8 July, 2017 by Cruisers

Coalseam National Park

6th – 8th July, 2017

Thursday 6th

We’re heading south now on the unsealed Carnarvon-Mullewa Road with purpose – to meet up with our daughter and granddaughter in Perth next week.

The countryside through which we travelled. This photo is taken right beside Bilung Pool.

The few cattle we saw on this arid-looking country looked in surprisingly good condition. Few cars passed us and we went through no towns before stopping for the day at Bilung Pool, with only two other campers. This lovely permanent waterhole is quite a surprise appearing from nowhere in this featureless country, surrounded by large old River Redgums. It’s about 10 metres below the surrounding plain with striking cliffs down which waterfalls would cascade after rain. A beautiful, quiet free camp.

Bilung Pool. Can you see our motorhome in the distance on the edge of the cliff? Magic overnight stop.

Friday 7th

Our travels today were very pleasant. The countryside changed little from yesterday, the unsealed road was very recently graded (ie we passed the graders working on it) and there were a couple of interesting places for us to stop. This road is a part of the tourist drive ‘The Woolwagon Way’, along which the first sheep were brought by drovers and subsequently the wool bales were taken south to the markets. Bores were dug every 15 – 20 km to provide water for the sheep and cattle on their journey. We stopped at one of these bores which is still fully functional.

The drinking troughs that can be filled with water from the well.

Further on was the story of the grids. We’ve crossed dozens and dozens of cattle grids so far, each interrupting a fence line, the fences in various states of repair these days, some good, others broken and useless. Back in the days before grids the farmers had gates at each of these places which a traveller on the road would have to stop to open, drive through, then stop again to close. There were more than 100 gates. Imagine how annoying that would be. However one rather large German man who travelled the roads frequently carrying wool and supplies would drive his truck straight through them smashing the gates and allowing the sheep and cattle to escape or intermingle with their neighbours. He was apparently too big and strong for any of the pastoralists to fight so they took to designing gates that would pierce his radiator if he ran into them. He eventually hired an offsider who would jump out at each gate to open it for him, close it after he went through, then he’d have to run to catch the truck as the German wouldn’t stop to wait for him. Rumour has it that it was because of this man that cattle grids were eventually installed along this road – we’ve got a lot to thank him for!

Brunch was at a roadside lookout – any hill higher than about 10 metres out here gives 360 degree views! Some very industrious people have enjoyed creating a bit of rock art for our pleasure.

Stone art – interesting.

The Murchison Roadhouse is quite an oasis on this trip. The Shire offices are here, a lovely grassy playground, a grassed caravan park, a red dirt sports arena and the Roadhouse. We refuelled (cheapest fuel we’ve seen in a long time) bought an ice cream and had a break – free wifi so checked our social pages! A museum with items supplied by the surrounding properties was well worth a look-around. Nina, a friend of Ric and Gill’s who we met in Brisbane last January walked up and said hello – what a surprise.

A surprise meeting with Nina, at Murchison Roadhouse.

The place was very busy as a polo cross competition was starting the next day on the sports arena and semitrailer-sized horse floats were pouring in.

After this lovely break we moved on down the now-sealed road to Ballinyoo Bridge free camp on the banks of the beautiful Murchison River. Another idyllic campsite, on our own!

The Murchison River beside our campsite.

Saturday 8th

Chilly again this morning – 1 degree!

Back onto unsealed roads we headed to Mullewa. Suddenly agriculture started to appear – wheat fields with new growth and a canola field covered in bright yellow flowers. It’s all or nothing out here!

Mullewa is a small, pleasant town – no grocery store we could see, and no shops open. We lunched here and Steve prepared the roast for tea and put it into the Dreampot.

Coal seam Conservation Park, our destination today, is a small park through which the Irwin River runs – when it rains. There’s a trickle in it now. However in years gone by it must have been spectacular as it has carved a deep valley for itself with high cliffs on one side, where a coal seam has been exposed. They began mining it in the 1920s, WAs first coal mine, however there not being a lot of it and it being poor grade, mining soon stopped. A walk into the dry riverbed to view the cliff face with its layers, one being coal, was interesting, before we drove to the lookout at the top of the cliff and on to the campground.

At the lookout at Coalseam Conservation Park

The camping area is well laid-out, spacious, flat compacted deco sites with natural vegetation between each site, and Eco-toilets. It’s $11/n but no one here to collect it and no where to leave the money.

Click here for more photos.

5 July, 2017 by Cruisers

To Kennedy Range NP

1st – 5th July 2017

Saturday 1st

Just a transfer – back to Exmouth to restock everything and catch up on the world – how did we ever manage before the Internet? Then an uneventful drive south to Lyndon River free camp for the night. WA has positioned these free camps fairly regularly along the highways – big open areas to park, toilets, picnic tables, a dump point, bins and even wifi sometimes. They are excellent for an overnight stop on the way to somewhere. – well done WA.

Eagle – We saw dozens of these majestic birds all through the inland, cleaning up road kill.

Sunday 2nd

A long drive today, continuing down the coast road to Carnarvon before heading east to Gascoyne Junction. The school holidays have begun – all good grey nomads know to either stay put during holiday times, or stay away from the coast. We chose to head inland. But first, lunch in Carnarvon. It was funny to be driving through mallee, acacia and even salt bush again then very suddenly find ourselves amongst market gardens, banana plantations and mango orchards as we approached Carnarvon.

Carnarvon foreshore.

After our lunch and a walk along the foreshore and over the old tramway bridge we headed out to Gascoyne Junction. Our campsite is simply listed as Picnic Area in WikiCamps and has some pretty weird comments. Being the one who chose this as our destination I was a bit nervous about it, needlessly! It’s a lovely spot on the edge of the Gascoyne River, which here is a wide, deep pool with black swans and other waterbirds gracing its waters – it doesn’t actually flow unless there’s been a significant rain event.

Another lovely, quiet campsite beside the Gascoyne River outside Gascoyne Junction.

