Author: Catherine Anderson

Catherine loves painting and photography as well as the great outdoors. Cycling, kayaking, pack-rafting and hiking are favourite activities as well as scuba diving when the location permits. A self confessed geek, she’s the reason details are included in our stories!
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Day 63: 31 July – Bikes, birds and beaches

Author: Mrs A

Location: Giralia Station (Exmouth Gulf)

Distance cycled: 17 km


We started the day with a mountain bike ride, heading off down several 4WD trails into the property. We cycled until the sand got too deep to pedal, then left our bikes and walked up into the red sand dunes, covered in beautiful wildflowers and a multitude of tracks from the action last night. It was a stunning location, so peaceful we could hear little more than the flutter of wings and the twitter of birds.


On our return we visited the homestead to learn more about where we were staying. Giralia Station had remained (at least partially) in the same family since the 1920s, only being relinquished in 2005 when the Western Australia Department of Conservation & Land Management purchased the land, recognising it as a site of special interest. It has several kilometres of coastline as well as much land which is gradually returning to its natural state since the removal of cattle and sheep.

Our explorations would suggest there are still camels wandering around here somewhere, with evidence of footprints on the dunes, as well as feral cats, having spotted small paw prints in the sand also. 

We decided to drive out to the coast, which felt desolately beautiful with the tide out and beach overtaken by soldier crabs hunting for a feed on the mud flats. We also felt cool (it was only 23 degrees C) for the first time during the day for ages – we almost needed long sleeves…almost…we must be heading south!


We decided to head out for a final bike ride before dinner, to try and spot the cockatiels and budgerigars we had seen flying past last night. Unfortunately it was a fated ride as an evil twig lashed out and attacked Mr A, catching him across the nose and cheek. He now looks like he has been in a fight…I meanwhile was fighting back the giggles as I tried to be sympathetic to his pain and embarrassment…I think he’ll be ok though (brave soldier!)…

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Day 61: 29 July – 4.5 miles of 40-Mile Beach

Author: Mrs A

Location: 40 Mile Beach

Distance hiked: 7 km

It was a somewhat disturbed night as the wind got up and flapped our awning around – we had to get up at 2.30am to put it away – along with several other neighbours. We had a bit of a sleep in as a result, not waking until around 8.30am – bliss! It was an unusual start to the day, there were these white things in the sky…c…c…clouds I think they are called. We have not seen any of those since about mid May! They didn't hang around for long.

We packed up a lunch and our swimmers and decided to explore the beach.


We barely saw another person all day – a couple of guys fishing near the camp area, and then a lady on a stand up paddle board coming from a boat moored at the other end of the bay, otherwise just us. We stopped after 3.5 km, where there were no other footprints and jumped into the ocean for a swim – just heavenly.

We were entertained by a pair of White Breasted Sea Eagles on our walk back for hot showers and cold drinks.

The clouds returned just in time for sunset, making for a fabulous display and a fitting end to the day – nature's fireworks. We've really enjoyed our time at Gnoorea Point, but it is time to move on tomorrow, heading a couple of hundred km south to a former 700,000 acre sheep station…should be interesting!

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Day 59: 28 July – Point Samson…point disapPointment….

Author: Mrs A

Location: Point Samson

Distance cycled: 5 km


I woke this morning with a puffy swollen face and sore glands again – signs that I am about to have another allergic reaction. Have doubled the antihistamine to try and prevent anything too dramatic, and Mr A has been re briefed on the Epi pen should that be needed. Fingers crossed the antihistamine works.

It was another lovely day, but alas mostly spent cleaning out the red dust from our clothes and van. Another few washes done, even bravely used the campground machines as well, and the floor washed on hands and knees. Mr A emptied the car and did a thorough wash out and vaccuum.

