9th Nov - Cape Range National Park

It is blowing 35 km gusts here at present.  We were thinking of camping out Cape National Park but didn't fancy getting sand in our cracks.....of our tent!    So we do a day trip instead, $11 entry and we rapt when a family of emus crossed our path, there were at least 6 chicks and we thought mum, but apparently the mums just lay the eggs then nick off.   It's the dad that sits on the nest and brings the little fellows up.   Good on you Dad!  We couldn't get an accurate head count cause the little fellows move too quick.

We head down to the end of the bitumen road, Yardie Creek.  Past here is 4WD country only and sandy all the way.   There is several camp options along the 50km stretch of coast each with their own camp host, but only toilets available, no showers, electricity etc.  
We set out to do the Yardie Creek gorge walk, takes a little over an hour along the ridge, with a couple of gullies in between.    We have seen so much spinifex along the way, but I didn't know it flowered this little purple flower, pretty but the spinifex is prickly as if you brush up against it.

I've never met anyone who loves climbing as much as my Darl.    He loves living on the edge!  This is where the ranges meet the sea literally.  There is warning signs everywhere, don't go near the edge for risk of crumbling rocks etc.  I just tell Darl if he slips and falls to be sure to throw the back pack up for me so I at least have food and water for the rest of the journey.....  We see one black footed rock wallaby here.

We had a bit of a wander on Yardie Creek beach then continue back up the road to Pilgonaman Creek.  (Opposite Pilgramunna Camp) - here we travel a narrow dirt rocky hilly road, yep this is 4WD road, to get to the entrance of the creek gorge.    It is a dry creek gorge and we walk for about an hour in search of the little black footed rock wallabies.  We find quite a few in here, in the shade of the rock walls.   Yep my Darl had to do another rock climb, he nearly had an accident when a rock wallaby jumped out at him!  Two in the centre of this pic, double click to get the enlarged version.

From there we went to check out Turquoise Bay - they have a drift pool there for snorkellers, though my Darl opted not to give it a go, as it was very windy, choppy and he didn't want to risk drifting our to sea.   But the water was picture perfect.  We ran into our neighbours from Broome, Nina and Ash, they were soaking it up, snorkelling.   We then checked out the Milyering Visitor Centre in the Park, very informative and great displays.   Foxes, wild cats, goats are all problems in this park and they have laid 1080 baits to help erradicate the problem.  The native animals apparently are immune to these baits. 

7th - 8th Nov - Enroute to Exmouth

The Pilbara region is very scenic, we found the local drag strip on the west side of Paraburdoo, it went for kilometres, a lot of dollars in burnt rubber there!    We meander through the hills, mountains, rocky outcrops, changing colours of landscape.    The drive is much more interesting now, once we did that stretch from Broome to Port Hedland.

We filled up at Nanutarra road house.  Fuel 189.9 c/ltr - haven't seen it that dear for a while.   We check out the Camps 6 book and head 70kms down the road to Barradale Rest Area.  Just at the back is a little humpy style camp, vans, trucks etc., the guy is a roo shooter and sells his tails to the local aboriginal community or for that matter anyone wanting tails I guess.   It is blowing a gale here and no chance of hammering in the pegs in this rock hard ground.  This place used to be a roadhouse, built by twin brothers back in the mid 60's.  It's beside a creek and it's driza-bone.

There is another camp spot in the Camps 6 book, Emu Creek Station, 22kms of dirt road put me off that one, but Darl checked it out on his pushie and reckons it's a good dirt road, yeah okay I have heard that so many times before.  Anyway they do Devonshire Tea, so I said let's give it a go..... Well we drove over the BEST dirt road so far in Oz, for the BEST Devonshire Tea ever.   Fresh baked scones with home made jams and fresh whipped cream.  It is worth the diversion just for that.  But also it is a beaut little spot, a working cattle station, ex sheep station.

The owners got rid of the sheep back in 2006.  The old wool shed is a bit of an attraction now and it turns 100 years next year, so celebrations are being planned.   We end up spending a couple of hours here, had a look at the shed, walked down to Emu Creek, which for the most part has water in year round.  Easter this year a bloke stood on those rocks in middle with a snorkel just poking through the top of the water level.   There is canoes to go paddling also.   We recommend a look or stay for anyone travelling by this way, you won't be disappointed.

