Carnarvon Revisited

We had planned to spend 2 days getting from Karajini National Park to Carnarvon, but in the end we decided that, rather than spending a boring night in a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere (the only town we passed through the whole way was not much more than 100km after we started - there's a lot of empty space in this part of Australia), we would just bite the bullet and drive the almost 800km in one day. While this may not sound a lot for ordinary driving, when you are towing a van at less than 100kph, plus the first 30km was on an unmade dirt road, it added up to a very big day. However, we were pleased to have done it, and given we had already spent several days in Carnarvon a few weeks ago and exhausted the town's limited tourist potential, we had 3 days to recover.

Most of the 3 days we have spent cleaning the car and caravan inside and out. The red Pilbara dust was everywhere, and the caravan looked a shocker after the dirt road, so we have scrubbed and scrubbed. Umpteen buckets of water and a lot of elbow grease later both car and caravan are gleaming, and we are feeling ready to start heading south down the coast again.

Karajini National Park

Karajini NP is marvellous. We spent 3 days here, and went walking every day. First up was a place called Joffre Gorge, the first photo at left shows the view from the bottom, the second photo shows the route down to the bottom, taken from the lookout at the top. If you wonder how we possibly scrambled down those rock ledges, then so do we! Mind you, it was even harder getting up again! When we got back to the camp area we were staying in, we found a bloke in a sling waiting for the ambulance to collect him from Tom Price 70 km away, he had dislocated his shoulder trying to haul himself up one of the rock ledges, so we treated the walks with a lot more respect after that.

The second day we went to Dales Gorge, which was lovely. A steep climb down to the bottom of the gorge revealed a scene that people would pay big money to a landscape architect to recreate. A burbling creek that flowed in small cascades over a series of rock ledges led to a deep tranquil pool. If you enlarge the pool photo you'll find John in thoughtful contemplation, inspired by the serene surroundings. We then walked for an hour or so downstream to a large swimming hole (we didn't swim) before climbing up out of the gorge and back into the dry Pilbara landscape.

On our last day we went to Weano Gorge. Although the lookout was stunning, the walk wasn't quite as interesting as the previous day's. However, it was still a very enjoyable ramble along the base of the gorge next to the creek, and there was enough climbing, rock scrambling and crossing of the creek on wobbly stepping stones for our legs to know that we had done plenty of work.

Our stay at Karajini was also the first time we have stayed in a non-powered campsite. Up until now we've always been at standard commercial campgrounds, but at Karajini the campground is very basic, with no supplied power, water or rubbish collection. It is also very, very dusty, although the word 'dust' doesn't really do justice to the almost oily quality of the Pilbara red dirt. It sticks instantly to anything that touches it, such that it is impossible to clean them, but then mysteriously transfers to anything else inside the van that is brushed against. The campsite was up 30km of dirt road, and the caravan has changed colour inside and out. We're not really looking forward to the cleaning job that awaits us once we get back to civilisation!

Newman

We've headed north again, Newman is just back north of the Tropic of Capricorn and back in the Pilbara. At last we are back to warm, dry weather. The town was built in the sixties to service the Mt Whaleback iron ore mine, and is now a township of some 4,000 people. Like the rest of the Pilbara, it is surrounded by dry red hills and scrub, with only a few permanent pools. Presumably in the wet season there is more flowing down the currently dry watercourses.

Having done the port tour at Port Hedland, we did the mine tour here to see the beginning of the iron ore export process. The Mt Whaleback mine is huge - the mountain was originally 805 metres above sea level, the open cut pit is now down to 420 metres below sea level with plans to go down a further 250 metres. Mt Whaleback is only one of several mines in the area - in the last 40 years over 1 billion tonnes of ore has been sent to Port Hedland for shipment, and they are currently gearing up both the port and the mines to at least double the annual production capacity. The town itself is pretty well what we have come to expect from a mining town - fewer services than one would expect from a town of this size (once again no butcher) and astronomically expensive real estate.

Mount Magnet

Mt Magnet is inland from Geraldton, almost due East, so we have got away from the coastal showers. About 130 km from Geraldton the landscape changed abruptly from neat fields and sheep paddocks to unfenced scrub. We suspect that a New Zealand tourist has tampered slightly with the accompanying warning sign!

Mt Magnet is a gold mining town, although it appears that most of the mines are now shut. Maybe with the recent increases in the price of gold someone might think about reopening them. There isn't a great deal to offer a tourist here, although there is a palpable sense of civic pride and they have done their best to provide some attraction, with a moderately interesting local scenic drive and history walk around town. Despite us having come quite a long way inland, and the land being very dry, there is still a display of wildflowers in the surrounding region.

Yesterday was exactly 6 months since we started this trip, so we walked to one of the pubs in town and celebrated with a slap-up meal Mt Magnet style. We're still having a great time with this caravanning lark, so 6 months down and at least another 12 to go!

Geraldton

Geraldton advertises itself as the windsurfing capital of Australia, and the first few days we were here we could understand why. The windsurfers would definitely have been happy with the gale that was blowing, although they mightn't have been as pleased with the rain and cold. The frequent strong winds from the south are graphically evident in the tree pictured below that is growing virtually sideways. To us golfers, none of this weather was welcome, particularly as Geraldton offered the first grass greens since we left Broome 3 weeks ago. Luckily there were a few days while we were here when a game of golf wasn't out of the question, and we took the opportunity to sample both the courses here. They were certainly worth the trouble, both being terrific courses, with smooth greens and cavernous bunkers.

