crust.
On the way back I loaded up the roof of the crusier with firewood, roped on to make sure it all made it back, so we could enjoy a camp fire that night.
The roadhouse has a restaurant attached to the bar and we decided to splurge and give it a go. And I'm sure glad we did. Jen had steak and I had one of the best curries I've had in a long time and we shared apple crumble and ice cream for dessert.
Next morning after packing up we were pleasantly surprised to find the road was sealed all the way into Alice Springs and after stopping to photograph a few more camels along the way we were into Alice around lunch time.
We even encountered a few stretches of bitumen which seemed pretty out of place all the way out here but perhaps offer an insite to what the road will be in 5 or 10 years from now. Certainly easier to drive but nothing like the adventure it is today.
We stopped in at Renahans Bore for lunch which was a pretty rough and ready roadside stop. A water tank, shelter and fireplace surrounded by the remnants of thousands of visitors and the rubbish they have left behind. Dissappointing.
The gradual shift in terrain from the Kimberly style country in the north through the flat plains of the Tanami Desert started to look more like the red centre country as we approached Tilmouth Well. Taller trees and redder sand and a few hills to break up the plains.
A few km out of Tilmouth we saw our first herd of wild camels and I jumped out of the car (after pulling over of course) and bolted after them with the video camera to get some shots. It's easy to see why, for feral animals, they thrive in our country. 30 or 40 metres off the road and they were practically invisible in the trees. I followed in the direction I saw them go and it was only when one moved it's head that I realised they were standing about 50 metres away in full view. I recorded some shots and headed back to the car triumphantly. Content to remain in the car and leave me to it, I proceeded to regale the girls on the dangerous camel stalking expedition I'd been on and the many close calls that I experienced, nearly being trampled by wild frenzied camels on several occasions. Some how I just couldn't convince them it was all true.
If Rabbit Flat is a a traditional outback roadhouse, then Tilmouth Well, established on the banks of Napperby Creek, is the opposite. Modern and new with all the facilities you'd find in many east coast caravan parks it is a great spot for a stoppover on the way up or down the Tanami.
We setup camp and quickly decided to make this a 2 night stop. That evening, after shooing away a very inquisitive dingo from our camp we headed over to the bar/rec room for a beer and a chat while enjoying the warmth of the wood fire.
Next day Sara helped me do a scheduled oil change on the Landcruiser while Jen and Savanna made the most of the hot showers to wash hair and bodies and the ability to get a couple of loads of washing done. The word from the staff there was that more camels could be spotted down by Lake Lewis and so we drove on down there for a look.
Jens eagle eyes spotted them first, a herd standing off the edge of the track about 1 km in front of us. As we slowly approached they headed inland but we still managed to get a good look and some more shots as we cruised past. The lake had some water in but not much birdlife that we could see. It was fairly salty around the edges and the girls and I spent some time identifying some of the many animal tracks in the surrounding salt crust.
On the way back I loaded up the roof of the crusier with firewood, roped on to make sure it all made it back, so we could enjoy a camp fire that night.
The roadhouse has a restaurant attached to the bar and we decided to splurge and give it a go. And I'm sure glad we did. Jen had steak and I had one of the best curries I've had in a long time and we shared apple crumble and ice cream for dessert.
Next morning after packing up we were pleasantly surprised to find the road was sealed all the way into Alice Springs and after stopping to photograph a few more camels along the way we were into Alice around lunch time.
Stop 42 - Rabbit Flat, NT - 1 night
Arrived: 09 June 2006
Driving out of Wolfe Creek
we were making our way back down the track to rejoin the Tanami and
continue our journey south. The track is basically a dog leg with
an 8km section running from the crater turning on a sharp bend into
a 16km section that runs dead straight back to the Tanami
Road.
As we approached the corner in the dog leg a white Prado came rushing around the corner to meet us and the driver, seemingly surprised to find another car coming towards him, was pulling it hard to the left to avoid hitting us. The track was quite built up at the sides so the easiest path around the corner was the centre of the track. The flip side is that it makes it more difficult to pull the car up out of the centre and onto the edge if you need to.
I hit the anchors pretty hard and while I was already on the left side of the track, moved over as far as I could in the timeframe and the Prado skated past us in a cloud of dust - a very close shave and reminiscent of a similar incident back in Myall Lakes last year with a Commodore!
Jen asked how they were and I looked in the side mirror to see if I could see them and all I could see was dust. I started saying to Jen that they were gone when through the clearing dust the Prado started to take shape - lying upside down off the side of the road . . . . "SHIT!!! they're not alright" or words to that affect was what I said and Jen and I jumped out of the car and bolted the 100 metres back to theirs.
My mind conjured up images of what I was about to find and while I dreaded it, adrenaline kept me running. On the way a man stood up after crawling out of the car window and was waving to us. He may have been waving to say he was okay or it could have been for help.
As we arrived another guy crawled out and both seemed unscathed, a fact which they soon confirmed to our relief.
We spent the next few minutes going over what had happened and trying to make light of what could have been a far worse outcome for all involved, especially if they had connected with our car on the way past.
Recovery of their vehicle was next on the agenda to see if it was still in a driveable state. The body damage was probably extensive enough to cause the 1month old car to be written off by the insurance company but no one area was damaged to the point where it appeared un driveable. Two of the tyres had popped off the rims but they had two spares and the windscreen was shattered but a windscreen is not essential kit for making a vehicle drive.
It was decided that we would use our car and a snatch strap to get them on their feet again and if the car would go, they would drive it back to Halls Creek from where they could make arrangements. We would follow them back the 16km along the track to theTanami and if they were still going okay, leave them to it.
I unhooked the camper trailer and brought the Landcruiser around to the side of their car and we hooked up the snatch strap to both vehicles. The first attempt was too close to the front of theirs and was merely pulling the Prado around on its roof. The second attempt pulling closer to the back of their car was successful and the Prado bounced onto it's wheels again.
Their was a rich pool of red transmission fluid around the front of the bonnet which looked a lot like blood but otherwise the engine department seemed to be in tact.
A few attempts to get the engine started were unsuccessful but a lat ditch attempt kicked it over and the diesel engine blew clouds of smoke but eventually settled into something resembling a normal idle, albeit pretty rough and smoky.
They changed the two wheels and repacked their gear which had done a somersault inside the car and about and hour and a half after putting it onto its roof they limped slowly back down the track the way they came.
We followed close behind using the UHF radios to communicate and they reported that the gauges were all reading normal. At the turnoff to the Tanami we bid them farewell as they turned north and we turned south heading for Rabbit Flat, 2 hours behind schedule but relieved to be all in one piece after what could have been a major incident for us as well as them.
In days gone by the Tanami Road was a tough track and getting through it without getting bogged and stranded was by no means guaranteed. The track was carved deep into the desert sand making it more of a tunnel than a track and turning around was all but impossible in many places.
Today things have changed considerably. The Tanami is an important access road for the gold mines and Aboriginal communities that depend on it as well as being a great shortcut from the Kimberly to the red centre for travellers like us. There is still plenty of corrugation and some sandy sections but on the whole it is a wide smooth road that rarely requires any major slowing down below 70 or 80km/h (much faster for other drivers!).
Suprisingly, with flat desert plains as far as we could see in every direction for most of the way there were very few places you could actually pull over off the track to stretch the legs and have lunch. Eventually we found a bit of shade just off the edge of the track and upwind so any passing vehicles dust would blow away from us and we had some lunch. The usual fare of cheese and vegemite sandwiches.
While we were there a fuel tanker drove by heading north and we gave him a wave and were glad to have been on the upwind side as his dust cloud headed away from us.
About half an hour later we hit the road again and noticed a water trail down the road that looked like it had been poured from a hose from a vehicle driving down the track. We were speculating that a campers water tank may have sprung a leak and they would find themselves without water at their next stop. The trail continued for many kilometres and with little else to look at, I started watching the wheels tracks that crossed the water trail and realised that almost none did. This had to mean that the water trail was coming from the tanker and was therefore not water but fuel. The fact that it was not evaporating away meant it was likely to be diesel fuel. There was no way for us to contact the tanker as he would have been out of UHF range before we even left our lunch spot so there was little we could do. The trail continued for over 300km and I dare say he drained a 10,000 litre diesel tank before he realised the problem.
The girls were glad to have the DVD player as there was really nothing to look at out the window and there are only so many games of Eye Spy and 20 questions you can play before you've spied and guessed everything and everyone.
Sara seemed a bit out of sorts today, being very clingy and we kept a close eye on her in case anything developed, which thankfully it didn't.
After bouncing over the roughest 100km of the track so far we trundled into Rabbit Flat Roadhouse around dusk and found ourselves a spot to camp.
Established about 37years ago by Bruce and his Parisian born wife, Danielle, Rabbit Flat Roadhouse is famous for being the most remote in Australia and is a crucial halfway point for travellers up and down the track.
While it looks as though little has changed in the 37 years since it opens, the roadhouse retains the tradional outback feel that travellers are out here looking for. Diesel was expensive at $2.20 a litre and the food menu limited to what could be nuked in the microwave but all the same you wouldn't drive past it.
The roadhouse is only open Friday through Monday and will not open for love nor money on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so you need to plan your trip around this.
Exhausted from the days activities, we settled in for a very early night and slept soundly despite it being very cold.
Next morning we decided to pack up early and grab some breaky at the roadhouse on the way out. Bacon & Eggs, coffee and the usual trappings. It didn't turn out as planned and with most travellers hitting the road as early as they can there is little demand for cooked breakies from the roadhouse.
With this off the menu and all our food packed away in the camper, we grabbed some deep frozen bread and butter and after a good chat with Bruce, we hit the road and Jen made breaky on her lap. It took a while for the butter, sitting on the dashboard in the sun, to thaw to the point of spreadability but eventually it came good and we indulged in vegemite sangas for breaky - almost as good as bacon and eggs . . . almost!
As we approached the corner in the dog leg a white Prado came rushing around the corner to meet us and the driver, seemingly surprised to find another car coming towards him, was pulling it hard to the left to avoid hitting us. The track was quite built up at the sides so the easiest path around the corner was the centre of the track. The flip side is that it makes it more difficult to pull the car up out of the centre and onto the edge if you need to.
I hit the anchors pretty hard and while I was already on the left side of the track, moved over as far as I could in the timeframe and the Prado skated past us in a cloud of dust - a very close shave and reminiscent of a similar incident back in Myall Lakes last year with a Commodore!
Jen asked how they were and I looked in the side mirror to see if I could see them and all I could see was dust. I started saying to Jen that they were gone when through the clearing dust the Prado started to take shape - lying upside down off the side of the road . . . . "SHIT!!! they're not alright" or words to that affect was what I said and Jen and I jumped out of the car and bolted the 100 metres back to theirs.
My mind conjured up images of what I was about to find and while I dreaded it, adrenaline kept me running. On the way a man stood up after crawling out of the car window and was waving to us. He may have been waving to say he was okay or it could have been for help.
As we arrived another guy crawled out and both seemed unscathed, a fact which they soon confirmed to our relief.
We spent the next few minutes going over what had happened and trying to make light of what could have been a far worse outcome for all involved, especially if they had connected with our car on the way past.
Recovery of their vehicle was next on the agenda to see if it was still in a driveable state. The body damage was probably extensive enough to cause the 1month old car to be written off by the insurance company but no one area was damaged to the point where it appeared un driveable. Two of the tyres had popped off the rims but they had two spares and the windscreen was shattered but a windscreen is not essential kit for making a vehicle drive.
It was decided that we would use our car and a snatch strap to get them on their feet again and if the car would go, they would drive it back to Halls Creek from where they could make arrangements. We would follow them back the 16km along the track to theTanami and if they were still going okay, leave them to it.
I unhooked the camper trailer and brought the Landcruiser around to the side of their car and we hooked up the snatch strap to both vehicles. The first attempt was too close to the front of theirs and was merely pulling the Prado around on its roof. The second attempt pulling closer to the back of their car was successful and the Prado bounced onto it's wheels again.
Their was a rich pool of red transmission fluid around the front of the bonnet which looked a lot like blood but otherwise the engine department seemed to be in tact.
A few attempts to get the engine started were unsuccessful but a lat ditch attempt kicked it over and the diesel engine blew clouds of smoke but eventually settled into something resembling a normal idle, albeit pretty rough and smoky.
They changed the two wheels and repacked their gear which had done a somersault inside the car and about and hour and a half after putting it onto its roof they limped slowly back down the track the way they came.
We followed close behind using the UHF radios to communicate and they reported that the gauges were all reading normal. At the turnoff to the Tanami we bid them farewell as they turned north and we turned south heading for Rabbit Flat, 2 hours behind schedule but relieved to be all in one piece after what could have been a major incident for us as well as them.
In days gone by the Tanami Road was a tough track and getting through it without getting bogged and stranded was by no means guaranteed. The track was carved deep into the desert sand making it more of a tunnel than a track and turning around was all but impossible in many places.
Today things have changed considerably. The Tanami is an important access road for the gold mines and Aboriginal communities that depend on it as well as being a great shortcut from the Kimberly to the red centre for travellers like us. There is still plenty of corrugation and some sandy sections but on the whole it is a wide smooth road that rarely requires any major slowing down below 70 or 80km/h (much faster for other drivers!).
Suprisingly, with flat desert plains as far as we could see in every direction for most of the way there were very few places you could actually pull over off the track to stretch the legs and have lunch. Eventually we found a bit of shade just off the edge of the track and upwind so any passing vehicles dust would blow away from us and we had some lunch. The usual fare of cheese and vegemite sandwiches.
While we were there a fuel tanker drove by heading north and we gave him a wave and were glad to have been on the upwind side as his dust cloud headed away from us.
About half an hour later we hit the road again and noticed a water trail down the road that looked like it had been poured from a hose from a vehicle driving down the track. We were speculating that a campers water tank may have sprung a leak and they would find themselves without water at their next stop. The trail continued for many kilometres and with little else to look at, I started watching the wheels tracks that crossed the water trail and realised that almost none did. This had to mean that the water trail was coming from the tanker and was therefore not water but fuel. The fact that it was not evaporating away meant it was likely to be diesel fuel. There was no way for us to contact the tanker as he would have been out of UHF range before we even left our lunch spot so there was little we could do. The trail continued for over 300km and I dare say he drained a 10,000 litre diesel tank before he realised the problem.
The girls were glad to have the DVD player as there was really nothing to look at out the window and there are only so many games of Eye Spy and 20 questions you can play before you've spied and guessed everything and everyone.
Sara seemed a bit out of sorts today, being very clingy and we kept a close eye on her in case anything developed, which thankfully it didn't.
After bouncing over the roughest 100km of the track so far we trundled into Rabbit Flat Roadhouse around dusk and found ourselves a spot to camp.
Established about 37years ago by Bruce and his Parisian born wife, Danielle, Rabbit Flat Roadhouse is famous for being the most remote in Australia and is a crucial halfway point for travellers up and down the track.
While it looks as though little has changed in the 37 years since it opens, the roadhouse retains the tradional outback feel that travellers are out here looking for. Diesel was expensive at $2.20 a litre and the food menu limited to what could be nuked in the microwave but all the same you wouldn't drive past it.
The roadhouse is only open Friday through Monday and will not open for love nor money on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so you need to plan your trip around this.
Exhausted from the days activities, we settled in for a very early night and slept soundly despite it being very cold.
Next morning we decided to pack up early and grab some breaky at the roadhouse on the way out. Bacon & Eggs, coffee and the usual trappings. It didn't turn out as planned and with most travellers hitting the road as early as they can there is little demand for cooked breakies from the roadhouse.
With this off the menu and all our food packed away in the camper, we grabbed some deep frozen bread and butter and after a good chat with Bruce, we hit the road and Jen made breaky on her lap. It took a while for the butter, sitting on the dashboard in the sun, to thaw to the point of spreadability but eventually it came good and we indulged in vegemite sangas for breaky - almost as good as bacon and eggs . . . almost!
Stop 41 - Wolfe Creek NP, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 07 June 2006
These days you mention Wolfe
Creek and most people think of the recent Australian movie of the
same name which had most viewers on the edge of their seats and
looking away at the gory bits. But it is in fact the second largest
known meteorite crater in the world and we stopped in for a look
and spent a couple of nights at the free camp site at the
base.
The facilities are limited to pit toilets which is better than nothing but it's hard to complain when they don't ask for any money. The sign says no fires but everyone had one anyway. I couldn't really see why not as the lack of wood in the area mean't you needed to bring your own in anyway.
The camp site is one of the few on the way up or down the Tanami Track and worth the 23km drive in from the main track.
We caught up with Joy and Mike whom we had met back on the Gibb River Road a while back then subsequently at Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungle NP. They accompanied us on the walk up to the rim of the crater and we shared the experience of gazing across this awesome crater. Apparently the meteor, weighing in at around 50,000 tonnes impacted the ground at about 10,000km/h and understandably left a major scar. They say the crater has filled in somewhat since it was created but that does nothing to reduce the spectacle of this cosmic collision.
We spent the rest of the day around camp. I worked away on this log for quite a while and Jen played with the girls then later cooked up a delicious beef and veggie soup (more of a stew) which became dinner. The night was cold and we made a camp fire to keep warm. A very decent chap by the name of Barclay from another camp wandered over around dusk and gave me a diesel jerry can he no longer required having nearly reached the end of the Tanami Road (he was heading north). After a chat about the road conditions and our respective travels to date he suggested we come over for a coffee and a chat around his camp fire later in the evening which we did. His wife took to Savanna immediately and they spent most of the evening chatting together. Sara slept on Jens lap through the whole thing blissfully unaware we had even left our camp.
Next morning while we were packing up I had the video camera in my hand when I heard a distant screeching sound that seemed to be getting closer. The source remained a mystery for several minute until what appeared to be a cloud materialised across the plains coming our way. It turned out to be a massive flock of cockatoos, literally thousands of them, flying in formation towards the crater. As luck would have it, they wheeled around the crater and then straight towards us, flying over the top of our camp as I captured it all on video. You can be lucky sometimes.
The facilities are limited to pit toilets which is better than nothing but it's hard to complain when they don't ask for any money. The sign says no fires but everyone had one anyway. I couldn't really see why not as the lack of wood in the area mean't you needed to bring your own in anyway.
The camp site is one of the few on the way up or down the Tanami Track and worth the 23km drive in from the main track.
We caught up with Joy and Mike whom we had met back on the Gibb River Road a while back then subsequently at Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungle NP. They accompanied us on the walk up to the rim of the crater and we shared the experience of gazing across this awesome crater. Apparently the meteor, weighing in at around 50,000 tonnes impacted the ground at about 10,000km/h and understandably left a major scar. They say the crater has filled in somewhat since it was created but that does nothing to reduce the spectacle of this cosmic collision.
We spent the rest of the day around camp. I worked away on this log for quite a while and Jen played with the girls then later cooked up a delicious beef and veggie soup (more of a stew) which became dinner. The night was cold and we made a camp fire to keep warm. A very decent chap by the name of Barclay from another camp wandered over around dusk and gave me a diesel jerry can he no longer required having nearly reached the end of the Tanami Road (he was heading north). After a chat about the road conditions and our respective travels to date he suggested we come over for a coffee and a chat around his camp fire later in the evening which we did. His wife took to Savanna immediately and they spent most of the evening chatting together. Sara slept on Jens lap through the whole thing blissfully unaware we had even left our camp.
Next morning while we were packing up I had the video camera in my hand when I heard a distant screeching sound that seemed to be getting closer. The source remained a mystery for several minute until what appeared to be a cloud materialised across the plains coming our way. It turned out to be a massive flock of cockatoos, literally thousands of them, flying in formation towards the crater. As luck would have it, they wheeled around the crater and then straight towards us, flying over the top of our camp as I captured it all on video. You can be lucky sometimes.
Stop 40 - Purnululu NP (Bungle Bungle), WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 05 June 2006
Heading to Purnululu you
really have 2 choices of accommodation. The first option is to stop
and camp at Turkey Creek Roadhouse which has a nice caravan park
and all the facilities you are likely to need. You can then either
day trip into the park or take a helicopter flight or tour if you
prefer.
The other option, and our preferred one is to drive into the national park and camp there at one of the two camp grounds.
After a quick stop at Turkey Creek for a tailgate carpark lunch of cheese and vegemite sandwiches (for a change) we headed into the park. The road in is quite famous for how rough it is. When we came here 10 years ago it was rough and this time was little different. It's about 50km from the sealed highway into the park office and then another 20 or 30km to the campgrounds from there. The road in twists and turns over the ranges alternating between creek crossings, tight corners and corrugation. It took us about 3 hours of fairly sedate driving to reach the office which we did just as the sun was going down. Camp fees here are quite steep with it costing us about $53 for 2 nights camping and they don't even have showers - no doubt worth it for the amazing landscape.
We headed for the southern camp ground and it was totally dark when we arrived, although finding a camp site was easy enough as there was practically no-one else there. The rangers had left us heaps of firewood which was great and we soon had camp setup and a nice fire burning.
We were all pretty buggered after a long day in the car so called it a night looking forward to a nice hike into Cathedral Gorge in the morning.
One thing to be prepared for in Purnululu is that the places to visit are all a fair distance apart. You could easily clock up a couple hundred km's getting around the park on top of the 150+ km round trip to get in and out from Turkey Creek in the first place. So make sure you fill up the tank on the way in.
The other option, and our preferred one is to drive into the national park and camp there at one of the two camp grounds.
After a quick stop at Turkey Creek for a tailgate carpark lunch of cheese and vegemite sandwiches (for a change) we headed into the park. The road in is quite famous for how rough it is. When we came here 10 years ago it was rough and this time was little different. It's about 50km from the sealed highway into the park office and then another 20 or 30km to the campgrounds from there. The road in twists and turns over the ranges alternating between creek crossings, tight corners and corrugation. It took us about 3 hours of fairly sedate driving to reach the office which we did just as the sun was going down. Camp fees here are quite steep with it costing us about $53 for 2 nights camping and they don't even have showers - no doubt worth it for the amazing landscape.
We headed for the southern camp ground and it was totally dark when we arrived, although finding a camp site was easy enough as there was practically no-one else there. The rangers had left us heaps of firewood which was great and we soon had camp setup and a nice fire burning.
We were all pretty buggered after a long day in the car so called it a night looking forward to a nice hike into Cathedral Gorge in the morning.
One thing to be prepared for in Purnululu is that the places to visit are all a fair distance apart. You could easily clock up a couple hundred km's getting around the park on top of the 150+ km round trip to get in and out from Turkey Creek in the first place. So make sure you fill up the tank on the way in.
Stop 39 - Kununurra, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 03 June 2006
There are not too many days
where we move camp only 70km down the road but that's what we did
today stopping in at Kununurra. We had a week or so of outback in
front of us so needed to restock food, fuel etc. in
preparation.
We had heard from another traveller that the Kimberleyland caravan park was pretty good so that was good enough for us and we checked in there.
As planned we headed off to the supermarket and bought up big. Without having the boat, motor and boat trailer with us we suddenly found ourselves with heaps of space for a change and managed to fill most of it with food and supplies.
At around $1.60 per litre, this was likely to be the cheapest diesel we saw in a while so we topped up our tanks giving us 250 litres on board. While we were in the BP filling up a guy came over to say g'day who recognised us from our website which he'd found not long ago. He was from Perth and introduced himself as Rupert and we had a great chat. Turns out he recently drove his old Land Rover from London to Cape Town down through Africa . . . now there's an adventure and a half!
Typically when we meet someone really interesting, they or we are on our way somewhere else and Rupert had a plane to catch to Perth so we couldn't chat for long. I would love to have wandered down to the local for a few cold ones to hear the full Africa story but guess we'll have to take a rain check on that one Rupert!
The idea of coming back to Lake Argyle at some stage to make another film was gathering momentum and Jen and I started talking about ways to make it happen. The idea dovetailed nicely with one of our future plans which was to produce some localised in depth documentaries about regions or attractions within Australia, primarily for travellers to buy on DVD. Maybe Lake Argyle could be the opportunity for us to produce our pilot episode and test our idea. We were coming back in 6 weeks anyway to pick up our boat, what if we were to stay a while and make the film. We studied our itinerary to see if it was feasible without missing anything else further down the track. It was doable, if we shortened a few other stays we could open up about 4 weeks in Lake Argyle which should be enough time. I rang Charlie to see what he thought of the idea and it was agreed. We were coming back.
With that settled we got on with preparations to head south into the red centre. With food and fuel sorted, email checked and our website updated we were ready to roll. We went for a drive down to the Diversion Dam for a look then up to the lookout which gave us a stunning view over the town and fields and was a choice sunset vantage point.
Back at camp we packed up what we could in anticipation of an early getaway and next morning rolled out the driveway around 9am heading for Purnululu National Park.
We had heard from another traveller that the Kimberleyland caravan park was pretty good so that was good enough for us and we checked in there.
As planned we headed off to the supermarket and bought up big. Without having the boat, motor and boat trailer with us we suddenly found ourselves with heaps of space for a change and managed to fill most of it with food and supplies.
At around $1.60 per litre, this was likely to be the cheapest diesel we saw in a while so we topped up our tanks giving us 250 litres on board. While we were in the BP filling up a guy came over to say g'day who recognised us from our website which he'd found not long ago. He was from Perth and introduced himself as Rupert and we had a great chat. Turns out he recently drove his old Land Rover from London to Cape Town down through Africa . . . now there's an adventure and a half!
Typically when we meet someone really interesting, they or we are on our way somewhere else and Rupert had a plane to catch to Perth so we couldn't chat for long. I would love to have wandered down to the local for a few cold ones to hear the full Africa story but guess we'll have to take a rain check on that one Rupert!
The idea of coming back to Lake Argyle at some stage to make another film was gathering momentum and Jen and I started talking about ways to make it happen. The idea dovetailed nicely with one of our future plans which was to produce some localised in depth documentaries about regions or attractions within Australia, primarily for travellers to buy on DVD. Maybe Lake Argyle could be the opportunity for us to produce our pilot episode and test our idea. We were coming back in 6 weeks anyway to pick up our boat, what if we were to stay a while and make the film. We studied our itinerary to see if it was feasible without missing anything else further down the track. It was doable, if we shortened a few other stays we could open up about 4 weeks in Lake Argyle which should be enough time. I rang Charlie to see what he thought of the idea and it was agreed. We were coming back.
With that settled we got on with preparations to head south into the red centre. With food and fuel sorted, email checked and our website updated we were ready to roll. We went for a drive down to the Diversion Dam for a look then up to the lookout which gave us a stunning view over the town and fields and was a choice sunset vantage point.
Back at camp we packed up what we could in anticipation of an early getaway and next morning rolled out the driveway around 9am heading for Purnululu National Park.
Stop 38 - Lake Argyle, WA - 6 nights
Arrived: 28 May 2006
As per our usual form we
arrived at Lake Argyle late in the day although it wasn’t
actually dark this time. Jen ran in and organised our site and we
were soon set-up and contemplating dinner.
Jen had called ahead a few weeks earlier to organise with Charlie, the owner of the Lake Argyle Tourist Village, to be interviewed for our film. He was born and bred in the area so no one is more qualified to talk to us about the Lake and surrounds than him.
Next morning after a good chat with our neighbours who were from Brisbane, we headed over to catch up with Charlie and his lovely wife Chantal (who is expecting their first baby later in the year!).
Charlie gave us the inside story on what to do while we were there and we arranged to have an interview with him the following day. His suggestions were – Do the boat cruise, take our boat down the Ord River below the dam or get on board a Triple J river cruise, try some fishing in the spillway and do some hiking around the lake on the St Georges Terrace track. Sounded like a good plan to us.
We were planning to stay for 3 or 4 nights so that should give us the time to get everything done.
The Lake Argyle Cruises office is next door so we wandered down and booked ourselves on a boat cruise for the following day. We have actually been to Lake Argyle before back in 1996 and we did the cruise then which went all the way to the bottom of the lake where the original Ord river inlet is. There are huge wetland areas down there that are teaming with bird life. Unfortunately due to the recent heavy rains the lake water level is too high and the wetlands are too wet for the bird life so that cruise was not on offer this time. Greg, the owner, assured us that if we waited a couple of weeks the water level would drop and the bird life would all return – not an option unfortunately.
Nevertheless, they were running sunset cruises around the northern part of the lake so we booked ourselves on one of those.
Back at camp Bill and Sandra who we’d met in El Questro had turned up and were camped not far from us. This was great as they are really cool people and we seemed to always have plenty to talk about. They are American and Bill is an Oceanographer and has been based in Perth for about 6 years.
Later in the afternoon Bill wandered over to see if I was keen for a hike around the lake along the St Georges Terrace track. Given it was on our ‘to do list’ anyway, how could I refuse.
The track turned out to be quite overgrown having had little or no use since the wet season so we had a challenge to follow it. We could see where it was headed so when we lost the track we found ourselves guessing where it would most likely have gone and eventually we found it again.
The track winds its way around a bay behind the village for about 2 km to a ridge with spectacular views back towards the village and of the red rock cliffs. We made it over there in time for the sunset and took plenty of photos before an easy 30 minute walk back.
I’d guess Bill would be in his mid fifties but he is probably fitter than your average 40 year old so he made a good hiking companion.
Meanwhile back at camp, our girls had been keeping Sandra entertained and had managed to secure themselves an invitation for dinner which Sandra was busy preparing.
Jen and I watched with amusement as the four of them sat around the camp table having their dinner party and couldn’t resist the urge to go over and say hello with the video camera in hand.
In the morning I finished prepping our boat for a cruise down the Ord River and then headed over to interview Charlie in the late morning. Let me tell you I wish all interviews were as easy as that one. With almost no prompting from me Charlie spent 40 minutes telling me the history of the region and I now have the challenge of trimming it down to probably a few minutes in the final doco. Still, too much content is like a business having too many sales – a high class problem.
After lunch we rolled up at the Lake Argyle Cruises office ready for our sunset cruise.Rick was our trusty bus driver and took us down to the boat ramp where we jumped on board the boat with around 30 other people. The boats they use are huge aluminium twin hull boats with a couple of 200hp outboards on the back. They’re ideal for this type of cruise being very fast and stable with open sides so you can walk around and take in the view from every direction.
Don, our captain took over and as a former Parks and Wildlife Officer in the Kimberley region he was a virtual encyclopaedia on the local flora and fauna.
Our first stop was a small cove not far from the boat ramp where a family of the tiny yellow footed rock wallabies that are common in the area live. Right on cue there was one waiting for us on the cliff face as the boat idled up and Don threw him some food as a reward (and encouragement to be there again tomorrow). They are amazing little animals these wallabies, able to scale almost vertical cliffs at top speed and so well camouflaged that we were only a few metres away before we actually saw it sitting there on the rocks in front of us.
A cruise past the dam wall and hillside where the quartz fill was blasted from for the dam was followed by a 15 minute high speed run down to crocodile bay. On the way down Don explained to us that given the shear size of the lake it actually has it’s own micro climate with water evaporating off at a rate of about a cm per day creating and evaporative cooling effect in the area. We had actually noticed that the village was a few degrees cooler than Kununurra and El Questro.
Crocodile bay as it is unofficially known is a sheltered bay on the east side of the lake where the resident freshwater crocodiles can usually be seen basking in the sun on the banks. A relatively small amount of wind can whip up considerable waves on the lake but this bay is always calm due to its orientation to the weather. Hence the crocodiles congregate here to avoid rough seas.
Cruising around the bay we saw at least a dozen crocs on the bank, some we could get within 10 or 20 metres of. Freshwater crocs generally don’t get much over 2 or 3 metres in length and due to their timid nature are not considered dangerous to humans, preferring to run and hide than attack wherever possible.
The crocs in the lake however have a plentiful supply of food and while there is an estimated 25,000 of them living there, it is such a massive body of water that they are thriving. This has resulted in some growing to as long as 4 metres which is a pretty big croc and not one you’d like to be sharing a waterhole with.
Next stop was a spot over the western side of the lake where we saw colonies of Orb spiders which build webs between trees to catch insects and small birds. They are easily identified by the shape they make when suspended in the centre of their web. Their legs sit together in pairs making them appear to have only four legs. Some of them can be as big as your hand although they are not poisonous so no real worry. That would be a good thing as they are everywhere up here and if you do enough walking around in the bush you will inevitably have an encounter with one at some stage.
The lake is actually teeming with fish, mostly catfish and archer fish and a few slices of bread over the side of the boat had the fish in a feeding frenzy. If you hold a piece of bread up over the side the archer fish will actually shoot it out of your hand with a jet of water squirted from their mouths. Their accuracy is uncanny and is a skill they use to shoot insects off leaves and into the water where they soon become a snack for the fish.
The prize fish in the lake are silver cobblers which are another breed of catfish and can grow to huge sizes. They are caught commercially and apparently make great eating although we haven’t had a chance to sample them as yet.
As sunset approached Don took the boat towards the middle of the section of lake we were in and those who were keen jumped in for a swim. Savanna, always the enthusiastic swimmer, was in like Flynn and was assisted by Joy who was on the cruise as well. Joy and her husband Mike had been playing tag with us since El Questro as we have done with a number of other couples and families across the Kimberley. It was actually them who were at the Pentecost river crossing a couple of weeks back when we were on our way to El Questro.
Jen and I stayed on board and enjoyed some bubbly and dip and bickies (patio!) while having a chat with the other passengers and as the sun set behind the mountains the swimmers were hauled back in and it was time to motor back to the boat ramp.
The cruise was a great way to get a taste of the lake and Jen and I resolved to get our tinny in the water and come and have another look sometime in the next couple of days.
Back at the village we opted for an easy dinner in the bar accompanied by a few beers and I got chatting to a guy called Peter who is a surveyor and was based there for a few days while he and his colleague completed the annual survey of the dam to make sure it was not moving in any unexpected ways, which thankfully it wasn’t. Peter had the keys to unlock a gate that allowed access to a section of the spillway that would otherwise be out of reach other than by walking in. He’d been venturing down there every morning he was there at about 4:30am in the hopes of catching a Barramundi in the fast running water.
To give you some background here, the spillway is the overflow for the lake. When it reaches a certain level it overflows down a man made channel carved in the rock that eventually meets up with the Ord River downstream from the dam. The idea is to ensure that the water never gets high enough to overflow the dam. While we were there the spillway was running hard due to the big late wet season that the Kimberley had been inundated with over recent months.
There is no significant population of Barramundi in the Ord river above the Diversion Dam 70 odd kilometres south in Kununurra but apparently a few years back the Ord river below the Diversion Dam, which runs to the sea, was so high that water was actually running around the Diversion Dam. This allowed some Barramundi (and other marine life eg. Saltwater crocodiles, to make their way around the dam and head upstream.
Barramundi are born in fresh water as males and instinctively head downstream to the saltwater where some of them turn into females – transsexual fish!! Once impregnated, these females head back upstream to the fresh water to lay their eggs. Not unlike the salmon in Canada, although we don’t have bears catching them on the way up.
So there was always the off chance that there may be a barra in the spillway heading for the lake and Peters goal was to catch one.
During our chat he invited me to join him the next morning and always keen for some adventure I readily agreed. So 4:30 next morning he picked me up and we headed out in the dark to spillway.
It was only about 10km down the road to the gate then a couple more kilometres down a track to a spot where we were able to pull up and wander down to throw in a line. The water was running hard and would no doubt make for some thrilling white water rafting for those so inclined.
Given it was still very dark we could more hear the water than see it and carefully worked our way to the edge across the rocks.
Peter had a hand line and a lure he’d bought at the village shop and I had my rod and a cheap lure I’d bought in Coles a few weeks back and while he was getting his tackle sorted I cast in a line upstream letting it quickly wash back down stream until it pulled tight.
I reckon I wound it three times before there was a distinctive thump on the line and it went very heavy. My first thought was I’d managed to get snagged on a rock but I kept winding and the line kept coming in. At this point I could just make out the direction of the line from my head torch and when the line started moving up stream of its own accord things got really interesting.
I soon found myself winding in with the line pulling upstream and it was obvious I had a big enough fish for it to be able to swim against the strong current and still feel reasonably large on my line.
I kept winding in and letting the fish have a run with the drag on the reel loosened off so as not to let it pull tight and snapped and we played this game for about 10 minutes as it gradually got closer and closer to the bank. Meanwhile I was edging closer to the waters edge which I could just make out in my head torch light.
Suddenly there was a flash of silver in the water near my feet and I realised that this was no ordinary fish – it was a monster.
It was at this point that having made it this far I became seriously concerned about losing it. I had only 12lb line on my reel and the fish had to come across about 5 feet of jagged rocks to get to the edge where I would have to pull it in by hand as we had no gaff or net.
The fish struggled hard but was losing steam quickly and as I eased it closer I was trying very hard not to slip into the spillway myself which would have been pretty disastrous.
At the last moment I could see the whole fish in my head torch and could see that it was a massive barra. Common sense flew out the window at this point and I took a couple of steps closer to the water, shoved my hand in the fish’s mouth to get a hold on his jaw and hauled him out of the water. Adrenaline is a fine thing at moments like that.
I dragged him up onto the rocks higher up and let me tell you there was a fair amount of “yee-haaaing” and “wooohooing” going on which unfortunately wasn’t caught on video due to the fact it was pitch dark.
Now I’m no accomplished fisherman by any stretch and this was far and away the biggest fish I’d ever caught so I was pretty excited. The fact I got it in the dark on the first cast using 12lb line adding considerably to the thrill as well.
I didn’t have any way of measuring the length but guessed it would be around the 80cm mark. It was also gleaming silver which would make it excellent eating, unlike barra that are usually caught in freshwater which are black in colour and very muddy to taste.
Peter was spewing, claiming quite rightfully that I had caught his fish and that had he not invited me he would have been the one who caught it. Probably true but that’s fishing so thanks Peter for the invite and next time you’re heading out I’ll be glad to go with you
As we waited for the sun to rise enough to be able to get some video of the barra I wandered down the edge of the spillway for 50 metres or so while Peter carried on the fishing effort. I figured I’d let him have a go with my rod and see what he could come up with.
I found a few dead freshwater crocodiles along the edge that had obviously been trying to swim upstream also, become exhausted and crawled up onto the rocks for a rest where they had subsequently died.
Peter didn’t have any luck and around 5:45am, after watching a glorious sunrise through the hills, we headed back to the village so Peter could go to work.
He dropped me off at our camper trailer and I put the barra on the table outside. There were sounds coming from inside the camper so obviously the girls were awake. When I ventured in Jen said “how did you go?” and I replied “good, I managed to catch a barra, it’s on the table outside”. She crawled out of bed and looked out the window and exclaimed “holy %$#@” to which I obviously blurted out the whole story I was itching to tell.
After a few photos I headed over to the shop to see if I could find someone to help me fillet the fish properly. As I mentioned before, I am no expert and did not want to stuff it up.
A couple of guys who were staying in the park were quickly rustled up and were more than happy to get their hands dirty to give me a hand. It was a big effort (mostly by them) but after half an hour we had the fillets off and we managed to get about 24 meal sized pieces off which went into the shop fridge for safe keeping.
There was quite a bit of excitement surrounding the whole event and we invited everyone to come over around dinner time to join us for a barra BBQ which went down pretty well.
It turns out the fish was 90cm long and I estimated it weighed in at around 35lb. The 85cm size limit only applies to fish caught in the Ord River below the Diversion Dam in Kununurra so I was not in any trouble there.
Still buzzing from the whole experience I was keen to get back down to the water and have another go. I took Savanna and Sara with me and we drove down to where the spillway runs under the road and spent a couple of hours fishing around there but without success. Mind you I had used up all my fishing luck for the day and probably the rest of the trip.
Sara, being only 2 1/2 years old, is still learning to handle a rod so I put the body of a lure on the line without the hooks so she couldn’t injure herself or anyone else and she had fun pounding the water with the lure and the end of the rod.
Savanna is getting the hang of casting and hopefully by the end of the trip will have it mastered.
Back at camp we had lunch then decided we’d put our boat in below the dam and take a cruise down the Ord River. There is a boat ramp just below the dam making it all very easy.
We’d slid the boat off the trailer into he water and Jen was holding onto it while I parked the car and I saw her signalling to me to hurry up and then pointing down river. There was a croc about 3 or 4 metres surfaced 50 metres or so from her and she was getting a little nervous. Which is understandable of course.
We managed to get underway while avoiding the croc and for the next few hours had a pretty magical cruise down the river and back. The Ord has cut a path through the Carr Boyd Ranges over the millennia and the wide deep river runs steadily down towards Kununurra where it meets the Diversion Dam. We only ventured about 5km downstream as the current picks up considerably very quickly and, not knowing what we’d find around the next bend, I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble with the girls on board.
Not that it mattered as the 5km we did see was spectacular enough.
We made it back to camp in time for me to get the communal wood BBQ underway before it was dark and we had a good chat with the other travellers in the park while cooking up 15 or so of the barra fillets. I ended up doing some in foil with lemon and pepper and the others on the hotplate and either way it was sensational.
All in all it was a great day and one that I won’t soon forget but will probably not be able to repeat it any time soon.
After all that hard work, the next day we decided that while we had our boat all set-up that we’d take our own cruise on the lake and revisit some of the places we discovered on the Lake Argyle Cruise a couple of days earlier.
We packed a lunch of sandwiches and I included my little stove and the tea and coffee kit in case there was an opportunity to get ashore and boil some water.
Out on the lake we revisited the wallaby spot but he is probably so used to the big boat turning up at the same time every day that we didn’t get his attention. We also had a good look at the dam wall before finding a nice sheltered cove where the water was dead calm and Savanna and I did some fishing.
It still amazes me how relatively undiscovered this region is. The lake is zoned for recreational use so houseboats, speedboats and practically any other type of boat are all permitted. Yet despite this the lake is all but deserted. The only other boat we saw all day was the Cruise boat. Obviously it is the remoteness of the area that makes it this way but I can’t help but imagine that 10 or 20 years from now we’ll start seeing more houseboats and holiday houses around the shoreline as people look for more and more remote places to escape the daily grind.
Given the huge development plans that Charlie has for the village these changes may happen sooner than 10 or 20 years.
After fishing for a while unsuccessfully we motored around to the crocodile bay where I managed to get some good shots of the crocs for our film. They took no real notice of us being quite used to the cruise boat motoring past every day. We then went on the lookout for another sheltered spot where we could have some lunch and I might be able to get onshore and boil the billy. This involved motoring at top speed around the shoreline which was a bit of fun. Our boat has a 15hp Yamaha outboard and the boat being only 80kg, it gets up and boogies when you give it some encouragement. I’ve actually had it up to 40km/h by myself with no other weight in the boat which is pretty cool fun in a boat that small.
Savanna was keen for a turn at the helm so I gave her some quick instruction on how the throttle and steering work and let her have a go. Once she realised she was in control and if she moved the stick the boat would turn, her eyes lit up and I had a hard time wrestling it back from her. It took maybe 2 minutes before she was trying to work out how to get it up to top speed but we’ll save that till she’s a bit older.
The sun was high so shade was all but non-existent and in the end we headed back to the bay we had stopped in earlier and floated around there for a while having lunch and generally chilling out. I managed to get the billy boiled and make a coffee which went down well.
I reckon that boats actually force you to relax because you really have no choice. Especially small ones where you can’t get up and walk around. What else can you do but sit back and take in the scenery so as a result we finished up all feeling pretty good about the day.
Based on our original plan we were supposed to have left yesterday but there was too much going on and so we had extended our stay another 2 nights to get everything done. Charlie had hinted at the possibility of getting on a chopper flight on the Friday as he had organised Heli-Work to base a chopper there to take joy flights over the peak June/July/August period. It was arriving sometime Friday so we decided to stay another day in the hope of getting an opportunity to shoot some footage from the air.
After we leave Lake Argyle the plan is to head down the Tanami Road into Alice Springs before making our way back up to the top end of the Northern Territory and continuing around the coastline from there. On the way back up the idea is to head west into Gregory NP for a few days which is only a few hundred km east of Lake Argyle. With this in mind I figured we would not need our boat in the 2 months it took to get back up to Gregory NP so we may as well leave it at Lake Argyle and detour across and pick it up again after Gregory. This would save us lugging around 250kg of gear including the boat, motor, boat trailer and all the other gear on a 3000km trip where we were not going to use it anyway. Charlie was cool with the idea of us leaving it there with him and so on the Friday morning I packed it all up and covered it with tarps and put it into storage under a tree near his house – securely padlocked of course.
After this we headed down to the Durack Homestead where we met Michael Durack Byers who is the caretaker and a descendant of the pioneering Durack family.
Michael explained to us how in the 1870’s the Duracks had made a 2 1/2 year exploratory trip to the Kimberley from Queensland in the search for grazing country. Finding several million usable acres in the eastern Kimberley the Duracks made the bold move of driving 6000 head of cattle all the way across from Queensland to establish Argyle Downs Station. 3500 head of cattle survived the journey and formed the basis of the Durack empire.
The Duracks knew something about hard work and determination that is for sure. They opened up this frontier country with grit and determination and while they never made a substantial financial fortune from their endeavours, the Durack name is now legendary in the region.
The descendants of those original Duracks actually sold their interests to AA Pastoral company back in the 1950’s with only Reg Durack remaining on Kildurk station.
When the Ord Dam was built back in the early 70’s the massive catchment area included a substantial piece of the Argyle Downs lease including the homestead which had been built by the Duracks back in the 1800’s.
Fortunately common sense prevailed and the historic homestead was relocated block by block and rebuilt to it’s position where it stands today about 3 km from the Lake Argyle Tourist Village.
As the lakes water level rose, far quicker than anyone had predicted, the remainder of the station was submerged and remains today a dive site for those fortunate enough to get out there where I’m told you can swim into the old buildings and see everything pretty much as it was the day it went under.
Back at our camp we gave our car a much needed wash and later in the afternoon the chopper arrived. As luck would have it, the pilot needed to drop his supervisor back into Kununurra so I was able to jump on board for the ride and ended up getting about 40 minutes of footage of the lake and Ord river all the way into Kununurra. Not a bad way to finish the week.
That night we had dinner at the bar and I dragged out the laptop and video camera and made Charlie a short promo DVD he could run in the shop to promote the helicopter flights and while doing that we discussed the idea of us coming back sometime and making a proper documentary of the region that would encapsulate all of the regions history which would be great for visitors to the area to buy as a souvenir of their visit.
I liked the idea a lot and spent the night trying to work out away to make it happen sooner rather than later.
Next morning we packed up and, with the camper trailer much more nimble sans boat, motor etc. we drove into Kununurra only 70km away where we planned to stop for a day or so to restock food and fuel etc. before the long journey into the red centre down the Tanami Road.
Jen had called ahead a few weeks earlier to organise with Charlie, the owner of the Lake Argyle Tourist Village, to be interviewed for our film. He was born and bred in the area so no one is more qualified to talk to us about the Lake and surrounds than him.
Next morning after a good chat with our neighbours who were from Brisbane, we headed over to catch up with Charlie and his lovely wife Chantal (who is expecting their first baby later in the year!).
Charlie gave us the inside story on what to do while we were there and we arranged to have an interview with him the following day. His suggestions were – Do the boat cruise, take our boat down the Ord River below the dam or get on board a Triple J river cruise, try some fishing in the spillway and do some hiking around the lake on the St Georges Terrace track. Sounded like a good plan to us.
We were planning to stay for 3 or 4 nights so that should give us the time to get everything done.
The Lake Argyle Cruises office is next door so we wandered down and booked ourselves on a boat cruise for the following day. We have actually been to Lake Argyle before back in 1996 and we did the cruise then which went all the way to the bottom of the lake where the original Ord river inlet is. There are huge wetland areas down there that are teaming with bird life. Unfortunately due to the recent heavy rains the lake water level is too high and the wetlands are too wet for the bird life so that cruise was not on offer this time. Greg, the owner, assured us that if we waited a couple of weeks the water level would drop and the bird life would all return – not an option unfortunately.
Nevertheless, they were running sunset cruises around the northern part of the lake so we booked ourselves on one of those.
Back at camp Bill and Sandra who we’d met in El Questro had turned up and were camped not far from us. This was great as they are really cool people and we seemed to always have plenty to talk about. They are American and Bill is an Oceanographer and has been based in Perth for about 6 years.
Later in the afternoon Bill wandered over to see if I was keen for a hike around the lake along the St Georges Terrace track. Given it was on our ‘to do list’ anyway, how could I refuse.
The track turned out to be quite overgrown having had little or no use since the wet season so we had a challenge to follow it. We could see where it was headed so when we lost the track we found ourselves guessing where it would most likely have gone and eventually we found it again.
The track winds its way around a bay behind the village for about 2 km to a ridge with spectacular views back towards the village and of the red rock cliffs. We made it over there in time for the sunset and took plenty of photos before an easy 30 minute walk back.
I’d guess Bill would be in his mid fifties but he is probably fitter than your average 40 year old so he made a good hiking companion.
Meanwhile back at camp, our girls had been keeping Sandra entertained and had managed to secure themselves an invitation for dinner which Sandra was busy preparing.
Jen and I watched with amusement as the four of them sat around the camp table having their dinner party and couldn’t resist the urge to go over and say hello with the video camera in hand.
In the morning I finished prepping our boat for a cruise down the Ord River and then headed over to interview Charlie in the late morning. Let me tell you I wish all interviews were as easy as that one. With almost no prompting from me Charlie spent 40 minutes telling me the history of the region and I now have the challenge of trimming it down to probably a few minutes in the final doco. Still, too much content is like a business having too many sales – a high class problem.
