Wednesday 26 September 2012

Dampier/Karratha - Barn Hill Station 20/7/12 - 7/8/12


Dampier/Karratha - Barn Hill Station



Township of Karratha
Dampier and Karratha are 2 major iron ore mining ports located on the central Pilbara Coast, 1,550 kms north of Perth. They are within 20 kms from each other.  Karratha was founded in the 1960's and is the fastest growing town in Australia. This is due to the tremendous growth of the iron ore industry. It's a busy modern town and is full of people wearing florescent orange and yellow tops and blue trousers (work uniform) and small white 4WD utes with flags. A very industrialised place. We caught up with shopping here and drove to Dampier where we booked into the small and only caravan park there. The caravan park is situated very near to the main port which operates 24 hours a day loading iron ore on to massive ships transporting the iron ore around the world.


Iron ore loading at Dampier
Red Dog Memorial
There were 2 main reasons to visit Dampier. The first was the North West Shelf Project, Australia's largest oil and gas resource development. And secondly, the 'Red Dog' memorial.

About a year ago we didn't even know where Dampier was until we saw the Red Dog movie which was set in this area. Red dog was the remarkable story of a dog in the 1970's who wandered about the Pilbara Region and other parts of Australia picking up rides in cars, trucks and trains. He became a well known identity. After seeing the movie we said we must go to Dampier and visit the Red Dog memorial on our travels, which is what we did.

Dampier Beach
We visited the North West Shelf visitor centre which gave insight into the gas and oil drilling and production. This development is one of the world's largest LNG producers and supplies oil and gas to Australian and international markets. Other places we called into of historical signficance in the area were Roebourne, Point Samson and Cossack.

Cleaverville Beach

This was a nice beach to stay for a few days. The camping sites stretched for 2-3 kms along the sand dunes. As it is located only 26 kms along the coast from Karratha we could get good phone, internet and TV reception. We stayed here for a week as we wanted to see the Olympic Games opening ceremony. Many people camp here 3-4 months during the winter season. This is a popular fishing and recreation area. We were able to take the kayak out on the sea one fine, calm evening and came across a couple of dolphins close to us which, initially, we thought were sharks. The heart pounded quickly for a few moments.
Caravans/Motorhomes in the dunes where we stayed


Cleaverville Beach













Desert Sturt Pea at Cleaverville Beach
Port Hedland

We called into Port Headland for the day to have a glimpse at the economic heartbeat of Australia. Red dirt = iron ore = steel = your car, house, caravan, even the kitchen sink. Here you can see the movement of huge iron ore carriers and salt ships. Port Headland is progessing quite rapidly (similar to Karratha) with new development. South Headland is located 18 kms inland from Port Headland and houses the majority of the population.

This is salt, not snow (salt mining, Port Headland


trucks used for transporting iron ore









                    




From Port Headland we travelled 250 kms north to 80 mile beach stopping off at a couple of rest areas on the way, one being a very popular spot with caravaners, De Grey River.

80 Mile Beach












Eighty Mile Beach

This place was recommended to us by several people. It is situated 10 kms off the main highway, almost half way between Broome and Port Headland, down a rough unsealed road. The view of the sea was a stunning turquoise blue as we neared the caravan park right on the beach front. This caravan park was very good but expensive. The beach was huge with white powdery sand. Swimming was not possible as it was very shallow with the tide going out a very long way and also there were warnings about sharks being common in this area. Most people come here to fish off the beach. If you are not into that, then there is little else to do except relax.
View as you arrive into 80 Mile beach


Barn Hill Station

Further north, along the same stretch of coastline as 80 Mile is Barn Hill Station. Again, this place is located 10kms down an unsealed sandy road off the main highway. We did get bogged in soft sand when we swerved to avoid a rock protruding. With a bit of ingenuity we placed our rubber mats joined together to make a rubber track behind the rear drive wheel and reversed out of the soft sand. It worked well especially as we had the weight of the caravan behind.














Barn Hill Station has character, unisex showers and toilets with cubicles open to the sky. The shower water is heated in black tubbing which runs cool if you are late in the day for your shower or extremely hot in the middle of the afternoon. We had a great site on top of a cliff overlooking the beautiful blue sea.





