Day 41 – 29th June – Eighty Mile Beach

One of our longer drives today to reach Eighty Mile Beach.  Set up the camper and headed straight down to the beach.  This is the tide at its lowest today.  See the people right at the back of the photo… all the way out there and they are standing in ankle deep water… 

Looking from the water back to the beach… we are now in the same spot as those people at the back of the last photo 

The sand was almost clay-like and real boggy in parts.  One guess which one of us got his feet stuck and fell on his butt? 

We have friends who were here last night and we also ran into some other friends currently staying here too.  Both said they had spotted several sharks in knee deep water… so close to the beach yet we can’t swim… welcome to the North-West…

Day 40 – 28th June – Port Hedland

Today was a jam-packed day of action and excitement…  First we met up for lunch with a mate of Dave’s from work.  It felt pretty good to do something ‘normal’ for a few hours…  We left there to make our way to the Seafarers office in the town centre.  The Seafarers are an awesome not-for-profit organisation.  When the ships dock, the Seafarers essentially run a free water taxi service so the crew can get off the ship for a few hours.  They not only provide them with a taxi service but a building where they can relax, have a drink, play pool, get in touch with loved ones or buy essential supplies (every second person we saw seemed to have purchased an Australian wool doona…).  They also taxi them to the local shopping centre.

Much like many other charitable organisations, they receive next to no money from the government.  So, to help fund this service, tourists (like us) can ride on the ferry as they are taxied to their ships.  We thought the tour was awesome…  there were 15 ships docked so we pretty  much did a full lap of the harbour, getting right up next to ore carriers, salt carriers and other massive ships.  We were even lucky enough to have a ship travel up the harbour to dock while we were less than 100m away… so cool.

On the boat… these are grins of anticipation 

Looking out to the harbour.  I managed to snap a shot that had everything going on… an iron ore ship, a tug and a helicopter ferrying a pilot from a ship.  Apparently there were about 40 ships moored off the coast of Port Hedland.  There are helicopters constantly flying back and forward to the outlying ships… 

Here’s a shot of some guys ready to jump on and off the ferry 

It’s hard to get a good photo depicting the sheer size of these ships… 

Happy tourists… 

One of the bits of information we learned was these ships have a draft of 18m but the harbour is only 15m deep… so obviously they have to wait for high tide for the water levels to rise before they can come in and out.  Armed with this knowledge we headed back to the jetty overlooking the harbour at 7pm, knowing it was high tide and likely a fully loaded ship would leave.  Luck would have it we saw a ship being escorted out by four tugs.  It was one of the ships we had ferried crew to earlier that day…

Once the ship had passed us by we then spent the next hour hassling some poor guy fishing for squid off the jetty.  He had the kids well and truly entertained…

This is a photo of the jetty earlier in the day.  

A blurry but pretty shot of an iron ore carrier docked directly across from the jetty 

Day 39 – 27th June – Whim Creek

After one of our longest stops yet (4 nights) it was time to pack up and head for Port Hedland.  We had heard about a place called Whim Creek about half way between Roebourne and Port Hedland.  Whim Creek is another one of those historical towns that in the early 1900s was a booming mining town… now it is just a pub… and a very nice one at that… 

Dave thought that having to drive a whopping 80km to get to Whim Creek constitutes as “hard work” and so he deserved a beer… 

From Whim Creek to Port Hedland… where the road into town is lined with salt piles, ore trains and ore loading facilities everywhere you look… 

Day 38 – 26th June – Roebourne

Today we headed out to the east of Karratha for a day of historical reflection.  We visited the towns of Roebourne, Wickam, Cossack and Point Samson.  The latter two were once thriving ports and pearling stations in the early 1900s and had significant infrastructure.  Cossack was particularly interesting as some of the old buildings remain and some effort has gone into retelling the story of the people and activities of the time.   We were shaking our heads at the number of casualties, both people and buildings, that were caused by cyclones back in those days… there seemed to be a period of time where they were smashed by a significant cyclone every single year…

An old storehouse and the courtrooms at Cossack

Day 37 – 25th June – Dampier and Burrup Peninsula

Following some advice we headed to Dampier first thing for a cooked breakfast at a local café.  Not a bad way to start the day… here’s the view from the balcony where we were sitting… 

Of course, any visit to Dampier is not complete without a stop at the Red Dog Memorial. 

From there we turned into the Burrup Peninsula.  Our first stop, Deep Gorge, where we were on the hunt for ancient Aboriginal Petroglyphs (fancy name for rock carvings).  After spending the better part of a week in Karijini, we found the name “Deep Gorge” rather amusing when wandering through the gorge… it pales in comparison with the behemoths we had seen previously. 

It turns out the rock art is prolific and easy to spot… 

As we were walking, Dave and I were commenting on the surprising lack of wildlife we have seen so far on this trip, particularly kangaroos.  Admittedly, we are not driving at dusk or at night but we still expected to see a few roos.  Today we spotted the first… can you find him in the picture? 

