me & my monkey

Kicked off from camp this morning and headed into Carnarvon. Funny sort of town on the coast with nearby agriculture but no real tourist attractions that we could see. The Visitors Information Centre seemed more interested in booking trips to see Monkey Mia, Shark Bay etcetera so we opted for morning tea in the carpark, the compulsory bread and grog run then back into the car to head to Denham. Jenny rang from Wooramel Roadhouse and was able to get us a site in the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park for two nights. We headed on down and would you believe at the Hamlen Pool turnoff were the Coopers just returning from their unsuccessful trip to Monkey Mia (the dolphins only get fed three times a day and the Coopers had paid their $16 only to discover there were no more feedings today) They hadn’t tried to book in at Denham and ended up at Hamlen Station which is nearly 100 kms out. We left them at the intersection of life and headed into our park for a much needed/longed for shower, clothes washing and replenishing of water tanks (the van’s not ours). We went for a stroll along the esplanade before heading back home for a hearty home cooked meal of chips, steak and eggs. Life is sweet.

We drove into Exmouth from camp today. As soon as we hit the Exmouth road the weather turned to sh.., ah rain. It rained constantly all the way in, getting heavier as we made our way up to Exmouth. We called into the Information Centre and the weather forecast was for continued rain until at least Tuesday, and then for cloudy weather from there on. We decided to cut our losses and head south to try and get some clear weather. After three and a half hours of driving we had left the rain behind and pulled into a camp approximately 90 kilometres north of Carnarvon. We will head into Carnarvon for some clothes washing and supplies (in particular the goon bag variety of supplies, Jenny has all but wiped out our supply) tomorrow.

Made our way into Onslow first thing this morning and had morning tea there and a 2 kilometre walk along the Ian Blair Memorial Boardwalk. From the boardwalk you can view the loading pipelines that service the offshore mining industry. There is also a large salt mine on the edge of town. We went out to Old Onslow, the site of the original township settled in 1885. Onslow was moved in the late 1920’s when the mouth of the Ashburton River kept silting the port up and deeper water was found at Beadon Point where the township of Onslow sits today. Its a quaint quiet little seaside village with large industrial activities nearby – the salt mine and the LNG plants. Having meandered our way around the area we headed south, into the rain and continued until the turn off to Exmouth which we intend to visit tomorrow.

We left Point Samson later than usual and headed back down the road to Karratha to check it out. A modern mining town with all the facilities. From there we went to Dampier for lunch and to check out the port operations. We left town and went out to the North West Gas Fields Visitor Centre but its closed until next week so no joy there. It seems strange to see this large industrial complex on such ancient landscape. We visited Hearson Cove which is another great place to watch the Stairway to the Moon and little out of there was Deep Gorge. Unfortunately the signs leading to the Rock Art in the area have faded to nothing so no luck in finding it in the Gorge. We headed back to the highway where we are camped at the Robe River Rest Area (along with a couple of dozen grey nomads)

Oh what a day – travelling along the Hammersley Iron Railway Access Road from Tom Price to Karratha (just approximately) We travelled about 155 kilometres on a really well maintained gravel road that ran next to the railway line. We played tag with a fully laden iron ore train for probably 20 kilometres before it escaped us due to speed restrictions on the road. Its fascinating to see the cloud of iron ore dust as the train ploughs through the countryside, which in itself is spectacular. We made good time along this track and ended up having lunch at Roebourne before heading out to Cossack, Wickham and Point Samson.

We set up camp at the Point Samson Caravan Park before heading back to Cossack to witness that West Coast spectacle of the “Stairway to the Moon” where the full moon shining on the mud flats at low tide creates (in some peoples eyes) the stairway effect

We travelled all the way to Newman through the picturesque Pilbara landscape. In some respects this area is more attractive than the Kimberlies. We refuelled, had a brief look around the town and bought some supplies before heading back to Karajini National Park travelling about 160 kilometres back over the way we had come. We stayed at the Dales Gorge Camping Ground last night then visited a couple of the sites today – Dales Gorge and Weano Gorge. I guess they probably look spectacular in the wet but otherwise they’re just long holes in the ground (and I can’t bring myself to climb the 50 metres down to the bottom and back out again – what can I say, I’m not fit). We left Karajini and headed into Tom Price for lunch and a look around. We found out that we can take the railway access road from Tom Price through to Karratha which is a well maintained gravel road – we just needed to view an induction video and apply for the free access permit. We decided on that note that it was July so we had better have a shower and booked into the very exclusive Tom Price Caravan Park ( you must have money to get in).