Big Driving Day

The time had finally arrived to say good bye to Broome and to our friends, Judy and Alan, which have been an integral part of our stay. It's hard to believe that we were camped together last night but by the end of the day we'll have over 1200km between us.

We got up early and were on the road just after 7AM when the air was nice and fresh but our awning dripping wet from the overnight moisture. A short distance West to Roebuck, then we nearly missed the turnoff to Port Hedland. From Roebuck it was all South, past those places we'd visited on our way up, Barnhill Station, Port Smith, Pardoo Station and so on.

He pulled into Sandfire Roadhouse, with the "Fuel Low" indicator on, and refuelled the car. Over these early morning hours we watched the temperature climb from 16 DegC at 7am to 30 DegC at 9:30am.

One the way to Port Hedland we marvelled at the changing landscape as we transitioned from the Kimberley into the Pilbara. The changes in earth colour are quite pronounced and the typical Pilbara hills suddenly rise out of nowhere.

About 100km before Port Hedland we are back with the Mining Road Trains, which, I'm sure, have multiplied many times since our last visit in 2009.

We were lucky enough that DeGrey Station were mustering near the Highway as we went past. We could hear the action on the UHF radio for many kilometres and saw two helicopters and and one fixed wing aircraft working with the ground crew to round up cattle. We saw large mobs that had been gathered near the road and whole lot more in their yard.

Next refuelling stop was Port Hedland where we pulled into the Shell Roadhouse on the way through. We continued through to the Newman turnoff on the Southern side of Port Hedland which is were our backtracking ended and out inland track started.

A quick lunch stop on the side of the road and then straight through to Auski Roadhouse to refuel for the third time today. The track to Auski is interesting as the picturesque Hamersley ranges slowly build until we finally reached Minjina gorge just South of Auski.

On the other side of the gorge is a fabulous free camp called "Albert Tognolini Rest Area" (photo) which overlooks a gorge and is 2200ft above sea level. We pulled in, found a spot, dried out the awning and admired the sunset.

We travelled over 850km today and are now a full 3 degrees of latitude further South than were we were last night. By tomorrow we'll be back on the 23rd latitude (the tropic of capricorn), which means we'll be leaving the tropics and heading for the cold.

Here is the link to today's travel map.

Last Day in Broome

Unfortunately today was our last day in this great place.

I dropped off Ilse and Andrea at the market whilst I got a couple of bolts for Alan and picked up our frozen fish from Val, Cameron's wife. With the frozen load I made my way back to camp to transfer the fish into our freezer.

Then back to the market to get my last Fruit Thingy for this trip, catch up with Astro Greg and say goodbye to Caitlin (see picture). A quick dash back to Kimberley Camping for some more frozen Mango then back to pick up Ilse from the market and drive her to the supermarket whilst I head back to camp to get the Mango's in the freezer.

A quick dash back to pick up Ilse and get another kilo of Mango's from the shop, drop Ilse and shopping back to the caravan, and back to Astro Greg's home where I had to do a bit of faultfinding on a telescope. After I had successfully located the fault Greg rewarded me with a couple of fresh Paw Paw's from his tree.

On the way back to the caravan I filled up the car ready for tomorrow's departure. It was 3pm by time all my running around was finished and I could relax. Later on we cleaned and packed up the fishing gear and got the caravan ready.

It's a bit sad that we have to leave now that we've met many of the locals. They all seem have a very relaxed approach to life and are very friendly. This weekend the Mudcrab races are on in Derby but unfortunately we'll be travelling in the opposite direction.

Tomorrow we will leave early and head south, hopefully as far as Auski Roadhouse and then onto Newman, Kalgoorlie and back across the Nularbor, a total distance of 5400km which we hope to cover between now and the 14th of August.

Astro Greg

We are starting to think about our departure and how to make our way home. This morning we cleaned the caravan to get rid of the red Pindan dust which had covered the whole caravan. With a bit of luck we'll have bitumen for most of our way home.

Most of the morning was spent with work and study while Ilse did a bit of washing. After lunch I cleaned out the car fridge and went to the shop to fill it up with 10kg of frozen Mangos to take back home.

The afternoon went fairly quick as Alan and I installed a fridge slide and some cabinet work into the back of his Mitsubishi Challenger. A bit of carpentry work, some drilling and few bolts saw the jib completed by 4:30pm, just in time for bite to eat before our next appointment.

We spent the evening with a fellow by the name of Greg Quicke who runs Broome Astro Tours. At a site a few km's away from the caravan park he presented a very educational talk and gave people a look through his telescopes. The main theme of his presentation was to bring the rather complex concept of the movement of stars to a layman's level and make people realise how it all works.

Back at the ranch we enjoyed our usual Mango and Ice cream dessert before we fell into bed ready for a good night's rest.

Work Day

We had a sleep in this morning as everyone was still tired from yesterday's day out on the water. The kids got stuck into their school work and I had to attend to some work matters while the rest of our camp went out shopping.

By the time they were back it was afternoon and a lady from a couple of caravans up gave us demonstration on how to use a Thermomix kitchen appliance. This demonstration involved making a Mango smoothie, just what we needed on a warm afternoon in Broome.

The kids had a great time at the pool in the afternoon and I got a bit more work done. The days just seem to flash by and we know that the time to leave is coming near.

Birthday fishing

We left camp at 6:45am for Alexander's and Alan's delayed birthday surprise. They had no idea what they were in for when we arrived at Gantheaume Point to meet up with Cameron from Sentosa Charters.

We hired the Cameron and his boat for the whole day to go out fishing. First we trolled through the Mackerel area and both birthday boys got to land Mackerel. While Alan was holding one Mackerel in the water to wait for Alexander to finish with his Mackerel a large shark popped up and took the Mackerel. Once the big shark was on the line there was no hope of moving him anywhere so the line was eventually snapped off. With 3 Mackerel on ice we decided to move on.

