The Top End of WA

We left Derby early on Thursday morning with the aim of getting to Fitzroy Crossing for the 11 am Geike Gorge boat trip. Got there right on time - booked the tour andwalked onto the boat - about 35 degrees in aluminium boats.... Geike Gorge is the remains of a Devonian Reef system that once stretched 1000km along a vast inland sea in the middle of Australia - or probably Gondwanaland. The Fitzroy River flows through the Gorge and at present is at its low point - in the middle of the Wet season it is about 15m higher and the flood plain is 25km wide. It's really hard to get your head around just how much water these rivers carry!
Anyway quick drive around Fitzroy Crossing - now a fairly dry community - no alcohol over 2.5% at the order of the women of the community - same in Halls Creek as we found when we went into the bottle shop and had a choice of 3 different types of light beer. No wine at all, not even our beloved 1litre bricks!!!
So we headed on to Halls Creek - figured there was really nothing in either Fitzroy or Halls Creek that we really wanted to do, so we just went to the Halls Creek Caravan Park - dry dusty and locked in overnight - and then out the next morning at 7am.
The road to Kununurra is spectacular - through several sets of mountain ranges (all low - these are very very old mountains and although many were once the size of Mt Everest they have eroded over the millenia) and through some spectacular Kimberley countryside. Arrived in Kununurra early afternoon and parked at the caravan park near the lake. Lots of bugs and a few mozzies but not too bad.
When we went through Turkey Creek we booked our flights into the Bungle Bungles - or so we thought, When we called the office to confirm and tell them where we were staying they cancelled our booking and moved it to Monday. Not much we could do about it, so we "did" Kununurra - difficult as most things were closed because it was Saturday afternoon! Went and had lunch at Ivanhoe Crossing, went to a rum distillery (too sweet for me) and Zebra Rock Gallery. The highlight of this was feeding the fish - a thousand disgusting black catfish all with mouths open trying to get the food. However this soon turned to great amusement as Michael was "attacked" by one of the Archer fish - who seemed to have it in for him - circling and then squirting him with water until he was really quite wet. :)
After a really hot uncomfortable night we had a day to kill. Michael decided we would go have a look at Wyndham. We knew this would be an auspicious trip when we crossed over Cheese Tin Creek and then Dead Horse Creek, but little did we know what delights awaited us!
Twent-five km out of Wyndham, the most northerly town in WA, we came across our first traffic light since we left Perth 25 days and 6,500 km of road later. Waited there in 35 degree heat until the road cleared of the two cars coming in the opposit direction through roadworks and then headed on into Wyndham.
Made it to the outskirts when Constable and Sergeat Plod pulled us over and breathalysed Michael. 12.20pm on Sunday. We went on to the fiver rivers lookout, looked out, had lunch, fed brown kites and tried to get them to fly in close enough to take photos and then headed back into town.


I was all for going straight back to Kununurra but Michael insisted on seeing the port, so we headed out there. Very old, very dingy, trying to make history out of bugger all. For example the hospital which opened in the late 1890s and closed in 1909 because it was riddled with termites, or the magistrate's residence, which was built with inferior mortar and never occupied because it was so far away from anywhere and the local aboriginals were very hostile.

However part of it still stands. Go figure.

Left is the main street.

10 minutes later we were on our way back across the mudflats with a big 4wd up our clacker. I was driving at this stage, so when the red and blue flashing lights went on all I could think of was whether for some insane reason the speed limit over the mudflats was only 60.... however , it was another pair of Constable Plods doing random breath testing, so I was also tested (2.30pm Sunday). We were doing well so far - 2 breath tests and a traffic light - so we got the hell out of there as fast as we could, and back to sunny Kununurra. We may be getting a but jaded, but beer o'clock couldn't come fast enough!! OH - I forgot to mention the giant croc didn't I? hmmm. This is Michael wrestling the giant croc in Wyndham...

Broome through to Derby

Went swimming at Cable Beach Monday and Tuesday mornings at 7 am; great time for a swim and the water was superb. Not much else to do in Broome - it's a great place if you just want to sit and do nothing but neither of us wanted to do that - we wanted to do things! We went out to Gantheaume Point, hoping to see whales - saw some great rocks against the stunning turquoise ocean, some dinosaur footprints (well copies in concrete as they are only visible at extrememly low tides) but no whales. However we did see a sea eagle nest, full of squawking complaining babies, and the their mum and dad came along to feed them - so that was a bit of a bonus.

