Log 31-07 Cleaverville WA

Moving slowly South/West, our next stop was for 2 nights on the bank of the Yule River (Yule Ponds this time of year), it was a particularly attractive roadside stop with lots of gum trees giving a nice shady area. We met a good crowd the first night, someone built a fire & we sat around chatting & swapping experiences. Had a bit of trouble finding the spot as (we are told) the local caravan parks remove the signs. The next stop at Ball Balla Inlet was similarly denuded. Travelling 15K’s along a good dirt road then 2 more along a track, we came to a creek with a vast open area alongside where you could park as you wished. Nothing like Cape Keraudren but O.K. (getting a bit fussy now). We met a bloke who spends 3 winter months a year here & has a house in Perth. Too little to do for us so we only stayed 1 night & moved to the inlet, about 6K’s away along another track. The inlet didn’t arouse any interest either so we carried on to Roebourne.

Roebourne was a small mining town with the old goal turned into a museum. It was very picturesque with lots of information on the early settlers & their treatment of the blacks. A road led West of the highway to Wyndham, another mining town who’s claim to fame was a Woolworths complex & access to the beach. We followed the beach signs but ended up in a mine so we turned around & continued to Cossak, a deserted town left over from the early days. 3 buildings have been restored to their original magnificence, but the rest of the town is falling into disrepair. At the end of the road was Point Samson, all very new & attractive place with a resort & lots of units.

Hurrying along now we continued on to Cleaverville Beach, yes, more dirt roads. It seems that if you want to get to the coast, you have to be willing to travel on dirt. Arriving there we found the place to be fairly full once again but found a spot not too far from the beach. Club members Dave & Sally were also here, this is the 3^rd time we have bumped into them this trip. This has been good for us as Dave & I have been fishing while Libby & Sally went into town with another couple of ladies. We’ve been to the beach a few times, the rocks here are composite rock consisting of the seabed having been compressed by time & pressure. The rock contains millions of fossils, shells, sea creatures, even animal bones. There are also different types of stone, compressed & Having polished by wave action till they are wondrous to see.

On Saturday, D & S drove us into town for the annual Fenaclng festival, held over 3 days every year at this time. Fenaclng, you ask? Well, this area produces iron (fe), salt (nacl) & natural gas (ng) & this is celebrated with a public holiday. It was like the Easter show with rides, side shows, stalls, food, displays, horsemanship events, singing & big displays by the mining companies with lots of give-aways. We got lots of goodies & came home like a lot of kids.

Happy hour tonight consisted of 8 of us, one hubby, having caught 32 crabs the day before, shared them with us & his wife cooked fish bites which were delicious. Libby supplied a nice plate of cheese & dips & the other 2 ladies supplied various things. A great night that went on till 9:30 when it started to get too cold.

Having run out of both food & water we had to drive back to town the next day but as we were having such a great time we came back to stay a few more days.

Yule River roadstop

Yule River sunset

Track to Bala Bala

Not often you can go to jail & find it open

Ummm ...... Roebourne?

Mulla Mulla

Sturts Desert Pea

Old Goal, Roebourne

Cell, Roebourne goal

Cleaverville Beach

Cleaverville Beach

Cleaverville Creek

Fen
FeNaClNG float

Beautiful old Bedford

Entertainment

Rides

Dinner for 8

Log 24-07 Port Hedland

Well, we made it to Quondong, it was only 25K’s of dirt which took us 1 hr 15 mins to traverse. Photo shows our campspot, there were 2 other groups at the site & they weren’t at all happy when we stopped & let us know their feelings(they apologized for their rudeness later on & invited us to join their campfire). It was certainly worth the shaking we endured to get there, magnificent outlook over the ocean, rocky beach below us. Going for a walk along the track, I could see we couldn’t have gone any further as it was very soft & sandy, a pity as the next section of beach was all sand with a large, level camp area. We have been on walks along the beach & relaxed near the van. Today we saw a pod of 4 whales heading North about 500mts offshore. There are thousands of hermit crabs on the beach with every shade of shell you could imagine, from 5mm to 35mm, great to watch. As I write this we are being treated to another magic sunset & dolphins are cavorting just off shore, so beautiful that I am lost for words to describe.