After a bit of brekkie we did some reef fishing and bounced our bait on the bottom. This resulted in various Emperor species, Trevallay, Crimson Sea Perch and a few others. However, the sharks were thick and fast. As we fished we could see about half a dozen large sharks hanging around the boat with the intention of stealing our catch. We lost probably half of our catch to sharks.

during lunch we headed northwards for some game fishing. Using the switch bait method we trolled a couple of teaser lines to bring up some sailfish. Once a sailfish appears on the surface, the teaser is switched for a bait fish with hook and let out to the sailfish who will whack it with it's bill. The baitfish then needs to stop (let line run free) and the sailfish will come back to eat it.

This is very interesting fishing with a 10kg line to catch a 15-40kg fish. Ours (see picture) was 20-25kg and Alexander got to reel him in with great care. To more precise, the boat actually reverses towards the fish rather than the fish being reeled to the boat.

These sailfish perform spectacular jumps and this type of fishing is the most exciting we have ever done. Once the photo's were taken, the Sailfish was carefully held in the water while motoring and, once fully recovered,

was let go to live another day.

During the day we saw plenty of whales and sea snakes as well. By the time we returned to the caravan and had fresh Mackerel for dinner we were worn out and ready for bed.

Birthday Cake

The days just seem to zoom past here in Broome. Maybe it's the holiday routine the we have fallen into for the last couple of weeks. The days are over in no time and we haven't really done much. I wish the work days would pass as quickly.

After a leisurely breakfast we sat down to prepare some fishing rigs. Our neighbour, Rudi, joined us, got a lesson in rig making and got his rigs ready for the afternoon.

Ilse and Judy went into town for some shopping and by the time they were back and we finished the rigs it was noon. We left for the jetty after 1pm and called into the tackle shop on the way.

We fished for a couple of hours but apart from small Trevalley and cod there was nothing worthwhile. Back at the caravan we had a visit from Beate and Uwe, the German globe trotters. Together with neighbours Rudi and Cheryl we had little birthday celebration for Alan and Alexander. Ilse and Judy even made a birthday cake during the afternoon.

Dinner was a none event tonight as we've had birthday cake in the afternoon but a few Nachos were appreciated by the crowd.

Double Birthday

We had two Birthdays today - Alan and Alexander. The birthday surprise activity planned for them didn't happen due to circumstances beyond our control and has been postponed to Wednesday.

After breakfast and the early birthday phone calls we dropped the girls into town for some food shopping whilst Alan, Alexander and I went to the tackle shop. Alan picked out a new fishing rod for his birthday and I purchased another family rod since Alexander has broken one back in Port Smith. We also picked up a couple more kilos of frozen Mango for tonight.

We went for another visit to The Mango Place at 12 Mile where we stocked up with freshly baked Sourdough bread and enjoyed Mango Smoothies. Back at the caravan for lunch followed by a bit of rigging up to go fishing in the afternoon.

Our timing today was a bit better than last time as we managed to arrive an hour before high tide. We certainly caught a number of very colourful fish but none to take home. Alexander caught most of them but Alan, while christening his new rod, had a BIG hit but eventually lost it as the fish bit through the 60lb leader - we should have put on a wire trace!

The fish in the photos is a Bluebone, often targeted for it's fine eating qualities.

Back at the caravan we enjoyed another Chicken-Mango salad for dinner and tasted the Mango wine and Mango port we bought earlier in the day.

Lazy Sunday

We didn't do much today, apart from eating and enjoying the great climate here in Broome. I didn't even go to the market today but instead spent most of my time working on the computer. The kids went swimming and the day was gone in no time.

The nights have been cold with temperatures as low as 12 DegC during the night. Interestingly the overnight lows occur at all hours of the morning, like 2:30am last night, and by the time the sun rises the temperature has already gone up. This is quite different to home where the lowest temperature occurs just after sunrise.

The daytime temps are always the same - 30 DegC, with variations of one or two degrees either size.

Another day at the Broome market

Saturday is market day so we all headed to the old Courthouse to soak up the atmosphere of music, food and Fruit Thingyz. This place is starting to feel like home, so much so that on our visit to the market we ran into 8 people we know! This time we tried something new - we took a Fruit Thingy back to the caravan by storing it in a container inside our freezer in the car.

We got back to the caravan and had a quick lunch followed by the Fruit Thingy which kept very well in the freezer. Another hour was spent tying knots on hooks and preparing rigs for for our afternoon fishing. We were a bit late getting out to the jetty and missed the incoming tide. Although Alexander and I caught a fish each we didn't take any home. Apart from getting snagged not much was achieved this afternoon.

Back at the caravan we had a quick dinner and went back into town to visit the museum where the historical society put on a couple of short films about Broome. One was "Living in Broome" by Malcolm Douglas and the other was "Ship of Dreams" by Mary Durack. Both movies showed what Broome was like 30 and 50 years ago. Most fascinating was the mixture of cultures from China and Japan to Middle East and European all living in harmony with local Aboriginal population.

We also found out why they've got camels on cable beach - apparently a middle eastern chappy walked a train of camels from Alice Springs to Broome (2500km) to give people a ride on cable beach. Mind you, back in 1968, the year of the Mary Durack film, the population of Broome was only 2000 and there were no 4WD's on cable beach.

After returning to the caravan and eating our daily dose of Mangos it was well after 11pm when we finally hit the sack.

Willie Creek

We left at 8:45 and drove a few kilometres North on the Cape Levique road, then turned West and followed the dirt road all the way to Willie Creek, a Pearl Farm tourist display.

However, we have been on the Pearl tour before and decided to do a little bit of fishing instead. Willie Creek is a very scenic inlet with turquoise waters in zany beaches. Although crocs live in the Willie Creek we were informed that they haven't seen the resident croc for about 8 weeks and the word was the croc caught at Cable Beach in Broome a little while ago was the one from Willie Creek. We are still careful and stand a few meters back from the waters edge, just in case!

The fishing didn't net anything worthy of a report but we did find a couple Pearl shells which Andrea had to retrieve from the water whilst we kept a lookout for crocs. One of the shells is still closed and Ilse is hopeful that it contains a big pearl. We'll find out as soon as we can work out how to open the shell.

On the way back we stopped at the James Price Point protest site (see picture) and got a briefing by the protesters about the dirty tactics employed by government and Woodside Petroleum to turn this region into a mine site. The issue is not getting a lot of media attention in the Eastern states, but it's certainly big over here.

