13 October - North West Coastal Highway, Exmouth and Mesa Camp and Snorkelling, Cape Range National Park

13 October 2016 – 191 298

North West Coastal Highway, Exmouth and Mesa Camp and Snorkelling, Cape Range National Park

After a quick pack down we drove to Exmouth.  Here we found the first Visitor Information Centre that was “not-for-profit” that we had encountered since arriving in Western Australia; and they were happy to provide all the information we might need about the area rather than just sell tours.
https://www.ningaloocentre.com.au/visitor-centre/
We have booked a glass bottom boat tour for tomorrow morning, hopefully the wind will stay low enough. http://www.glassbottomboat.com.au/ The camping shop was our next stop to buy fins for all of us ready to snorkel.  At Cape Range National Park we were able to get into the camp we had chosen and have set up in a spot with a lovely view out over the ocean and a tidal pool. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/cape-range https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/mesa-campground After a siesta we headed to the Milyering Discovery Centre to have a look at the display, we had a quick look but the ladies were getting ready to pack up – we might go back another day in the heat of the day. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/milyering-discovery-centre https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/exmouth/cape-range-national-park/milyering-discovery-centre Lakeside snorkelling area was our late afternoon destination – we spent almost forty minutes in the water – the coral was average, however the number and variety of fish was fantastic – the best I have seen.  We also saw a turtle! https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/exmouth/cape-range-national-park/lakeside Today’s maximum temperature was only 37 degrees, much nicer than yesterday’s 44! After dinner I enjoyed a sunset over the Indian Ocean – peaceful and pretty!

 

12 October - Roebourne, Cossack and Point Samson; North West Coastal Highway

12 October 2016 – 190 827

Roebourne, Cossack and Point Samson; North West Coastal Highway

After packing up we headed to Roebourne and drove through this quiet old town, it has some lovely old stone buildings.
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/roebourne
We then went to the ghost town of Cossack and had a look through the stone buildings of the 1890’s which have been largely well preserved.
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/cossack https://karratha.wa.gov.au/cossack
In the wall of one of the buildings was a nest with chicks in, they were quite large for their lack of feathers, so must be chicks of a large bird. We had a picnic lunch at Point Samson and had a look at Honeymoon Cove Bay. 
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/point-samson-peninsula https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Destination/Point_Samson/56b267b6aeeeaaf773cfa80a#/ https://beachsafe.org.au/beach/wa/roebourne/point-samson/honeymoon-cove
The beaches here are very pretty, but they have no waves at all.  From here we took the road back to Roebourne and then continued on the North West Coastal Highway toward Exmouth.  We have stopped for the night at Yannarie Free Camp.
https://directory.fullrangecamping.com.au/item/yannarie-river-rest-area-fc

11 October - School Day

11 October 2016 – 190 807

School Day

This morning Drew took the car for a service, as we have clocked up another 10 000km.  Hayden had a school work day.  We spent the afternoon at the library.   When we got back to the van park for a swim, it was to find out that the pool was closed for the afternoon – so disappointing!

10 October - Karratha, Dampier and the Burrup Peninsula

10 October 2016 – 190 682

Karratha, Dampier and the Burrup Peninsula

This morning we did most of the Yaburara Heritage Trail – this gave us great views of Karratha, the terrain to the inland as far as the Chichester Ranges, Nickol Bay and the Burrup Peninsula.
https://trailswa.com.au/trails/yaburara-heritage-trail https://karratha.wa.gov.au/yaburara-heritage-trail We also got to see some petroglyphs.  We then went to the Karratha Visitor Centre to find out about the Rio Tinto tour – unfortunately they are no longer running them – we were all quite disappointed as we would have loved to see the loading facilities up close.  We took the car in to have the tyre repaired and the wheels aligned and balanced while we had a wander around town – Karratha is quite a nice town and is growing quickly.  The number of people who own one or more boats, and not little tiny ones, was amazing.
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karratha

After lunch we drove to the NW Shelf Visitor Centre – this is on the Burrup Peninsula and is an on shore gas processing plant.
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/point-samson/north-west-shelf-nws-project-visitors-centre
https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Pages/Attraction.aspx?n=North_West_Shelf_Natural_Gas_Project&pid=56b266aa2cbcbe7073ae0572&lang=en#/
The NW Shelf Project makes LPG, NPG, domestic gas and condensate and involves six large international companies working together.  The information centre was very good and they had a great animation that explained from the formation of oil and gas right through to processing in an entertaining way – very well made!  Hayden filled out a quiz sheet – instead of the usual sticker or lolly prize, he got given two balloons, two soft fishing lures, a water bottle and a hat!  He was pretty impressed! 