After lunch we rolled up at the Lake Argyle Cruises office ready for our sunset cruise.Rick was our trusty bus driver and took us down to the boat ramp where we jumped on board the boat with around 30 other people. The boats they use are huge aluminium twin hull boats with a couple of 200hp outboards on the back. They’re ideal for this type of cruise being very fast and stable with open sides so you can walk around and take in the view from every direction.
Don, our captain took over and as a former Parks and Wildlife Officer in the Kimberley region he was a virtual encyclopaedia on the local flora and fauna.
Our first stop was a small cove not far from the boat ramp where a family of the tiny yellow footed rock wallabies that are common in the area live. Right on cue there was one waiting for us on the cliff face as the boat idled up and Don threw him some food as a reward (and encouragement to be there again tomorrow). They are amazing little animals these wallabies, able to scale almost vertical cliffs at top speed and so well camouflaged that we were only a few metres away before we actually saw it sitting there on the rocks in front of us.
A cruise past the dam wall and hillside where the quartz fill was blasted from for the dam was followed by a 15 minute high speed run down to crocodile bay. On the way down Don explained to us that given the shear size of the lake it actually has it’s own micro climate with water evaporating off at a rate of about a cm per day creating and evaporative cooling effect in the area. We had actually noticed that the village was a few degrees cooler than Kununurra and El Questro.
Crocodile bay as it is unofficially known is a sheltered bay on the east side of the lake where the resident freshwater crocodiles can usually be seen basking in the sun on the banks. A relatively small amount of wind can whip up considerable waves on the lake but this bay is always calm due to its orientation to the weather. Hence the crocodiles congregate here to avoid rough seas.
Cruising around the bay we saw at least a dozen crocs on the bank, some we could get within 10 or 20 metres of. Freshwater crocs generally don’t get much over 2 or 3 metres in length and due to their timid nature are not considered dangerous to humans, preferring to run and hide than attack wherever possible.
The crocs in the lake however have a plentiful supply of food and while there is an estimated 25,000 of them living there, it is such a massive body of water that they are thriving. This has resulted in some growing to as long as 4 metres which is a pretty big croc and not one you’d like to be sharing a waterhole with.
Next stop was a spot over the western side of the lake where we saw colonies of Orb spiders which build webs between trees to catch insects and small birds. They are easily identified by the shape they make when suspended in the centre of their web. Their legs sit together in pairs making them appear to have only four legs. Some of them can be as big as your hand although they are not poisonous so no real worry. That would be a good thing as they are everywhere up here and if you do enough walking around in the bush you will inevitably have an encounter with one at some stage.
The lake is actually teeming with fish, mostly catfish and archer fish and a few slices of bread over the side of the boat had the fish in a feeding frenzy. If you hold a piece of bread up over the side the archer fish will actually shoot it out of your hand with a jet of water squirted from their mouths. Their accuracy is uncanny and is a skill they use to shoot insects off leaves and into the water where they soon become a snack for the fish.
The prize fish in the lake are silver cobblers which are another breed of catfish and can grow to huge sizes. They are caught commercially and apparently make great eating although we haven’t had a chance to sample them as yet.
As sunset approached Don took the boat towards the middle of the section of lake we were in and those who were keen jumped in for a swim. Savanna, always the enthusiastic swimmer, was in like Flynn and was assisted by Joy who was on the cruise as well. Joy and her husband Mike had been playing tag with us since El Questro as we have done with a number of other couples and families across the Kimberley. It was actually them who were at the Pentecost river crossing a couple of weeks back when we were on our way to El Questro.
Jen and I stayed on board and enjoyed some bubbly and dip and bickies (patio!) while having a chat with the other passengers and as the sun set behind the mountains the swimmers were hauled back in and it was time to motor back to the boat ramp.
The cruise was a great way to get a taste of the lake and Jen and I resolved to get our tinny in the water and come and have another look sometime in the next couple of days.
Back at the village we opted for an easy dinner in the bar accompanied by a few beers and I got chatting to a guy called Peter who is a surveyor and was based there for a few days while he and his colleague completed the annual survey of the dam to make sure it was not moving in any unexpected ways, which thankfully it wasn’t. Peter had the keys to unlock a gate that allowed access to a section of the spillway that would otherwise be out of reach other than by walking in. He’d been venturing down there every morning he was there at about 4:30am in the hopes of catching a Barramundi in the fast running water.
To give you some background here, the spillway is the overflow for the lake. When it reaches a certain level it overflows down a man made channel carved in the rock that eventually meets up with the Ord River downstream from the dam. The idea is to ensure that the water never gets high enough to overflow the dam. While we were there the spillway was running hard due to the big late wet season that the Kimberley had been inundated with over recent months.
There is no significant population of Barramundi in the Ord river above the Diversion Dam 70 odd kilometres south in Kununurra but apparently a few years back the Ord river below the Diversion Dam, which runs to the sea, was so high that water was actually running around the Diversion Dam. This allowed some Barramundi (and other marine life eg. Saltwater crocodiles, to make their way around the dam and head upstream.
Barramundi are born in fresh water as males and instinctively head downstream to the saltwater where some of them turn into females – transsexual fish!! Once impregnated, these females head back upstream to the fresh water to lay their eggs. Not unlike the salmon in Canada, although we don’t have bears catching them on the way up.
So there was always the off chance that there may be a barra in the spillway heading for the lake and Peters goal was to catch one.
During our chat he invited me to join him the next morning and always keen for some adventure I readily agreed. So 4:30 next morning he picked me up and we headed out in the dark to spillway.
It was only about 10km down the road to the gate then a couple more kilometres down a track to a spot where we were able to pull up and wander down to throw in a line. The water was running hard and would no doubt make for some thrilling white water rafting for those so inclined.
Given it was still very dark we could more hear the water than see it and carefully worked our way to the edge across the rocks.
Peter had a hand line and a lure he’d bought at the village shop and I had my rod and a cheap lure I’d bought in Coles a few weeks back and while he was getting his tackle sorted I cast in a line upstream letting it quickly wash back down stream until it pulled tight.
I reckon I wound it three times before there was a distinctive thump on the line and it went very heavy. My first thought was I’d managed to get snagged on a rock but I kept winding and the line kept coming in. At this point I could just make out the direction of the line from my head torch and when the line started moving up stream of its own accord things got really interesting.
I soon found myself winding in with the line pulling upstream and it was obvious I had a big enough fish for it to be able to swim against the strong current and still feel reasonably large on my line.
I kept winding in and letting the fish have a run with the drag on the reel loosened off so as not to let it pull tight and snapped and we played this game for about 10 minutes as it gradually got closer and closer to the bank. Meanwhile I was edging closer to the waters edge which I could just make out in my head torch light.
Suddenly there was a flash of silver in the water near my feet and I realised that this was no ordinary fish – it was a monster.
It was at this point that having made it this far I became seriously concerned about losing it. I had only 12lb line on my reel and the fish had to come across about 5 feet of jagged rocks to get to the edge where I would have to pull it in by hand as we had no gaff or net.
The fish struggled hard but was losing steam quickly and as I eased it closer I was trying very hard not to slip into the spillway myself which would have been pretty disastrous.
At the last moment I could see the whole fish in my head torch and could see that it was a massive barra. Common sense flew out the window at this point and I took a couple of steps closer to the water, shoved my hand in the fish’s mouth to get a hold on his jaw and hauled him out of the water. Adrenaline is a fine thing at moments like that.
I dragged him up onto the rocks higher up and let me tell you there was a fair amount of “yee-haaaing” and “wooohooing” going on which unfortunately wasn’t caught on video due to the fact it was pitch dark.
Now I’m no accomplished fisherman by any stretch and this was far and away the biggest fish I’d ever caught so I was pretty excited. The fact I got it in the dark on the first cast using 12lb line adding considerably to the thrill as well.
I didn’t have any way of measuring the length but guessed it would be around the 80cm mark. It was also gleaming silver which would make it excellent eating, unlike barra that are usually caught in freshwater which are black in colour and very muddy to taste.
Peter was spewing, claiming quite rightfully that I had caught his fish and that had he not invited me he would have been the one who caught it. Probably true but that’s fishing so thanks Peter for the invite and next time you’re heading out I’ll be glad to go with you
As we waited for the sun to rise enough to be able to get some video of the barra I wandered down the edge of the spillway for 50 metres or so while Peter carried on the fishing effort. I figured I’d let him have a go with my rod and see what he could come up with.
I found a few dead freshwater crocodiles along the edge that had obviously been trying to swim upstream also, become exhausted and crawled up onto the rocks for a rest where they had subsequently died.
Peter didn’t have any luck and around 5:45am, after watching a glorious sunrise through the hills, we headed back to the village so Peter could go to work.
He dropped me off at our camper trailer and I put the barra on the table outside. There were sounds coming from inside the camper so obviously the girls were awake. When I ventured in Jen said “how did you go?” and I replied “good, I managed to catch a barra, it’s on the table outside”. She crawled out of bed and looked out the window and exclaimed “holy %$#@” to which I obviously blurted out the whole story I was itching to tell.
After a few photos I headed over to the shop to see if I could find someone to help me fillet the fish properly. As I mentioned before, I am no expert and did not want to stuff it up.
A couple of guys who were staying in the park were quickly rustled up and were more than happy to get their hands dirty to give me a hand. It was a big effort (mostly by them) but after half an hour we had the fillets off and we managed to get about 24 meal sized pieces off which went into the shop fridge for safe keeping.
There was quite a bit of excitement surrounding the whole event and we invited everyone to come over around dinner time to join us for a barra BBQ which went down pretty well.
It turns out the fish was 90cm long and I estimated it weighed in at around 35lb. The 85cm size limit only applies to fish caught in the Ord River below the Diversion Dam in Kununurra so I was not in any trouble there.
Still buzzing from the whole experience I was keen to get back down to the water and have another go. I took Savanna and Sara with me and we drove down to where the spillway runs under the road and spent a couple of hours fishing around there but without success. Mind you I had used up all my fishing luck for the day and probably the rest of the trip.
Sara, being only 2 1/2 years old, is still learning to handle a rod so I put the body of a lure on the line without the hooks so she couldn’t injure herself or anyone else and she had fun pounding the water with the lure and the end of the rod.
Savanna is getting the hang of casting and hopefully by the end of the trip will have it mastered.
Back at camp we had lunch then decided we’d put our boat in below the dam and take a cruise down the Ord River. There is a boat ramp just below the dam making it all very easy.
We’d slid the boat off the trailer into he water and Jen was holding onto it while I parked the car and I saw her signalling to me to hurry up and then pointing down river. There was a croc about 3 or 4 metres surfaced 50 metres or so from her and she was getting a little nervous. Which is understandable of course.
We managed to get underway while avoiding the croc and for the next few hours had a pretty magical cruise down the river and back. The Ord has cut a path through the Carr Boyd Ranges over the millennia and the wide deep river runs steadily down towards Kununurra where it meets the Diversion Dam. We only ventured about 5km downstream as the current picks up considerably very quickly and, not knowing what we’d find around the next bend, I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble with the girls on board.
Not that it mattered as the 5km we did see was spectacular enough.
We made it back to camp in time for me to get the communal wood BBQ underway before it was dark and we had a good chat with the other travellers in the park while cooking up 15 or so of the barra fillets. I ended up doing some in foil with lemon and pepper and the others on the hotplate and either way it was sensational.
All in all it was a great day and one that I won’t soon forget but will probably not be able to repeat it any time soon.
After all that hard work, the next day we decided that while we had our boat all set-up that we’d take our own cruise on the lake and revisit some of the places we discovered on the Lake Argyle Cruise a couple of days earlier.
We packed a lunch of sandwiches and I included my little stove and the tea and coffee kit in case there was an opportunity to get ashore and boil some water.
Out on the lake we revisited the wallaby spot but he is probably so used to the big boat turning up at the same time every day that we didn’t get his attention. We also had a good look at the dam wall before finding a nice sheltered cove where the water was dead calm and Savanna and I did some fishing.
It still amazes me how relatively undiscovered this region is. The lake is zoned for recreational use so houseboats, speedboats and practically any other type of boat are all permitted. Yet despite this the lake is all but deserted. The only other boat we saw all day was the Cruise boat. Obviously it is the remoteness of the area that makes it this way but I can’t help but imagine that 10 or 20 years from now we’ll start seeing more houseboats and holiday houses around the shoreline as people look for more and more remote places to escape the daily grind.
Given the huge development plans that Charlie has for the village these changes may happen sooner than 10 or 20 years.
After fishing for a while unsuccessfully we motored around to the crocodile bay where I managed to get some good shots of the crocs for our film. They took no real notice of us being quite used to the cruise boat motoring past every day. We then went on the lookout for another sheltered spot where we could have some lunch and I might be able to get onshore and boil the billy. This involved motoring at top speed around the shoreline which was a bit of fun. Our boat has a 15hp Yamaha outboard and the boat being only 80kg, it gets up and boogies when you give it some encouragement. I’ve actually had it up to 40km/h by myself with no other weight in the boat which is pretty cool fun in a boat that small.
Savanna was keen for a turn at the helm so I gave her some quick instruction on how the throttle and steering work and let her have a go. Once she realised she was in control and if she moved the stick the boat would turn, her eyes lit up and I had a hard time wrestling it back from her. It took maybe 2 minutes before she was trying to work out how to get it up to top speed but we’ll save that till she’s a bit older.
The sun was high so shade was all but non-existent and in the end we headed back to the bay we had stopped in earlier and floated around there for a while having lunch and generally chilling out. I managed to get the billy boiled and make a coffee which went down well.
I reckon that boats actually force you to relax because you really have no choice. Especially small ones where you can’t get up and walk around. What else can you do but sit back and take in the scenery so as a result we finished up all feeling pretty good about the day.
Based on our original plan we were supposed to have left yesterday but there was too much going on and so we had extended our stay another 2 nights to get everything done. Charlie had hinted at the possibility of getting on a chopper flight on the Friday as he had organised Heli-Work to base a chopper there to take joy flights over the peak June/July/August period. It was arriving sometime Friday so we decided to stay another day in the hope of getting an opportunity to shoot some footage from the air.
After we leave Lake Argyle the plan is to head down the Tanami Road into Alice Springs before making our way back up to the top end of the Northern Territory and continuing around the coastline from there. On the way back up the idea is to head west into Gregory NP for a few days which is only a few hundred km east of Lake Argyle. With this in mind I figured we would not need our boat in the 2 months it took to get back up to Gregory NP so we may as well leave it at Lake Argyle and detour across and pick it up again after Gregory. This would save us lugging around 250kg of gear including the boat, motor, boat trailer and all the other gear on a 3000km trip where we were not going to use it anyway. Charlie was cool with the idea of us leaving it there with him and so on the Friday morning I packed it all up and covered it with tarps and put it into storage under a tree near his house – securely padlocked of course.
After this we headed down to the Durack Homestead where we met Michael Durack Byers who is the caretaker and a descendant of the pioneering Durack family.
Michael explained to us how in the 1870’s the Duracks had made a 2 1/2 year exploratory trip to the Kimberley from Queensland in the search for grazing country. Finding several million usable acres in the eastern Kimberley the Duracks made the bold move of driving 6000 head of cattle all the way across from Queensland to establish Argyle Downs Station. 3500 head of cattle survived the journey and formed the basis of the Durack empire.
The Duracks knew something about hard work and determination that is for sure. They opened up this frontier country with grit and determination and while they never made a substantial financial fortune from their endeavours, the Durack name is now legendary in the region.
The descendants of those original Duracks actually sold their interests to AA Pastoral company back in the 1950’s with only Reg Durack remaining on Kildurk station.
When the Ord Dam was built back in the early 70’s the massive catchment area included a substantial piece of the Argyle Downs lease including the homestead which had been built by the Duracks back in the 1800’s.
Fortunately common sense prevailed and the historic homestead was relocated block by block and rebuilt to it’s position where it stands today about 3 km from the Lake Argyle Tourist Village.
As the lakes water level rose, far quicker than anyone had predicted, the remainder of the station was submerged and remains today a dive site for those fortunate enough to get out there where I’m told you can swim into the old buildings and see everything pretty much as it was the day it went under.
Back at our camp we gave our car a much needed wash and later in the afternoon the chopper arrived. As luck would have it, the pilot needed to drop his supervisor back into Kununurra so I was able to jump on board for the ride and ended up getting about 40 minutes of footage of the lake and Ord river all the way into Kununurra. Not a bad way to finish the week.
That night we had dinner at the bar and I dragged out the laptop and video camera and made Charlie a short promo DVD he could run in the shop to promote the helicopter flights and while doing that we discussed the idea of us coming back sometime and making a proper documentary of the region that would encapsulate all of the regions history which would be great for visitors to the area to buy as a souvenir of their visit.
I liked the idea a lot and spent the night trying to work out away to make it happen sooner rather than later.
Next morning we packed up and, with the camper trailer much more nimble sans boat, motor etc. we drove into Kununurra only 70km away where we planned to stop for a day or so to restock food and fuel etc. before the long journey into the red centre down the Tanami Road.
Stop 37 - El Questro Wilderness Park, WA - 5 nights
Arrived: 23 May 2006
It was a long day as we
tackled a large 300+km chunk of the Gibb River Road on our way to
El Questro Wilderness Park. The road was a little rough and
corrugated in patches but on the whole it was in pretty good nick
and we managed to average about 70km/h most of the way.
Around 70km down the Gibb from the end of the 30km driveway of Mt Elizabeth Station, we passed the turnoff to Kalumburu which is an Aboriginal community up on the coast about 260km north. Along the way the road winds through Drysdale River Station and the Mitchell Plateau where the famous Mitchell Falls are to be found.
We had hoped to spend a few days in this region but the road was still closed and we couldn’t wait for it to be opened. We had heard that the Drysdale River crossing was over a metre deep and running hard and that a troop carrier had been washed off trying to cross a couple of days earlier. Didn’t sound like too much fun to us.
We kept going along the Gibb, passing Ellenbrae (which was closed!!) and stopped for a late lunch under a tree on the side of the road. Lunch was the usual fair of cheese and vegemite sangas, vitawheats and a couple of pieces of fruit which we sliced up and shared around.
We had to keep moving and a couple of hours later we came to the first of our major river crossings, the Durack. Now the actually depth of the Durack crossing had been a point of much discussion with numerous people we had met along the way. One family in particular seemed very worried about it as their camper was not really water proof above the chassis line so they had taped up the vents in order to keep the water out.
The crossing is only about 50 metres wide but there were a few deeper holes in the centre but nothing serious. I think the level had dropped steadily since the Gibb had opened and was now around the 60cm mark.
As we continued heading East the Pentecost Ranges started to appear on the right and the spectacular Cockburn Ranges in front of us. Fortunately there is a lookout to stop and soak up the view before the road descends to the plains level and travels between the ranges.
Both of these ranges are on El Questro Wilderness Park and when you see them from a distance like this you get some perspective of just how massive the El Questro property is. At over a million acres it is a sizeable piece of the Kimberley and Australia for that matter.
The last challenge for the day was the Pentecost River crossing which was much wider than the Durack and stretched for a good 120 to 150 metres across. A couple of other travellers were waiting by the crossing to watch someone else travel across so they would see what they were in for in a couple of days when they were ready to go.
We engaged the air lockers and low range gears and ventured in. Jen had the video camera running to record the moment and we were running smoothly until about 80 metres across when there are a couple of holes and the wheels skidded on the wet rocks underneath stretching the nerves a little. We never looked like losing traction and soon enough were crawling out the other side with water streaming off the car and trailer. I never really had doubts about getting across but it is nevertheless an adrenaline rush when you are out in the middle of the river with water to the bottom of the doors feeling like you belong more in a boat than a car.
Having successfully crossed the two big rivers on the Gibb without any problems, we felt confident that we could tackle anything that came our way.
Rolling into the driveway of El Questro we drove the last 16km to the township as the sun set over the horizon and it was just about dark when we pulled up at reception.
For as long as I can remember, El Questro was known as El Questro Station but with the takeover of the property by the Voyages company last year, it has be redesignated a “Wilderness Park” and the transition is slowly but surely underway.
It’s not surprising really as the property has to be one of the finest pieces of wilderness in the country and is far better suited to being explored by adventurous travellers than being underutilised by having cattle roaming all over it.
The general camping area runs along the edge of the Pentecost river and is a fairly casual arrangement where you can find your own piece of ground. There is plenty of grass and shade, although finding a space in the dark we did not do a great job of making the most of these two luxuries. (There are no powered sites available so bring a solar panel to keep your batteries topped up. Alternatively you can opt for one of the private bush camps further along the river where they will let you use your generator).
We were pretty exhausted after the long days drive so after setting up we opted for an early night and were asleep soon after.
Next morning after breakfast we headed out on foot to explore the township and make plans for things to do for the rest of our stay. The heart of the township is the Swinging Arm Bar which doubles as reception and the store. This is also the place to book activities of which there are plenty. From river crusies through Chamberlain Gorge to all day safaris around the Cockburn Ranges to boat hire and even heli fishing if you’re not short of a dollar.
Our interest was more centred around the natural attractions of the property and fortunately there is plenty of DIY activities that don’t involve outlaying cash.
I was pretty keen to tackle a gorge hike, which I’d be doing solo as Jen’s knee doesn’t allow her to go rock hoping. The girls were up for some horse riding and a swim in the swimming hole down in the river next to the restaurant. Jen liked the look of the lunch menu at the restaurant so lunch was on the cards at least one day.
On Saturday nights they have a BBQ banquet around the fire at the Swinging Arm Bar where it is an all you can eat affair of steak, barra, chicken and sausages as well as a smorgasboard of salads for about $25 a head (kids free ), so we booked ourselves in for that.
While we digested all of the options for our stay we wandered over to where David, the resident artist had a display of paintings he had painted on the property and he had some great pieces. We don’t have a lot of empty wall space in the camper so opted just to browse but they would look nice on the wall of a real house one day – guess we’ll just have to come back and take another look.
We had lunch back at our camp and suddenly realised we had run out of nappies for Sara – doh! Jen and I both thought we had another pack buried in the depths of the trailer but it was not to be. I wandered up to the shop in hope of them having some but no such luck.
We contemplated doing the rounds of the campground and buying a couple off someone else but we were there for another 4 days and would need at least a dozen, probably more.
There was no other option, we had to drive the 200km round trip to Kununurra to buy a packet of nappies! Given the price of fuel in these parts, we ended up using about $50 worth of juice to buy a $25 pack of nappies. It was a good lesson for us in proper planning and now we always have a full pack in reserve.
That pretty much consumed the rest of the day but it was a nice drive and we had a chance to check our voicemails and make a couple of phone calls while we were in there.
After dinner at camp that night Savanna had us in stitches when she said to Jen "Mummy, when I click my fingers like this, it means it's time for you to open the tent and let me in". After clicking her fingers a couple of times and not getting the desired result she followed with "Mummy, can't you hear my fingers?" to which we cracked up. What was funniest was the way she delivered it so innocently – kids are an endless source of amusement.
Next morning we were chatting with our neighbours who had been out exploring in their 4WD and reported that the lookouts, expecially Brancos, were well worth a look. This was good news as we were planning to head out to see them today anyway.
We had a bit if a faffing morning then after lunch packed up some patio, a few beers and the camera gear and headed for Brancos lookout to watch the sunset over the Pentecost River.
The drive out there was half the adventure with a major water crossing along the way. The crossing is in three stages and just keeps on going. It was actually a lot of fun and I made a mental note to come back in the next couple of days and film the car tackling the crossing which would make some great footage.
Brancos is at the top of a steep and rough 4WD climb up the hillside and the view makes it well worth it. Despite the rough ride, Sara slept all the way up the track and for about the first hour of our 2 hours at the lookout. The view is to the east over a bend in the Pentecost River and you can see the luxury homestead in the distance (I think it starts at about $800 a double per night to stay there). I went crazy with the cameras, still and video, trying to take in the view as best I could and as the sun slowly set we enjoyed some beers, dip and bickies.
Another photographer, Frank, arrived while I was there and took a whole bunch of photos as well and we had a good chat. He has made a business of photographing landscapes and selling high quality photo prints and by all accounts is doing well from it. We discussed how the sunrise might look and decided we’d both brave an early start and meet back here to photograph the sunrise.
After the sun went down and I had captured the view from every possible angle, we headed back to camp in the dark and stopped in at the Swinging Arm Bar for a couple more beers before calling it a night.
Sunrise was well before 6am so I was awake around 4:30am so I could get organised and get out to the lookout which was about half an hours drive away. As I pulled up to the lookout carpark I was surprised to see 3 cars there already. One belonged to Frank, who had arrived just in front of me, but the other two were for a film crew who had come up to also capture the sunrise. It turns out they were filming some stock footage of some of Western Australia’s most special places for the WA Governement Tourism Department and they had arranged for a couple of guys to do some fly fishing in the river down below for their shoot . . . which was pretty handy for Frank and I as we had them in our shoot too!!
It was a gorgeous sunrise and worth getting up early for. When I got back to camp around 8am the girls were up and about and keen for a swim in the swimming hole so after breakfast we ‘togged up’ and wandered over. The swimming hole is part of the river which has been diverted into a quiet corner and landscaped with rocks and palm trees to make a little tropical oasis. The water was great and we shared the pool with a couple of other travellers and a goanna who seemed to be a resident the way he strutted around the place.
While we were enjoying the swim I had this lingering feeling I had forgotten something but it wasn’t until we were having lunch in the restaurant in front of the swimming hole that I remembered I had not gone back for my fleece jacket and microphone while loading the car at the lookout this morning.
This was bad news as the microphone was a pretty essential piece of kit and the jacket, while not as essential, had cost me $150 and I didn’t want to lose it.
I decided to drop into the reception and see if anyone had handed them in, which they hadn’t, then take a drive back up to the lookout and see if they were there. I took Sara with me and true to form she fell asleep again on the way up the rough track.
It took no time for me to see that my gear was not there and dread started to set in. Where would I get a new microphone out here inside of a couple of weeks was the question on my mind. When mining companies have a breakdown they’ll charter a plane to get parts sent out but unfortunately I don’t have the kind of budget they do!! I could probably stretch the finances to a carrier pigeon but I suspect the weight of the gear may be a little too much for it.
On the way back I decided to do some filming at the river crossing. Sara was still asleep and I had left my details at reception in case the gear was handed in so there was little else I could do. Shots like this don’t need great sound so I was already making do without the microphone.
Filming the car in motion by myself involves setting up the camera on the tripod, hitting record, then driving back down the road, turning around and driving back to the camera, stopping, picking up the camera and continuing on. The water crossing was a different story though as I could not turn around and it was in three sections. What I ended up doing was driving across the first section. Setting up the camera, reversing back out, driving in to the camera again, then repeating that 2 more times.
In the end it took about 45 minutes and I did the crossing 3 times, twice forwards and once in reverse. I had fun doing it though and if we have an outtakes section on the finished DVD I’ll be sure to include the footage of me driving backwards through the water crossing.
Back at camp there was little else to do but head over to the bar and have a couple of beers and hope someone had handed in my gear. No-one had when we arrived so we took a seat with a view of reception and I crossed my fingers.
Two VB’s later a new guy had started behind the bar and I decided to let him know I was on the lookout for my stuff. When I did he bent straight down under the bar and pulled out a brown paper bag with the words “If uncollected, return to Brown Pete” written on it.
It was my gear – you beauty!!!!!
Brown Pete is one of the staff there and he had picked up my gear when he took a tour up to the lookout in the morning after I’d been there. He was a little disappointed I’d claimed the gear but I bought him a beer as a consolation prize.
In the morning I headed out to El Questro Gorge for my solo hike while Jen got the girls organised for their horse ride. I wanted to have plenty of time to explore the gorge and take photos and film so I was out there by around 6:30am and was the first car in the car park.
You would barely know the gorge was there from outside as the hills around the area are quite thin with vegetation. However once inside it is a different story as the first part of the gorge is filled with Livistonia Palms and running water creating a tropical oasis effect.
Further in the vegetation thickens further and there are numerous crystal clear pools in the rocky creek bed with tiny fish searching around for their next meal. I revelled in having the gorge to myself for the morning but guessed it would not last too long – and it didn’t with the first group catching up to me about 8:30am .
The gorge is divided into two sections, the first section before the ‘halfway pool’ and the second section that goes all the way to the end.
The reason for the divide is a giant boulder that has fallen into the gorge and blocks the path. It has created a pool which is the ‘halfway pool’. Walking to this point is relatively easy and could be tackled by anyone including small kids. The challenge is to get past the boulder and when you stand and look at it there is no obvious path to take.
When I arrived here the couple who had passed me further back were there contemplating how to get past it. They had swum up to the boulder and found the water to be around 2 metres deep at the base and could not find any footholds to get up or around the rock.
I was pretty keen to get past it as well but had all my camera gear and, not anticipating the need to get wet, had not brought my waterproof bag which I use for occasions like this and when we are on the boat.
I opted to make a cuppa and ponder the situation while taking some still photos in the gorge. Meanwhile the other couple gave up and headed back and I was soon joined by another couple who were American. The husband (Bill) was obviously a determined fellow and was quickly in his trunks and into the water looking for a way through while I chatted with his wife, Sandra.
Bill searched back and forth and indeed he was very determined but still wasn’t able to find a path, much to his great frustration.
They gave up and turned back and I was thinking I’d probably do the same but felt I was giving up a bit too easily. At about the same time as I was working out what to do with my gear while I headed into the water to undertake my own reconnaissance, a family of mum dad and son and daughter (around 9 and 11 years old) turned up and with barely a word to each other, dropped there gear on the rocks, strode into the water and scaled up and over the boulder, soon disappearing over the top.
It was actually pretty funny to watch after all I’d seen in the last hour or so and it was obvious they had done it before and knew the trick to getting over.
At this point I was going over for sure but could not work out how to get my camera gear over without risk of it getting wet. I decided to setup the video and film myself going over and leave the camera rolling while I had a quick look around over the other side before filming myself coming back. If I couldn’t get the camera over, at least I’d get a look myself.
So it was down to my bathers and with boots and socks in hand I headed into the water and tried to remember how the others had found a way up the left side. There is actually a small ledge just below the water line on the boulder and if you stand on it you can them shimmy up between the boulder and the cliff until you get to the top of the rock. On the way up I threw my boots up to the top so I was definitely committed to getting up there then.
Once up the top it was boots back on and I strode about 100metres up the gorge. From here onwards the going is more difficult as you need to scale around the edge of boulders and rock hop across pools to keep moving. I came to a point where there was no way through other than to wade through the creek in about 3 feet of water and figured I may as well just get my boots wet and be done with it. It is actually quite liberating at that point because once they were wet I could just jump down and wade through the creek whenever it was convenient, saving a fair amount of prancing and crawling to avoid the water.
I desperately wanted to go all the way to the end but the thought of the camera sitting on the tripod back over the boulder was enough to stop me about 300 metres up the gorge and reluctantly I headed back.
Coming over the boulder I could see the camera was where I’d left it and no-one else had arrived yet. This was a good opportunity for a swim while I was wet anyway and I enjoyed 15 minutes of lounging around in the pool.
While my boots, socks and t-shirt dried on the rocks I had some lunch and another cuppa and soon enough there were about a dozen more people there, some of whom made it over the boulder but most who didn’t.
Meanwhile, Jen had taken the girls for a horse ride around the township. Ironically, Brown Pete was the man in charge!
The girls loved the ride and by all accounts, Sara looked like a real natural in the saddle.
When I made it back from my gorge adventure we had some lunch then headed out to check out the other lookouts on the property which, while not as spectacular as Brancos, were worth the drive. The tracks are very rough in some places requiring us to crawl around in low range first gear but all part of the fun.
The much anticipated BBQ Banquet was on tonight and we had deliberately not eaten much in the day to make the most of it. I took the girls over early to get a good seat while Jen had a shower and got organised.
The dinner was awesome and we certainly got our monies worth. If you are heading to El questro it is worth trying to be there on the Saturday night just for the BBQ Banquet. They lit a huge camp fire and after dinner, Buddy, the resident salt of the earth entertainer put on a performance using his stockwhip and a volunteer followed by some of his poetry and philosophies on life.
Buddy has been there since El Questro was opened to the public about 16 years ago and there was a definite sense that with the change of ownership last year his days there may be dwindling which is a shame as he is one of the characters that make a place like El Questro stand out from other places.
We had a good chat with a few of the people we had met including Bill and Sandra and Joy and Mike and eventually carried the girls back to the camp and tucked them into bed.
This was our last night so we did some pre-packing to reduce the workload in the morning then hit the sack ourselves.
Next morning we managed to get things organised in good time and were just about ready to leave at about 10:30am when we pushed the boatrack on the camper trailer back down to lock it in place . . . and one of the upright supports snapped!!! Bugger!!!! We managed to hold it in place without it coming completely off which would have resulted in the other end snapping and the whole rack with boat collapsing onto the ground which would have been and even bigger problem.
A few guys at a nearby camp helped me ease it into place without breaking it so I was able to tow it gently over to the workshop where for $40 and an hour later it was all welded up and better than new. Could have been worse.
The rack broke mainly because of fatigue due to it rocking back and forth on the rougher roads so in future on corrugated roads I’ll use a tie down strap to pull it hard in one direction and stop it from moving around. This will hopefully avoid any further breaks.
Heading out of El Questro around lunch time we made our way into Kununurra saying goodbye to the Gibb River Road for this trip and after a quick bite to eat in Kununurra we drove the smooth and luxuriously smooth bitumen road the 70km out to Lake Argyle for our next adventure.
Around 70km down the Gibb from the end of the 30km driveway of Mt Elizabeth Station, we passed the turnoff to Kalumburu which is an Aboriginal community up on the coast about 260km north. Along the way the road winds through Drysdale River Station and the Mitchell Plateau where the famous Mitchell Falls are to be found.
We had hoped to spend a few days in this region but the road was still closed and we couldn’t wait for it to be opened. We had heard that the Drysdale River crossing was over a metre deep and running hard and that a troop carrier had been washed off trying to cross a couple of days earlier. Didn’t sound like too much fun to us.
We kept going along the Gibb, passing Ellenbrae (which was closed!!) and stopped for a late lunch under a tree on the side of the road. Lunch was the usual fair of cheese and vegemite sangas, vitawheats and a couple of pieces of fruit which we sliced up and shared around.
We had to keep moving and a couple of hours later we came to the first of our major river crossings, the Durack. Now the actually depth of the Durack crossing had been a point of much discussion with numerous people we had met along the way. One family in particular seemed very worried about it as their camper was not really water proof above the chassis line so they had taped up the vents in order to keep the water out.
The crossing is only about 50 metres wide but there were a few deeper holes in the centre but nothing serious. I think the level had dropped steadily since the Gibb had opened and was now around the 60cm mark.
As we continued heading East the Pentecost Ranges started to appear on the right and the spectacular Cockburn Ranges in front of us. Fortunately there is a lookout to stop and soak up the view before the road descends to the plains level and travels between the ranges.
Both of these ranges are on El Questro Wilderness Park and when you see them from a distance like this you get some perspective of just how massive the El Questro property is. At over a million acres it is a sizeable piece of the Kimberley and Australia for that matter.
The last challenge for the day was the Pentecost River crossing which was much wider than the Durack and stretched for a good 120 to 150 metres across. A couple of other travellers were waiting by the crossing to watch someone else travel across so they would see what they were in for in a couple of days when they were ready to go.
We engaged the air lockers and low range gears and ventured in. Jen had the video camera running to record the moment and we were running smoothly until about 80 metres across when there are a couple of holes and the wheels skidded on the wet rocks underneath stretching the nerves a little. We never looked like losing traction and soon enough were crawling out the other side with water streaming off the car and trailer. I never really had doubts about getting across but it is nevertheless an adrenaline rush when you are out in the middle of the river with water to the bottom of the doors feeling like you belong more in a boat than a car.
Having successfully crossed the two big rivers on the Gibb without any problems, we felt confident that we could tackle anything that came our way.
Rolling into the driveway of El Questro we drove the last 16km to the township as the sun set over the horizon and it was just about dark when we pulled up at reception.
For as long as I can remember, El Questro was known as El Questro Station but with the takeover of the property by the Voyages company last year, it has be redesignated a “Wilderness Park” and the transition is slowly but surely underway.
It’s not surprising really as the property has to be one of the finest pieces of wilderness in the country and is far better suited to being explored by adventurous travellers than being underutilised by having cattle roaming all over it.
The general camping area runs along the edge of the Pentecost river and is a fairly casual arrangement where you can find your own piece of ground. There is plenty of grass and shade, although finding a space in the dark we did not do a great job of making the most of these two luxuries. (There are no powered sites available so bring a solar panel to keep your batteries topped up. Alternatively you can opt for one of the private bush camps further along the river where they will let you use your generator).
We were pretty exhausted after the long days drive so after setting up we opted for an early night and were asleep soon after.
Next morning after breakfast we headed out on foot to explore the township and make plans for things to do for the rest of our stay. The heart of the township is the Swinging Arm Bar which doubles as reception and the store. This is also the place to book activities of which there are plenty. From river crusies through Chamberlain Gorge to all day safaris around the Cockburn Ranges to boat hire and even heli fishing if you’re not short of a dollar.
Our interest was more centred around the natural attractions of the property and fortunately there is plenty of DIY activities that don’t involve outlaying cash.
I was pretty keen to tackle a gorge hike, which I’d be doing solo as Jen’s knee doesn’t allow her to go rock hoping. The girls were up for some horse riding and a swim in the swimming hole down in the river next to the restaurant. Jen liked the look of the lunch menu at the restaurant so lunch was on the cards at least one day.
On Saturday nights they have a BBQ banquet around the fire at the Swinging Arm Bar where it is an all you can eat affair of steak, barra, chicken and sausages as well as a smorgasboard of salads for about $25 a head (kids free ), so we booked ourselves in for that.
While we digested all of the options for our stay we wandered over to where David, the resident artist had a display of paintings he had painted on the property and he had some great pieces. We don’t have a lot of empty wall space in the camper so opted just to browse but they would look nice on the wall of a real house one day – guess we’ll just have to come back and take another look.
We had lunch back at our camp and suddenly realised we had run out of nappies for Sara – doh! Jen and I both thought we had another pack buried in the depths of the trailer but it was not to be. I wandered up to the shop in hope of them having some but no such luck.
We contemplated doing the rounds of the campground and buying a couple off someone else but we were there for another 4 days and would need at least a dozen, probably more.
There was no other option, we had to drive the 200km round trip to Kununurra to buy a packet of nappies! Given the price of fuel in these parts, we ended up using about $50 worth of juice to buy a $25 pack of nappies. It was a good lesson for us in proper planning and now we always have a full pack in reserve.
That pretty much consumed the rest of the day but it was a nice drive and we had a chance to check our voicemails and make a couple of phone calls while we were in there.
After dinner at camp that night Savanna had us in stitches when she said to Jen "Mummy, when I click my fingers like this, it means it's time for you to open the tent and let me in". After clicking her fingers a couple of times and not getting the desired result she followed with "Mummy, can't you hear my fingers?" to which we cracked up. What was funniest was the way she delivered it so innocently – kids are an endless source of amusement.
Next morning we were chatting with our neighbours who had been out exploring in their 4WD and reported that the lookouts, expecially Brancos, were well worth a look. This was good news as we were planning to head out to see them today anyway.
We had a bit if a faffing morning then after lunch packed up some patio, a few beers and the camera gear and headed for Brancos lookout to watch the sunset over the Pentecost River.
The drive out there was half the adventure with a major water crossing along the way. The crossing is in three stages and just keeps on going. It was actually a lot of fun and I made a mental note to come back in the next couple of days and film the car tackling the crossing which would make some great footage.
Brancos is at the top of a steep and rough 4WD climb up the hillside and the view makes it well worth it. Despite the rough ride, Sara slept all the way up the track and for about the first hour of our 2 hours at the lookout. The view is to the east over a bend in the Pentecost River and you can see the luxury homestead in the distance (I think it starts at about $800 a double per night to stay there). I went crazy with the cameras, still and video, trying to take in the view as best I could and as the sun slowly set we enjoyed some beers, dip and bickies.
Another photographer, Frank, arrived while I was there and took a whole bunch of photos as well and we had a good chat. He has made a business of photographing landscapes and selling high quality photo prints and by all accounts is doing well from it. We discussed how the sunrise might look and decided we’d both brave an early start and meet back here to photograph the sunrise.
After the sun went down and I had captured the view from every possible angle, we headed back to camp in the dark and stopped in at the Swinging Arm Bar for a couple more beers before calling it a night.
Sunrise was well before 6am so I was awake around 4:30am so I could get organised and get out to the lookout which was about half an hours drive away. As I pulled up to the lookout carpark I was surprised to see 3 cars there already. One belonged to Frank, who had arrived just in front of me, but the other two were for a film crew who had come up to also capture the sunrise. It turns out they were filming some stock footage of some of Western Australia’s most special places for the WA Governement Tourism Department and they had arranged for a couple of guys to do some fly fishing in the river down below for their shoot . . . which was pretty handy for Frank and I as we had them in our shoot too!!
It was a gorgeous sunrise and worth getting up early for. When I got back to camp around 8am the girls were up and about and keen for a swim in the swimming hole so after breakfast we ‘togged up’ and wandered over. The swimming hole is part of the river which has been diverted into a quiet corner and landscaped with rocks and palm trees to make a little tropical oasis. The water was great and we shared the pool with a couple of other travellers and a goanna who seemed to be a resident the way he strutted around the place.
While we were enjoying the swim I had this lingering feeling I had forgotten something but it wasn’t until we were having lunch in the restaurant in front of the swimming hole that I remembered I had not gone back for my fleece jacket and microphone while loading the car at the lookout this morning.
This was bad news as the microphone was a pretty essential piece of kit and the jacket, while not as essential, had cost me $150 and I didn’t want to lose it.
I decided to drop into the reception and see if anyone had handed them in, which they hadn’t, then take a drive back up to the lookout and see if they were there. I took Sara with me and true to form she fell asleep again on the way up the rough track.
It took no time for me to see that my gear was not there and dread started to set in. Where would I get a new microphone out here inside of a couple of weeks was the question on my mind. When mining companies have a breakdown they’ll charter a plane to get parts sent out but unfortunately I don’t have the kind of budget they do!! I could probably stretch the finances to a carrier pigeon but I suspect the weight of the gear may be a little too much for it.
On the way back I decided to do some filming at the river crossing. Sara was still asleep and I had left my details at reception in case the gear was handed in so there was little else I could do. Shots like this don’t need great sound so I was already making do without the microphone.
Filming the car in motion by myself involves setting up the camera on the tripod, hitting record, then driving back down the road, turning around and driving back to the camera, stopping, picking up the camera and continuing on. The water crossing was a different story though as I could not turn around and it was in three sections. What I ended up doing was driving across the first section. Setting up the camera, reversing back out, driving in to the camera again, then repeating that 2 more times.
In the end it took about 45 minutes and I did the crossing 3 times, twice forwards and once in reverse. I had fun doing it though and if we have an outtakes section on the finished DVD I’ll be sure to include the footage of me driving backwards through the water crossing.
Back at camp there was little else to do but head over to the bar and have a couple of beers and hope someone had handed in my gear. No-one had when we arrived so we took a seat with a view of reception and I crossed my fingers.
Two VB’s later a new guy had started behind the bar and I decided to let him know I was on the lookout for my stuff. When I did he bent straight down under the bar and pulled out a brown paper bag with the words “If uncollected, return to Brown Pete” written on it.
It was my gear – you beauty!!!!!
Brown Pete is one of the staff there and he had picked up my gear when he took a tour up to the lookout in the morning after I’d been there. He was a little disappointed I’d claimed the gear but I bought him a beer as a consolation prize.
In the morning I headed out to El Questro Gorge for my solo hike while Jen got the girls organised for their horse ride. I wanted to have plenty of time to explore the gorge and take photos and film so I was out there by around 6:30am and was the first car in the car park.
You would barely know the gorge was there from outside as the hills around the area are quite thin with vegetation. However once inside it is a different story as the first part of the gorge is filled with Livistonia Palms and running water creating a tropical oasis effect.
Further in the vegetation thickens further and there are numerous crystal clear pools in the rocky creek bed with tiny fish searching around for their next meal. I revelled in having the gorge to myself for the morning but guessed it would not last too long – and it didn’t with the first group catching up to me about 8:30am .
The gorge is divided into two sections, the first section before the ‘halfway pool’ and the second section that goes all the way to the end.
The reason for the divide is a giant boulder that has fallen into the gorge and blocks the path. It has created a pool which is the ‘halfway pool’. Walking to this point is relatively easy and could be tackled by anyone including small kids. The challenge is to get past the boulder and when you stand and look at it there is no obvious path to take.
When I arrived here the couple who had passed me further back were there contemplating how to get past it. They had swum up to the boulder and found the water to be around 2 metres deep at the base and could not find any footholds to get up or around the rock.
I was pretty keen to get past it as well but had all my camera gear and, not anticipating the need to get wet, had not brought my waterproof bag which I use for occasions like this and when we are on the boat.
I opted to make a cuppa and ponder the situation while taking some still photos in the gorge. Meanwhile the other couple gave up and headed back and I was soon joined by another couple who were American. The husband (Bill) was obviously a determined fellow and was quickly in his trunks and into the water looking for a way through while I chatted with his wife, Sandra.
Bill searched back and forth and indeed he was very determined but still wasn’t able to find a path, much to his great frustration.
They gave up and turned back and I was thinking I’d probably do the same but felt I was giving up a bit too easily. At about the same time as I was working out what to do with my gear while I headed into the water to undertake my own reconnaissance, a family of mum dad and son and daughter (around 9 and 11 years old) turned up and with barely a word to each other, dropped there gear on the rocks, strode into the water and scaled up and over the boulder, soon disappearing over the top.
It was actually pretty funny to watch after all I’d seen in the last hour or so and it was obvious they had done it before and knew the trick to getting over.
At this point I was going over for sure but could not work out how to get my camera gear over without risk of it getting wet. I decided to setup the video and film myself going over and leave the camera rolling while I had a quick look around over the other side before filming myself coming back. If I couldn’t get the camera over, at least I’d get a look myself.
So it was down to my bathers and with boots and socks in hand I headed into the water and tried to remember how the others had found a way up the left side. There is actually a small ledge just below the water line on the boulder and if you stand on it you can them shimmy up between the boulder and the cliff until you get to the top of the rock. On the way up I threw my boots up to the top so I was definitely committed to getting up there then.
Once up the top it was boots back on and I strode about 100metres up the gorge. From here onwards the going is more difficult as you need to scale around the edge of boulders and rock hop across pools to keep moving. I came to a point where there was no way through other than to wade through the creek in about 3 feet of water and figured I may as well just get my boots wet and be done with it. It is actually quite liberating at that point because once they were wet I could just jump down and wade through the creek whenever it was convenient, saving a fair amount of prancing and crawling to avoid the water.
I desperately wanted to go all the way to the end but the thought of the camera sitting on the tripod back over the boulder was enough to stop me about 300 metres up the gorge and reluctantly I headed back.
Coming over the boulder I could see the camera was where I’d left it and no-one else had arrived yet. This was a good opportunity for a swim while I was wet anyway and I enjoyed 15 minutes of lounging around in the pool.
While my boots, socks and t-shirt dried on the rocks I had some lunch and another cuppa and soon enough there were about a dozen more people there, some of whom made it over the boulder but most who didn’t.
Meanwhile, Jen had taken the girls for a horse ride around the township. Ironically, Brown Pete was the man in charge!
The girls loved the ride and by all accounts, Sara looked like a real natural in the saddle.
When I made it back from my gorge adventure we had some lunch then headed out to check out the other lookouts on the property which, while not as spectacular as Brancos, were worth the drive. The tracks are very rough in some places requiring us to crawl around in low range first gear but all part of the fun.
The much anticipated BBQ Banquet was on tonight and we had deliberately not eaten much in the day to make the most of it. I took the girls over early to get a good seat while Jen had a shower and got organised.
The dinner was awesome and we certainly got our monies worth. If you are heading to El questro it is worth trying to be there on the Saturday night just for the BBQ Banquet. They lit a huge camp fire and after dinner, Buddy, the resident salt of the earth entertainer put on a performance using his stockwhip and a volunteer followed by some of his poetry and philosophies on life.
Buddy has been there since El Questro was opened to the public about 16 years ago and there was a definite sense that with the change of ownership last year his days there may be dwindling which is a shame as he is one of the characters that make a place like El Questro stand out from other places.
We had a good chat with a few of the people we had met including Bill and Sandra and Joy and Mike and eventually carried the girls back to the camp and tucked them into bed.
This was our last night so we did some pre-packing to reduce the workload in the morning then hit the sack ourselves.
Next morning we managed to get things organised in good time and were just about ready to leave at about 10:30am when we pushed the boatrack on the camper trailer back down to lock it in place . . . and one of the upright supports snapped!!! Bugger!!!! We managed to hold it in place without it coming completely off which would have resulted in the other end snapping and the whole rack with boat collapsing onto the ground which would have been and even bigger problem.
A few guys at a nearby camp helped me ease it into place without breaking it so I was able to tow it gently over to the workshop where for $40 and an hour later it was all welded up and better than new. Could have been worse.
The rack broke mainly because of fatigue due to it rocking back and forth on the rougher roads so in future on corrugated roads I’ll use a tie down strap to pull it hard in one direction and stop it from moving around. This will hopefully avoid any further breaks.