Back in Broome we had lunch and then Alan and I went shopping for a roof rack for Alan's car and were once again impressed by the friendly locals which are very helpful - quite different to many of the other places we've visited. By the time we finished our shopping trip it was nearly dark and another day in this great place has come to an end.

Broome's Economy

Since we've been here in Broome we have followed the news on local radio and been fascinated by the stories. Since our last visit two years ago a lot of tourist operators have gone bankrupt yet all caravan parks packed full. For example, in 2009 there were three operators flying to the horizontal falls, now there is only one, the other two have gone.

These businesses are not exactly small, the one we went with last time had assets worth over $10 Million, now they're gone. Somehow this didn't make sense until this morning when I heard an interview with a Broome business woman who said that customers are just not spending money.

There are two distinct tourist typer here, the long term caravaners and the short term holiday makers which fly-in for their one or two week holiday and spend accordingly.

The caravaners are on a budget which needs to last between three and twelve months. In addition, most of the grey nomads are self funded retirees which have to cope with the increased prices of goods and services and the lower income from thier investments.

The fly-in holiday makers are not coming as the high Australian dollar encourages them to go overseas instead.

The result speaks for itself, the typical tourist shops fall by the wayside and the more basic tourist services survive. People are certainly not parting with their had earned cash.

Not much else to report, we have had a fairly lazy day today with a little bit of shopping and time at the pool during the hot part of the day. Our Broome days always end with a a dessert of locally grown Mango.

A girls day out

After a light brekky this morning we took the girls into town for a day without kids and men. Alan and I made good use of the time and did some shopping in the tackle shop and in the supermarket.

One of the products we've discovered in the tackle shop is frozen Mango, which is normally only available at the markets on Sat & Sun. The frozen Mangos make a great snack or can be thawed out to be used for all sorts of things. Yesterday we made our own Mango dessert sauce and poured it over ice cream. At this stage we are going through 1kg of Mango every day.

The caravan park had two resident chooks which grazed amongst the caravans and sometimes even entered caravans and cars if there was food to be had. Unfortunately, the other day, after a bit of commotion under a caravan a few doors up one of the chickens was found dead, apparently killed by a snake. Although we haven't found out what type of snake, we have it on good authority the the tree areas next to the caravans are home to a number of snakes.

By the time the girls had finished their shopping and I picked them up it was nearly 3pm. I spent a bit of time at the pool and we've had a very relaxing afternoon before settling down to a Mango Chicken Salad for dinner.

Sun Princess

Alan and I got up early to get pictures of the jetty at low tide around 7am. Alan's car wouldn't start so took mine for a drive to the port. The tide was so low that there was no water for the first half of the jetty, a distance of 400mt (see 1st picture). We took photos and talked to the fishermen on the jetty who had their lines busted off by rather large fish.

Back at the caravan Alan rang for roadside assistance which arrived soon thereafter but the car had to go back into the workshop by tow truck. The workshop is very busy but will hopefully fix the car tomorrow.

Later in the morning we left to go back to the port and watch the arrival of Sun Princess, a large cruise liner with over 2000 passengers. There were lots of people and media out to watch the spectacle which happened just on high tide around midday.

I took a few more photos of the jetty at high tide (see 2nd picture) to get a comparison with the low tide. On the way back we had a couple of quick shopping stops including the purchase of local frozen Mango (not in season). The frozen Mango makes a fantastic desert and is very good for smoothies.

Back at the caravan we spent the afternoon relaxing but didn't have enough time to go to the swimming pool. In the evening our German friends, (Uwe and Beate) called in to say hello and catch up on some more travel information. By the end of the night the 1kg pack of frozen Mango's was gone and we've also finished our tub of ice cream - looks like we need a shopping trip tomorrow.

Broome Crocodile Park

We've really settled in here at Broome. The lifestyle is great, the water is nice and the air is warm. The locals are very friendly and there is lots to do. This is our 3rd night in Broome and I haven't even had a chance to put up the TV aerial on caravan!

By the time we got organised this morning it was after 10am and we headed out to 12 Mile (a locality east of Broome) for a visit to "The Mango Place". This place is real touristy thing with all manner of Mango food to taste but the main attraction for me was the sourdough bread baked in their wood fired pizza oven.

On the way back we stopped at the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife park but not for visit, just to pick up a couple of shirts for Alexander. Back at the caravan we a bite to eat and then drove out towards cable beach where the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park is and where Malcolm Douglas used to live.

This place is up for sale as the whole operation is moving out to the Wildlife park but it is the original park, established in 1983 by Malcolm Douglas, to educate the public about crocodiles. At 3pm we joined the feeding tour and then admired the cute little crocs at the end which were handed from person to person to take photos.

We also saw the famous croc named Fatzo which came to the public's attention when a drunk climbed the fence during the night and tried to ride on this croc. As the croc wasn't hungry the intruder survived, albeit with server lacerations, and, after the attack, went back to the pub for some more drinking but was picked up by the ambulance instead.

From the crocodile park we split up, Judy and Ilse went shopping to Woolies whilst Alan and I got a few other things organised including the purchase of some Mango beer. Back at the ranch we tasted the Mango beer but it was just as bad for me as any other beer so Ilse will have to drink the remaining bottles.

No Gas Hub in the Kimberley

We started cooking the traditional Sunday breakfast before 8am but by the time we were finished and got going to the market it was 10am. A quick market stop got me another fruit thingy and Ilse purchased a couple of things for friends and relatives.

From the market we went to the jetty for a bit of fishing. We fished over the high tide but as we have experienced before, the flow under the jetty remains strong even on top of the tide where one would normally expect slack water. Very strange how the water flows in a circle at Roebuck bay.

We finished fishing around lunch time (no fish) and made our way into town to buy bread. We bumped into Jan and Nancy, a couple from Canberra, which we first met at Fraser Range station in May and few times since.

By the time we got back to the caravan and had a bite to eat we had to leave for Cable beach. Whilst I'm not a great fan of Cable beach, today was a beach concert in support of the Broome communities effort to keep Woodside Petroleum out of James Price Point. As this is a fairly controversial topic which has caused large police contingents to come to the area, the concert was not advertised as an anti gas hub event but ran under the banner "We love Broome - Families, Culture, Country".

