Exmouth and Cape Range

After the day before, yesterday could do nothing but improve. An early start, 7am, saw us on the road to Exmouth, which turned out to be three hours drive away. Straight to the supermarket for a few items, and who should we bump into but the family that we had camped beside in Millstream, Lee and Karen, and their three lovely children. We had decided to go on the Big 4 site, and it just so happened that we were placed next door to them again.
Because we wished to use the car we had decided to erect our ground tent, for only the third time since we had bought it over a year ago. we had fun with it, almost coming to blows over which was the front of it!
So, a great afternoon in the pool, then a pleasant evening with them and another couple who had also been at Millstream.

They were leaving today to go into the Cape Range National Park, just the other side of the peninsula, and we decided to follow them for a couple of days, so we went round there to see where they were. We have been to many beautiful places in Australia, but few to beat this place. While Exmouth itself is nice, small but well planned, as we travelled up the coast and saw the beaches we could see what the attraction is for this area.
Rarely visited until the 1940s, when it became a secret naval and Air Force base, the cape has still that sense of remoteness and tranquillity.
Animal life abounds,  this is the first place for many months that we have seen Big Red kangaroos, and emus just wandering about nonchalantly.
There is even a fox on our site, he wandered past us last night as we were enjoying a drink with our neighbours They are an introduced species, brought in by the colonial gentry in the late 1800s for sport, and like the rabbit have thrived here.









On a communications tower in the park we spotted an Osprey family, both parents were sat observing their two chicks, who were stretching their wings ready for their first flights.
The nest was very intricately built, with some quite big branches, and we marvelled how they could lift them up there to build such a superb construction.

Some of the beaches are also turtle nesting sites, and it is possible to come along at night to see them coming up the beach to lay their eggs at this time of year. Three different turtles visit this beach, and each  lay over 100 at a time, but fewer than one in a thousand reach maturity and return to this beach to lay the next generation.
The seas abound with large creatures, it is possible to swim here with Whalesharks, the largest fish in the world, perfectly harmless as they eat only plankton.
There are also Manta Rays, and Humpback Whales pass by here on the way to their summer in the Antarctic, we are hoping to spot some in the next couple of days.

Not a good day....

We left Millstream full of expectations, on our way to Karijini park, we'd been before but had not seen many of the gorges due to the restrictions of the roof tent, we have to pack everything away to move and some of the gorges are a drive away from the camp.

A drive of two hours took us alongside the railway track again, we saw three loaded trains within three quarters of an hour, giving us a hoot and flashing their lights as they passed We went through pleasant countryside, with abundant birdlife including eagles,  till we arrived at Tom Price, a true outback town where we filled up and had coffee

A further hour's drive took us into the park, and as we arrived in the camp site it was notable how quiet it was- we could only see one tent and one caravan in a very large area. So our first question was "are you open?" to be told yes, but the gorges are all closed because it rained heavily last night and there is a danger of flash floods. Oh dear, that was all we had travelled all that way for.

There was no point in staying there, as there was no prospect of going into the gorges in the next couple of days.

So back down the road we had just travelled on the way to our next destination, Exmouth, some six hours drive away. A massive storm hit us, lightning, solid rain, floods on the road.There was no way we would make it today, so at 5 o'clock we pulled in to a roadhouse, very short on petrol, and just a little irritable. Having filled up with very expensive petrol, ($2 a litre, usually £1-49) we set up camp in a dirty yard, among other late comers, and made dinner. I went for chips and some ice for our esky, and paid twice the usual price.
It was obviously a workers camp, and we found out later that they had to pay $200 a night for a donga, which is literally a very small room with nothing but a bed in it, no facilities, just have to share with the rest of us. So much so that the ladies had been converted into a gents, ( almost all the workers were men) and the ladies had one disabled toilet between them.
A bus pulled on to the site, with about twenty Germans, mainly ladies, the bus had cabins for everyone in the rear, and they were travelling in that for six weeks. You can imagine the chaos in the toilets and showers, they had driven at least eight hours that day.
So, tired and miserable, we went to bed. I slept well, till the workers had to go to work at 4 am, big wagons reversing and revving up just outside our tent. Might as well get up, and on the road, must be a better day today!