Further up the peninsula is the North-West Shelf Gas Project tourist centre, right next door to the processing plant.  It was actually pretty interesting and the kids were given a quiz to complete which forced them to stop and actually read the information… 

A nice sculpture out the front of the visitor’s centre commemorating the lives lost throughout the project.  The sculpture was surrounded by a bed of Sturt Desert Peas.  

Now I look back, it’s funny how excited we were to spot wild budgies and Sturt Desert Peas… now we see both EVERYWHERE…

We had heard the Burrup Peninsula was a pretty spectacular place but we were a little underwhelmed.  Firstly, I wrongly assumed Burrup was some historic Aboriginal word (usually the ‘up’ means water nearby) but it turns out it is named after some white dude named Burrup who  lived in the region and was brutally murdered… Secondly, the landscape it not pretty… instead of towering cliffs and gorges there are mounds and mounds of small-ish rocks.  Have a look back at the photo with the kangaroo… that’s what this whole area looks like… 

Day 35 & 36 – 23nd & 24th June – Karratha

Not much exciting to report for these two days… we packed up from Millstream and headed to Karratha.  Once in town it was a couple of catch up days… washing, shopping, car service, tyre fix and haircuts…

A new, funky Mohawk 

Even a caravan park holds a plethora of hidden dangers to a 10 year old… all that bitumen on the ground is begging to be kicked…  Check out Aiden’s ‘heavy duty’ bandaid…  gaffa tape and electrical tape can fix ANYTHING… I am surprised Dave didn’t find a way to attach a cable tie too ;) 

A quick word on our first impression of Karratha… it’s HUGE!  Neither Dave nor I expected it to be quite the bustling metropolis that it is… or for such an awesome array of infrastructure.  The other thing that surprised us is the non-stop, incessant, gale-force wind. .. 

Day 34 – 22nd June – Millstream Chichester National Park

Today we travelled 50km from our camp to explore the northern part of the national park.  On our way we stopped at Mt Herbert.  A short climb to the top revealed some pretty special views.  Probably one of my favourite panoramas so far… green topped gorges and peaks to the left, the windy road we were travelling in the centre and red hills to the right… 

The view with us in it… 

Of course, every man-made pile of rocks we come to must be added to… 

From there we made our way to Python Pool, a stunning plunge pool at the base of some cliffs.  This national park has continued to surprise us with its hidden gems…

The walk into Python Pool 

Python Pool 

A photo to give you some perspective of size.  Hopefully you can see Dave and the kids at the base of the cliff. 

Proof you can’t take the boy out of the man.  Any opportunity to do a bombie is usually taken…  

On our journey back to camp I was fortunate enough to glimpse my first Sturt Desert Pea.  After spotting the first we then noticed a few more bushes along the road as we went.  I can’t quite figure out how we managed to miss them all on the way in… 

Finally, a look into life on the road.  Here’s one of the things we do to amuse ourselves in the car… 

PS. If her class is reading this, she is going to kill me ;) 

Day 33 – 21st June – Millstream Chichester National Park

We set off to explore the national park today, following a ring road that loops through the entire park.  Our first stop was a cliff lookout over the Fortescue River.  We were shocked to see so many palm trees along the river’s edge.  Apparently they were introduced when the Afghan camel traders were running camel though the area.  Obviously this is the perfect environment for Date Palms so they thrived… to the point I think they are considered a pest. 

Further around to the left of the first photo the path circles to the left overlooking a plain scattered with Snappy Gum trees.  While looking over the plain I managed to spot a dingo weaving his way through the spinifex… no, I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo…

Next stop was an unexpected delight… the old Millstream Homestead.  Historically, they have run sheep here since the early 1900s and even ran a tavern out of the homestead for a period of time.  Over the years a bath house, a vegie garden, a lily pond and even a tennis court was built on the property.  One of the old grandmothers planted a heap of Cotton Palms and introduced lilies to the waterhole so this, coupled with the abundance of Date Palms, makes for a beautiful oasis.  There is a really nice walk through the property with signs indicating where all the old buildings and areas of interest were located…

We have never seen water as crystal clear as what was running through here.  Just to the left of this bridge is where they tapped the stream for their bath house.  Unfortunately, the area is of some aboriginal significance so you are not allowed to swim here now… I hope dipping your feet in doesn’t cause offence…  

So many pretty spots

A valley of Date Palms… apparently the fruit bats love them… 

The lily pond 

From the homestead we followed the drive around the park until we came to a spot where thankfully, we can swim.  Deep Reach Pool is a couple of kilometres stretch of the Fortescue River where the water is up to 14m deep.  The banks are lined with Date palms and Snappy Gums and are full of birds.  There has been a bit of rain recently so the water was a lovely shade of brown… but it was fresh… just what you need when you’re camping without shower facilities ;)

We made it back to camp with enough time to spare in the day for some chill out time, something which has been surprisingly lacking so far.   Megan’s first birthday present project: