Thursday 4th October: Broome – Port Hedland 609km Kath lead

As today promised to be extremely long and monotonous we have decided to change drivers every 100km and have a break every 200km. Setting off at 8:00, laptop fully charged, I have managed to update the last couple of days travels within the 1^st 100km – the mission now being to get it onto the blog. After about 8 hours we made it to Port Hedland and found our way to Moira & Greg’s. A quick orientation trip around the port area then Moria with Russell & I in tow went to pick Greg up from work leaving Wendy & Kath to update the blog on Moira’s computer. Success! Phoned a nearby campground but they were full and another was due to close so we ended up parking up in Moira & Creg’s carport. Beer, cruisers and pizza and a good ol’ kiwi yarns made for a very relaxing evening. A BIG thank you to Moira & Greg for their awesome hospitality.

 

Wednesday 3rd October: Broome 73km Warwick lead

A very leisurely start to the day after over a week’s travels. A day to catch up on washing, relax and get in a bit of sightseeing in before a huge day on the road tomorrow. First port of call was The Malcolm Douglas Wilderness Park; with all the normal croc’s, snakes and birds. Second stop for lunch was The Mango Place; wine, slushies, chutneys etc. Back into town for a look over 2 restored pearl luggers and a wander through China Town. Broome was originally founded in the late 1880’s as a pearling port and has a rich history surrounding this industry. Back at camp we had a refreshing swim and spent an hour on the internet trying to update my travel blog. Their wireless connection was so darn slow and then couldn’t copy from Word into the blog. Got Wendy’s laptop and by the time that was connected and we were able to start the time and the battery both expired. Hopefully we’ll get a chance in Port Hedland to update the blog. We took a trip down the road to Cable Beach to watch an awesome sunset and to walk along a beautiful white sandy beach and even paddle in the Indian Ocean. We went back to camp for dinner before heading to the opposite side of Broome to Town Beach (where we were the previous evening) to again watch the “Staircase to the Moon”. Although there were no clouds, the phenomenon wasn’t as impressive or as noticeable as it was the previous night.

 

Tuesday 2nd October: Port Smith – Broome 204km Russell lead

We had a very late start having been told by today’s navigator the night before that we were all to have a sleep in. – Thank you Kath. J

Back 20km from camp to the main road along a long sandy road, turn left, increase speed to 100km, a few slight bends, flat, flat road, continue on and on for another 160km. Oh, we did pull over once to let a wide load go through. Not looking forward to the return trip back to Port Hedland along the same tedious road for 615km. We had lunch and a brief look around Broome before shopping and finding a camp ground at Cable Beach.  At sunset we headed to the night markets at Town Beach where we hoped to see the “Staircase to the Moon”. This is a natural phenomenon which occurs for 3 nights each full moon. The moon rises and its reflection over the water and sand looks like a staircase leading up to it. Unfortunately cloud obscured most of the spectacle so it was back to camp for a late dinner.

 

Monday 1st October: Marble Bar – Port Smith 484km Wendy lead

The navigator had a few problems even getting out of Marble Bar but once on the road managed to find all the next turnoffs. By mid-morning we had re-joined the Great Northern Highway 100km east of Port Hedland and started heading east towards our ultimate destination of Broome. We stopped in at Eighty Mile Beach getting our 1^st glimpse of the coast. The water was a brilliant turquoise blue, the beach white sand strewn with shells. Quite a number of people were on the beach with their surfcasters out.  As it wasn’t even lunch time and we were in need of fuel we decided to keep heading east where we had lunch and refuelled at Sandfire Roadhouse. Just in time as our fuel warning light had come on 10km out. We continued on, seeing our 1^st sedan car on the road in 4 days and our 1^st live kangaroo since we set out. Arriving at Port Smith Camp Ground set on the banks of a tidal estuary where catching crabs is the recreational pastime.