We arrive at Exmouth and book into the Ningaloo Caravan and Holiday Resort.   They have a deal going on, pay 3 nites get the 4th night free, so we can't knock that back can we.    Ningaloo National Park awaits, where the ranges meet the sea.  Snorkelling, fishing, whale watching is all the go here, plus the famous swim with the whale sharks.  However we are too late for them as they leave around July, they knew we were coming but just couldn't afford to hang around for another 4 months.   Never mind cause it is now Turtle nesting season Oct-April.

6th Nov - Tom Price

Rusty, Kell, Murray (Muzz), Tylor - thanks to you guys, saved us from being carried away by mozzies at Tom Price caravan park, which we found out later from other travellers....

Tom Price is a very family orientated little town of about 5-6000 people.   They have all the sporting clubs available, including T Ball, basket ball, softball, plus a brand new swimming complex.  They are also upgrading the shopping precinct to including more shopping options and a tavern.

The age of technology, which Darl and I aren't up on much.    Rusty keeps in close contact with his boys, Brody and Calib, via Xbox games/headset.  His boys live south of Perth.                          We couldn't quite believe this photo, so I had to take a pic, one of Rusty's mates took this at Fortescue falls.    Imagine the feed the snake had, apparently it couldn't move for a few weeks after and sat on the ledge of the gorge for all that time.  We can't imagine how long the snake took to devour this feast down his gullet.

Tylor got a little bored on Sunday and offered her assistance to Mel who was changing the front/back tyres around.    Good on ya Darl, looks like he is supervising while Tylor does all the hard work!!    Tylor just started training for the basketball season, so conned Darl into a few rounds on the carport, I think Tylor won.....  Darl took Muzz's bike for a spin while the girls went shopping.   I hope he didn't flatten the tyres doing burnouts or jumping gutters.

We jumped the treddlies for a short ride around town, Tylor come with us.   Surely we won't have any trouble with helmets, so we opt to wear our hats instead (Tylor was a good girl wore helmet).  But no, only a couple blocks away we got chipped by the local police lady "If you haven't got helmets, get off bikes now and walk"...okey dokey, at least we didn't get fine on the spot.  Went back got our helmets and continued our ride up to the lookout where we found the golf course.  The putting green don't look so green from up here.....

5th Nov - Karijini National Park

Another beautiful day to go exploring.   The weather is not so hot here, but out bush the fly population is increasing....  We do a visit to the Karijini visitor centre, a great display on the environment and local history, flora, fauna etc.  We then travel to Dales Gorge, the only 2wd access gorge in Karijini.   The roads to the other several gorges on the western end are dirt, iron ore corros, we decide not to take the ute or the suzi there.    $11 day entry fee at this park.  We start at one end at Circular Pool.

It's a pretty steep walk down the side of the gorge to the bottom.   I was skipping down the rocky steps quite quickly, then realised how easy it would be to fall or twist ones ankle then you would be buggered to go further.    As it is there is on average one to two serious accidents (probably more) each year, some deaths.     So proceed with caution and care.  In one spot there is actually a steel ladder attached to the rocks to get down/up.

We make our way to Circular Pool for a refreshing swim, it is beautiful here.  We debate whether we clamber back up to the car and drive to the other end where another walk down to Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool.   We decide to do the walk along the bottom.   

It is a great little walk, a couple hours all up there and back.    We find a lot of photo opportunities along the way.   This is an interesting rock formation.

This little fellow sunning himself on one of the steps on the track.    Touch wood we have not seen any dangerous snakes on any of our treks.

That's my tarzan Darl swinging from a tree branch, an old river gum had fallen and Darl couldn't resist the challenge.  This is on the way to Fern pool.

Along the tracks you have to follow the round markers on rocks, trees etc.  Some places were a bit of a tight squeeze.

Looking down from the top of Fortescue falls.  We found both this and Fern Pool a bit stagnant and brown looking so didn't swim here.   We figure that's due to the tail end of the dry season and these spots would be truly spectacular after a few days of clensing rains.

We back at almost the beginning, just the climb up to the top left to do.   It was a great day and we enjoyed our experience in Karijini National Park.

3rd to 4th Nov - Tom Price

We were going to travel down to Millstream, then on the Rio Tinto access (dirt) road to Tom Price, about a 3 - 3.5 hour drive, however due to heavy showers in last couple days this road is only open to 4WD, I think this is a good omen, we have to go bitumen all the way and the long way, back up towards Pt Hedland and then Great Northen Highway via Munjini to Tom Price.  Takes a few hours longer, however it was nice travelling through the ranges.