Heading out of El Questro around lunch time we made our way into Kununurra saying goodbye to the Gibb River Road for this trip and after a quick bite to eat in Kununurra we drove the smooth and luxuriously smooth bitumen road the 70km out to Lake Argyle for our next adventure.
Stop 36 - Mt Elizabeth Station, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 21 May 2006
While Windjana and Silent
Grove were certainly nice spots to camp, Mt.Elizabeth was luxury by
comparison. They have set aside about an acre of ground near the
station buildings and it is shady and grassy with individual camp
fire places, flushing toilets and ensuite style bathrooms.
Best of all we had the whole place to ourselves so we made a big camp fire and sat back and enjoyed the solitude of being in the real bush.
Unlike most roadhouses, stations and other camp area, we could not hear a generator at Mt Elizabeth so the nights were actually quiet. Magic stuff.
Next morning we got organised and after breaky headed over to get directions to the gorge and check in for another night. Not before I filmed a heap of wallabies and galahs around the camping area though. The station seems to attract the wildlife like a bag of hot chips attracts seagulls.
With mud map in hand we found the right track and could fairly quickly see why it would take a while to get there. The track was very narrow and rocky and in many sections it was a case of low range first as we inched our way across rocky outcrops. On the whole, a lot of fun and we even passed through a couple of bushfires that were slowly making there way across the scrub and obviously not causing anyone a great concern.
Eventually we made it to the end of the road and then it was a matter of walking the last km or so down to the gorge along a rough track through the scrub.
Once we arrived we found a nice spot to settle on and had a bit of a look around. The river runs fairly steadily over the top of a water fall and down about 40 metres into a football oval sized gorge before continuing out the other side through a cutting in the gorge. It was a beautiful and spectacular view and best of all we had it all to ourselves.
We opted to stay up the top of the falls as the climb down may be a little too much for the girls so we found a good spot then went into the creek for a dip. As usual Savanna was first in and would have been happy to stay there all day. Sara was a little more cautious but still got wet anyway.
We spent a few lazy hours there including making lunch and a coffee on my little gas stove before heading back.
On the way back we stopped and filmed the car climbing up and over some of the rocks and Jen even got into the drivers seat and had a go. We encountered some cattle on the track closer to the station and one of the bulls did a mock charge at us but didn’t have the chutzpah to follow through, which was a little disappointing as I wouldn’t mind a couple of bull horn holes in the car to talk about.
Our solitude couldn’t last and back at the camp we had been joined by two other parties for the night, not that it was crowded though.
With the help of Sara and Savanna, I made some damper muffins which I cooked on a frying pan over the open fire instead of in a camp oven and they came our quite good. We had some with melted butter and honey for supper. For a laugh we filmed the segment as a cooking segment although it was pretty amateurish so we’ll wait and see whether it makes it into the final production or not.
In the morning we packed up and got away to a fairly early start. We had to drive through to El Questro today which was about a 400km drive so quite a long day.
We made our way back to the Gibb and turned left and ironically, a couple of hours later we made it to Ellenbrae only to find it was closed permanently to travellers so if we had opted to head there instead of Mt Elizabeth we’d have found it closed when we got there in the dark, which would have had us trying to find a bush camp in the dark . . . you can get lucky sometimes!
Best of all we had the whole place to ourselves so we made a big camp fire and sat back and enjoyed the solitude of being in the real bush.
Unlike most roadhouses, stations and other camp area, we could not hear a generator at Mt Elizabeth so the nights were actually quiet. Magic stuff.
Next morning we got organised and after breaky headed over to get directions to the gorge and check in for another night. Not before I filmed a heap of wallabies and galahs around the camping area though. The station seems to attract the wildlife like a bag of hot chips attracts seagulls.
With mud map in hand we found the right track and could fairly quickly see why it would take a while to get there. The track was very narrow and rocky and in many sections it was a case of low range first as we inched our way across rocky outcrops. On the whole, a lot of fun and we even passed through a couple of bushfires that were slowly making there way across the scrub and obviously not causing anyone a great concern.
Eventually we made it to the end of the road and then it was a matter of walking the last km or so down to the gorge along a rough track through the scrub.
Once we arrived we found a nice spot to settle on and had a bit of a look around. The river runs fairly steadily over the top of a water fall and down about 40 metres into a football oval sized gorge before continuing out the other side through a cutting in the gorge. It was a beautiful and spectacular view and best of all we had it all to ourselves.
We opted to stay up the top of the falls as the climb down may be a little too much for the girls so we found a good spot then went into the creek for a dip. As usual Savanna was first in and would have been happy to stay there all day. Sara was a little more cautious but still got wet anyway.
We spent a few lazy hours there including making lunch and a coffee on my little gas stove before heading back.
On the way back we stopped and filmed the car climbing up and over some of the rocks and Jen even got into the drivers seat and had a go. We encountered some cattle on the track closer to the station and one of the bulls did a mock charge at us but didn’t have the chutzpah to follow through, which was a little disappointing as I wouldn’t mind a couple of bull horn holes in the car to talk about.
Our solitude couldn’t last and back at the camp we had been joined by two other parties for the night, not that it was crowded though.
With the help of Sara and Savanna, I made some damper muffins which I cooked on a frying pan over the open fire instead of in a camp oven and they came our quite good. We had some with melted butter and honey for supper. For a laugh we filmed the segment as a cooking segment although it was pretty amateurish so we’ll wait and see whether it makes it into the final production or not.
In the morning we packed up and got away to a fairly early start. We had to drive through to El Questro today which was about a 400km drive so quite a long day.
We made our way back to the Gibb and turned left and ironically, a couple of hours later we made it to Ellenbrae only to find it was closed permanently to travellers so if we had opted to head there instead of Mt Elizabeth we’d have found it closed when we got there in the dark, which would have had us trying to find a bush camp in the dark . . . you can get lucky sometimes!
Stop 35 - Silent Grove, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 19 May 2006
The facilities at Silent
Grove are very similar to those at Windjana with no allocated
sites, flushing toilets and cold showers. Not a bad setup and just
civilized enough to make it comfortable without it being over
done.
This is actually the best type of camping for us. We are not big fans of the flash top dollar holiday parks with all the mod cons. They are certainly more expensive, usually charging us for 2 kids even though Sara is only 2, and they are just a bit “too nice” if you know what I mean. We reckon camping is just that, camping! And staying in a place that is so manicured and rigidly controlled is not exactly roughing it. Of course this is just our opinion and plenty of people would disagree. A mate of mine reckons that a 3 star hotel is roughing it so it is all a matter of perspective. Ironically, as I write this he and his partner are working their way across the Gibb River Road in a Britts 4WD following our trail. I bet he’s having a ball and will have changed his whole outlook on roughing it after this trip.
Anyway, we setup camp in a less than perfect spot mainly because it was on a slope but that was all we could find.
Peta and Bill were there as well so our girls had a chance to have a play with their girls.
Next day was a faffing day. What’s faffing? Well, it’s when you mooch around and really do bugger all that is worth talking about. You need one of these every now and again just to break up the organized feel that creeps in if everything runs smoothly for a few days in a row.
A good faffing day reminds you that you are not perfect and need to be a little disorganized here and there to really enjoy the times when everything flows smoothly.
We caught up with Peta and Bill in the afternoon who’d been out turtle spotting in the creek. Apparently they saw only 2 today but had seen 8 yesterday.
We did do one important thing though and that was ring GG (great granny) on the satphone to wish her a happy birthday. When Jen and I did our 10 day “Kimberley at high speed” tour about 10 years ago we took granny with us because she had not been up this way and would love the trip. Well, she loved it alright, so much so that she has been traveling around Australia on one tour or another for the last 10 years. Most of her trips are with Dave King who has a 4WD bus and runs outback tours all over oz. It was cool to ring her from the exact spot we had camped with her almost 10 years before.
We had the remains of the soup I’d made in Windjana for dinner tonight and, while I didn’t think it was possible, I ate too much and felt pretty sick for a couple of hours. Serves me right!
Next morning we packed up and headed out to Bell Gorge to take in the scenery before moving on further down the Gibb.
Only a couple of km’s out of the campground we came across a “Western Exposure” 4WD tour bus that had moved over to the side of the road to let some other cars pass and had become stuck in the muddy bog that was hidden in the long grass just off the road. The ruck was leaning over fairly severely and was very close to rolling over.
By the time we pulled up the passengers were all out and they and the driver were milling about wondering what to do about it.
We offered our help and were in the process of trying to pull the trailer back up onto the road when another one of their trucks came along and with it’s far greater mass and power, took over the job.
We hung around to capture the whole event on video for our film and managed to assist further by loaning them some recovery chain and shackles and with that they successfully pulled the trailer and truck back up onto the road.
We continued on to Bell Gorge but in the end, having lost a couple of hours with the truck recovery, and the fact that we had seen it before, we decided not to bother with the walk and keep moving on to our next stop which would be Ellenbrae and was quite a lot further down the Gibb.
I’ll add at this point that we are driving past quite a few of the lookouts and points of interest along the Gibb and there is plenty more to see and do than what we are covering. This is for 3 reasons – the first is that we have been here before and seen some of these other things so don’t need to go back and see them all, the second is that time is limited and we need to keep moving, but the third and most important is that we’ll be back within a few years at the most and want to leave some things still new for next time.
Rolling on down the Gibb we almost drove past the turnoff to Mt Elizabeth station but at the last minute decided to stop there for the night. We figured it would take us till after dark to get to Ellenbrae anyway so we’d stop here instead.
The station is 30km from the main road along a well maintained station track and when we pulled up in front of the station house we were immediately impressed with how tidy and welcoming the place was.
Inside I met Pat who is the owner and she pointed us towards the camping area not far away and suggested if we were sticking around tomorrow we might like to check out a gorge nearby that was only 10km away but would take the best part of an hour to get there – the track was that rough . . . that sounded pretty interesting to me!!
This is actually the best type of camping for us. We are not big fans of the flash top dollar holiday parks with all the mod cons. They are certainly more expensive, usually charging us for 2 kids even though Sara is only 2, and they are just a bit “too nice” if you know what I mean. We reckon camping is just that, camping! And staying in a place that is so manicured and rigidly controlled is not exactly roughing it. Of course this is just our opinion and plenty of people would disagree. A mate of mine reckons that a 3 star hotel is roughing it so it is all a matter of perspective. Ironically, as I write this he and his partner are working their way across the Gibb River Road in a Britts 4WD following our trail. I bet he’s having a ball and will have changed his whole outlook on roughing it after this trip.
Anyway, we setup camp in a less than perfect spot mainly because it was on a slope but that was all we could find.
Peta and Bill were there as well so our girls had a chance to have a play with their girls.
Next day was a faffing day. What’s faffing? Well, it’s when you mooch around and really do bugger all that is worth talking about. You need one of these every now and again just to break up the organized feel that creeps in if everything runs smoothly for a few days in a row.
A good faffing day reminds you that you are not perfect and need to be a little disorganized here and there to really enjoy the times when everything flows smoothly.
We caught up with Peta and Bill in the afternoon who’d been out turtle spotting in the creek. Apparently they saw only 2 today but had seen 8 yesterday.
We did do one important thing though and that was ring GG (great granny) on the satphone to wish her a happy birthday. When Jen and I did our 10 day “Kimberley at high speed” tour about 10 years ago we took granny with us because she had not been up this way and would love the trip. Well, she loved it alright, so much so that she has been traveling around Australia on one tour or another for the last 10 years. Most of her trips are with Dave King who has a 4WD bus and runs outback tours all over oz. It was cool to ring her from the exact spot we had camped with her almost 10 years before.
We had the remains of the soup I’d made in Windjana for dinner tonight and, while I didn’t think it was possible, I ate too much and felt pretty sick for a couple of hours. Serves me right!
Next morning we packed up and headed out to Bell Gorge to take in the scenery before moving on further down the Gibb.
Only a couple of km’s out of the campground we came across a “Western Exposure” 4WD tour bus that had moved over to the side of the road to let some other cars pass and had become stuck in the muddy bog that was hidden in the long grass just off the road. The ruck was leaning over fairly severely and was very close to rolling over.
By the time we pulled up the passengers were all out and they and the driver were milling about wondering what to do about it.
We offered our help and were in the process of trying to pull the trailer back up onto the road when another one of their trucks came along and with it’s far greater mass and power, took over the job.
We hung around to capture the whole event on video for our film and managed to assist further by loaning them some recovery chain and shackles and with that they successfully pulled the trailer and truck back up onto the road.
We continued on to Bell Gorge but in the end, having lost a couple of hours with the truck recovery, and the fact that we had seen it before, we decided not to bother with the walk and keep moving on to our next stop which would be Ellenbrae and was quite a lot further down the Gibb.
I’ll add at this point that we are driving past quite a few of the lookouts and points of interest along the Gibb and there is plenty more to see and do than what we are covering. This is for 3 reasons – the first is that we have been here before and seen some of these other things so don’t need to go back and see them all, the second is that time is limited and we need to keep moving, but the third and most important is that we’ll be back within a few years at the most and want to leave some things still new for next time.
Rolling on down the Gibb we almost drove past the turnoff to Mt Elizabeth station but at the last minute decided to stop there for the night. We figured it would take us till after dark to get to Ellenbrae anyway so we’d stop here instead.
The station is 30km from the main road along a well maintained station track and when we pulled up in front of the station house we were immediately impressed with how tidy and welcoming the place was.
Inside I met Pat who is the owner and she pointed us towards the camping area not far away and suggested if we were sticking around tomorrow we might like to check out a gorge nearby that was only 10km away but would take the best part of an hour to get there – the track was that rough . . . that sounded pretty interesting to me!!
Stop 34 - Windjana, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 17 May 2006
The campground at Windjana
Gorge is basically a large cleared area with a scattering of trees
in the shadow of a spectacular escarpment that was once a huge
coral reef not unlike our Great Barrier Reef.
There are flushing toilets and even cold showers so it is remotely civilized. There are no actually allotted sites, it’s left to the camper to find themselves a spot.
Well, coming in late as we did, all the good spots were taken but we managed to find a piece of ground next to a tree at a reasonable distance from the other groups.
It turns out though that our nearest neighbours felt we’d encroached on their space because when they arrived back about an hour after we had setup they drove fairly aggressively up to the side of our camper and spent the next 15 minutes grumbling about how far do you have to go to get some space or something like that (they didn’t think we could hear them).
We were staying for two nights so next day we had all day to explore Windjana Gorge.
They say that the gorge is the best place in Australia to see freshwater crocodiles and I can see why. There are dozens of them sunning themselves along the banks of the river. Being used to humans as they are, you can approach quite close for a good look and a photo before they get spooked and run back into the water.
The gorge itself has been carved out of the escarpment by the _____ river over millions of years. Being an ancient reef, the escarpment is literally a massive limestone fossil tomb sitting above the ground.
We meandered down the gorge for a couple of km taking in the scenery before stopping in a shady spot for a break. While the girls did some exploring, I pulled out the little gas stove and whipped up a brew for Jen and I then had a look around to see what I could capture on film.
I was actually filming a large colourful cricket sitting on a leaf when I happened to glance over at the river and saw a large croc drifting slowly along under the water.
I managed to get a shot of him and followed him down the river for about 50 metres. I think he was on the lookout for something to eat and in stealth mode. While the water was clear and I could see him, if it were muddy I would have had no clue he was there which really reinforced to me how careful you need to be next to water that you can’t see into.
The freshies are not a real threat but the salties are and well come across them later in the trip.
On the way back down the gorge Sara decided she had walked enough and insisted on being carried the best part of the way back. She is only 2 after all so we shouldn’t expect too much.
On the way back we ran into Peta and Bill who we’d met in Cape Leveque. They were making their way across the Gibb as well pretty much following the same path as us.
While we didn’t have time to explore Tunnel Creek today we decided to take a drive down that way for a look at the countryside anyway and I managed to get some great photos around sunset which is one of the best times of the day for filming and taking photos.
We had home made soup for dinner that night and while I was cooking it a lady came over to ask me if I were a chef! I took it as a compliment, not that soup is anything complicated to make.
Next morning we packed up and headed back down to Tunnel Creek so we could do the walk through the tunnel. Tunnel Creek is an amazing natural feature where the river has cut a tunnel like a cave right through the base of the mountain range. It runs for a bit over a kilometer and you can walk all the way through.
About halfway there is a section where the roof has caved in which lets some light and air in and makes the walk a little less foreboding.
You need a torch and some decent shoes and an ounce of courage as you need to wade through black pools of cold water that comes a bit over knee height and about chest height on Sara.
Slowly but surely we walked through and wished the whole time we had recharged our torch batteries in anticipation because they were nearly flat.
We stopped for about half an hour on the other side and let the girls have a play in the sand and rock pools.
As usual, Sara wanted to be carried on the way back but we managed to convince her to walk most of the way. On the way back a long black creature slithered through the water in the torchlight in front of our feet and fortunately only Jen and I saw it. We gave each other a look of “let’s not scare the girls by pointing this thing out” and walked on. We’re pretty sure it was an eel mainly because we could not think what else it would be.
Back out the other side we were feeling pretty chuffed at having accomplished the walk through the mountain and stopped in the car park to have some lunch. I managed to trip over a rock while carrying our 9kg gas bottle around from the side of the trailer and the bottle whacked my knee pretty hard before me and the bottle went flying. I did swear quite loudly which made me feel a little better but my knee was pretty sore so hopefully no serious damage.
After lunch we hit the road again and while the girls were engrossed in a DVD in the back Jen and I had a good chat about our “Adventure Series” ideas as we admired the incredible beauty of the Kimberley countryside.
We made it as far as Silent Grove which is the campground for Bell Gorge and drove the last twenty kilometers along a single lane dirt road straight into the setting sun & there is a nice creek crossing just before we arrived at the campground. The number of creek crossings is steadily increasing as we head west and most of them contain water, a result of the late wet season.
Arriving at Silent Grove we recognized most of the camp groups as the people who had been camped at Windjana Gorge and we were waving almost continuously as we drove around looking for a site.
There are flushing toilets and even cold showers so it is remotely civilized. There are no actually allotted sites, it’s left to the camper to find themselves a spot.
Well, coming in late as we did, all the good spots were taken but we managed to find a piece of ground next to a tree at a reasonable distance from the other groups.
It turns out though that our nearest neighbours felt we’d encroached on their space because when they arrived back about an hour after we had setup they drove fairly aggressively up to the side of our camper and spent the next 15 minutes grumbling about how far do you have to go to get some space or something like that (they didn’t think we could hear them).
We were staying for two nights so next day we had all day to explore Windjana Gorge.
They say that the gorge is the best place in Australia to see freshwater crocodiles and I can see why. There are dozens of them sunning themselves along the banks of the river. Being used to humans as they are, you can approach quite close for a good look and a photo before they get spooked and run back into the water.
The gorge itself has been carved out of the escarpment by the _____ river over millions of years. Being an ancient reef, the escarpment is literally a massive limestone fossil tomb sitting above the ground.
We meandered down the gorge for a couple of km taking in the scenery before stopping in a shady spot for a break. While the girls did some exploring, I pulled out the little gas stove and whipped up a brew for Jen and I then had a look around to see what I could capture on film.
I was actually filming a large colourful cricket sitting on a leaf when I happened to glance over at the river and saw a large croc drifting slowly along under the water.
I managed to get a shot of him and followed him down the river for about 50 metres. I think he was on the lookout for something to eat and in stealth mode. While the water was clear and I could see him, if it were muddy I would have had no clue he was there which really reinforced to me how careful you need to be next to water that you can’t see into.
The freshies are not a real threat but the salties are and well come across them later in the trip.
On the way back down the gorge Sara decided she had walked enough and insisted on being carried the best part of the way back. She is only 2 after all so we shouldn’t expect too much.
On the way back we ran into Peta and Bill who we’d met in Cape Leveque. They were making their way across the Gibb as well pretty much following the same path as us.
While we didn’t have time to explore Tunnel Creek today we decided to take a drive down that way for a look at the countryside anyway and I managed to get some great photos around sunset which is one of the best times of the day for filming and taking photos.
We had home made soup for dinner that night and while I was cooking it a lady came over to ask me if I were a chef! I took it as a compliment, not that soup is anything complicated to make.
Next morning we packed up and headed back down to Tunnel Creek so we could do the walk through the tunnel. Tunnel Creek is an amazing natural feature where the river has cut a tunnel like a cave right through the base of the mountain range. It runs for a bit over a kilometer and you can walk all the way through.
About halfway there is a section where the roof has caved in which lets some light and air in and makes the walk a little less foreboding.
You need a torch and some decent shoes and an ounce of courage as you need to wade through black pools of cold water that comes a bit over knee height and about chest height on Sara.
Slowly but surely we walked through and wished the whole time we had recharged our torch batteries in anticipation because they were nearly flat.
We stopped for about half an hour on the other side and let the girls have a play in the sand and rock pools.
As usual, Sara wanted to be carried on the way back but we managed to convince her to walk most of the way. On the way back a long black creature slithered through the water in the torchlight in front of our feet and fortunately only Jen and I saw it. We gave each other a look of “let’s not scare the girls by pointing this thing out” and walked on. We’re pretty sure it was an eel mainly because we could not think what else it would be.
Back out the other side we were feeling pretty chuffed at having accomplished the walk through the mountain and stopped in the car park to have some lunch. I managed to trip over a rock while carrying our 9kg gas bottle around from the side of the trailer and the bottle whacked my knee pretty hard before me and the bottle went flying. I did swear quite loudly which made me feel a little better but my knee was pretty sore so hopefully no serious damage.
After lunch we hit the road again and while the girls were engrossed in a DVD in the back Jen and I had a good chat about our “Adventure Series” ideas as we admired the incredible beauty of the Kimberley countryside.
We made it as far as Silent Grove which is the campground for Bell Gorge and drove the last twenty kilometers along a single lane dirt road straight into the setting sun & there is a nice creek crossing just before we arrived at the campground. The number of creek crossings is steadily increasing as we head west and most of them contain water, a result of the late wet season.
Arriving at Silent Grove we recognized most of the camp groups as the people who had been camped at Windjana Gorge and we were waving almost continuously as we drove around looking for a site.
Stop 33 - Broome (Again), WA - 3 nights
Arrived: 14 May 2006
This time back in Broome we
wised up and headed for the Roebuck Bay CP instead of over at Cable
Beach. The park was pretty busy but we managed to get one of the
last couple of sites.
As it turns out we were in time for the Staircase To The Moon attraction where the moon rises over the very low tide mudflats of Roebuck Bay and the reflection of the moon creates a staircase effect. From what I can gather, it only happens a few nights every month and these would be the few nights that we were here – good timing.
Best of all they have a market on the town beach next to the caravan park in conjunction with the staircase ‘show’ and we were in the mood for some asian take away.
The market wasn’t on the first night we were there so after setting up camp we headed across the road to the “Beer & Satay Hut” for some dinner and a few, well . . . beers & satays! What else!!!
It was Sunday night which is roast night where you can have anything you like off the menu as long as it is the roast of the day. I was actually keen on some satays but they were not available. Fortunately they had beer so the name wasn’t completely misleading.
Best of all, Sunday is crab racing. Seriously. They have these hermit crabs which have been painted red with numbers on their backs. The man with the megaphone puts them all in the centre of a ring and releases them. The first to the edge of the ring is the winner.
While I was up in the queue waiting for our roasts, Jen bought some tickets for the race. You buy 5 bucks worth of tickets and if they pull yours out of the barrel you get to choose a crab and your in the race.
Well Jens number was called out and I took Savanna up to do the honours in picking a crab and she chose number 4. Guess who won? You guessed it, number 4 sprinted to the edge and before we’d even finished our roast Jen was $70 richer for having the winning horse, sorry, crab.
Naturally it was her shout next and we consumed several more beers before the long (200m) walk back to the caravan park.
Next day we caught up with Rick & Sue who we’d met up at Cape Leveque a few days earlier. They were back in Broome for a few days as well before making the trip back down to Perth and then on to their home in Hong Kong. Their daughter Jasmine is absolutely gorgeous and our girls were quite taken by her.
Rick & Sue are really nice people too and had we had more time I doubt we’d run out of things to talk about.
Today was really a utility day as we had preparation to do for our drive across the Gibb River Road.
Jen did a few loads of washing while the girls played with some kids around the caravan park. Later on we did a big shop for food at Coles and Jen even splurged and bought herself a new hat of the cow girls variety – very cool. We also picked up some mail from the post office which had finally caught up with us after playing tag all the way up the west coast.
That night we headed over to the market which is right next door and had our asian take away fix. There are at least 6 or 7 asian food vans there so we had plenty to choose from. The other stands consisted of jewelry, kids clothes, didgeridoos and to Savannas delight, a stand that was selling flashing wands and slinkys (both of which had expired within 48 hours!).
I left the girls to their shopping and headed down to the beach to film the staircase to the moon which was pretty cool.
Next day was more of the same as far as getting organized to go. We picked up a few more bits and pieces we needed then headed down to Cable Beach to watch one more sunset before we left the next day.
There are not too many sunsets better than the Broome variety and Broomes’ reputation in this area is well deserved.
Next morning we stopped in to the camping shop and picked up a new floor mat which we could lay down outside the camper when we were setting up on dirt to keep things cleaner. It turned out to be a great investment.
Heading out of Broome we stopped in at Derby for lunch. There is a small snack bar just back from the jetty and we had some asian noodles and fish and chips washed down with an iced coffee of course.
The tides in Derby are some of the highest in Australia reaching 9 metres on some occasions. This massive volume of water flowing in and out of the bay stirs up the sediment so that the water is always a muddy brown.
Leaving Derby we stopped in at the Prison Boab Tree where apparently gangs of aboriginal prisoners were held captive overnight on their way to or from Derby. Obviously this isn’t something that has happened in recent times.
Finally we hit the Gibb and were pleasantly surprised to see it was in great shape. Last time we drove it was ten years ago when we rented a 4WD in Broome and did a 10 day circuit of the Kimberley. Back then the road was extremely rough and we were pounded for all 800+km by the corrugation.
Our first destination was Windjana Gorge which can be reached from either the Gibb River Road or the Northern Highway to the south of Windjana.
We rolled into the campground about half an hour before sunset and got busy setting up.
As it turns out we were in time for the Staircase To The Moon attraction where the moon rises over the very low tide mudflats of Roebuck Bay and the reflection of the moon creates a staircase effect. From what I can gather, it only happens a few nights every month and these would be the few nights that we were here – good timing.
Best of all they have a market on the town beach next to the caravan park in conjunction with the staircase ‘show’ and we were in the mood for some asian take away.
The market wasn’t on the first night we were there so after setting up camp we headed across the road to the “Beer & Satay Hut” for some dinner and a few, well . . . beers & satays! What else!!!
It was Sunday night which is roast night where you can have anything you like off the menu as long as it is the roast of the day. I was actually keen on some satays but they were not available. Fortunately they had beer so the name wasn’t completely misleading.
Best of all, Sunday is crab racing. Seriously. They have these hermit crabs which have been painted red with numbers on their backs. The man with the megaphone puts them all in the centre of a ring and releases them. The first to the edge of the ring is the winner.
While I was up in the queue waiting for our roasts, Jen bought some tickets for the race. You buy 5 bucks worth of tickets and if they pull yours out of the barrel you get to choose a crab and your in the race.
Well Jens number was called out and I took Savanna up to do the honours in picking a crab and she chose number 4. Guess who won? You guessed it, number 4 sprinted to the edge and before we’d even finished our roast Jen was $70 richer for having the winning horse, sorry, crab.
Naturally it was her shout next and we consumed several more beers before the long (200m) walk back to the caravan park.
Next day we caught up with Rick & Sue who we’d met up at Cape Leveque a few days earlier. They were back in Broome for a few days as well before making the trip back down to Perth and then on to their home in Hong Kong. Their daughter Jasmine is absolutely gorgeous and our girls were quite taken by her.
Rick & Sue are really nice people too and had we had more time I doubt we’d run out of things to talk about.
Today was really a utility day as we had preparation to do for our drive across the Gibb River Road.
Jen did a few loads of washing while the girls played with some kids around the caravan park. Later on we did a big shop for food at Coles and Jen even splurged and bought herself a new hat of the cow girls variety – very cool. We also picked up some mail from the post office which had finally caught up with us after playing tag all the way up the west coast.
That night we headed over to the market which is right next door and had our asian take away fix. There are at least 6 or 7 asian food vans there so we had plenty to choose from. The other stands consisted of jewelry, kids clothes, didgeridoos and to Savannas delight, a stand that was selling flashing wands and slinkys (both of which had expired within 48 hours!).
I left the girls to their shopping and headed down to the beach to film the staircase to the moon which was pretty cool.
Next day was more of the same as far as getting organized to go. We picked up a few more bits and pieces we needed then headed down to Cable Beach to watch one more sunset before we left the next day.
There are not too many sunsets better than the Broome variety and Broomes’ reputation in this area is well deserved.
Next morning we stopped in to the camping shop and picked up a new floor mat which we could lay down outside the camper when we were setting up on dirt to keep things cleaner. It turned out to be a great investment.
Heading out of Broome we stopped in at Derby for lunch. There is a small snack bar just back from the jetty and we had some asian noodles and fish and chips washed down with an iced coffee of course.
The tides in Derby are some of the highest in Australia reaching 9 metres on some occasions. This massive volume of water flowing in and out of the bay stirs up the sediment so that the water is always a muddy brown.
Leaving Derby we stopped in at the Prison Boab Tree where apparently gangs of aboriginal prisoners were held captive overnight on their way to or from Derby. Obviously this isn’t something that has happened in recent times.
Finally we hit the Gibb and were pleasantly surprised to see it was in great shape. Last time we drove it was ten years ago when we rented a 4WD in Broome and did a 10 day circuit of the Kimberley. Back then the road was extremely rough and we were pounded for all 800+km by the corrugation.
Our first destination was Windjana Gorge which can be reached from either the Gibb River Road or the Northern Highway to the south of Windjana.
We rolled into the campground about half an hour before sunset and got busy setting up.
Stop 32 - Cape Leveque, WA - 4 nights
Arrived: 10 May 2006
One of the many things we
like about the more remote areas is that you meet more people. In
fact I would say that the further from civilization we get, the
more people we meet.
At Cape Leveque this would really hit home to us.
The drive up from Broome is about 200km but takes the best part of 4 or 5 hours with a lunch break. The road was pretty rough in places and required some slow driving to do it safely. Never any real risk of getting stuck, it was more that the there was deep channels where other cars tyres had gone and climbing out of these to move over and allow another car to squeeze past can be difficult and dangerous if you are going too fast.
I had also not yet worked out the problem with the trailer brakes so was conscious of that as well.
Not that we were in any hurry of course.
We rolled in about half an hour before sunset and they put us in a nice grassy site under the trees and we setup camp.
No sooner had we arrived than a couple, Peta and Bill came over who recognized the car. They had heard us on “The Idlers” some months back and seen our car on our website. They had two girls, Cara and Zoe so Savanna and Sara immediately had some new friends.
Next day, Mark who is the resort manager, and Dwez one of the customer service reps gave us the grand tour of the area which was great.
The Kooljaman resort is owned and managed by the local aboriginal people and from what we understood, was a success story for their community so we wanted to do a feature for our film. The only way in and out of the resort is by 4WD or plane so there is no rows of caravans like a traditional caravan park. Instead there are a group of a dozen or 15 camp sites under the trees, some safari style tents for two people and at the top end of the scale, large African tent ‘villas’ overlooking the ocean.
The resort is spread right across the tip of the cape and faces both east and west. The east side is the swimming beach which is magnificent and we made the most of this with several swimming expeditions. On the west side is what they call the sunset beach. Equally magnificent but the beach is more exposed and swimming is not recommended.
There is a small restaurant and take away and a number of tours, mostly run by the local aboriginal people, which include mud crabbing, fishing, boat hire and what they call the Ultimate Adventure. A full day of exploring the local islands, looking for bush tucker and turtle and dugong spotting (not hunting).
Dwez promised to take us for a trip into his community, One Arm Point, the next day so we could find out more about this successful aboriginal community.
That afternoon, a lady came over for a chat saying that her friend was too shy to come herself. Her name was Jan and her and her friend, Pascale (French name) were interested in what we were up to with all the signwriting on the car and when we said, “making a film” she got very excited. Her friend, like me, is a budding film maker and had figured that’s what we were up to.
They were both from Cairns and were at the tail end of a two week trip from Darwin to Broome doing a Thelma and Louise along the way. They looked to be both in their 40’s and once the ice was broken they turned out to be an outrageous pair. We invited them to come over after the girls had gone to bed so we could carry on out chat, which they did.
We talked for several hours and eventually got onto the subject of Pascales film she had been making on her little video camera.
They had already done a couple of nude scenes along the way for a laugh and when the subject of a closing scene came up, I suggested that instead of driving off the cliff like Thelma and Louise, they run naked into the sea and disappear under the water, leaving their hats floating on top - of course I would be happy to do the filming
They loved the idea and we planned the ‘shoot’ for next morning before they left.
Next morning I was pretty sure they would have cold feet but sure enough they rocked up with their bathers and camera ready to go. On the beach we decided that I would point the camera out into the sea and they would run past me on either side and into the water, disappear under the water, then in the next shot, jump out of sea and throw their arms in the air.
It took a couple of takes to get it right but in the end it worked a treat and should be the icing on the cake for Pascales documentary. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole production now.
After the film shoot we had breakfast then headed over to pick up Dwez for our trip to One Arm Point.
On the way out there he told us about the history of the local Bardi people and it was obvious that there was a definite sense of pride in the community.
Our first visit was to the fish farm by the water just out of town where we met Barry who is a fish expert helping them to develop a profitable fish farm business. They currently have a couple dozen tanks with barramundi and clown fish in them and are planning to relocate the operation into the sea where they will breed the fish in submerged enclosures.
They also have a sideline business finding and polishing trocus shells which are used for jewelry and other ornamental purposes.
Next stop was the school where we were hoping to meet some of the kids but it turns out most of them were back at the resort having lunch. Every month the kids who have a 100% attendance record are treated to lunch at the resort as a reward and most of them make it.
Nonetheless we met Rodney, Dwez’s uncle, who is a teacher there and he told us about the school and his history there since he was a kid. The community has a strong sense of responsibility to the younger generations and respect for the elders. These traits are often what is missing in the aboriginal communities that have slipped off the rails.
While we were waiting for Rodney, Jen was reading some captions under some life sized cutouts of the kids on the walls where they had painted a picture of themselves describing what they wanted to be when they grew up – they included a wrestler, teacher and even a supermodel!
Back at the resort we headed down to the beach for a sunset swim and managed to find some hermit crabs and sea cucumbers in the rockpools which amused the girls no end.
Next day we met Rick and Sue and their 18 month old daughter Jasmine. They were Australian but lived in Hong Kong where Rick is an airline pilot for Cathay Pacific. They have a house in Perth and like going bush for their holidays when they can. We really hit it off with Rick and Sue with plenty to talk about and hoped we would be able to catch up with them again down the track. Rick had seen our website as well so he recognized us. That’s two people in one spot who recognized us – it’s a strange feeling!
After 4 nights we reluctantly had to get going as the Gibb River Road was now open and beckoning us to travel down it.
We said our goodbyes then headed back down the 200km road to Broome to prepare for the next leg of our trip which would take across the mighty Kimberley via the Gibb River Road.
At Cape Leveque this would really hit home to us.
The drive up from Broome is about 200km but takes the best part of 4 or 5 hours with a lunch break. The road was pretty rough in places and required some slow driving to do it safely. Never any real risk of getting stuck, it was more that the there was deep channels where other cars tyres had gone and climbing out of these to move over and allow another car to squeeze past can be difficult and dangerous if you are going too fast.
I had also not yet worked out the problem with the trailer brakes so was conscious of that as well.
Not that we were in any hurry of course.
We rolled in about half an hour before sunset and they put us in a nice grassy site under the trees and we setup camp.
No sooner had we arrived than a couple, Peta and Bill came over who recognized the car. They had heard us on “The Idlers” some months back and seen our car on our website. They had two girls, Cara and Zoe so Savanna and Sara immediately had some new friends.
Next day, Mark who is the resort manager, and Dwez one of the customer service reps gave us the grand tour of the area which was great.
The Kooljaman resort is owned and managed by the local aboriginal people and from what we understood, was a success story for their community so we wanted to do a feature for our film. The only way in and out of the resort is by 4WD or plane so there is no rows of caravans like a traditional caravan park. Instead there are a group of a dozen or 15 camp sites under the trees, some safari style tents for two people and at the top end of the scale, large African tent ‘villas’ overlooking the ocean.
The resort is spread right across the tip of the cape and faces both east and west. The east side is the swimming beach which is magnificent and we made the most of this with several swimming expeditions. On the west side is what they call the sunset beach. Equally magnificent but the beach is more exposed and swimming is not recommended.
There is a small restaurant and take away and a number of tours, mostly run by the local aboriginal people, which include mud crabbing, fishing, boat hire and what they call the Ultimate Adventure. A full day of exploring the local islands, looking for bush tucker and turtle and dugong spotting (not hunting).
Dwez promised to take us for a trip into his community, One Arm Point, the next day so we could find out more about this successful aboriginal community.
That afternoon, a lady came over for a chat saying that her friend was too shy to come herself. Her name was Jan and her and her friend, Pascale (French name) were interested in what we were up to with all the signwriting on the car and when we said, “making a film” she got very excited. Her friend, like me, is a budding film maker and had figured that’s what we were up to.
They were both from Cairns and were at the tail end of a two week trip from Darwin to Broome doing a Thelma and Louise along the way. They looked to be both in their 40’s and once the ice was broken they turned out to be an outrageous pair. We invited them to come over after the girls had gone to bed so we could carry on out chat, which they did.
We talked for several hours and eventually got onto the subject of Pascales film she had been making on her little video camera.
They had already done a couple of nude scenes along the way for a laugh and when the subject of a closing scene came up, I suggested that instead of driving off the cliff like Thelma and Louise, they run naked into the sea and disappear under the water, leaving their hats floating on top - of course I would be happy to do the filming
They loved the idea and we planned the ‘shoot’ for next morning before they left.
Next morning I was pretty sure they would have cold feet but sure enough they rocked up with their bathers and camera ready to go. On the beach we decided that I would point the camera out into the sea and they would run past me on either side and into the water, disappear under the water, then in the next shot, jump out of sea and throw their arms in the air.
It took a couple of takes to get it right but in the end it worked a treat and should be the icing on the cake for Pascales documentary. I’m looking forward to seeing the whole production now.
After the film shoot we had breakfast then headed over to pick up Dwez for our trip to One Arm Point.
On the way out there he told us about the history of the local Bardi people and it was obvious that there was a definite sense of pride in the community.
Our first visit was to the fish farm by the water just out of town where we met Barry who is a fish expert helping them to develop a profitable fish farm business. They currently have a couple dozen tanks with barramundi and clown fish in them and are planning to relocate the operation into the sea where they will breed the fish in submerged enclosures.
They also have a sideline business finding and polishing trocus shells which are used for jewelry and other ornamental purposes.
Next stop was the school where we were hoping to meet some of the kids but it turns out most of them were back at the resort having lunch. Every month the kids who have a 100% attendance record are treated to lunch at the resort as a reward and most of them make it.
Nonetheless we met Rodney, Dwez’s uncle, who is a teacher there and he told us about the school and his history there since he was a kid. The community has a strong sense of responsibility to the younger generations and respect for the elders. These traits are often what is missing in the aboriginal communities that have slipped off the rails.
While we were waiting for Rodney, Jen was reading some captions under some life sized cutouts of the kids on the walls where they had painted a picture of themselves describing what they wanted to be when they grew up – they included a wrestler, teacher and even a supermodel!
Back at the resort we headed down to the beach for a sunset swim and managed to find some hermit crabs and sea cucumbers in the rockpools which amused the girls no end.
Next day we met Rick and Sue and their 18 month old daughter Jasmine. They were Australian but lived in Hong Kong where Rick is an airline pilot for Cathay Pacific. They have a house in Perth and like going bush for their holidays when they can. We really hit it off with Rick and Sue with plenty to talk about and hoped we would be able to catch up with them again down the track. Rick had seen our website as well so he recognized us. That’s two people in one spot who recognized us – it’s a strange feeling!
After 4 nights we reluctantly had to get going as the Gibb River Road was now open and beckoning us to travel down it.
We said our goodbyes then headed back down the 200km road to Broome to prepare for the next leg of our trip which would take across the mighty Kimberley via the Gibb River Road.
Stop 31 - Broome, WA - 5 nights
Arrived: 05 May 2006
Jen and I first visited
Broome back in 1996 when we did a 10 day whirlwind tour of the
Kimberley region. We flew into Broome arriving about 1:30am, picked
up our hire car at 9:00am the next morning and took off. On the way
home we dropped the car and went straight to a caravan park before
flying out early next morning.
So while we had been there, we really had not experienced it in any way.
Everyone has heard of Broome of course and the general consensus is that it is a tropical paradise with Cable Beach and it’s pearling history.
Travelling like this we meet lots of people and the subject of good and bad places always comes up and most people we had spoken to had great things to say about Broome, but a few had not been so complimentary.
We decided to stay at a caravan park at Cable Beach given it was the part of Broome we heard about the most.
In hindsight, this was a mistake.
The caravan park was perfectly manicured with a pool, lots of trees and clean modern amenities and frankly there was nothing you could find fault with the place. At $36 a night you would expect it to be good of course. It was back from the beach though so you had a drive or a long walk to get to the beach.
What we should have done was stayed in a park in Roebuck Bay near the heart of town and driven out to Cable Beach to see the sunset. Everything else to see and do was closer to the centre of town so we ended up doing a lot of driving into town from Cable Beach that we could have avoided. Nonetheless it was a nice caravan park.
Besides checking out Broome itself, our main reason for stopping was to get prepared for the next leg of the trip which would take us across the Gibb River road and into the heart of the Kimberley.
I wanted to get our kitchen built that we had planned as well as a box around the fridge in the back of the car so we could slide the fridge out and access it even when the back of the car was fully loaded. In this way we could stop off the road for lunch, open the tailgate on the trailer to access the kitchen and the back of the car to access the fridge without unpacking anything.
First stop was a trip to the hardware store which had all the bits I needed including plywood, brackets, screws, hinges, chain, storage boxes and a saw to cut the wood to the right size.
A couple hundred dollars later and we were heading back to camp to get busy.
I spent the best part of the day cutting, screwing and manipulating and eventually the kitchen box was finished. Now I don’t think it would win any beauty competitions but it worked as planned and soon took pride of place on our trailer tailgate. The new configuation allowed us to get rid of our big black tub which had previously housed all our kitchen gear. We consolidated this into one of our two food tubs and the rest going into one of the new tubs in the tailgate kitchen.
Next was the fridge box which took a couple more hours to construct. It basically consists of a 3 sided box with a back on it and it sits over the top of the fridge allowing the fridge to slide out the front. I used a heaver MDF top on it for added strength and plenty of corner brackets to brace it all together.
While I was in building mode, a family pulled in across the road from us and their five(5) . . . yes five kids got out and went wild. Our girls soon gravitated to them and were happy to have some new friends again.
We got chatting to the mum and dad and they were on their way down to the Ningaloo reef area where they were going to stop for a few months and do some fishing and surfing. They were from NSW but were on an extended trip around the country.
Next day Sara had her haircut and Savanna scored some new clothes as she has outgrown almost all of her other ones. It is pretty hard to hoard her outgrown clothes for Sara as we don’t have the space so for the most part we end up giving them away to other travelers. There is no point in keeping Sara’s outgrown clothes as our next child will be a boy anyway.
My other job in Broome was a website update and email to our subscribers so I spent a few hours pounding away on the keyboard. The café next door to the caravan park had a wireless connection so we were able to do the upload and mail out relatively easily.
We had gotten to know our neighbours when we stopped in Geraldton which was several weeks back and they pulled into the park in Broome while we were there – small world.
The sunsets over Cable Beach lived up to their reputation and we managed to get down and see a couple while we were there.
In town we checked out the Chinatown district and some of the jewelry shops that sold a wide array of pearl jewelry. I bought Jen a new pearl necklace which was a belated 10th anniversary present.
The rest of our stay included a couple of swims in the pool at the caravan park, some more shopping for supplies, trips to the visitor centre to see if the Gibb River Road was open yet (which it was after a couple of days) and after 4 days we were ready to go.
We were actually pretty happy to be leaving Broome as we were keen to get back into the rough and after 4 nights we packed up and headed up towards Cape Leveque where we were booked in to Kooljaman Resort for 4 nights.
So while we had been there, we really had not experienced it in any way.
Everyone has heard of Broome of course and the general consensus is that it is a tropical paradise with Cable Beach and it’s pearling history.
Travelling like this we meet lots of people and the subject of good and bad places always comes up and most people we had spoken to had great things to say about Broome, but a few had not been so complimentary.
We decided to stay at a caravan park at Cable Beach given it was the part of Broome we heard about the most.
In hindsight, this was a mistake.
The caravan park was perfectly manicured with a pool, lots of trees and clean modern amenities and frankly there was nothing you could find fault with the place. At $36 a night you would expect it to be good of course. It was back from the beach though so you had a drive or a long walk to get to the beach.
What we should have done was stayed in a park in Roebuck Bay near the heart of town and driven out to Cable Beach to see the sunset. Everything else to see and do was closer to the centre of town so we ended up doing a lot of driving into town from Cable Beach that we could have avoided. Nonetheless it was a nice caravan park.
Besides checking out Broome itself, our main reason for stopping was to get prepared for the next leg of the trip which would take us across the Gibb River road and into the heart of the Kimberley.
I wanted to get our kitchen built that we had planned as well as a box around the fridge in the back of the car so we could slide the fridge out and access it even when the back of the car was fully loaded. In this way we could stop off the road for lunch, open the tailgate on the trailer to access the kitchen and the back of the car to access the fridge without unpacking anything.
First stop was a trip to the hardware store which had all the bits I needed including plywood, brackets, screws, hinges, chain, storage boxes and a saw to cut the wood to the right size.
A couple hundred dollars later and we were heading back to camp to get busy.
I spent the best part of the day cutting, screwing and manipulating and eventually the kitchen box was finished. Now I don’t think it would win any beauty competitions but it worked as planned and soon took pride of place on our trailer tailgate. The new configuation allowed us to get rid of our big black tub which had previously housed all our kitchen gear. We consolidated this into one of our two food tubs and the rest going into one of the new tubs in the tailgate kitchen.
Next was the fridge box which took a couple more hours to construct. It basically consists of a 3 sided box with a back on it and it sits over the top of the fridge allowing the fridge to slide out the front. I used a heaver MDF top on it for added strength and plenty of corner brackets to brace it all together.
While I was in building mode, a family pulled in across the road from us and their five(5) . . . yes five kids got out and went wild. Our girls soon gravitated to them and were happy to have some new friends again.
We got chatting to the mum and dad and they were on their way down to the Ningaloo reef area where they were going to stop for a few months and do some fishing and surfing. They were from NSW but were on an extended trip around the country.
Next day Sara had her haircut and Savanna scored some new clothes as she has outgrown almost all of her other ones. It is pretty hard to hoard her outgrown clothes for Sara as we don’t have the space so for the most part we end up giving them away to other travelers. There is no point in keeping Sara’s outgrown clothes as our next child will be a boy anyway.
My other job in Broome was a website update and email to our subscribers so I spent a few hours pounding away on the keyboard. The café next door to the caravan park had a wireless connection so we were able to do the upload and mail out relatively easily.
We had gotten to know our neighbours when we stopped in Geraldton which was several weeks back and they pulled into the park in Broome while we were there – small world.
The sunsets over Cable Beach lived up to their reputation and we managed to get down and see a couple while we were there.
In town we checked out the Chinatown district and some of the jewelry shops that sold a wide array of pearl jewelry. I bought Jen a new pearl necklace which was a belated 10th anniversary present.
The rest of our stay included a couple of swims in the pool at the caravan park, some more shopping for supplies, trips to the visitor centre to see if the Gibb River Road was open yet (which it was after a couple of days) and after 4 days we were ready to go.
We were actually pretty happy to be leaving Broome as we were keen to get back into the rough and after 4 nights we packed up and headed up towards Cape Leveque where we were booked in to Kooljaman Resort for 4 nights.
Stop 30 - Eighty Mile Beach, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 03 May 2006
Around half way between Port
Hedland and Broome and 10km off the highway is a caravan park at
Eighty Mile Beach where from what we had heard the fishing was
“excellent” straight off the beach.
This was about as much of a recommendation as I needed being fairly desperate to catch a fish on this trip.
The caravan park is a privately owned concern and was neat and tidy and seemed to have everything we needed including a shop and internet access. They didn’t sell beer however so we would have to go without for a couple of days until we got to Broome.
On the way in we saw a 5th wheeler that we had been admiring in Newman a week earlier and we stopped to say g’day to the owners.
Jen and I had been kicking around the idea of an “Expedition America” sometime in a few years from now and we had come to the conclusion that a 5th wheeler being pulled by a Ford F250 with a thumping big turbo diesel V8 would be the way to go. This rig was pretty much exactly what we had in mind.
After setting up camp we chilled out for a while and the girls soon made some new friends, Morgan, Alex and Georgia who were starting out on a big trip around the country like us. Their mum was home schooling them along the way and their dad was studying a uni course – anything is possible if you set your mind to it!
