Broome WA towards Sunny Coat QLD

After exploring the top end of WA we leave the Broome & the Kimberley on the first trip towards home. Even though we are 5000 kms away we feel like we are on the way.

I heard this saying the other day "While it s hard to live in the Kimberley it is harder to leave it".

 

 

 

 

It is a beautiful area with the earth colours such a brilliant red it is hard to believe sometimes it 's natural. To live & farm here in the early days of isolation would have been extremely difficult. It is still isolated & seasons extreme but with technology, motor vehicles & improved roads life for the settlers in not as hard. The indigenous people who were displaced by the first cattle farmers must have found it extremely difficult. Especially when their water holes were overtaken & they were cut off from their traditional lands, water & religious areas. There were massive massacres on both sides with little understanding of each others needs. Not so sure anything has changed much!

This is the most interesting part of the landscape in nearly 200kms. Talk about white line fever!

While we have been over here there have been two head ons on single lane bridges despite good visibility. Two semis & a semi & " fourbie", both drivers at fault didn't notice the oncoming traffic! Semi-trailer? What semi-trailer?

At least rock Tones didnt see was not that big!

Stopped overnight at a free camp called Mary Pool. Lovely spot beside a river, the river bed dry during this season but it has plenty of water during wet season.

 

Dry river bed

Artwork on a rock near the river

Sunset through a smoky sky

 

In the few months since we travelled across the bush & grass has dried right off & large areas have been burnt or are burning to limit the potential for "hot" fires.

 

 

 

 

 

"Cool" Grass fires

 

Some of the old Boabs that abound, especially around Fitzroy Crossing. These trees have some bizarre shapes & sometimes seem to take on a lifelike appearance, like a strange old man. Lots of these trees have been names & initials carved into the massive trunks by travellers & explorers.

 

 

 

Our trip itinerary went astray at the Bungle Bungles. Planning on a stopover & taking a tour in to the Bungles, instead of driving ourselves & risking tyres on an extremely rough & corrugated road, due to lack of planning ahead (as is normal for us), we discovered we had to wait two days for the next tour. With the outside temperatures a bit warm & a 30knot hot wind blowing across dry dusty ground the Bungles suddenly lost their attraction & we opted to move on.

 

With scenery of lots of dry grass, burnt paddocks & hot gusty winds pushing the van around the arrival in our overnight stop in Kunnunurra on the way to Katherine was very welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

The name of this creek conjures up a desperation for a drink Prefer a wine myself!

 

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Port Samson to Broome WA

On the way back to Broome after completing our WA loop we opted for a station stay at Pardoo Station. A lot of properties have opened up parts of their cattle properties for camping. This is not far from the beach would you believe!

 

A veterinarian drug company were having their national conference & they had a Masterchef comp going amongst their reps with a few station owners coming for the night as judges. A few looked like they knew what they were doing but a few stews were a bit on the watery side & one roast was - well - well done.

No there weren't any Essendon players t the conference.

 

Camp cooking safety boots

Next stop Eighty Mile Beach, a stunning beach & popular caravan park situated right behind the dunes. Unfortunately my camera has died so the IPhone is the substitute camera until my new one arrives in Broome.

At the turn of the high tide this beach is lined with fisherman. The sand is littered with shells, a beachcombers delight.

 

 

 

Unusually the caravan park has a small war memorial erected in remembrance of Vietnam Vets. Many groups of regulars from down south stay here for months throughout winter & create a small town atmosphere with regular markets, concerts and get togetherness raising money for the Royal Flying Doctor.

We attended a concert & there was a guy from the Sunshine Coast QLD who sang a few songs, not bad. As well, we had not one but four different organ recitals all performed without any facial expressions - Liberace & Winifred Attwell they were not! But still their heart was in the right place.

It was all in good fun including a silly skit reminiscent of old fashioned entertainment in days gone by.

 

Unfortunately as I directed Tone into the camping spot I failed to warn him of this rock he had driven past & so we ended up with it stuck under the car as he reversed. I know it was completely my fault as not only should I have been looking to the left of the van, the right of the van, behind the van, in front of the van the right of the car, left of the car but also in front of the car.

"Rock? What Rock?"

 

We would have liked to stay here longer but the wind was gale force & predicted for 5 more days so we opted to head for Broome.

Waiting for the car to be serviced we had another hard week in Broome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This interesting bike was being ridden by a young guy on a big adventure. It was solar powered with panels on the roof, he had an inverter to charge up his electronics, & a hammock is strung between the poles under the roof.

There are certainly some adventurous spirits still in existence. We have passed a lot of bike riders raising money for various charities. A scary option on some roads with road trains & caravaners fighting for space!

One of the bronze sculptures in Broome dedicated to the pearling industry.

It is a shame Broome is so far away, it's a place we really like, who knows, we might get back some day

 

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Millstream-Chichester National Park WA

A day trip into this national park uncovered more breathtaking scenery enhanced by wild flowers covering the escarpments & bordering the road edge. The narrow winding road across the the ranges was a mass of flowers.

The colours of the Pilbara vary from these soft pastels to the vibrant rocks in the ore bearing country.

Some interesting shapes remain after the weathering of the land breaking into the horizon of the vast plains.

As the photo shows there is more spinifex grass spread across the otherwise barren land. This is all that grows in this hard ground.

 

 

 

These piles of rocks look for the world like someone has piled & stored them for future use. This type of landscape is common & often the mountains are nothing more than stacks of rocks like this.

 

 

 

More red dust & it is like talcum powder, gets into ever nook & cranny. Tone has spent some time trying to remove it from the car just so he can collect more on the next trip!

 

 

 

 

Python pool was a little oasis with clear clean water accessible from a sandy beach.