 

 

Sunday 30th September: Auski Road House – Marble Bar 247 km Kath lead

Leaving Auski we headed north along the Great Northern Highway for 100km before turning east and toward Marble Bar. Along the way we stopped at Glen Herring Gorge, quite a small gorge tucked away on a narrow, rough track. Meet a kiwi couple who are living and working in Newman with their 2 kids, (1 is actually an Aussie) who we meet up with again latter on at another scenic spot then yet again at camp. The temperature is now consistently between 30 – 35 degrees. We came to Comet Gold Mine which has now closed with only a souvenir shop/museum still remaining. Apparently only 10% of the gold could be recovered from the rock but with new technologies they are now able to extract 80-90% so chances are they will reprocess all the tailings and may even reopen the mine. Reaching Marble Bar, which is officially recorded as being the hottest town in Australia we visited Marble Bar Pool & Chinamans Pool - a couple of water pools along the river (now mostly dry) where we had a very late lunch. We called in at a solar power station with over 2,000 solar panels and at a quintessential pub for a quick drink. Parked outside was a 4x4 with 2 old Suzuki’s in tow that are used for rounding up cattle. They were certainly battle worn and a little scarred. Then it was off to the camp ground where the mid-afternoon temperature was 35 degrees.

Saturday 29th September: Tom Price – Munjina (Auski) Road House 209 km - Warwick lead

Damn cockatoos! They may be pretty but they make a lot of noise very early in the day. After a leisurely breakfast we called in at Tom Price Information Centre where Russell & I, as the day’s drivers, had to sit through a 20 minute road safety video before we were issued permits to drive on Rio Tinto’s (mining company) roads. Leaving Tom Price we drove along a very wide, metaled road running straight for kilometre after kilometre parallel to twin railway tracks. We passed 2 trains, the 1^st being at least 2km long with 240 wagons.  The navigator managed to get us to our destination of Mt Sheila. The road from the base to the top was 2km of sealed road, extremely narrow and so steep that we had to crawl up in 2^nd low. Driving towards it looked pretty impressive but nothing to what it was like once we got to the top. I climbed on top of our vehicle to get above the scrub line and took a 360 degree video for Kath.  We could make out the hill at Tom Price which we had driven up the night before 40 km to the south east and the smoke from a fire in the Millstream National Park 100km to the north west. The video and photos cannot do the scene justice nor can I adequately describe the majestic panoramic views. We stayed up there long enough to have a coffee before continuing on Hemersley Gorge on the Western side of the Karijini National Park. A little oasis in the middle of nowhere. Russell & Kath had a swim in the rock pools while I clambered over rocks taking photos of rock formations, waterfalls, ponds, flora and fauna (lizard). We drove back up the road a short distance to get a breeze where we stopped for lunch in the shade with a temperature of 42 degrees. Continuing on we called in at a Wittenoom. There is no signage saying what this place is, the authorities having removed it all and no longer acknowledge that the place even exits. It was an underground asbestos mine which was shut down over night. There are still a few people living there but from the appearance of street signs, sealed roads and curbing it would appear that most of the houses were removed.  Continuing on we came across a road train with its rear trailer on its back serving as a poignant reminder of what can go wrong out here very, very quickly. We re-joined the Great Northern Highway at Auski Roadhouse only 35 km north of where we left it to enter Karijini National Park 2 days before. We have now travelled over 2,000km. We had barely set up camp when we were alerted to a snake in the vicinity. A Coppertail; about ½ meter long, skinny, light green in colour with around the last 1/3 being copper coloured. It was my first encounter with a live snake in the wild. I think we were more perturbed by the snake being around camp than the snake was being around humans.

 

Friday 28th September: Karijini National Park – Tom Price 137km – Russell lead

From camp we walked to Joffre Gorge then drove to a lookout where we viewed the convergence of four gorges – truly spectacular. Leaving the park we drove to the foot of Mt Bruce and walked a short distance that gave us views over an open cast mining operation within the park. In the distance we saw a train coming into the mine which must have been 2km long being pulled by 3 locomotives.  We made it into Tom Price and found a track that had been recommended to Russell & Kath taking us behind the town and up a rather gnarly 4x4 track, even necessitating low range, to a lookout above the town. It is the highest 4x4 track in Western Australia. With impressive views of 3 large mining operations and the town we stayed up there for lunch. We did a bit of shopping and while refuelling ran into a Kiwi bloke, who was both an All Black and Chiefs supporter (according to the slogans adorning his vehicle) who worked there in the mines. We decided on an early stop and found a nice camp ground and settled in for the afternoon even having a swim in the camp pool.