Millstream

Moving on again, down to Millstream National Park, some 160kms inland. But first we were told that to go over Rio Tinto land, adjacent to their railway, we had to get a permit, and to get that we had to sit through a 15 minute video to tell us how to drive. Us- that have completed over 3000 kms off road! All we learned was that we must not wear red near the railway lines as the driver has to stop if he sees red!

An easy drive, half on tarmac, brought us to the visitor centre, an old homestead, with some interesting displays showing how the aboriginals lived in the area before the Europeans came.

A few miles further on, through the Fortesque River, we came to our campsite, at Crossing Pool. This is a bush camp, nothing here but a pool, (and a drop toilet), but one of the nicer ones we have been to. The pool is very deep, and to get in we have to go down a ladder. Temperature- just right!

Another camper offers me the use of his canoe, I paddle up and down the pool for a while but it’s hard on the bum, so I get back into the water for a while.

But the flies- the flies! Driving us mad, we have to wear our nets, (a fashion statement) and that isn’t easy when we are trying to have our afternoon tea. At least we can look forward to them going to bed at dusk, when we will get our burners out to keep away the mossies and other small annoyances they have in this country. I have to say that since I put up our new yellow lights we haven’t had the little creatures that we used to have buzzing round, so I only have to find a solution to the bl**** flies now.

As we sit a four foot goanna walks by, takes a look at us and decides to move on. They are lovely creatures, quite harmless if you leave them alone, they eat frogs, snakes and other small creatures.

A cheeky magpie lark picks up the crumbs I have dropped between my feet, I just hope he doesn’t peck them, that beak looks sharp!

First thing in the morning, instead of our usual shower, it will be back in the pool as soon as we have packed up. Karijini next stop!

Iron Ore and history

Last night we stayed in a hamlet on the coast called Point Samson. A lovely beach which we took advantage of for a swim because there were no nasties, but as always, there is a downside. Apart from the fact that it blew a gale in the night, there is a plague of flies in the region. It's that time of year, and for the first time we have had to get our personal flynets out to cover our heads. It is surprising, as soon as we got ours out we saw that everyone is wearing them- it is the fashion here.But there are millions of the b*****s, and they are b***** persistent.

Today we took a trip with a tour bus and guide from the information centre in Roeburne, actually the old jail. He told us stories of the way the aboriginals were treated in the past, how when they were jailed they were chained to the floor in big dormitories and saw very little daylight. The Europeans were treated quite differently, just two to a cell and exercised regularly. The jail was built in 1886 and was still in use in the 1980s. Now it is the visitor centre and museum, but still has the rings in the floor that the locals were chained to.

As I said yesterday, one of the largest industries in this area is the export of iron ore. The product of over 30 mines in the Pilbara  are shipped from the twin docks at Dampier and Point Samson, many many millions of tons each year, which earns a lot of taxes for both West Australia and the Federal Government, to say nothing of the foreign exchange.
We saw trains of two kms long pulling into the unloading area, which lifts two wagons at a time and turns them upside down. Then the ore is sent by conveyor belt to holding piles, until big grabs once again puts it on a conveyor to be sent out to ships two kms offshore.
We had to wear safety gear before we were allowed into the site, perhaps a good idea as there was iron ore dust everywhere, not very pleasant. A lot of the machinery is operated by remote control from Perth, some 1800 kms away, and soon the trains will be driverless, again controlled from Perth. Eventually there will only be maintenance people on site.
This whole area has been irrevocably changed now, one wonders what will happen when the mines are worked out. But it earns a lot of money, as do the workers here. In fact this is one of the most expensive areas in Oz to live, with many house prices topping a million, and it is reflected in the camping charges that we have to pay, over twice that in other areas just a few miles away.
Onwards to nearby Cossack, once the largest coastal town north of Perth, now a ghost town of just a few buildings, and two caretakers. Housing some 900 people in the 1890s, it was the first pearling area in Oz, the local aboriginals were forced to dive for the oysters before the government banned it, and Asians were brought in to collect them from the sea bed using diving gear. There was also a turtle soup factory here, as well as a fish cannery, so in its day it was a thriving community.
Now there is just the court house museum, an old shop, and a couple of other houses in excellent repair, as the town is preserved for posterity by volunteers and local fundraising.