Toilet and shower block





The sunsets from our site were magnificent. Every Sunday for $15, you get a 3-course roast dinner, plus entertainment from a local Aboriginal band, mostly playing 50's - 60's music.  There was dancing as well.  A really good night.  The menu was beef soup, beef roast with fruit salad and ice cream.  As this is a cattle station its no wonder beef featured on the menu.    There would have been over 200 people to be catered for. The station also baked their own bread, rolls and pizzas which were for sale every day. Barn Hill was a good place to stay for a few days. The beach was good and OK for swimming and fishing.







ready for our roast dinner
Beach at Barn Hill








coastline between Barn Hill and Eco Beach resort

One day we walked to the Eco Resort along the beach 7 kms away. There were lots of interested rock formations and caves. On reaching the Resort we saw that it was in an idylic location in a beautiful bay, with accommodation ranging from eco tents to ocean front eco villas. A lot more expensive than where we were staying. We found a little pool in the sand to cool off in. On our return walk we had to traverse over the headland as the tide had come in over the beach.




looking out of cave





coastal walk back to camp












We don't mention about the weather because it's always perfect blue skies, day after day.  It's usually only the wind that spoils it.  We haven't had any rain since beginning of June.  We are now in August.  It's no wonder people come up from down south and stay in these areas for months.
We had an enjoyable stay at Barn Hill, 4 nights, which was very reasonably priced.

Our next blog will be from Broome to Wyndham.

 


Saturday 8 September 2012

Pilbara region - Karijini National Park

Tom Price and Karijini National Park 2/7/12 - 13/7/12

Leaving Exmouth we said goodbye to the sea for a while as we were heading inland to the Pilbara region towards Tom Price and then Karijini National Park. We took our time, 5 days, to travel 650 kms as it was school holidays and knew it would be pretty busy at this time.

We were now heading into the red dirt area, where if there is a breeze or a car drives by, a fine red powdery dust gets swept up in the air and gets into everything. It's no use wearing light coloured clothes as they show up the red dirt very easily and washing it out is very hard. Petrol in this area is quite expensive, about $1.80 per litre.

At one of the camp sites we stopped at on our way through to Karijini we were sitting around a camp fire in the evening with a number of people and one of the ladies mentioned she was going to put on the central heating in the caravan. Definitely home away from home. Even though it was lovely and warm during the day, around 26 deg, the nights were quite cold, getting down to 4-5 degs.

Before arriving into Tom Price, we passed through a small mining town of Paraburdoo. This was our first glimpse of some of the iron ore mining going on in the area.

Tom Price
This town is apparently the highest township in Western Australia, being 747 mtrs above sea level and was named after Thomas Moore Price who worked for an American company, Kaiser Steel. He was the one who convinced the mining companies to start mining in this area. He also played a major role in the exporting of the iron ore. Sadly he died at the age of 71 back in America from a heart attack, 2 hours after being told of the very rich ore deposit discovered on the mountain here. Henceforth, the town and mountain were named after him.



Mt Nameless
While in Tom Price we walked up Mt Nameless, which overlooks the town. From there we had great views looking over the surrounding countryside and also the huge Rio Tinto mine site. Before leaving Tom Price we took a guided tour of the mine site.







It is a massive open cut mine, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Iron ore is excavated out of the hills and transported by huge trucks, sorted and crushed before being loaded into train wagons from conveyor belts. The trains stretch for a distance of over 2 1/2 kms in length and these then make their way north to the port of Dampier to be shipped overseas. Looking around while in this place, everything is much the same colour, a rusty red. It's nice to see a patch of green grass which is rare.


 
All these photos are of the Rio Tinto open cut mine in Tom Price
 
 

















Karijini National Park

Karijini is the second largest National Park in Western Australia. We had been told that this was a place we shouldn't miss, with it's spectacular gorges, waterfalls and rock pools. There are only 2 camp grounds within the National Park, an eco-friendly one and Dales Campground. We headed towards the latter but by the time we got there the sign was out saying it was full, so we spent the night in the overflow area. This also filled up overnight. We managed to get into Dales the next day along with many families and children as it was school holidays. Through the night we could hear the dingoes howling but they were a fair distance away.



Dales Gorge

Fortesque Falls and pool


Fern Pool













The campground is just a short distance away from Dales Gorge so there was no need for the car. The tracks are well signposted so it was easy to find our way to Fortesque Falls and Fern Pool where we had a delightful cool swim and shower under the waterfall.



