'Wherarwee' in Oz: 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.