A conflict of interest

We have now moved on to Karatha, a small town of some 20,000 people at the root of the Dampier peninsula. Named after William Dampier, who visited this coast twice in 1688 and 1689, his discoveries predated James Cook's discovery of the east coast by some 60 years.

Monday night is Rotary night in Karatha, and we attended the club, which has about 22 members. However, as seems to be common in Oz, there were more visitors than members, but those absent missed a very enlightening talk about the area and it's rock art.
The speaker, who knew his subject extremely well, works for Rio Tinto, who mine iron ore here and export it from the peninsula. His comments about the loss of so many precious works, some as old as 40,000 years,  were pointed, it would appear that the government have earmarked the area for major industrial expansion, in addition to the three major industries already here.

He reckons that there are up to 10,000 rock art items in the immediate area, and many will be lost as a result of the development. He, and others like him, wants the area to be proclaimed a special Unesco Heritage Centre, but as that needs to be requested by the government there is little likelihood of that happening.






So today we set out to see for ourselves what is happening here, as I said, there are three major industries on the peninsula, and one of them is the production of Liquid Natural Gas. There is a huge gasfield about 120 kms north of here, undersea, the Carnarvon basin, with three major rigs out there producing gas and condensates which are piped ashore here and treated. Apart from the pipeline which serves the conurbations of Perth and the surrounding coastal area, liquified gas at 150 degrees below zero is exported to Japan and China by sea in huge container ships. Australia earns 1% of her gross domestic product from this field alone, as well as supplying 65% of fuel throughout the country.
As well as the LNG plant there are huge exports of iron ore from here, it arrives from the mines just south of here in huge railway trains, some up to 5kms long. They are emptied onto a conveyor belt which takes the ore out to the bulk carriers offshore, and it is then exported, again to Japan and China.
A long standing industry here is the production of salt from seawater, large areas are set aside for evaporation, which takes place in two stages. Firstly huge ponds are filled with seawater and allowed to stand while much of the water evaporates off. Then the heavily salted water is pumped into the smaller crystalisation ponds, where the final evaporation takes place, leaving dry salt, which is then lifted by bulldozers and the like.
So one can quite see why the government is reluctant to lose this area to a Heritage Centre, however we feel there must be a compromise before the Aboriginal art is lost forever.

The Dampier area is forever linked with the story of Red Dog. He was adopted as a puppy by an itinerant worker, who took the dog with him wherever he went. When his owner died Red Dog hitched lifts on any vehicle who would take him throughout the region looking for his master, eventually dying himself in Dampier.
We saw the film of the same name in Broome last year, it was excellent. We will but a DVD and bring it home with us for anyone who wishes to see it, we are not sure it will be available at home.
On the memorial is a poem,
The stories this old dog could tell if only he could say,
would add a page in history forever and a day,
but still he'll be remembered by those who knew his way
the red dog of the Pilbara from the north of W.A.
A fascinating tale.

Frillies and Jellies

A pleasant couple of days in Broome, making ready for our next adventure, was finished off with a delicious fish dinner down by the docks- you can have fish any which way you like! Fresh Barra overlooking the bay with the town lights twinkling in the distance, brought our quiet sojourn to a pleasant conclusion, before our early morning trip down the coast to Barn Hill station.

A working cattle station with a camp site close to the beach, we were told that up to 300 caravans and tents used their facilities in the high season. Fortunately the season has ended more or less, and just a few hardy campers occupy the site, and indeed the beach. It is very hot at this time, around 37 degrees, and after we had set up our little home we took off for the beach complete with bathers.

The tide was just on the turn, going out, and we were in the water for half an hour or so when we noticed these brown things lying about the beach. 

On investigation we saw that they were jellyfish, some as big as dinner plates, and there were hundreds of them. That finished our swimming then!

But it was great just to walk along the beach in the surf, very few people about, maybe just one other couple.