Monday 3rd

Leaving Gascoyne Junction we headed north to Kennedy Range National Park. Interesting drive along a very good, unsealed road following the dry Lyons River with the usual mallee, acacias and spinifex growing on the plains, flat as far as the eye could see. Until, suddenly a perfectly flat-topped Range appeared on the horizon. Kennedy Range, or Mundatharrda as it’s been known to the indigenous people for centuries, is a 75km x 25km mesa that rises about 100m above the plains and is formed of sandstone and shale laid down when the area was under the ocean.

The mesa of Kennedy Range.

The weathered southern and eastern sides have spectacular cliffs and gorges eroded by the rivulets that would join the Lyons River, should it rain!

This road is a part of the Woolwagon Way (one of the tourist routes promoted by WA tourism). We came upon the cobblestone road which was built by pick and shovel in the 1920s so that the new form of transport for the wool, the truck, wouldn’t get bogged so easily. What a mammoth task!

Cobblestone Road.

A rather nice feature the WA National Parks has is volunteer camp hosts at their campsites. The hosts greet new arrivals, give basic information about the national park, suggest the activities available, take the camping fees ($11/night here) when not prebooked online and facilitate the sundowners. All the hosts we’ve met have been very pleasant. Most are retirees who stay, free of charge, in their own van or motorhome for about 4 weeks before the next volunteers take over.

After settling in, ie having lunch, getting dinner into the Dreampot and doing the washing, we headed off to do the Escarpment Trail, a 4km Class 3 walk that involved lots of scrambling over rocks as we climbed up the length of a Gorge to reach the top of the mesa. A difficult climb. However the rewards were there with lovely views to the horizon over the plains, while closer in we could see down into the gorges and way down to the camping ground.

Our camping area at Kennedy Range National Park

The rocks were very interesting here – so many different colours. The shale layer was shaped so oddly in places it looked like it was formed by volcanic activity into lava tubes – but no mention of volcanic formation in the literature, so probably not. As the light changed it went from jet black to indigo blue and dark purple.

More of these very peculiar rocks that could be lava, if we didn’t know better.

Sundowners was around a large communal fire pit chatting to the other campers. It’s enjoyable to talk to someone other than each other, and you get great tips on other places to stay.

Tuesday 4th

The walks to Honeycomb Gorge and Sunrise View were on the agenda today, about 10 to 12 km. Honeycomb Gorge was a surprise. I’d never seen landforms like it before – caused by weathering of the sandstone.

Amazing! What a stunning landform. Honeycomb Gorge

Sunrise View, not surprisingly on the eastern side of the Range, had views over the plains. The walks were from the campground and followed the base of the Range amongst the huge boulders that had tumbled down from above – fortunately none loose today.

From Sunrise Lookout

Another pleasant sundowners around the communal fire pit with the other campers.

Wednesday 5th

Still two more walks to do here – one into Temple Gorge, the other into Draper Gorge. Both walks were quite challenging the further we walked into the gorges as we scrambled over and climbed up boulders and along ledges. Both had permanent pools at their head, at the base of what would be waterfalls in the wet season.

The ‘temple’ at Temple Gorge.

Back at Priscilla we farewelled the Kennedy Range National Park and moved back to our free camp at Gascoyne Junction, which now has No Camping signs around it. We camped further in along the dirt road beside the river, out of sight. Gascoyne Junction is a tiny place with few visible people, even the fuel station is automatic. They do however have a very expensive caravan park, $40 for a powered site, hence our choice to stay where we did.

To see more of our photos from this part of our adventure CLICK HERE

1 July, 2017 by Cruisers

Whale Sharks and Ningaloo

23rd June – 1st July 2017

Friday 23rd (Happy birthday Gill)

Today we’re swimming with whale sharks! Whale sharks are the largest fish in the oceans, thankfully plankton feeders. We met our boat and the other 18 excited tourists and 5 crew at the Tantabiddy boat ramp – Whale Shark n Dive is our tour group. There are 5 groups do the whale shark tours but I don’t reckon any of the others were as good as ours. Our boat, Kialla, is a 50ft dive boat which means there’s heaps of room in the wide, flat stern, hot freshwater showers, nice big toilets and broad ‘steps’ forming the ‘marlin board’ to easily enter and exit the water. The crew were all very professional, educational and fun. And the real ‘barista’ coffee we started the morning with was a great kick-starter.

We were outfitted in wetsuits with snorkels, goggles and fins, though Steve and I had our own brand new ones. Snorkelling first – the coral bommies we snorkelled over weren’t very colourful but had a great variety of fish.

The spotter plane tells the boats where the whale sharks are – they’re solitary animals, always swimming alone. On the way out to see them and several other times during the day, we paused to watch the humpback whales swimming north, blowing plumes of water, saw their tail flukes and Steve saw a really spectacular whale breach (I was looking the wrong way – sad face).

Classic photo – fluke of a humpback whale

We had 6 swims of 5-10 minutes each time with the whale sharks and I can honestly say it was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever done! These massive fish swim just underneath the surface at an easy enough pace that you can snorkel alongside them watching them. We went in in groups of 10 (no more than that permitted) and Steve and I both felt we had pretty amazing swims right beside the whale shark. If you get the opportunity to do this, don’t pass it up!

The spotter plane also spotted a group of manta rays feeding, so the boat headed there next and we swam with them for a while – beautiful, graceful animals.

On our way back to the jetty we also spotted a couple of dugongs (two-gongs, hee hee – Frankie, our skipper’s joke. He said last week they spotted five of them – penta-gongs!).

For more photos of our wonderful time with the whale sharks, whales, manta rays and dugongs CLICK HERE.

Back on shore we headed further south down the western coast of the Exmouth Peninsula and into Cape Range National Park. Very fortunately for us about 10 days ago another camper told us you have to book early to camp here. We wanted to stay for a week but even then weren’t able to book one site for that length of time. However there are lots of National Parks camps all along the beach so we booked two nights in each of 4 camps. Tonight we’re at North Mandu which only has room for 5 campers where we capped off a fantastic day sitting on the pebble beach with a scotch watching a perfect sunset.

