Newsletter 11 Well that was interesting.
Started in Geraldton WA 29 October 2017
It has been an enjoyable, varied and interesting trip since we last wrote.
The vehicle problems appear to have settled down. We came to the realisation that the fixing of bits and maintenance are really no different to looking after a house where there are always things that need fixing, mending and replacing. Some maintenance jobs are simple some are more complex and some need outside specialist help. The only real difference is that we take our house with us and while we may have to worry about axle bearings we don’t have drains.
After some 5 months and 20 thousand kilometres it finally happened, we ran into someone from our previous life. In the visitor centre at Karratha one of the others turned and asked if “under that beard is that Don Williams?” It was an ‘old army buddy’ and his wife (Ian and Deb), whom we have since bumped into again in Geraldton. They also are living the travelling life but in a jeep with a large comfortable caravan (R&W take note).
Trains are cool, I don’t care who you are, travelling along the Rio Tinto train access road with three locomotives pulling 250+ wagons with over 30,000 tonnes of ore and passing four of them in an afternoon is impressive. We stopped and watched one mighty set of machines trundle past us just meters away in a display of incredible power and capitalism – each train is currently worth about 2.5 million A$. We took this road to get from Millstream National Park to Karajini Nat Park. It was a Rio Tinto requirement to watch the safety video at the Karratha visitor centre and receive formal approval to use the road. The video should be compulsory viewing for anyone thinking of driving a dirt road. It is full of common sense and there are a few we have passed on the various back roads that could have done with a bit of that.
Millstream was quite pretty with a lovely swimming hole on the Deep Reach. Apparently a ‘reach’ is a straight section of river or waterway, hence Longreach in Queensland. If like me you don’t float, a noodle or other buoyancy device is essential as it is indeed a deep reach. We spent as much time in the water as we could as the weather was warm, verging on hot. After a few days there we did the rail access road, stopped to look at Hammersley Gorge and then headed around the outside of the Karajini National Park to Dales Campground on the eastern side. Going north around the park takes you through the no-longer gazetted town of Wittenoom. This is where the blue asbestos was mined – the wonder material of the 20th century: fireproof; malleable enough to be made into cloth for Dreadnaught firefighting suits; yet solid enough to be a versatile and commonly used building material. Unfortunately it also had the potential to kill you via the fibres in the dust. The government bought the town and closed it. There are warning signs like the old Tom Lehrer song “Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air”. The guidebook was right in that the public phone is on the edge of the old town so that apparently is OK. The Karajini campground was dry and dusty and had been burnt out earlier in the year. With the annex set up on the tent we were comfortable but it was not a pretty site (pun intended). We drove around and looked at the gorges, found one of the most idyllic swimming holes we had seen at Fern Pool. But, we were quite ready to drive off into the sunset (literally as we were again heading west) into Tom Price. I did the Rio Tinto mine tour. Just assume that any number whether related to: cost, equipment, tonnage or anything else was huge. I found it most interesting, Cath took the opportunity to catch up on her reading – a balance for the bird watching tour she did outside Broome.
While at Millstream a couple we had met at the Veterans Retreat (Chris & Hillary) turned up two sites away. It was great catching up with them. As it was in the Lighthouse campground near Exmouth and in the little (5 site) campsite in Cape Range National Park and again in Geraldton, it turned out we had also been at and spoken to each other in a campground along the Gibb. Not sure who is stalking whom but we have become quite good friends as a result.