Back to camp to find a frilled lizard had attached itself to the trunk of a tree nearby. It was about a metre long, but mostly tail, and obligingly let us take photos of him from many angles.

 Later another slightly smaller one sat in the tree next to our tent listening to our music, he was there for hours as many of the youngsters on the site came to look at him. When they move they run on their two back legs and tail, most peculiar for a lizard.

We stayed a couple of nights at Barn Hill, the Dawn chorus is a delight to hear, except that it is at 5 in the morning, so we were up early both mornings, and took advantage of the cooler time to walk the beach both ways. 

Also in the evening- we walked along to the pinnacles, a rock formation caused by the erosion of the wind and sea, quite delightful with the late sun shining directly on the faces.

Unfortunately not a good evening to see a sunset though, clouds over the sea put the sun to bed early, but we did get one decent shot.

Next stop- Pardoo station, we are told they have a great pool there, with no jellies!

Goodbye - sweet cabin.....

It was a wrench leaving Cape Leveque and our little cabin- we have had a wonderful three days there swimming, beach walking, soaking in the superb views. It really felt like we were on holiday. There are few places we have been that can match this place for sheer beauty, and we have seen some wonderful places in our travels.
After we had packed up we took one last walk down to the beach, but couldn't resist going in the water. The waves were coming in fast and furious, and we played like children in the surf. A great ending to our stay.

As we made our way the 200kms back to Broome we stopped at Beagle Bay. Named in 1838 after his ship by Captain Whickham as he explored the area, the area is the traditional home of the Nyul Nyul people, and it's aboriginal name Ngarlun Burr means Place surrounded by springs.
There has been a church here since 1890, when the Trappist Monks came to the area and established a monastery. The early buildings were of bush timber and paperbark, which were constantly wrecked by the cyclones, bush fires and white ants that are the scourge of this area..
The present building was started by German priests in 1915, at that time they were under house arrest  during the first world war. It took them two years, using 60,000 clay bricks fired locally.
They then spent the following year decorating the church and altar.


The Dampier Peninsula is famous for it's pearling industry, and many are washed up on local beaches, along with cowries and olive shells. These were gathered by the locals, and as a result  the altar is a thing of beauty and a fusion of traditional symbols both Christian and local.
Symbols of  turtles, dingos, snakes, emus and local fish are laid out before the tabernacle, along with spears and shields.




So-  on back to Broome for a couple of days, we will re-victual before moving on south west down the coast, with a couple of stops before we enter the Pilbara, to revisit the gorges there, some of which we saw last year.

Sir Galahad rides again…..

Last evening we spotted a bevy of young ladies going along the beach track in a four wheel drive when they got bogged. That means that they got stuck in the soft sand, despite the fact that there are warning signs that tell us to let our tyres down to 18psi (We ride at 40) and keep moving. Being young and maybe not so experienced they spun their wheels and dug themselves in even further. When they finally realized they were not going to get out that way, they started to dig themselves out with their bare hands, (they had no shovel).

Now there is a difference here between red sand and white sand. The red sand is normally fairly solid, and driveable on full tyres, the white sand is definitely not. They had just gone on to the white when they bogged.(This photo is not the car as described- but the area where the event happened).

So- Sir Galahad, (myself) decided he would get out the tow rope and go rescue the fair maidens in distress. So I drove along the track onto the red and prepared to turn to present the back of Betty to the ladies. But- this red sand was different- and I was bogged! With a face the same colour as the sand I got out my spade and dug a track behind my wheels to try and reverse to turn out. She moved, but bogged again when I tried to go forward. Hmmm…… very embarrassing. I had to dig again, and then rock Betty back and forward to get her moving. At least I didn’t dig in. So- with my tail between my legs I left the ladies to fend for themselves, came back along the track to our cabin and parked up rather sheepishly.

As it happened, a number of very macho men came along and helped the ladies- I do hope they got their reward.

When we booked here they didn’t tell us we had to share our accommodation. Not only do we have a 20 inch Goanna (half metre) we have a green frog and various insects including a stick insect, a 4 inch wingspan moth, and a couple of crickets along with many other fairly large insects. Oh- and a few other smaller lizards too. The goanna and the frog live in our roof along with the lizards, and can be heard in the dead of night moving around. Occasionally the goanna will come out to look at us during the day too.