That night we were determined to break Sara’s habit of climbing into bed with us. When she climbed up the step Jen gave her a cuddle and then despite her protests, put her back in her own bed. This happened a couple of times and was pretty heartbreaking but she accepted it after a few times.
Next morning while the girls were playing with their new friends, I wandered up to the shop for some advice on the best method of catching a fish. The guy told me that two or three ganged hooks and some mullies (pilchards) for bait will do the trick for threadfin salmon which feed in the surf near the beach. Apparently the 2 hours before high tide are the best time to go which would be around midday.
I bought some bits and pieces then headed back to camp to make a couple of rigs.
On our way down to the beach we were not alone with several other groups having the same idea. Down on the beach there were at least a dozen rods spread out along about a km of beach front.
While I got busy with the fishing, Jen sat on the beach and kept reading her book “The Devils Feather” which Anita had been reading while with us and left for Jen. It was one of those ‘can’t put it down’ books and she was hooked.
I threaded a mullie on my hooks and cast into the surf and it was not long before I had a few big bites but nothing got hooked. While I was baiting up again the guy fishing 50 metres down the beach came over to get some advice which I thought was pretty funny. I’m not sure why he thought I knew what I was doing but we compared rigs and both got back to work.
Second time round I had threaded the pilchard differently in the hope the hooks would be more exposed to the fish and it worked as I got one on very quickly.
Winding it up though the surf was a big thrill and I managed to get him up onto the beach. He was a decent sized threadfin salmon, probably a couple of kilos. The girls were just as excited as me and Jen managed to get the small video camera going before I had the fish onto the beach.
I did plenty of fishing on holidays as a kid and in my early twenties when I lived in the NT but really the only serious fishing since then had been on our 10 week trip to Cape York back in 1998 so I am very much an amateur. My plan on this expedition was to refine those amateur skills to something more so I was glad to have broken the ice.
About half an hour later I manage to land another salmon although not a big as the first. Up and down the beach people were all pulling in fish and for the couple of hours before high tide it was go, go, go.
Once they went off the bite however everyone turned tail and headed back and within half an hour there was no-one left fishing.
We had enough for a good feed in the two I caught and the folks camped next to us had about 6 between the two of them and no more freezer space. They had been there a couple of weeks and had had their fill of fish so they tossed a couple our way.
After filleting them we ended up with about 2 or 3kg of fillets which went into the freezer.
Despite the fish booty, we had steak for dinner which we’d been planning anyway but the fish would not have to wait long.
That night Jen and I talked at length about our plans for “Expedition Australia – The Adventure Series” which have been brewing for a couple of months now. If it turns out the way we hope, it will be a pretty exciting project. More about that later.
Next morning my head was a little sore from the 3 or 4 glasses of red wine consumed last night but we packed and got underway about 10am all the same.
I came to the conclusion that my back which I had fixed by a chiropractor back in Geraldton, had stayed fixed as it was not giving me any more trouble now. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
On the way to Broome, Jen made sandwiches for lunch in the car and we stopped into Sandfire roadhouse for an iced coffee (chocky milk for the girls).
This was about as much of a recommendation as I needed being fairly desperate to catch a fish on this trip.
The caravan park is a privately owned concern and was neat and tidy and seemed to have everything we needed including a shop and internet access. They didn’t sell beer however so we would have to go without for a couple of days until we got to Broome.
On the way in we saw a 5th wheeler that we had been admiring in Newman a week earlier and we stopped to say g’day to the owners.
Jen and I had been kicking around the idea of an “Expedition America” sometime in a few years from now and we had come to the conclusion that a 5th wheeler being pulled by a Ford F250 with a thumping big turbo diesel V8 would be the way to go. This rig was pretty much exactly what we had in mind.
After setting up camp we chilled out for a while and the girls soon made some new friends, Morgan, Alex and Georgia who were starting out on a big trip around the country like us. Their mum was home schooling them along the way and their dad was studying a uni course – anything is possible if you set your mind to it!
That night we were determined to break Sara’s habit of climbing into bed with us. When she climbed up the step Jen gave her a cuddle and then despite her protests, put her back in her own bed. This happened a couple of times and was pretty heartbreaking but she accepted it after a few times.
Next morning while the girls were playing with their new friends, I wandered up to the shop for some advice on the best method of catching a fish. The guy told me that two or three ganged hooks and some mullies (pilchards) for bait will do the trick for threadfin salmon which feed in the surf near the beach. Apparently the 2 hours before high tide are the best time to go which would be around midday.
I bought some bits and pieces then headed back to camp to make a couple of rigs.
On our way down to the beach we were not alone with several other groups having the same idea. Down on the beach there were at least a dozen rods spread out along about a km of beach front.
While I got busy with the fishing, Jen sat on the beach and kept reading her book “The Devils Feather” which Anita had been reading while with us and left for Jen. It was one of those ‘can’t put it down’ books and she was hooked.
I threaded a mullie on my hooks and cast into the surf and it was not long before I had a few big bites but nothing got hooked. While I was baiting up again the guy fishing 50 metres down the beach came over to get some advice which I thought was pretty funny. I’m not sure why he thought I knew what I was doing but we compared rigs and both got back to work.
Second time round I had threaded the pilchard differently in the hope the hooks would be more exposed to the fish and it worked as I got one on very quickly.
Winding it up though the surf was a big thrill and I managed to get him up onto the beach. He was a decent sized threadfin salmon, probably a couple of kilos. The girls were just as excited as me and Jen managed to get the small video camera going before I had the fish onto the beach.
I did plenty of fishing on holidays as a kid and in my early twenties when I lived in the NT but really the only serious fishing since then had been on our 10 week trip to Cape York back in 1998 so I am very much an amateur. My plan on this expedition was to refine those amateur skills to something more so I was glad to have broken the ice.
About half an hour later I manage to land another salmon although not a big as the first. Up and down the beach people were all pulling in fish and for the couple of hours before high tide it was go, go, go.
Once they went off the bite however everyone turned tail and headed back and within half an hour there was no-one left fishing.
We had enough for a good feed in the two I caught and the folks camped next to us had about 6 between the two of them and no more freezer space. They had been there a couple of weeks and had had their fill of fish so they tossed a couple our way.
After filleting them we ended up with about 2 or 3kg of fillets which went into the freezer.
Despite the fish booty, we had steak for dinner which we’d been planning anyway but the fish would not have to wait long.
That night Jen and I talked at length about our plans for “Expedition Australia – The Adventure Series” which have been brewing for a couple of months now. If it turns out the way we hope, it will be a pretty exciting project. More about that later.
Next morning my head was a little sore from the 3 or 4 glasses of red wine consumed last night but we packed and got underway about 10am all the same.
I came to the conclusion that my back which I had fixed by a chiropractor back in Geraldton, had stayed fixed as it was not giving me any more trouble now. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
On the way to Broome, Jen made sandwiches for lunch in the car and we stopped into Sandfire roadhouse for an iced coffee (chocky milk for the girls).
Stop 29 - Port Hedland, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 30 April 2006
Something I did not realize
was that there is a Port Hedland and also a South Hedland which is
really the town where it seems most people live, leaving the Port
predominantly for the iron ore business.
We checked into Cooke Point Holiday Park and again had a nice grassy site and we watched the sunset over the port as we made dinner.
It was too late to book a tour of the iron ore processing plant so we planned to get down to the visitors centre in time to get on board one at 9:30am in the morning.
At this end of the ore trail the ore trains are unloaded and the ore crushed and stockpiled before being mixed to the right consistency then loaded onto ore ships for export to asia and other countries.
Generally, two ships a day can be loaded with around 30,000 tonnes of ore which would be worth around $30m in sales to BHP. Last year they shipped 103 million tonnes of ore, setting a record and expected to break the record this year.
The tour guide did a great job but unfortunately we were not able to get out of the bus so I ended up feeling very frustrated at not getting any great footage.
After the tour we headed back into South Hedland for some lunch at Maccas and some more shopping before driving back to the caravan park for a swim before dinner.
The swim was a great way to end the day and we cooked up some chicken burgers on the BBQ for dinner.
Across from our site was an older couple that had setup a tent while we were out during the day. After a while I realized they were probably in their 80’s but still had the camping spirit – great to see!!
With our iron ore journey over, we made tracks the next day heading north once again. Our next stop would be Eighty Mile Beach where I would finally catch a fish or two.
We checked into Cooke Point Holiday Park and again had a nice grassy site and we watched the sunset over the port as we made dinner.
It was too late to book a tour of the iron ore processing plant so we planned to get down to the visitors centre in time to get on board one at 9:30am in the morning.
At this end of the ore trail the ore trains are unloaded and the ore crushed and stockpiled before being mixed to the right consistency then loaded onto ore ships for export to asia and other countries.
Generally, two ships a day can be loaded with around 30,000 tonnes of ore which would be worth around $30m in sales to BHP. Last year they shipped 103 million tonnes of ore, setting a record and expected to break the record this year.
The tour guide did a great job but unfortunately we were not able to get out of the bus so I ended up feeling very frustrated at not getting any great footage.
After the tour we headed back into South Hedland for some lunch at Maccas and some more shopping before driving back to the caravan park for a swim before dinner.
The swim was a great way to end the day and we cooked up some chicken burgers on the BBQ for dinner.
Across from our site was an older couple that had setup a tent while we were out during the day. After a while I realized they were probably in their 80’s but still had the camping spirit – great to see!!
With our iron ore journey over, we made tracks the next day heading north once again. Our next stop would be Eighty Mile Beach where I would finally catch a fish or two.
Stop 28 - Newman, WA - 3 nights
Arrived: 27 April 2006
After a cruise around the
small town we found the shopping area and the visitors centre then
compared the two caravan parks that are there. Neither looked much
better or worse than the other so we settled on the Dearlove park
mainly due to it being walking distance from the pub!
The town is very well laid out and quite attractive for a mining town. Certainly not the dust bowls you often find in remote areas like this. Iron ore is big business and the mine here employs hundreds of people and contractors so with their families and other people working in supporting business’s it is a significant community.
We setup camp on a grassy site then headed into the town centre to organize some lunch and stock up on supplies. (Food/Beer/Wine). Lunch consisted of a chicken roll and some chips from the “Chicken Treat” which tasted better than I expected.
While eating lunch in the car we drove over to the visitors centre which you cannot miss due to the giant truck parked out the front. It is a retired “Haulpack” truck once used for lugging iron ore in the mine.
I booked us onto a mine tour in the morning which coincided well with Anita’s flight out. We would drop her off at the airport for her 8:30am flight then drive back to the visitors centre for the 9:30 tour. I also asked directions to the airport as we had not seen it yet, nor any signs pointing to it. The lady told me it was about 10km up the highway and that coming from Karijini I would have passed it. I didn’t remember seeing any signs but then again we were not looking so thought nothing of it.
Back at camp the girls had a tea party so we all got involved with party hats and fairy bread. Fun! Fun! Fun! See the great things dads with two girls get to do.
The evening was quite cold for a change and Anita, in her usual chef form, whipped up her special Tandoori chicken for our last night. It was a taste sensation and we made pigs of ourselves. Still plenty left for lunch the next day though.
After dinner and the girls had gone to bed I setup the video camera and filmed the three of us talking about the trip and Anitas’ experience and observations which was great to preserve and we’ll use some of it in the final doco.
Being a cold night and our last night there was no more excuses for not opening the bottle of port we had bought back at Wynns in the Coonawarra a few months back and we made a pretty big dent in the bottle.
That night Sara crawled in with us again. This has become a habit for her which we are keen to break as she kicks and rolls around all night keeping Jen and I awake. Something we are going to have to work on.
Next morning we had an early start to get out to the airport on time and managed to roll out the drive way with about 45 minutes before flight time.
I turned north onto the highway and we drove for 10km but no airport . . . 11km, no airport . . . 14km NO AIRPORT . . . . shit (I mean bugger!!) we were in trouble now. The flight was leaving in half an hour and we should have been there at check in by now.
The only conclusion we came to was that it must have been the other way (south) on the highway, despite the directions we were given yesterday.
I gunned the Landcruiser and managed to crank it up to about 130km/h in the opposite direction. We now had 24km to travel and the plane was leaving in about 25 minutes. As we approached Newman again, Anita called the caravan park we were staying at and they confirmed we had gone the wrong way.
Newman was a blur as we flew past and Anita did well to hide her anxiety. There are not exactly a lot of flights out of Newman so missing this one would cause chaos for her for a few days to say the least.
At the 10km point out of Newman we saw the “Airport” sign to everyone’s relief and Jen and Anita piled out of the car at the front door leaving me and the girls to park the car. At this stage it was about 15 minutes to departure time but there were still people milling about outside the metal detectors so it looked like we had made it in the nick of time.
It was a teary farewell as Anita made her way into the departure area and it finally sunk in for her that she was heading back to the big smoke.
As we waited outside to watch the plane take off Jen and I were discussing how we felt that Anita had come away for a little getaway with no great expectations but had found herself in an adventure that she never even considered. There had already been talk of her joining us for a couple of weeks in Cape York further down the track and we were confident that this would come to fruition.
After the plane disappeared into the distance we wandered back to the car and drove (at a more leisurely pace) into Newman for our mine tour.
I had confirmed we were allowed to film the tour as we intended to follow the iron ore trail in our film from the mine at Newman to the ships at Port Hedland.
Mine safety regulations stipulate that everyone must wear a fluro vest, safety glasses and hard hat when they get out of the bus at certain stops on the tour. At the visitors centre we were fitted out with our gear and it was hilarious watching Savanna and Sara getting their adult sized kit on. Saras vest was around her feet and her glasses barely hung on her head. It was more likely she would have an accident from wearing the gear than anything else but, rules are rules.
The mine tour was great and the mine itself very impressive – engineering on a massive scale. The Haulpak trucks are just massive, carrying around 160 tonnes of ore every load and running non-stop around the clock. They use about 2000-3000 litres of diesel every 16 hours.
The ore is blasted out of the ground in long sections then loaded onto the Haulpaks by huge loaders. The Haulpaks move it out of the open cut mine and into a hopper where it is crushed to the right consistency before being loaded onto the ore trains for it’s journey into Port Hedland. The ore trains can be as long as 3km and are the largest trains in the world.
The “biggest in the world” tag can be applied to many things out here – biggest open cut mine, biggest trucks, biggest trains, and even one of the biggest privately owned railways.
After the tour we headed back into town for some food shopping and a coffee (which was a big disappointment!) then it was back to the caravan park for the afternoon.
Jen worked her way through about a dozen loads of washing, most of our clothes being a lovely tinge of red by this stage, and the girls and I checked out the swimming pool.
While you could not actually see the ice cubes in the water, they must have only recently melted as the water was FREEZING!
Savanna didn’t seem to notice though and was straight in while I tried to coax Sara in. She would not have a bar of it so unfortunately I had to stay out and look after her . . . never mind!
Our fridge was due for a defrost and clean so I knocked this job over in the afternoon and we decided on a BBQ for dinner.
That night I got busy writing the trip log trying to catch up but only seemed to make a small dent.
Next day Jen and I were discussing ways to streamline our camper trailer setup and we came up with the idea of a cabinet that was attached to the inside of the trailer tailgate that would be a mini kitchen. We could attach our gas stove to the top of it and get some plastic drawers inside for storing our everyday stuff like cups and plates, tea, coffee, bread etc. This would make lunches on the road much easier as well as general cooking and food prep.
I got busy drawing up some plans and working out the bits needed and then we jumped in the car and headed into town to visit the hardware store. To our disappointment, the hardware store and every other store for that matter was closed as they often seem to be on Sundays in WA.
Never mind, we decided we’d go and check out the pub next to the caravan park instead and ended up spending a very leisurely afternoon relaxing over several beers while the footy was on the TV.
After a quiet night we packed and got away fairly early the next morning and drove into Port Hedland, following the ore trail.
The countryside continued to amaze us with how beautiful it is. The whole Pilbara region is a rugged landscape of red rock ranges broken up with plenty of green trees, grass and spinifex.
On the way we stopped in at Munjina Roadhouse and had lunch on the grass under the trees.
The town is very well laid out and quite attractive for a mining town. Certainly not the dust bowls you often find in remote areas like this. Iron ore is big business and the mine here employs hundreds of people and contractors so with their families and other people working in supporting business’s it is a significant community.
We setup camp on a grassy site then headed into the town centre to organize some lunch and stock up on supplies. (Food/Beer/Wine). Lunch consisted of a chicken roll and some chips from the “Chicken Treat” which tasted better than I expected.
While eating lunch in the car we drove over to the visitors centre which you cannot miss due to the giant truck parked out the front. It is a retired “Haulpack” truck once used for lugging iron ore in the mine.
I booked us onto a mine tour in the morning which coincided well with Anita’s flight out. We would drop her off at the airport for her 8:30am flight then drive back to the visitors centre for the 9:30 tour. I also asked directions to the airport as we had not seen it yet, nor any signs pointing to it. The lady told me it was about 10km up the highway and that coming from Karijini I would have passed it. I didn’t remember seeing any signs but then again we were not looking so thought nothing of it.
Back at camp the girls had a tea party so we all got involved with party hats and fairy bread. Fun! Fun! Fun! See the great things dads with two girls get to do.
The evening was quite cold for a change and Anita, in her usual chef form, whipped up her special Tandoori chicken for our last night. It was a taste sensation and we made pigs of ourselves. Still plenty left for lunch the next day though.
After dinner and the girls had gone to bed I setup the video camera and filmed the three of us talking about the trip and Anitas’ experience and observations which was great to preserve and we’ll use some of it in the final doco.
Being a cold night and our last night there was no more excuses for not opening the bottle of port we had bought back at Wynns in the Coonawarra a few months back and we made a pretty big dent in the bottle.
That night Sara crawled in with us again. This has become a habit for her which we are keen to break as she kicks and rolls around all night keeping Jen and I awake. Something we are going to have to work on.
Next morning we had an early start to get out to the airport on time and managed to roll out the drive way with about 45 minutes before flight time.
I turned north onto the highway and we drove for 10km but no airport . . . 11km, no airport . . . 14km NO AIRPORT . . . . shit (I mean bugger!!) we were in trouble now. The flight was leaving in half an hour and we should have been there at check in by now.
The only conclusion we came to was that it must have been the other way (south) on the highway, despite the directions we were given yesterday.
I gunned the Landcruiser and managed to crank it up to about 130km/h in the opposite direction. We now had 24km to travel and the plane was leaving in about 25 minutes. As we approached Newman again, Anita called the caravan park we were staying at and they confirmed we had gone the wrong way.
Newman was a blur as we flew past and Anita did well to hide her anxiety. There are not exactly a lot of flights out of Newman so missing this one would cause chaos for her for a few days to say the least.
At the 10km point out of Newman we saw the “Airport” sign to everyone’s relief and Jen and Anita piled out of the car at the front door leaving me and the girls to park the car. At this stage it was about 15 minutes to departure time but there were still people milling about outside the metal detectors so it looked like we had made it in the nick of time.
It was a teary farewell as Anita made her way into the departure area and it finally sunk in for her that she was heading back to the big smoke.
As we waited outside to watch the plane take off Jen and I were discussing how we felt that Anita had come away for a little getaway with no great expectations but had found herself in an adventure that she never even considered. There had already been talk of her joining us for a couple of weeks in Cape York further down the track and we were confident that this would come to fruition.
After the plane disappeared into the distance we wandered back to the car and drove (at a more leisurely pace) into Newman for our mine tour.
I had confirmed we were allowed to film the tour as we intended to follow the iron ore trail in our film from the mine at Newman to the ships at Port Hedland.
Mine safety regulations stipulate that everyone must wear a fluro vest, safety glasses and hard hat when they get out of the bus at certain stops on the tour. At the visitors centre we were fitted out with our gear and it was hilarious watching Savanna and Sara getting their adult sized kit on. Saras vest was around her feet and her glasses barely hung on her head. It was more likely she would have an accident from wearing the gear than anything else but, rules are rules.
The mine tour was great and the mine itself very impressive – engineering on a massive scale. The Haulpak trucks are just massive, carrying around 160 tonnes of ore every load and running non-stop around the clock. They use about 2000-3000 litres of diesel every 16 hours.
The ore is blasted out of the ground in long sections then loaded onto the Haulpaks by huge loaders. The Haulpaks move it out of the open cut mine and into a hopper where it is crushed to the right consistency before being loaded onto the ore trains for it’s journey into Port Hedland. The ore trains can be as long as 3km and are the largest trains in the world.
The “biggest in the world” tag can be applied to many things out here – biggest open cut mine, biggest trucks, biggest trains, and even one of the biggest privately owned railways.
After the tour we headed back into town for some food shopping and a coffee (which was a big disappointment!) then it was back to the caravan park for the afternoon.
Jen worked her way through about a dozen loads of washing, most of our clothes being a lovely tinge of red by this stage, and the girls and I checked out the swimming pool.
While you could not actually see the ice cubes in the water, they must have only recently melted as the water was FREEZING!
Savanna didn’t seem to notice though and was straight in while I tried to coax Sara in. She would not have a bar of it so unfortunately I had to stay out and look after her . . . never mind!
Our fridge was due for a defrost and clean so I knocked this job over in the afternoon and we decided on a BBQ for dinner.
That night I got busy writing the trip log trying to catch up but only seemed to make a small dent.
Next day Jen and I were discussing ways to streamline our camper trailer setup and we came up with the idea of a cabinet that was attached to the inside of the trailer tailgate that would be a mini kitchen. We could attach our gas stove to the top of it and get some plastic drawers inside for storing our everyday stuff like cups and plates, tea, coffee, bread etc. This would make lunches on the road much easier as well as general cooking and food prep.
I got busy drawing up some plans and working out the bits needed and then we jumped in the car and headed into town to visit the hardware store. To our disappointment, the hardware store and every other store for that matter was closed as they often seem to be on Sundays in WA.
Never mind, we decided we’d go and check out the pub next to the caravan park instead and ended up spending a very leisurely afternoon relaxing over several beers while the footy was on the TV.
After a quiet night we packed and got away fairly early the next morning and drove into Port Hedland, following the ore trail.
The countryside continued to amaze us with how beautiful it is. The whole Pilbara region is a rugged landscape of red rock ranges broken up with plenty of green trees, grass and spinifex.
On the way we stopped in at Munjina Roadhouse and had lunch on the grass under the trees.
Stop 27 - Karijini NP, WA - 4 nights
Arrived: 24 April 2006
There are two campsites in
Karijini NP, Dales Campground and Savannah Campground. Jen had
spoken to the park office a week or so earlier to make sure there
was enough room to which she was assured there would be plenty. She
also found out that Savannah campground, being down an unsealed
road, was the least frequented while Dales was where all the
caravans went because it was sealed road all the way.
Being the adventurous types that we are we opted for the Savannah Campground and promptly got the car and trailer covered in rich red Pilbara dust on the 40 odd kilometre drive in. Arriving at the campground we found out it was privately run and was $10 per night per adult which would equate to $30 per night - a lot of money for basic bush camping in a National Park. The other campground, Dales, was $5 per night which would save us $60 over our 4 night stay. Enough money to make it worthwhile heading down to Dales.
We tackled the 46km gravel road that joins the two campgrounds and along the way I was taken surprise by a deep wash out in the road. Barrelling along at about 70km/h I didn't manage to slow down all that much before we ploughed into the washout causing the car and trailer to bounce fairly wildly on the way through. Nothing seemed to have broken or fallen off so we kept going and promptly forgot about it. A few days later however I would discover that there had been some damage, but we'll come back to that later.
When we arrived at Dales we were immediately glad we had made the move as it was basically the same setup as Savannah. The only real difference being that Dales had no showers but we have our own anyway so that made no difference.
The camping sites are laid out in circuits and are quite well spaced apart. Some allow generators and others don't so people without generators don't need to be bothered by them. The site allocations are managed by 'camp hosts' who are volunteers working for CALM (Conservation And Land Management). We've seen a few of them on our way around WA and it looks like they help the rangers by supervising a campground in exchange they stay for free. Most volunteers are retired folks with their car and caravan. We asked the lady managing Dales for a big site in the generator section and she pointed us in the right direction.
The site was certainly big enough and we got busy setting up camp, getting covered in red dust in the process. With the awning on and Anitas tent to setup is was virtually 3 hours before we could relax and say we were finished and the best way to celebrate such an occasion was with a cold VB, 3 of which were procured without further ado.
Apprentice Anita is proving to be a very worthwhile addition to our travelling circus and is ever ready to jump in and get involved. I reckon that after only three camp setups we could leave her to it and she'd manage to get the entire camp setup all by herself. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to prove that somewhere down the track.
While we were sitting and enjoying our cold VB, one of the rangers dropped in to let us know that there were about 8 vans in our circuit, all of them members of the Jayco Caravan Club from Perth and they were planning a dawn service for ANZAC Day tomorrow and we were welcome to join them. This was great news as we had been discussing what to do to commemorate ANZAC Day and this would be the solution. I was immediately keen to film the service for our doco so I wandered down to meet the people from the club and obtain their permission. We had a good chat and they were more than happy for me to film the event. You beauty!
We had a BBQ for dinner that night. There are free BBQ's in the campground which I put to good use. Jen whipped up a great salad and we relaxed and enjoyed a magnificent Pilbara sunset.
After dinner Jen put the girls to bed and read them some stories. They have become very hooked on Enid Blytons The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair and struggle to get to sleep without at least a half hour installment most nights.
Meanwhile Anita and I enjoyed the peace and quiet and did some star gazing. I started to fill Anita in on some of Jen and my discussions about ideas for what we will do after this trip and she was quite enthusiastic about our ideas which was good as she is very much a straight shooter and it would not occur to her to endorse an idea she didn't feel had any merit.
I set my mobile phone alarm for about 5:30am so we could get up for the ANZAC dawn service and by the time we got everybody organised and out the door it was close to 6:30 and we were in danger of missing the start.
The event got underway with a few of the clubs members reading some verses including the oath, and we then rolled into the Last Post played very well on a trombone by another member. It was a moving ceremony and while basic in it's makeup, no less significant in sentiment than any that you would find in a capital city. One speaker made mention of the fact that the ANZAC tradition began in Albany, WA, where many of the diggers left Australia for the war on ships destined for foreign soil. Jen and I had been at the war memorial in Albany only a month or so before so it seemed fitting.
After the service we had a chat to some of the club members before heading back to camp for breaky. Our plan was to hike down to Dales Gorge after breakfast and walk along the top of the gorge from circular pool to Fortesque Falls. With Savanna and Sara still struggling on any king of longer or challenging walk, this looked to be the way to go.
There are numerous marked bushwalks in Dales Gorge area and several other areas around the park and they are graded based on their difficulty. The grades range from easy, usually involving a flat track along the top of the gorges, to very difficult which can involve abseiling of spider crawling along sheer cliff faces with death or serious injury a certainty for anyone who slips. Not really the kind of hike we were after today.
With our day packs overflowing with water bottles, sandwiches, snacks, coffee making gear, bathers, cameras, first aid kit, GPS, kitchen sink and all the other “must haves” for a walk like this, we followed the trail out of the campground that lead us to the Circular Pool lookout. Despite it being only about a kilometre on flat ground, Sara decided she was not up to walking and was begging to be carried. Giving in to her pleas, Jen and I took turns to carry her most of the way to the lookout.
We were rewarded at the lookout with our first view down into one of the magnificent Karijini Gorges. The rock is so red here and when you see it in a sheer cliff face of a gorge it is a breathtaking sight. We were soon joined by a bus load of backpacker adventure tourists and within seconds everyone was jostling for a place at the fence to photograph the view.
Leaving the lookout, we made our way along the track for about another km following along the rim of the gorge. Along the way we could see down into the gorge where people were walking along the bottom track and I was very keen to get down there but that would have to wait.
Arriving at the track that led down to Fortesque Falls and after a quick breather we ventured down. It runs for about 300 or so metres and is basically a series of steps made from the rocks from the gorge wall. While it is a big climb, it is far easier than it would be without the steps.
Jen's knees gave her plenty of trouble on the way down. The constant jarring of stepping downhill agrivates her right knee which has never been the same since a dodgy reconstruction when she was about 11 years old. In this instance she was favoring the left knee which then gave her trouble as well, not happy about having to do most of the work. Nevertheless she made it to the bottom without much complaint (as usual!).
The falls are a spectacular sight, cascading down to a large pool at the bottom which is ideal for swimming. There were plenty of people about when we arrived but we managed to set ourselves up in a good spot on a rock ledge where we could settle in for a few hours. After a quick sandwich we got our cozzies on and headed down for a swim. I climbed out of the water and up onto a rock ledge on the other side of the pool and dived in for a bit of fun. It wasn't meant as a challenge but Anita, never wanting to be outdone, followed to prove to herself and anyone else watching that she could do it to. Well, the minutes passed by as she stood on the ledge, concerned mainly about not being able to get out far enough into the deeper water. Lots of reassurance from me and others there seemed to be working and eventually she took the plunge and almost earned herself a round of applause from the gallery of spectators.
The rocks around the pool were quite slippery and in the time we were there at least four people injured themselves when they slipped and fell one way or another. We were actually sitting waiting for the next one to happen as sadistic as that sounds. I managed to injure one of my toes on my left foot while there, not by slipping but by kicking a sharp rock in bare feet. There was a bit of blood, always a source of fascination for Savanna and Sara . . . it is not a proper injury unless there is blood according to them.
After a few hours of swimming and general lolling about, I headed back up to the top of the gorge to walk back to the campground and get the car, bringing it back to the carpark to pick up everyone else. This was mainly to save having to carry Sara the 1-2 km back which is a backbreaking experience best avoided.
On their way back up the gorge, Anita saw a snake off the side of the track, making two in total for the day as we saw one that had been recently run over on the road earlier in the day.
The evening was quite cool and while Jen read stories to the girls, I managed to talk Anita into watching the movie "Wolf Creek" with me as I had bought the DVD a couple of months back. In case you don't know, the movie is a thriller/horror about a group of backpackers that are abducted by a psycho and meet an untimely end. For a low budget aussie flick it is a really good show. Jen could not be convinced to watch it though unfortunately. She reckons that the fact we are planning to stay at Wolfe Creek meteorite crater on our trip through the Tanami desert is too close for comfort.
We heard dingos howling as we lay in bed tonight although I don't think any came close to camp.
Next day was time for a driving tour of the national park so we headed back towards Savannah campground where we could take in the views of Weano Gorge. This is where the seriously difficult walks are, not that we would be doing any of those. Along the way we stopped in to the vistors centre for a look around and found out something of the history of the area and the ongoing juggle of interests between National Parks, the mining industry and the traditional owners.
About 45 minutes down the track we came to Weano Gorge and found a shady area in the day use area for lunch. There were only a couple of other cars around making the place almost deserted. Lunch was the deluxe version with Jen whipping up some salad sandwiches while I made coffees. The girls passed the time by running wild around the area and Anita found a quiet bench to soak up a few rays. She is not used to having kids around 24/7 so likes to find some time to herself where she can. Naturally the girls see her by herself as an opportunity to go and talk and play with her thus scuttling her plans. Life’s a bitch
After lunch we headed down to the lookout that is only a few hundred metres from the car park and were absolutely blown away by the view. It really takes your breath away when you walk up to the edge of the fence on the lookout and look down into what feels like an abyss. A tour group arrived at the lookout while we were there and Jeff, the tour leader was explaining how a couple of years ago a girl had been hiking through the gorge below on one of the more difficult sections. She had taken a tumble and needed rescuing. The emergency services guys had abseiled down the 100 metre plus gorge to her through a trap door in the floor of the lookout.
While down there a flash flood had come through the gorge so quickly that one of them had not escaped and was washed away to his death. The girl was recovered and survived. A tragic tale that highlights the danger and precariousness of the area.
After we had left the lookouts we drove back towards savannah campground, stopping to take a photo of our Savanna in front of the campground sign that bears her name.
A little further down the road there is a wide water crossing and I wanted to get some footage of the car going through the water. Anita, my apprentice was volunteered to jump out and film while I drove back and forth giving her instructions as to where to point it.
We did have a false start though when she came running back complaining that the camera was not working and, you guessed it, she had not taken the lens cap off. Talk about a classic moment. She didn't take it well and felt pretty foolish, but as usual we made the most of it and were happy for a laugh at her expense.
She did do a good job on the filming however so I am confident that she will make a good camera operator with some more practice.
On one of the trips over the river, a Britz rental 4WD pulled up at the other side and I could see that their back tyre was flat. I waved to them to wind down the window while pointing enthusiastically at the rear tyre but they were initially reluctant to wind it down, maybe fearing I was one of these outback nutters they had heard so much about on the news in Germany or wherever they were from. I didn't give up and eventually they wound down the window to try and figure out what I was saying. They made no sign of understanding my words but eventually climbed out and walked around to the back and saw the tyre. Anticipating they would come back and say thanks for the heads up, I was going to offer to help but they just got on with fixing it without so much as a glance in my direction. Very strange people.
The sun was getting lower and we needed water so we could have a shower tonight so we made tracks, stopping at a water tank near the visitors centre on the way back. I think we filled up about 80 litres of water before heading back to camp around sunset. On the way we narrowly missed a snake sliding across the road in front of the car, the third we had seen since arriving.
Our shower back at camp was loverly, albeit a little brief. You get some inkling as to how much water a regular shower uses when you watch it coming out of a 20 litre container and it is a lot. Hence we used the shower to get wet then turned it off to soap up, wash hair etc. then back on to rinse off. In this way we managed to stretch about 50 litres of water between the 5 of us.
Anita whipped up a green curry for dinner which was a treat. She's a bloody good cook and again we tried to encourage her to come with us all the way - to no avail! We'll keep working on her though.
Just before bedtime for the girls I took Savanna over to the toilet which was about 100m from our camp. It is getting dark around 5:30 these days so by 6:30 (girls bedtime) it was pitch black. Given the number of snakes we had already seen I was pretty vigilante and had the torch permanently on the ground in front of us. The nights are still quite warm so there is a reasonable expectation that snakes will be active at night. When it gets cold at night they tend to be curled up asleep underground so there is no real chance of seeing one.
Along the way to the toilet block we stopped to look at a couple of insects crawling around in the grass. There are plenty of them out here, although none of them are the biting variety except the mozzies and sandflies of course.
When we made it to the toilet which is a small tin shed with a pit toilet inside I said to Savanna “wait out here, I’ll go in and check for snakes” which she dutifully did. As I rounded the corner into the tin shed there on the floor in front of me was a big dark coloured snake sitting with most of his body curled up and his head nosing around looking for something to eat.
Instinctively I reversed out of the shed pushing Savanna back a couple of feet behind me. Her curiosity had got the better of her and she had to have a look of course. The snake was not startled by my walking in on him and he pretty much continued on his search around for something to eat and after about a minute he slowly slid away under the wall and into the bushes on the other side while we watched him go.
We gave him another 30 seconds or so to get well into the bushes before venturing in and I stood guard while Savanna did what she came to do!
I wouldn’t say it was a close call because I was looking out for snakes so looking around corners before walking around them etc., however it may have been a different story if I had barreled around the corner as I probably would have just about stepped on top of it which would have been ugly.
Back at camp we had a story to tell and it was amusing to see Jen and Anita instinctively look down at the ground around them when we told them what had happened. 4 snakes in a little over 24 hours . . . Last time I saw that many snakes was in a zoo!
Once in bed, Jen read the girls their bedtime stories as she usually does, a good dose of Enid Blighton.
Anita and I sat outside and pondered the sheer number of stars you can see out here, stretching all the way to the horizon.
Once Jen had the girls nicely asleep we dragged out the Scrabble board for a rematch as I could not let Anita leave without at least making it best of 3. We played for several hours in what became a marathon game. The fact we were drinking wine at the time certainly slowed things down and “compromised” our ability to come up with some good words. Despite this handicap however, I managed to win the game albeit at around 12:30am and exhausted we all crawled into bed.
Next morning after a slow start, Jen and Anita took off for a stroll by themselves and I took the girls for a ride on their bikes around the campground. On the way we stopped in to the camp host’s tent to tell her about the snake and try and find out what type it was. On her notice board was a large sign warning of the increased recent snake activity!
I described the look of the one we had seen and she concluded without doubt it was a Brown Snake, King Brown I think – nasty business if you get bitten as they are right up there in the top few deadliest snakes.
Apparently the place is crawling (sliding?) with them which didn’t surprise me given we had seen 4 snakes now in only a couple of days. We decided on our ride around the camp ground we’d see if we could find any more and potentially even a python in a tree. A couple had been spotted over near the tour camp area.
We had a good ride (walk for me) but did not see any more snakes.
Jen and Anita returned to camp at the same time as us and after lunch, Anita and I decided to tackle the Circular Pool gorge walk. Jen’s knee would not allow her to do a hike like this and it would be too much for the girls so they stayed behind.
It was a great walk and not too challenging. The water in the gorge comes from rain that gradually filters down through the rocks making it’s way into the gorge. There were many small waterfalls and cascades which made great footage for our film.
At the end Anita was tempted to take a swim in the pool and when I reminded her how far she had come to get here and how long it would be before she was back, she jumped right in.
Today was our last day in Karijini so back at camp we did some pre-packing of gear and whipped up spaghetti bolognaise for dinner – another Anita creation which went down very well.
We managed to get on the road the next day by 9:40 which was a pretty good effort and were on our way to Newman where Anita had a connecting flight and we wanted to take a tour of the Mt Whaleback Iron Ore mine – the worlds largest open cut mine.
On the way out of the park I realized that the brake controller which looks after the trailer brakes was not showing me it’s usual readings which explained why the braking was not as positive as it usually was. I pulled over and had a look at the trailer plug which was connected okay and the lights on the trailer were all working properly, just not the brakes.
Turning the car on and off to reset the brake controller did not help either.
At this point I could not work out the problem so we continued on taking it very easy and allowing more time for braking than usual and made it into Newman around early afternoon.
Being the adventurous types that we are we opted for the Savannah Campground and promptly got the car and trailer covered in rich red Pilbara dust on the 40 odd kilometre drive in. Arriving at the campground we found out it was privately run and was $10 per night per adult which would equate to $30 per night - a lot of money for basic bush camping in a National Park. The other campground, Dales, was $5 per night which would save us $60 over our 4 night stay. Enough money to make it worthwhile heading down to Dales.
We tackled the 46km gravel road that joins the two campgrounds and along the way I was taken surprise by a deep wash out in the road. Barrelling along at about 70km/h I didn't manage to slow down all that much before we ploughed into the washout causing the car and trailer to bounce fairly wildly on the way through. Nothing seemed to have broken or fallen off so we kept going and promptly forgot about it. A few days later however I would discover that there had been some damage, but we'll come back to that later.
When we arrived at Dales we were immediately glad we had made the move as it was basically the same setup as Savannah. The only real difference being that Dales had no showers but we have our own anyway so that made no difference.
The camping sites are laid out in circuits and are quite well spaced apart. Some allow generators and others don't so people without generators don't need to be bothered by them. The site allocations are managed by 'camp hosts' who are volunteers working for CALM (Conservation And Land Management). We've seen a few of them on our way around WA and it looks like they help the rangers by supervising a campground in exchange they stay for free. Most volunteers are retired folks with their car and caravan. We asked the lady managing Dales for a big site in the generator section and she pointed us in the right direction.
The site was certainly big enough and we got busy setting up camp, getting covered in red dust in the process. With the awning on and Anitas tent to setup is was virtually 3 hours before we could relax and say we were finished and the best way to celebrate such an occasion was with a cold VB, 3 of which were procured without further ado.
Apprentice Anita is proving to be a very worthwhile addition to our travelling circus and is ever ready to jump in and get involved. I reckon that after only three camp setups we could leave her to it and she'd manage to get the entire camp setup all by herself. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to prove that somewhere down the track.
While we were sitting and enjoying our cold VB, one of the rangers dropped in to let us know that there were about 8 vans in our circuit, all of them members of the Jayco Caravan Club from Perth and they were planning a dawn service for ANZAC Day tomorrow and we were welcome to join them. This was great news as we had been discussing what to do to commemorate ANZAC Day and this would be the solution. I was immediately keen to film the service for our doco so I wandered down to meet the people from the club and obtain their permission. We had a good chat and they were more than happy for me to film the event. You beauty!
We had a BBQ for dinner that night. There are free BBQ's in the campground which I put to good use. Jen whipped up a great salad and we relaxed and enjoyed a magnificent Pilbara sunset.
After dinner Jen put the girls to bed and read them some stories. They have become very hooked on Enid Blytons The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair and struggle to get to sleep without at least a half hour installment most nights.
Meanwhile Anita and I enjoyed the peace and quiet and did some star gazing. I started to fill Anita in on some of Jen and my discussions about ideas for what we will do after this trip and she was quite enthusiastic about our ideas which was good as she is very much a straight shooter and it would not occur to her to endorse an idea she didn't feel had any merit.
I set my mobile phone alarm for about 5:30am so we could get up for the ANZAC dawn service and by the time we got everybody organised and out the door it was close to 6:30 and we were in danger of missing the start.
The event got underway with a few of the clubs members reading some verses including the oath, and we then rolled into the Last Post played very well on a trombone by another member. It was a moving ceremony and while basic in it's makeup, no less significant in sentiment than any that you would find in a capital city. One speaker made mention of the fact that the ANZAC tradition began in Albany, WA, where many of the diggers left Australia for the war on ships destined for foreign soil. Jen and I had been at the war memorial in Albany only a month or so before so it seemed fitting.
After the service we had a chat to some of the club members before heading back to camp for breaky. Our plan was to hike down to Dales Gorge after breakfast and walk along the top of the gorge from circular pool to Fortesque Falls. With Savanna and Sara still struggling on any king of longer or challenging walk, this looked to be the way to go.
There are numerous marked bushwalks in Dales Gorge area and several other areas around the park and they are graded based on their difficulty. The grades range from easy, usually involving a flat track along the top of the gorges, to very difficult which can involve abseiling of spider crawling along sheer cliff faces with death or serious injury a certainty for anyone who slips. Not really the kind of hike we were after today.
With our day packs overflowing with water bottles, sandwiches, snacks, coffee making gear, bathers, cameras, first aid kit, GPS, kitchen sink and all the other “must haves” for a walk like this, we followed the trail out of the campground that lead us to the Circular Pool lookout. Despite it being only about a kilometre on flat ground, Sara decided she was not up to walking and was begging to be carried. Giving in to her pleas, Jen and I took turns to carry her most of the way to the lookout.
We were rewarded at the lookout with our first view down into one of the magnificent Karijini Gorges. The rock is so red here and when you see it in a sheer cliff face of a gorge it is a breathtaking sight. We were soon joined by a bus load of backpacker adventure tourists and within seconds everyone was jostling for a place at the fence to photograph the view.
Leaving the lookout, we made our way along the track for about another km following along the rim of the gorge. Along the way we could see down into the gorge where people were walking along the bottom track and I was very keen to get down there but that would have to wait.
Arriving at the track that led down to Fortesque Falls and after a quick breather we ventured down. It runs for about 300 or so metres and is basically a series of steps made from the rocks from the gorge wall. While it is a big climb, it is far easier than it would be without the steps.
Jen's knees gave her plenty of trouble on the way down. The constant jarring of stepping downhill agrivates her right knee which has never been the same since a dodgy reconstruction when she was about 11 years old. In this instance she was favoring the left knee which then gave her trouble as well, not happy about having to do most of the work. Nevertheless she made it to the bottom without much complaint (as usual!).
The falls are a spectacular sight, cascading down to a large pool at the bottom which is ideal for swimming. There were plenty of people about when we arrived but we managed to set ourselves up in a good spot on a rock ledge where we could settle in for a few hours. After a quick sandwich we got our cozzies on and headed down for a swim. I climbed out of the water and up onto a rock ledge on the other side of the pool and dived in for a bit of fun. It wasn't meant as a challenge but Anita, never wanting to be outdone, followed to prove to herself and anyone else watching that she could do it to. Well, the minutes passed by as she stood on the ledge, concerned mainly about not being able to get out far enough into the deeper water. Lots of reassurance from me and others there seemed to be working and eventually she took the plunge and almost earned herself a round of applause from the gallery of spectators.
The rocks around the pool were quite slippery and in the time we were there at least four people injured themselves when they slipped and fell one way or another. We were actually sitting waiting for the next one to happen as sadistic as that sounds. I managed to injure one of my toes on my left foot while there, not by slipping but by kicking a sharp rock in bare feet. There was a bit of blood, always a source of fascination for Savanna and Sara . . . it is not a proper injury unless there is blood according to them.
After a few hours of swimming and general lolling about, I headed back up to the top of the gorge to walk back to the campground and get the car, bringing it back to the carpark to pick up everyone else. This was mainly to save having to carry Sara the 1-2 km back which is a backbreaking experience best avoided.
On their way back up the gorge, Anita saw a snake off the side of the track, making two in total for the day as we saw one that had been recently run over on the road earlier in the day.
The evening was quite cool and while Jen read stories to the girls, I managed to talk Anita into watching the movie "Wolf Creek" with me as I had bought the DVD a couple of months back. In case you don't know, the movie is a thriller/horror about a group of backpackers that are abducted by a psycho and meet an untimely end. For a low budget aussie flick it is a really good show. Jen could not be convinced to watch it though unfortunately. She reckons that the fact we are planning to stay at Wolfe Creek meteorite crater on our trip through the Tanami desert is too close for comfort.
We heard dingos howling as we lay in bed tonight although I don't think any came close to camp.
Next day was time for a driving tour of the national park so we headed back towards Savannah campground where we could take in the views of Weano Gorge. This is where the seriously difficult walks are, not that we would be doing any of those. Along the way we stopped in to the vistors centre for a look around and found out something of the history of the area and the ongoing juggle of interests between National Parks, the mining industry and the traditional owners.
About 45 minutes down the track we came to Weano Gorge and found a shady area in the day use area for lunch. There were only a couple of other cars around making the place almost deserted. Lunch was the deluxe version with Jen whipping up some salad sandwiches while I made coffees. The girls passed the time by running wild around the area and Anita found a quiet bench to soak up a few rays. She is not used to having kids around 24/7 so likes to find some time to herself where she can. Naturally the girls see her by herself as an opportunity to go and talk and play with her thus scuttling her plans. Life’s a bitch
After lunch we headed down to the lookout that is only a few hundred metres from the car park and were absolutely blown away by the view. It really takes your breath away when you walk up to the edge of the fence on the lookout and look down into what feels like an abyss. A tour group arrived at the lookout while we were there and Jeff, the tour leader was explaining how a couple of years ago a girl had been hiking through the gorge below on one of the more difficult sections. She had taken a tumble and needed rescuing. The emergency services guys had abseiled down the 100 metre plus gorge to her through a trap door in the floor of the lookout.
While down there a flash flood had come through the gorge so quickly that one of them had not escaped and was washed away to his death. The girl was recovered and survived. A tragic tale that highlights the danger and precariousness of the area.
After we had left the lookouts we drove back towards savannah campground, stopping to take a photo of our Savanna in front of the campground sign that bears her name.
A little further down the road there is a wide water crossing and I wanted to get some footage of the car going through the water. Anita, my apprentice was volunteered to jump out and film while I drove back and forth giving her instructions as to where to point it.
We did have a false start though when she came running back complaining that the camera was not working and, you guessed it, she had not taken the lens cap off. Talk about a classic moment. She didn't take it well and felt pretty foolish, but as usual we made the most of it and were happy for a laugh at her expense.
She did do a good job on the filming however so I am confident that she will make a good camera operator with some more practice.
On one of the trips over the river, a Britz rental 4WD pulled up at the other side and I could see that their back tyre was flat. I waved to them to wind down the window while pointing enthusiastically at the rear tyre but they were initially reluctant to wind it down, maybe fearing I was one of these outback nutters they had heard so much about on the news in Germany or wherever they were from. I didn't give up and eventually they wound down the window to try and figure out what I was saying. They made no sign of understanding my words but eventually climbed out and walked around to the back and saw the tyre. Anticipating they would come back and say thanks for the heads up, I was going to offer to help but they just got on with fixing it without so much as a glance in my direction. Very strange people.
The sun was getting lower and we needed water so we could have a shower tonight so we made tracks, stopping at a water tank near the visitors centre on the way back. I think we filled up about 80 litres of water before heading back to camp around sunset. On the way we narrowly missed a snake sliding across the road in front of the car, the third we had seen since arriving.
Our shower back at camp was loverly, albeit a little brief. You get some inkling as to how much water a regular shower uses when you watch it coming out of a 20 litre container and it is a lot. Hence we used the shower to get wet then turned it off to soap up, wash hair etc. then back on to rinse off. In this way we managed to stretch about 50 litres of water between the 5 of us.
Anita whipped up a green curry for dinner which was a treat. She's a bloody good cook and again we tried to encourage her to come with us all the way - to no avail! We'll keep working on her though.
Just before bedtime for the girls I took Savanna over to the toilet which was about 100m from our camp. It is getting dark around 5:30 these days so by 6:30 (girls bedtime) it was pitch black. Given the number of snakes we had already seen I was pretty vigilante and had the torch permanently on the ground in front of us. The nights are still quite warm so there is a reasonable expectation that snakes will be active at night. When it gets cold at night they tend to be curled up asleep underground so there is no real chance of seeing one.
Along the way to the toilet block we stopped to look at a couple of insects crawling around in the grass. There are plenty of them out here, although none of them are the biting variety except the mozzies and sandflies of course.