Our next stop was Murujuga National Park – this is a new national park and does not yet have any infrastructure.
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/murujuga https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karratha/murujuga-national-park https://www.murujuga.org.au/our-land/national-park/
They have put some temporary signage to Deep Gorge where there are a truly amazing number of petroglyphs (rock engravings).  We spent some time walking around looking at the piles of rock, finding an assortment of art. 

We then drove into Dampier, quite a small town but with sporting facilities for just about everything.
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/dampier https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Destination/Dampier/56b266c22880253d74c4ee8c#/

We were able to look at the Rio Tinto loading facilities at East Intercourse Island and Parker Point from a distance, and also the salt loading and salt condensation ponds.
https://www.pilbaraports.com.au/Port-of-Dampier/About-the-port/Port-facilities-and-services/Rio-Tinto-Iron-Ore https://www.pilbaraports.com.au/Port-of-Dampier/About-the-port/Port-facilities-and-services/Rio-Tinto-Iron-Ore/East-Intercourse-Island 

We finished the day in Karratha by doing the last parts of the Yaburara Heritage Trail – more great views and petroglyphs.

9 October - Maintenance and School Work Day

9 October 2016 – 190 670

Maintenance and School Work Day

We started today with a special breakfast for Hayden’s birthday, albeit delayed. Today was a catch up on things day, haircuts for all, washing and cleaning.  Hayden spent the day doing school work.

8 October - Chichester Range Camel Trail and Python Pool, Millstream Chichester National Park

8 October 2016 – 190 487

Chichester Range Camel Trail and Python Pool, Millstream Chichester National Park

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/millstream-chichester  https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karratha/millstream-chichester-np
This morning we packed up as quickly as possible and drove to Python Pool. 
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/python-pool 
From here we walked the Chichester Range Camel Trail to Mount Herbert. 
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/mt-herbert https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Attraction/Camel_Trail%2C_Millstream-Chichester_National_Park/56b267e47b935fbe730e72f0#/ https://trailswa.com.au/trails/camel-trail/print https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/camel-trail-millstream-chichester-national-park--4?u=m 
This is an old camel and bullock road, i.e. we would not call it a road but rather a rough track, that was last used in 1892.  It passes through some unrelenting country – it is bare rock and iron ore dirt with no shade.  Thankfully today there was a significant breeze/wind whenever we were not in a hollow.  The views from Mount Herbert were fantastic and rugged.  We passed by McKenzie Spring – a watering hole for the camels and bullocks – which was completely dry currently.  On returning to Python Pool we all enjoyed a swim in this lovely waterhole at the base of the cliffs.  

After a picnic lunch we drove onto Karratha, we are staying at the Pilbara Holiday Park. 
https://www.karrathaiscalling.com.au/explore/karratha/ https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karratha 
We all enjoyed a well-earned shower and washed our hair, we even got to wash some clothes and buy some groceries!

7 October - Hamersley Gorge, Karijini National Park and Millstream, Millstream Chichester National Park

7 October 2016 – 190 184

Hamersley Gorge, Karijini National Park and Millstream, Millstream Chichester National Park

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/karijini
This morning we went first to Hamersley Gorge, when we pulled up and got out we heard… HISSSS. This time it was a car tyre – oh yeah!!  After changing the tyre, we headed down into the gorge for a swim.  This gorge was very pretty, but in a completely different way to the previous gorges of Karijini.  Here, the rocks had been subjected to enormous forces and the layers of rock had been forced into wavy patterns.  The water was beautifully clear and we swam part one down the gorge.  https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/hamersley-gorge  https://trailswa.com.au/trails/hamersley-gorge-walk/print