 

 

 

Looking back towards the area where the above photos were taken. The "booby" mountain is in the back ground.

The colours over here change all the time as you travel towards or away from the ranges.

 

 

 

 

Some of the wild flowers that seem to love this harsh ground. It's amazing that there is such a variety of colours & flower form, although mauves & pinks predominate.

While we came across Sturts Desert Pea over much of the Pilbara nowhere was it more prolific than in this park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The park takes its name from a property that operated here, part of the settlement by Europeans for over 100 yrs in the area. Men & women trying to eke out a living in this hostile environment with cattle & sheep, so removed from any familiar way of life.

The unusual shaped kitchen building is separate from the homestead in case of fire from the wood stoves. You can see the lovely wide verandas sheltering the thick walls of the house from the extreme temperatures of summer.

 

A big old wood stove dominates the end wall of the kitchen, big enough to feed the family & stockman. Much of the original eqipment, pots, pans etc, has been left here from when the kitchen would have been a hive of activity cooking up the stores of flour, sugar, meat & their home grown produce.

 

 

 

 

While this area looks barren & dry there is a huge underground aquifer & the homestead had the advantage of plenty of water for their use. In its hey day the property boasted large gardens & lawns, fruit trees, a swimming spot & tennis court. The lily lagoon is behind the home & small pools of spring water chain together to form a tropical oasis.

 

 

 

Fan palms were planted around the ponds & still thrive today. This homestead would have been a popular respite for travellers from the dusty inhospitable plains.

The property is situated on the escarpment with the Fortescue River carving its way through in the gorges below. The river is actually only about 20 mts to my right but 50 mts below the sheer edge. Large sections of the cliff are crumbling & falling, evidence of nature still at work carving the landscape in a never ending process.

 

The road home produced yet another vehicle roll over . Speed or avoiding wildlife at night the usual cause. Other vehicles ( & there are many) are simply abandoned after running out of fuel or ditched because of mechanical failure.

Both WA & NT are home to many of these unloved cars, sitting rusting in the bush or on the side of the road.

 

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Untitled

Unable to get into Port Samson Caravan Park we opted for a night in Dampier. Spellcheck wants to spell it Dumpier which is probably a better description despite it having a nice harbour. Dampier is the site of a huge gas plant, Woodside, the largest in Australia.

Below is just a small part of the plant, & this is what they wanted to build at James Price Point on the Cape Leveque Rd just north of Broome.

Enjoying James Price Point

James Price, a beautiful place hopefully saved as the peninsular is virtually undeveloped. A part time Broome/ Perth lady I got chatting to at the weekend couldn't see the point in not going ahead with the gas plant as there was plenty of beach, they only wanted 30sq kms, it would create jobs for the local indigenous(?), the pearl market had fallen, developers had already bought cement to build units in town that Woodside had promised to rent for FIFO's & it wouldn't change Broomes character as a town despite the influx of miners!!!!!! I bit my tongue!

 

A sculpture at the plant commemorating those who died in the construction & miners who had died while working.

 

 

 

 

 

Dampier is also home to the statue of Red Dog of the movie fame who wandered the Pilbara & further. Tony's nice photo of us, I'm in front of the dog!

 

Part of an ore train with 127 carriages.

Stopped for a train, the traffic in front is pretty typical of vehicles out here. Trucks, more trucks, fourbies - with & without caravans, and 100's of white utes associated with the mines.

 

The town of Karratha is another typical mining town. Red dust & rock with the basics needed for a town though their shopping centre is a little larger. After visiting these towns we didn't think the pay for the miners was that great all things considered. We don't know how the other town residents survive as rents are high, $800 - $1000 for a basic house, miners subsided by their company around $600 per week. A basic house sells for $800,000 - crazy?

 

Looks like a couple of miners decided to hang up their boots as they had one last look at the town from the lookout.

 

 

 

 

 

An interesting spot on the highway in the Pilbara where the road becomes an airstrip for the flying doctor. Not sure how they stop the traffic, there is a roadhouse not far so maybe they do it as this is in the middle of nowhere.

The runway/highway

Photo at Port Samson where you can just make out the jetty above the water. Plenty of ships here waiting to be loaded.

A new jetty is being built alongside where they will be able to load eight ships simultaneously. It currently loads two.

The amount in $$ of ore coming out of the ground & being shipped each day is mind boggling. They are digging holes everywhere & carting ore for miles to various ports yet in the scale of things it is like equating it to an ants nest in a football field.

Port Samson is a nice little coastal town.

 

 

The historic towns of Cossack & Roebourne are near-bye with some lovely old stone buildings restored by the Govt. Cossack is now only a ghost town with a scattering of restored & derelict buildings waiting for the next cyclone.

 

Got Tone locked up but he managed to get out.

 

Roebourne is an old town but there are quite a few new subdivisions going in looking for buyers amongst the mining community, there is an indigenous community here as well.

In town this old pub which has seen better days was still operational.

 

 

While fuelling up Tony got talking to another guy who ended up coming from Tinbeerwah (near Noosa) who was a FIFO. He was happy with his job & said you get used to the heat in the high 40's over summer. Life is work, home to an air conditioned donger & flight back home every three weeks.

The life out here for these miners is far from easy & far from normal me thinks!

 

 

 

 

There are donger suburbs surrounding these towns with over 100 dongers containing about 4-6 rooms. One of the many new dongers being transported through the Pilbara. The escort cars warning of 4.3 mt loads over their two way . The widest we encountered was 8 mts, a big bulldozer, we made sure we were well over for that truck!

 

A sign in the Roebourne takeaway shop - didn't see any amongst the selection of deep fry though.

Soup anyone?

 

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