We met Rusty at Cape Leveque, he offered us to stay at their place at Tom Price, so we lob there and take up residency on his and Kell's front lawn for a few days.   We had our names down for the Iron Ore mine tour on Saturday, so Friday morning go in to confirm, they need 10 minimum for the tour to proceed.   Friday has 2 spots left so we decide to take the tour while we can.   This is a good bird's eye view of Mt Tom Price, it was once a mountain, now it is a BIG hole...

A retired digger takes pride of place at the lookout above the pit.   We see a number of dump trucks, water trucks and loaders go by.  Unfortunately no trains in sight, these are pretty awesome - a fully loaded train weighs around 29500 tonnes and is about 2.4 kilometres long.  Our bus driver is a retired train driver, he informed us the senior drivers pull $250 000, that's why he has retired now, all set up.  Both Rusty and Kell work in the mines and we have to say Rio Tinto do look after their workers.

Another interesting fact we learn which we weren't aware, it is the Queen who owns the majority shares in Rio Tinto.    Rio Tinto Iron Ore operates ten  mines, three ports and over 1600 kms of railway track.   

Something else which amazed us is that the Rio Tinto Control Room is based in Perth. At some of the mines they are operating unmanned trucks and these are operated remotely from the control room.   A shot of the processing plant with the grade sorters pouring in the background.  Note the colour, it's all red!

The dump trucks are huge too,  Kell drives a dump truck, Rusty drives a loader.  It gets hot out here at Tom Price, whatever the temp in town it is 5 or more degrees hotter out at the mine site, so in summer you could get up to 50+ at mine.   This dump truck just on the outskirts of town, just for us tourists to take pics.

We take a drive out to Hammersley gorge, passing yet another oversized semi, they are in abundance out here on the Pilbara tracks.  The road to Hammersley gorge is about 50kms of dirt road.   We travel so far in the ute and decide too rough, we park the ute up and jump on the Suzi for about 10-15kms.   We stop to ask a ranger how much further, he says don't go there, it has been closed since Easter for upgrading to the tracks.....  Nice, another one we almost made.  We go back to town to the tourist info to make sure Karijini is open as we plan a trip there tomorrow.  All good.

31st Oct - 2nd Nov Dampier

We don't have a very big drive today, about 50kms to Karratha.    We got to the tourist info place to suss out the available caravan parks.   The parks in Karratha $46 per night, one in Dampier $24 per night, sounds like our range.  Dampier is 16kms from Karratha and I wonder why it is so cheap?   Anyway, it is a nice little park run by the mines and is directly opposite to vessel loading facility.    We think this is pretty good and grab our chairs, drinks and sit of the lawn and watch the vessels load, this one arrived and the tugs bought in and turned around to berth.

In the morning, there was a howling wind and there was a thick cloud of iron ore dust covering the port, we couldn't see the ships or the load facility at all.    Mmmmm all that dust is going to settle on our camp....  A more pressing issue was that we had to get ready and head to the pub for the Melbourne Cup.     We found the Mermaid pub just down the road, we could get the courtesy bus, they have a TAB all good.    The pub was opening at 7am, however we thought that a little too early for us.

We met two lovely couples at the park, who are heading to the pub too, so we all jump the courtesy bus and had a great day of punting, drinking and laughs.  From left to right, Alana, Ian from Kyogle and Bill and Lyn from Tassy.  The chap on my right is a random passing by.  Lucky Bill and Lyn knew the go for placing bets, so steered us in the right direction.   We thought there should be no dramas at this pub as it is right next door to the cop shop, but a pub full of miners full of grog, didn't disappoint mid afternoon.  Two burly big blokes got into it, fists and head buts!

One bloke did a runner the other was held down (by 4-5 guys) until the cops took him away in the paddy wagon.    We managed to get home before dark.   Next morning not too flash, Darl was wounded.    After a relaxing morning, we went for a drive over to Karratha for a look around, not much there, on way back we went down to Woodside gas plant.     There are several rigs off shore, drilling for gas, they pipe it back here for processing.

Another couple of icons of the Dampier region, is Red Dog, there is even a movie out called Red Dog and I believe it's about his adventures and the people he comes across in his travels.   

