Ningaloo Reef

When we stopped and thought about it, we realised it had been quite some time since we had been connected to power.  Apart from one night at Dampier, the last time was Eighty Mile Beach.  That's a lot of weeks now we have been using just solar.  Unfortunately, matching those times, we often have had no or limited internet, a little harder to cope with.  So tonight we have opted for a little luxury and a chance for me to catch up on this blog as the laptop I work on needs 240 volt power.  And to top it off, full Telstra service instead of watching one bar fade in and out.  So to recap the last couple of weeks -  

In the end, we had three nights on the Ashburton River at Old Onslow.  Again the wind came up from nowhere and just as quicky vanished.  We are finding this is happening more and more.  I don't know if it is connected to being further south or moving out of wintertime.   Our next stop is inland, so we are hoping for less wind.

It's a long day for us, about 300 k's.  We want to be within easy reach of Exmouth for the Friday when we meet up with Ingrid and Peter.  Originally we were just going to stop at a roadside rest area, but stopping at one for lunch made us decide that it wasn't all that desirable a place to spend the rest of the afternoon.  So instead we went just a short distance further to Ballara Station.  No powered sites here, but there is a generator area which we opted not to use.  The afternoon gave me a good opportunity to catch up on some washing.

There were quite a lot of campers here.  It seems many use it as a base and take day trips to Exmouth and to Coral Bay.  There was an happy hour at five around the campfire, and in the end there were over 30 people there.  We kept having to move the circle out. 

In the morning we drove the 90 ks to Exmouth, filled the water tanks, the fuel tanks and the food situation.  Our home for the next week was Yardie Homestead Caravan Park, 40 k's further, on the Ningaloo Reef side, the opposite side of the peninsula to Exmouth.  Powered sites here are only for fridges and recharging batteries, so for us not worth the extra as our solar does all that.  We ended up with two sites at the end of a row, back to back, which worked really well when Ingrid and Peter arrived. 

We had a lovely week, with some great highlights.  One of these was the Monday when the kids had paid for a whale shark swim for my birthday, and an early Father's Day present for Jim.  We couldn't have been luckier, as this was finally a day with no wind, absolutely perfect conditions.  The boat captain said you only get them as good as that about four times a year.  There were only ten of us on the boat, and only eight were going in the water.  The boat can cater for twenty.

 First stop was a snorkel on the inner reef, fascinating to see all the fish of various sizes and hues.  We spent some time then chasing whales unsuccessfully, but then as it got closer to lunch time, things started happening in all directions.  There were mantra rays that we got to swim with, turtles in the water, and then there were whales everywhere, breaching, rolling and generally having a great time. 

One of the many whales we saw

In the water ready to find whale sharks.

After lunch we entered the water for a snorkel of the outer reef and had not been long in the water when the shout went out to all head back to the boat immediately.  The spotter plane had excelled itself, and to everyone's excitement, it had found a whale shark.  The whale shark season actually ends around July, but apparently they get an odd late one, and even a few that stay all year, but they are hard to find.  Even the crew were really excited. 

Our whale shark, photo taken by one of the crew.

Snorkelling gear on, we all lined up at the rear of the boat waiting for the shoat to Go Go.  In we went, and once the bubbles had cleared, there he was right in front of us!!  A seven metre whale shark, what a beautiful creature.  Unfortunately this one was a little shy and dived down pretty quickly.  It was all back onto the boat while they searched for him again, then we all jumped back into the water.  This happened four times.  Twice he actually swam back under the boat.  One of these times Jim was a little later get in the water and while we were chasing in one direction, he was able to see it had turned, with the result he actually found himself in front of it and a little closer than he had anticipated.  What a great experience, and by now the afternoon was nearly done and it was time to head for home.  We had our exercise for the day as pulling yourself back onto the flat deck of the boat wasn't that easy.  She gave two demonstrations before the tour started of how to use your flippers to get momentum to push yourself up, and then she gave the beached whale version.  I think I was the latter, but I did think I got quicker at it. 