When we made it to the toilet which is a small tin shed with a pit toilet inside I said to Savanna “wait out here, I’ll go in and check for snakes” which she dutifully did. As I rounded the corner into the tin shed there on the floor in front of me was a big dark coloured snake sitting with most of his body curled up and his head nosing around looking for something to eat.
Instinctively I reversed out of the shed pushing Savanna back a couple of feet behind me. Her curiosity had got the better of her and she had to have a look of course. The snake was not startled by my walking in on him and he pretty much continued on his search around for something to eat and after about a minute he slowly slid away under the wall and into the bushes on the other side while we watched him go.
We gave him another 30 seconds or so to get well into the bushes before venturing in and I stood guard while Savanna did what she came to do!
I wouldn’t say it was a close call because I was looking out for snakes so looking around corners before walking around them etc., however it may have been a different story if I had barreled around the corner as I probably would have just about stepped on top of it which would have been ugly.
Back at camp we had a story to tell and it was amusing to see Jen and Anita instinctively look down at the ground around them when we told them what had happened. 4 snakes in a little over 24 hours . . . Last time I saw that many snakes was in a zoo!
Once in bed, Jen read the girls their bedtime stories as she usually does, a good dose of Enid Blighton.
Anita and I sat outside and pondered the sheer number of stars you can see out here, stretching all the way to the horizon.
Once Jen had the girls nicely asleep we dragged out the Scrabble board for a rematch as I could not let Anita leave without at least making it best of 3. We played for several hours in what became a marathon game. The fact we were drinking wine at the time certainly slowed things down and “compromised” our ability to come up with some good words. Despite this handicap however, I managed to win the game albeit at around 12:30am and exhausted we all crawled into bed.
Next morning after a slow start, Jen and Anita took off for a stroll by themselves and I took the girls for a ride on their bikes around the campground. On the way we stopped in to the camp host’s tent to tell her about the snake and try and find out what type it was. On her notice board was a large sign warning of the increased recent snake activity!
I described the look of the one we had seen and she concluded without doubt it was a Brown Snake, King Brown I think – nasty business if you get bitten as they are right up there in the top few deadliest snakes.
Apparently the place is crawling (sliding?) with them which didn’t surprise me given we had seen 4 snakes now in only a couple of days. We decided on our ride around the camp ground we’d see if we could find any more and potentially even a python in a tree. A couple had been spotted over near the tour camp area.
We had a good ride (walk for me) but did not see any more snakes.
Jen and Anita returned to camp at the same time as us and after lunch, Anita and I decided to tackle the Circular Pool gorge walk. Jen’s knee would not allow her to do a hike like this and it would be too much for the girls so they stayed behind.
It was a great walk and not too challenging. The water in the gorge comes from rain that gradually filters down through the rocks making it’s way into the gorge. There were many small waterfalls and cascades which made great footage for our film.
At the end Anita was tempted to take a swim in the pool and when I reminded her how far she had come to get here and how long it would be before she was back, she jumped right in.
Today was our last day in Karijini so back at camp we did some pre-packing of gear and whipped up spaghetti bolognaise for dinner – another Anita creation which went down very well.
We managed to get on the road the next day by 9:40 which was a pretty good effort and were on our way to Newman where Anita had a connecting flight and we wanted to take a tour of the Mt Whaleback Iron Ore mine – the worlds largest open cut mine.
On the way out of the park I realized that the brake controller which looks after the trailer brakes was not showing me it’s usual readings which explained why the braking was not as positive as it usually was. I pulled over and had a look at the trailer plug which was connected okay and the lights on the trailer were all working properly, just not the brakes.
Turning the car on and off to reset the brake controller did not help either.
At this point I could not work out the problem so we continued on taking it very easy and allowing more time for braking than usual and made it into Newman around early afternoon.
Stop 26 - Tom Price, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 23 April 2006
You've
heard the saying "the best layed plans . . ." well, we drove into
the middle of Tom Price to the main hotel/motel and pulled up round
the side. Being a fairly rough sort of mining town, I left the
girls in the car and headed into the bar area alone to try and
arrange a room for us for the night. Along the way I managed to get
heckled by only one group of pissed idiots so I thought I was doing
pretty well. Inside I walked over to the bar, feet sticking to the
carpet with every step, and waited attentatively for the barmaid to
notice me and come over. While she finished serving a couple of
other guys, I looked around the room and quickly came to the
conclusion that I would not be bringing the girls in here tonight.
If I were alone I would have enjoyed the "character" of the place
and probably had a few beers with some of the locals but this was
no place for women and young girls. This was a mining town pub and
the only word that adequately described it was "feral"!
Eventually the bar lady came over to serve me and when I enquired about rooms she suggested I speak to the manager who would no doubt be back soon. Anyway, about 10 minutes later he came back in and when I asked him about a room or two he broke the bad news to me that they were full due to a shut down at the mine and all the workers being in town. Bugger! He did however suggest I try the other motel in town up the road which was "real nice" or words to that effect. On my way back to the car I walked past the group that had heckled me on the way in and they called out "no rooms available . . . ", "try the place up the road" followed by raucus laughter. Obviously they could read the situation pretty clearly. The only response I could think to throw back was "you could have told me that going in!", to which they laughed even harder!
When I got back to the car and broke the "bad news" I was brought up to speed about a man in parachute pants that they had seen that apparently Anita had some thoughts about. Regrettably given we were not staying, that relationship was destined to never amount to anything.
We headed up the road looking for the other hotel and after a quick circuit of the town we found it. The place was obvioulsy far more salubrious than the previous establishment and we were very hopeful of a room. When I walked into the reception I could see the buffet in the restaurant next door and was already planning what I was having for dinner when the receptionist came out with a polite smile ready to respond to the inevitable question "do you have a room available" to which she replied "no, so sorry, the mine is in shut down . . etc. etc." BUGGER!!!
By this time I'm getting a little desperate. It is now almost dark outside and the only 2 hotels in town are full. The only remaining option is the caravan park so we resign ourselves to a cabin or onsite van and head out there. It's a few km's out of town and it is almost completely dark by the time we pull in.
I walked into the office and asked the lady what accommodation she had available. She replied "What are you looking for?", to which I responded "how about a cabin for three adults and two kids?", to which she responded "sorry we don't have any cabins left". So I asked "what about an onsite van?", to which she responded "sorry, they are all taken as well, the mine is in shutdown. . . . etc.". "Okay", I asked "what do you have?", to which she replied, "we have some powered sites available!". . . . "We'll take one!!!!!" I agreed with dismay.
"Not a single room of any sort left in town" I reported to the girls and their dissappointment was heartbreaking. Savanna took it particularly bad. We have started calling her Versace due to her penchant for fine things like caravans with bathrooms, and she had her heart set on a cabin with an ensuite. Poor darling would have to endure another communal toilet block.
Anita also took it badly having been so excited by the idea of a cushy night she had even volunteered to pay for it.
Nonetheless we found our site and set up our camper and headed for the camp kitchen where we cooked up bacon and eggs for dinner washed down with a few cans of good old VB. Savanna and Sara amused themselves by playing with a couple of pet rabbits that were hanging around.
Jen and I stayed up watching the start of Big Brother 6 on our tiny little TV while the othes had an early night and eventually we followed suit. But not before polishing off several more VB's and a couple of wines. I was okay but Jen was pretty smashed and next morning she paid the price with a good hang over.
Overnight it had rained which was the first rain we had seen in weeks and while it was not heavy, it was enough to dampen things down. Jen was finding it difficult to crawl out of bed and Anita, who had slept on some blankets on the floor of our tent rather than her usual air mattress, was feeling worse for wear as well. Gradually we pulled ourselves together, had showers, packed up and hit the road.
Jen was actually felling very hung over and the only cure was a Sausage and egg mc muffin at Maccas, although given there was no Maccas in Tom Price she would have to settle for some other substitute that we could drum up.
Anita and I did a quick circuit of Coles and grabbed some essentials for our Karijini escapade and on the way out Anita ordered some hot chips and dim sims for Jens hang over while I managed to rustle her up a large cappucino - she was now well on the way to being cured and while she swore she'd never drink again I don't think she really meant it.
With hangovers under control and plenty of food packed into every spare space in the car we finally waved goodbye to Tom Price and headed out to Karijini National Park.
Eventually the bar lady came over to serve me and when I enquired about rooms she suggested I speak to the manager who would no doubt be back soon. Anyway, about 10 minutes later he came back in and when I asked him about a room or two he broke the bad news to me that they were full due to a shut down at the mine and all the workers being in town. Bugger! He did however suggest I try the other motel in town up the road which was "real nice" or words to that effect. On my way back to the car I walked past the group that had heckled me on the way in and they called out "no rooms available . . . ", "try the place up the road" followed by raucus laughter. Obviously they could read the situation pretty clearly. The only response I could think to throw back was "you could have told me that going in!", to which they laughed even harder!
When I got back to the car and broke the "bad news" I was brought up to speed about a man in parachute pants that they had seen that apparently Anita had some thoughts about. Regrettably given we were not staying, that relationship was destined to never amount to anything.
We headed up the road looking for the other hotel and after a quick circuit of the town we found it. The place was obvioulsy far more salubrious than the previous establishment and we were very hopeful of a room. When I walked into the reception I could see the buffet in the restaurant next door and was already planning what I was having for dinner when the receptionist came out with a polite smile ready to respond to the inevitable question "do you have a room available" to which she replied "no, so sorry, the mine is in shut down . . etc. etc." BUGGER!!!
By this time I'm getting a little desperate. It is now almost dark outside and the only 2 hotels in town are full. The only remaining option is the caravan park so we resign ourselves to a cabin or onsite van and head out there. It's a few km's out of town and it is almost completely dark by the time we pull in.
I walked into the office and asked the lady what accommodation she had available. She replied "What are you looking for?", to which I responded "how about a cabin for three adults and two kids?", to which she responded "sorry we don't have any cabins left". So I asked "what about an onsite van?", to which she responded "sorry, they are all taken as well, the mine is in shutdown. . . . etc.". "Okay", I asked "what do you have?", to which she replied, "we have some powered sites available!". . . . "We'll take one!!!!!" I agreed with dismay.
"Not a single room of any sort left in town" I reported to the girls and their dissappointment was heartbreaking. Savanna took it particularly bad. We have started calling her Versace due to her penchant for fine things like caravans with bathrooms, and she had her heart set on a cabin with an ensuite. Poor darling would have to endure another communal toilet block.
Anita also took it badly having been so excited by the idea of a cushy night she had even volunteered to pay for it.
Nonetheless we found our site and set up our camper and headed for the camp kitchen where we cooked up bacon and eggs for dinner washed down with a few cans of good old VB. Savanna and Sara amused themselves by playing with a couple of pet rabbits that were hanging around.
Jen and I stayed up watching the start of Big Brother 6 on our tiny little TV while the othes had an early night and eventually we followed suit. But not before polishing off several more VB's and a couple of wines. I was okay but Jen was pretty smashed and next morning she paid the price with a good hang over.
Overnight it had rained which was the first rain we had seen in weeks and while it was not heavy, it was enough to dampen things down. Jen was finding it difficult to crawl out of bed and Anita, who had slept on some blankets on the floor of our tent rather than her usual air mattress, was feeling worse for wear as well. Gradually we pulled ourselves together, had showers, packed up and hit the road.
Jen was actually felling very hung over and the only cure was a Sausage and egg mc muffin at Maccas, although given there was no Maccas in Tom Price she would have to settle for some other substitute that we could drum up.
Anita and I did a quick circuit of Coles and grabbed some essentials for our Karijini escapade and on the way out Anita ordered some hot chips and dim sims for Jens hang over while I managed to rustle her up a large cappucino - she was now well on the way to being cured and while she swore she'd never drink again I don't think she really meant it.
With hangovers under control and plenty of food packed into every spare space in the car we finally waved goodbye to Tom Price and headed out to Karijini National Park.
Stop 25 - Cape Range NP, WA - 4 nights
Arrived: 19 April 2006
Our site
was big and close to the beach and toilets and in all likelihood
was the site we would have chosen if the entire park was empty and
we had the run of the place. This does not happen all that
often.
We broke out the spare tent for Anita and unloaded the boat from the top of the camper. With Ningaloo reef a km off the beach we were looking forward to getting the boat wet. I have not yet caught a fish since we left Melbourne and Anita was determined to show me how it was done!!!
We also setup the little Yamaha generator which would keep the fridge running and the batteries charged. You are allowed to run them from 8am to 9pm which is plenty of time. Savanna and Sara made some new friends, Kyla and Dylan, in the camp next to us and rode their bikes around the campground.
We grabbed a couple of cold beers and headed down to the beach to have a paddle and watch the sunset and it was a pretty magical experience. Anita felt like she had got on the plane in hell and stepped off in heaven. While we were standing in the sea sipping cold Heinekens we saw a school of hammer head sharks about 200m off the beach attacking something fairly aggressively.
After dark there are some fairly active crabs scuttling around like mice in the shadows which created some entertainment and had Jen and Anita reacting as if they had seen a mouse by screaming and jumping up on their chairs. All good entertainment for me.
We marvelled at the sheer number of stars in the sky you can see when you get out here but our intentions of a big night were somewhat dampened by the fact that Anita was buggered having been up since about 4am so we had a fairly early night and planned to party hard the next night.
Next morning I finished setting up the boat by getting it onto it's collabsible trailer, fitting the motor and all of the bits that go into it and late in the morning we headed out. The boat ramp is not so much a ramp but a track that heads to the back from the camp ground. They recommend you don't drive all the way onto the beach as the sand is so soft so I backed it as far as possible then unhitched the trailer and pushed it the rest of the way down. Anita held the boat in the shallows while I took the trailer and car back to our camp site.
Climbing in and out of a tinny can be challenging, especially when there is some swell in the waves on the beach, which there was. and Anita had to perform a minor miracle to get over the side into the boat. She ended up straddling the side unsure as to whether she would land in the boat or the sea while we all tried futily to control our laughter. Poor girl, she's not here 24 hours and we are already having fun at her expense. Lucky she has a good sense of humour.
In the end she made it into the boat and showed us the area on her thigh where the big bruise would be tomorrow. We motored on out to sea and had gone about 100m before we saw our first turtle swimming under the boat. A big one and swimming very fast as well. The water was crystal clear and you could make out the patterns on its back as it swam away from us. A minute or two later we saw another one then another one. They are prolific and actually more abundant closer to the beach than further out near the reef.
We kept going out towards the Ningaloo Reef and saw some sting rays, fish and more turtles on the way out. It is barely 1 to 2 km from the shore before you get to the reef so we were out there in 10 minutes. You can easily see the waves crashing over the reef from the beach.
We made a half hearted attempt to catch a fish but without any real bait or any real idea what we were doing it was futile. We gave up quickly and were more keen to just have a good look around so we spent a couple of hours exploring the reef and looking for more turtles and other sea life. I would be over the side with my snorkelling gear for a closer look if I had a way of getting back into the boat after but at this stage i don't have a ladder or anything else and would probably capsize it trying to get back in over the side. My mind has started working on a rope ladder I can throw over the bow that will make it possible to climb back in using the motor at the sterm as a counter balance.
In the afternoon we headed back into the beach and had a swim and later in the day I pulled the boat out and left it on the trailer for tomorrow.
I had installed our Glind under bonnet shower in Lincoln NP and today it was ready for its first real test. We were all feeling pretty crusty from the salt and sweat so I popped the bonnet and hooked up the hoses. We didn't have a great deal of water so it was a case of a quick rinse for everyone this time. In fact the water was so warm from being in the sun I didn't even need to run the engine on the car to warm it up. Instead we just pumped it straight out of the jerry can and with about 4 or 5 litres each, had a good wash. It was exactly what we needed. I vowed to get more water tomorrow and set up the shower tent so we could do it properly next time round.
We had not bought enough beer on our way through Exmouth so the few we had were soon exhausted. The weather was very hot and still so the beers went down a treat. Anita said she'd pay $50 for me or Jen to drive into Exmouth for some more beers but we were not quite that desperate ($100 would have done it). Anita dived head first into the cooking as her contribution to camp life, which was great for a change.
We had some "Patio" while the sun set and, without much beer, decided we would drive into Exmouth tomorrow and have a big night tomorrow night instead.
Next morning I was refueling the generator out by the side of the car and had a close encounter with what looked like a small brown snake. It slithered very quickly into a hole a few feet from me as I walked past and I just caught a glimpse of it before it dissappeared. It was a good reminder to keep a lookout for snakes as there are plenty about up this way. Only a week later we would see 4 snakes in less than 24 hours in Karijini NP.
Cape Range NP runs in a strip along the coast from North to South for about 50 km with the Nigaloo Reef offshore on the west side and the Cape Range forming the border on the east. There are numerous campgrounds and swimming beaches scattered down the coast. We were camped in Neds campground which is the most northerly and today we decided to take a drive down to the bottom of the park and see if we could get out along the dirt road that comes in from Coral Bay in the south. Along the way there is a river called Yardie Creek which flows into the sea and needs to be crossed to access the track to Coral Bay on the other side.
We meandered on down the park taking in the beautiful scenery along the way and about an hour later came to Yardie Creek. From what I had heard from some other campers, it was possible to drive across the creek as the ranger did so on a fairly regular basis and there were other vehicle tracks entering from both sides. Having said that, when I walked across the creek and stopped in about 2 feet of water in the middle, I immediately began to sink into the quicksand like bottom of the creek. The incoming tides washes up the creek making it more of a small estuary and we were there at a fairly low tide which was on its way back in. The bottom line is that I chickened out!! With no other vehicle to pull us out if we got stuck, nothing to easily winch off and an incoming tide which would swamp the car in a couple of hours, I just wasn't game to risk it. We waited around for about 15 minutes to see if anyone else showed up with the same intention so we could possibly act as a backup for each other but no one else came.
Instead we abandoned the plan to visit Coral Bay and headed back up and out the top of the park and went to Exmouth instead.
It's always a bit frustrating to turn away from a challenge that I was reasonably confident we could get through, mainly based on the fact that other cars had obviously made it. But murphys law comes into it and if we did get stuck the car would be pretty much a write off and the insurance would not cover it so it just aint worth the risk.
In Exmouth we did some food shopping, topped up the generator fuel can, bought a slab of beer, some more wine, filled up 100 litres of water containers and eventually found a bar where we could have a cold beer and some lunch.
While I was filling up at the servo, the guy in fron of me was filling up the tanks on his boat and gave me some advice for catching snapper on the reef . . . "stay just inside the reef, go out in the 2 hours before high tide and fish on the bottom" - sounds fair and reasonable. We weren't going to go outside the reef anyway as the open ocean is too rough for our little tinny.
After lunch we headed back to the NP stopping in at Turquoise Bay for some snorkelling. This bay is where the reef comes right into the shore so you can swim out and see it without a boat. There were plenty of other people there when we arrived but we found a spot on the beach and headed in. The first thing we noticed was the smell and the layer of coral spoof on top of the water. It must be coral mating season as the water was full of it. It did detract somewhat from the whole experience and later our bathers and other gear we had worn into the water stunk of sealife that has been out of the water in the sun too long - YUK!!! Nonetheless having come so far, I snorkelled out to the reef and saw some great coral and fish which kind of made up for the coral spoof we had to put up with. There were a lot of stinger cells in the water which are microscoping stinger cells from jelly fish, fire coral and other nasties that drift around in the water and when they come in contact with you skin they sting as if you had touched the original creature. You feel them every now and then as a small sting. Sara was getting very upset and when we realised it was these stnger cells, it was time to go.
It was at this point that Anita introduced us to a new word . . . "Mingin" . . . which is how she described the coral spoof experience. "Mingin" would come to be a fairly well used word over the coming days to describe anything that was either gross or distastefull in any way.
As you can imagine a shower was well and truly called for back at camp and we made the most of the 100 litres of water we'd picked up at the servo in Exmouth. We used the Glind shower the way it was designed this time, with the heat exchanger working so we all enjoyed a nice hot shower to get rid of that "Mingin" coral spoof. I tried rinsing our clothes but it was to no avail so we ended up soaking them in the laundry bucket for a day or two to try and ged rid of the dead fish aroma.
The night was warm and Anita suggested that she may be a good Scrabble player and would be prepared to prove it if we were to get the board out. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Jen and I set up the board and prepared for battle.
We both got off to a good start, leaving Anita way behind after a few rounds but she soon caught up and even crept in front. Now I have to say at this point that as a guest she should have had the presence of mind to deliberately hold back and allow one of her hosts to win the game , but oh no . . . . not our Anita. She's like a dog with a bone and with a taste of victory in her mouth she would not let go, holding on until the end to win the game. Sure, we made light of it but deep down we all knew that there was no way she was going home without a rematch . . . ."best of 3" I announced, throwing down the gauntlet, "you're on" Anita retorted, briming with a confidence her expression betrayed as being very shallow. And so it was . . . by the time she left we would have played three rounds of Scrabble and determined once and for all who the real word master was.
Next morning, still smarting from last nights painfull defeat I managed to keep busy doing I'm not sure what but all the while avoiding the inevitable jibe from Anita about last nights defeat. Around 11am we finally got it together and had the boat out for some more turtle spotting and a spot of fishing. According to the advice I had received from the guy at the servo the previous day, being on the back of the reef in the two hours before high tide was a winning strategy so, with high tide around 2pm we were out there with plenty of time.
We cruised around for a while, spotting several turtles and a few more stingrays and gradually weaved our way out to the inside of the reef about 1.5 km offshore. Around the same time, 3 other boats shot out from the beach and weighed anchor in the area we were heading towards, so assuming they must know what they were doing because their boats were far more equipped than ours, we followed their lead and found our selves a nice spot nearby. Anita being her normal overconfident self was adamant that she was going to give me a lesson on fishing. She grew up in Warnambool where she spent many long hours fishing with her dad so she reckoned she knew what she was doing. We baited our hooks and cast them in and waited and waited and waited.
Initially not much happened, although we did have a few bites. Some suggestions that we may be in too shallow water (about 10 feet) were raised but we decided to stay a little longer and fully test the advice I'd received the previous day.
Maybe half and hour went by before I was onto a good fish and reeling him in. Startled by the sudden activity, everyone scrambled to gain a good viewing spot to see the mighty fish I was hauling in and Savanna and Anita fought to see who could get the net to pull him over the side. I wound and wound and then as the fish was in sight, murphy raised his ugly head and the monster got away. DOH!!!
About 10 minutes later it was like dejavu as Anita hooked onto another big one. Well, we thought it was a big one based on the performance she put on. I was starting to wonder if she hadn't hooked one of the whale sharks the Ningaloo is famous for. She wound and wound and we had the net (and harpoon) ready and then over the side came this a parrot fish which must have weighed a good 1/2 lb, probably 5/8 if we were to get the scales out. You should have heard the gloating, it was sickening. My plea's that this was not actually a real fish, given that it was too small to eat were useless. Anita had caught the first fish on the expedition and that was it. Mind you it was my job to get the hook out of its mouth and set it free but did I get any credit for that? No! History will record that Anita caught the first fish on Expedition Australia - "The Big Lap" and everything else will barely rate a footnote.
By this time I was pretty much over fishing and the tide coming in over the reef was whipping up a pretty mean swell. We pulled up the anchor and crusied around for a while looking for some calm water and eventually found a nice little sheltered bay about 1km south of the beach where we launched our boat. A small rocky island acted as a naturaly breakwater and we pulled the boat in behind it where the water was dead calm. We spent the next couple of hours luxuriating in the warm clear sea while the sun beat down on us. It was a bit like being in a postcard - absolutely perfect. At one stage Jen and Anita were enjoying some time out about 50 metres out into the water when they both came charging in to the shore screaming. As I looked around I saw something large leaping through the water near them and could understand why they were freaking out. I was only in about 2 feet of water with the girls so I dragged them into the beach and tried to work out what the creature was. As it came closer I realised it was a few large garfish scooting along the top of the water and together they looked like something bigger. The question lingered for a while about what was chasing them and causing them to go nuts like that but we didn't see anything else and soon calmed down.
Anita decided the beach was safer than the water (these garfish a pretty dangerous with their long spikey noses!) and managed to find some unusual crabs in the rocks near the waters edge that were an almost irridescent green - pretty amazing.
Reluctantley we piled back in the boat and headed back to our beach and after pushing the boat trailer down to the waters edge and winching the boat on, I used a sling to drag the boat trailer with the Land Cruiser up the beach. Once it was on firm ground I hooked it on and towed it the 100metres back to our camp site.
Next day we were leaving so I dismantled the boat and trailer and packed away as much as I could while Jen and Anita packed up the food and kitchen tubs so that we could get away early in the morning. We had about 600km to drive to Karijini NP so we needed an early start.
Next morning we were up early and with the extra help Anita provided we managed to get away just before 9am. We stopped at Exmouth one final time and refueled before hitting the highway.
We rolled into Nanutaar Roadhouse around lunchtime and thought we would see what was on offer inside. Well, the prices soon brought us back to reality - $11.50 for a hamburger, $3.50 for a plain coffee etc. - it was going to cost up over 50 bucks for a greasy take away lunch. No thanks. Instead we spent 5 bucks on a small bucket of chips to satisfy the grease urge then decided that Anita could make sangas for everyone from her front seat food preparation station.
Interestingly while we were at the roadhouse we noticed the water taps outside were padlocked. It was a sign of the time for sure. While the price of fuel is out of control around $1.70 per litre out here, water is more expensive inside by 2 or 3 times.
While Anita was revelling in beating me at Scrabble and then fishing, I still enjoyed having her around and her ability to make sandwiches on her lap in the front seat while we're doing 90km/h is one of the reasons why. She did a fine job and we were soon all sandwiched out.
The countryside as you drive in to the Pilbara region is amazing. Ragged red rock hills are covered with green trees and shrubs and the entire landscape was glowing in the late afternoon sun. I couldn't stand to have this amazing landscape whizz by without capturing it on video, nor could I afford the time to stop and capture it so it was time for Anita's first video camera lesson.
Initially there was a little reluctance but she is not one to shy away from a challenge so soon had the camera in hand and was trying to get her head around what all the buttons and controls did. Once she had a basic understanding she pointed it out the window and while a little shaky, we managed to capture some of the amazing scenery on tape. Anitas apprenticeship had begun.
Meanwhile the girls were oblivious, being imersed in about their sixth movie on the DVD player.
As we approached the mining town of Tom Price I was doing some mental arithmatic and came to the conclusion we would not make it to Karijini in daylight so would be looking for a campsite in the dark. Never a good idea at a place you haven't been before.
I floated the idea of crashing in a hotel in Tom Price for the night then heading into Karijini in the morning which went down a treat and soon we were all looking forward to a night of relative luxury sandwiched between our 2 x 4 night national park stays.
We broke out the spare tent for Anita and unloaded the boat from the top of the camper. With Ningaloo reef a km off the beach we were looking forward to getting the boat wet. I have not yet caught a fish since we left Melbourne and Anita was determined to show me how it was done!!!
We also setup the little Yamaha generator which would keep the fridge running and the batteries charged. You are allowed to run them from 8am to 9pm which is plenty of time. Savanna and Sara made some new friends, Kyla and Dylan, in the camp next to us and rode their bikes around the campground.
We grabbed a couple of cold beers and headed down to the beach to have a paddle and watch the sunset and it was a pretty magical experience. Anita felt like she had got on the plane in hell and stepped off in heaven. While we were standing in the sea sipping cold Heinekens we saw a school of hammer head sharks about 200m off the beach attacking something fairly aggressively.
After dark there are some fairly active crabs scuttling around like mice in the shadows which created some entertainment and had Jen and Anita reacting as if they had seen a mouse by screaming and jumping up on their chairs. All good entertainment for me.
We marvelled at the sheer number of stars in the sky you can see when you get out here but our intentions of a big night were somewhat dampened by the fact that Anita was buggered having been up since about 4am so we had a fairly early night and planned to party hard the next night.
Next morning I finished setting up the boat by getting it onto it's collabsible trailer, fitting the motor and all of the bits that go into it and late in the morning we headed out. The boat ramp is not so much a ramp but a track that heads to the back from the camp ground. They recommend you don't drive all the way onto the beach as the sand is so soft so I backed it as far as possible then unhitched the trailer and pushed it the rest of the way down. Anita held the boat in the shallows while I took the trailer and car back to our camp site.
Climbing in and out of a tinny can be challenging, especially when there is some swell in the waves on the beach, which there was. and Anita had to perform a minor miracle to get over the side into the boat. She ended up straddling the side unsure as to whether she would land in the boat or the sea while we all tried futily to control our laughter. Poor girl, she's not here 24 hours and we are already having fun at her expense. Lucky she has a good sense of humour.
In the end she made it into the boat and showed us the area on her thigh where the big bruise would be tomorrow. We motored on out to sea and had gone about 100m before we saw our first turtle swimming under the boat. A big one and swimming very fast as well. The water was crystal clear and you could make out the patterns on its back as it swam away from us. A minute or two later we saw another one then another one. They are prolific and actually more abundant closer to the beach than further out near the reef.
We kept going out towards the Ningaloo Reef and saw some sting rays, fish and more turtles on the way out. It is barely 1 to 2 km from the shore before you get to the reef so we were out there in 10 minutes. You can easily see the waves crashing over the reef from the beach.
We made a half hearted attempt to catch a fish but without any real bait or any real idea what we were doing it was futile. We gave up quickly and were more keen to just have a good look around so we spent a couple of hours exploring the reef and looking for more turtles and other sea life. I would be over the side with my snorkelling gear for a closer look if I had a way of getting back into the boat after but at this stage i don't have a ladder or anything else and would probably capsize it trying to get back in over the side. My mind has started working on a rope ladder I can throw over the bow that will make it possible to climb back in using the motor at the sterm as a counter balance.
In the afternoon we headed back into the beach and had a swim and later in the day I pulled the boat out and left it on the trailer for tomorrow.
I had installed our Glind under bonnet shower in Lincoln NP and today it was ready for its first real test. We were all feeling pretty crusty from the salt and sweat so I popped the bonnet and hooked up the hoses. We didn't have a great deal of water so it was a case of a quick rinse for everyone this time. In fact the water was so warm from being in the sun I didn't even need to run the engine on the car to warm it up. Instead we just pumped it straight out of the jerry can and with about 4 or 5 litres each, had a good wash. It was exactly what we needed. I vowed to get more water tomorrow and set up the shower tent so we could do it properly next time round.
We had not bought enough beer on our way through Exmouth so the few we had were soon exhausted. The weather was very hot and still so the beers went down a treat. Anita said she'd pay $50 for me or Jen to drive into Exmouth for some more beers but we were not quite that desperate ($100 would have done it). Anita dived head first into the cooking as her contribution to camp life, which was great for a change.
We had some "Patio" while the sun set and, without much beer, decided we would drive into Exmouth tomorrow and have a big night tomorrow night instead.
Next morning I was refueling the generator out by the side of the car and had a close encounter with what looked like a small brown snake. It slithered very quickly into a hole a few feet from me as I walked past and I just caught a glimpse of it before it dissappeared. It was a good reminder to keep a lookout for snakes as there are plenty about up this way. Only a week later we would see 4 snakes in less than 24 hours in Karijini NP.
Cape Range NP runs in a strip along the coast from North to South for about 50 km with the Nigaloo Reef offshore on the west side and the Cape Range forming the border on the east. There are numerous campgrounds and swimming beaches scattered down the coast. We were camped in Neds campground which is the most northerly and today we decided to take a drive down to the bottom of the park and see if we could get out along the dirt road that comes in from Coral Bay in the south. Along the way there is a river called Yardie Creek which flows into the sea and needs to be crossed to access the track to Coral Bay on the other side.
We meandered on down the park taking in the beautiful scenery along the way and about an hour later came to Yardie Creek. From what I had heard from some other campers, it was possible to drive across the creek as the ranger did so on a fairly regular basis and there were other vehicle tracks entering from both sides. Having said that, when I walked across the creek and stopped in about 2 feet of water in the middle, I immediately began to sink into the quicksand like bottom of the creek. The incoming tides washes up the creek making it more of a small estuary and we were there at a fairly low tide which was on its way back in. The bottom line is that I chickened out!! With no other vehicle to pull us out if we got stuck, nothing to easily winch off and an incoming tide which would swamp the car in a couple of hours, I just wasn't game to risk it. We waited around for about 15 minutes to see if anyone else showed up with the same intention so we could possibly act as a backup for each other but no one else came.
Instead we abandoned the plan to visit Coral Bay and headed back up and out the top of the park and went to Exmouth instead.
It's always a bit frustrating to turn away from a challenge that I was reasonably confident we could get through, mainly based on the fact that other cars had obviously made it. But murphys law comes into it and if we did get stuck the car would be pretty much a write off and the insurance would not cover it so it just aint worth the risk.
In Exmouth we did some food shopping, topped up the generator fuel can, bought a slab of beer, some more wine, filled up 100 litres of water containers and eventually found a bar where we could have a cold beer and some lunch.
While I was filling up at the servo, the guy in fron of me was filling up the tanks on his boat and gave me some advice for catching snapper on the reef . . . "stay just inside the reef, go out in the 2 hours before high tide and fish on the bottom" - sounds fair and reasonable. We weren't going to go outside the reef anyway as the open ocean is too rough for our little tinny.
After lunch we headed back to the NP stopping in at Turquoise Bay for some snorkelling. This bay is where the reef comes right into the shore so you can swim out and see it without a boat. There were plenty of other people there when we arrived but we found a spot on the beach and headed in. The first thing we noticed was the smell and the layer of coral spoof on top of the water. It must be coral mating season as the water was full of it. It did detract somewhat from the whole experience and later our bathers and other gear we had worn into the water stunk of sealife that has been out of the water in the sun too long - YUK!!! Nonetheless having come so far, I snorkelled out to the reef and saw some great coral and fish which kind of made up for the coral spoof we had to put up with. There were a lot of stinger cells in the water which are microscoping stinger cells from jelly fish, fire coral and other nasties that drift around in the water and when they come in contact with you skin they sting as if you had touched the original creature. You feel them every now and then as a small sting. Sara was getting very upset and when we realised it was these stnger cells, it was time to go.
It was at this point that Anita introduced us to a new word . . . "Mingin" . . . which is how she described the coral spoof experience. "Mingin" would come to be a fairly well used word over the coming days to describe anything that was either gross or distastefull in any way.
As you can imagine a shower was well and truly called for back at camp and we made the most of the 100 litres of water we'd picked up at the servo in Exmouth. We used the Glind shower the way it was designed this time, with the heat exchanger working so we all enjoyed a nice hot shower to get rid of that "Mingin" coral spoof. I tried rinsing our clothes but it was to no avail so we ended up soaking them in the laundry bucket for a day or two to try and ged rid of the dead fish aroma.
The night was warm and Anita suggested that she may be a good Scrabble player and would be prepared to prove it if we were to get the board out. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Jen and I set up the board and prepared for battle.
We both got off to a good start, leaving Anita way behind after a few rounds but she soon caught up and even crept in front. Now I have to say at this point that as a guest she should have had the presence of mind to deliberately hold back and allow one of her hosts to win the game , but oh no . . . . not our Anita. She's like a dog with a bone and with a taste of victory in her mouth she would not let go, holding on until the end to win the game. Sure, we made light of it but deep down we all knew that there was no way she was going home without a rematch . . . ."best of 3" I announced, throwing down the gauntlet, "you're on" Anita retorted, briming with a confidence her expression betrayed as being very shallow. And so it was . . . by the time she left we would have played three rounds of Scrabble and determined once and for all who the real word master was.
Next morning, still smarting from last nights painfull defeat I managed to keep busy doing I'm not sure what but all the while avoiding the inevitable jibe from Anita about last nights defeat. Around 11am we finally got it together and had the boat out for some more turtle spotting and a spot of fishing. According to the advice I had received from the guy at the servo the previous day, being on the back of the reef in the two hours before high tide was a winning strategy so, with high tide around 2pm we were out there with plenty of time.
We cruised around for a while, spotting several turtles and a few more stingrays and gradually weaved our way out to the inside of the reef about 1.5 km offshore. Around the same time, 3 other boats shot out from the beach and weighed anchor in the area we were heading towards, so assuming they must know what they were doing because their boats were far more equipped than ours, we followed their lead and found our selves a nice spot nearby. Anita being her normal overconfident self was adamant that she was going to give me a lesson on fishing. She grew up in Warnambool where she spent many long hours fishing with her dad so she reckoned she knew what she was doing. We baited our hooks and cast them in and waited and waited and waited.
Initially not much happened, although we did have a few bites. Some suggestions that we may be in too shallow water (about 10 feet) were raised but we decided to stay a little longer and fully test the advice I'd received the previous day.
Maybe half and hour went by before I was onto a good fish and reeling him in. Startled by the sudden activity, everyone scrambled to gain a good viewing spot to see the mighty fish I was hauling in and Savanna and Anita fought to see who could get the net to pull him over the side. I wound and wound and then as the fish was in sight, murphy raised his ugly head and the monster got away. DOH!!!
About 10 minutes later it was like dejavu as Anita hooked onto another big one. Well, we thought it was a big one based on the performance she put on. I was starting to wonder if she hadn't hooked one of the whale sharks the Ningaloo is famous for. She wound and wound and we had the net (and harpoon) ready and then over the side came this a parrot fish which must have weighed a good 1/2 lb, probably 5/8 if we were to get the scales out. You should have heard the gloating, it was sickening. My plea's that this was not actually a real fish, given that it was too small to eat were useless. Anita had caught the first fish on the expedition and that was it. Mind you it was my job to get the hook out of its mouth and set it free but did I get any credit for that? No! History will record that Anita caught the first fish on Expedition Australia - "The Big Lap" and everything else will barely rate a footnote.
By this time I was pretty much over fishing and the tide coming in over the reef was whipping up a pretty mean swell. We pulled up the anchor and crusied around for a while looking for some calm water and eventually found a nice little sheltered bay about 1km south of the beach where we launched our boat. A small rocky island acted as a naturaly breakwater and we pulled the boat in behind it where the water was dead calm. We spent the next couple of hours luxuriating in the warm clear sea while the sun beat down on us. It was a bit like being in a postcard - absolutely perfect. At one stage Jen and Anita were enjoying some time out about 50 metres out into the water when they both came charging in to the shore screaming. As I looked around I saw something large leaping through the water near them and could understand why they were freaking out. I was only in about 2 feet of water with the girls so I dragged them into the beach and tried to work out what the creature was. As it came closer I realised it was a few large garfish scooting along the top of the water and together they looked like something bigger. The question lingered for a while about what was chasing them and causing them to go nuts like that but we didn't see anything else and soon calmed down.
Anita decided the beach was safer than the water (these garfish a pretty dangerous with their long spikey noses!) and managed to find some unusual crabs in the rocks near the waters edge that were an almost irridescent green - pretty amazing.
Reluctantley we piled back in the boat and headed back to our beach and after pushing the boat trailer down to the waters edge and winching the boat on, I used a sling to drag the boat trailer with the Land Cruiser up the beach. Once it was on firm ground I hooked it on and towed it the 100metres back to our camp site.
Next day we were leaving so I dismantled the boat and trailer and packed away as much as I could while Jen and Anita packed up the food and kitchen tubs so that we could get away early in the morning. We had about 600km to drive to Karijini NP so we needed an early start.
Next morning we were up early and with the extra help Anita provided we managed to get away just before 9am. We stopped at Exmouth one final time and refueled before hitting the highway.
We rolled into Nanutaar Roadhouse around lunchtime and thought we would see what was on offer inside. Well, the prices soon brought us back to reality - $11.50 for a hamburger, $3.50 for a plain coffee etc. - it was going to cost up over 50 bucks for a greasy take away lunch. No thanks. Instead we spent 5 bucks on a small bucket of chips to satisfy the grease urge then decided that Anita could make sangas for everyone from her front seat food preparation station.
Interestingly while we were at the roadhouse we noticed the water taps outside were padlocked. It was a sign of the time for sure. While the price of fuel is out of control around $1.70 per litre out here, water is more expensive inside by 2 or 3 times.
While Anita was revelling in beating me at Scrabble and then fishing, I still enjoyed having her around and her ability to make sandwiches on her lap in the front seat while we're doing 90km/h is one of the reasons why. She did a fine job and we were soon all sandwiched out.
The countryside as you drive in to the Pilbara region is amazing. Ragged red rock hills are covered with green trees and shrubs and the entire landscape was glowing in the late afternoon sun. I couldn't stand to have this amazing landscape whizz by without capturing it on video, nor could I afford the time to stop and capture it so it was time for Anita's first video camera lesson.
Initially there was a little reluctance but she is not one to shy away from a challenge so soon had the camera in hand and was trying to get her head around what all the buttons and controls did. Once she had a basic understanding she pointed it out the window and while a little shaky, we managed to capture some of the amazing scenery on tape. Anitas apprenticeship had begun.
Meanwhile the girls were oblivious, being imersed in about their sixth movie on the DVD player.
As we approached the mining town of Tom Price I was doing some mental arithmatic and came to the conclusion we would not make it to Karijini in daylight so would be looking for a campsite in the dark. Never a good idea at a place you haven't been before.
I floated the idea of crashing in a hotel in Tom Price for the night then heading into Karijini in the morning which went down a treat and soon we were all looking forward to a night of relative luxury sandwiched between our 2 x 4 night national park stays.
Stop 24 - Exmouth, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 18 April 2006
On the
long drive up to Exmouth with the girls suitably entranced by a
continuous stream of DVD's in the back (See note on DVD at bottom
of this entry) Jen and I got to discussing our plans for the future
as we sometimes do. The end of the trip still seems a long way out
but it will come around eventually so the topic comes up. Having
broken away from the confines of 9 to 5 suburbia (finally), the
last thing we want to do is jump back into it and we have proven to
ourselves by embarking on this trip that if you have a dream and
work towards it, anything is possible.
We both love traveling (obviously) and want to make it a large part of our lifestyle from here onwards. I'm thoroughly enjoying the film making venture and while it remains to be seen how successful it will be, I am keen to pursue other projects of which I have many ideas rolling around in my head most of the time. Another baby is on the cards next year so Jen will be busy being a mostly full time mum for at least a few more years . . . .
But anyway, more about that later.
We didn't realise it but as we came through Learmonth, it is just an airport, not a town. We were thinking we'd stop there for the night as we were meeting Anita there the next day. Nowhere to camp there so we kept going on up to Exmouth about 30km north.
Despite what we had heard from a couple of people down the track, the first caravan park we came to in Exmouth had dozens of powered sites available so we pulled in as the sun was setting and made camp. The caravan park was pretty crusty compared with others we'd been to. Having said that, we don't look for the flashy manicured megaparks that are to be found around the place and are actually happiest in national parks or bush camps, but this one was neither. It was just untidy with long grass everywhere, little shade and no personality whatsoever (i'm not going to mention the name lest they find out and take offence but the moral is we should have driven further into town and kept looking).
A sure sign we are heading north. We had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn today on the way up and it is quite amazing how the weather changes in only a matter of hundreds of kilometres. The night was noticeably warmer than we had been experiencing further south and quite humid as well.
Next morning the sun on the camper before 7:00am had us up and out of bed. We were meeting Anita at about 12:30 so no real rush this morning as we only had 30km to go to the airport. We used the time to unpack and repack the back of the car and camper so that we could fit in Anita and her gear. Jen's plan was to sit in the back with the girls and give Anita the passenger seat next to me ta save Anita from being driven mad by the girls.
The morning was very hot, one of the hotest on the trip so far, and we were relieved to jump in the car and crank up the AC on our way out to the airport.
Anita's plane arrived on time and we were waiting anxiously for her in the terminal when she arrived. I was told by security that I could not film out the window at the plane but it was okay inside the terminal - terrorism security and all that.
Anita had left Melbourne at 5:30am this morning when it was freezing cold and raining and walked out of the plane in Learmonth into 35 degree humid temperatures - talk about extremes. She's not a big complainer though and was genuinely excited to be on holidays at last after waiting so long to get here.
The first order of events was to head into Exmouth and get supplies for our 4 day camp in Cape Range NP. We found a group of shops that seem to have it all covered (Supermarket, bottleshop and toilets) and got busy stocking up. We bought some wine and beer and a trolley full of food then tried to find a way to fit it into the car. In the end Anita jumped into her seat and I handed her in the last couple of bags for her to nurse on the trip out to the NP. Fortunatley not a huge drive.
Jen had rung the NP office a week or so ago to check availability of sites and they said it was pretty full but if we turned up at the gate they would be able to tell us what (if any) was available. We headed out there with our fingers crossed, desperately not wanting to have to go back into Exmouth if it was full.
Our ideal site was a generator site in Neds Camp Ground (National Parks usually have some sites allocated for generator use away from the others so those without generators don't have to listen to them). Neds was the closest to the top of the park and had a boat ramp unlike the other camp grounds.
As we pulled up to the gate I looked over at the availability board which lists the number of sites at each campground and their availability. As I scanned the list all I saw was FULL, FULL, FULL and my spirits were plummetting until I saw "Neds - Generator Sites - 2 Available" - Perfect! We paid the lady and headed in the 8km to our camp and setup.
NOTE - DVD's - I can hear some people frowning at the idea of our kids watching DVD's in the car and saying "when I was a kid . . .", well, when I was a kid we didn't have them either but you have to bear in mind that we are covering an average of 60km every hour over 300-600km stretches with almost no change in the scenery and the kids need to be entertained else they are climbing up the walls - the DVD player is a godsend!!! Also bear in mind that TV is not part of our life like it is for most kids so the drive days are really the only TV style entertainment they get.
We both love traveling (obviously) and want to make it a large part of our lifestyle from here onwards. I'm thoroughly enjoying the film making venture and while it remains to be seen how successful it will be, I am keen to pursue other projects of which I have many ideas rolling around in my head most of the time. Another baby is on the cards next year so Jen will be busy being a mostly full time mum for at least a few more years . . . .
But anyway, more about that later.
We didn't realise it but as we came through Learmonth, it is just an airport, not a town. We were thinking we'd stop there for the night as we were meeting Anita there the next day. Nowhere to camp there so we kept going on up to Exmouth about 30km north.
Despite what we had heard from a couple of people down the track, the first caravan park we came to in Exmouth had dozens of powered sites available so we pulled in as the sun was setting and made camp. The caravan park was pretty crusty compared with others we'd been to. Having said that, we don't look for the flashy manicured megaparks that are to be found around the place and are actually happiest in national parks or bush camps, but this one was neither. It was just untidy with long grass everywhere, little shade and no personality whatsoever (i'm not going to mention the name lest they find out and take offence but the moral is we should have driven further into town and kept looking).
A sure sign we are heading north. We had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn today on the way up and it is quite amazing how the weather changes in only a matter of hundreds of kilometres. The night was noticeably warmer than we had been experiencing further south and quite humid as well.
Next morning the sun on the camper before 7:00am had us up and out of bed. We were meeting Anita at about 12:30 so no real rush this morning as we only had 30km to go to the airport. We used the time to unpack and repack the back of the car and camper so that we could fit in Anita and her gear. Jen's plan was to sit in the back with the girls and give Anita the passenger seat next to me ta save Anita from being driven mad by the girls.
The morning was very hot, one of the hotest on the trip so far, and we were relieved to jump in the car and crank up the AC on our way out to the airport.
Anita's plane arrived on time and we were waiting anxiously for her in the terminal when she arrived. I was told by security that I could not film out the window at the plane but it was okay inside the terminal - terrorism security and all that.
Anita had left Melbourne at 5:30am this morning when it was freezing cold and raining and walked out of the plane in Learmonth into 35 degree humid temperatures - talk about extremes. She's not a big complainer though and was genuinely excited to be on holidays at last after waiting so long to get here.
The first order of events was to head into Exmouth and get supplies for our 4 day camp in Cape Range NP. We found a group of shops that seem to have it all covered (Supermarket, bottleshop and toilets) and got busy stocking up. We bought some wine and beer and a trolley full of food then tried to find a way to fit it into the car. In the end Anita jumped into her seat and I handed her in the last couple of bags for her to nurse on the trip out to the NP. Fortunatley not a huge drive.
Jen had rung the NP office a week or so ago to check availability of sites and they said it was pretty full but if we turned up at the gate they would be able to tell us what (if any) was available. We headed out there with our fingers crossed, desperately not wanting to have to go back into Exmouth if it was full.
Our ideal site was a generator site in Neds Camp Ground (National Parks usually have some sites allocated for generator use away from the others so those without generators don't have to listen to them). Neds was the closest to the top of the park and had a boat ramp unlike the other camp grounds.
As we pulled up to the gate I looked over at the availability board which lists the number of sites at each campground and their availability. As I scanned the list all I saw was FULL, FULL, FULL and my spirits were plummetting until I saw "Neds - Generator Sites - 2 Available" - Perfect! We paid the lady and headed in the 8km to our camp and setup.
NOTE - DVD's - I can hear some people frowning at the idea of our kids watching DVD's in the car and saying "when I was a kid . . .", well, when I was a kid we didn't have them either but you have to bear in mind that we are covering an average of 60km every hour over 300-600km stretches with almost no change in the scenery and the kids need to be entertained else they are climbing up the walls - the DVD player is a godsend!!! Also bear in mind that TV is not part of our life like it is for most kids so the drive days are really the only TV style entertainment they get.
Stop 23 - Hamelin Pool, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 17 April 2006
I think
it was about 11:45am by the time we left Hamelin Pool for Steep
Point. Once you turn off the Denham road onto the Useless Loop road
you are on dirt and the road basically degenerates the further you
go. Starting with a pretty good graded 2 lane road, after about
80km the road narrows and starts to twist and turn. As you enter
the property that Steep Point is on there are signs advising to let
your tyres down to 20 psi or less which I did.