So today, all went well other than:

  • The caravan repairers in Exmouth who had been lined up to fix up our broken/damaged bits and pieces have accidentally double booked us and can no longer fit us in during our visit. We have to wait another month until we get to Perth to get repairs done
  • Our washing machine has a mysterious error ‘OE’ which suggests the drain is blocked, despite us proving again and again it is not…sigh…
  • Mr A’s fat bike has a puncture and he cannot get the tyre off to fix it, so we need to spend the day in Karratha tomorrow repairing that, instead of kayaking down a beautiful river…

But all first world problems really. We managed a short cycle around the neighbourhood – we really have seen all of Port Samson now, and truly praise the talented Marketing writers who managed to make it sound like a seafood dining Mecca. 



We enjoyed sunset beers at Honeymoon Bay, before heading out to dine at the local pub ‘The Tavern’  – a truly delicious Fisherman’s Basket with chips and salad, with a bottle of Taylor’s Promised Land for $30 – not too bad!

The day concluded with a lovely FaceTime conversation with my sister, Helen, letting her know I plan to make a flying visit in September. Very excited about that!

And finally, our current location – the blue spot on the left hand side…’D’ is where our holiday truly started at the beginning of June, at Lake Argyle…

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Day 57: 25 July – Biking & paddling Millstream

Distance cycled: 16 km

Time paddled: 90 minutes

Distance paddled: unknown

As always we awoke to a stunning morning – about 16 degrees, blue skies and promise of a 30 something degree day ahead. Life is easy when the weather is totally predictable. We decided to head off out on our bikes while it was cool, and first of all paid a visit to the old 1930s homestead, from back when this National Park was a horse, sheep and cattle station. There was a lot of information about the Aboriginal cultural heritage of the area which continues to this day, plus an interesting depiction of life here early last century. We continued our tour along a wetlands trail to a sacred lake behind the homestead, and then along a fantastic 8km cycle trail completely off road, leading through the gum forest and through spinifex filled open desert to a fabulous viewing point over the Fortescue River.


We returned from our cycle to have a BBQ brunch and relaxed through the heat of the day.

Around 2pm we headed off to find somewhere new to paddle. We spotted a road heading down to the river and decided to park by the closed gate and hike off down for an explore. We were just opening the doors of the car and we saw a WA National Parks Ute reversing swiftly towards us. A stern woman brusquely told us were not allowed off piste, and that down that unmarked trail was an Aboriginal cultural area visitors could not access. 

National Parks in Western Australia are quite different to those in NSW, which rarely patrols its areas (meaning everywhere is open to visitors), and certainly doesn’t seem to fiercely protect Aboriginal zones. This is not the first time we have been told we cannot freely explore a park – a Karijini ranger also told us to stick the the allocated trails there. It does explain why the parks are always so busy, with everyone constantly channelled down the same avenues. 


We ended up going back to Deep Reach along the Fortescue River, inflating our kayaks and setting off for an explore. We saw many birds this afternoon, reed warblers, rainbow bee-eaters, honey eaters, firetails, ibis, herons, black kites…the list was endless, and stunning reflections on the water.


On our way back to the car I managed to stop Mr A from stepping on a rather stunning cream and brown patterned snake which was crossing the pathway. It coiled up and threatened to strike at us, its pink mouth open and hissing in our direction. We waited until it decided to retreat back into the bushes before continuing, unsure whether it was poisonous or not. Back at the mobile apartment I checked it out in our ‘Reptiles and Amphibians’ book – it was a Stimson’s Python – non-venomous…so I didn’t save Mr A’s life after all…!

Nevertheless, we celebrated with a home cooked dinner of Beef Rendang and a delicious bottle of Penfold’s 2013 Bin 8 Cab-Shiraz. 

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Day 55: 23 July – Tom Price & Hamersley Gorge

Author: Mrs A

Distance driven: 83 km

Distance hiked: 2.2 km (Yes, mostly in the car!)