Tuesday was my birthday and we drove into Exmouth in the morning.  I had a hair appointment first, which proved fortuitous as we didn't know where to go for lunch.  The hairdresser said the best place was at the Novotel as it is the only place where you an eat with water views.  What a great choice - beautiful venue and lovely food.  After lunch we continued further south to Charles Knife Road which took us through the Cape Range, and we were amazed at the gorges in there.  Quite spectacular and not advertised that much as a great tourist spot.  Back to the camp for my bottle of French champagne and the end of a lovely birthday.

Birthday lunch

View of one of the gorges from Charles Knife Road

Surprise birthday flowers from my children

Over the next couple of days we did some more exploring of the Park, with Jim catching a very nice 44cm Spangled Emperor, a nice farwell dinner for the four of us on Thursday.  Friday morning it was time to farwell Ingrid and Peter on their long journey home.  They drove up in two but allowed three to get home. 

We thought the Ningaloo Reef area was so beautiful, instead of leaving we booked a campsite in the National Park for three days.  The water is beautiful to swim in, so clear and calm and a lovely temperature.  Later in the afternoon Jim decided to have another go at fishing.  I had something in the oven that needed another ten minutes so said I would join him then.  So it was about fifteen minutes later that I walked onto the beach at the same time he hooked a fish.  I could see it was taking some effort to get in, and when he landed it, there was a 60cm Spangled Emperor, which is now my favourite eating fish.  He caught one of these at Cape Leveque as well, but each one he has caught has got bigger than the one before.  It was so big we got more than two meals out of it. 

The big catch

He's got one on

Our campsite at sunset 

It had been a lovely day, blue sky, sunshine and no wind.  So it was a surprise that as the sun went down the wind came up.  It blew hard all night.  We were lucky as it was coming in behind us and we also had the awning tied off well onto the timber posts of our site.  This resulted in the awning barely moving, and we were suprised to find that everyone else had got up around two and brought theirs in. 

It kept blowing all morning.  Undeterred Jim still fished but they were all undersized.  Late in the morning we decided to do the Mandu Mandu Gorge walk.  This is a 3 k walk, along the river bed initially, but then you climb very steeply up the gorge wall, needing feet and hands to ge there. There were great views of the reef from the top.  Once we had reached the highest point I expected an easy walk down, so was quite shocked to discover that there were a number of minor gorges of the main gorge, which meant we had to climb down and then back up them.  Jim also saw a small snake near the end of the walk.  We didn't bother looking too hard to see what type it was. 

It was straight up

But amazing view from the top

We then decided that as we were so close and had our snorkelling gear in the car, we would continue to Turquoise Bay.  Being a Saturday there were lots of people there, but we were quite disappointed in the snorkelling as unlike the day before, the water had lost its clarity, so we really couldn't see much.  In the end we decided it was probably just as good back at our campground.

I wasn't feeling that well on Sunday, so it was an easy decision to not stray far from home.  Jim the intrepid fisherman, kept trying to help our larder, and I ventured into the reef to discover that the snorkelling was excellent at the campsite.  So many fish, many of them very big.

We had thought about extending our time at the National Park, but upon looking, we discovered someone had booked our site for the next three days, so rather than move sites, we might as well move venue.  We headed back into Exmouth to repeat all the refuelling episodes.  On the way out of town we stopped at two historic monuments. One commemorates Operation Pot Shot, and the other the Z Force Special Operations Unit.  I'm pretty sure there has been a movie made about it somewhere in the past.  

It was then just over 100 k's to our next destination of Bruboodjoo Point (otherwise known as 12 Mile Camp).  This is aboriginal owned land opened up for basic camping.  You have to be completely self sufficient and can only enter if you have a chemical toilet.  There were absolutely no signs whatsoever advertising its presence and I would never have found it except for Wikicamps.  Jim was not expecting to find many there, so was quite amazed when we topped the last sand dune and we saw all the caravans spread out.  Talking to the caretaker later that day, it has been a well kept secret for over 30 years with many regulars returning for 3-5 months every year, and they are now cursing Wikicamps for letting their secret out.  However, we had a great spot a short sand dune walk to the water, and almost to ourselves.   We stopped two nights, but didn't find the little bay here as nice a  place as the Ningaloo Reef we had been at.  The water didn't seem anywhere near as clear as it had a lot of weed.  And all Jim could catch of any size were ugly Silver Toadfish (very poisonous).  However, at $15 a night, it is a bargain compared to other places in the area.