The band (The Pigram Brothers) played on the aft deck of a very large sailing catamaran, called "Karma IV", anchored just beyond the low tide line, with the stern facing the beach where thousands of people had congregated. I have never seen anything like this concert. People were dancing in water, swimming between the catamaran and the shore and on smaller boats surrounding the catamaran. The atmosphere was great and the crowd was made up of all cultural sections from the community.

As the tide went out the crowd got closer to the catamaran and by the end of the concert the cat was fairly close in shore. At the end of the concert we signed a petition to protect not only the Kimberley but the unique life style of Broome residents which would be destroyed if oil and mining business was to move in.

Back from the concert for a brief rest and then off to see the famous "Staircase to the Moon" at town beach where they also hold a Staircase market. Tonights dinner came from the market and to my great delight I could also buy a fruit thingy for desert. The staircase was a non-event due to cloud cover on the Eastern horizon so we were back at the caravan by 8:30pm, very tired and ready for good night's rest.

Jandamarra

We knew it was going to be busy at the famous Broome markets today so we had a minimal breakfast and arrive at the market before 9am. My first procurement was a Fruit Thingy (finely minced frozen fruit) with Mango and Coconut, a bit like ice cream but much better and healthier.

We also tried some of the asian foods, listened to the many buskers and watched the wildlife demonstrations.

At 10:30 I took Alexander to Gantheaum point where we met with Cameron, the owner of Sentosa Charters) who has been Alexander's idol ever since he took us on a fishing charter in 2009. Cameron was kind enough to have Alexander work as a trainee deck hand on today's whale watching charter. At 11AM Cameron and his regular deck hand arrived and took Alexander out to the boat (Kai-Aura, a 50 foot twin hull) to start work and prepare the boat for the passenger which arrived at 1pm.

I went back to the market to pick up the others and then back to the caravan where we spent the afternoon chatting to the neighbour who is a retired agricultural researcher. After a late lunch we made our way back to Gantheaum point around 5pm to pick up Alexander but we had to wait until after 6pm and watched another sunset.

Alexander was very exited and had an excellent work day (first ever). The only bits of "real" work was vacuuming and polishing, the rest was just having fun on a boat - what a job!

We went straight to St.Marys school to watch an Aboriginal theatrical production called "Jandamarra". The production is touring the Kimberley and tells the story of an worrier from the Bunaba, his friendship with the white settlers and the way he was torn between the two worlds. The production was fantastic and one of the best I have seen in a long time.

Here is a link to the Jandamarra website.

Back at the caravan by 10pm we had a late dessert of ice cream with mango sauce followed by coconut milk which we drained from a coconut found in Broome earlier in the day.

Broome

Alexander's alarm was set to 5:30AM and we got up before 6AM, packed up and left just as the sun was rising above the horizon to greet the new day.

The track out of Barnhill Station is a bit slow with some badly corrugated areas, speed humps and 3 gates. After the 10km track we were back on the bitumen highway heading for Broome - the last destination on our journey before we turn around to come home.

Listening to the radio on the way we heard that this week is the busiest week of the whole year in Broome.

Three factors are responsible for this scenario:

1) best time of year, dry and warm but not too hot.

2) middle of school holidays in W.A. and N.T.

3) Staircase to the Moon visible Sat, Sun and Mon.

All caravan parks are fully booked for weeks so we went to Broome Caravan park on the outskirts of town which had been recommended to us by other travellers. The has a number of sites which can be booked but others which they don't book at all.

We lobbed up at the park just after 8AM and were second in line. As other people packed up and left they those sites became available to us. It didn't take very long and they showed us a site where other people were just pulling out. By 9AM we were parked and as luck would have it Alan and Judy got the site next to us.

We set up a great little camp with a communal area between out two vans. Although the site is not directly shaded, it does have shade from nearby trees in the afternoon. The park has a great swimming pool - kids are very very happy.

The first job in Broome was to visit Kimberley Camping (shop), then the jetty and then Woolies and Brumbys. It was mid afternoon before we got back to the caravan. After a bit of a rest we were off to see the Dinosaur footprints at Gantheaum point which are only exposed at low tide.

On the way there we picked up Caitlin (here for 12mth) and her sister Melissa (visiting for 1 week), both from Kiewa, as they don't have their own transport.

Gantheaum point was busier than Burke street - it seemed everyone in Broome was out there watching the sunset. We walked out to the footprints and admired the sunset then drove to the jetty and walked out to the end chatting with the fishermen (and woman).

Back at the caravan we had a quick, late dinner and then joined a friendly group of neighbours playing guitar and singing until late in the evening.

Rest & Recreation

Another fresh night (16DegC) gave way to a glorious day with blue sky and sunshine. The caravan next to us moved out and I immediately alerted Alan who was on an unpowered site at the other end of the park. As soon as the office opened (9am) the changed their booking and moved into the shaded and powered site next to us.

Mornings are quite busy with queues at the office for site changes and at the shop for the fresh bread which arrives at 9am. School holidays means the place is buzzing with people. Many of the long term holiday makers from Perth have their sons and daughters with grand children staying here for the holidays.

Apparently Broome is also very busy as this coming weekend people can see the Staircase to Moon for about 3 nights. Caravan sites are very scarce but we will try our luck tomorrow morning and see if we can find a spot.

Most of our day was spent around the caravan as the phone signal was very good all day which allowed me to do some work on the computer. Although it was rather warm in the afternoon, a slight breeze kept us very comfortable.

For the evening we went back to the beach again admiring the sunset before retiring back to our caravan for dinner, packing up and then of to bed so we can have an early start tomorrow morning.

Barn Hill Station

We had a few spots of rain overnight and the red dirt has become even stickier than before. Now that we've been in the red (so to say) for nearly a week everything has a red tinge. The red dust from the road even penetrates the caravan windows and sits on the inside of the van. We're using our annex matt under the awning to give us a "clean" area before we enter the caravan.

This morning started out overcast with a few raindrops but by 8am it was partially sunny as we drove the 20km dirt track back to the highway. Back on the highway we headed North, towards Broome, for another 15km and then turned West onto a 10km dirt track into Barn Hill station.