We left Broome early the next morning and headed the 230km north to Derby. We stopped in at the boab prison tree and the world's longest cattle trough. Hmmm. This knocked two of the highlights off the list of things to do in Derby even before we got there. Oh well... we went off to see the long jetty and the high tide - this is one of those places with enormous inter-tidal zones - almost 10m at times.

Wednesday, today, we were picked up at about 9am and taken to Derby airport to fly to the horizontal waterfalls at Talbot Bay. The flight was fantastic - in a little single-engined deHavilland seaplane -we got a fantastic view over all the mudflats around Derby. Sounds boring but they really are beautiful. Landed on Lake Talbot after several flyovers of the horizontal waterfalls. What are these horizontal waterfalls you ask?

Located deep within Talbot Bay in the Buccaneer Archipelago are the Horizontal Waterfalls. Massive tidal movements create a waterfall effect as water banks up against one side of the narrow cliff passage, to be repeated again on the turning tide.

The twin gaps are part of the McLarty Ranges, which have two ridges running parallel approximately 300 metres apart. The first and most seaward gap is about 20 metres wide and the second, most spectacular, gap is about 10 metres wide.

On a slack tide it is possible to drive boats through the two gaps to the bay behind. The tides in this area have a 10 metre variation which occurs over six and a half hours from low tide to high tide and vice versa. The effect of the waterfalls is created by the tide building up in front of the gaps faster than it can flow through them and there can be a four metre high waterfall between the bays.

The waterfall phenomena has been described by David Attenborough as "one of the greatest natural wonders of the world".

We got onto the boats, which are superbly luxurious, with flatscreen plasmas and lovely beds! We should have stayed overnight!!! Anyway, after a wander around we went off on a boat to Cyclone Creek. Cruised up there, admiring the rocks and the beautiful colour of the water. Lovely and relaxing, but no swimming as there are lots of saltwater crocs in here, not to mention hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks and sea snakes. There were also supposed to be turtles and dolphins but we didn't see any :(

Back to the boat and lunchtime - superb barbecued fresh barramundi, spuds and salad. Then a couple of hours just sitting around talking and watching the wildlife.

Oh did I mention that we couldn't go swimming? Well after lunch we saw one of the best reasons for this - 8 or 9 bronze nurse sharks... swimming around the boat, waiting for scraps. Yes alright they aren't huge scary sharks but are still sharks nonetheless!!

After the sitting around we went out onto the little wave shooter and headed off to the falls. This was absolutely awesome. You can see the water being pushed through the gap in the rocks, dropping about 2m at this point. We went through and back several times, and when I can get photos off the little camera I will post something. But it was great fun and one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Last time in the Pilbara

We went back into Karijini on Wednesday and went on a 4WD tour with a guide called Geoff, who took us into the gorges that our vehicle couldn't handle. On the way in there we came across the grader ... that bit of road was so much better! However it was nice for someone else to be doing the driving for a change.

Aboriginal legend has it that the gorges of Karijini National Park were formed by giant serpents who snaked through the rocks and now reside in the park’s glistening waters.

Basically, in terms of geology, this whole area is an ancient sea bed. Over millions of years, layers of silica and silica and iron oxide built up, squeezing out the water to become tough, well-bedded rock. Colliding continental plates caused these rocks to buckle and develop vertical cracks before being lifted up to become dry land. Erosion over millions of years has caused the landscape to become how we see it today.

What is so amazing with these gorges is not just witnessing the absolute power and strength of the earth in lifting and warping the rocks on the sides - it's the whole thing - including the depth that some of the rocks have been lifted and the resulting depth of these gorges. A lot of them you can't get into without a guide, proper abseiling/climbing equipment and a lot of experience!

We went first to Knox Gorge. This was pretty mind-blowing, but soon it was time to head off and so off we went to have a look at Joffre Gorge, a spectacular gorge which has been cut down into by water and has a waterfall at one end, crystal clear water at the bottom. We then went to Oxer lookout, which is where Red, Hammersley, Joffre and Knox Gorges all meet. WOW! This was absolutely fantastic. The colours of the iron-rich rocks are amazing.
After lunch we headed off for a bit of adventure - to go into Weano Gorge and go down it to the handrail pool. This necessitated us walking around narrow rock ledges in waist high water , clinging onto rock handholds, to get to other parts of the gorge that were not otherwise accessible. We then had to carefully clmb down through a narrowish gap across very slippery rocks to get to a pool almost entirely enclosed by 80m high walls of sheer red rock. Next step, which Michael did but I was too lazy to do, was to go through a narrow opening, and descend into the pool using a handrail (duh!). Then back and up and out of the gorge, Fantastic experience.