Our van on the left at Bruboodjoo Point

We left Wednesday morning with a possible aim of Coral Bay.  We had heard a lot about the place, and knew it was very popular and without a booking can be hard to get into.  When we arrived we were quite surprised to discover that the town is really not much more than the two caravan parks (owned by the same person I have read) and a few shops.  We rolled into the first (and cheapest) park to try our luck just after 9.30.  I wasn't sure whether to take my little bit of luxury for one or two nights, but the decision was made for us as we could not get the same site for two nights.  If we wanted a second night, we would have to move sites, not worth it for us.  We paid but couldn't get on the site until 11, so it was easy to do a little shopping and look at the beach.

Lovely bay for kids at Coral Bay

When we went to get our site, we couldn't believe our eyes at all the vans rolling into town.  Lucky we went there early.  There were seven already lined up in the street looking to get in, and more appearing over the hill.  

We set up and had lunch.  We thought that it was a very beautiful little bay and could understand why it was so popular with families for safe swimming,  but we weren't too sure what the fuss was about.  But then we headed over with our snorkelling gear.  My goodness, I have never seen a place like this.  The tide was on the way out, and you literally walk to the end of the sand, and it just about drops away vertically, and within two metres you are in deep water over the top of the coral reef.  It was amazing, with so many fish, especially the huge Spangled Emperor.  At 3.30 we discovered why there were so many - fish feeding!!  We weren't too proud to take our share and have a go.

On the edge of the sand

Just a couple of metres out

Fish feeding

Right at my feet, our favourite Spangled Emperor

In a way, it is something of shame that we couldn't get more than a night here, but we have now seen it, and there are more placed along the coast to explore.

Dampier and Karratha area

Wednesday morning we headed back to pick up the mine road again.  Once we got back to the turn off, there was only another twenty kilometres until the sealed road, but this ended up the worst section of the road.  Soon after getting onto the bitumen we noticed the electronic brake light was flickering.  It took a while to find a pull in but once we did Jim was able to quickly find two broken wires under the van.  In his usual fashion he was able to quickly repair these and we were back on the road to Dampier.

I wanted to stop in Dampier first as there were a few things there to see, plus we needed to look at repairing the water tanks.  The only place there is the Dampier Transit Park, set up by the local community for tourists as there is a 72 hour limit on staying there.  Many of the other caravan parks in Karratha are full of workers, although the caretaker here told me the bubble has burst and many parks have had to reduce their prices, one from $54 down to $44.  The Transit Park is only small and because of its low price, very popular.  Although we arrived late morning, there were no sites left.  However, I just happened to be there waiting when someone came back and said they were able to fit in with a friend, so we managed to grab what he wasn't taking.  It was really an overflow site as it is actually the driveway to her own van, but it had power and water handy, and the best view in the park out to the water.

What I hadn't realised was that Dampier really has no real infrastructure and to find somewhere for our water repairs we needed to drive 20 k's to Karratha.  This we did, and found what we needed for under $5.  We got back in time for a latish lunch while a load of washing was being done,  and then headed out to explore the area.  First stop was the visitor centre at the North West Shelf Project.  This is an enormous gas plant, piping gas from 130 k's out at sea and after processing it is then piped the enormous distance to Perth and further south.  It was a very interesting display with an informative short video.

Photo of a photo of the gas complex

From here we back tracked to Hearson Bay somewhere we imagine would be exceptionally popular at weekends, but nearly empty when we were there.  Just a short distance from this is Deep Gorge with its thousands of ancient petroglyphs.  This area just seems to be nothing but hills of tumbled red rocks, an amazing sight.

Some of the petroglyphs

Heading back towards the caravan park we had to make a stop at the Red Dog statue.  Who didn't love this movie about the Pilabara wandering dog.  He's become quite a tourist attraction in his own right.  After a drive around the water's edge at Dampier it was back for Jim to fix the water tanks with just enough light left in the day.