From here the road follows the coast for a while through sand dunes and low lying scrub. It's a beautiful part of the country although very windy most of the time given it is on a peninsula that juts out into the Indian Ocean.
Some parts of the track are very sandy and you are driving blind over the top of sand dunes crossing fingers nothing is coming the other way. While we used 4WD and I was glad for having good ground clearance, it was not a particularly difficult drive and you would be doing something seriously wrong if you got stuck.
On the way we stopped at the "Ranger" station as they like to call it. In fact it is a house - the whole area being privately owned and managed. We paid our $22 entry fee and drove the last 19 km to Steep Point. Along the way we passed the beach where all the campers were setup. A row of tents stretching for the best part of a kilometre along the beach front with generators setup back in the scrub and boats anchored in the waters off the beach. Most campers come for the fishing which by all accounts is spectacular out this way.
We made it to the point finally and walked out across the rocks to the edge of the cliff. I had my GPS with me and it was telling me the western most point was a couple of hundred metres south of the signpost but let's not get too pedantic - we made it!!!!!
It was very windy and hot and we were all starving. It was about 2:30 at this stage and we were ready for lunch. About a km back from the point we found a sheltered beach area where we stopped to make our lunch on the tailgate with the sun pounding on us from one direction and the wind from the other. Nonetheless we ate and ate and then ate some more.
Figuring it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get out there, if we left at 3:00 we should be back just before dark around 6pm. we could then setup the camper and make a quick dinner and have the girls in bed by about 7:30 - good plan!
It was going well until about 20km back from Steep Point we came up behind a couple of cars stopped on the track. Further investigation soon revealed that the boat trailer of the leading car had broken a spring and they were all busy trying to jerry rig something to get them mobile again. There was no easy way to go around and we were not in any major hurry so we offered to stick around and help and capture the whole event on video for our doco - which we did.
Not long after we had arrived, the "Ranger" turned up on his way back to his house where we had stopped on the way in. He helped out as well but despite everyone best efforts, we couldn't straighten the trailer axle enough to make it driveable.
While all this was going on, Savanna and Sara had made friends with the other parties kids (surprise, surprise) and they were running up and down the sand dunes having loads of laughs, Jen was having a good chat with the ladies and I was filming the recovery operation and throwing in some advice every now and then.
In the end they gave up and loaded the trailer and the boat it was carrying, onto the back of the rangers ute and he planned to ship it back to the owners in Geraldton next week - problem solved.
All in all we were there for about 2 hours and it was practically dark by the time we left. This mean't navigating through the twisty sandy track in the dark but worst of all, no dinner until at least 9 pm.
We made it back successfully and it was a muesli bat dinner that we enjoyed in the car on the way back.
It was a great day - we had achieved one of our trips goals and had a great time in the process.
Next morning we hit the road pretty early dodging wild goats and stopping at Overlander Road House for a big breakfast of bacon and eggs. Having had tuna and salad for lunch and a muesli bar for dinner the day before, we were starving.
Suitably satisfied we got underway for Exmouth where we were to meet Anita when she flew in at lunchtime the following day. We had no campsite booked but as usual figured we'd work something out when we got there.
From here the road follows the coast for a while through sand dunes and low lying scrub. It's a beautiful part of the country although very windy most of the time given it is on a peninsula that juts out into the Indian Ocean.
Some parts of the track are very sandy and you are driving blind over the top of sand dunes crossing fingers nothing is coming the other way. While we used 4WD and I was glad for having good ground clearance, it was not a particularly difficult drive and you would be doing something seriously wrong if you got stuck.
On the way we stopped at the "Ranger" station as they like to call it. In fact it is a house - the whole area being privately owned and managed. We paid our $22 entry fee and drove the last 19 km to Steep Point. Along the way we passed the beach where all the campers were setup. A row of tents stretching for the best part of a kilometre along the beach front with generators setup back in the scrub and boats anchored in the waters off the beach. Most campers come for the fishing which by all accounts is spectacular out this way.
We made it to the point finally and walked out across the rocks to the edge of the cliff. I had my GPS with me and it was telling me the western most point was a couple of hundred metres south of the signpost but let's not get too pedantic - we made it!!!!!
It was very windy and hot and we were all starving. It was about 2:30 at this stage and we were ready for lunch. About a km back from the point we found a sheltered beach area where we stopped to make our lunch on the tailgate with the sun pounding on us from one direction and the wind from the other. Nonetheless we ate and ate and then ate some more.
Figuring it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get out there, if we left at 3:00 we should be back just before dark around 6pm. we could then setup the camper and make a quick dinner and have the girls in bed by about 7:30 - good plan!
It was going well until about 20km back from Steep Point we came up behind a couple of cars stopped on the track. Further investigation soon revealed that the boat trailer of the leading car had broken a spring and they were all busy trying to jerry rig something to get them mobile again. There was no easy way to go around and we were not in any major hurry so we offered to stick around and help and capture the whole event on video for our doco - which we did.
Not long after we had arrived, the "Ranger" turned up on his way back to his house where we had stopped on the way in. He helped out as well but despite everyone best efforts, we couldn't straighten the trailer axle enough to make it driveable.
While all this was going on, Savanna and Sara had made friends with the other parties kids (surprise, surprise) and they were running up and down the sand dunes having loads of laughs, Jen was having a good chat with the ladies and I was filming the recovery operation and throwing in some advice every now and then.
In the end they gave up and loaded the trailer and the boat it was carrying, onto the back of the rangers ute and he planned to ship it back to the owners in Geraldton next week - problem solved.
All in all we were there for about 2 hours and it was practically dark by the time we left. This mean't navigating through the twisty sandy track in the dark but worst of all, no dinner until at least 9 pm.
We made it back successfully and it was a muesli bat dinner that we enjoyed in the car on the way back.
It was a great day - we had achieved one of our trips goals and had a great time in the process.
Next morning we hit the road pretty early dodging wild goats and stopping at Overlander Road House for a big breakfast of bacon and eggs. Having had tuna and salad for lunch and a muesli bar for dinner the day before, we were starving.
Suitably satisfied we got underway for Exmouth where we were to meet Anita when she flew in at lunchtime the following day. We had no campsite booked but as usual figured we'd work something out when we got there.
Stop 22 - Monkey Mia, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 15 April 2006
On the
way up to Monkey Mia we had to drive past the turnoff to Kalbarri
which was a little depressing as I've only heard great things about
the place. We had originally planned to go there but the extra time
spent at Freemantle and Geraldton had to be caught up somewhere and
Kalbarri was sacrificed. It's a good enough excuse to come back
again.
We pushed on through to the Overlander Roadhouse which is at the turnoff from the main highway (1) to Denham and Monkey Mia and pulled in to organise some lunch. On these longer drives we carry all the ingredients for our lunch in a cooler bag in the front of the car with an ice brick to keep things cool. We also have a thermos so we can whip up a coffee or two along the way. Roadhouse food is edible in an emergency but prices out here are really extreme and a basic greasy lunch at a roadhouse could easily cost 50 bucks! Instead we have vegemite and cheese sangas, some fruit and muesli bars which fills the gap and saves us about $46 on the roadhouse option.
Today we had half of Savannas chocolate birthday cake left which went down well albeit pretty melted by the time we got to it.
We met a family in the roadhouse while we were having lunch who were from Perth and on their way to Exmouth where they often go for school holidays. They suggested that if we didn't have a site booked in Exmouth or Cape Range NP by now then we would be unlikely to get one as the place is completely full over school holidays!! This was a little concerning as we are planning to pick up Anita from Learmonth airport next week and head out to Cape Range NP . . .
After lunch we followed the turnoff towards Monkey Mia and along the way passed the road to Steep Point which is the most westerly point on the continent and somewhere we'll be visiting on the way out of Monkey Mia in a couple of days.
We drove around Denham on the way to Monkey Mia and noticed that a couple of the caravan parks had "Vacancies" on their sign boards so at least if Monkey Mia turned pear shaped we didn't have to come too far back down the road. Denham is actually a nice little down by the sea so not a bad second option.
We paid the C.A.L.M entry fee on the way into Monkey Mia which was $9 and would cover us for the couple of days. Jen headed into the reception at the caravan park to see how they had gone getting our site organised to find that they had not done too well. The best they had come up with was a different site for each of the 2 nights we would be there meaning we would have to move camp tomorrow!! Not a great option as it would take around 2-3 hours to move sites and frankly we had made a booking and paid the money. Jen can be pretty pursuasive when she wants to be and 5 or 10 minutes of heated discussion saw them relenting and finding us a site we could stay on for both nights.
This is pretty dissappointing behaviour from the people at the caravan park. You would think they would have at least phoned us to confirm whether we were coming or not before just handing over our site. As it was they still charged us for the night we weren't there even though they had sold it to someone else.
Nevertheless we setup camp and wandered down to the beach to watch the sunset which was spectacular. The evening was mild and calm and the sky cloudless so the stars came out as the glow of the sunset died away. We headed down towards the bar area which opens out to the beach at one end of the caravan park and the place was buzzing with activity. There was a band setting up so we grabbed a beer and some drinks for the girls and chilled out on the grass for a while.
Heading back to camp to cook dinner seemed like a pretty average idea so we ordered a pizza from the bar and had a couple more beers. The band got going around 7 oclock and Savanna and Sara and half a dozen other kids were immediately up on the dance floor bopping away. The band played a couple of lullabys in the hope it would send the kids off to bed but it was to no avail.
Eventually the girls batteries went flat and we headed back to camp to get them tucked in.
Overnight the easter bunny managed to find his way into our tent so the girls woke up the next morning to a chocolate surprise. We managed to stop them from scoffing the lot with the offer of a walk down to the beach to see the dolphins for which Monkey Mia is famous. They feed them between about 8am and 11am each day but realistically the dolphins don't come in for the food as it is very much a token amount. It seems that they come in every day out of habit. They've been doing it for well over 20 years and most of the the dolphins that come in have been doing so their whole life.
The CALM (Conservation and Land Management) ranger walked down the beach to the water which was a signal for the crowds of people milling around on the foreshore that the action was about to begin. We followed the procession down to the water line and obediently stayed in the shallows so as to not spook the dolphins.
Soon enough the dolphins were making their way into beach and cruising back and forth along the line of people, all very relaxed and matter of fact. The rangers talked for a while about the history of the Monkey Mia dolphins and how seferal generations of dolphins have been coming to the beach every day. All of the regulars have names and the rangers can tell at a glance which is which (they all looked the same to me!).
While Jen and the girls were standing in the water with everyone else I ran around getting some video and still photos and after about 20 minutes the rangers assistants brought down some buckets with the fish in. Not everyone gets to feed the dolphins as there were around 100 people and each dolphin only gets a few fish. We managed to line Savanna up in front of one of the dolphin feeders and as soon as the "ok" was given to start feeding, both Jen and I simultaneously pointed furiously at Savanna above her head which worked a treat and she was called up to feed "Puck" first. Savanna had not seen us pointing above her head so thought she must have been pretty special to be picked out so quickly.
She held the fish obediently and the dolphin took it from her hand and I captured it all on video - you beauty!!! That's what they call the "money shot", the one you'll get paid for, so with that in the camera I could now take the rest of the day off!
It was all over pretty quickly after this and it became clear why they wait quite a while before starting the feeding. If they started straight away the whole show would be about 5 minutes and somewhat anticlimactic.
One thing I was impressed with at Monkey Mia which is a common theme on the WA coast is the way they balance the needs of different people in an area. For example at Monkey Mia, within metres of the dolphin feeding area, you can drive your boat right up to the beach and anchor it there. Fishing is allowed around the area as is swimming. The dolphins have about 50 metres of beach which is theirs but outside that there are no abnormal restrictions. I would imagine that at other places in the country the entire beach would be closed to everything but sunbathers and dolphin observers which would be an unnecessarily restrictive policy.
This kind of "sensible" approach to using beaches and other natural resources is quite prevalent in the west. You can drive on most beaches, there are no fishing licenses required and where there are areas that need special management they seem to be well balanced between people and the environment.
We decided a swim was in order so headed for the pool which was freezing! Despite this I jumped in with the girls so they could have a play and swam around frantically to try and warm up.
Sara nodded off on Jens lap all wrapped up in her towel and ended up sleeping for about an hour and a half. We made lunch on the grass by the pool and spent a couple of hours lounging around before heading over to the bar area and spending a couple of more hours lounging around over there. Jen and I were both reading while the girls were playing down on the beach when I noticed a scuffle out of the corner of my eye behind Jen. When I turned around there were three large emus standing right behind her and people scattering in every direction. Jen was completely oblivious that she was about to be trampled which was a good thing as she would have freaked out. Instead of warning her, I jumped up and waved my arms around to ward them off and Jen thought I had lost my mind until she turned around and saw what was going on. I don't think she really appreciated how close she had been - probably just as well.
That night we headed back to the bar for what was almost a repeat of the first night except we didn't have dinner there, heading back to camp for some marinated chicken thighs and salad instead.
Around 9pm I headed over to have a shower and on my way back noticed there was some heated discussions going on in the roadway near our camp between a group of people. It soon became obvious (from my vantage point in the shadows ) that a group of people driving too quickly through the park had been told to slow down by some pedestrians and thought this an unreasonable request. There was a lot of bristling and pushing and shoving going on and at one point the male passenger of the vehicle was chasing down the woman who had told them to slow down and attempting to trip her over and prattling on about the fact she had "disrespected him" - moron!
It looked like degenerating into an all in brawl (alcohol fueled of course) but cooler heads on both sides calmed the situation down. After about 10 minutes the car based group piled back in their car to leave and would no doubt have performed some stunt on the way out had they been able to start the car. It turns out that while all the confrontation was going on, some bright spark had taken the keys out of the ignition and made away with them. This left the car group looking pretty stupid and had the several dozen spectators (me included) chuckling at the justice of the situation.
They stormed loudly around for a while making all sorts of threats and accusations before someone tipped them off to search in the rubbish trailer near their car, where they found the keys a few minutes later - all in all some good late night entertainment that will hopefully discourage them from driving too fast through caravan parks in the future.
No further dramas this evening and next morning we made an early start as we had a long drive out to Steep Point, Australias' most Westerly point.
I have to say that despite the stuff up with the booking, Monkey Mia is a great destination and worth the drive out there if you are travelling the west coast. I'll cetainly be back there again someday but will make sure we advise them clearly not to give away our site.
Our plan for the day was to drop our camper off at Hamelin Pool CP which is tghe closest place we could camp to Steep Point. Camping at Stepp Point is allowed but it was fully booked so we could only make a day trip out there. We drove to Hamelin Pool from Monkey Mia, stopping at Denham to get some capucino travellers. While we were there I filmed a twin engine plane doing low passes over the town in some kind of display that seemed fairly pointless. He kept flying very low down the main street, out over the sea then circling around for another pass. I'm not sure whether he was just showing off or if it was the guy from the car last night causing more trouble. Either way, he didn't crash so i didn't get any spectacular plane crash footage!
We drove the rest of the way to Hamelin Pool and dropped off the camper on our site. There was no point in dragging it allthe way out there and we had heard the road was pretty rough.
We pushed on through to the Overlander Roadhouse which is at the turnoff from the main highway (1) to Denham and Monkey Mia and pulled in to organise some lunch. On these longer drives we carry all the ingredients for our lunch in a cooler bag in the front of the car with an ice brick to keep things cool. We also have a thermos so we can whip up a coffee or two along the way. Roadhouse food is edible in an emergency but prices out here are really extreme and a basic greasy lunch at a roadhouse could easily cost 50 bucks! Instead we have vegemite and cheese sangas, some fruit and muesli bars which fills the gap and saves us about $46 on the roadhouse option.
Today we had half of Savannas chocolate birthday cake left which went down well albeit pretty melted by the time we got to it.
We met a family in the roadhouse while we were having lunch who were from Perth and on their way to Exmouth where they often go for school holidays. They suggested that if we didn't have a site booked in Exmouth or Cape Range NP by now then we would be unlikely to get one as the place is completely full over school holidays!! This was a little concerning as we are planning to pick up Anita from Learmonth airport next week and head out to Cape Range NP . . .
After lunch we followed the turnoff towards Monkey Mia and along the way passed the road to Steep Point which is the most westerly point on the continent and somewhere we'll be visiting on the way out of Monkey Mia in a couple of days.
We drove around Denham on the way to Monkey Mia and noticed that a couple of the caravan parks had "Vacancies" on their sign boards so at least if Monkey Mia turned pear shaped we didn't have to come too far back down the road. Denham is actually a nice little down by the sea so not a bad second option.
We paid the C.A.L.M entry fee on the way into Monkey Mia which was $9 and would cover us for the couple of days. Jen headed into the reception at the caravan park to see how they had gone getting our site organised to find that they had not done too well. The best they had come up with was a different site for each of the 2 nights we would be there meaning we would have to move camp tomorrow!! Not a great option as it would take around 2-3 hours to move sites and frankly we had made a booking and paid the money. Jen can be pretty pursuasive when she wants to be and 5 or 10 minutes of heated discussion saw them relenting and finding us a site we could stay on for both nights.
This is pretty dissappointing behaviour from the people at the caravan park. You would think they would have at least phoned us to confirm whether we were coming or not before just handing over our site. As it was they still charged us for the night we weren't there even though they had sold it to someone else.
Nevertheless we setup camp and wandered down to the beach to watch the sunset which was spectacular. The evening was mild and calm and the sky cloudless so the stars came out as the glow of the sunset died away. We headed down towards the bar area which opens out to the beach at one end of the caravan park and the place was buzzing with activity. There was a band setting up so we grabbed a beer and some drinks for the girls and chilled out on the grass for a while.
Heading back to camp to cook dinner seemed like a pretty average idea so we ordered a pizza from the bar and had a couple more beers. The band got going around 7 oclock and Savanna and Sara and half a dozen other kids were immediately up on the dance floor bopping away. The band played a couple of lullabys in the hope it would send the kids off to bed but it was to no avail.
Eventually the girls batteries went flat and we headed back to camp to get them tucked in.
Overnight the easter bunny managed to find his way into our tent so the girls woke up the next morning to a chocolate surprise. We managed to stop them from scoffing the lot with the offer of a walk down to the beach to see the dolphins for which Monkey Mia is famous. They feed them between about 8am and 11am each day but realistically the dolphins don't come in for the food as it is very much a token amount. It seems that they come in every day out of habit. They've been doing it for well over 20 years and most of the the dolphins that come in have been doing so their whole life.
The CALM (Conservation and Land Management) ranger walked down the beach to the water which was a signal for the crowds of people milling around on the foreshore that the action was about to begin. We followed the procession down to the water line and obediently stayed in the shallows so as to not spook the dolphins.
Soon enough the dolphins were making their way into beach and cruising back and forth along the line of people, all very relaxed and matter of fact. The rangers talked for a while about the history of the Monkey Mia dolphins and how seferal generations of dolphins have been coming to the beach every day. All of the regulars have names and the rangers can tell at a glance which is which (they all looked the same to me!).
While Jen and the girls were standing in the water with everyone else I ran around getting some video and still photos and after about 20 minutes the rangers assistants brought down some buckets with the fish in. Not everyone gets to feed the dolphins as there were around 100 people and each dolphin only gets a few fish. We managed to line Savanna up in front of one of the dolphin feeders and as soon as the "ok" was given to start feeding, both Jen and I simultaneously pointed furiously at Savanna above her head which worked a treat and she was called up to feed "Puck" first. Savanna had not seen us pointing above her head so thought she must have been pretty special to be picked out so quickly.
She held the fish obediently and the dolphin took it from her hand and I captured it all on video - you beauty!!! That's what they call the "money shot", the one you'll get paid for, so with that in the camera I could now take the rest of the day off!
It was all over pretty quickly after this and it became clear why they wait quite a while before starting the feeding. If they started straight away the whole show would be about 5 minutes and somewhat anticlimactic.
One thing I was impressed with at Monkey Mia which is a common theme on the WA coast is the way they balance the needs of different people in an area. For example at Monkey Mia, within metres of the dolphin feeding area, you can drive your boat right up to the beach and anchor it there. Fishing is allowed around the area as is swimming. The dolphins have about 50 metres of beach which is theirs but outside that there are no abnormal restrictions. I would imagine that at other places in the country the entire beach would be closed to everything but sunbathers and dolphin observers which would be an unnecessarily restrictive policy.
This kind of "sensible" approach to using beaches and other natural resources is quite prevalent in the west. You can drive on most beaches, there are no fishing licenses required and where there are areas that need special management they seem to be well balanced between people and the environment.
We decided a swim was in order so headed for the pool which was freezing! Despite this I jumped in with the girls so they could have a play and swam around frantically to try and warm up.
Sara nodded off on Jens lap all wrapped up in her towel and ended up sleeping for about an hour and a half. We made lunch on the grass by the pool and spent a couple of hours lounging around before heading over to the bar area and spending a couple of more hours lounging around over there. Jen and I were both reading while the girls were playing down on the beach when I noticed a scuffle out of the corner of my eye behind Jen. When I turned around there were three large emus standing right behind her and people scattering in every direction. Jen was completely oblivious that she was about to be trampled which was a good thing as she would have freaked out. Instead of warning her, I jumped up and waved my arms around to ward them off and Jen thought I had lost my mind until she turned around and saw what was going on. I don't think she really appreciated how close she had been - probably just as well.
That night we headed back to the bar for what was almost a repeat of the first night except we didn't have dinner there, heading back to camp for some marinated chicken thighs and salad instead.
Around 9pm I headed over to have a shower and on my way back noticed there was some heated discussions going on in the roadway near our camp between a group of people. It soon became obvious (from my vantage point in the shadows ) that a group of people driving too quickly through the park had been told to slow down by some pedestrians and thought this an unreasonable request. There was a lot of bristling and pushing and shoving going on and at one point the male passenger of the vehicle was chasing down the woman who had told them to slow down and attempting to trip her over and prattling on about the fact she had "disrespected him" - moron!
It looked like degenerating into an all in brawl (alcohol fueled of course) but cooler heads on both sides calmed the situation down. After about 10 minutes the car based group piled back in their car to leave and would no doubt have performed some stunt on the way out had they been able to start the car. It turns out that while all the confrontation was going on, some bright spark had taken the keys out of the ignition and made away with them. This left the car group looking pretty stupid and had the several dozen spectators (me included) chuckling at the justice of the situation.
They stormed loudly around for a while making all sorts of threats and accusations before someone tipped them off to search in the rubbish trailer near their car, where they found the keys a few minutes later - all in all some good late night entertainment that will hopefully discourage them from driving too fast through caravan parks in the future.
No further dramas this evening and next morning we made an early start as we had a long drive out to Steep Point, Australias' most Westerly point.
I have to say that despite the stuff up with the booking, Monkey Mia is a great destination and worth the drive out there if you are travelling the west coast. I'll cetainly be back there again someday but will make sure we advise them clearly not to give away our site.
Our plan for the day was to drop our camper off at Hamelin Pool CP which is tghe closest place we could camp to Steep Point. Camping at Stepp Point is allowed but it was fully booked so we could only make a day trip out there. We drove to Hamelin Pool from Monkey Mia, stopping at Denham to get some capucino travellers. While we were there I filmed a twin engine plane doing low passes over the town in some kind of display that seemed fairly pointless. He kept flying very low down the main street, out over the sea then circling around for another pass. I'm not sure whether he was just showing off or if it was the guy from the car last night causing more trouble. Either way, he didn't crash so i didn't get any spectacular plane crash footage!
We drove the rest of the way to Hamelin Pool and dropped off the camper on our site. There was no point in dragging it allthe way out there and we had heard the road was pretty rough.
Stop 21 - Geraldton, WA - 5 nights
Arrived: 10 April 2006
Our main
reason for stopping into Geraldton was that it is the gateway to
the Abrolhos Islands which are a group of islands around 60km off
the coast.
Until last year I had never heard of them and they are regarded locally as a well kept secret that has been covered up too long. My interest in the islands is that this is where the Dutch East India Ship, the "Batavia" crashed into the reef back in 1629. While shipwrecks on the Australian coast are a common thing, what makes the Batavia story so interesting is that this is some of the earliest european history in Australia and the events that occurred after the shipwreck are particularly horrific.
The ship was a large boat called a Dutch East Indiaman on its maiden voyage from Amsterdam to Batavia in Indonesia (now called Jakarta) which was the centre of the Dutch trading empire in the east.
The ship was carrying around 316 people including merchants, crew, soldiers, and paying passengers including women and children.
Under full sail on the night of 4th June 1629 the ship crashed into the Morning Reef in the Wallabi Group of the Abrolhos Islands and became stuck fast. Over 250 people survived the crash and made it to shore on the nearby islands where they were faced with a dismal prospect of survival due to an almost complete lack of water, food and shelter.
With no prospect of being rescued, the senior authority on the ship, Commander Pelsaert (who represents the VOC or Dutch East India Company), the skipper and a group of sailors set sail for Batavia over 2000 miles to the north in the long boat to find help and come back and rescue the castaways.
In their absence, the Under Merchant, Jeronimus Cornelisz with mutiny in his sights, assumed command of the impromptu settlement and ordered the soldiers to search for water on another island. He then abondoned them there and ordered his fellow mutineers to slaughter any of the remaining castaways that opposed him - killing 125 men, women and children on the island that would become known as "Batavias Graveyard" and is now known as Beacon Island.
Meanwhile, the soldiers had managed to find water and were surviving and heard of the murders from a survivor. Forewarned, they prepared for an inevitable attack from Cornelisz and his band of would be pirates and manage to capture Cornelisz when he came.
Pelsaert did return albeit 3 months later and upon discovering the events that had transpired in his absence, convened a court and tried the mutineers there and then.
Cornelisz was found guilty and had both hands cut off before being hung. Others were either also executed, keelhauled and lashed and 2 were abandoned on the mainland (presumably near where Gerladton is today) and never heard from again.
This is an horrific but facinating tale and I wanted to get out to the islands and see for myself where it all happened.
Back in Freemantle I had tried to organise a boat trip out to the islands but they were fully booked. They suggested I call Ron at Prestige Helicopters to see if he could help. Ron and his team run a charter service to and from the islands in their huge 14 seater helicopter carryng people and freight as well as taking tour groups to dive and fish the reefs and bays that abound in the island group.
Ron was happy to help but had the chopper grounded for a routine service so we would have to wait a couple of days. No problem!
It looked like we were going to be flying out there on Savannas birthday which was going to be a birthday she would remember. We spent the time waiting in Geraldton doing a bit of shopping and getting things for Savannas birthday. We also had a look at the maritime museum which, like Freemantle, has a shipwreck gallery and plenty of information on The Batavia. I managed to get into see a Chiropractor who cracked my lower back into shape which was a big relief!
With Easter approaching, we made a booking for our next stop which would be Monkey Mia and were told we had booked about the last site in the caravan park there - lucky!! We were having to miss Kalbari and shorten our Monkey Mia stop due to the extra days spent in Freemantle and now Geraldton but, such is life.
As it turned out, when Savannas birthday came around the chopper was so busy that only I could get onboard on the day. For all of us to go, we'd have to wait another day, which we decided to do. Having waiting a few days already we could hardly have Jen and the girls miss out.
Savanna had a great birthday and of course we had a little party at McDonalds for dinner. I also did an oil change today, the second one since the new engine was installed. I'm going to keep changing it every 5000km to keep it fresh and in this kind of trip it seems to come around quite often!
Next day we headed out to the airport and prepared for our trip. The chopper is also used for search and rescue work and has the winch on the side and all of the harness's for dangling people out the door. Ron fitted me up with a harness so I could sit in the doorway and film straight out the side of the chopper as we flew over the islands.
What a buzz!!!!! Better than any theme park ride thats for sure. Jen and the girls were strapped in and wore earmuffs as it is very loud inside the chopper with the massive engine right over your head. I had headphones and microphone so I could talk with Ron and the co-pilot.
It took about 25 minutes to fly out to the islands and Ron circled the chopper around the Wallabi Group for me, pointing out the various islands where the Batavias grisly events unfolded. I had the video camera running non-stop and got some great footage. From the air it is easy to see the hole in the reef where the wreck was excavated and put back together in the Freemantle museum.
Ron had other passengers to drop off and pick up so we made several stops throughout the Abrolhos Group and were out there for 2 hours in all. I managed to jump out at one of the stops and get some footage of the chopper on the ground. Ron is working with the local dive shop taking divers out to the islands and he is waiting on delivery of a pontoon which will be permanently anchored in a secluded little inlet where sea lions frolic and marine life abounds. He flew me over that so I could get some shots of the sea lions lying on the beach.
The girls had a great trip as well although Savanna was dissappointed that she wasn't able to get off the chopper and see the sealions close up - next time we promised her!
What a great experience it was and went a long way towards rekindling my dreams of getting my helicopter license one day . . . one day!!!
It was good Friday and we were all stuffed from our helicopter adventure so we headed into Geraldton for some fish and chips for dinner. Loads of people had the same idea and the fish and chip shops were doing a roaring trade.
That night I was trying to get to sleep and realised that for the first time in as long as I could remember I was not looking forward to the future. Not that I was dreading it, but after so many years of 'looking forward' and planning for this trip, we were finally here and it was everything I had hoped it would be. There is nothing at this point over the horizon that I am looking forward to more. It is a strange and unexpected feeling. But a good one.
Next morning we packed up and hit the road heading for Monkey Mia. Jen rang the caravan park to let them know that we hadn't made it last night as originally planned but we were on our way now. They politely let her know that they had given our site to someone else as they had so many people showing up wanting a site. This is despite the fact that we had booked it and given them a credit card to cover the cost. Whether we were actually there or not was irrelevant as we were still paying for it but they didn't seem to see that logic!!! Jen let them know that there was no need to panic as it would take us most of the day to drive up there so they had plenty of time to find a site for us one way or another.
Until last year I had never heard of them and they are regarded locally as a well kept secret that has been covered up too long. My interest in the islands is that this is where the Dutch East India Ship, the "Batavia" crashed into the reef back in 1629. While shipwrecks on the Australian coast are a common thing, what makes the Batavia story so interesting is that this is some of the earliest european history in Australia and the events that occurred after the shipwreck are particularly horrific.
The ship was a large boat called a Dutch East Indiaman on its maiden voyage from Amsterdam to Batavia in Indonesia (now called Jakarta) which was the centre of the Dutch trading empire in the east.
The ship was carrying around 316 people including merchants, crew, soldiers, and paying passengers including women and children.
Under full sail on the night of 4th June 1629 the ship crashed into the Morning Reef in the Wallabi Group of the Abrolhos Islands and became stuck fast. Over 250 people survived the crash and made it to shore on the nearby islands where they were faced with a dismal prospect of survival due to an almost complete lack of water, food and shelter.
With no prospect of being rescued, the senior authority on the ship, Commander Pelsaert (who represents the VOC or Dutch East India Company), the skipper and a group of sailors set sail for Batavia over 2000 miles to the north in the long boat to find help and come back and rescue the castaways.
In their absence, the Under Merchant, Jeronimus Cornelisz with mutiny in his sights, assumed command of the impromptu settlement and ordered the soldiers to search for water on another island. He then abondoned them there and ordered his fellow mutineers to slaughter any of the remaining castaways that opposed him - killing 125 men, women and children on the island that would become known as "Batavias Graveyard" and is now known as Beacon Island.
Meanwhile, the soldiers had managed to find water and were surviving and heard of the murders from a survivor. Forewarned, they prepared for an inevitable attack from Cornelisz and his band of would be pirates and manage to capture Cornelisz when he came.
Pelsaert did return albeit 3 months later and upon discovering the events that had transpired in his absence, convened a court and tried the mutineers there and then.
Cornelisz was found guilty and had both hands cut off before being hung. Others were either also executed, keelhauled and lashed and 2 were abandoned on the mainland (presumably near where Gerladton is today) and never heard from again.
This is an horrific but facinating tale and I wanted to get out to the islands and see for myself where it all happened.
Back in Freemantle I had tried to organise a boat trip out to the islands but they were fully booked. They suggested I call Ron at Prestige Helicopters to see if he could help. Ron and his team run a charter service to and from the islands in their huge 14 seater helicopter carryng people and freight as well as taking tour groups to dive and fish the reefs and bays that abound in the island group.
Ron was happy to help but had the chopper grounded for a routine service so we would have to wait a couple of days. No problem!
It looked like we were going to be flying out there on Savannas birthday which was going to be a birthday she would remember. We spent the time waiting in Geraldton doing a bit of shopping and getting things for Savannas birthday. We also had a look at the maritime museum which, like Freemantle, has a shipwreck gallery and plenty of information on The Batavia. I managed to get into see a Chiropractor who cracked my lower back into shape which was a big relief!
With Easter approaching, we made a booking for our next stop which would be Monkey Mia and were told we had booked about the last site in the caravan park there - lucky!! We were having to miss Kalbari and shorten our Monkey Mia stop due to the extra days spent in Freemantle and now Geraldton but, such is life.
As it turned out, when Savannas birthday came around the chopper was so busy that only I could get onboard on the day. For all of us to go, we'd have to wait another day, which we decided to do. Having waiting a few days already we could hardly have Jen and the girls miss out.
Savanna had a great birthday and of course we had a little party at McDonalds for dinner. I also did an oil change today, the second one since the new engine was installed. I'm going to keep changing it every 5000km to keep it fresh and in this kind of trip it seems to come around quite often!
Next day we headed out to the airport and prepared for our trip. The chopper is also used for search and rescue work and has the winch on the side and all of the harness's for dangling people out the door. Ron fitted me up with a harness so I could sit in the doorway and film straight out the side of the chopper as we flew over the islands.
What a buzz!!!!! Better than any theme park ride thats for sure. Jen and the girls were strapped in and wore earmuffs as it is very loud inside the chopper with the massive engine right over your head. I had headphones and microphone so I could talk with Ron and the co-pilot.
It took about 25 minutes to fly out to the islands and Ron circled the chopper around the Wallabi Group for me, pointing out the various islands where the Batavias grisly events unfolded. I had the video camera running non-stop and got some great footage. From the air it is easy to see the hole in the reef where the wreck was excavated and put back together in the Freemantle museum.
Ron had other passengers to drop off and pick up so we made several stops throughout the Abrolhos Group and were out there for 2 hours in all. I managed to jump out at one of the stops and get some footage of the chopper on the ground. Ron is working with the local dive shop taking divers out to the islands and he is waiting on delivery of a pontoon which will be permanently anchored in a secluded little inlet where sea lions frolic and marine life abounds. He flew me over that so I could get some shots of the sea lions lying on the beach.
The girls had a great trip as well although Savanna was dissappointed that she wasn't able to get off the chopper and see the sealions close up - next time we promised her!
What a great experience it was and went a long way towards rekindling my dreams of getting my helicopter license one day . . . one day!!!
It was good Friday and we were all stuffed from our helicopter adventure so we headed into Geraldton for some fish and chips for dinner. Loads of people had the same idea and the fish and chip shops were doing a roaring trade.
That night I was trying to get to sleep and realised that for the first time in as long as I could remember I was not looking forward to the future. Not that I was dreading it, but after so many years of 'looking forward' and planning for this trip, we were finally here and it was everything I had hoped it would be. There is nothing at this point over the horizon that I am looking forward to more. It is a strange and unexpected feeling. But a good one.
Next morning we packed up and hit the road heading for Monkey Mia. Jen rang the caravan park to let them know that we hadn't made it last night as originally planned but we were on our way now. They politely let her know that they had given our site to someone else as they had so many people showing up wanting a site. This is despite the fact that we had booked it and given them a credit card to cover the cost. Whether we were actually there or not was irrelevant as we were still paying for it but they didn't seem to see that logic!!! Jen let them know that there was no need to panic as it would take us most of the day to drive up there so they had plenty of time to find a site for us one way or another.
Stop 20 - Cervantes, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 09 April 2006
Our plan
was to stay a couple of nights at Cervantes so we could drive down
to Nambung National Park and watch sunrise and sunset over the
Pinacles. If you dont know, The Pinnacles are limestone rock
formations resembling termite mounds seemingly growing out of the
sand. There are about 150,000 of them clustered in the area. They
formed naturally between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago from the
interation of water, quartz, limestone and sand. The sand around
them has then blown away exposing the coumns. They are expecially
good to see at sunrise and sunset.
In doing my homework about the area, I read about a 4WD track that runs into the park from the town of Lancelin, about 70km south of the national park and was keen to give it a go.
We drove up the coast from Freemantle into Lancelin and headed out into the sand dunes to find the track. The area surrounding the Lancelin is heavily populated with sand dunes and is shared by the army who have a test firing range nearby, so on some days roads leading into the dune area are closed - not the day we were there though fortunately.
Before embarking on the 4WD trek we made lunch in Lancelin and the girls had a play in the payground.
My lower back has been giving me hell for a couple of weeks now and I found that lying on my stomach with a towel rolled up under my left hip helps. So I did some DIY chiropractic for about 20 minutes while they girls went mad in the playground.
Soon enough we were in our way and I let our tyres down to just under 20 PSI to handle the sand driving.
About 5 km into the area the sand got very soft and we were really struggling to make progress though it. Towing the camper makes a pretty big difference when sand driving.
I jumped out to let some more air out, figuring taking them down to about 15 or 16psi should do the trick. While I was letting the air out, a bloke came over to see where we were headed and gave us the bad news. The track runs down onto the beach and crosses a creek inlet and requires some fairly tricky manouvering to get through, including some reversing, all on soft and wet sand, below the high tide line. His opinion was that we had no hope of getting thoruhg with the trailer and we would probably get bogged trying.
Now at this point my excitement at getting into some 4WD action is fading rapidly. In most cases I would take a look for myself to make sure because some peoples idea of what can and cannot be done differs from mine. BUT< it was about 3 hours to sunset and we were not travelling with another vehicle and the sand was very deep and soft . . . . I chickened out!!!!
The thought of getting our whole rig stuck in the sand and watching the tide come in and engulf it is a nightmare I don't want to contemplate nor risk happening. Half the 4WD magazines I've ever read contain a photo or two of some hapless vehicle stuck on the beach with the tide running in through the windows - it happens, too frequently.
So we turned around and headed back into Lancelin where I pumped the tyres back up (we have a Bushranger Max-Air compressor which is awesome and generally works faster than the air hose at the servo.)
We had to take the long way round via the Brand H/Way to get to Cervantes but we managed to make it as the sun was setting and did a very basic camper setup before heading into the camp kitchen to whip up some steak and veggies for dinner.
Next morning I was up about an hour before dawn and drove out to The Pinnacles and captured them on video and still photos as the sun rose. while Jen and girls remaining cosily tucked in bed. It was a magical morning and one that I won't forget in a hurry. The air was cool and crisp but not freezing. Their was only two other cars that came through in the couple of hours I was out there so I pretty much had the Pinnacles all to myself for the most part. (there are a couple of photos in the photo gallery)
By the time I made it back to camp the girls were up and about and we had breaky before packing up and hitting the road once again heading for Geraldton.
Along the way we stopped into Dongara for lunch where we had our usual vegemite and cheese sandwiches and then headed out to the cemetery to visit my grandfathers grave. While I never knew him, I couldn't help but wonder about what might have been had things worked out differently.
We made it into Geraldton late in the day and setup in the Belair Gardens caravan park.
In doing my homework about the area, I read about a 4WD track that runs into the park from the town of Lancelin, about 70km south of the national park and was keen to give it a go.
We drove up the coast from Freemantle into Lancelin and headed out into the sand dunes to find the track. The area surrounding the Lancelin is heavily populated with sand dunes and is shared by the army who have a test firing range nearby, so on some days roads leading into the dune area are closed - not the day we were there though fortunately.
Before embarking on the 4WD trek we made lunch in Lancelin and the girls had a play in the payground.
My lower back has been giving me hell for a couple of weeks now and I found that lying on my stomach with a towel rolled up under my left hip helps. So I did some DIY chiropractic for about 20 minutes while they girls went mad in the playground.
Soon enough we were in our way and I let our tyres down to just under 20 PSI to handle the sand driving.
About 5 km into the area the sand got very soft and we were really struggling to make progress though it. Towing the camper makes a pretty big difference when sand driving.
I jumped out to let some more air out, figuring taking them down to about 15 or 16psi should do the trick. While I was letting the air out, a bloke came over to see where we were headed and gave us the bad news. The track runs down onto the beach and crosses a creek inlet and requires some fairly tricky manouvering to get through, including some reversing, all on soft and wet sand, below the high tide line. His opinion was that we had no hope of getting thoruhg with the trailer and we would probably get bogged trying.
Now at this point my excitement at getting into some 4WD action is fading rapidly. In most cases I would take a look for myself to make sure because some peoples idea of what can and cannot be done differs from mine. BUT< it was about 3 hours to sunset and we were not travelling with another vehicle and the sand was very deep and soft . . . . I chickened out!!!!
The thought of getting our whole rig stuck in the sand and watching the tide come in and engulf it is a nightmare I don't want to contemplate nor risk happening. Half the 4WD magazines I've ever read contain a photo or two of some hapless vehicle stuck on the beach with the tide running in through the windows - it happens, too frequently.
So we turned around and headed back into Lancelin where I pumped the tyres back up (we have a Bushranger Max-Air compressor which is awesome and generally works faster than the air hose at the servo.)
We had to take the long way round via the Brand H/Way to get to Cervantes but we managed to make it as the sun was setting and did a very basic camper setup before heading into the camp kitchen to whip up some steak and veggies for dinner.
Next morning I was up about an hour before dawn and drove out to The Pinnacles and captured them on video and still photos as the sun rose. while Jen and girls remaining cosily tucked in bed. It was a magical morning and one that I won't forget in a hurry. The air was cool and crisp but not freezing. Their was only two other cars that came through in the couple of hours I was out there so I pretty much had the Pinnacles all to myself for the most part. (there are a couple of photos in the photo gallery)
By the time I made it back to camp the girls were up and about and we had breaky before packing up and hitting the road once again heading for Geraldton.
Along the way we stopped into Dongara for lunch where we had our usual vegemite and cheese sandwiches and then headed out to the cemetery to visit my grandfathers grave. While I never knew him, I couldn't help but wonder about what might have been had things worked out differently.
We made it into Geraldton late in the day and setup in the Belair Gardens caravan park.
Stop 19 - Freemantle, WA - 7 nights
Arrived: 02 April 2006
Our plan
was to stop into Freemantle for 2 or 3 nights before starting the
long journey North up the west coast. Capital cities are not high
on our "must see" list on this trip so we didn't plan to spend a
lot of time there.
I needed to update the website and we had some admin work to do and I wanted to stop in at the maritime museum and check out the Batavia exhibit where they have a section of the boat and other artefacts on display.
We checked into the caravan park at Woodman Point which is about 10 minutes south of Freemantle and scored a great site directly across from a big kids playground. Furthermore, there were kids everywhere with the playground being like a coral surrounded by wagons, all of them sporting a tribe of kids. Savanna and Sara were pretty happy with the situation and immediately set about making friends.
So many caravan parks have playgrounds but neglect them and don't realise the value of a good safe playground to families like ours. Keeping the kids entertained is a full time job anyway and places like Woodman Point that have got their act together make life much easier for mums and dads like us (they didn't pay me to say this BTW).
Next day we headed into Freemantle to get to know the area a bit. We picked up some mail that had been sent to us then found an Internet cafe to check our email. Jen left the girls with me for a while and headed into Myers to organise some birthday presents for Savanna who would be turning 5 in a couple of weeks.
We grabbed some lunch and it was back to camp.
Over the next few days I worked pretty solidly on the website and a magazine article I needed to finish while Jen caught up our admin work. The girls dropped in occasionally to say hello and get some food but spent most of the days out playing with the other kids.
Our planned stop of 2 or 3 days soon became 4 then 5 with me wandering into the park office each morning to pay for another day and proclaiming every time that it would be our last - no that they were in a hurry to see us go of course.
We decided that we would stay put until we had completely finished all the work we needed to do so we could head north and leave it behind us for a few weeks.
Eventually we made it into the Maritime museum and had a look at the Batavia wreck exhibit. We also had fish and chips on the dock at Freemantle (as you do) and sat and admired a very large Riviera boat parked at the wharf next to us. I managed to convince Jen that we needed a boat like that and she could see herself lying on the deck working on her tan as we motored around the ocean. So as soon as we have a couple of million $$$$ spare we'll be placing our order - you beauty!!
We also took the opportunity to restock our food stores and did a big shop in Coles in the westfield Shopping centre.
While we were there I took the opportunity to get a haircut and finally did what I had been talking about doing for several years now - I went for the number 2 all over with the shears which doesn't leave a whole lot left, especially when you are growing out the top of your head as I am.
It felt pretty weird at first but Jen assured me she still loved me and that's all that mattered. Looking back now I don't know why I didn't get it done years ago!!
We met a nice family in the caravan park (James, Jackie, Sophie and Thomas Kraayenbrink) from Queensland who are doing the big lap like us and they shared our "she'll be right" approach to life. Jackie is home schooling the kids who are both school age and she was very positive about how it was going. Maybe something we will do down the track when the need for another adventure becomes overwhelming.
In the end our 2 or 3 nights in Freemantle had grown to 6 and upon paying for the 6th night they informed me that the 7th was free so we figured we had stayed that long, what was another day. We used the extra day to do some sightseeing and relax a bit after what was a pretty busy week, before hitting the road the next day for Cervantes.
I needed to update the website and we had some admin work to do and I wanted to stop in at the maritime museum and check out the Batavia exhibit where they have a section of the boat and other artefacts on display.
We checked into the caravan park at Woodman Point which is about 10 minutes south of Freemantle and scored a great site directly across from a big kids playground. Furthermore, there were kids everywhere with the playground being like a coral surrounded by wagons, all of them sporting a tribe of kids. Savanna and Sara were pretty happy with the situation and immediately set about making friends.
So many caravan parks have playgrounds but neglect them and don't realise the value of a good safe playground to families like ours. Keeping the kids entertained is a full time job anyway and places like Woodman Point that have got their act together make life much easier for mums and dads like us (they didn't pay me to say this BTW).
Next day we headed into Freemantle to get to know the area a bit. We picked up some mail that had been sent to us then found an Internet cafe to check our email. Jen left the girls with me for a while and headed into Myers to organise some birthday presents for Savanna who would be turning 5 in a couple of weeks.
We grabbed some lunch and it was back to camp.
Over the next few days I worked pretty solidly on the website and a magazine article I needed to finish while Jen caught up our admin work. The girls dropped in occasionally to say hello and get some food but spent most of the days out playing with the other kids.
Our planned stop of 2 or 3 days soon became 4 then 5 with me wandering into the park office each morning to pay for another day and proclaiming every time that it would be our last - no that they were in a hurry to see us go of course.
We decided that we would stay put until we had completely finished all the work we needed to do so we could head north and leave it behind us for a few weeks.
Eventually we made it into the Maritime museum and had a look at the Batavia wreck exhibit. We also had fish and chips on the dock at Freemantle (as you do) and sat and admired a very large Riviera boat parked at the wharf next to us. I managed to convince Jen that we needed a boat like that and she could see herself lying on the deck working on her tan as we motored around the ocean. So as soon as we have a couple of million $$$$ spare we'll be placing our order - you beauty!!
We also took the opportunity to restock our food stores and did a big shop in Coles in the westfield Shopping centre.
While we were there I took the opportunity to get a haircut and finally did what I had been talking about doing for several years now - I went for the number 2 all over with the shears which doesn't leave a whole lot left, especially when you are growing out the top of your head as I am.
It felt pretty weird at first but Jen assured me she still loved me and that's all that mattered. Looking back now I don't know why I didn't get it done years ago!!
We met a nice family in the caravan park (James, Jackie, Sophie and Thomas Kraayenbrink) from Queensland who are doing the big lap like us and they shared our "she'll be right" approach to life. Jackie is home schooling the kids who are both school age and she was very positive about how it was going. Maybe something we will do down the track when the need for another adventure becomes overwhelming.
In the end our 2 or 3 nights in Freemantle had grown to 6 and upon paying for the 6th night they informed me that the 7th was free so we figured we had stayed that long, what was another day. We used the extra day to do some sightseeing and relax a bit after what was a pretty busy week, before hitting the road the next day for Cervantes.
Stop 18 - Yunderup, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 01 April 2006
My Uncle
Malcolm lives in Yunderup with his wife Veronica and they have a
beautiful house on a canal along the Murray River. There was no way
we were going to be over this side of the country without dropping
in and saying hello and better still we stopped for the night. Mal
works on oil rigs in Sudan on a 3 week on 3 week off basis and we
were fortunate he was home at the same time we were there.
We arrived around 4pm and got stuck in to a few cold Corona's while we brought everyone up to speed on current affairs in our respective families. While we were chatting, I mentioned that I was interested in the Batavia wreck, a Dutch ship that hit the Abrolhos islands off the coast of Geraldton nearly 400 years ago in 1629. It's an incredible story which I'll come back to down the track.
Anyway, Mal points to the large painting on the wall in the middle of the family room and says, "That's the Batavia in the painting . . . your Grandfather painted it!!!!" - I never knew my grandfather as he and my Granma split up not long after I was born however he moved over west and was an artist. He died a few years back and was buried in Dongara and we'll try and drop in and pay our respects on the way through.
Anyway, the first time I heard about the Batavia which was only last year I was facinated by the story and looking forward to getting over to the west to find out more. The fact that my Grandfather shared the same fasination I found pretty ironic.