We awoke this morning to a very overcast sky, not wanting to be a prisoner, even in Eden, we decided to pack up & return to Broome. We purchased some supplies & proceeded to continue South. We had chosen a stop for the night at a little coastal place called Bidyadangya, only 12K’s of dirt. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be an aboriginal community. Liz suggested we could stay, but I wanted to still own a scooter next morning.

Stopping for the night further down the highway at Stanley Rest Area where we were told that it’s still cold once you get to Carnarvon, roughly 1100K’s South, so we will have to slow down.

Having now left the Kimberlys far behind, we are now in the Pilbara region of WA & our next stop was at Cape Keraudren Reserve, $10.00 entry & $6.50 p/night p/p, $4.50 pensioners, we both got in as pensioners.   Oh      my       God!     We thought Quondong was beautiful, well, this is equal but different. Our campsite is on the edge of a tidal creek & we have arrived just on high tide. The water is just below the edge of the rocky bank & there is a sandy track alongside this which looks firm enough for us to use. It’s not very wide & we can’t turn around so we will just have to back along it 70mts & pull over to our chosen spot. We have booked in for 3 nights & there are 3 other camping areas in this reserve. We were going to check them all out but this would be a case of the grass is greener, & frankly, we don’t see how it can be. Every day here we have fished on the incoming tide, haven’t caught anything worthwhile but a couple of people have had some luck. We have walked to the other camp areas (around 6K’s return) & have decided that ours is the most delightful so we’re happy now. We have walked along the beach & the sand is so fine that you sink down to your ankles with each step, good for the calf mussels I can tell you. There are a million varieties of shell, soft & hard coral & sponges along the beach. It is ‘verboten’ to take anything so I guess we all benefit from this, otherwise the beach would be bare. On our 3^rd day here the ranger has put up a sign on the beach stopping 4WD vehicles from leaving the track as the turtle egg laying season is about to commence. Well, after 4 days we’ve done all the walks, fished, talked to people & just sat & did some reading so it’s time to move on.

Arriving back at the highway we pulled in to Pardoo Roadhouse & bought ourselves a long hot shower, so nice after licks & promises, then proceeded 150K’s South to Port Headland. It’s a busy, bustling town with BHP right there, road trains with 4 trailers rushing past. On the way in we had to stop at a railway crossing, a train, loaded with ore went past, 4 locomotives & 230 box cars later we crossed the line. At the wharves were 3 monstrous cargo ships exporting the ore. There were many little houses in town (rented out at circa, $1,500 a week), & the overall impression was that it was a bustling little metropolis.

Quondong Beach

Looking back at Wherarwee

Natures sand sculptures

Launching across the beach

Quondong Sunset

Cooterbrand Creek, Cape Keraudren

The track we had to negotiate

Sunrise at low tide

Cast iron sculpture, Port Hedland

The docks, port Hedland

It’s windy today &, as I write this, there is a layer of red dust gathering on the computer so I'd best finish.

Log 15-07 Broome

Sorry last log was so late, I thought I would include Broome but there is too much to say.

We’ve booked in to Broome caravan park for 1 night (all that was available) to give us time to look around. We were able, by arriving at 7:00 AM, to get a site at ‘The Pistol Club’ for 1 week so we stayed. Thankfully the range wasn’t used much so not too many gunshots. This place was also packed out with people waiting as others moved out. Apparently at this time of the year, Broomes modest 14,000 residents swells to 3 time this amount so it was a bustling little metropolis. There are 2 shopping centers 10 caravan parks (plus overflow parks) 1 post office 100 shops selling pearls & about 500 restaurants.

We have spent our days seeing the town sights, fishing from the long wharf (tide range of 7mts.), riding camels down the beach at sunset, just absorbing the atmosphere of the town. Cable beach, with it’s golden sand, is 22K’s long & divided into 2 sections. The first for swimmers and was well populated every day as the temp is in the low 30’s by day & high teens at night. The rest is for cars, at sunset people bring down dinner, wine, chairs & tables & just enjoying being there. Some nights there must have been 1000 cars on the beach, we even took the scooter down on to the beach. There are little 50cc scooters for hire & these dominate the town, everywhere these little buzzers scoot around the place like flies around at a picnic.