Barn Hill is fairly small station with only 43,000 acres where they run about 5000 head of Brahmen destined for the live export market in Indonesia. On the 10km track into the station we saw many caravans heading out. When we arrived at the caravan park section, just on 9am, we expected plenty of sites but to our surprise we got the only available powered site! Alan, who was just behind us, had to take unpowered and ended up right on the other end of the park. Powered sites have only 6 Amps available, just enough to run the basics but no Kettle or Aircon.

We've stayed at Barn Hill on our last trip and I seem to remember that it wasn't anywhere near as large as it is now. I'm not sure how many sites they've got, but I'd say between 100 and 200. The unpowered areas have generators in use and ca be a bit noisy at times.

Typical Broome weather now with 30 DegC during the day and nice warm evenings. Although yesterday was a bit cool with only 25 DegC due the cloud. The close proximity to Broome (about 100km on the road) also means that we can get patchy phone reception in certain area. Back at Port Smith I had to drive to a small hill and stand on car to get phone reception but here it seems to be quite good near the beach.

We got freshly baked bread from the station for lunch and spent the afternoon lazying around - can't do too much in this heat!

Later in the afternoon we ventured to the west facing beach and admired the glorious colours of the sun setting over the indian ocean.

Fishing Spots

Tonight was a bit cool and we woke to an overcast sky. We lazed around for most of the morning and every now and then a few spits of rain fell on the awning but the ground never got wet.

After lunch we drove to the lagoon and once again launched Alan's inflatable so him and Judy could go for paddle out to the lagoon mouth.

The time was very near low tide and the lagoon has nearly emptied and only a few deep water holes are left.

We crossed an outrunning channel in a shallow area and walked out along the edge of the lagoon. From the oyster covered sandstone cliffs we could look down in the water and see the fish. We spotted a few turtles a few large fish with their dorsal fins out of the water.

A few fisherman were catching Travelly and Mangrove Jack. We found the remains of a shark on the beach. He was caught about an hour before we got there. Once a shark is caught the fishermen immediately remove the fins and head, apparently this is to prevent ammonia from the fins going into the flesh.

We manages to get back over the channel before the tide got too high and walked back looking at the big fish chasing the little ones on the incoming tide. This area is really fascinating, just walking along the edge of the water can provide hours of entertainment.

We returned to the caravan park where I refuelled the car at $1.95/lt before staring the pickup process. The sky was looking very ominous and I didn't fancy packing up wet tomorrow morning.

At 5pm we went to a Bush Poetry performance in the caravan park. One of the long term guests, Roger Cracknell, presented some very funny and well presented yarns and tall stories which had us laughing for about over an hour.

Later in the evening we could hear a little bit of rain on the caravan roof. I just hope we don't get too much rain as this would turn fine red dust on the road into a soupy slurry.

Sailing

The nights are very temperate in this climate and around 3 or 4am a little breeze kicks in and with 15DegC its almost cool in the early morning hours.

By 8am the sun has warmed things up to 20DegC and today we reached 29DegC in the afternoon.

Life revolves around tide times and we left an hour before low tide to get to the lagoon. Yesterday we inflated Alan's kayak and this morning we launched it and explored the lagoon. The wind was keeping the temperature very nice but made the paddling a harder. I was very much hoping that we wouldn't find any crocs during our exploration or any other large marine life such as sharks which could easily sink the inflatable.

After a bit of paddling Alan had the great idea that we could rig up sail on the kayak and use it to cruise around the lagoon with the wind helping us. As we are both sailors it didn't take long to produce a makeshift spinnaker using a paddle for a mast and broomstick as a pole to hold up our poly tarp sail. A bit or string to hold it all together and to be used for sheets and we were off.

Although our plan was to sail on a beam reach across to the other side some unforeseen technical issues with the rig meant we ended up somewhere downwind and no way to sail back. We pulled down the rig, got out and pulled the kayak back to where we started. Although the mission was declared a partial success we decided to abort until some improvements to the rig could be made.

The kids did a bit of paddling, some swimming and lots of exploring in the sand but the turning tide soon reminded us to go back before were cut off.

We had a late lunch, meet some people from Albury, had a bit more of chat and the day was over.

When I returned to the caravan Alexander had been missing for some time and was last seen heading to the toilets. Just as I set off to search for him, he turned up and told us that he was locked in a toilet/shower cubicle with the door jammed and couldn't get out until someone else came to open the door.

There are quite a few Kangaroos living in the caravan park and they apparently are not scared of going into caravans to find food.

The Port Smith area is also home to an Aboriginal community located just south of the caravan park It is said to be one of the largest communities in Australia with a population between 1000 and 5000 depending on the time of year and what's on. They have no shops in the community, just a takeaway and a police station.

Tidal Island

Sunday morning is always great as we lie in bed listening to Macca on the radio. We slept all night with windows wide open and nice breeze coming through to keep us at a nice temperature.

After a fairly late breakfast and the usual morning chat with others around us the time got away and we arrive a little bit late at the lagoon to start exploring on foot. The lagoon is big and has a mostly sandy bottom with tidal channels where the water rushes in and out. A mangrove covered island is located on the northern end and can be reached by crossing a couple of tidal channels.

As we walked out onto the sand the tide was still running out and we (Alexander, Alan and I) decided to explore the island. We had to cross water but it was only ankle deep. Once on the island we found a track through the mangroves and came out on the other side where we found deep pools surrounded by rock.

The whole island was covered in oysters. They were even hanging of the mangrove leaves. The rocks were covered in oysters all over and therefore very very sharp. I'd hate to fall over or slip on these rocks - servere cuts would be guaranteed.

As we explored along the island we saw a number of turtles with some coming up very close and playing happily in the shallow water. A blue spotted sting ray (photo) made an appearance and showed us his brilliant blue colours.

We slowly made our way back to the land side of the island by climbing along the rocks. When we finally caught a glimpse of the sand flat we used to get across we found the sandlot gone. A reasonably strong tide had been running in for some time and we didn't notice the tide turning as we frolicked on the other side of the island.