Next morning, we set off very early heading for Hamersley Gorge. This one is on the far north of Karijini and is quite different to the others. The rocks are pushed and twisted in strata of colour and texture - stunning.

After this it's back to reality - 55km of unsealed road, back through Auski roadhouse and 40 litres of petrol at $1.59 a litre then off on the road to Port Hedland. That was a long and boring drive and unfortunately a foretaste of things to come!!

Port Hedland - a BHP town, covered in a layer of red dust, a typical mining town, with few sights and experiences really. We had a nice meal at one of the hotels, watched the giant ships come into port and get filled with iron ore to be shipped off to China, and then sold back to us in the form of cars, and then headed out of town on the VERY long trip to Broome, which we broke over two days. We got to the 80 mile beach turn off after about 4 hours of solid driving, but then the last 9km was on a very rough unmade road. Saw a big goanna run across the road in front of the car as we turned in - just caught him on camera!

80 mile beach is a little oasis - spectacular long white beach, stunning clear water - just a pity you can't swim in it as there are nasties there like stingers and stingrays. Ahh well. We got up at 5.30 the next morning to see the sunrise and seee what offerings the tide had brought us in terms of shells, but not much interesting - lots of volume though!

After that we were off to Broome. The landscape deteriorated at this point - nothing but low scrubby plants from horizon to horizon. For 450 km. Yikes. Never mind - we made it, hot and dusty but we're here in Broome, recharging our batteries for the next adventure into the Kimberley!!!

Tom Price

Tom Price is an 'interesting' town. Sitting at the botton of Mt Nameless, which the Indigenous people point out is not nameless at all but had a name for thousands of years before we came along ... the town is named after a mate of Lang Hancock's who died before seeing plans for mining iron ore here come to fruition. There's not a lot to do here, but we went for a walk late afternoon up to the base of said Mt Nameless, which in the King of the Mountain last year someone ascended in a little over 18 minutes.... as I said we made it to the base but big sooky la-la that I am I piked and so Michael reluctantly didn't make the ascent (which at this time would have been in the dark!). We stopped and chatted to some others at the top of the first really steep bit, and they pointed out the 8 foot long olive python we had possibly just stumbled past!!!
However we watched the sun set and walked back to the camper.
Next morning v. lazy, doing washing, sudoko and reading. Exhausting but someone has to do it!

Early afternoon we went along for the mine tour of Tim Price mining operations (Rio Tinto). This is an operation on a giant scale - everything is huge. We can only remember a few of the amazing stats.

The trucks hold about 200 tonnes of iron ore each. The fuel 'economy' is about 20 litres per kilometre - yes you read that right!! They hold about 560 l of oil, roughly the same in water, and petrol we think about 800 litres. Ye gods,
They have 3 fire retardant canisters that engulf the tuck in foam if they catch fire.
The tyres cost about $100,000 each and they prefer women drivers because they are more gentle on the trucks !! HA!
The drivers work 12.5 hour days, 3 on, 3 off, earn about $100K a year with subsided everything and airfares to Perth 3 times a year. Some of the executives don't want to live here, these guys are refwrred to as FIFO - fly in fly out - which explains the derogatory stubby holders we've seen that say "FIFO - fit in or fuck off"!!! LOL
Trains - 230 carriages each carrying 116 tonnes of iron ore - about $5 million in every train load and there are 28 trains on the system 7 days per week. Train drivers earn about $150 - $180,000 per annum. Yes that is a lot! They do the run from here to Dampier in about 7 hours.
Tomorrow we are off back into Karajini to go to the other gorges that we missed out on due to their shitty roads.