Flights climbed: 10 floors

After praising the Savannah Campground for its peace and quiet we were disappointed last night when a group of camper trailer toting friends turned up late and set up right opposite where we were camping. They then cracked open the beers and yelled across to each other until long after midnight, despite Mr A politely asking them to quiet down (he was told to ‘f-off’) and apparently the retreat manager told them on two occasions also. So this morning, we packed up and departed, forfeiting tonight’s booking (‘no refunds’).

We headed first for the nearby town of Tom Price, where we hoped to gain a permit to take the shorter mining road to Millstream-Chichester National Park. Unfortunately the information centre told us it was in terrible condition as there was a new mine opening along it, and that caravans were not allowed. We had no choice but to add 200 km to our journey and go via the ‘highway’ (a rough, corrugated gravel road!).  We stocked up on fruit and vegetables while in town and headed off.


As tends to be the case, our change in direction and plans was not bad. We passed the outer southern side of Karijini National Park and a final gorge which is visited by few. This made it our favourite location as we pulled in for lunch, and then hiked down into the gorge. What a fabulous spot. Absolutely stunning reflections and rippling sediments in the walls which any landscape designer would be jealous of. We sat for a while with our feet in the water, enjoying the serenity and watching the fish swimming beneath us, cautiously eyeing my blood-orange coloured toenails.


We decided against driving any further, and pulled into a bush camp nearby. It is by far one of the most stunning locations we have camped. Yes, of course there are other campers here (‘You’re never alone in WA’), but they are at least 200 metres away from us in any direction. We are surrounded by stunning hills of the Hamersley Range all around us and the chirps of Rainbow Bee-eaters, Firetails and Zebra Finches. I think we are going to be happy here tonight!

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Day 53: 21 July – Karijini National Park – the southern part

Author: Mrs A

Distance driven: 75km

From: Karijini National Park – Dales Campground

To: Karijini National Park – Savannah Campground  (Karijini Eco Retreat)

Distance hiked: 5km

Floors climbed: 19

Once again we hitched up the mobile apartment and moved on after a light breakfast, this time heading to the southern part of Karijini and the Savannah Campground. This is a private campground within the national park, coupled with an ‘Eco Retreat’ (canvas cabins with king size beds, luxury hotel quality linen, private en-suites and decks, all set amongst the beauty of the national park – a bit like our mobile apartment but not quite as nice). We get hot solar showers and flushing toilets. The ‘Retreat’ is fully Aboriginal owned, and run by a hospitality company.

We arrived around 11am and after a bit of confusion with their site allocation for us (the first already being occupied by two tents, the second pretty much the smallest on the campsite!) we finally settled down on an attractive spot. This is much more picturesque than the Dales campground with a lot more birdlife – there has not been fire here, which helps.

We decided to tackle the walk nearest to us, to Joffre Gorge. While only 5km was hiked all together, it was a tough one with a lot of climbing. We arrive at the top of the gorge and look down to a emerald coloured pool, about 150 metres below us. We then have to clamber down the cliff to it. This is a class 5 (the most challenging) hike, with no handrails, no man made steps, and quite precarious drops. We get most of the way down, and Mr A is overcome with vertigo and cannot make it further. I have to admit my heart is also pounding after my hiking pole had slipped on a rock and plummeted down. I reach the bottom where the pool is, and find my hiking pole safely landed on a nearby rock.


It is lovely, but there is more. I now need to carefully pick my way along the sediments in the rock along the smooth cliff edge, the pool beneath me, to reach another part of the gorge. Trying not to think about the non-waterpoof camera around my neck, and regretting having the hiking pole (now feeling more of a hindrance than help), I make my way around safely. Around the corner, through a two metre wide crack in the rock is a beach and Joffre Falls. I would say it was really picturesque, and it mostly was, apart from the man with the big beer belly sitting at the bottom of the falls and his wife with the loud sweary voice yelling across at him.

‘You’re never alone in WA’ – our new slogan for Western Australia.