Once we realised the error of our ways and decided that we didn't want to spend the night on a mangrove island, we got a move on across the remaining rocks and then picked what looked like the shallowest water to walk back across (photo) in a rather hurried pace due to the continuously rising tide. We made it just in time but got a little bit wetter than anticipated. Just as well the tides a low at the moment, if they were any higher we'd have been "swimming against the tide".

When we got back to the caravan we booked another two nights so we'd have more time to explore further. After late lunch and a rest we went to the evenings entertainment which was provided by a couple singing and playing Ukelele. It turns out the entertainers come from Wangaratta but we've had to travel to other end of the continent to meet them!

Port Smith Lagoon

After another late night we packed up reasonably early but then got talking to a few people before we finally got going after 9am. We did invite the German globe trotters to visit us at home when the they reach that part of the country - very interesting people full of hands-on knowledge about the world. Here is a link to their [very interesting] website.

Our first stop today was Pardoo roadhouse, only 45 kms from Pardoo station, where we refuelled. We battled into a strong headwind and fuel consumption was over 26lt/100km. The landscape has now changed from the undulating Pilbara to wide plains covered with low trees and shrubs. We've also seen large patches that have been hit by bushfire recently.

It seems strange that we are well into the tropics here yet with rainfall totals of 300mm/year this area is a lot drier then Albury - and I always thought tropics are wet.

However, this area is actually classified as "tropical-arid" which seems somewhat of an oxymoron.

Now that we have seen a few cattle stations I realise that out here some of the century old skills are still in high demand. A man who can ride a horse and muster cattle can always get a job in the bush around here, just like a hundred years ago.

We saw a few mobs of cattle by the side of the road and they seemed to be chewing on the small trees which are very green and plentiful. The temperature is now well up with 32DecC today but the air is fairly dry. The soil is orange-red and ground up into very fine dust which penetrates every little crack of caravan and car.

After driving 140km from Pardoo roadhouse we arrived at Sandfire roadhouse around lunch time and topped up with fuel again before continuing on for another 170km before turning onto a dirt road. The road took us another 20km to Port Smith Lagoon caravan park where we set up camp.

The park is quite nice but grass is a rare commodity and most sites at just red dirt. The water in this park comes from a bore 5km up the road and is very nice with no salt whatsoever.

A short trip down the road is the lagoon which is suitable for swimming - they tell us there are no crocs here. I'm not sure if I should believe that so I'm not likely to try it.

Here is the link to today's travel map

Relaxing at Pardoo

After a bit of a sleep-in this morning we woke to another beautiful day on Pardoo station. Most of the morning was spent talking to the neighbours and I gave one of them a hand to fix the camera on the back of his rig.

I was also trying to find an explanation why the tide at Pardoo Creek turns about 3.5hrs after low tide yet the turn on top of the tide is spot on the published high tide time. It makes for a very strange tidal behaviour when takes the tide only 2.5hrs to come in but 8.5 hrs to run out.

All the locals acknowledged that tidal behaviour but none of them knew the reasons behind it. I was none the wiser but had it confirmed that I wasn't imagining things.

During the morning we also caught up with Uwe and Beate, the German couple that shipped their mobile home from Germany to Oz.

I had ordered a loaf of bread, freshly baked at the station but they were running late so we didn't get it in time before we had to go back to the creek for more fishing. So we left without lunch and thought that the low tide was worth a try. This time we were lucky enough to get some live bait from another bloke who was casting a net. We fished for nearly 3 hrs and watched as tide was coming in pushing us further and further up the bank.

It appears our fishing luck has totally left us (and everyone around us) - as we couldn't hook a single fish. People that went out on a boat had their bag limit within an hour. They felt sorry for us and gave a Blue Nose Salmon which I filleted and put straight into the car fridge.

The photos in this blog are taken at the fishing location, one at low tide, the other at high tide, to illustrate the change water level.

In the evening we had Alan and Judy over to eat the Salmon with us and later on we were joined by our German friends who spoiled us with german made dark chocolate. To finish off the meal we had Vanilla ice cream with Mango sauce topping.

Today was also the first day of WA school holidays and we've already seen a number of campers arrive this afternoon. I suspect the next couple of week are going to very busy and camping spots will be scarce.

Pardoo Station

Port & South Hedland are not really a tourist destination, just large industrial areas which surrounded the small town centre that houses a bit of support infrastructure.

We were glad to move on and an early start got us out of South Hedland around 8am.

In amongst the large road trains we followed the road along the coast. The road trains soon left the main road to go into the mine sites and by the time we were 100km way from Port Hedland there were no more mining road trains.

About 130km out of Port Hedland we turned onto a dirt road and after a further 14kms arrived at Pardoo Station which is close to the Ocean. Pardoo is a working cattle station on 500,000 acres of land stretching about 80km along the coastline. At the moment they run about 6000 head of Santa Gertrudis which feed on a variety of Spinifex.

The station enjoys excellent (but salty) water which emerges from a 90m deep bore into the Canning Artesian Basin.

Pardoo station used to be an outpost to the De Grey station which was established in the 1880's. In 1904 the outpost was sold off and became an independent station. Since then it had six different owners.

The caravan facility is great with some grassy areas and unlimited power available 24hrs - they've got a big generator! The station has a shop, restaurant and swimming pool. In the evening they cook a 2 course station meal for the station workers which is also open to park guests at $20/person and is pretty much an all you can eat affair.

We drove about 5km's on a station road to Pardoo Creek which is a tidal creek frequented by fishermen. We got there just on low tide which was about 5mt below the high tide mark. There wasn't much water and we saw the rocks on the creek bed bottom. Suddenly the creek started to run, quite strong, and within a minute or two the water was a foot deep.

As the tide was coming in with a great rush it brought lots little fish with it and the Pelicans followed along having a great feed. We also spotted some larger fish just below the surface with only the tip of their dorsal fin visible. A turtle was also partaking in the feeding frenzy and it was quite amazing to see this creek go from no visible wildlife to an absolute smorgasbord within the space of only ten minutes.

We received advise to fish in this spot around the high tide later in the afternoon. After lunch we went back and were amazed by the amount of water and the height of creek. However, the fish were on the bite before we got there and, once again, we missed out on catching dinner.