The pebble beach at North Mandu.

Saturday 24th – Friday 30th (Happy birthday Kimberly)

The World Heritage listed Ningaloo Reef at more than 300km long is the largest fringing coral reef system in Australia. As a keen snorkeller of coral reefs I’ve been looking forward to being here for many years. The reef varies from about 200 meters – 400 metres offshore in the Cape Range NP section where we’ll be camping. Inside the reef is a partially protected lagoon. Within this lagoon there are coral outcrops which can be accessed from the shore. The Oyster Stacks is recommended as a top spot so we went there on the first day. The entry into the water is difficult with jagged, weathered limestone rocks to negotiate.

The Oyster Stacks. The bommies just offshore are where the fish and corals are.

The coral can’t compare to the beautifully coloured corals of the Great Barrier Reef – occasional areas of green, blue and purple staghorn corals, but on the whole it’s a dull brown. In its favour though are the abundant and beautifully colourful fish – and lots of schools of quite large fish too, trevally maybe. We returned here on our last day and I enjoyed a lovely swim with heaps of fish and a very graceful turtle.

Turquoise Bay. Beautiful sandy beach. We did the ‘drift’ snorkel.

Another day we snorkelled at Turquoise Bay. This beautiful white sandy beach bay has a drift snorkel area where you start at one end and the current sweeps you down to the other end – taking care to stop though before being swept out to sea through the reef! As mentioned a really beautiful bay, but the same brown sponges and corals and not as many fish as Oyster Stacks, though we did see a very large turtle crunching on the coral.

The next couple of nights we spent at North Kurrajong campsite. Here the national parks have provided a covered picnic table on the foredunes behind which we’re camped. Sundowners while watching for whales at sunset is de riguer. We saw plenty of whales just on the other side of the reef and half a dozen dolphins playing in our lagoon. Lots of kangaroos, a few dingoes and even echidna call this park home.

Enjoying sundowners at North Kurrajong campsite

On to Osprey Bay campsite which is huge, covering about 3 acres, all campsites level and well-spaced. Here there are no foredunes so views are directly to the ocean. The beach at one end has low, weathered cliff edges, the other end lovely and sandy.

Walking along the beachside from Osprey campsite

Snorkelling along the edge of a rocky shelf about 100 metres offshore found the most fish – schools of all sizes of beautifully coloured fish and those great big trevally again – some would be a metre to a metre and a half long. A couple of turtles languidly floated on by and stingrays camouflaged themselves pretty well in the sandy bottom.

The downside has been the wind making it uncomfortable to sit outside, and one evening it blew so strongly all night that the motorhome was rocking. Tent campers and those who left annexes out overnight had a pretty rough time.

At the far end of Cape Range National Park is Yardie Gorge which has been carved out by Yardie Creek. We did the 2.5km Class 4 rock scramble up the sides of it to view from above one day. Like the other gorges we’ve seen it has striking high red cliff edges and is quite beautiful.

Yardie Creek at Ningaloo

The next day we put the kayak in and paddled up the creek. The water is so clear – and cold! We went to the far end, paddling against a gentle current and a strong wind in places. The Gorge is a rock wallaby protection zone. The return trip was a very pleasant drift sitting back admiring the cliffs, rock wallabies and nesting egrets – altogether a delightful way to spend a couple of hours.

Yardie Creek Gorge

Click here to see our photos of Ningaloo campsites and snorkelling.

22 June, 2017 by Cruisers

Dampier and Karratha

19th – 22nd June 2017

Back on the road beside the Tom Price-Karratha railway and it’s now sealed – yay, only sealed roads now in our foreseeable future. We were surprised how Outback-ish the countryside still is, spinifex and acacias or low shrubs the main flora, although the wildflowers are coming out and we passed many clumps of white flowers, yellow flowers or the very striking red Sturt pea.

Tonight we’re staying in the very small, old, expensive ($38/n) caravan park at Dampier, where our view of the Indian Ocean (joy!) includes the ore loading wharf where 4 ships were being loaded.

Dampier iron ore loading wharf – from our caravan park.

Dampier also ‘mines’ sea salt – the drying lagoon isn’t very attractive but the huge piles of salt are certainly interesting. But before settling in there we took Priscilla to a car wash – we now have our lovely shiny silver motorhome back again.

Steve and Red Dog, the Pilbara Wanderer

Dampier and the nearby, larger town of Karratha have both suffered from the downturn in mining with many empty homes and closed stores. We had a good look around Karratha before beginning our journey south. It’s more prosperous and attractive than Dampier with lots of cafes, a good shopping centre, high-rise holiday apartments, new canal estates and a few places where lookouts give great views to the ocean and surrounding Dampier Archipelago.

Karratha, from the hilltop.

Tuesday night we stayed at Robe River and Wednesday night at Yannabie, both very large free campsites about 200 metres off the highway. Both have toilets and lots of bins, Robe River also has a free WIFI hotspot and is beside a lovely wide river. Needless to say both were packed with campers!

The flora, despite being in the tropics and close to the coast, continues to be spinifex and low shrubs – not unattractive, just unexpected.

Thursday we arrived in Exmouth where we stocked up on groceries and water ready for the coming week. Exmouth is a tourist town being the northern point of WA’s “Coral Coast”. In view of this and our plans for the next week we also bought snorkels, goggles, fins and rashies. No free camps here – $42 at the caravan park.

For more photos CLICK HERE

19 June, 2017 by Cruisers

Millstream Chichester National Park

17th – 19th June 2017

Saturday 17th

Leaving our campsite we descended for about 5 km into Rio Tinto Gorge via a sealed, one lane road. A lovely drive made better by not meeting any road trains coming the other way!

Heading into Rio Tinto Gorge as we left the campsite at Hamersley Gorge turnoff.

Once at the bottom 162km of dirt road with all its corrugations took us to Millstream Chichester NP. The countryside through which we drove continues to surprise us with its beauty – we followed ranges and water courses, some, like Hooley Creek where we stopped for a cuppa, having water in them.