Then there is old Sam (deceased now), but he lived on a little island just off Dampier coast for 40 years, 30 of which he squatted than the mining coy owning the island granted him a 99 year lease. He built his little castle and lived there happily with his cat until he passed, he is buried on the island and they run tours out there now.  His castle was made of sandstone bricks and shells.

29th - 30th Oct Point Samson

As we left Marble Bar, we travel through the Coongan Gorge, a 6 km narrow stretch of road with dips and bends.   We met a road train on way out, but none today.    Just past here we turn off for 3kms narrow dirt track to Doolena Gorge.  Very pituresque, but the river runs dry.    We're heading to Port Hedland, well into the mining district of the Pilbara.   We have well and truly left the boabs and pearls behind at Broome.  Saturday morning and we arrive at the Tourist Info Centre at P.Hedland, it was closed and closed all week-end, didn't they know we were coming?? 

We had a look at the port, watched a ship depart port, guided by the tugs.   Fully laden with Iron Ore.     We were both surprised to see the salt mines as we approached town, another huge export with 90 percent of export salt going to Asia.   We don't think much of this place, another  mining town looking a bit drab.  We drive around a bit looking for a nice shady tree/park for lunch but none around, we had lunch by the beach in a shelter and nice sea gales (not breezes).  My darl is hanging out for a beer.   We can't find a pub, so decide to blow this town and head south to the

Whim Creek Pub a little over half way between P Hedland and Karratha.  We are greeted by a sign, Whim Creek Pub 500 metres, A MUST.   Well we did but is was shut down, had a water problem and was due to start renos on 02/11.    There is no town, just a pub - but it is right beside a copper operational mine.    We couldn't believe the people that stopped while we were there, all as us disappointed it was closed..... Where to next??  It's only 50 odd k's to Roebourne, so we give that a go.    Roebourne pub is closed too!!  I ask at the servo, a couple desperados - Where's the closest pub??   Point Samson Tavern, okey dokey!

We find the pub, yes it is open, great!   There is two van parks, the just opened Cove Holiday Park and the Samson Beach Van Park.   We go the latter as $2 cheaper and much smaller than the Cove.    We were greeted by the grumpiest bloke, no bag of smiles today.    Anyway we settle in for a couple of nights and I  might add the pub is right next door.   $16.20 for a beer and a bourbon, the schooner beer $8!!   We had one drink and got some trake aways.   In morning we jump on the treddlies and set off on the heritage trail around town, via the old jetty (now dismantled) Yep treddlies don't go so well through sand either!

Onto, Honeymoon Cove, the harbour, we tried to treddle out to Pope's Nose bridge but a bit too far out of town, up to a look out to view a boat wreck, it was a while ago, not much left of it and only visible low tide.  Then by Centenary Park, it is pretty cool, they have statues of Sting rays, whales, turtles and fish.   We still had quite a bit of time to kill today, so we decide to drive over to Cossack a little historical village about 15 kms away.    This town was the first WA town to start pearling.   It was only when they exhausted all supplied that the pearling industry moved north to Broome.

Several of the old buildings still remain and have been restored and preserved.  The courthouse (also now a museum), where I read the riot act to my Darl!   Galbraith Store, Police barracks (now offering budget accomm) and a site manager lives, cook house and old gaol, customs and bond store, school house, post office and bakery.    We spend a good couple hours here wandering through the buildings.   It's hard to imagin this was a thriving little village all those years ago.

Lock him up and throw away the key! 

When the pearling industry died they took to making turtle soup.   Check the turtle on the side car in the bottom right of the photo.   

The view from the town lookout.   I reckon you could almost call this town a ghost town, if it wasn't for the on site manager and few accommodation rooms.    In a couple of the buildings numerous lights are hanging from the ceilings, where they have art shows from time to time.    No works of art on the walls this time.  

The old court house building.   Quite majestic really.     We drive through town out to the beach, a lot of plaques dot the landscape where buildings once stood.   We drive by the cemetry, do we want a look, nah - but we can't help ourselves we stop and take a stroll through.   The cemetry in a prime water front location, however the graves are in need of a little TLC. 

A change of pace back at the Point, we decide to be sociable and go have another expensive round at the pub.    It is 3pm in the arvo and the place is still packed with Sunday diners.    Then "Elenore" arrived and my Darl was suitably impressed.