Although before we went to the creek I was assured that there were no crocs, the same evening we heard reports from other fishermen that there is croc lurking in the area and it has been seen at the fishing spot a number of times. Some people said wan't go back to fish that spot, whilst others said no more fish cleaning on the water's edge. One should always tanned a few meters back from the water's edge when fishing - there is no room for complacency.

We had a fairly late night as Alan and Judy, a couple from Bright, came over for a bit of a chat and to exchange some travel yarns. We meet them first at Cape LeGrand (Esperance) a few weeks back and have been catching up with them numerous times as they are travelling along the same track.

Unfortunately no travel map today as we've been without internet for a few days and therefore the recording was automatically deleted.

Flying the Mail Run

This morning I met a German couple who are travelling Oz for a year - in their own mobile home which they had shipped over from Germany!

After exchanging some travel information with them we drove into Port Hedland to visit Woolies, get fuel and look around. Back at the caravan we

enjoyed a brief lunch and then headed to the Airport.

We joined the pilot of a twin engine Piper Navajo on his mail run to a couple of remote cattle stations. The first station was Yarrie about 160km east of Port Hedland. The flight route took us along the De-Grey River for about 160km where we landed on a typical station airstrip made of red dirt. Yarrie station covers about 1 Million acres and they run around 12,000 head of Droughtmaster cattle, specifically bred for this arid region of Australia.

As the airstrip is a couple of km's from the homestead, they send out a car which receives the mailbag and also brings out the bag with new mail. The mail delivery happens only once a week out here but Australia Post is obliged to provide mail services to all Australians, no matter how remote they live. Yardie station is currently home to 14 people as it is mustering season. After a bit of chat we were back in the plane and headed further east at only 1500ft so we could get very close look at the landscape.

A further 50km East and we landed at Warrawagine station which has a couple of dirt airstrips that are bigger than Albury airport. The station also covers about 1 Million acres but they run 25,000 head of Droughtmaster and employ 30 people. Currently their crew was camped for mustering about 2 hrs away from the homestead. The mustering at this station is done with a couple of helicopters, some buggies, motorbikes and horses. They have their own cook with them and have their own trucks to bring the cattle back to the yards near the homestead.

A truck on a station is not just a normal truck, it's actually a road train with 3 double decker trailers. One person from the station drives to Port Hedland once a fortnight to buy food. Their fruit and veg is bought directly at the market in Perth and shipped to Port Hedland. A typical shopping bill at Woolies is around $2000 and going shopping means leaving the station at 5am and returning well after dark. They buy no meat as the slaughter all their own.

The kids on the station receive their education via school of the air which is no longer via 2-way radio but via a satellite internet link.

Warrawagine station doesn't have any neighbours to east, where the station ends is start of the dessert which is home to millions of camels. Whenever they come across a camel they shoot it and eat it - apparently camel is very nice eating. Linda (who lives on the station) used to have a pet camel but it got out and ran away.

Mustering is big out here, it starts in April after the wet and finishes in September. Linda reckons the best time on the station is the wet season when it's quiet and there are only 4 people on the station.

All Pilbara stations have many mining tenements on their pastoral leaseholds. Most of the rock around here has 3 distinct layers, the first is iron ore, the second is copper and then comes Maganese. There are also some gold deposits. Many mining claims are pegged out but are not currently mined. The mining operations use the stations access roads and airstrips for which they pay the station owner but station owner's have no right to the proceeds from mining activities.

The flight back to Port Hedland took nearly an hour and we got a great view of the town and the port facilities from above. Port Hedland airport has many airliners coming through to transport the mining workers. The airport carpark is full of mining cars which are very easy to spot with their flag and yellow/black number on the side.

Tomorrow we'll move onto Pardoo Station, then 80 mile beach, Port Smith Lagoon and finally Barnhill Station before we get into Broome. I'm not sure if we have any phone reception between Port Smith and Broome so you may not see an update to this blog for a week or two.

For those interested in todays flight: here is the link to the flight map.

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=263968

Port Hedland

The wind blew very strong all night and picked up in the early morning hours. The craven was shaking even though the awning was retracted! There have also been a few spits of rain but nothing serious. At 8:30 we drove 20km back to Roebourne where we got onto the main hwy to continue or track northwards.

A couple of hundred km's up the road we came to the road intersection where the mid western hwy joins the coastal hwy. The mid western why goes to Newman and is the main connection for many of the inland mines that are too small to have their own train line. Between this intersection and Port Hedland the road was full of Road Trains interspersed with other mining vehicles. A very busy section of road, especially when one considers the remoteness of this location.

By 11am we had arrived in South Hedland, about 20km away from Port Hedland, and drove to the only caravan park in town. We were told that they had no free tourist sites but could accommodate us in the "resident" section of the park, that's where all the long term residents who work in the area are staying. This park has over 200 site for permanents and only a handful for tourists. That's just one indication of the type of area that we have now entered - everything revolves around mining which is HUGE out here.

After setting up the caravan we drove to the South Hedland shopping centre to stock up on supplies. Back at the caravan we have a quick lunch before heading out to explore Port Hedland

The first thing we noticed on the way in were the endlessly long trains (see photo) transporting iron ore from the inland mines to the port. The longest train on record had 682 carriages, a total length of 7.3km. The average daily trains have 230 carriages (2.5km long) and are pulled by 4 locos each producing 6000HP - that's 24,000HP to pull one train!

The ore in a single train is worth around $7 Million, they have about 8 of them arrive every day - that's just for one mining company!

The port loading facilities are huge and dominate the skyline of Port Hedland (see Photo). They can load load a ship in only 35hrs. There are about 8 ships in port at the moment being loaded and we counted another 16 a few km's offshore waiting their turn. There are two mining railway lines coming into town, one is BHP's and the other Rio Tinto's. In addition to to the trains there are hundreds of 4 trailer road trains rolling into town day and night.

All this wealth brings lots of social problems. Housing is very expensive with rents of $1200/week for a small dog box and over $2000/week for a modern house with 4 bed rooms, 1 bathroom, study, carport and pool. With those rents the cheapest house is in the high $600,000's and a modern home is well over $1M. A permanent caravan site is $230/week and that's cheek compared to Karratha where they charge over $400 per week for a caravan site plus electricity.