Not long after our Batavia chat, my cousin Amanda and her partner Ben arrived with their daughter, Amali, followed soon after by Amanda's brother Graham with his other half, Michelle and their daughter Shelby.
I wasn't expecting to see my cousins as well so it was great to catch up with the whole family.
Mal and Veronica turned out a sensational roast dinner presuming correctly that this would not be standard fare for us in our camping lifestyle. We had dinner and drank some wine and a few more Coronas but all too soon the night was over and we shuffled (staggered) off to bed!!!
Next morning we were awoken as usual at the crack of dawn by the girls carrying on and it was an effort t get them to stay quiet enough not to wake Mal and Veronica up although by about 9 oclock it was futile and they came in to join us.
Breakfast consisted of hot cross buns and coffee (several) then we got our act together and piled in Malcolms boat for a cruise around the canals and the Murray River. His boat is a little catamaran with a 60hp (I think) outboard and is an great little runabout. We spent a couple of hours motoring around looking at everyone elses boats and houses before stopping in to a deli for a hamburger and some chips for lunch. Grease and carbs being the only real cure for a hangover.
By the time we made it back to their house the day was getting on and we needed to get to Freemantle and setup camp somewhere before dark.
We said our goodbyes, got some video of us saying our goodbyes, then hit the road.
We arrived around 4pm and got stuck in to a few cold Corona's while we brought everyone up to speed on current affairs in our respective families. While we were chatting, I mentioned that I was interested in the Batavia wreck, a Dutch ship that hit the Abrolhos islands off the coast of Geraldton nearly 400 years ago in 1629. It's an incredible story which I'll come back to down the track.
Anyway, Mal points to the large painting on the wall in the middle of the family room and says, "That's the Batavia in the painting . . . your Grandfather painted it!!!!" - I never knew my grandfather as he and my Granma split up not long after I was born however he moved over west and was an artist. He died a few years back and was buried in Dongara and we'll try and drop in and pay our respects on the way through.
Anyway, the first time I heard about the Batavia which was only last year I was facinated by the story and looking forward to getting over to the west to find out more. The fact that my Grandfather shared the same fasination I found pretty ironic.
Not long after our Batavia chat, my cousin Amanda and her partner Ben arrived with their daughter, Amali, followed soon after by Amanda's brother Graham with his other half, Michelle and their daughter Shelby.
I wasn't expecting to see my cousins as well so it was great to catch up with the whole family.
Mal and Veronica turned out a sensational roast dinner presuming correctly that this would not be standard fare for us in our camping lifestyle. We had dinner and drank some wine and a few more Coronas but all too soon the night was over and we shuffled (staggered) off to bed!!!
Next morning we were awoken as usual at the crack of dawn by the girls carrying on and it was an effort t get them to stay quiet enough not to wake Mal and Veronica up although by about 9 oclock it was futile and they came in to join us.
Breakfast consisted of hot cross buns and coffee (several) then we got our act together and piled in Malcolms boat for a cruise around the canals and the Murray River. His boat is a little catamaran with a 60hp (I think) outboard and is an great little runabout. We spent a couple of hours motoring around looking at everyone elses boats and houses before stopping in to a deli for a hamburger and some chips for lunch. Grease and carbs being the only real cure for a hangover.
By the time we made it back to their house the day was getting on and we needed to get to Freemantle and setup camp somewhere before dark.
We said our goodbyes, got some video of us saying our goodbyes, then hit the road.
Stop 17 - Dunsborough, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 31 March 2006
Our
accommodation was almost exactly as I expected it to be with about
half a dozen carriages scattered at random in a bush setting with
the added bonus of a few free ranging domestic animals roaming the
grounds.
At this point our patio plans de-railed (excuse the pun) as we were all completely buggered and not the slightest bit hungry. Instead of heading for the beach we had some cheese and bickies and a glass of wine and by about 7:30 I was the only one still awake. I watched telly until about 9:00 oclock then I too was in the land of nod - how completely boring!!!!!
Next morning we had pancakes for breaky and managed to get packed and out the door by about 10:30 - so much for our planned 8:00am departure. We stopped in at Dunsborough which is just up the road, and grabbed some stuff for lunch from the bakery.
Dunsborough is a nice town and in the middle of some fairly major growth with Perth people making the sea change and heading down south. Being right at the start of the Margaret River region, on the coast and only a couple of hours south of Perth it is well located.
We wanted to check out the Leeuwin Naturliste NP so thought we'd look for a nice spot to have some lunch. Heading up to Cape Leeuwin which is the the northwestern tip of the region, we found a nice picnic spot and had a leisurely lunch. As usual, the girls ran themselves ragged after lunch and expended all their energy before we all jumped in the car and drove to my Uncle Malcolms place about 150km north in Yanderup.
At this point our patio plans de-railed (excuse the pun) as we were all completely buggered and not the slightest bit hungry. Instead of heading for the beach we had some cheese and bickies and a glass of wine and by about 7:30 I was the only one still awake. I watched telly until about 9:00 oclock then I too was in the land of nod - how completely boring!!!!!
Next morning we had pancakes for breaky and managed to get packed and out the door by about 10:30 - so much for our planned 8:00am departure. We stopped in at Dunsborough which is just up the road, and grabbed some stuff for lunch from the bakery.
Dunsborough is a nice town and in the middle of some fairly major growth with Perth people making the sea change and heading down south. Being right at the start of the Margaret River region, on the coast and only a couple of hours south of Perth it is well located.
We wanted to check out the Leeuwin Naturliste NP so thought we'd look for a nice spot to have some lunch. Heading up to Cape Leeuwin which is the the northwestern tip of the region, we found a nice picnic spot and had a leisurely lunch. As usual, the girls ran themselves ragged after lunch and expended all their energy before we all jumped in the car and drove to my Uncle Malcolms place about 150km north in Yanderup.
Stop 16 - Margaret River, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 30 March 2006
We
probably would have stayed a second night in the cabin if it were
available but there was the surfing masters competition on this
weekend as well as a concert in Margaret River and everything was
booked solid. So we decided to spend the day sightseeing around the
region and stay somewhere further north on the Friday night
instead. This would also save us some back tracking and we'd be
closer to Yanderup which was our next destination, where my Uncle
Malcolm lives.
We headed into Margaret River pretty early and had a walk up the main street until we got to the visitor centre. With so many attractions in the area - wine, surfing, national parks etc. the town is a very popular place.
At the visitor centre we organised some accommodation for the night in Dunsborough which is north of Margaret River and in the general direction we were heading. We managed to find some railway carriages that had been converted to units which sounded a bit interesting.
With that sorted, we grabbed a quick coffee then hit the road to see how many attractions we could cram into the 6 or 7 hours that we had up our sleeve. Our plan was to but a few bits and pieces along the way and head down to the beach to watch the sunset and have a nice "patio" while we were at it.
Being cheese lovers as we all are, we made our first stop the cheese factory just our of Margaret River. They have an excellent range which we tasted from end to end. Savanna had to almost be physically restrained from gorging herself on the little tasting cubes. She wields a pretty mean toothpick!
We bought sa block of pickled onion cheese and another pesto flavored for our Patio then made tracks.
Sara meanwhile had fallen asleep on the way there and was dozing happily just outside the door in the shade of a tree. She won't even realise she missed out until she is older and sees the video without her in it.
Next stop was Vasse Felix winery, the oldest in the region. We particularly wanted to go there as we have tried their wines before and been very impressed with them. Our visit did nothing to undermine that opinion either. The grounds are simply amazing and it is the type of country estate I dream about establishing one day, although I'm not wild about the idea of covering it in grape vines.
Their wine tasting cellar is underground and you walk down into it through big timber doors. Inside it opens out into a huge expanse with wine tasting counters at one end and various wines and other items for sale at the other.
Upstairs there is a restaurant which we didn't venture into but there are artworks, mostly aboriginal, hanging all around the walls of the complex. They are all part of the Holmes-A-Court collection, the Holmes-A-Courts being the owners of the estate.
We tasted their range and bought a couple of bottles before heading off again for the Bootleg Brewery where we planned to have lunch. The Bootleg is one of a few micro breweries in the region which are capitalising on the influx of tourists to the area. In fact the Bootlegs slogan is "An oasis of beer in a desert of wine" - very clever.
We had a nice lunch at the brewery and tasted some of their range of about 9 beers which cover the full gamut from a light wheat beer of about 2.2% to a heavy dark stout which is over 7% alcohol. Given that I was driving I only had a taste of this one.
The brewery opens out onto about an acre of grass with tables and chairs and on the weekends is flat our keeping up with several hundred people there at times. Sounds like just about the perfect business to me.
Dragging ourselves reluctantly back to the cart we headed down to Evans And Tate who are another brand we have had good experiences with. They have a very modern tasting centre that looks out through floor to ceiling windows onto the vineyards. True to form, their wines were great and we bought another couple of bottles before heading off to our last stop for the day, the chocolate factory.
Here you can taste their chocolate in the form of small buds of white, milk or dark chocolate which were all delicious. If you want to part with some cash they have a host of fancy chocolates and other chocky treats to buy. We also managed to buy a jar of olive tapenade for our Patio.
By this time it was about 5:15 and we were buggered. We headed for Dunsborough to check into our train carriage and about 30 minutes later we arrived.
We headed into Margaret River pretty early and had a walk up the main street until we got to the visitor centre. With so many attractions in the area - wine, surfing, national parks etc. the town is a very popular place.
At the visitor centre we organised some accommodation for the night in Dunsborough which is north of Margaret River and in the general direction we were heading. We managed to find some railway carriages that had been converted to units which sounded a bit interesting.
With that sorted, we grabbed a quick coffee then hit the road to see how many attractions we could cram into the 6 or 7 hours that we had up our sleeve. Our plan was to but a few bits and pieces along the way and head down to the beach to watch the sunset and have a nice "patio" while we were at it.
Being cheese lovers as we all are, we made our first stop the cheese factory just our of Margaret River. They have an excellent range which we tasted from end to end. Savanna had to almost be physically restrained from gorging herself on the little tasting cubes. She wields a pretty mean toothpick!
We bought sa block of pickled onion cheese and another pesto flavored for our Patio then made tracks.
Sara meanwhile had fallen asleep on the way there and was dozing happily just outside the door in the shade of a tree. She won't even realise she missed out until she is older and sees the video without her in it.
Next stop was Vasse Felix winery, the oldest in the region. We particularly wanted to go there as we have tried their wines before and been very impressed with them. Our visit did nothing to undermine that opinion either. The grounds are simply amazing and it is the type of country estate I dream about establishing one day, although I'm not wild about the idea of covering it in grape vines.
Their wine tasting cellar is underground and you walk down into it through big timber doors. Inside it opens out into a huge expanse with wine tasting counters at one end and various wines and other items for sale at the other.
Upstairs there is a restaurant which we didn't venture into but there are artworks, mostly aboriginal, hanging all around the walls of the complex. They are all part of the Holmes-A-Court collection, the Holmes-A-Courts being the owners of the estate.
We tasted their range and bought a couple of bottles before heading off again for the Bootleg Brewery where we planned to have lunch. The Bootleg is one of a few micro breweries in the region which are capitalising on the influx of tourists to the area. In fact the Bootlegs slogan is "An oasis of beer in a desert of wine" - very clever.
We had a nice lunch at the brewery and tasted some of their range of about 9 beers which cover the full gamut from a light wheat beer of about 2.2% to a heavy dark stout which is over 7% alcohol. Given that I was driving I only had a taste of this one.
The brewery opens out onto about an acre of grass with tables and chairs and on the weekends is flat our keeping up with several hundred people there at times. Sounds like just about the perfect business to me.
Dragging ourselves reluctantly back to the cart we headed down to Evans And Tate who are another brand we have had good experiences with. They have a very modern tasting centre that looks out through floor to ceiling windows onto the vineyards. True to form, their wines were great and we bought another couple of bottles before heading off to our last stop for the day, the chocolate factory.
Here you can taste their chocolate in the form of small buds of white, milk or dark chocolate which were all delicious. If you want to part with some cash they have a host of fancy chocolates and other chocky treats to buy. We also managed to buy a jar of olive tapenade for our Patio.
By this time it was about 5:15 and we were buggered. We headed for Dunsborough to check into our train carriage and about 30 minutes later we arrived.
Stop 15 - Albany, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 28 March 2006
Our
original plan was to stay in Albany for 4 nights but we'd used up
and extra night in Cape Le Grand and another in Ravensthorpe so we
were now back to 2 nights as we needed to keep on schedule for this
part of the trip to get up to Exmouth for the arrival of a friend
of ours in a few weeks time (see the sacrifices we make for you
Anita!!).
Anyway, Albany is a pretty big place and is actually the first settlement in WA back in the early 1800's. My impressions of Albany as a kid all came from postcards my Granma sent me from her trips over this way and I remember the postcards were always covered in photos of whales being hacked to pieces on the slipway. It was pretty mainstream stuff in those days and the "greenies" that were ridiculed for trying to save the whales can be thanked today for the fact that there are still some whales left to see. I don't know the stats but I wonder what the value of the business generated today from whale watching is compared with the return on the products they were converted into back in those days? Better I'd guess, and completely sustainable.
If only the Tasmianian government would wake up to the tourism opportunity presented by their old growth forests rather than converting them to woodchips and selling them to the Japanese to make packaging and other equally low value products for a poultry sum of money. We'll be in Tasmania at the end of the trip and I'll be exploring this issue more when we get down there.
So, Albany. Not a whale processing factory anymore, thankfully, but a bustling town located in a beautiful bay called King George Sound. Besides the bay, the most prominent landmark in the town is a hill (sorry, forgot the name of it) which has an ANZAC memorial and lookout on top of it. There is also an army parade ground and museum with a cafe that looks like it is run by the retired diggers. We had devonshire tea there and it was great - cheap too!!
Our first stop in town was Maccas for a late lunch. We hadn''t seen one since Adelaide so it was a nice treat for the girls and Jen and I could relax with a coffee while the girls ran amok in the playground.
We didn't bring a TV with us on the trip as we figure we can live without it . . . . BUT . . . . Survivor is Jen and my absolute favorite show and the new season "Survivor Panana - Exile Island" started on our first night in Albany and fortunately the caravan park had a camp kitchen with a decent TV (this being a prerequisite of staying here), so we headed over to whip up dinner and stake a claim on the TV in case anyone else had ideas about watching something else.
It turns out there was only one other guy there and he hit the road before it started so there was no need for violence.
We watched the first episode and were immediately hooked so I'm going to have to find a TV solution for future episodes over the next couple of months.
Next morning was a pretty slow start but we eventually made it out of the park and into town for a walk around and some window shopping. Savanna took her doll "Andrea" with her and we didn't realise it at the time, but she left her on the floor in a book shop . . . .
We made the most of the TV opportunity that night and vegged out for a couple of hours. I dragged the laptop out and did some work and the girls crashed on the couch - just like being at home again!
Next morning we packed up and headed into town for a bit of sightseeing before we left. We headed up to the top of the hill and took in the view from the lookout and had a Devonshire Tea at the cafe as I mentioned earlier.
Then it was time to hit the road again and we made our way west across the bottom of the state heading for Margaret River. The countryside here is not unlike Victoria or NSW with big sections of forest and plenty of rolling hills. There are a swag of national parks across the bottom that we'll have to check out next time we are over this way.
We stopped for lunch in Walpole where they have a great park setup in the town for travellers to stop and relax. Loads of trees, toilets, tables etc. Our usual vegemite sangas and some fruit and muesli bars then on the road again.
It was a pretty long day and the first day we didn't get to our destination before sunset. There is no daylight saving over here so the sun sets around 6:00 to 6:30pm.
We made it to Margaret River where we decided to check into a cabin in a caravan park (mainly as my back was aching something shocking and Jen took pity on me having to setup the camper).
Anyway, Albany is a pretty big place and is actually the first settlement in WA back in the early 1800's. My impressions of Albany as a kid all came from postcards my Granma sent me from her trips over this way and I remember the postcards were always covered in photos of whales being hacked to pieces on the slipway. It was pretty mainstream stuff in those days and the "greenies" that were ridiculed for trying to save the whales can be thanked today for the fact that there are still some whales left to see. I don't know the stats but I wonder what the value of the business generated today from whale watching is compared with the return on the products they were converted into back in those days? Better I'd guess, and completely sustainable.
If only the Tasmianian government would wake up to the tourism opportunity presented by their old growth forests rather than converting them to woodchips and selling them to the Japanese to make packaging and other equally low value products for a poultry sum of money. We'll be in Tasmania at the end of the trip and I'll be exploring this issue more when we get down there.
So, Albany. Not a whale processing factory anymore, thankfully, but a bustling town located in a beautiful bay called King George Sound. Besides the bay, the most prominent landmark in the town is a hill (sorry, forgot the name of it) which has an ANZAC memorial and lookout on top of it. There is also an army parade ground and museum with a cafe that looks like it is run by the retired diggers. We had devonshire tea there and it was great - cheap too!!
Our first stop in town was Maccas for a late lunch. We hadn''t seen one since Adelaide so it was a nice treat for the girls and Jen and I could relax with a coffee while the girls ran amok in the playground.
We didn't bring a TV with us on the trip as we figure we can live without it . . . . BUT . . . . Survivor is Jen and my absolute favorite show and the new season "Survivor Panana - Exile Island" started on our first night in Albany and fortunately the caravan park had a camp kitchen with a decent TV (this being a prerequisite of staying here), so we headed over to whip up dinner and stake a claim on the TV in case anyone else had ideas about watching something else.
It turns out there was only one other guy there and he hit the road before it started so there was no need for violence.
We watched the first episode and were immediately hooked so I'm going to have to find a TV solution for future episodes over the next couple of months.
Next morning was a pretty slow start but we eventually made it out of the park and into town for a walk around and some window shopping. Savanna took her doll "Andrea" with her and we didn't realise it at the time, but she left her on the floor in a book shop . . . .
We made the most of the TV opportunity that night and vegged out for a couple of hours. I dragged the laptop out and did some work and the girls crashed on the couch - just like being at home again!
Next morning we packed up and headed into town for a bit of sightseeing before we left. We headed up to the top of the hill and took in the view from the lookout and had a Devonshire Tea at the cafe as I mentioned earlier.
Then it was time to hit the road again and we made our way west across the bottom of the state heading for Margaret River. The countryside here is not unlike Victoria or NSW with big sections of forest and plenty of rolling hills. There are a swag of national parks across the bottom that we'll have to check out next time we are over this way.
We stopped for lunch in Walpole where they have a great park setup in the town for travellers to stop and relax. Loads of trees, toilets, tables etc. Our usual vegemite sangas and some fruit and muesli bars then on the road again.
It was a pretty long day and the first day we didn't get to our destination before sunset. There is no daylight saving over here so the sun sets around 6:00 to 6:30pm.
We made it to Margaret River where we decided to check into a cabin in a caravan park (mainly as my back was aching something shocking and Jen took pity on me having to setup the camper).
Stop 14 - Ravensthorpe, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 27 March 2006
188km is
as fas as we made it out of Esperance before I wussed it and
decided to call it a day. I'd managed to put my back out with all
the setting up and packing up of the camper and long drives (an old
injury that comes back to bother me every now and then) and it was
screaming at me to stop. So we did!
Ravensthorpe is a small country town in the midst of a gold rush, or a nickel rush anyway. It looks like there is a new mine opened up just out of town and the place is full of mine workers using up all the available hotel accommodation and keeping the pub in profit.
We did a quick setup of the camper on the grass in the caravan park then headed into the pub for dinner. We are watching the dollars pretty closely and trying to stick to our weekly budget so we ordered two main meals which we shared with the girls. We often find this is plenty anyway so why waste money on food that ends up going back to the kitchen anyway!
It was a great feed and a couple of beers for me and wines for Jen went down very well.
Dragging ourselves out of the pub at a reasonable hour (can you hear the reluctance to leave here?) we headed back to the CP and had an early night.
Next morning I was out of bed pretty early and went for a walk to grab some milk and bread for breaky. We had some tea and toast before packing up and getting mobile. It was still 300km to Albany which is about 5 hours driving for us.
Ever since coiming off the Nullarbor and heading down into the south west of WA we had been surrounded by plantations of timber, most of it eucalypt. Today was no different and there were plantations back to back for hundreds of km.
It was a pretty easy drive and we rolled into Albany about mid afternoon and headed for the caravan park to set-up camp.
Ravensthorpe is a small country town in the midst of a gold rush, or a nickel rush anyway. It looks like there is a new mine opened up just out of town and the place is full of mine workers using up all the available hotel accommodation and keeping the pub in profit.
We did a quick setup of the camper on the grass in the caravan park then headed into the pub for dinner. We are watching the dollars pretty closely and trying to stick to our weekly budget so we ordered two main meals which we shared with the girls. We often find this is plenty anyway so why waste money on food that ends up going back to the kitchen anyway!
It was a great feed and a couple of beers for me and wines for Jen went down very well.
Dragging ourselves out of the pub at a reasonable hour (can you hear the reluctance to leave here?) we headed back to the CP and had an early night.
Next morning I was out of bed pretty early and went for a walk to grab some milk and bread for breaky. We had some tea and toast before packing up and getting mobile. It was still 300km to Albany which is about 5 hours driving for us.
Ever since coiming off the Nullarbor and heading down into the south west of WA we had been surrounded by plantations of timber, most of it eucalypt. Today was no different and there were plantations back to back for hundreds of km.
It was a pretty easy drive and we rolled into Albany about mid afternoon and headed for the caravan park to set-up camp.
Stop 13 - Le Grand NP, WA - 3 nights
Arrived: 24 March 2006
The camp
ground here really is a credit to the Conservation And Land
Management authority who run it. It is well setup with big sites
that are sheltered from the southern ocean wind but still only a
stone throw from the beach. The amenities are great with hot
(solar) showers and flushing toilets and spring water on tap. You
can also use generators for certain times of the day to keep
fridges running and batteries charged. At $16.50 per night it is
great value when compared with many commercial parks that charge
more than double that and offer no more or even less.
The weather when we got here was looking pretty unpredictable so we did a full setup of the camper with all of the canvas walls in place. This gives us a complete outside room that is water proof and windproof and mostly bug proof - not that there are many bugs here.
Snakes Alive
We had almost run over a black snake that was running (sliding?) across the road on the way in today, probably about 3 or 4 feet long. Then when we got here and had set-up, our next door neighbors pulled in and the girl came over and said "Do you know anything about snakes?". My reply was something along the lines of "only that they bite and so I generally give them a wide berth, why?", "because we have one next to our tent and we're not sure what to do about it", she replied. Well this presented a problem in that her tent was over a few feet from our camper so if it was near her tent then it was also near ours. I think the signwriting on the vehicle and the general capable look of our rig gave her the impression I was some kind of expert at handling wildlife including the biting variety. Well, as hard as it may be to believe, this is not the case. While I have handled a couple of snakes including the ones at the Swan Hill show a few months back, they were not poisonous so therefore posed no real risk.
Anyway, not wanting to shatter her illusion, I strutted over boldly to have a look and there was a small (40cmish) charcoal coloured snake sitting innocently next to their tent. Her boyfriend was suggesting it might be a Dugite which is apparently one of the local snake varieties, but he could not confirm whether they were poisonous or not. In then end I wandered down to the campground caretaker and asked him. He brought the ranger down and by the time they arrived the snake had done a runner (slider?) into the bush and was gone.
The ranger confirmed he was probably a Dugite and that his mother who would have been close by was more of a concern. He also advised that the local tiger snakes were a bigger worry as they were more dangerous.
Later that night Jen was chatting with some other folk on her way to and from the toilet who all had many snake encounter stories to tell!!
Jen and I played Scrabble after the girls had gone to bed and we had a very close game, both scoring in the high 200's. Jen led all the way and looked like taking the checkered flag until I pulled "Equine" on a Triple Word Score for 45 points a couple of shots from the end and pipped her at the post by a few points - she was spewing!!
We were out of bed by around 6:30 the first morning and I whipped up some beans, eggs and toast for breaky which went down well. We then headed out for a nice walk on the beach and were frankly blown away by how beautiful the beach is. The sand is clean and white and around 80 metres wide at low tide. The water is that aquamarine colour you see in the brochures and there were even wild horses running around in the sand dunes - awesome.
We walked about 2 to 3km down the beach and back again and all felt better for the exercise.
After lunch I used the time to bring this log up to date while Jen read her latest Miriam Keyes novel she had been unable to put down for the past few days. Sara had a big sleep and Savanna amused herself riding her bike and playing Play Doh.
Jen crafted some chicken thighs and cous cous for dinner then fell asleep on the floor in the tent reading The Faraway Tree to the girls while I hammered away on the keyboard bringing the log up to date.
I had an article to complete for 4WD Monthly magazine with a bunch of photos to I spent the next day setting up and taking photos of the various bits and pieces of our kit and finishing writing the article. Jen took the girls down for a play on the beach but the wind came up and they were getting sandblasted which ended that excursion prematurely. Savanna and Sara amused themselves riding their bikes up and down the camp ground instead which they were happy to do.
At one stage we heard a loud scream from Savanna which had us running to see what had happened. She had managed to fall off her bike and scrape her elbow and . . . there was blood!!! I grabbed the first aid box and applies about 10 times the required amount of gauze and tape until she was satisfied that the dressing was sufficient to cover the gaping wound (minor scrape). Of course Sara needed a band-aid as well.
Next morning we packed up and were ready to go by about 9:30am. We are getting pretty good at our packing and unpacking now and it is far less of a drama than it was in the early days.
On the way out of the park we drove up onto the beach and took some photos of us with the Landcrusier and camper which will hopefully be the double page spread in the 4WD Monthly article. I had heard that you can drive all the way into Esperance along the beach but we opted for the long way round via the road feeling a little nervous about getting the entire rig stuck in the sand on the beach with the tide coming in etc.
Esperance was only about an hours drive away and we stopped in for some lunch and to update our website with all the additions I'd made over the past couple of days. We also filled up with diesel for the first time since Ceduna in SA. We'd managed to squeeze about 1450 km out of around 250 litres of fuel which is not quite as good as I would like. I'm hoping to get that figure to closer to 1600 km once the engine is completely run in and loosens up.
It was close to 4pm by the time we left Esperance and we had originally planned to drive right through to Albany which is 480km away - it was not likely to happen at this point. Instead we figured we'd drive as far as possible then pull in for the night somewhere before continuing on the next morning.
The weather when we got here was looking pretty unpredictable so we did a full setup of the camper with all of the canvas walls in place. This gives us a complete outside room that is water proof and windproof and mostly bug proof - not that there are many bugs here.
Snakes Alive
We had almost run over a black snake that was running (sliding?) across the road on the way in today, probably about 3 or 4 feet long. Then when we got here and had set-up, our next door neighbors pulled in and the girl came over and said "Do you know anything about snakes?". My reply was something along the lines of "only that they bite and so I generally give them a wide berth, why?", "because we have one next to our tent and we're not sure what to do about it", she replied. Well this presented a problem in that her tent was over a few feet from our camper so if it was near her tent then it was also near ours. I think the signwriting on the vehicle and the general capable look of our rig gave her the impression I was some kind of expert at handling wildlife including the biting variety. Well, as hard as it may be to believe, this is not the case. While I have handled a couple of snakes including the ones at the Swan Hill show a few months back, they were not poisonous so therefore posed no real risk.
Anyway, not wanting to shatter her illusion, I strutted over boldly to have a look and there was a small (40cmish) charcoal coloured snake sitting innocently next to their tent. Her boyfriend was suggesting it might be a Dugite which is apparently one of the local snake varieties, but he could not confirm whether they were poisonous or not. In then end I wandered down to the campground caretaker and asked him. He brought the ranger down and by the time they arrived the snake had done a runner (slider?) into the bush and was gone.
The ranger confirmed he was probably a Dugite and that his mother who would have been close by was more of a concern. He also advised that the local tiger snakes were a bigger worry as they were more dangerous.
Later that night Jen was chatting with some other folk on her way to and from the toilet who all had many snake encounter stories to tell!!
Jen and I played Scrabble after the girls had gone to bed and we had a very close game, both scoring in the high 200's. Jen led all the way and looked like taking the checkered flag until I pulled "Equine" on a Triple Word Score for 45 points a couple of shots from the end and pipped her at the post by a few points - she was spewing!!
We were out of bed by around 6:30 the first morning and I whipped up some beans, eggs and toast for breaky which went down well. We then headed out for a nice walk on the beach and were frankly blown away by how beautiful the beach is. The sand is clean and white and around 80 metres wide at low tide. The water is that aquamarine colour you see in the brochures and there were even wild horses running around in the sand dunes - awesome.
We walked about 2 to 3km down the beach and back again and all felt better for the exercise.
After lunch I used the time to bring this log up to date while Jen read her latest Miriam Keyes novel she had been unable to put down for the past few days. Sara had a big sleep and Savanna amused herself riding her bike and playing Play Doh.
Jen crafted some chicken thighs and cous cous for dinner then fell asleep on the floor in the tent reading The Faraway Tree to the girls while I hammered away on the keyboard bringing the log up to date.
I had an article to complete for 4WD Monthly magazine with a bunch of photos to I spent the next day setting up and taking photos of the various bits and pieces of our kit and finishing writing the article. Jen took the girls down for a play on the beach but the wind came up and they were getting sandblasted which ended that excursion prematurely. Savanna and Sara amused themselves riding their bikes up and down the camp ground instead which they were happy to do.
At one stage we heard a loud scream from Savanna which had us running to see what had happened. She had managed to fall off her bike and scrape her elbow and . . . there was blood!!! I grabbed the first aid box and applies about 10 times the required amount of gauze and tape until she was satisfied that the dressing was sufficient to cover the gaping wound (minor scrape). Of course Sara needed a band-aid as well.
Next morning we packed up and were ready to go by about 9:30am. We are getting pretty good at our packing and unpacking now and it is far less of a drama than it was in the early days.
On the way out of the park we drove up onto the beach and took some photos of us with the Landcrusier and camper which will hopefully be the double page spread in the 4WD Monthly article. I had heard that you can drive all the way into Esperance along the beach but we opted for the long way round via the road feeling a little nervous about getting the entire rig stuck in the sand on the beach with the tide coming in etc.
Esperance was only about an hours drive away and we stopped in for some lunch and to update our website with all the additions I'd made over the past couple of days. We also filled up with diesel for the first time since Ceduna in SA. We'd managed to squeeze about 1450 km out of around 250 litres of fuel which is not quite as good as I would like. I'm hoping to get that figure to closer to 1600 km once the engine is completely run in and loosens up.
It was close to 4pm by the time we left Esperance and we had originally planned to drive right through to Albany which is 480km away - it was not likely to happen at this point. Instead we figured we'd drive as far as possible then pull in for the night somewhere before continuing on the next morning.
Stop 12 - Duke of Orleans Bay, WA - 2 nights
Arrived: 22 March 2006
After 4
one night stands in a row, we were pretty keen to stay put for a
couple of nights and get our breath back so we booked into Orleans
Bay for two nights with a view to staying longer if we felt the
urge.
We found a grassy site and setup and the girls soon got to know our neighbors children who were two girls about the same age. As often happens, the kids meet first and the parents end up meeting as a consequence and we soon got to know Magda, the girls mum. Her and her husband Tim were on their way to Cairns in their bus to start a new life in the tropics but they did not seem to be in a hurry to get there. They were stopping and working along the way and told us about a commune they had spent some time in near Denmark (Western Australia). The commune grows organic veggies and is self sufficient and volunteers live there on their own powered site and exchange some labour each day for food, power and amenities.
Sounded pretty interesting but I don't think we'll have time in our itinerary this time round.
The next day we took it pretty easy - I used the time to catch up on cataloguing the video tapes I had shot and some other emails etc. and Jen did a bundle of washing. The girls played with their new friends.
That night we had a BBQ and a few drinks with our new friends and it was a good relaxing night.
I woke up several hours after going to bed feeling pretty second hand and not just because I'd had a few drinks. I reckon I picked up a bug from somewhere and I ended up lying awake all night feeling miserable!! Next day I was slightly better but very tired and ached all over. I drank about 2 litres of water before breakfast and started to feel a little better.
We packed up camp and headed out the gate about 11am with only a short drive in front of us. We stopped in to admire the scenery of Duke Of Orleans Bay then headed off towards Le Grand NP which is less than 100km away.
Along the way we stopped in at Hellfire Gallery to look at the artworks but it was the sign saying "Coffee Shop" that got my attention. Caffeine is what I wanted. After a couple of cups of strong African coffee I was starting to come good.
We cruised into Le Grand NP and headed for Le Grand Beach camp ground where we managed to get the last site in the camp ground.
We found a grassy site and setup and the girls soon got to know our neighbors children who were two girls about the same age. As often happens, the kids meet first and the parents end up meeting as a consequence and we soon got to know Magda, the girls mum. Her and her husband Tim were on their way to Cairns in their bus to start a new life in the tropics but they did not seem to be in a hurry to get there. They were stopping and working along the way and told us about a commune they had spent some time in near Denmark (Western Australia). The commune grows organic veggies and is self sufficient and volunteers live there on their own powered site and exchange some labour each day for food, power and amenities.
Sounded pretty interesting but I don't think we'll have time in our itinerary this time round.
The next day we took it pretty easy - I used the time to catch up on cataloguing the video tapes I had shot and some other emails etc. and Jen did a bundle of washing. The girls played with their new friends.
That night we had a BBQ and a few drinks with our new friends and it was a good relaxing night.
I woke up several hours after going to bed feeling pretty second hand and not just because I'd had a few drinks. I reckon I picked up a bug from somewhere and I ended up lying awake all night feeling miserable!! Next day I was slightly better but very tired and ached all over. I drank about 2 litres of water before breakfast and started to feel a little better.
We packed up camp and headed out the gate about 11am with only a short drive in front of us. We stopped in to admire the scenery of Duke Of Orleans Bay then headed off towards Le Grand NP which is less than 100km away.
Along the way we stopped in at Hellfire Gallery to look at the artworks but it was the sign saying "Coffee Shop" that got my attention. Caffeine is what I wanted. After a couple of cups of strong African coffee I was starting to come good.
We cruised into Le Grand NP and headed for Le Grand Beach camp ground where we managed to get the last site in the camp ground.
Stop 11 - Cocklebiddy, WA - 1 night
Arrived: 21 March 2006
Similar
to Nullarbor, Cocklebiddy is basically a roadhouse with camp ground
and hotel attached but it is pretty rough and ready. Ambiance is
not something that takes a huge priority in a place like this and
it is all just pure practicality.
Like the generator for example. There is no mains power or water or any other services out here so everything has to be made on site or shipped in. Power comes from a big diesel generator that runs day and night. Now I reckon if it were my place, I'd put the generator in a shed about 100 metres from the roadhouse and surround the inside walls with sand bags to muffle the sound. I'd also put the door on the back facing the bush so any sound that did escape went the other way. I'm pretty sure this would muffle at least 90% of the sound and the 100 metre gap would take care of the rest. After all, space out here is the only thing they do have plenty of.
But at Cocklebiddy (and plenty of other places) the generator is right in the same group of buildings as the hotel rooms and camp ground and in an uninsulated steel shed with the door facing the main compound. In fact our site in the camp ground was about 20 metres away from it. Consequently the generator is a loud and constant noise that tends to dominate the landscape.
Maybe I'm missing something but it just seems to me to be a fairly simple thing to locate it further away in a sound proof shed and enjoy the solitude!
Anyway, like Nullarbor, it was the remoteness that was the attraction here and we enjoyed it for what it was before an early getaway the next morning.
As we headed progressively further west the clock kept winding back so we scored a few bonus hours along the way - hours we'll have to give back as we head east across the top. That was good, but what was even better was the fact that WA doesn't have daylight saving. This was great! I've always enjoyed daylight saving while living in the city but it does not suit the travelling lifestyle.
Prior to getting to WA, sunrise was approaching 8:00am with sunset about 8:00pm. When you have to get up, have breakfast and pack up camp and be out of the CP by 10:00am, 2 hours is not enough and there is not much you can do before sunrise. Maybe a day here or there but not on a regular basis.
Over in WA we are finding sunrise is around 6:15 which gives us plenty of time to get up and get going early without rushing about - much better.
So, we left Cocklebiddy around 9:45 and kept driving west until we reached Baladonia which is a couple of hundred km short of Norseman where the Nullarbor road ends. Baladonia is another roadhouse but a very well setup one with backpacker accomodation, camp ground etc. I enquired with the manager about the road south to Duke Of Orleans Bay which is a dirt road and he proceeded to give me a 20 minute history lesson on the region from the early pioneers forward - great value!
He told us the road was pretty easy to navigate except for some big bulldust potholes which we needed to look out for. Along the way we should look out for a restored homestead which belonged to one of the original settlers in the area called Balbinya Ruins as well as some nice scenery around Booanya Rock.
We thanked him and headed off down the road leaving the Nullarbor behind us after several days and many good memories.
The road was as described and a relatively easy drive. We were heading for Duke of Orleans Bay on the south coast about 170km away where we had heard there was a nice caravan park on the edge of the bay. I wanted to stop off at the homestead but the weather was turning ugly with a big storm coming up from the south and we needed to get there before it was dark so we could set-up camp.
It was nearly 3 hours after leaving Baladonia that we rolled into Orleans Bay Caravan Park as the sun was setting.
Like the generator for example. There is no mains power or water or any other services out here so everything has to be made on site or shipped in. Power comes from a big diesel generator that runs day and night. Now I reckon if it were my place, I'd put the generator in a shed about 100 metres from the roadhouse and surround the inside walls with sand bags to muffle the sound. I'd also put the door on the back facing the bush so any sound that did escape went the other way. I'm pretty sure this would muffle at least 90% of the sound and the 100 metre gap would take care of the rest. After all, space out here is the only thing they do have plenty of.
But at Cocklebiddy (and plenty of other places) the generator is right in the same group of buildings as the hotel rooms and camp ground and in an uninsulated steel shed with the door facing the main compound. In fact our site in the camp ground was about 20 metres away from it. Consequently the generator is a loud and constant noise that tends to dominate the landscape.
Maybe I'm missing something but it just seems to me to be a fairly simple thing to locate it further away in a sound proof shed and enjoy the solitude!
Anyway, like Nullarbor, it was the remoteness that was the attraction here and we enjoyed it for what it was before an early getaway the next morning.
As we headed progressively further west the clock kept winding back so we scored a few bonus hours along the way - hours we'll have to give back as we head east across the top. That was good, but what was even better was the fact that WA doesn't have daylight saving. This was great! I've always enjoyed daylight saving while living in the city but it does not suit the travelling lifestyle.
Prior to getting to WA, sunrise was approaching 8:00am with sunset about 8:00pm. When you have to get up, have breakfast and pack up camp and be out of the CP by 10:00am, 2 hours is not enough and there is not much you can do before sunrise. Maybe a day here or there but not on a regular basis.
Over in WA we are finding sunrise is around 6:15 which gives us plenty of time to get up and get going early without rushing about - much better.
So, we left Cocklebiddy around 9:45 and kept driving west until we reached Baladonia which is a couple of hundred km short of Norseman where the Nullarbor road ends. Baladonia is another roadhouse but a very well setup one with backpacker accomodation, camp ground etc. I enquired with the manager about the road south to Duke Of Orleans Bay which is a dirt road and he proceeded to give me a 20 minute history lesson on the region from the early pioneers forward - great value!
He told us the road was pretty easy to navigate except for some big bulldust potholes which we needed to look out for. Along the way we should look out for a restored homestead which belonged to one of the original settlers in the area called Balbinya Ruins as well as some nice scenery around Booanya Rock.
We thanked him and headed off down the road leaving the Nullarbor behind us after several days and many good memories.
The road was as described and a relatively easy drive. We were heading for Duke of Orleans Bay on the south coast about 170km away where we had heard there was a nice caravan park on the edge of the bay. I wanted to stop off at the homestead but the weather was turning ugly with a big storm coming up from the south and we needed to get there before it was dark so we could set-up camp.
It was nearly 3 hours after leaving Baladonia that we rolled into Orleans Bay Caravan Park as the sun was setting.
Stop 10 - Nullarbor, SA - 1 night
Arrived: 20 March 2006
As you
get closer to Nullarbor this feeling intensifies as you come into
the Treeless Plain where it is flat and treeless as far as you can
see. It's really amazing and an attraction in itself.
Before then however we went through the little town of Penong where windmills are everywhere. Traditionally every house had their own windmill and pumped their own water from the ground. There are still plenty of windmills left to see although I think these days the water is trucked in.
Nullarbor is just a roadhouse in the middle of the treeless plain and we checked in there for the night. We set up on a patch of dirt beside the roadhouse and met our neighbors, Dale and Lynette and their kids from Leongatha in Victoria. They have taken 8 weeks long service and are on their way to WA for a holiday. We had a beer with them in the bar after dinner and a good chat.
Afterwards, back at camp I was taking some photos of the camp at night when I noticed some dingos nosing around the place. I managed to get a bit of night vision footage on the video camera before locking up everything pretty tight to keep them out of it.
We had a restful night although the constant purr of the roadhouse generator and the refrigeration compressors of trucks in the car park was an unfortunate distraction from what would have otherwise been perfect silence.
I woke in the morning to the sound of dripping water and thought it unusual that there had been rain overnight (and I hadn't heard it). I ventured outside and the air was cold and crisp and there was a thick mist across the plains. everything was soaking wet but it was not rain but condensation - lots of it. I reckon I could have wiped a litre of water off the table top. I managed to photograph and film a beautiful sunrise through the mist.
The dingos had chewed up our 10 litre cask of spring water which we had bought in Ceduna for drinking across the nullarbor so we were resigned to drinking the very average stuff we had in our tanks or paying about $6.00 a litre in the roadhouses. Imagine if you could go back in time only 20 years and were to say to someone that one day, crossing the Nullarbor, that water would be 4 times the price of petrol. They would think you were crazy - but its true!
We had some toast for breaky before packing up our wet camper and heading off once more.
The landscape is very flat out here but the plant life changes quite regularly as you travel across. From the treeless plain around the Nullarbor to mallee scrub and even taller gum trees in places. There are several places to stop and take in the grandeur of the coastline which is 200 metre cliffs across most of the Great Australian Bight which we made the most of. The "Head Of Bight" Whale watching centre was closed due to the lack of whales at this time of year.
At Border Village which is right on the border we were glad not to have to pay $1.77 for diesel and had some lunch before heading through the quarantine station at the border. They were pretty thorough and checked our fridge and food tubs to make sure we were not carrying any contraband. Having passed the test we drove into WA stopping for a quick look at Eucla then on to Cocklebiddy for the night.
Before then however we went through the little town of Penong where windmills are everywhere. Traditionally every house had their own windmill and pumped their own water from the ground. There are still plenty of windmills left to see although I think these days the water is trucked in.
Nullarbor is just a roadhouse in the middle of the treeless plain and we checked in there for the night. We set up on a patch of dirt beside the roadhouse and met our neighbors, Dale and Lynette and their kids from Leongatha in Victoria. They have taken 8 weeks long service and are on their way to WA for a holiday. We had a beer with them in the bar after dinner and a good chat.
Afterwards, back at camp I was taking some photos of the camp at night when I noticed some dingos nosing around the place. I managed to get a bit of night vision footage on the video camera before locking up everything pretty tight to keep them out of it.
We had a restful night although the constant purr of the roadhouse generator and the refrigeration compressors of trucks in the car park was an unfortunate distraction from what would have otherwise been perfect silence.
I woke in the morning to the sound of dripping water and thought it unusual that there had been rain overnight (and I hadn't heard it). I ventured outside and the air was cold and crisp and there was a thick mist across the plains. everything was soaking wet but it was not rain but condensation - lots of it. I reckon I could have wiped a litre of water off the table top. I managed to photograph and film a beautiful sunrise through the mist.
The dingos had chewed up our 10 litre cask of spring water which we had bought in Ceduna for drinking across the nullarbor so we were resigned to drinking the very average stuff we had in our tanks or paying about $6.00 a litre in the roadhouses. Imagine if you could go back in time only 20 years and were to say to someone that one day, crossing the Nullarbor, that water would be 4 times the price of petrol. They would think you were crazy - but its true!
We had some toast for breaky before packing up our wet camper and heading off once more.
The landscape is very flat out here but the plant life changes quite regularly as you travel across. From the treeless plain around the Nullarbor to mallee scrub and even taller gum trees in places. There are several places to stop and take in the grandeur of the coastline which is 200 metre cliffs across most of the Great Australian Bight which we made the most of. The "Head Of Bight" Whale watching centre was closed due to the lack of whales at this time of year.
At Border Village which is right on the border we were glad not to have to pay $1.77 for diesel and had some lunch before heading through the quarantine station at the border. They were pretty thorough and checked our fridge and food tubs to make sure we were not carrying any contraband. Having passed the test we drove into WA stopping for a quick look at Eucla then on to Cocklebiddy for the night.
Stop 9 - Ceduna, SA - 1 night
Arrived: 19 March 2006
Must
have been around 4pm when we rolled into Ceduna and that was as far
as we were going today. This is pretty much the end of civilization
as we know it before you get onto the Nullarbor so we needed to get
some more supplies, fuel etc. before heading into the great
divide.
We managed to find a little CP about 3km through Ceduna called Shelly Beach and I was very impressed with how helpful the manager (Anne) was when I walked in. First question was "Which way are you heading?", then followed 10 minutes of detailed info as to where to go, what to take, fuel prices etc. She found us a bit of grass to set up on, no easy feat in the desert as it is out there, and we settled in for the night.
I was so impressed with Annes info talk I decided to ask her the following morning if she would be in our doco and she happily agreed. So I grabbed the camera and set it up and she went through the whole spiel again, this time for our viewers.
We stopped in at the supermarket in Ceduna and grabbed some supplies before having lunch in the bakery - pies and iced coffee - YUM!!
The rule is that you cannot take fresh fruit, veggies, seeds, honey etc. over the border into WA so no point in buying any of this stuff. We had one more stop before the border so our mission was to use everything up before the border.
We filled up with fuel at $1.34 a litre and had enough to get us across as far as Esperance in WA without having to pay big dollars across the Nullarbor.
Finally we hit the road again and we were in the outback good and proper. It felt great! I love the remoteness you can find in places in Australia. It is somehow very comforting to be surrounded by nothing in every direction.
We managed to find a little CP about 3km through Ceduna called Shelly Beach and I was very impressed with how helpful the manager (Anne) was when I walked in. First question was "Which way are you heading?", then followed 10 minutes of detailed info as to where to go, what to take, fuel prices etc. She found us a bit of grass to set up on, no easy feat in the desert as it is out there, and we settled in for the night.
I was so impressed with Annes info talk I decided to ask her the following morning if she would be in our doco and she happily agreed. So I grabbed the camera and set it up and she went through the whole spiel again, this time for our viewers.
We stopped in at the supermarket in Ceduna and grabbed some supplies before having lunch in the bakery - pies and iced coffee - YUM!!
The rule is that you cannot take fresh fruit, veggies, seeds, honey etc. over the border into WA so no point in buying any of this stuff. We had one more stop before the border so our mission was to use everything up before the border.
We filled up with fuel at $1.34 a litre and had enough to get us across as far as Esperance in WA without having to pay big dollars across the Nullarbor.
Finally we hit the road again and we were in the outback good and proper. It felt great! I love the remoteness you can find in places in Australia. It is somehow very comforting to be surrounded by nothing in every direction.
Stop 8 - Elliston, SA - 1 night
Arrived: 18 March 2006
The day
we arrived in Elliston was the 6 month anniversary of us leaving on
the first part of our trip back in September. It was also a week
since I had had a shower and let me tell you we were all looking
forward to that event. Not that I hadn't washed, but there is
nothing quite like the real thing. We checked in at the CP and did
a quick setup on some nice grass then headed for the showers -
magnificent!!!
Jen read some stories to the girls afterwards before bed while I did some work on the laptop under the stars. Jen has been reading the girls "The Faraway Tree" by Enid Blyton and Savanna is totally hooked. She won't let Jen stop until she has read just one more page. She is really keen to start reading herself and when she learns I can imagine she will be reading books by the dozen.
Next morning we thought we would have treat and stop in at The Salty Dog cafe for brunch before heading further on towards the Nullarbor. We had some bacon and eggs and cappuccino's and the two lady owners of the cafe (think Two Fat Ladies here) were great to the girls. It was a bit of a drain on the wallet muscle but worth it and we hit the road again around midday.
Jen read some stories to the girls afterwards before bed while I did some work on the laptop under the stars. Jen has been reading the girls "The Faraway Tree" by Enid Blyton and Savanna is totally hooked. She won't let Jen stop until she has read just one more page. She is really keen to start reading herself and when she learns I can imagine she will be reading books by the dozen.
Next morning we thought we would have treat and stop in at The Salty Dog cafe for brunch before heading further on towards the Nullarbor. We had some bacon and eggs and cappuccino's and the two lady owners of the cafe (think Two Fat Ladies here) were great to the girls. It was a bit of a drain on the wallet muscle but worth it and we hit the road again around midday.
Stop 7 - Lincoln NP, SA - 7 nights
Arrived: 11 March 2006
What am
I, crazy?? How did I not know about Lincoln National Park? This
place is sensational!!
Only about 40 minutes drive the other side of Port Lincoln we found ourselves in Surfleet Cove in Lincoln NP with a great view over the nice sheltered bay for the huge cost of $4 per night - great value!