Red Dog statue

It's a bit of a noisy place at Dampier as those huge trains we saw unload at this point, and you could hear them in the distance for what seemed most of the night.

View looking down from the caravan park at Dampier

Thursday morning we were off to our next destination, Cleaverville.  This is a large bush camping site right on the beach between Warwick and Karratha and of course very popular at $10 a car a night.  Just a drop loo and rubbish bins, but a great spot.  The camping spots stretch for a number of kilometres along the beach, but we are at the main area but still have lots of room around us.  There were some great spots that were very private but with the van it was a bit difficult to drive in to find the spot already taken and then having to find a way out.  Later in the afternoon when he van was all set up, we took the car for a better look at the other spots in the area.  There are a lot of people here, but a lot is very spread out.

Our view at Cleaverville

Looking down the beach

Octopus taking aim at Jim

Friday it was time to head out and explore a little more east.  This was some of the are we missed by heading south at Port Hedland and then coming out at Karratha.  The first stop was Roebourne and the tourist information centre which is housed in the historic gaol.  It was a gold coin donation to see the building and museum and this was well worth while.  It is a very impressive building, but a terrible past when you read it was used mostly for aboriginals and the way they were treated.  There was a transcript of a royal enquiry held early in the last century where it was revealed that aborigines were always held in neck chains when other prisoners were not.  The rings that these were chained to are right through the gaol, even one in the ladies loo.

Roebourne gaol

Our next stop was full of history, the near ghost town of Cossack which began its existance with the name of Tien Tsin.  It was originally established in 1863 and had a varied history as a port and a pearl diving centre.  However once the pearl diving was moved to Broome and the river silted up making the port virtually unusable, it suffered a rapid decline and by 1912 very few people were left.  It has some beautiful buildings still standing, in particular the court house as well as the police complex.  Interestingly these were built not long before the town's decline, so had little use.  It was a very picturesque area and we easily spent a couple of hours there.  It is also quite famous for its art show held for about a fortnight each year, boasting the highest cash awards in rural Australia.  We were lucky to be there near the end of this year's fortnight.  There were some interesting pieces and one I particularly liked.  I looked up the price - $5500, it seems I have good taste.  No wonder it didn't have a sold sticker.

View looking down on  the river at Cossack

The police complex

Beautiful courthouse

The courthouse from rear

We drove on further to Point Samson, a popular holiday spot.  It was quite nice but mainly seemed to be two caravan parks and a very pricy tavern.  Over $30 for fish and chips for lunch we thought a bit much.  So we drove  back to the town of Wickham.  This is really a mine service town with lots of miners accommodation and the major services including a Woolworths.  We found a nice little coffee shop for lunch.

It was then back to the Roebourne Information Centre who actually had washing machines.  As we hadn't had time to get the towels and sheets washed in Dampier, we made use of these.

It was low tide when we got back and we spent quite a bit of time walking along he reef system marvelling at all the marine life.  We saw two octopus that made us laugh as they tried to shoot sea water at us when we came near.

Saturday was one of those will we/won't we as we hadn't decided whether to move on or not.  In the end the tides were high mid morning, so we decided to stay on.  Unfortunately this didn't lead to any fish being caught, but we did have a lovely time walking through the pools when the tide was out again late afternoon.

Sunday morning it was time to pack up and head off, but not too far.  After refilling at Karratha on the way through it was only another 40 k's to our turn off to 40 Mile Beach.  But before travelling the extra 11 k's we stopped to fill our water tanks.  There is a gas plant at the corner and they have put in a tap for the campers to fill their water.  There is already a man there, who we discovered was from Mildura.  He tells us that this water is about the best you can get as it has gone through reverse osmosis.  We chatted for quite a while as he refilled all his containers, then let us use his hose rather than get ours out.  We discovered he had been there for three months, as had many others camping there.  Once we arrived, he also found a great spot for us.  Another long termer had had to take his motorhome to Perth for repairs, so we were able to put the van where his motorhome would have been.  He is apparently a retired soldier and we now have his Australian flag flying near our front door.