From here we took the Roebourne-Wittenoon dirt road to the Millstream section of Millstream-Chichester National Park. 
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/millstream-chichester 
We had a quick clean off at Deep Reach but did not swim because there were so many fish in the water. 
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/deep-reach-pool 
We did a walk through the wetlands near the Homestead, and also had a look at the Cliff Lookout, before setting up camp for the night. 
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/millstream-homestead-visitor-centre https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/cliff-lookout

Week 16 from Hayden

Week 16 from Hayden (11 yo boy)

01/10/16

Today we packed up and drove to 80 mile beach (nicknamed 80 million fly beach).  Then we drove to De Grey rest stop!

02/10/16

Today we packed up and drove to Karijini National Park and Dad saw one of the wheels was a bit flat.  On getting out, he noticed it had popped open and we could hear the air going out of it!

03/10/16

Today we went and did the west side walks.  On the last one I slipped and fell, hitting my knee hard.  Mum says it will go pretty colours and it already is swelling.  Now I look back I realise I hit my head hard as well but the knee took priority.

 04/10/16

Birthday Yah!
Today we woke up early and went to Newman and did the tour of the open cut iron ore mine.  It was the largest in the world.  We got to see the train loading and the trucks working and a group getting ready to blast.  We got to collect samples of the four different iron ores, Brockman hematite 68.8% iron, Newman Blended Lump 62.75% iron, Newman High Grade Fines 61.65% iron and Geothite Limonite 61% iron.  Then we went and I had lemonade and two scones with jam.  Then we drove back and went to Fern Pool and played in the ice (water).  Then at 7:00pm Dad and I went to the astronomy talk.   There were only us and one other person and the tour guide.  We saw the jewel box, which looks like a three-sided box with a red, yellow and blue star in a row (I called it the traffic lights).  Then we zoomed in on the moon and could see the individual craters everywhere.  Then we magnified Saturn so we could see the individual rings and they’re shadows.  After that we had a look at the constellations like Scorpio, a sea goat and a tea pot.  Then we went and looked at Mars, it was a red dot, and Alpha Centauri (there are two stars there) and the globular cluster and lastly the Milky Way – we separated the stars!

05/10/16

Today was a school work day.  Then we had a swim.

06/10/16

Today we got up and hiked up Mount Bruce.  The view was amazing!  We got to see the mine blow stuff up!! Yay!  Then we went and walked up Joffre Gorge.

07/10/16

Today we got up early and packed down and drove to Hamersley Gorge.  We got a flat tyre in the car park.  Then we drove to Millstream-Chichester National Park!

6 October - Mt Bruce, Joffre Gorge and Knox Gorge, Karijini National Park

6 October 2016 – 189 999

Mt Bruce, Joffre Gorge and Knox Gorge, Karijini National Park

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/karijini
This morning we started out early for Mt Bruce, this is the second highest mountain in Western Australia at 1 245m. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/mount-bruce  https://trailswa.com.au/trails/mt-bruce-summit/print
This walk was 11km, including 630m elevation gain and took us 4 hours.  The view as you climb up is quite a beautiful view of Pilbara nature to your left, and Marandoo mine site to the right.  Hayden was delighted to be able to watch the trains being loaded and coming and going, as well as seeing a blasting. I enjoyed the many wildflowers, some of which were very very small.  There were some technical areas on the walk, some involving chains and some very steep sections that involved going up crevices. 

After a picnic lunch, we took on Joffre Gorge. 
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/joffre-falls-gorge-and-lookout 
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/joffre-falls-gorge-and-lookout
This involves a walk around the rim and then a steep descent down into the gorge.  We swam upstream to Joffre Falls and then headed downstream.  We descended a small waterfall, where Hayden chose to wait, while Drew and I swam to the end of the gorge.  It took us 11 minutes to swim each direction in the gorge and the water varied from nice to freezing.  It was quite special swimming in a gorge where the walls tower so high above you and you cannot see anyone else most of the time.  By the time we got out both Drew and I were very cold, but it was worth it.  We then drove to Knox Gorge and had a look down into the gorge – it is a magnificent looking gorge, with the hike requiring multiple crossing of the water – another time!