Now the words Port Lincoln normally conjour up thoughts of tuna, horse racing (Makybe Diva's Melbourne Cup hat trick is the stuff of legend) and even of good old Dean Lukins' weight lifting efforts some years ago. Lincoln NP probably doesn't come up as often, but it should. It's a beautiful piece of the world and after 7 days there we didn't want to leave.
When we arrived I took the boat off of the camper in anticipation of getting it wet while we were there as the sheltered waters of the bay we were camping on were pretty idyllic for boating. We managed to find a spot although the campground at Surfleet Cove was pretty full, this being due to the fact we arrived on a Saturday of a long weekend (Adelaide Cup). Nevertheless we found a good spot which even had a bit of shade.
We set up camp and settled down to enjoy the serenity for the evening which inevitably involved a few green cans and a glass of wine. Generators are allowed to be used in the park which is a bonus so we had 240 volts on tap from day one. I managed to position the little Yamaha in the bushes where it was just a quiet murmur in the background reassuring us of an endless supply of cold drinks (oh, and food!) until the petrol ran out anyway.
Our 6 month stint on "The Idlers" on the ABC Radio was coming to an end tonight as they were changing over to AFL coverage for the AFL footy season so I dusted off the Satellite phone for the weekly chat. The GSM mobile coverage out here is not great so the Sat phone came in very handy. The Coodabeens were in Port Fairy for a folk music festival and sounding like they were having a hoot!! I'm a little sad our season has finished although I've been looking forward to the footy starting again.
Next morning it was raining
- not what we were hoping for. It was a pretty steady rain
with no end in sight so we decided to head out for a drive around
the National Park. It is definitely a pretty piece of the world
even when it is raining. We found a few clever campers with their
vans set up in prime possies looking out over glorious bay views
with their generators quietly running in the scrub - great living
for 4 bucks a day (plus a few bucks for fuel).
Savanna has been talking about organising a ball. Not the type you kick or bounce but more like the one you dress up for and attend. She is convinced that we are all going to get done up in our finest, invite lots of other people and have a big party. During the night we'll play pass the parcel (or parcel parcel as she calls it) and many other party games. There will be fairy bread all round as well of course.
We were laughing at the idea at first but it is growing on us. Maybe we'll just do it for the hell of it!
On the Monday we drove into town for some supplies only to find out it was the public holiday and everything was shut! This is what happens in this kind of lifestyle you see, you get completely out of touch with events like public holidays as they are of no consequence. Even weekends barely rate a mention.
Arriving back at camp the place was nearly deserted as everyone went home after the long weekend.
I used the time in the afternoon to install our Glind Hot Water Shower that attaches to the engine of the Land Cruiser and uses the hot coolant to heat the water for the shower. While I was doing this a bus arrived and set up camp nearby. The owner of the bus came over soon after to introduce himself (Terry) and we soon had a long chat about the merits of various camping shower systems. Him and his wife Sue are locals and come over here whenever possible to get away from the hustle and bustle of Port Lincoln and to catch some Razorfish. I have never heard of razorfish so was interested to find out more about them.
Terry suggested I come out with them and he'll show me how it's done. Sounds good to me!!
While nosing around under the bonnet installing the shower, I noticed the water level in the main battery was down to nothing. This was a surprise as I had checked it about a week ago when I changed the oil and it was fine. Bugger!!! We topped it up with water but there was a fair possibility it was knackered although the reason why it had run dry was a mystery.
Next day was Tuesday and I took the girls out on the boat and left Jen to her own devices to catch up on some paperwork and have a bit of time to herself. We managed to find a beautiful beach where we could drop the boat in and we had a great time motoring around the bay. Tried a bit of fishing without success but had fun in the boat all the same.
On Wednesday I headed out early with the video camera to check out Terry and friends razorfishing in the bay. Now the Razorfish is in fact a shellfish like a mussel but much bigger. The big ones are about 25 to 30 cm long. They live in the sand with the tops pointing out and will slice your feet to the bone if you stand on them - hence their name of razorfish.
You can pull them out of the sand relatively easily with your hands or use a large knife or similar to dig them out. Once out, you slide a long knife between the shells and cut the muscle that holds the two shells together, open them up and remove the muscle altogether. It is this muscle that you eat. It looks similar to a scallop and tastes quite mild (not like an oyster). You can eat them raw, pickle them or tenderize them, crumb and deep fry them.
The idea is that you head out onto the tidal flats at low tide carrying a container with you on your belt. As you find the razorfish you cut out the muscles, leaving the rest behind. The daily limit is 50 per person. Once back at camp you clean them up and either cook them up, pickle them or freeze them for later.
This was great content for our film and I decided to bring Jen and the girls out the next day to both show them and have Jen film me digging some out for our doco.
Later in the day our car would not start as the battery was completely flat and I decided to buy a new one just in case this one was no good even after recharging. We headed into Port Lincoln again and I swapped the battery and bought some better jumper leads as they old ones struggled to start the car earlier on (they actually didn't and I had to swap battery 1 and 2 to get the car to start).
We had installed our shower under the bonnet but did not have enough water with us to use it. There is no water available in the NP. Jen dropped in to a hairdressers in Lincoln and had a hairwash then we grabbed a coffee before heading back to camp.
Next morning, despite the rain, Jen and the girls followed me out on a razorfishing expedition and we trudged through the mud flats for about 1 km to get to the hunting grounds. Jen was a real trooper and filmed me catching and eating the prey while we stood in the cold rain and wind.
Later in the afternoon Savanna and I threw a line in from the rocks but still caught nothing - need some skills in the fishing department.
Sara had her afternoon nap and Savanna and I put the boat in one last time while we had the chance. That night Terry and Sue cooked up a bunch of razorfish for us which were sensational and we washed them down with some beers and wine from the Coonawarra.
On Friday, Terry and Sue headed back to Lincoln - their son was getting married on the Saturday so there was work to be done. They are planning to take off on their own "Big Lap" soon and we hope we catch up with them on the way around some time.
That afternoon we went back into town and I had the car checked at the auto electrician to make sure the battery was charging properly and they assured me it was. Jen did a few loads of washing and we had lunch of ham, cheese and tomato rolls which I made at the laundromat.
Next morning was a pretty mammoth pack up as everything had been taken out and needed to be put away. We got away about 12:30pm and headed into Lincoln for some fish and chips for lunch before heading back onto the open road towards the Nullarbor.
Having left so late in the day we didn't really have time to stop in anywhere for sightseeing and we made it as far as Elliston where we stopped for the night.
I would highly recommend Lincoln NP as a place to go and stay a while. Surfleet Cove was a choice location with toilets. No water or showers though so bring your own. Take a generator as well to keep everything working.
Only about 40 minutes drive the other side of Port Lincoln we found ourselves in Surfleet Cove in Lincoln NP with a great view over the nice sheltered bay for the huge cost of $4 per night - great value!
Now the words Port Lincoln normally conjour up thoughts of tuna, horse racing (Makybe Diva's Melbourne Cup hat trick is the stuff of legend) and even of good old Dean Lukins' weight lifting efforts some years ago. Lincoln NP probably doesn't come up as often, but it should. It's a beautiful piece of the world and after 7 days there we didn't want to leave.
When we arrived I took the boat off of the camper in anticipation of getting it wet while we were there as the sheltered waters of the bay we were camping on were pretty idyllic for boating. We managed to find a spot although the campground at Surfleet Cove was pretty full, this being due to the fact we arrived on a Saturday of a long weekend (Adelaide Cup). Nevertheless we found a good spot which even had a bit of shade.
We set up camp and settled down to enjoy the serenity for the evening which inevitably involved a few green cans and a glass of wine. Generators are allowed to be used in the park which is a bonus so we had 240 volts on tap from day one. I managed to position the little Yamaha in the bushes where it was just a quiet murmur in the background reassuring us of an endless supply of cold drinks (oh, and food!) until the petrol ran out anyway.
Our 6 month stint on "The Idlers" on the ABC Radio was coming to an end tonight as they were changing over to AFL coverage for the AFL footy season so I dusted off the Satellite phone for the weekly chat. The GSM mobile coverage out here is not great so the Sat phone came in very handy. The Coodabeens were in Port Fairy for a folk music festival and sounding like they were having a hoot!! I'm a little sad our season has finished although I've been looking forward to the footy starting again.
Next morning it was raining
- not what we were hoping for. It was a pretty steady rain
with no end in sight so we decided to head out for a drive around
the National Park. It is definitely a pretty piece of the world
even when it is raining. We found a few clever campers with their
vans set up in prime possies looking out over glorious bay views
with their generators quietly running in the scrub - great living
for 4 bucks a day (plus a few bucks for fuel).Savanna has been talking about organising a ball. Not the type you kick or bounce but more like the one you dress up for and attend. She is convinced that we are all going to get done up in our finest, invite lots of other people and have a big party. During the night we'll play pass the parcel (or parcel parcel as she calls it) and many other party games. There will be fairy bread all round as well of course.
We were laughing at the idea at first but it is growing on us. Maybe we'll just do it for the hell of it!
On the Monday we drove into town for some supplies only to find out it was the public holiday and everything was shut! This is what happens in this kind of lifestyle you see, you get completely out of touch with events like public holidays as they are of no consequence. Even weekends barely rate a mention.
Arriving back at camp the place was nearly deserted as everyone went home after the long weekend.
I used the time in the afternoon to install our Glind Hot Water Shower that attaches to the engine of the Land Cruiser and uses the hot coolant to heat the water for the shower. While I was doing this a bus arrived and set up camp nearby. The owner of the bus came over soon after to introduce himself (Terry) and we soon had a long chat about the merits of various camping shower systems. Him and his wife Sue are locals and come over here whenever possible to get away from the hustle and bustle of Port Lincoln and to catch some Razorfish. I have never heard of razorfish so was interested to find out more about them.
Terry suggested I come out with them and he'll show me how it's done. Sounds good to me!!
While nosing around under the bonnet installing the shower, I noticed the water level in the main battery was down to nothing. This was a surprise as I had checked it about a week ago when I changed the oil and it was fine. Bugger!!! We topped it up with water but there was a fair possibility it was knackered although the reason why it had run dry was a mystery.
Next day was Tuesday and I took the girls out on the boat and left Jen to her own devices to catch up on some paperwork and have a bit of time to herself. We managed to find a beautiful beach where we could drop the boat in and we had a great time motoring around the bay. Tried a bit of fishing without success but had fun in the boat all the same.
On Wednesday I headed out early with the video camera to check out Terry and friends razorfishing in the bay. Now the Razorfish is in fact a shellfish like a mussel but much bigger. The big ones are about 25 to 30 cm long. They live in the sand with the tops pointing out and will slice your feet to the bone if you stand on them - hence their name of razorfish.
You can pull them out of the sand relatively easily with your hands or use a large knife or similar to dig them out. Once out, you slide a long knife between the shells and cut the muscle that holds the two shells together, open them up and remove the muscle altogether. It is this muscle that you eat. It looks similar to a scallop and tastes quite mild (not like an oyster). You can eat them raw, pickle them or tenderize them, crumb and deep fry them.
The idea is that you head out onto the tidal flats at low tide carrying a container with you on your belt. As you find the razorfish you cut out the muscles, leaving the rest behind. The daily limit is 50 per person. Once back at camp you clean them up and either cook them up, pickle them or freeze them for later.
This was great content for our film and I decided to bring Jen and the girls out the next day to both show them and have Jen film me digging some out for our doco.
Later in the day our car would not start as the battery was completely flat and I decided to buy a new one just in case this one was no good even after recharging. We headed into Port Lincoln again and I swapped the battery and bought some better jumper leads as they old ones struggled to start the car earlier on (they actually didn't and I had to swap battery 1 and 2 to get the car to start).
We had installed our shower under the bonnet but did not have enough water with us to use it. There is no water available in the NP. Jen dropped in to a hairdressers in Lincoln and had a hairwash then we grabbed a coffee before heading back to camp.
Next morning, despite the rain, Jen and the girls followed me out on a razorfishing expedition and we trudged through the mud flats for about 1 km to get to the hunting grounds. Jen was a real trooper and filmed me catching and eating the prey while we stood in the cold rain and wind.
Later in the afternoon Savanna and I threw a line in from the rocks but still caught nothing - need some skills in the fishing department.
Sara had her afternoon nap and Savanna and I put the boat in one last time while we had the chance. That night Terry and Sue cooked up a bunch of razorfish for us which were sensational and we washed them down with some beers and wine from the Coonawarra.
On Friday, Terry and Sue headed back to Lincoln - their son was getting married on the Saturday so there was work to be done. They are planning to take off on their own "Big Lap" soon and we hope we catch up with them on the way around some time.
That afternoon we went back into town and I had the car checked at the auto electrician to make sure the battery was charging properly and they assured me it was. Jen did a few loads of washing and we had lunch of ham, cheese and tomato rolls which I made at the laundromat.
Next morning was a pretty mammoth pack up as everything had been taken out and needed to be put away. We got away about 12:30pm and headed into Lincoln for some fish and chips for lunch before heading back onto the open road towards the Nullarbor.
Having left so late in the day we didn't really have time to stop in anywhere for sightseeing and we made it as far as Elliston where we stopped for the night.
I would highly recommend Lincoln NP as a place to go and stay a while. Surfleet Cove was a choice location with toilets. No water or showers though so bring your own. Take a generator as well to keep everything working.
Stop 6 - Whyalla, SA - 1 night
Arrived: 10 March 2006
After
lunch we hit the road again and made it as far as Whyalla before
calling it a night. We set up in the beachside caravan park there
on some nice grass (much better than dirt) and cooked up some
steaks for dinner. Whyalla was once a big ship building town,
turning out 63 ships between 1940 and 1978 but fishing seems to be
the favoured activity now. Most of the people we ran into in the CP
had boats and were there to catch fish and/or blue swimmer
crabs.
We were heading for Lincoln National Park so no time to have a go at catching something in Whyalla. Next morning we were away by 9:30am and motoring on down the Eyre Peninsula with Port Lincoln in our sites. This is a really beautiful part of the world down here and another of those places I should have visited years ago. (Mum and Dad, why didn't we have more holidays when I was a kid??).
We stopped in at Port Neil for lunch by the sea and took a stroll down the jetty afterwards. This would be a good holiday spot for the family one day with sheltered waters, a nice beach and a jetty for fishing/swimming/jumping off.
We also stopped in for a quick look at Tumby Bay on the way down but finally we made it to Port Lincoln.
We were heading for Lincoln National Park so no time to have a go at catching something in Whyalla. Next morning we were away by 9:30am and motoring on down the Eyre Peninsula with Port Lincoln in our sites. This is a really beautiful part of the world down here and another of those places I should have visited years ago. (Mum and Dad, why didn't we have more holidays when I was a kid??).
We stopped in at Port Neil for lunch by the sea and took a stroll down the jetty afterwards. This would be a good holiday spot for the family one day with sheltered waters, a nice beach and a jetty for fishing/swimming/jumping off.
We also stopped in for a quick look at Tumby Bay on the way down but finally we made it to Port Lincoln.
Stop 5 - Port Pirie, SA - 1 night
Arrived: 09 March 2006
Our
destination was Mt Remarkable NP but by the time we were
approaching Port Pirie it was starting to get dark and we had
another 50km or so to the NP. We decided to wimp out and take the
soft option and stay at Port Pirie so checked into the CP there. I
have driven past Port Pirie a dozen times in my 37 years but never
stopped there so it seemed like the right thing to do
finally.
The nice grassy bit of the CP was undergoing a massive watering when we arrived so we had to settle for some nice dirt to set up on instead - at least we had a taste of the NP experience even if we had to pay an extra $20 a night for it.
The mozzies made a meal of us that night, especially the girls, and we would be hearing about it for the next week.
After the girls had gone to bed, Jen and I sorted all of our food we had brought and found homes for it in food tubs and any other nook and cranny we could find.
Next morning we packed and got away asap (10:30am) , stopping in at Mt Remarkable NP for lunch. This is another one of those nice places I have driven past many times and not stopped in to - there is a theme developing here. I spent 20 years growing up in Adelaide before escaping to see the world and while I was there I saw very little of my own state. Seems crazy now but I didn't travel much at all before age 20 so I assumed that everything outside of my home state was more interesting than where I lived. After having seen a lot more of the world now, I can see the real beauty that was right under my nose for all those years.
The nice grassy bit of the CP was undergoing a massive watering when we arrived so we had to settle for some nice dirt to set up on instead - at least we had a taste of the NP experience even if we had to pay an extra $20 a night for it.
The mozzies made a meal of us that night, especially the girls, and we would be hearing about it for the next week.
After the girls had gone to bed, Jen and I sorted all of our food we had brought and found homes for it in food tubs and any other nook and cranny we could find.
Next morning we packed and got away asap (10:30am) , stopping in at Mt Remarkable NP for lunch. This is another one of those nice places I have driven past many times and not stopped in to - there is a theme developing here. I spent 20 years growing up in Adelaide before escaping to see the world and while I was there I saw very little of my own state. Seems crazy now but I didn't travel much at all before age 20 so I assumed that everything outside of my home state was more interesting than where I lived. After having seen a lot more of the world now, I can see the real beauty that was right under my nose for all those years.
Stop 4 - Adelaide, SA - 3 nights
Arrived: 06 March 2006
The
drive into Adelaide was easy and uneventful and we stopped in at Mt
Barker to visit Nana after not seeing her since xmas. It was great
to catch up and Savanna and Sara especially were chuffed to see her
(and vice versa). We had drinks at Maccas before continuing on to
Adelaide Shores CP down at West Beach (keeping the beach theme
going).
Adelaide Shores is a BIG4 Park and is pretty massive. Although for an inner city park it is quite comfy. We met some nice people who were camped next to us with their caravan and 4WD (Betty & Kev) and the girls immediately adopted them as interim grandparents as often happens. They were kind enough to keep the girls amused while Jen and I set up camp.
Our first night in Adelaide was a quiet one.
Next day was a different story however. We had only a couple of days in town and plenty to get done. First job was some internet access to update emails etc. we managed to find an internet cafe in a haberdashery/embroidery shop of all places - talk about mixed business. The place was called Betanet on Jetty Road.
Next stop was to head into Snowys Outdoors Centre in Keswick which I have on good authority is the best of it's kind in Adelaide. The people there are very nice and helpful, especially the manager - Peter Glade-Wright . . . okay I am sucking up a bit, it's only because I'm hoping for a part time job there when I settle back in Adelaide next year. It's not so much about the money as the fact I just want to spend lots of time surrounded by all that cool gear!!
After adding a new chair for me to our inventory we headed into Bunnings for some other bit's and pieces then finally stopped into Autobarn for a new console for the Land Cruiser. We had come to the conclusion that the standard one is really a big waste of space. It only has one cup holder and tends to accumulate a lot of junk. Our plan was to take it out and leave it behind in Adelaide and bolt a small double cup holder to the floor in it's place. I could then move my video camera bag from behind my seat into the middle where I could grab the camera easily whenever I need to. And so it was done!!
If you've read any of this log in the past you probably know that we have abandoned Melbourne forever and will be settling in the Adelaide hills when our trip unfortunately comes to an end. Our deadline being Savanna starting school next year (unless I can convince her and Jen that 6 3/4 years old is not too old to start school - To this end we
needed to enrol savanna in her new school and let her have a look
around so she knew what she would be coming to next year. She's
pretty excited about going to school. So we drove up to Woodside
Primary and met the Deputy Head Master (Wendy) who showed us around
and gave us the appropriate paperwork to complete. While we were at
it we dropped in to the kindy where Sara will go which is just down
the road.
With these duties done we motored in to Mt Barker to meet Nana who was coming down to the beach for dinner with us tonight. Savanna jumped in her car and we headed on down.
Dinner was at Indochine in Jetty Road and was a nice selection of spicy Asian dishes (my favorite food). Savanna conked out around 9:30 and ended up sleeping on the floor in the restaurant. She was knackered!
Next day we went back and did some more internet updating before catching a tram into the city for some lunch. Ironic that we left Melbourne which is full of trams (none of which we ever caught) to go to Adelaide to ride on their one and only tram line.
That afternoon it was up to GG's house (Great Granma - Nana's mum, my Granny) for dinner. Over dinner she told us about her planned 4 week expedition to Cape York in June on a 4WD tour bus (her third trip to the tip). We then drove over to my uncle Peter's house for a catchup with him and his family.
With all of the family catching up done it was back to the CP to get some shut eye as we were heading off in the morning, aiming for Mt Remarkable.
Betty and Kev were kind enough to entertain the girls for us while Jen and I packed up and finally we hit the road. In some ways it felt like this was the starting point of our Big Lap as our trip will ultimately end here when we finally get back to Adelaide in January.
I managed to fill up both fuel tanks on the way out of town for $1.21 per litre for diesel which is the lowest I've seen for a while. We also stopped in at Bi-Lo for a major food stock up. We were heading into more remote regions from here and food was only going to get more expensive, so we decided to take as much as we could carry with us while we could still get it relatively cheap. Well, $400 and a trolley and a half full later we finally got mobile and lumbered on out down Port Wakefield road around 3pm.
Adelaide Shores is a BIG4 Park and is pretty massive. Although for an inner city park it is quite comfy. We met some nice people who were camped next to us with their caravan and 4WD (Betty & Kev) and the girls immediately adopted them as interim grandparents as often happens. They were kind enough to keep the girls amused while Jen and I set up camp.
Our first night in Adelaide was a quiet one.
Next day was a different story however. We had only a couple of days in town and plenty to get done. First job was some internet access to update emails etc. we managed to find an internet cafe in a haberdashery/embroidery shop of all places - talk about mixed business. The place was called Betanet on Jetty Road.
Next stop was to head into Snowys Outdoors Centre in Keswick which I have on good authority is the best of it's kind in Adelaide. The people there are very nice and helpful, especially the manager - Peter Glade-Wright . . . okay I am sucking up a bit, it's only because I'm hoping for a part time job there when I settle back in Adelaide next year. It's not so much about the money as the fact I just want to spend lots of time surrounded by all that cool gear!!
After adding a new chair for me to our inventory we headed into Bunnings for some other bit's and pieces then finally stopped into Autobarn for a new console for the Land Cruiser. We had come to the conclusion that the standard one is really a big waste of space. It only has one cup holder and tends to accumulate a lot of junk. Our plan was to take it out and leave it behind in Adelaide and bolt a small double cup holder to the floor in it's place. I could then move my video camera bag from behind my seat into the middle where I could grab the camera easily whenever I need to. And so it was done!!
If you've read any of this log in the past you probably know that we have abandoned Melbourne forever and will be settling in the Adelaide hills when our trip unfortunately comes to an end. Our deadline being Savanna starting school next year (unless I can convince her and Jen that 6 3/4 years old is not too old to start school
- To this end we
needed to enrol savanna in her new school and let her have a look
around so she knew what she would be coming to next year. She's
pretty excited about going to school. So we drove up to Woodside
Primary and met the Deputy Head Master (Wendy) who showed us around
and gave us the appropriate paperwork to complete. While we were at
it we dropped in to the kindy where Sara will go which is just down
the road.With these duties done we motored in to Mt Barker to meet Nana who was coming down to the beach for dinner with us tonight. Savanna jumped in her car and we headed on down.
Dinner was at Indochine in Jetty Road and was a nice selection of spicy Asian dishes (my favorite food). Savanna conked out around 9:30 and ended up sleeping on the floor in the restaurant. She was knackered!
Next day we went back and did some more internet updating before catching a tram into the city for some lunch. Ironic that we left Melbourne which is full of trams (none of which we ever caught) to go to Adelaide to ride on their one and only tram line.
That afternoon it was up to GG's house (Great Granma - Nana's mum, my Granny) for dinner. Over dinner she told us about her planned 4 week expedition to Cape York in June on a 4WD tour bus (her third trip to the tip). We then drove over to my uncle Peter's house for a catchup with him and his family.
With all of the family catching up done it was back to the CP to get some shut eye as we were heading off in the morning, aiming for Mt Remarkable.
Betty and Kev were kind enough to entertain the girls for us while Jen and I packed up and finally we hit the road. In some ways it felt like this was the starting point of our Big Lap as our trip will ultimately end here when we finally get back to Adelaide in January.
I managed to fill up both fuel tanks on the way out of town for $1.21 per litre for diesel which is the lowest I've seen for a while. We also stopped in at Bi-Lo for a major food stock up. We were heading into more remote regions from here and food was only going to get more expensive, so we decided to take as much as we could carry with us while we could still get it relatively cheap. Well, $400 and a trolley and a half full later we finally got mobile and lumbered on out down Port Wakefield road around 3pm.
Stop 3 - Robe, SA - 3 nights
Arrived: 03 March 2006
We
checked into a caravan park in Robe and set up camp and I whipped
up a quick Italian caserole number which went down pretty
well.
The next day was Saturday and Jen took the girls for a ride on their bikes while I stayed behind to do an oil change on the car and fix a few other little problems that had come up. The biggest of these being the fact that the second battery was not charging so the fridge would not run without 240volt power - big problem!! It turned out to be a wire had not been reconnected when the new motor was installed so it was an easy fix in the end.
Feeling pretty chuffed about finding the disconnected cable for the second battery, I set about swapping the oil filter and doing an oil change - something far more routine. I read up in the Toyota manual and they reckon when towing or other adverse conditions, an oil change every 2500km is recommended - are they serious?? That sounds crazy to me. It cost me $85 for 10 litres of oil and a filter. I can't see myself spending that every 2500km. In normal conditions, 5000 to 10000km is recommended so we'll go for the 5000km option.
Being Saturday night, we were scheduled to be on The Idlers on ABC Radio again so prepared for the occasion by getting out the video camera to record the interview (sound only of course) from the radio. Unfortunately the radio reception was pretty bad so Jen did not sound her best. Afterwards we got the girls off to bed and Jen and I watched a couple of episodes of "Long Way Round" - a 10 part doco about Ewan McGreggor and his mate Charlie Boorman and their motorbike ride around the world - great stuff!!
When we arrived at the caravan park and were setting up, we were being attacked by little sandflies or midgees as other people call them. The bites seem pretty insignificant at the time but they hang around and give you hell for about a week - unlike mozzie bites which clear up a lot faster and are not nearly as agressive.
Sara and Savanna had taken a beating and were suffering pretty badly at this point. We were applying Stop Itch and some other lotions and potions which helped to some extent but both girls had pretty rough nights trying to sleep. Jen and I were not much better off.
Sara has learn't a new phrase - "Cream On! Cream On!" which is her way of begging for relief from the bites.
In future we will try to be much more vigilant with the repelent and avoid this kind of grief.
It turns out that alcohol is a very good remedy for the constant itching from sandfly bites . . . taken orally in large quantities it can make the patient completely forget they have been bitten at all.
We decided to put the theory to the test and headed for The Coonawarra wine region to visit a couple of our favorite wineries - Wynns and Redmans and see if we could help sooth the infuriating itchies. On the 100km drive out there we had some very strange noises coming from under the car on a sporadic basis and we hypothosized at length as to what may be the cause of them. It was a definite metal scrapping sound and seemed to be related to the speed of the car, not the motor so I deduced that it was a noisy wheel bearing, possibly damaged in our accident a few months earlier. The noise came and went throughout the day and into the next day then suddenly it was gone!! go figure!! We now think it was more likely a stone caught in the front brakes that was rubbing occasionally and eventually fell out.
Anyway, we made it to the wineries and anjoyed some nice wines and bought a few bottles to take home. Both wineries were happy to be featured in our film so you'll be able to watch for yourself in about a year from now
The alcohol and insect bite theory didn't turn out to be true in the end but it was well worth a try!
On the way back from The Coonawarra we stopped in at Little Dip National Park, just south of Robe for some 4X4 action in the sand. I let the tyres down to about 18 psi and we headed for the soft stuff. On the park map it shows a track running the length of the park all the way into Robe so the plan was to follow it in (about 20km).
Well, we found the track and, before we knew it, we were on the beach only metres from the pounding surf in very thick sand with nowhere to go but straight ahead. To put it in simple terms, at this point I shit myself! With my foot flat to the floor on the throttle and doing about 3500rpm in first gear we were just making progress through the sand. If we stopped, we were buggered, plain and simple. I couldn't turn around, I couldn't change gears, all I could do was keep going. And I could almost feel the vibration of the waves pounding on the shoreline only metres away trying desperately to grab our newly repaired Land Cruiser and drag it to a certain salt wattery (and uninsured) death!!
The minutes passed and several kilometres later relief came when the track finally deviated up off the beach into the dunes. We pulled up and I almost fell out onto the ground, my legs were like jelly. We had plenty of sand driving practice up on Stockton beach a few months ago but that sand was relatively firm. This stuff in Little Dip was very soft and I probably needed to let the tyres down to about 12psi to get up on top of it.
We were not sure if the track ahead would get us back without needing to play on the beach again but we were not keen to go back the way we had come and tempt fate again.
Fortunately we found ourselves on some reasonable roads and managed to find a nice rocky jump up to tackle in low range and get some photos and video. Some light fun after the previous excitement.
Making our way back into Robe around dinner time we prepared for our departure the next morning with some pre-packing hoping to save an hour or so in the morning.
On the way out of Robe next morning we had a final look at some of the sights around town before heading back to the highway for the drive into Adelaide. Once again I passed the Coorong NP and I yearned to stop there for a week and get to know the area better. I've been hanging to get down and spend a couple of weeks there ever since I watched Storm Boy as a kid 30 odd years ago. Alas, we just don't have the time in our schedule. We'll be coming back here sometime next year though for sure.
The next day was Saturday and Jen took the girls for a ride on their bikes while I stayed behind to do an oil change on the car and fix a few other little problems that had come up. The biggest of these being the fact that the second battery was not charging so the fridge would not run without 240volt power - big problem!! It turned out to be a wire had not been reconnected when the new motor was installed so it was an easy fix in the end.
Feeling pretty chuffed about finding the disconnected cable for the second battery, I set about swapping the oil filter and doing an oil change - something far more routine. I read up in the Toyota manual and they reckon when towing or other adverse conditions, an oil change every 2500km is recommended - are they serious?? That sounds crazy to me. It cost me $85 for 10 litres of oil and a filter. I can't see myself spending that every 2500km. In normal conditions, 5000 to 10000km is recommended so we'll go for the 5000km option.
Being Saturday night, we were scheduled to be on The Idlers on ABC Radio again so prepared for the occasion by getting out the video camera to record the interview (sound only of course) from the radio. Unfortunately the radio reception was pretty bad so Jen did not sound her best. Afterwards we got the girls off to bed and Jen and I watched a couple of episodes of "Long Way Round" - a 10 part doco about Ewan McGreggor and his mate Charlie Boorman and their motorbike ride around the world - great stuff!!
When we arrived at the caravan park and were setting up, we were being attacked by little sandflies or midgees as other people call them. The bites seem pretty insignificant at the time but they hang around and give you hell for about a week - unlike mozzie bites which clear up a lot faster and are not nearly as agressive.
Sara and Savanna had taken a beating and were suffering pretty badly at this point. We were applying Stop Itch and some other lotions and potions which helped to some extent but both girls had pretty rough nights trying to sleep. Jen and I were not much better off.
Sara has learn't a new phrase - "Cream On! Cream On!" which is her way of begging for relief from the bites.
In future we will try to be much more vigilant with the repelent and avoid this kind of grief.
It turns out that alcohol is a very good remedy for the constant itching from sandfly bites . . . taken orally in large quantities it can make the patient completely forget they have been bitten at all.
We decided to put the theory to the test and headed for The Coonawarra wine region to visit a couple of our favorite wineries - Wynns and Redmans and see if we could help sooth the infuriating itchies. On the 100km drive out there we had some very strange noises coming from under the car on a sporadic basis and we hypothosized at length as to what may be the cause of them. It was a definite metal scrapping sound and seemed to be related to the speed of the car, not the motor so I deduced that it was a noisy wheel bearing, possibly damaged in our accident a few months earlier. The noise came and went throughout the day and into the next day then suddenly it was gone!! go figure!! We now think it was more likely a stone caught in the front brakes that was rubbing occasionally and eventually fell out.
Anyway, we made it to the wineries and anjoyed some nice wines and bought a few bottles to take home. Both wineries were happy to be featured in our film so you'll be able to watch for yourself in about a year from now
The alcohol and insect bite theory didn't turn out to be true in the end but it was well worth a try!
On the way back from The Coonawarra we stopped in at Little Dip National Park, just south of Robe for some 4X4 action in the sand. I let the tyres down to about 18 psi and we headed for the soft stuff. On the park map it shows a track running the length of the park all the way into Robe so the plan was to follow it in (about 20km).
Well, we found the track and, before we knew it, we were on the beach only metres from the pounding surf in very thick sand with nowhere to go but straight ahead. To put it in simple terms, at this point I shit myself! With my foot flat to the floor on the throttle and doing about 3500rpm in first gear we were just making progress through the sand. If we stopped, we were buggered, plain and simple. I couldn't turn around, I couldn't change gears, all I could do was keep going. And I could almost feel the vibration of the waves pounding on the shoreline only metres away trying desperately to grab our newly repaired Land Cruiser and drag it to a certain salt wattery (and uninsured) death!!
The minutes passed and several kilometres later relief came when the track finally deviated up off the beach into the dunes. We pulled up and I almost fell out onto the ground, my legs were like jelly. We had plenty of sand driving practice up on Stockton beach a few months ago but that sand was relatively firm. This stuff in Little Dip was very soft and I probably needed to let the tyres down to about 12psi to get up on top of it.
We were not sure if the track ahead would get us back without needing to play on the beach again but we were not keen to go back the way we had come and tempt fate again.
Fortunately we found ourselves on some reasonable roads and managed to find a nice rocky jump up to tackle in low range and get some photos and video. Some light fun after the previous excitement.
Making our way back into Robe around dinner time we prepared for our departure the next morning with some pre-packing hoping to save an hour or so in the morning.
On the way out of Robe next morning we had a final look at some of the sights around town before heading back to the highway for the drive into Adelaide. Once again I passed the Coorong NP and I yearned to stop there for a week and get to know the area better. I've been hanging to get down and spend a couple of weeks there ever since I watched Storm Boy as a kid 30 odd years ago. Alas, we just don't have the time in our schedule. We'll be coming back here sometime next year though for sure.
Stop 2 - Port Campbell, VIC - 2 nights
Arrived: 01 March 2006
We made
it into Port Campbell and headed for the caravan park to get
settled in for the evening.
They managed to give us a site that already had someone on it and then another one with the same problem!!! By the third time we found one ourselves and let them know where we were.
Next morning I was out of bed at about 6:00am and off to film and photograph the sunrise over the Twelvre Apostles. These early morning sunrise jaunts are one of my favorite parts of our trip. There is something magical about watching the sunrise, especially in a place as beautiful as The Twelve Apostles.
I got some great photos and some pretty good video so it was worth braving the cold and the early start.
I was back at camp at about 8:30 and had breakfast with the girls before heading off for a sightseeing day. With only one day in the region before heading over the border into South Oz, we had to make the most of it. Our plan was to head out to The Fly in the Otway Ranges and make our way back to The Twelve Apostles then Loch Ard Gorge for sunset where we would enjoy some "Patio" (pronounced Pay-She-O) while watching the sunset.
On the way out of Port Campbell we stopped in the town to get some supplies from the supermarket for the day and while heading back to the car were surprised to see a woman a few metres from us suddenly collapse onto the ground. Her friend jumped to her aid while I grabbed my phone and called 000 for an ambulance. She was out cold for about 5 minutes and we were not sure why. She hit her head on the road pretty hard when she fell but we don't know whether she fainted and knocked herself out on the ground or whether it was something more serious like a stroke. She was very disorientated when she came around but seemed to be okay otherwise. we left her in the care of her friends while they waited for the ambulance and headed off for our sightseeing expedition. Hopefully she had only feinted!
"The Fly" is a treetop scaffold walk built in the Otway Ranges which enables you to walk up into the canopy of the forest and see the world from a different perspective. It was well worth the drive and the $36 admission price so check it out if you are down that way.
After a quick photo stop at The Twelve Apostles, we found ourselves on the beach at Loch Ard Gorge where the girls had a great play in the water and Jen and I enjoyed our "Patio" while the sun went down. We were not dissappointed by our choice of location.
Now the infamous Matt Nelsen and Jackie Botroff know what I mean by "Patio" but for the benefit of others, I'll explain . . . "Patio" is the act of enjoying some dip and bickies, beers, wine and other fine things while enjoying a nice sunset or other similar spectacular scenery and generally feeling good about life.
Next morning we broke camp and drove the rest of the way across the southern Victorian coastline into South Australia. In hindsight, we rushed this section of the trip as there is so much to see along here. However, after a couple of lost months in Melbourne, we need to make up time if we are to get around the country in the next 11 months.
They managed to give us a site that already had someone on it and then another one with the same problem!!! By the third time we found one ourselves and let them know where we were.
Next morning I was out of bed at about 6:00am and off to film and photograph the sunrise over the Twelvre Apostles. These early morning sunrise jaunts are one of my favorite parts of our trip. There is something magical about watching the sunrise, especially in a place as beautiful as The Twelve Apostles.
I got some great photos and some pretty good video so it was worth braving the cold and the early start.
I was back at camp at about 8:30 and had breakfast with the girls before heading off for a sightseeing day. With only one day in the region before heading over the border into South Oz, we had to make the most of it. Our plan was to head out to The Fly in the Otway Ranges and make our way back to The Twelve Apostles then Loch Ard Gorge for sunset where we would enjoy some "Patio" (pronounced Pay-She-O) while watching the sunset.
On the way out of Port Campbell we stopped in the town to get some supplies from the supermarket for the day and while heading back to the car were surprised to see a woman a few metres from us suddenly collapse onto the ground. Her friend jumped to her aid while I grabbed my phone and called 000 for an ambulance. She was out cold for about 5 minutes and we were not sure why. She hit her head on the road pretty hard when she fell but we don't know whether she fainted and knocked herself out on the ground or whether it was something more serious like a stroke. She was very disorientated when she came around but seemed to be okay otherwise. we left her in the care of her friends while they waited for the ambulance and headed off for our sightseeing expedition. Hopefully she had only feinted!
"The Fly" is a treetop scaffold walk built in the Otway Ranges which enables you to walk up into the canopy of the forest and see the world from a different perspective. It was well worth the drive and the $36 admission price so check it out if you are down that way.
After a quick photo stop at The Twelve Apostles, we found ourselves on the beach at Loch Ard Gorge where the girls had a great play in the water and Jen and I enjoyed our "Patio" while the sun went down. We were not dissappointed by our choice of location.
Now the infamous Matt Nelsen and Jackie Botroff know what I mean by "Patio" but for the benefit of others, I'll explain . . . "Patio" is the act of enjoying some dip and bickies, beers, wine and other fine things while enjoying a nice sunset or other similar spectacular scenery and generally feeling good about life.
Next morning we broke camp and drove the rest of the way across the southern Victorian coastline into South Australia. In hindsight, we rushed this section of the trip as there is so much to see along here. However, after a couple of lost months in Melbourne, we need to make up time if we are to get around the country in the next 11 months.
Stop 1 - Lorne, VIC - 4 nights
Arrived: 25 February 2006
As our
planned re-departure day drew ever closer, the pace to get things
done quickened and again I liken it to the launch of the space
shuttle where hundreds of last minute checks and "to do" items need
to be done in the right order to ensure the launch window is
achieved. No doubt NASA does things in a slightly more precise and
orderly fashion than us but let's face it, their budget is a
squillion times more than ours so it is to be expected.
Mind you, the copious bits of paper with hastily scrawled lists stuffed into every pocket is better than no system at all and ultimately served the purpose.
So at about 12:30 pm on Saturday the 25th of February we finally made good our departure with Pete (my dad) and his wife Bev and their daughter Nerida there to farewell us.
Making our way through the streets, Savanna's first words were "can we watch a DVD now please" (we installed a new roofmount DVD player while in Melbourne). Obviously it was way too soon to be relenting to this pressure so we reassured her that as soon as we get out of Melbourne she could watch a DVD. There followed the inevitable round of questions as to where Melbourne actually finished and how close we were to it. Later on the DVD player would be welcome to break the monotony of long stretches of road but we were concious of it not dominating the travelling sections of the trip for the girls.
At the same time as Savanna was trying to negotiate the DVD player, I was getting a feel for the newly repaired rig and noticing all of the different sounds and nuances that it had developed since the crash 10 weeks ago.
The most obvious difference was that it lacked the pickup from a standing start that it had before. This is due to the larger tyres we are now running, 31" diametre to 33". By having a larger circumference they reduce power at the bottom end while reducing revs at cruising speed.
While not noisy, the new tyres have a different sound on the road and certainly a different feel. They are more dedicated offroad tyres (Cooper STT) than the previous (Cooper ST) with a chunkier tread pattern for maximum traction offroad. On road they still drive well but you can feel the tyres squirm more as you lean into corner. Not a problem, just something to get used to.
The new engine was noticably smoother than the old one but not more powerful. Being new it would still be tight and would no doubt loosen up over the next 5000km or so.
We made our way out to the Greensborough Bypass freeway and then onto the Western Ring Road heading for Geelong.
Being lunchtime, we were all pretty hungry so we made a quick lunch stop at Maccas on the western Ring Road and watched a huge storm roll through outside. Having had almost no rain in the 2 months we were in Melbourne it was a little ironic to be leaving in the middle of a severe storm.
Over the week leading up to our departure we had been going flat out getting organised and catching up with friends and kinfolk and I found it a struggle to stay awake after a couple of hours on the road. Rather than push on and risk the expedition jumping off the rails again we decided to stop at Lorne rather than push on to Apollo Bay as originally planned. It was still raining, I was tired and it was late in the afternoon. Tackling the twists and turns of the Great Ocean Road didn't make a lot of sense at that point.
Cruising into Lorne we were surprised by the number of people there, the place was jumping and we were concerned we would not find a place to camp. Our concerns were unfounded and we soon found a site in one of the 5 council run caravan parks (over 350 powered sites between them!!).
The majority of people in town were there for the Rescue 2006 Surf Carnival and for it looked like someone had picked up Broadbeach in the Gold Coast and relocated it to Lorne with bronzed lifesaver types everywhere. Either that or they were making new episodes of Baywatch (Jen's favorite show!!)
Setting up camp for the first time since December had a nice familar feel to it and we could not help but feel the excitement of the coming year in front of us. We also found that our signwriten car attracted plenty of attention and there were an endless stream of people dropping in to say g'day and see what we were up to. This was great and reinforced to us that we are doing something very worthwhile with this trip.
That night we had fish and chips for dinner and we all slept very well.
The Surf carnival wound up the next day on the Sunday and everyone cleared out of town. By Monday you would barely be able to tell it had happened.
Lorne turned out to be a great spot for our first stop and we had no regrets about not going all the way to Apollo Bay. I got up early before sunrise a couple of mornings and headed out to the Jetty to get some sunrise footage and photos. Being fairly new at film making I need to practice every opportunity I get to understand the techniques for getting good results. It looks easy when you see the end result on tele but getting the shots is another thing altogether.
The girls got new bikes for xmas and were glad for the opportunity to get out and ride them. Savanna's confidence grows everytime she gets on the bike and Sara will soon catch up as well.
Jen had a cold for most of the first week but true to form she didn't complain much.
I flipped open my laptop on the second night we were there to start tapping away at this trip log and discovered that I could access the internet via the wireless connection from Erskine House which was about 100 metres away - BONUS!!! Free wireless broadband!!! This came in very handy for updating our website with our departure details and emailing everyone on our subscriber list.
On the Monday we took a drive out to Erskine Falls about 9km out of Lorne. The Erskine River actually runs through Lorne and we were camped about 5 metres from it.
There are 250 steps to walk down then back up again at Erskine Falls and Jen volunteered to stay behind and look after Sara while Savanna and I took on the challenge. Jen is such a trouper, the sacrifices she makes . . .
The view was worth the walk and we found ourselves in a shady rock lined gorge looking up to the falls. Savanna was more interested in throwing stones into the rock pools and I was happy to see her doing something energetic after a big chill in front of the idiot box in Melbourne for 2 months.
After 4 nights in Lorne it was time to move on and we made our way across to Port Campbell on the Southern Coast, stopping along the way to take in the spectacular scenery with photos and video.
Apollo Bay wasn't totally neglected and we stopped there for lunch. Being on a tight budget we found Georges Food Court where you can get a whole chicken, a heap of chips and salad for 20 bucks which made for a pretty big lunch for the four of us.
Mind you, the copious bits of paper with hastily scrawled lists stuffed into every pocket is better than no system at all and ultimately served the purpose.
So at about 12:30 pm on Saturday the 25th of February we finally made good our departure with Pete (my dad) and his wife Bev and their daughter Nerida there to farewell us.
Making our way through the streets, Savanna's first words were "can we watch a DVD now please" (we installed a new roofmount DVD player while in Melbourne). Obviously it was way too soon to be relenting to this pressure so we reassured her that as soon as we get out of Melbourne she could watch a DVD. There followed the inevitable round of questions as to where Melbourne actually finished and how close we were to it. Later on the DVD player would be welcome to break the monotony of long stretches of road but we were concious of it not dominating the travelling sections of the trip for the girls.
At the same time as Savanna was trying to negotiate the DVD player, I was getting a feel for the newly repaired rig and noticing all of the different sounds and nuances that it had developed since the crash 10 weeks ago.
The most obvious difference was that it lacked the pickup from a standing start that it had before. This is due to the larger tyres we are now running, 31" diametre to 33". By having a larger circumference they reduce power at the bottom end while reducing revs at cruising speed.
While not noisy, the new tyres have a different sound on the road and certainly a different feel. They are more dedicated offroad tyres (Cooper STT) than the previous (Cooper ST) with a chunkier tread pattern for maximum traction offroad. On road they still drive well but you can feel the tyres squirm more as you lean into corner. Not a problem, just something to get used to.
The new engine was noticably smoother than the old one but not more powerful. Being new it would still be tight and would no doubt loosen up over the next 5000km or so.
We made our way out to the Greensborough Bypass freeway and then onto the Western Ring Road heading for Geelong.
Being lunchtime, we were all pretty hungry so we made a quick lunch stop at Maccas on the western Ring Road and watched a huge storm roll through outside. Having had almost no rain in the 2 months we were in Melbourne it was a little ironic to be leaving in the middle of a severe storm.
Over the week leading up to our departure we had been going flat out getting organised and catching up with friends and kinfolk and I found it a struggle to stay awake after a couple of hours on the road. Rather than push on and risk the expedition jumping off the rails again we decided to stop at Lorne rather than push on to Apollo Bay as originally planned. It was still raining, I was tired and it was late in the afternoon. Tackling the twists and turns of the Great Ocean Road didn't make a lot of sense at that point.
Cruising into Lorne we were surprised by the number of people there, the place was jumping and we were concerned we would not find a place to camp. Our concerns were unfounded and we soon found a site in one of the 5 council run caravan parks (over 350 powered sites between them!!).
The majority of people in town were there for the Rescue 2006 Surf Carnival and for it looked like someone had picked up Broadbeach in the Gold Coast and relocated it to Lorne with bronzed lifesaver types everywhere. Either that or they were making new episodes of Baywatch (Jen's favorite show!!)
Setting up camp for the first time since December had a nice familar feel to it and we could not help but feel the excitement of the coming year in front of us. We also found that our signwriten car attracted plenty of attention and there were an endless stream of people dropping in to say g'day and see what we were up to. This was great and reinforced to us that we are doing something very worthwhile with this trip.
That night we had fish and chips for dinner and we all slept very well.
The Surf carnival wound up the next day on the Sunday and everyone cleared out of town. By Monday you would barely be able to tell it had happened.
Lorne turned out to be a great spot for our first stop and we had no regrets about not going all the way to Apollo Bay. I got up early before sunrise a couple of mornings and headed out to the Jetty to get some sunrise footage and photos. Being fairly new at film making I need to practice every opportunity I get to understand the techniques for getting good results. It looks easy when you see the end result on tele but getting the shots is another thing altogether.
The girls got new bikes for xmas and were glad for the opportunity to get out and ride them. Savanna's confidence grows everytime she gets on the bike and Sara will soon catch up as well.
Jen had a cold for most of the first week but true to form she didn't complain much.
I flipped open my laptop on the second night we were there to start tapping away at this trip log and discovered that I could access the internet via the wireless connection from Erskine House which was about 100 metres away - BONUS!!! Free wireless broadband!!! This came in very handy for updating our website with our departure details and emailing everyone on our subscriber list.
On the Monday we took a drive out to Erskine Falls about 9km out of Lorne. The Erskine River actually runs through Lorne and we were camped about 5 metres from it.
There are 250 steps to walk down then back up again at Erskine Falls and Jen volunteered to stay behind and look after Sara while Savanna and I took on the challenge. Jen is such a trouper, the sacrifices she makes . . .
The view was worth the walk and we found ourselves in a shady rock lined gorge looking up to the falls. Savanna was more interested in throwing stones into the rock pools and I was happy to see her doing something energetic after a big chill in front of the idiot box in Melbourne for 2 months.
After 4 nights in Lorne it was time to move on and we made our way across to Port Campbell on the Southern Coast, stopping along the way to take in the spectacular scenery with photos and video.
Apollo Bay wasn't totally neglected and we stopped there for lunch. Being on a tight budget we found Georges Food Court where you can get a whole chicken, a heap of chips and salad for 20 bucks which made for a pretty big lunch for the four of us.