Geraldton itself is a total contrast to the places we have been for most of this trip. We are now well and truly out of the outback and into civilised climes. The change happened abruptly about 125km north, when all of a sudden instead of scrub and wandering goats and cattle, we were driving through fields of wheat and canola and neat fenced sheep paddocks. Geraldton itself is quite a large town, and while we waited out the bad weather we got the car serviced and Wendy had a dental clean. We also wandered around and checked out a few tourist sites in the town itself, such as the impressive HMAS Sydney memorial pictured above. We also visited Hutt River Province, a sheep property that got a lot of publicity in 1970 when it 'seceded' from Australia, and now makes a reasonable side income from selling stamps, bank notes and other souvenirs.

On Sunday we took a drive up the Chapman Valley, visiting Western Australia's northernmost winery, and our first since long ago Kingston in South Australia. Luckily, the product was good enough for us to stock up, and we had a lovely lunch in their beautiful garden overlooking the vines. The valley also provided some spectacular wildflower viewing, see the photo below.

We have pictures!

We've been without a tv for 7 weeks, after the new one sent to Broome failed to work. According to the phone book, the first place after Broome that had a tv repair place was Geraldton, nearly 2,000km further South. We proposed to the tv manufacturer that we would attempt to get the new set fixed when we got to Geraldton and send them the bill, but to our surprise they said they would send us another new one. We were a little sceptical, the company hasn't been the easiest to deal with and it has taken a lot of expensive phone calls to get this far with them. However to our pleasant surprise when we arrived at Geraldton on Wednesday afternoon and went to the dealer there was our new (high definition, digital) tv waiting for us. We brought it back to the van, did an autotune and this time instead of failing after 10 minutes the tv kept on showing pictures. So now we are back in touch with the rest of the world.

Mind you, the quality of tv programming doesn't seem to have improved in the interim!

Carnarvon

Having crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on the way south to Carnarvon, we seem to have lost the warm and dry conditions. It's been out with the winter doona and the long trousers, and we actually had rain our first night here, the first wet weather we have seen since Uluru in late April. The temperature isn't too bad, with highs generally in the low 20s, but the unremitting strong wind is getting a little wearing. It also plays havoc with our fuel consumption, as we are towing into it all the way on our journey south.

Carnarvon has a strong horticulture industry, based on irrigation from the Gascoyne River (the photo of Wendy above has the mouth of the Gascoyne in the background). The Saturday morning Growers' Market was terrific, and on other days plenty of the producers have roadside stalls. We've been stocking up on local bananas, avocadoes, corn, chinese greens, strawberries, tomatoes, lemons ......... heaps of lovely things. There is no butcher in town, but 2 fishing co-op outlets, so we've used our fresh veg in meals based on fish and prawns. Yum!

Carnarvon's small heritage precinct is based around the '1 mile jetty', which was built for wool and livestock exports. It fell into disrepair from the mid-60s when road freight took over, and is in the process of being restored. They have a small train that runs about half way out, to the point where they have got to in the restoration, and just before the big gap in the structure. Or you can do what we did and take a walk out in the bracing wind.

On the coast about 75 km north of Carnarvon are the blowholes, where ocean swells force water through sea caves and up out of narrow holes in the rocks. Jets of water erupt in the air creating a spectacular sight, accompanied by a loud whooshing sound. There are numerous signs warning of the dangers of going too close, including an unmissable one at the end of the access road (see photo below). We had a pleasant morning clambering over the rocky shoreline, exploring the nooks and crannies of a place that perfectly fits the phrase 'rugged coastline'.

Just north of the blowholes there is a monument to the HMAS Sydney, which was sunk by the German ship the Kormoran in WWII, with the loss of all hands. Some people may remember that it was only last year that the remains of the Kormoran were found off this coast, and the location of this sea battle finally pin-pointed.

Onslow - Exmouth

We spent a couple of nights at Onslow, a small town on the south Pilbara coast. Apart from yet another salt mine (the third place in a row we have been at with a salt industry - perhaps the endless clean seawater and sunshine have something to do with it), Onslow's main industry is as a support base for some of the offshore oil rigs, plus a bit of fishing. The caravan park was right on the beach, just out of the right hand side of the war memorial picture at left. However, we seem to be outrunning Spring on our way South, and while we are still wearing shorts during the day, it is definitely not swimming weather.

Exmouth is at the southern edge of the Pilbara and the northern tip of North West Cape. The town was founded as late as 1967 to support the US naval communications base built in the same year. It now has a big tourist industry, thanks mainly to the coral reef that stretches along the coast (Ningaloo Reef), attracting divers and snorkellers, as well as just beach lovers. The water is such a brilliant turquoise blue that it almost looks fake, but we can assure you that the beach photo below is a faithful rendition of real life. Somehow it is warmer here than it was at Onslow, although we had a 400km journey to get here that was because of having to swing all the way under the Exmouth Gulf, in reality the towns are on pretty well the same latitude and only about 100km apart. However, we have had some bad winds while here, the first night we had to get up at 4:30 am to put up the caravan awning, in fear that it would take off in the gale (well, John had to get up and do it, while Wendy supervised from under the doona).

As usual, we haven't ventured into the water here, but we did go for a stroll along the beach. We also did some good walks in Cape Range National Park, which covers the western half of the cape. Most of the action in the park is on the western side where all the beaches are, but the eastern half has some spectacular canyon views. The longest walk we did was 8km, and as usual we virtually had it to ourselves. The views were stunning, well worth the rock scrambles.