At last - into the Pilbara

Left Karratha early in the morning and headed out the new sealed road towards Millstream-Chichester National Park. This is a glorious drive, with the roadsides covered in mulla mulla, wattle, sturt pea and other flowers, with snappy gum shining in the light. It winds through the edges of the Chichester Range, alongside the Rio Tinto railway line, so you regularly see huge trains - 3 locos and hundred of carriages, all full of iron ore being taken to Karratha for shipping. At the end of the bitumen we took a left turn onto the dirt road to Python Pool. This was unfortunately very corrugated and so we had to slow right down - and made us realise that we really couldn't take this vehicle onto roads like this. Python Pool was spectacularly beautiful, with sheer red rock cliffs rising out of the water. I'd love to see it with water flowing but then not sure that I would like to be in the Pilbara in the wet season! Chatted to a couple who had been swimming there - awkward as he had taken his togs off and had a very skimpy towel wrapped around his middle - leaving pretty much everything on show - lucky I had my dark sunnies on!

Drove out of Python Pool on the Roeburne Road - still dusty and rough but not nearly so rough as the way in. We decided that we would head to the Great Northern Highway just short of Port Hedland and then go down the bitumen to Karajini National Park - very much the long way round but all on sealed roads. Promised Michael a Barra Burger at the Whim Creek Pub - apparently something they are quite famous for - but got there and found the bloody place closed for lunches from the start of August. Made our own lunch and then headed off - very long drive with very long stretches of pretty much nothing along the way - the only gripe with WA is that it is so big and things are frequently 400 - 500km apart!

We approached the Auski Roadhouse at about 5 and decided to stop there the night rather than go into Karajini and try and get a place to stop. Just after I told Michael that there were often dingoes in the Dales camp ground one appeared on the side of the road! Auski is interesting - the site we had was great - really nice thick grass.. but the toilets and showers were yicky! I loved the sign that warned to turn out the lights when you left so as not to encourage the insects and snakes!!!

Went into Karajini the next morning and set up in the Dales camp ground. Red dust everywhere but here we are right back in the middle of the magnificent Pilbara. I love this area - the colours of the hills and rocks, the trees and the vast expanses of tussocky spinifex. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and I am drinking it all in thinking it's unlikely I will ever come back here. We walked along the rim of the gorge, then down into the falls and fern pool area. Very steep climb down and back, much steeper than I remember from 15 years ago!!!

We walked back at sunset to see the sun relected on the rocks - stunning. At night we could hear dingoes howling and stood outside in the cold to look at the billions of stars. We are so lucky in the southern hemisphere to be able to see so much of the Milky Way, and despite Stuart's astro-photography coaching, I am not sure that I can capture it all. There are stars from horizon to horizon, and until the moon rose and ruined it we just stood out there and looked.

Next morning we though we would drive to the other camp ground but after doing 10km in 45 mins turned back. The roads here really are very very poor, corrugated and rocky. Rather than damage the camper we will come back and do one of the day tours into the area with someone elses 4WD, This is one of the few times I wish we had taken a 4WD, but then as 90% of the trip is on bitumen it would have been a bit of overkill. So we headed to Tom Price - to the only caravan park, and a very nice one it is too. Booked for the Hammersley Iron mine tour and then will head back to Karajini for another night and into the other gorges the next day. Have taken today as R&R - reading and relaxing this morning, catching up on washing (and this!) and maybe a bit of a stroll later on before the mine tour.

North of the 26th parallel

OK, we're here in Karratha, around 1500 km north of Perth and a longgg way from Melbourne!

Last blog was Shark Bay, which seems so long ago!

We left Denham and first stops for the day were Shell Beach, which is, as one would expect, very shelly - in fact is completely shells, up to 5m deep, and then the stromatalites, which are thousands of years old and grow about 1mm per year. These are primitive forms of life and were here long before we were - and contributed to the atmosphere we now breathe.

Next we headed north to Carnarvon, an area rich with farms growing all sorts of veggies and fruit, an abundance of fish, and not much else. We went out to one of the town's advertised attractions - one of the longest jetties in WA (or maybe the southern hemisphere?). Well this was a bit of a let down.... we paid out $2 each to walk out on the one-mile jetty, but found a gaping hole about 2/3 of the way along.... so we grumbled a bit and then walked back...

Left Carnarvon and reached Exmouth mid-afternoon. It's still one of the most beautiful places I know. Went out to Vlamingh head lighthouse and watched whales cruise by along the humpback highway, and the sunset over the beach. Next morning we headed out to YArdie Creek and went on the boat trip up the creek. We were lucky to see a black-footed rock wallaby with joey in the middle of a rock face in a little cave. These are endangered species. We also saw heaps of grey and white egrets nesting, and an emu with some chicks.

