We left the van at the South Hedland Golf Club, where we knew it would be safe and sound, and after having the fridge gas issue taken care of, we were confident enough to take off on our camping trip via hundreds of kms of dirt road.
The first night we made Marble Bar - the hottest place in Australia, and it yes it was rather warm, 39 on the way, but only 37 when we lobbed in there about 4pm. The town was a bit of a surprise, 'cos we were expecting dry & dusty, but in fact it was a neat little town, and offered a very pleasant little caravan park with grass even !!!
We put up our tent, talked to some locals and then headed out of town a wee bit to the Marble Bar pool, a lovely natural swimming hole in amongst the fascinating marble looking rock (from whence the town got it's name) which is actually jasper. The water was divine, after a hot dusty drive, but the mozzie's were not so pleasant.
Once again, as on quite a few occasions so far on this trip, we have retired to bed smelling like the old fashioned "flit gun" or for the younger readers, smelling like pure insect repellant !! The insects here were quite ingenious, and somehow managed to bite us between the smears of Deet !! But we survived with the help of Telfast & Phenergen, and in the morning continued our journey to Newman.
A fairly underwhelming town, which we did a quick rekky of, bought a few supplies & Trevor having missed out on a mine tour (wrong timing) we headed off again for Karijini National Park, where we found a great camp spot at The Dales camp at Fortescue Falls. In the morning we left our tent setup & drove to the other side of the National Park, where we visited all the gorges on the map. Most of them were way too steep for us to be bothered actually getting to the water, but all had excellent lookouts, so we admired them from above, and saved our legs for the Fortescue Falls back at base camp.
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| Fortescue Falls |
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| Fern Pool |
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| Fortescue Falls |
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| Circular Pool, The Dales Camp |
As with many of the gorges & water holes we have experienced, the surrounding landscape is very deceptive in its concealing of these amazing water features. One would never imagine, travelling through the flat, and sometimes boring & dry terrain, that just beyond that hill, or amongst that group of trees, one can find an oasis of pure beauty that defies the imagination, and water that refreshes & revitalises the weary & hot traveller.
From Karijini we drove to Tom Price, which was a surprisingly neat and tidy little town, obviously servicing the Rio Tinto mine & miners. Unfortunately Trevor missed out again on a mine tour here as an APT tour bus had commandeered the daily tour, and called the shots for timing, so insisting the tour was at 8am instead of the advertised 10am. We lobbed into town at 9.20 well in time (we thought) but alas it wasn't to be. The tour was already well under way. However, we were able to take the 4WD road to the top of Mount Nameless (the tallest mountain in WA) which overlooks the town and the mine, and had to be satisfied with that view.
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| Tom Price Rio Tinto Mine |
So after leaving Tom Price, we continued our dirt road excursion to Millstream National Park, where we camped at Crossing Pool beside the Fortescue River. A delightful spot right on the river, and offering a wonderful refreshing, and I have to say "cleansing" swim, after a long, hot & dusty drive.
We have driven through some magnificent scenery, some like an Albert Namatjira painting, with a foreground of pure white ghost gums, and golds & greys of the foliage and grasses beyond. The Western Australian wildflowers are beginning to show their colours, and we've been delighted with spotting the Sturt peas, and other flowers in whites & mauves, oranges & yellows. So pretty & unexpected in the harsh, dry countryside. We've seen ranges of seemingly green rounded hills, which on getting closer, appear more like large piles of broken terra cotta bricks held together by unusually green spinifex. Some ranges really do look as though someone has dumped huge piles of red rocks in the middle of completely flat plains. Fascinating !!
After leaving the river, we continued on our way back to Port Hedland, stopping off at Python Pool (still in the Millstream & Chichester National Park) for a refreshing dip in yet another stunning & unexpected gorge. Port Hedland was hot & still dusty, and we couldn't wait to hook up the van and take off. Last night we stopped off at Roebourne (a kind of mid-way town) & I managed to do the washing before setting off again this morning for a quick drive through Point Samson, a pleasant beachside town.
Karratha was our next brief stop for lunch and shopping for supplies. That town sports a very modern and swish shopping centre, complete with Jamaica Blue & Muffin Break!! I was gutted that the Jamaica Blue coffee machine had broken down, so had to be satisfied with a coffee at Muffin Break, which was almost as good. We enjoyed a quiet respite of virtual normality (sitting down for a quick bite & a coffee), then on to Dampier which surprised us, because of its neat, tidy buildings & streets, and delightful waterfront. We would have stayed had we not had our sights set on 40 Mile Beach/Gnoorea Point, which is where we sit tonight.
Our van is overlooking the beach, we have a ready-made fireplace should we wish to light a fire, and we are ready to sit a while, relax & regroup. Our car is now in serious need of at least a good dusting, and certainly re-packing which we will do over the next day or two.
The bonus is we have Telstra coverage (albeit a little limited) and therefore wifi.......so we will enjoy taking a break here for a few days. So enough for now - more to come.
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| Trev's new office |
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