I clambered up and rejoined Mr A, and we continued on the walk along the rim of the gorge. We crossed the top of the waterfall and saw a number of pretty lizards enjoying hunting around the water. Photographs really do not do the scenery justice – it is arid and dramatic, the colours startling in the afternoon sun. When you see the gorges they really do take your breath away.


We returned to camp for sunset beers before showering and retiring for the evening with a bottle of Fat Cat Shiraz, a madras curry and two episodes of Shetland. Another fine day in WA.

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Day 51: 19 July – Karijini National Park – Dales Gorge

Author: Mrs A

From: Two Camel Creek rest area

To: Dales Campground, Karijini National Park

Distance driven: 145 km

Distance hiked: 5.5 km

We were amazed to find we both actually had a relatively good night’s sleep in spite of the regular road train traffic on the nearby highway – I can’t say how deep it was, or vouch for the quality, but we didn’t feel dreadful when we woke up at 6am. We set off after breakfast, continuing up the highway and marvelling as the landscape changed from the flat spinnifex filled Little Sandy Desert to iron filled rolling hills and rock walls.

We arrived at our campground at around 11.30am and set up and unhitched. After a light lunch we headed off in the car out to the Visitor’s Centre, about 11km away. Our original plan was to stay here three nights, but we have decided that two will be enough. The campground is pretty sparse and dusty – nice big sites, but very little undergrowth returned since the fires here in May. We called our next campground, also in this national park, to move our booking back a day. 

The Visitor Centre was really interesting – very focused on the Aboriginal communities who lived here for tens of thousands of years, before becoming displaced by European settlers. It was uncomfortable to see how they were virtually enslaved to work on the cattle stations here, and how landmarks were renamed (eg one named as ‘Nameless Hill’) despite having an extremely long standing Aboriginal name. Cultural respect anyone?

 

And then there are the ecological impacts of Europeans. They/we introduced cattle to the Pilbara region. The Pilbara (Karijini sits within this region) is a semi-arid ecosystem, extremely delicate, balancing long months with no rain at all against the ‘wet’ where the whole region floods and rivers and waterfalls increase their depth by up to 20 metres. The cattle trampled the earth and ate the native grasses, which did not grow back without rain and the now solid trampled earth did not allow the seeds to germinate. So the pastoralists brought over some new grass from Africa which grew nicely here. In fact this grass sent out poison from its roots and killed most of the other plants, so it grew really well…the story goes on and on. It makes you shudder to think of the damage done here! There was no research done prior to the introduction of feral species so it is hard to know how the flora and fauna was impacted by this.


In spite of Europeans, this is a really interesting area. We took a stroll from our campground this afternoon to the Dales Gorge rim track, a number of lookouts over the gorge. It is extremely beautiful and very spiritual – you feel very connected to nature. We sat at one place for a while, enjoying the view and the birds that were soaring over the pools and trees below us.

I am writing at beer/vodka-soda-with-fresh-lime o’clock as we watch the sun dip down behind the hills. The temperature is already dropping and it is likely to be another 10 degree C night. Makes for very good sleeping! Tonight is not an AFD and we are even allowed wine tonight with our Thai green curry with Spanish Mackeral and vegetables. Lucky us!

No light pollution here, making for an incredible night sky…many photos taken 🙂 

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Day 49: 17 July – Planning the next month’s adventures

Author: Mrs A

Being a bit of a organisation geek I felt somewhat uncomfortable not knowing what our plans were for the coming weeks, so insisted we spend the morning using our mapping resources, Dr Google and travel books to make plans. Mr A purchased brain food from the camp shop (a pie for him and a dairy-free sausage roll for me) and we set about our research.