It was high tide and Jim was all ready to head fishing, and as he was putting everything together, up came this very strong wind.  So strong in fact that we opted to move the van around to get out of it.   It was too strong to do anything including fishing, and by the time it abated at around 3.00 pm, the tide had well and truly turned and we were looking at lots of rock instead of water.  So another long walk on the beach to explore the rock pools.

When the caretaker came around to collect the fees, we asked him how many long termers were here, and were told around 30.  He also told us that the busiest night he has had was around 115 vans.

We had only planned to have the one night there, but thought we would leave late, around lunchtime after Jim had done some fishing.  But the wind foiled us again.  Jim went down early to fish, but by 8.30 the wind was starting to get up.  I walked down to tell him that we should think about bringing the awning in, but he was already starting to pack up.  It was so still when we had breakfast and it was such a short time later that it was blowing so hard.

So in the end we were packed and heading out around 9.30.  I had been quite generous with water usage allowing that we would top up again on the way out.  Unfortunately three others were there before us, and the one filling when we arrived took about another half hour.  I don't know how much his Bushtracker held or whether he was dribbling it in.  In the end we probably lost about an hour.

Although quite a bit further than my original plan, we ended up travelling to Onslow.  This is a detour of the highway of 80 kilometres and I had heard messages about whether it was worth it or not, so decided to make up our own minds.

Onslow is one of those mining places that have got beyond themselves with the speed things have happened.  We could see a lot of mining things happening as we drove on the road in.  For now though, we were turning of 18 kilometre before the town and going to Old Onslow.  Onslow was established in the late 1800's as a port, but after numerous cyclones and other weather conditions, the river silted up and the port was unusable, so the town was shifted to its current site.  From about 5 kilometres from the old town site, and running back for about another 5 kilometres is free camping along the Ashburton River.  Again our luck with good spots held  out and after nearly taking three others, we found our eventual camp.  It was right on the water, but a lot further back from the road than the majority of others.  A beautiful spot.

Camped on the river

After setting up, we drove up to explore the old town site.  There is very little left, but going by the plaques spread over great distances, it was obviously of some size.  The only buildings left are the police complex and gaol.  These were quite substantial buildings and we were quite impressed wih the river stone bricks the buildings were made from.  The exercise area was unroofed and still has the embedded broken glass to deter any attempts to get over the top.

Rings are still attached to the floor

Exposed brickwork

Welcome Rest Stops.  They pop up in the least expected places, such as Old Onslow.  They normally have a toilet, dump point and shelter with free wifi.  Only it often doesn't work very fast if at all.

All that is left of Old Onslow

We also drove down to the old jetty area, and it was hard to imagine there had once been a river there.

The jetty 

It was getting on dark when we got back to camp, and we enjoyed our camp fire by the river.

View from the caravan

Tuesday morning we drove the 35 k's into Exmouth.  We had opted not to stay at the overpriced caravan park.  That's what happens when the mining industry takes over.  There is a second caravan park, but that now has only permanents.  On the way past the airport we were amazed to see a sign offering contractors accommodation at $290 a night!  We thought that was bad enough until we found a notice board advertising a 2 bedroom unit at $1900 a week.  Talking later to the girl at the info centre, she was telling us how expensive everything is.  I asked about a hairdresser, and discovered they work from home as rent is too high here.  She also told us she orders her groceries from Perth (nearly 1500 kilometres) and the $80 freight still comes out cheaper than the supermarket here.  And it arrives on the same truck as the supermarket supplies.  I can understand where she is coming from when I went in and discovered broccoli at nearly $10 a kilo and bananas $7.50.