Trains may be cool but whales are awesome! The Cape Range National Park on the Exmouth peninsular is truly amazing and beautiful. Exmouth is an interesting town, originally some farms and then as few facilities for the navy during the war but the town itself was only established in the 1960’s to support the US/Aust radio facility. At one stage a claim to fame was the best indoor bowling alley in Australia. The base is still there along with information signs and a mock-up of the front of a submarine (guess what the radios were for?). We stopped at the lighthouse caravan park where we again ran into our travelling buddies and found they had booked (as you need to book in advance) the site two away from ours in the small 5 site campground at North Mundi inside the National Park. Earlier in the season you can swim with Whale Sharks and giant Manta rays – we had to settle for looking at whales and turtles
The camp site was pleasant and comfortable. And like all the sites in the park it is next to the beach. A walk over the dune and two steps into the water and you are swimming on the reef. At Osprey Beach it was, as one camper said, like swimming in an aquarium. When not swimming there were walks along the gorges. Early mornings were spent sitting on the dunes with coffee watching the whales, turtles, fish and (harmless) sharks. It was Cath’s birthday while we were there so: breakfast with our travelling friends who even managed to provide a present for her (more than I did); the morning on a glass bottom boat looking at more coral and fish with a very knowledgeable guide who had worked on the Great Barrier Reef as well as the west coast reefs and had a degree in zoology; and lunch in town. She seemed to enjoy it. We could have stayed there for longer but A: our booking had run out and B: the constant and increasing wind was getting to be a bit annoying. We trundled down to the nice little town of Carnarvon – where the wind continued. Therefore we decided to head inland where the temperatures had dropped and the winds were expected to be less. The plan was a few nights in Kennedy National Park, about 3 hours inland, and then a few days in Mt Augustus before going south and cutting back to the coast near Shark Bay. Mt Augustus is the largest exposed rock in Australia – but I don’t think Uluru (Ayers) Rock cares. Didn’t quite work that way. Got to Kennedy Nat Park to find we had the whole place to ourselves, lovely. That night I had a bit of a health scare – an injury suddenly appeared and was enough that even I was slightly concerned (being a bloke I follow the “if I ignore it, it will go away” school of medicine.) The best part of three hours back to Carnarvon to see a GP who basically said all the facilities were in Geraldton – so we continued for another 5 hours. Over 700 km, about the same as driving from Canberra to Melbourne to see a doctor. Saw the doc, did a heap of tests over a number of days and eventually found out I had had and injury/infection and sitting the in the car for long periods only aggravated it, particularly 700+ km in one day. All clear now and hence no more pampering from Cath.
Geraldton is the only real city between Perth and Darwin and is only about 400 km north of Perth. We know it is a city because it has a cathedral and we saw a man wearing a tie. While here we: gave the car a good service, sorted out a few issues with equipment that had broken or worn and had the car roadworthied for its registration renewal. We also visited all the local museums and attractions including a Lobster factory where all the wild rock lobsters are processed. On one of the museum tours we bumped into Ian and Deb and a couple of days later into Chris and Hillary so we had a number of dinners including one all together. We are becoming quite the travelling family – but this time we are going north (us), south (I&D) and east (C&H).
What we did find surprising as we crossed the Tropic Of Capricorn was how long we had spent north of it; the best part of four months and some 18,300 km since we crossed it heading north through Rockhampton. We expected that we would have been well south by the beginning of September due to the heat and humidity. Instead, while there were a few ‘warm’ days we missed the increased humidity and instead found most of the weather pleasant, the parks much less crowded and some of the prices reduced.
Where we stayed at Geraldton was a most delightful caravan park: The Batavia Coast park. (The Batavia was a Dutch ship lost off the coast, great rescue story including mutiny, murder and possibly cannibalism – google it). It turns out the new owners Jason and Siri had arrived only days before us and were quickly trying to repair/improve/refurbish and re- establish the park after the interim managers had let it run down. It was amazing what they achieved in just the 12 days we were there! To provide an idea of the effect they had, the permanent residents arranged a birthday party for Jason and his daughter after their only being there for a week. We had a lovely, grassy, sheltered spot where we could hear the surf but not feel the wind. For anyone travelling through I would recommend the Batavia Coast caravan park – it has a swimming pool but no jumping castle.
You may have noted the reference above to our heading north. Why; to visit Kalbarri national Park, Shark Bay and surrounding areas which we bypassed on the sprint down to Geraldton. All of which will probably be in the next newsletter.
Our best to all,
Don & Cath
PS for those who are new victims of the newsletter previous mutterings are at: http://www.dswconsulting.com.au/main/page_2017.html