Public drinking is causing problems as a large part of the mining population consists of transient workers without their families and not much else to do on the days off.

The housing and social problems that come with mining are causing the big protests up the road near Broome where Woodside are starting to build a gas plant 40km North of town at James Price point. The people of Broome can see that 8000 miners coming to town will drive their current rents from $500/week to over $2000/week and make houses totally un-affordable for anyone outside the mining industry.

Although Broome residents' efforts to fight the big oil and gas producer reminds me of Don Quichotte fighting the windmills, I do hope that they succeed and Broome doesn't turn into a mining town.

Here is the link to today's travel map.

Fishing John's Creek

I was woken at 4:30am this morning as the wind suddenly came up and built in strength until every gust shook the caravan. Ilse and I went outside and retracted the awning which stopped the caravan shaking and is also a good precaution to prevent the awning being ripped off by a gust - better safe than sorry.

While on the subject of winds, I noticed that buildings are constructed to cyclone standards. Houses seem to have a special metal frame with a lot more metal than back home. The caravan park ablution building roof frame has heavy trusses welded from RHS with lots of bracing and very solid I-beam going around the base of the roof line. Purlins seem to be spaced at about half the distance of this at home.

Even with all these building standards if a cyclone goes right through it will still be very destructive. And it's not a matter of "IF" but more of "WHEN". All towns in this area have been hit by cyclones in the past.

Once we had the awning rolled up we went back to sleep and didn't get up until 8am. The wind was blowing fairly strong and we were almost cold although the temperature was above 20DegC. It was an overcast day and there were showers on the weather forecast.

Ilse did some washing and I did a bit of work before we drove to Woolies in Wickham for a few supplies. A quick drive though Wickham showed us that most houses are rented by mining employees working for Rio Tinto. The company makes many contributions to the local community and schools so life is a bit more bearable for their employees.

Every house that doesn't have a fence has heavy security screens on every bit of glass around the house.

After lunch we went fishing to John's Creek where the tidal change causes a strong flow under the bridge which restricts the amount of water going in and out of this estuary. The flow is so strong, it reminds me of the Kiewa river above Mt Beauty. We fished from an hour before the top of the tide to an hour after and expected a little bit of slack water at the to of the tide. However, the tidal changes here are so rapid that we had no slack water at all. The tide literally turned from running in to running out in a matter of seconds - and this is no exaggeration.

Although the kids had great fund catching lots of little fish on bait the Barra continued to allude us and we went home fishes yet again.

Cossack

We enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning in bed and slow start to the day. The nought was cool an in the morning a fresh breeze blew up and I decided to take down the awning whilst we went exploring.

We drove a short distance to the historic settlement of Cossack which was established in 1863 to service the gold rush in the Pilbara. The wharf was built on an inlet which is reasonably well protected from the winds and the settlement formed around the wharf. Over the years the pearl luggers came and made Cossack their home but eventually moved onto Broome and the Cossack was finally abandoned in 1950. The old buildings are in reasonable condition and give tourists a glimpse of life in this remote area over a century ago.

The old wharf wall is still intact and provides a great fishing spot. We joined in the fun and tried to catch dinner. Although we fished a couple of hours before high tide, which is supposed to be the best time, there was no dinner fish caught. Not by us and not by anyone else on the wharf.

Of course, she who catches all the fish, caught the biggest fish (see picture) for the day, a Striped Scat (I think).

After fishing we checked out

Readers Head lookout which provides and excellent view of the area and it's tidal creeks. No wonder they have crocodiles here without he muddy bottom and mangrove covered creek areas.

On the way back we stopped at John's creek for a few casts as we observed someone catching a Barra. Needless to say, apart from some more little fish, there was still nothing to put on the dinner plate.

At the caravan park we also met the couple from Bright which we got to know a few weeks back in Esperence and have seen a number of other times since.

After lunch we went for a look at the Point Samson boat harbour and Samson Creek to see where we can fish tomorrow. We decided to have a few more casts but today wasn't our day. As the sun set and the sand flies took over the area we went home in a fishless state.

Point Samson

We left the sleepy little town of Onslow this morning and tracked South East to get back onto Hwy #1 (North West Coastal Highway). For this first leg we had a reasonably strong headwind which pushed our fuel consumption to 28lt/100km. As soon as we got onto Hyw #1 and turned North East our consumption dropped back to 20lt/100km which allowed us to go past the Fortescue Roadhouse without stopping.

Behind the roadhouse is a large number of Dongas (transportable buildings with single accommodation rooms) to house workers from the nearby mines. Almost next to the roadhouse is immensely wide Fortscue river bed with the river only using 20% of the width at the moment.

Fortescue Metals is the largest Iron ore mining group in the Pilbara with Andrew Forrest as it's major shareholder and CEO. Once we passed the roadhouse the traffic volume increased significantly with lots of mining vehicles and trucks travelling to/from Karratha which is only 100km away.

There are mining sites all the way along this stretch of road and we've seen many mining villages (large collection of Dongas) along the road.

We had a refuelling stop at a locality called "Travel Stop" on the Hwy near the turnoff to Karratha. Another 40km and we got into Roeoburne, an Aboriginal settlement. As today is Saturday we noticed that most of the population seemed to be out at the footy ground.

We left the Hwy for a short drive North, past the little town of Wickham and onto Point Samson - a small place on the water (see first photo) with a total population of about 400.

After the caravan was setup we drove the short distance back to Wickham to resupply at the local Woolies. The first thing we noticed there were the security screens on every window of every shop - I'd say they've got a problem with alcohol in the area which consists of a large percentage of indigenous with the remainder made up of mine workers, most young males. There are 3 signs on the building advertising the Bottle Shop and one sign that says "Woolworths".

Back at the caravan park I went for a quick walk down to the beach which is just behind the park but the water was a long way down which reminded me that we are now entering an area with some of the biggest tides in the world. Today the tide difference was over 4mt.

Although we have seen Sturt Desert Peas on the side of the road for the last couple of weeks, today was the first time that I managed to get a snapshot (photo 2) of this very pretty plant.

Here is the link to todays travel map.