Circular Pool



 We were refreshed enough to walk the couple of kms along the bottom of the gorge to Circular Pool which at the time was in the shade and not as inviting. A beautiful area and amazing rock formations. Being the dry season there wasn't much water flowing through but you could see the build up of vegetation against the trees telling us of the tremendous strength of the water which would flow through at certain times of the year.


















The next day we were off to visit other gorges, 56 kms away and all on dirt road, the last 14 kms were bad and very corrugated. Slow, was the way to go so it took 2 hours. This gorge was not as beautiful as Dales Gorge but more spectacular and more fun. It felt more like being at a playground. Some areas we had to get to involved wading through waist deep water, climbing down ladders, rock ledges and in one case doing a spider walk with water rushing through underneath us. It was a lot of fun and slightly challenging. It was a great day, but then we had to face the drive back. It wasn't very nice when the 4WD's would go tearing past us creating heaps of dust. That made us think about getting a 4WD next time around.
















We spent 2 more days resting at Dales, actually going back and having more swims in Fern Pool as it was so delightful, biding our time to get the school holidays over with before heading up north on the Great Northern Hwy towards Dampier and Karatha.

Saturday 1 September 2012

Canarvon - Exmouth 18/6/12 - 2/7/12



It's 1st September now and we have reached Darwin.  The blog is 2 months behind but we hopefully will try and catch up a bit while we are here for a week.


Canarvon - Exmouth  18/6/12 - 2/7/12

While staying at Point Quobba we were advised to make a booking to be able to stay at one of the camp grounds in the Cape Range National Park near Exmouth as it is very difficult to get in if you just turn up. Sometimes people queue up for 3 days waiting for a site to become available. We returned to Canarvon to stock up on supplies and do washing and while there we were able to book 1 night at Tulki Beach campsite in Cape Range.  As it was 5 days away, we took our time getting there. The distance was only 370 kms. Very slow going. 


Driving through this part of the country we crossed over many rivers which were completely dry. and will probably stay like this until the next cyclone comes through.




Coral Bay

On the way to Exmouth we did a side trip to Coral Bay for the day which is situated just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. It is one of the most picturesque seaside towns in Western Australia and it is the southern gateway to Ningaloo Marine Park which is Australia's largest fringing coral reef, spanning 300 kms from Point Quobba to Exmouth.





We arrived into Coral Bay early in the morning and found a nice parking area overlooking the sea where we had our breakfast. This is a very attractive seaside town so it was unfortunate the morning started off very windy and cold, blowing sand and dust everywhere, even though there was a sunny blue sky. People were wearing fleecy pants and jumpers. We certainly didn't feel like swimming. We were surprised how small the township was, with just 2 large and very fully booked caravan parks, some hotels/motels, and a few houses and shops and beautiful white sandy beaches.

Nigels attempt at underwater photography. Coral garden

As we planned to do snorkelling here we bought a waterproof cover for our camera in order to take underwater photos. When the weather had improved we snorkelled in the beautiful clear warm water viewing the underwater coral gardens with many coloured tropical fish swimming in and around the coral. Because of the warm water we were able to stay out for quite some time without wearing a wet suit.





Around 3.30pm every day schools of snapper come right into shore to be fed.

Many cruise tour groups leave from Coral Bay taking people out on glass bottom boats to view the coral and fishing charters and to snorkel and swim with the whale sharks. This is a very popular tourist destination and the population swells between April to October.

After spending the day in Coral Bay we continued north towards Exmouth and Cape Range National Park stopping to view a termite mound. These are scattered everywhere around the countryside. We picked up a little bit of information about them which we found very interesting.


Termite mounds - Each mound is an entire kingdom, complete with a king, queen, soldiers, workers and thriving cities. Millions of termites may live in a single mound and each termite has a role of its own in maintaining their complex social environment e.g. worker termites (smallest) build the mound using dirt and saliva. They have no eyes or ears but work by smell. They make tunnels to help keep the mound cool. These mounds can last up to 100 years. The King and Queen have their own room and the soldier termites keep quard outside their door. The King and Queen can live up to 30 years. (This was on an information board explaining all about the termite mounds. We didn't make this up).


Exmouth

Arriving into Exmouth the first thing we noticed was the new marina with some expensive looking houses being built in steel (cyclone and termite proof). Exmouth is situated on the North West cape of Western Australia. It is a flat, laid back town with a population of 2,500, which also swells in peak season April to October. Caravans, motorhomes, vans and 4WDs are everywhere you look. It has year round perfect weather, winter temps in the mid to high 20's, with no wet season although it does sometimes get hit by cyclones. There is a nice shopping centre equipped with everything you need, plus really nice fish n chips. The laundrette is huge and extremely busy.