Millstream Homestead.

At the NP the Millstream Homestead is now set up with information displays, each room covering either geology of the region, indigenous life before white settlement, or the pastoralists. It’s a lovely homestead with big wide verandahs all around, lovely lawns and once upon a time had an ant-bed tennis court. The owners ran sheep mostly, but also some cattle, and had a large kitchen vegetable garden which was very productive. The spring-fed Fortescue River at the bottom of the garden provided a permanent supply of sparklingly clear water.

Fast-flowing little creek that runs at the bottom of the Homestead’s garden. This was used by the settlers to bathe in and to water their extensive vegetable gardens. Before white settlers the local aboriginal people kept these creeks pristine and bathing/swimming in it was not permitted – sensible when it’s your water supply.

Apart from the economical difficulties of dingoes killing the lambs and falling beef prices, life here would have been very pleasant. A quiet night at Miliyanha campsite ($13.20/n) which has a new camp kitchen, gas stove top, gas BBQs and several picnic tables. Nice place.

Sunday 18th

This morning we did the 9.5km walk from the homestead to Cliff Lookout above the Fortescue River. The walk started near the river, which is quite narrow but only followed it for a little while before heading through palms, acacias and grasses, which had not long ago been burnt. We returned via the cycle path which was even further from the water – not one of our most memorable walks.

The views from Cliff Lookout over the Fortescue River were pretty good. Just look at that horizon disappearing in the far distance. Amazing country.

Back at camp we drove to Deep Reach, which is a beautiful, long, wide part of the river lined with palms and acacias. The white cockatoos call it home, very raucously.

Wow! Now look at the Fortescue River – bit bigger than just a few kilometres back at the Homestead. This is Deep Reach.

National Parks has done an outstanding job here providing lots of covered picnic tables and 3 gas BBQs set amongst the natural vegetation. A wide lookout with seating showcases the river and safe concrete steps lead into the water. The water was beautiful for swimming, pleasantly cool. The rainbow serpent, Wayu lives in this pool and it’s said to be so deep as to be bottomless. After a refreshing swim we stayed here reading and relaxing until near sunset.

Sunset at Deep Reach.

Unfortunately there was no break between the flies going in and the mossies coming out. We beat a hasty retreat to Stargazers campground, the other site within in Park, where we BBQd our meal along with a few other campers and the camp hosts. A very pleasant evening with good company and no mossies.

Monday 19th

The highlight today before we left Millstream Chichester NP was our brunch break at Python Pool. An unsealed road running alongside the railway line, where we saw several very, very long ore trains, took us there, the last 5km or so, from the railway to the Pool, in pretty bad repair. However, that was when the scenery was most spectacular.

What a spot for a cuppa! Northern section of Millstream Chichester National Park – on the way to Python Pool

This is a small pool, its feature being the enormous cliffs that bound it – though thankfully not on the side we access it from. Yes the water was chilly but the chill soon wears off and it was another delightful swim.

Slowly entering Python Pool

To see more of our photographs from Millstream Chichester Park CLICK HERE

16 June, 2017 by Cruisers

Hamersley Gorge

14th – 16th June 2017

The next two days were spent in the mining town of Tom Price. Neat little town, well organised though the caravan park was a bit far out of town ($42/n). Washing, shopping, cooking and catching up on emails and internet filled our days.
We were all prepared to travel the Rio Tinto rail road with the required permit, having watched the videos on what you could and couldn’t do – like wear a red shirt .. it’s a danger signal to the train drivers. However the lady at the Tourist Info centre said the road was in pretty bad shape as lots of B Doubles were using it, recommending we take the Shire road instead to go to Millstream NP. Going this way we’ll be able to see another section of Karijini NP.
Friday 16th we headed off – the Shire road is unsealed and though it’s OK for 2WD it’s a bit rough and corrugated. We went as far as Hamersley Gorge on the north-west corner of Karijini NP. This Gorge has a similar red, layered rock, but the fold lines in the strata are amazing. This rock was folded like pastry a million years ago!

The folds in the rock are the most striking feature of Hamersley Gorge.

The river through the Gorge flows down sloping rocks forming small waterfalls and lovely pools before disappearing between narrow chasm walls to continue on. We jumped into the chilly water for a very refreshing and invigorating swim – thought briefly about swimming through the chasm to see the Gorge downstream, but without a wetsuit it was just too chilly for us. I enjoyed sitting under the waterfall with lots of 2 – 3 inch-long fish swimming around my feet.

Sunbaking at Hamersley Gorge.

The few people who were here when we arrived left and we spent a tranquil hour or so lazing on the sun-drenched rocks enjoying the total peace of this amazing place.

The perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon. Hamersley Gorge

There’s no camping allowed here, however about 2km away, just outside the National Park, there’s a large, cleared area for free camping. It’s a top spot surrounded on all sides by mountains with Snappy Gums and spinifex providing dividers and shade for campers. Sundowners was greatly enjoyed watching the sunset on the hills.

Sunset at our campsite just outside Hamersley Gorge.

Surprisingly this remote location has 4G – there’s a mine in the mountains to our north-west … that’s the reason for it.

To see more photos from our day at Hamersley Gorge CLICK HERE.

14 June, 2017 by Cruisers

Karijini National Park

12th – 14th June 2017

A couple of hours drive up the road is Karijini National Park – our destination for the next few days. Our drive along the Great Northern H’way was very pleasant as the landscape once again became covered in trees, still plenty of spinifex though, and hills and mountain ranges began to appear. We stopped to look for the Manna Munna aboriginal rock paintings but there was no signage and as we walked in, (rocky, washed out areas on road) we didn’t want to explore fruitlessly too far.
The whole of the Hamersley Ranges area was known to the indigenous people as Karijini – it’s only the national park that now respects that name. The tourist brochures describe the park as one of the most spectacular sights in the Pilbara. We can’t argue.
The camping area is huge with very well-spaced, numbered sites. We paid $55 for an annual WA Parks Pass, which we plan to make good use of over the next couple of months, and $13.40 per night (senior’s discount) to camp at Dales Campground. The access into Dales Gorge blessfully has a series of steel steps and landings that must go for 250m – it’s a very steep-sided, deep Gorge.