The ranger told us that the emu dads mind the chicks, and to present themselves in the best possible light to the emu ladies, they 'steal' chicks from other emus to make it look like they are virile and also good at looking after the kids. We found this most amusing....

We went to Osprey Beach, which was absolutely stunning, and then on to Turquoise Bay for swimming and snorkelling... which was disappointing but still fun. The coral has been badly damaged from last time I was here, but the water is still crystal clear. We stopped a little further up the road at Turtle Cove... and discovered it was the local nudist beach ... I was staring at this guy trying to work out what sort of togs he was wearing... and then the brain clicked that no one wears togs with pubic hair on the outside!!!!!! hehehehehehehehehehe

Next morning we were picked up early for a trip out to the outer reef and some snorkelling. We went out a little way and snorkelled for about half an hour - lots of parrot fish, humbugs and other fish.. pretty colours. We then went out up the humpback highway and before long we caught sight of a mother with her calf. She was about 20m from the boat and it was pretty awesome seeing them so close. During the day we encountered many other humpbacks, but this one, and the mother and baby that swam under the boat, were the most exciting. Except for the one that waved his flipper at Michael!!! We got some awesome photos and they are all on the photo page qhich is linked here (http://picasaweb.google.com.au/sue.thomson). Got home on a bit of a 'whale high' and had fish and chips for tea!

Today we got up at sparrows fart, filled the car ($96 of diesel thank you very much - $1.49 per litre) and headed off for Karratha. We drove in stints because the landcape is not terribly exciting, and got here at about 1 - 540km in all.

The Pilbara has begun. It is stunning. The colours are superb, and I love it up here. There are wildflowers everwhere, in stark contrast to the reds and greens. We may never come back to Melbourne - I'm sure ACER needs an office in the north west. :)

Tomorrow we are looking around the area, which is heavily industrialised with iron, salt and natural gas. There are also a couple of historic towns which we will go to, then we will hopefully see the staircase to the moon. After that we are off to Millstream Chichester and Karajini National Parks and will be offline for 5 days. GASP!

Until then.. these shots of the beautiful Pilbara...

Day 4 - Shark Bay World Heritage Area

Ok - Day 4 we decided to take it easy. This meant a 7am start... go figure :)

We drove out to Monkey Mia for the first dolphin feeding for the day - to find this girl - Nikki - who was there with a baby when I was here with the kids 14 years ago! She is also in calf now, and they are hopeful that this one will work out alright. Apparently she is not a very good mother and her babies tend to die. Those that don't get eaten by Tiger Sharks!
There were also several superb looking pelicans on the beach, minding their own business but being stirred up y some of the Asian guests.

We booked a cruise on the Arisocat - a twin-hulled catamaran that specialises in finding dugongs, sat back at the cafe and had a latte while we waited in the warm morning sunshine...

Now - why is Shark Bay a World Heritage Area I hear you ask? There are a few reasons. Firstly, it is an ongoing geological process. Over thousands of years, sediments and broken down shells and skeletons of marine life have been trapped by seagrasses to form large seagrass banks, which are the largest in the world. These seagrass beds support one of the largest and most important dogong populations in the world. There are about 16,000 of them in the waters here... but I can assure you it took a lot for us to find the three we found. However thanks to Anthony's skills up the mast, we did find and follow them. I was rapt - have never seen dugongs before! We also saw a turtle and a manta ray, and a couple of dolphins played with us on the way out. The weather was perfect, the sea was calm and crystal clear, and it was a fantastic morning.
On the way, we visited a black pearl farm (VERY beautiful but VERY expensive), and got to see the stunning Peron cliffs, part of the Francois Peron peninsula... the red cliffs meet the pristine white sand and the turquoise blue water.

After that we headed back to the ranch for a bit of a nap, then out to the Peron homestead and shearing shed and then out to Eagle Bluff to see the sun set over the still, glassy waters.

One of the other reasons this is a World Heritage area is that there are several hypersaline pools in which stromatolites grow. These are ancient organisms, about 3000 years old. In preCambrian times, 600 million years ago, these were the dominant form of life... but look at them now - no ipods or imacs... they just basically sit there. We will go there in the morning so photos tomorrow!
Other reasons are that it's one of the most important breeding grounds for loggerhead turtles, and that it has become part of a project to eradicate introduced vermin and bring several native species back from the brink of extinction.