At the visitors centre there is plenty of water so there was a constant flow of caravans/motorhomes etc coming in to fill up as there isn't any water available for those going into Cape Range National Park.

 
Tulki Beach camp ground, Cape Range National Park

Lakeside Camp ground, Cape Range N/P


Lakeside beach
We stocked up with food and water and drove the 60kms around the top and to the other side of the peninsular to Cape Range National Park, where we had booked in to for 1 night at Tulki Beach. That was all that was available at that time. We just needed to get in to the park. There is a sealed road, thank goodness, all the way into the National Park and a 4WD dirt road access coming to it from the south. Within the park are 8 sandy campgrounds spaced out down the coast, with the amount of sites ranging from 7 to 20. No facilities except toilets. The maximum stay is 28 days. This rule was applied due to numerous amounts of people coming up from down south during the winter and staying for months at a time. This meant a lot of people couldn't get in. Volunteer camp hosts oversee each campground.


We weren't sure if we were able to stay any more than the 1 night we had booked when we arrived but by the next morning the camp host had found another spot for us at the Lakeside Beach camp ground so we moved there the next day. There were only 7 sites at this campground and as everyone got on so well together no one moved out for a while. We stayed there 10 days. Our neighbours had to go as their 28 days were up. They were pleading with the camp hosts to stay longer but they had to move on. At 4.30 every afternoon we had 'happy hour' together, organised by the camp hosts, and almost everyone came to it. We usually stayed until the sun set and it became dark. All these little things help to make the stay there enjoyable.


Mandu Mandu Gorge (no water)



While there we visited two deep gorges in the National Park, Mandu Mandu Gorge and Yardie Creek. We were able to kayak up Yardie Creek and saw the rock wallabies sitting up in the cliffs.



Yardie Creek, Cape Range N/P


Our main enjoyment was the snorkelling which could be done at a number of the beaches up the coast. Turquoise Bay was beautiful with the sea the colour as it's name. Lakeside, where we were staying, had an area right off the beach to snorkel at, so that was really handy.
Underwater shot of Carol snorkelling
Coral (Ningaloo Reef)

There was plenty of coral and tropical fish to view, even a small stingray and a turtle. Some people told us they saw dugongs but we seemed to miss them. Having the water break 400-500 meters from the shore leaves a wonderful calm area to swim and snorkel, but only when the wind wasn't blowing. Unfortunately there were days especially the mornings when the wind made it unpleasant. It always calmed down in the afternoon so we were able to take the kayak out. While out paddling around looking for dugons on the clear water we noticed a splash up ahead, which we thought might have been a turtle. We raced towards it, only to be surprised when a shark appeared in front of us and swam to the side. We were stunned and Nigel told Carol not to move. We stayed still until we were sure it had moved away. It was probably as startled as we were. We weren't sure what type of shark it was. It seemed quite big, browny grey, about 5-6 ft. Hearing another splash behind us and seeing a swirl of water we thought it was time to head back to shore. We certainly had a story to tell when we got back for 'happy hour'.

While we had a great time there a couple of things happened. Nigel lost his snorkel and mask and the camera packed up from using it in the underwater waterproof cover. Maybe moisture? Never again. Lesson learnt.

As we needed to fill up with supplies we travelled the 60kms back into Exmouth for a day. This just happened to be Janine's birthday, so we were able to talk to her. There wasn't any TV, mobile or computer coverage where we were staying so we had to catch up on emails and phone calls while there

Whale shark (took this photo from a book)
The Ningaloo Reef which borders the National Park is well known for swimming with the whale sharks, the world's biggest fish. Every day 3-4 tour boats were out just beyond the reef full with people wanting to do this. Spotter planes were circling above relaying messages to the boats just where the sharks were. It is extremely popular and people come from all around the world to do this. The whale sharks are in the are just after coral spawning from April to July. The Ningaloo Reef is one of the only places they appear regularly in large numbers.

Nigel thought about doing it to celebrate his turning 60 but couldn't justify the cost at this time. Maybe we will do it together another time.

We enjoyed our time immensely while in Cape Range National Park. We would have loved to have stayed longer but we had to keep moving on. We know we will be back again sometime in the future.

Our next blog will be the Pilbara are, including Karirjini National Park and Tom Price