Dales Gorge from the rim – Fortescue Falls seen in the centre of the photo.

We walked to Fern Pool at one end, then along the Gorge floor to the opposite end passing Fortescue Waterfall and Pool, doing lots of rock-hopping, scrambling, climbing, descending and river crossing to get to Circular Pool at the other end.

Ferm Pool, Dales Gorge.

I’ve been in quite a few gorges now and this has to be the most stunning. The pools are fed by waterfalls and have crystal clear water right to their depths. The river that joins them and has formed the Gorge is in some places narrow and traverses the rocky platforms as rapids while just a little further on it will open out into a wide, quiet expanse bordered by water plants and bulrushes.

The very beautiful walk along the floor of Dales Gorge.

The walls of the Gorge are sheer on both sides with dark red bands of compressed iron and silica coming down to what looks like layers of slate. Where the two meet the water seeps out from the cliff edge providing an ideal environment for ferns to grow on their steep sides.
This whole Gorge is a special place for the indigenous people, with Circular Pool being the sacred home of the Wargu. There’s no swimming or loud noises permitted here. Steve and I were lucky enough to have this beautiful pool entirely to ourselves for about half an hour – it really did feel like a very spiritual place.

The beautiful, tranquil Circular Pool at the far end of Dales Gorge.

We returned to our campsite after climbing steep rocky steps to the top of the Gorge above Circular Pool, then walking along the rim to our starting point getting spectacular views of the Gorge from above.

The meeting of two gorges – Dales Gorge.

Tuesday 13th
A drive to Weano Gorge this morning, still within Karijini NP – there’s camping there, but it’s privately run and 3 times the price we’re paying at Dales.

The beautiful landscapes of this country. Near Karijini NP

We started at Joffre Falls Lookout. Lovely waterfall cascading into a big pool. We could see the walk down from the lookout and it involved lots of scrambling down the slate-like rocks – long arms and long legs an advantage.

Steve at the Lookout into Joffre Falls and gorge.

We decided to head over to Weano Gorge and walk it instead. Once more the descent was very steep down uneven steps. At the bottom we headed to Handrail Pool – to get there involved walking in the creek. We took off our shoes and waded in but it got deeper and slipperier as we progressed so turned back and walked the length of the Gorge, admiring the completely different range of plants compared to those above. We returned via the rim walk.

Weano Gorge base walk. Challenging in places – but very beautiful.

Next was Hancock Gorge, the Amphitheatre and Kermits Pool. I’d seen photos of Kermits Pool and was keen to see it for myself, despite the “Class 5 – for very experienced bushwalkers” warning notices placed strategically all around. The descent was similar – steep, uneven steps, then a steel ladder and more steep steps. Tumbled down slabs of rock alongside the burbling stream had to be negotiated, the Gorge all the while becoming narrower and narrower until finally we were clinging to jutting out slabs of rock while edging carefully along inch-wide ledges above the water.

This is the way you go to get to the Amphitheatre, Hancock Gorge.

A temporary widening of the chasm allowed us a moment to relax before it was inevitable we’d have to wade through the water for some 30 metres, fortunately not so deep now, though it was still up to my backside. This time we left our boots on and didn’t bother to try to keep our clothes dry – the boots decision was a good one – not so slippery, feet protected from sharp stones. We came out at the very aptly named semicircular Amphitheatre, the tiered ‘seating’ being formed by the slabs of stone and the stage being a delightful, tranquil pool.

The narrow chasm at the end of the pool leads to Kermits Pool, from the Amphitheatre Weano Gorge

Kermits Pool was still further on. We watched a few people negotiating the ‘Spider Walk’ through the very narrow chasm entrance to it before our attempt. It’s so narrow that to enter we had one foot and one hand on either side of the chasm, finding grooves and barely-there ledges to put a foot on or grasp for support while taking another step. Challenging, and just a little scary when your legs aren’t that long! Anyway we both made it unscathed and were rewarded with the truly beautiful Kermits Pool.

Kermit Pool Hancock Gorge. Though the walk looks cloudy, it isn’t. It’s crystal clear as deep as you can see.

It was so magnificent that a swim just had to happen. We both stripped off (not everything!) and jumped in. Well … I have never been in water so cold. It was only 20 metres to the opposite side but I was worried I wasn’t going to make it I was so cold. The narrow Gorge continues beyond that point and looks pretty amazing but entry is forbidden – too dangerous I’d guess. After getting my breath back and a little warmth into my bones we then had to repeat the swim back, the Spider Walk, the clinging-to-ledges, the wading through the chasm, the rock scrambling and finally the tricky ascent back to the top of the Gorge. Definitely worth every second of all that effort, fear and cold.
Sadly we leave Karijini now. If ever we’re back I’d like to do it all again and take an extra couple of days to slowly enjoy the place.

For more photos of this time in Karijini NP CLICK HERE

11 June, 2017 by Cruisers

From gold to iron ore

1st – 11th June 2017

A day of decisions today – where to next? First though we moved on to Leonora – a pleasant-looking town. We’re camped beside Malcolm Dam – lovely to see all that water!

Sunset over Malcolm Dam outside Leonora.

Leonora is a pleasant town – main street with all the shops you need within a block. The butcher was interesting – no meat on display and a sign complaining the health department was trying to close him down beside a petition signed by customers attesting to his shop being ok. With great hesitation we bought 2 steaks – we didn’t get sick and they were delicious.
Most of the stores had security mesh across them – all the glass being covered. It seems a happy enough town at the moment, maybe this is leftover from times gone by.

Gwalia is a ghost town just 5 kilometres up the road. A significant gold discovery in 1896 saw the construction of an underground mining operation managed by the 24-year old Herbert Hoover – yes the man who later went on to be president of the USA. He designed and had built Hoover House and several other buildings required for the mine. We went through the house, now a B&B, and the mine museum. It was very good.