Fortunately we have a mossie net above us, as the lizards have been known to fall out of the sky during the night, a scary way to be woken from a dead sleep!

It’s so nice….

To have a bed to sleep in! After 18 days on the road sleeping in the roof tent, we have a hotel suite (at a very reasonable price!) that is extremely comfortable. The reason we are in here is because our friends, David and Mildred Hutton, are also staying here for a few days,along with a friend from Carlisle, and we arranged to meet them.

The Hotel is superb, with a pool overlooking Moonlight Bay in Broome, and a pub just across the road which serves very nice food. So as you can imagine, writing the blog has taken second place to enjoying ourselves, and I have neglected you for a few days.

David and I attended Rotary on Wednesday morning, and it so happened that I met again the immediate past president of Yamba club, which we visited when he was president, and by coincidence he was at Darwin South when I gave my Tall Ships Presentation a few weeks ago. He has a broken arm, which happened when he fell from a tree into a creek when he was looking for crocodiles. As he says, it is the first time he has ever ran on water!

The few days there were filled with preparing for a trip up to Cape Leveque, some 200kms north of Broome. We have decided to change our lighting for the awning and rear of the car for yellow LED lights, it seems that flies and mossies are not attracted to yellow, we’ll have to see. Whether I’ll get it done up here I don’t know- we may be too busy. And of course there was all the shopping to do- it is surprising how much food and stuff we have to buy just for three days.

Anyway, after 5 days in Broome enjoying ourselves we took off for the Cape, named after a French sailor of the 17^th Cent, and which lies at the top of the Dampier Peninsular, also named after a member of the same expedition.

Over 100 kms of the journey is off road, on sand, and if you have ever driven on that medium you will know that even with four wheel drive it tends to steer for you, and not necessarily in the direction you want to go. So it was a bit of a fight. 

But worth it- we have been here before but it was still a pleasant surprise to see the clear blue sea.We have the cabin next door to the one we had last year, but it has a slightly better view of the Indian ocean, raised up about 50ft with a view to die for.

The cabin is very basic, toilet and shower shared with the cabin next door, no windows just shutters, which we just leave open all the time, including at night. We do have a mossie net though, but there isn’t much biting round here as there is a breeze. Outside on the veranda is a table and chairs, an excellent BBQ, indeed an outdoor kitchen. We want for nothing, there are even two fans within, and a fridge, and we secretly imported our electric kettle and toaster.(Strictly against the rules- on pain of banishment!) All mod cons- and a view to boot!

The second day we took off up to One Arm Point, home of the Bardi Jawi people, who were the original inhabitants of the area. They hunt the seas around for Turtle, Dugong and fish. The also take Trochus shells, which they polish, cut and carve to make jewelry and decorative shells.

As we arrived, we had to register and pay a small fee to enter the community, after which we drove to Jologo beach, a superb place to swim. The sea was almost perfectly still, no waves, just right for youngsters to paddle and play in, we have rarely seen a better beach than this. However the locals do not like people wandering about the dunes, they are traditional lore ground and sacred to the Bardi Jawi people.

A few kms along the beach is a hatchery, where fish, turtles and other marine life are bred and released back to nature. Just behind was King Sound, a stretch of sea trapped between islands and the mainland, and we happened to be there as the tide was coming in, at a rate of 14 kts, around 20kms an hour. It is impossible to do justice to it on a photo, but it looked like a river with rapids! Here they have a tidal range of up to 11 mtrs, about 36ft. That is a hell of a lot of water rushing through four times a day.

Most beaches in the north of Oz are not swimmable- lots of sharks, crocs, sea snakes and stingers, which in themselves can be fatal to children, and nasty to adults, but it so happens that both here in One Arm Point and immediately outside our cabin are beaches free from those curses. Don’t ask me why- maybe something to do with the currents offshore, I don’t know. So- for the first time since we have been here, Anne and I took a dip in the sea. Beautiful and warm, clear as the day, a real pleasure to spend time in.

Life gets tedious don’t it?