We went fishing Monday & Liz caught a huge eel. I was a bit luckier as I caught a nice (I think it was) golden trevally. I say think it was because when I got it to the surface there was only a head, Shark? Barracuda? Who knows, but the people around had a good laugh. The next one was compete, thank goodness, & about 45cms long, I though it was good until someone else caught one a mt. long! Anyway, we filleted it & had it for dinner. Deeelicious!

We seem to fill every day doing things, it’s great to know that when you get up it’s going to be another great day though we keep reminding ourselves that this is winter. When dinner is over & the cleaning is done we are happy to lay our heads on the pillow for another night. Yes, the red dust is still here. Even redder in this part of the country, but as we’re sitting still it’s easier to cope.

So. Our week is just about up & we’re still enjoying being here so we pleaded to be able to stay another 2 days. We don’t do much but the days just fill themselves,  we’ve been fishing twice more but with no luck, we’re going to try to get to Quondong next, just 53K’s North of here, 33K’s dirt. Would you believe it, our last 2 days & David & Sally, Jim & Georgie, 2 couples from our club have turned up. We've had a couple of happy hours with them & it is nice to catch up.

The commercial wharf (where we fish)

Cable Beach, at a guess 1000 cars would line the beach
every day around sunset. We even took the scooter
down on the beach.

The red camel team

Liz & her mount

Plodding along

Heads high

On the nose.

The yellow team

Cable Beach (the clothed end)

Sunset on Cable Beach

At the Saturday markets.

4mt crystal statue at the Buddhist Temple

Only in Broome

The red team

Sand shadows

Sunset silhouette 

Another sunset

06-07 Derby

Since leaving Katherine & heading West, the bull dust has been getting finer & finer, it’s like talcum powder. It’s in our hair, in our eyes & ears, right through the van & as soon as you throw your clothes in the wash, the water turns orange. It’s starting to fray our nerves somewhat so Liz said maybe we should stay in caravan parks till we get to the coast. We still have the bull dust, but at least we have showers & laundries. Kununura was a good sized town with all the services very central, even our van park was right in the center of town. The biggest drawback was the temp. In the 30’s during the day & mid 20’s at night. So …….. tempers have been a bit short of late & we’ve decided to make haste to the coast.

Leaving Kununura, our first stop was Halls Creek. The van park was so full we were doubling up on sites, but it was a park. Their was a pub (sorry, hotel. No pubs WA) across the road so, after another hot day travelling, we had an ale or three, at $7.50 a schooner that’s all we could have. The next morning we stopped at the only service station in town for fuel but found they had no diesel. We get 650K’s, + or – 70K’s depending on the road & wind.

We had travelled 360K’s to Halls Creek & it was another 291K’s to Fitzroy River (the next fuel). O.K. in theory & with the right conditions we should do it, but to make sure I emptied the 20lt drum of spare fuel into the tank. Well, we arrived safely with 25lts left in the tank.

The park here was all grassed & there was a hotel connected to the park so we had another coldie on tap to help us settle for the night.

Before leaving in the morning we drove to Geikie Gorge in the Kimberlies & took a boat ride up the gorge, lots of freshies on the banks & the sides of the gorge were completely different from anything seen before. Soft sandstone, worn into the most amazing shapes, & the flood line, well above the present water level. The kiosk where we bought our tickets had markers up the walls for each time it had been flooded, & there were quite a few. The 2011 level was 500ml above the roofline, but the 2003 level was 2mts above the roof line. They were talking about moving the kiosk to higher ground, mind you, the river, at present, is nowhere near the place. The thing we noticed is that the flooding is becoming more regular. Since travelling into WA we are amazed at the amount of fresh water here. We were told that if Sydney Harbour were emptied, the amount of water pouring through this gorge alone would refill it in 11 hours! Wow! Back in town we went to the local art gallery but saw nothing we liked. Then it was on the road again on our way to Derby on the coast. What a disappointment for us, it was nothing like we imagined it would be. Definitely not tourist oriented. We brought some lunch then proceeded on our way to a roadhouse & campground some 60K’s away where we spent a relaxing evening before proceeding to Broome.

The mighty Fitzroy River (not in flood)

Fitzroy Resort (campground in the background)

Geikie Gorge

The rocks around here are really strange

The boab goal