The dining room in Hoover House. The thing that looks like a cake tin at this end of the table is a replica of a gold bar. At an investors dinner in the early 1900s Hoover had real ones on the table to demonstrate the prosperity of this mine. Gwalia

The house sits atop a hill within walking distance to where the underground mine shaft was. It has lovely gardens and a big wide verandah along two sides which would have been very pleasant in days gone by. The Gwalia mine was very profitable, only closing down in 1964. It reopened as an open cut mine which is what we see today – a huge hole in the ground.

The open cut gold mine at Gwalia. As you can see the pit covers a small area, but it’s the deepest in Australia.

That too closed, but another underground shaft has been sunk in the hole to 1500 metres deep, the deepest gold mine in Australia. Apparently there’s another seam of gold at 2000 metres but they’re not mining that as their technology isn’t able to handle the temperatures at that depth.

This is the magnificent Gwalia Hotel, opened in 1903 and closed in 1964 when the Gwalia Gold Mine closed.

This is the magnificent Gwalia Hotel, opened in 1903 and closed in 1964 when the Gwalia Gold Mine first closed.

Free camping tonight in the museum car park. Fellow campers are hobby gold prospectors, spending weeks at a time out in the surrounding countryside with metal detectors – nah, not for me!

Saturday we headed west staying the night at Peter Denny Lookout, which looked remarkably like Giles Breakaway – these ‘breakaways’ seem to be common out here. Sunday we moved on to Mt Magnet which is where we’ll be farewelling our travel buddies of the last month. Ken and Wendy are heading to the coast and we’ve decided we’ll keep going north. We’ve had a great month travelling with them, enjoying many experiences together, not to mention many evening fires. Thanks for being great company Ken and Wendy.

Beautiful sunset from campsite at Mt Magnet.

Beautiful sunset from our campsite at Mt Magnet.

The traffic on the Mt Magnet road and Great Northern H’way is principally road trains. These behemoths of the road travel at 100km/hr and at 53.5 metres long (we’re 7) you’d have to be crazy to overtake one. The turbulence when passing in opposite directions rocks the motorhome.

No need for the warning – I won’t be overtaking one of these giants.

Anyway, annoyingly we copped a stone on the windscreen from one which left a star crack. Out came the windscreen repair kit and despite our inexperience it’s now nearly impossible to see the crack – thanks Ric for recommending this magic little kit. Tonight’s free camp was just north of Mt Magnet – Steve reckoned the road trains passed every 3 minutes all night. Luckily we were well off the road and they didn’t disturb us.

Today is a public holiday in Western Australia. We brunched at the lovely little town of Cue – beautiful old buildings and a fabulous picnic area to rest in.

Some of the beautiful buildings in Cue. This used to be the magistrates court, prison and police station. It’s still the police station.

A catch-up on admin and internet time in Meekatharra took up most of the afternoon. Tonight we’re camped at Peace Gorge, another breakaway, and very peaceful! Peace Gorge was so named as this is the place the towns folk came together to picnic and celebrate the ending of World War 1 – over 150 young men from Meekatharra enlisted, many were badly wounded or killed.

Tuesday we did a little shopping at the excellent Foodland then continued our journey north, stopping for the night at a campsite alongside the Gascoyne River. The scenery since leaving Leonora has all been a bit same-same – mostly mulga scattered over the gravelly, bare red earth. There is a lot of road kill now – mostly kangaroos. The carcasses don’t last long though as crows and huge black eagles make short work of them.

By the amount of roadkill on the roads I'd guess the roadtrains don't brake for these guys.

By the amount of roadkill on the roads I’d guess the roadtrains don’t heed this caution.

We loved this spot by the Gascoyne River so much we stayed two nights. After all the other campers left and the road trains stopped (they seem to be most frequent in the morning then all night) we settled in for an idyllic day beside the flowering gums and red mulga lined river to birdwatch.

The beautiful Gascoyne River, just near our campsite.

We saw lots of birds we’d never seen before such as masked wood swallows, yellow plumed honeyeaters, lots of budgerigars, a magnificent white-necked heron that posed directly across the river for about half an hour, red-backed kingfishers, a whistling kite and a nesting Australian hobby, as well as all the usual cockatoos, galahs, etc. This campsite has redeemed the area for us.

Nesting budgies. Gascoyne River

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on our way to the mining town of Newman. We may be in the tropics now but this climate is still semi-arid. Newman came into being in 1966 for the sole purpose of supporting the mining of iron ore by BHP at Mt Whaleback. We booked in to do a mine tour.

Mine tour preparation.

Mt Whaleback has a very high grade iron ore. After an area has been blasted the ore is moved using one of their 3 shovels or 3 excavators and loaded onto the ore trucks. There are 40 – 50 ore trucks each with a load capacity of 240 tonnes. The ore goes through several processes onsite before being loaded onto trains to be taken to Port Hedland for export. The ore trains are comprised of 4 locomotives and 260 ore cars – this 2.6km long train is under the command of one driver. There are 25 of these laden trains heading to the Port every day, while another 25 empty ones are returning.

The Mt Whaleback open cut iron ore mine. Newman

Interestingly all the functions of the mine are controlled from Perth. The mine control room uses a GPS system that tracks all the machinery to within 10cm and is able to tell the weight of ore carried by each truck and all other data about it. Even the ore analysis laboratory is run by robots.

After our tour we visited the Matuwirri Art Centre. Lots of beautiful art on display. Some of the artists were among the last aboriginals to come in from the desert. The building is fabulous, even having a large undercover area at the back that can be enclosed or entirely opened up where the artists come to paint when they’re in town.

This is the artists section of the art gallery, where the indigenous artists come to paint when they’re in town. It’s a fabulous space for them that they helped to design along with the architect.

The golf club provided lunch for us for two days and we enjoyed visiting this town. Camping is $10/n at the Information Centre.