Our rough plan from here is as follows:

  • Karijini National Park (6 nights)
  • Millstream National Park (3 nights)
  • Karratha – Point Samson (2 nights)
  • Ashburton River (2 nights)
  • Exmouth/Cape Range National Park (8 nights)
  • Coral Bay/Carnarvon area (5 nights)
  • Kennedy Range (2 nights)
  • Gladstone (1 night – our 15 year wedding anniversary!)
  • Denham (3 nights)
  • And the lovely named Prickly Point on Useless Circuit (2 nights)

There will be a few nights coming up where we will be offline (up to about 6) after which you will likely be bombarded with information!

The map below shows where we are now. Our plan is to head south, then inland for a few days:



We did a short 5km hike along the coast this afternoon, enjoying the final bit of coast for a couple of weeks and then enjoyed the stunning sunset.


Now we are semi packed up in preparation for our next adventure from tomorrow.

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Day 47: Eighty Mile Beach (which is actually 140 miles long…ah-hem)

Author: Mrs A

From: Barn Hill Station

To: Eighty Mile Beach

Distance driven: 256km

Time: 3 hours

Distance hiked: 10km

We started the day with an early walk along the beach at Barn Hill Station to make up for arriving so late yesterday. The beach continued to enthrall us in the other direction, giving more views and interesting rock formations. 


After a hot shower we hitched up and set off back on the road south.

They call this part of Australia ‘The Big Empty’. There are no towns, and the one main road (National Highway 1) runs about 10-20km inland away from the coast, offering a view of nothing more than a dead straight road, bordered by flat, hot, featureless scrubland. It makes for a boring drive, and the podcasts got another workout on the way.

We arrived at the Eighty Mile Beach caravan park at around 2pm. We were originally hoping to bushcamp for the next two nights, but alas, there is no bushcamping along here – the land bordering the coast either privately owned cattle stations or Aboriginal country. So it was back into a campground for us. This camp is much nicer than last night’s – large campspots with grass, clean toilets and showers, and we are a short walk from the beach.

And wow, what a beach – we were immediately enthralled.


We walked up the beach, paddling our feet in the champagne-like water’s edge, the extremely fine sand feeling like velvet underfoot. One of the things this beach is famous for is its shells. Beautiful shells of every colour, size and shape deposited with every wave – just stunning. The other main claim to fame is its attraction to migratory shore birds – hundreds of thousands flock here to feed, and turtles which lay their eggs here (later on in the year – from October onwards).

We finished our walk as the sun set, before returning to our mobile apartment to shower, cook dinner and relax. We’re here for at least another night, if not two, so we can slow down a bit now!

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Day 45: Back down the peninsula to Broome

Author: Mrs A

From: Cygnet Bay, Dampier Peninsula

To: Broome, WA

Distance: 208 km

Time: 3 hours



I thought I should share our marvellous view of the moon across the low tide mudflats, captured on our walk home to our tent after dinner last night – just magical. They call this the staircase to the moon (though it is more of a ladder) with the moon tinted orange by the bushfire smoke – the local communities are doing a lot of early-season burn offs to prevent late season wildfires, which can be devastating to the wildlife and people in these parts if left unchecked.

We packed up camp and were off on the road by 8am heading back towards Broome. 

We made good time, and decided to call into Bantry Bay on the way back, tempted by its advertised bakery. Unfortunately the advertising was false, and the bakery was no more than a tin hut, where they microwaved frozen Mrs Mac’s pies – yuck! I took a quick look around the church, famous for its mother of pearl decorations, and we moved swiftly on.


We collected our mobile apartment from its storage area and commenced tackling the washing mountain. We then drove into town so I could stock up on fruit and vegetable supplies for the next few days while Mr A made the rather expensive purchase of 5 new tyres for the 4WD, ours being rather cut up by the Gibb River Road, and also nearing 6 years old.


This evening we at out at a local Indian restaurant – delicious curry (with a South Australian Cake Shiraz), and well deserved after our busy afternoon. Its 9.45pm now and I am about to hang out the 9th wash of the day!

 Tomorrow we will finally leave Broome and commence our journey south to adventures new.

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