The view over the town of Newman from the radio tower lookout.

For more photos of our time in the mid north of WA CLICK HERE.

31 May, 2017 by Cruisers

The Great Central Road

26th – 31st May 2017

The Outback Way is Australia’s Longest Shortcut stretching from Winton in Queensland to Laverton in Western Australia, crossing through 3 states. From these starting and ending points it can be extended coast-to-coast from Cairns to Perth. We’re doing the section from Yulara to Laverton, known as the Great Central Road.

Friday 26th

DAY1_TRACK_MAP
After a little last minute shopping in Yulara we got away, pausing only for the classic photos of us and our vehicles at Uluru. We stopped at the Kata Tjuta viewing area for lunch. I think the best descriptor for this place is ‘awesome’, in its most literal sense.

Kata Tjuka. Aboriginal creation stories tell us they are all young men.

The blacktop ended the moment we left Kata Tjuta. Corrugations and sandy patches on a wide road took us to our overnight destination.

We never tired of the contrasts between the beautiful deep red soil, the cloudless (mostly) blue skies and the lovely greens of the wattles and mulgas.

The countryside was unexpected – it’s covered in grasses and flowering spinifex with areas of acacias and mulga – not the bare earth I was expecting. The bird life is prolific with lots of tiny blue birds, a couple of bustards (very unusual birds!) and the occasional eagle to keep us company.
Our campsite tonight is just a short detour off the road surrounded by flowering wattles, mulga trees and grasses.

Our first campsite on the Great Central Road. This is descriptively named ‘Little bush camp’.

Saturday 27th

Day2_TRACK_MAP

Steve and I and now Wendy have this rotten virus. I had a poor nights sleep, but today is a whole new day. Continuing westward we stopped for a cuppa and a look at Lasseter’s Cave.

Lasseter’s Cave. It’s a pretty substantial cave.

In the 1920s, when the Great Depression started, Lasseter contended that some 20 years earlier he’d found a fabulously rich gold reef. He was sufficiently convincing to get a very well-funded and supported team togeterher to find it again. After a lot of fruitless searching the team had given up any hope of finding it and left Lasseter. He sheltered here in this cave for 25 days in 1931. There are varying theories about what happened to Lasseter, one being that he died in a small community not far away, another that he headed off overseas. Either way it was good that he disappeared as a lot of money and time was invested into trying to find his 5 mile reef of pure gold, Lasseters Reef – a very unlikely story, however even today prospectors still look for it.

Lasseter’s Reef information board.

Next stop was the aboriginal community of Kaltukatjara (Docker River) which has a population of 355. We drove past lots of rubbish and dogs to the General Store, which is well-stocked with fresh fruit, veggies, frozen meat, including kangaroo tails and general grocery items. There were quite a few mums and bubs around, must have been child health clinic day.

The turnoff to Docker River.

The road to Docker River has been reasonable – average corrugations and a few stony patches. The next 30 km were pretty rough though.

The hub cap tree – near the turnoff to Docker River.

About 10km from Docker River we crossed the border from the NT into Western Australia.

We’ve arrived. Western Australia here we come.

For lunch we stopped at Gill Pinnacle. This whole drive has been very beautiful with the rolling hills of the Peterman Range to the south of us, flowering spinifex and muted green trees with drooping bracts – Desert sheoaks. From the elevated campsite at Gill Pinnacle (where the dozer drivers are currently camped) there’s views to hills, ranges and mountain tops in every direction. However, the dozer drivers do have the best spot so we drove on to camp by the Giles River – a dry creek bed, of course!

Gill Pinnacle – a recommended campsite, but a bit early for us to stop yet. Just a cuppa.

Sunday 28th

Day3_TRACK_MAP

It rained a little overnight – nothing much, and continued to do so on and off most of the day. In places it settled the dust, further on for about 20km the road was wet with puddles, but not slippery or muddy fortunately.
Our first stop was at the Roadhouse at Warakurna, an aboriginal community of about 180 people where we all had a hot drink and Steve had a shower. Due to petrol-sniffing being a problem with some people in these remote communities only diesel and Opal, an unleaded petrol substitute, are available.

At all the road houses along this trip the fuel bowsers were individually locked up in cages. This one is selling Opal – which is a variety of low-aromatic 91 RON petrol developed in 2005 by BP Australia to combat the rising use of petrol as an inhalant in remote Indigenous Australian communities.

The Giles Weather Station is only a couple of kilometres outside Warakurna. This station is close to the centre of Australia and in the middle of the subtropical jet stream providing important data on weather influences for eastern and south eastern Australia. As well as a weather radar and other monitoring equipment, a weather balloon to record the atmospheric conditions is released from here daily.

Interesting museum at the Giles Weather Station.

This site was chosen by Len Beadell, the famous surveyor and road builder, to forecast suitable weather conditions for the nuclear weapons testing that was happening at Emu Creek and Maralinga in the 1950s and later for the rocket launches from Woomera. Beadells bulldozer, which covered some 30,000km in road construction, and wreckage from the Blue Streak missile, the first launched from Woomera, are on display here.

The remains of the Blue Streak Rocket, the first rocket launched from Woomera.

Continuing on we stopped at the Gnamma Holes for lunch. On the northern side of the road is a large flat area interspersed with shady shrubs, great for camping; the Gnamma Holes are on the southern side. We saw 4 holes ranging from 1 – 3 metres in diameter and full of water. These permanent waterholes were an important source of water for the nomadic aboriginals and animals, being replenished from underground supplies and rainwater runoff. Due to their small surface area evaporation is reduced; an important feature in this arid country.

The Gnamma Rock Holes

Our long-range fuel tanks have been great on this trip, allowing us to bypass expensive fuel stations. However it’s cutting it fine to do the full 1100 km on one tank so we’re pushing on to Warburton to refuel. With a population of 470 Warburton is the largest town between Yulara and Laverton. Sundays the Roadhouse closes at 3pm so we covered the next 150km without any stops, making it with 20 minutes to spare. We’re very pleased with our fuel economy – 600 km since last refill and we still had just a little less than ½ a tank left.

Our campsite tonight is called Rock Hole camp and is on an escarpment overlooking the plain to the west. Another gorgeous, solitary campsite. We cooked our meals on Ken’s fire; brilliant little invention of his.

Surveying the countryside from our campsite for the night.

Monday 29th

DAY4_TRACK_MAP

There was some light rain last night and today we drove through several light showers. The road was muddy with a few puddles in places but not enough to bother us.
Feral camels are becoming more common and today a male camel stood in the middle of the road and stared us down for awhile before showing us his rear end, literally, and galloping off. Later we saw a group of about 8 camels just off the road.

OK – now that’s just a bit rude, don’t you think!

Brunch for us today at Surf Central. How could you not stop at a place with a name like that in the middle of the desert? It’s an attractive campsite with mesa-like red cliffs full of holes and caves. An intriguing place, but I couldn’t see any link to surf.
Tjukayirla (pronounced chook-a-yerla) Roadhouse provided lunch and a rest stop. For a kilometre or two before the roadhouse the road is sealed road and very smooth – turns out it can become the Royal Flying Doctor emergency airstrip if necessary.

At Tjukayirla Roadhouse.

Lots of road works happening – the bulldozers are around Surf Central, and several kilometres of road being prepared for sealing just after Tjukayirla.
We finished the day at Nullye Soak with yet another roaring campfire on which Ken cooked us all his famous pork belly. Lovely evening – not too cool, stars sitting on the horizon in every direction.

Our campsite at Nullye Soak from the surrounding escarpment.

Tuesday 30th

DAY5_TRACK_MAP

The road condition was so-so today – some good patches but more of it rough or corrugations. Apparently the folks at Cosmo Newberry have been granted Land Rights over some of the land the road runs through and a few political problems have arisen preventing the upgrading of those sections.

Right, got it! That’s the way to Cosmo. And with the colouring of the sign I don’t think I could go too far wrong in assuming it’s an aboriginal township.

The landscape changed again today. It was low shrubs and 3 – 4 metre high mulga or acacias, but as we came over the escarpment the mulga disappeared and the foot-high bushes and spinifex covered the land as far as the eye could see. The variety of landscapes and flora along this remote arid drive has been surprising and stunningly beautiful, particularly when their muted greens and creams are contrasted with the deep red dirt of the road. Many of the plants are flowering too.
We stopped for a cuppa at another mesa-shaped breakaway where a large white-painted cross has been erected. A flock of pink galahs swooped very low and noisily over our heads as we explored the caves and holes here. We discovered a couple of permanent waterholes and I’m guessing they were nesting in the many holes in the cliff face.

Galah defending territory at White Cross.

More camels today, however we’ve all been surprised by the lack of other animals spotted – not even any road kill. The countryside has plenty of greenery and numerous gnamma holes.

The small aboriginal community of Cosmo Newberry was worth a drive into. One day I’ll find out how it got its name! No photos allowed – most of the aboriginal communities we’ve passed through have that stipulation on them.

Lunchtime found us at Giles Breakaway. This beautiful campsite is one we couldn’t go past, so stayed for the night. Breakaways are a geological formation. There’s a photo of the interpretive board in the photo gallery (linked below) which explains them. We reversed the vehicles to the edge of the escarpment and had the most beautiful views over the sunken plain.

Sunrise on the beautiful red cliffs of Giles Breakaway.

An eagle circling over the white sand base surrounded by the variegated white, red, craam and browns of the cliff was mesmerising. She was nesting in a near-by tree.

Sundowners overlooking this breakaway has been another of the delights of this road trip.

Such a good camping spot we just had to toast to it – Giles Breakaway.

Friday 31st
Sadly we finished the Great Central Road today. It was only 55km on to Laverton. We had a cheer when we finally rolled onto the bitumen.

Yay – we’ve hit the bitumen. 1100km of dirt roads behind us.

On conclusion of this trip I think it must be considered to be one of the World’s great road trips.

The end of the Great Central Road. Loved every minute of it.

Ken and Wendy – just finished the Great Central Road. Still smiling!

Once settled into the Laverton caravan park with electricity, water on tap and hot showers it was cleaning, restocking and catching up with all things Internet before a celebratory dinner and the State of Origin football at the Desert Sands pub.

Two wonderful vehicles that have carried us through thick and thin without a complaint. Love our TRAKKAS.

To see more of our photos from this adventure CLICK HERE.

25 May, 2017 by Cruisers

Uluru and Yulara

Tuesday 23rd – Thursday 25th May (Happy birthday Laura)

Yulara for the next 3 nights ($90 for 3 nights). The Field of Light is an artistic installation added since our last visit here. It is comprised of 50,000 solar powered lights placed on stalks of varying heights in the ground and 380km of optical fibre. The lights subtly change colours throughout the 49,000 sq metre area covered. We found it quite soothing, ethereal even, and yet dramatic in this vast setting with thousands of stars shining down on it.

A beautiful experience at Field of Light. Pity you can’t also see the stars in the sky in this photo.

The Ranger-guided Mala Walk at the base of Uluru was thoroughly enjoyed again (did it two years ago) only this time we continued on and completed the 10.7km base walk. Uluru is something that must be experienced – there are so many physical aspects to it, then layering aboriginal creation stories and culture onto it makes the experience unforgettable.

Contemplation pool – Uluru

The 25th is Ken’s birthday. To celebrate we shared a bottle of champagne at camp then moved on to the Outback Pioneer’s restaurant. Luckily we’d booked – they were booked out and not accepting walk-ins when we got there. We all enjoyed our meals and ate a bit too much sweets!

Steve and I are both sick – coughs, URTI and laryngitis. Such a pity – I’d wanted to do a few more of the free activities here. Looks like we’ll have to come back again another time.

For photos of this brief time we spent in Yulara and Uluru CLICK HERE.

Cruisin' Chronicles

. . . do what you can while you're able

Coddiwompling