War memorial in the shape of the digger's hat band.  Designed so the sun shines through on Anzac morning

A seat at the memorial, very well done with the bronzed hats

From one of the lookouts at Exmouth

I hadn't expected to spend long in Exmouth, and hadn't taken any lunch with us.  We went to the lookout area, admiring the impressive war memorial, and took the 2 kilometre board walk.  There was also an interesting museum attached to the information centre.  We drove out to Four Mile Beach where Jim got lots of bites but no fish.  So by the time we got back to the caravan it was a late lunch, and unfortunately the horrible strong wind had returned.  We ate inside which is very unusual for us.  After a short while of being cooped up, we decided to put up with the wind and do some more exploring.  About 3 k's down the road is a causeway across the river.  Right next to it a major gas pipeline has been put in, and we could still see some of the 4 metre deep trench.  There were also new roads going everywhere, so it took a little looking to find the existing one that followed the river down the other side.  We had stopped and talked to another camping before crossing, who told us it was almost impossible to get to the river mouth, so we didn't attempt this, but found a spot on the river that looked promising.   Lots and lots of good bites but only one small fish.  I guess we will be back to give it another go.

Karijini

After leaving Eighty Mile Beach, it didn't take us long to reach our next destination at Cape Keraudren, just over 100 k's away.  Cape Keraudren is the southern end of the Eighty Mile Mile and the area is administered by the local council. They charge an entry free of $10 then a camping fee per person.  There are two main camping areas, Sandy Beach and the boat ramp area.  Sandy Beach has the best outlook but not many sites.  As we were early, we managed to grab one of these, right on the beach with lovely views of the little bay area.

It was high tide, blue sky and a perfect day, so as soon as we had set up it was on with the bathers for a swim before lunch.  Jim then headed off with his rod in the hope of a good catch.  He had chosen the far side of the bay as it looked like a little deeper water.  I was reading my book, and looked out about half an hour later to discover no water there at all.  We had forgotten about the big tides up here, and Jim was vainly trying to chase the water out.  No fish for tea that night.

High tide

The same beach at low tide

We were looking forward to another swim at high tide the next day, but were disappointed to discover a very windy and overcast day, not at all conducive for a swim.  Jim, not daunted, headed off with his rod again.  He returned after about three hours with enough whiting and a bream for dinner.  We walked the 1.5 k's up to the other camp and were surprised how many were in that area.  We found the boat ramp interesting as with the tide variance, the only time a boat could be launched was when the tide was in.  I don't know how they judge going out so that they can get back again.

The next morning over breakfast we did one of the things that are so good about this trip.  We sat and discussed do we stay another night or do we head somewhere else.  It's so nice to not be on a timetable.  In the end we decided as the tide was right out and the next high tide probably nearly six hours away, it wasn't worth stopping as we couldn't swim or fish.  So we packed up and made our way to Port Hedland, a distance of around 150 k's.  Port Hedland didn't hold a lot of appeal for us and we had always decided one night was enough as we were really just looking at restocking the pantry.  Being such a busy industrial area, the caravan parks are quite expensive, over $50 a night for sites that are very small.  One of the parks we gathered would struggle to fit our van in, and others with similar sizes had had to pay for two sites.  So it was an easy decision to head to the golf club that has basic sites, no power or water, but half the price.

Port Hedland was a very busy place with so much infrastructure happening.  Even the road we came in on didn't show on our gps or phone.  There was road and building construction going on everywhere we looked.  We went into the city centre and found it very different to others.  It reminded me a little of Mt Isa, with all the industrial happenings right in the city centre.  For Port Hedland this meant the shipping area right in the centre of town.  We didn't get to see any off the huge cargo ships heading out, but the information centre had a list of what was departing.  We could see six heading to China and one to Japan, filled with hundreds of thousands of tons of iron ore.

In the centre of town, Port Hedland

What we did see as we were heading back was one of the iron ore trains.  We arrived at the photo point just before the train so excellent timing for us.  It had to have been about 3 kilometres long.  Would hate to meet that at a rail crossing.

Iron ore train

that just kept on coming

We had a very big spend up at the supermarket, after nearly two weeks since the last shop.  The next morning we headed back to refuel and grab a few last minute items.  We were a little later getting away than normal, but weren't worried as our destination wasn't a time issue.  We were heading to Karajini, but were going to stop at a rest area about 60 k's from the park so we could arrive at Karajini in the morning.  We knew it is peak time and if you arrive too late, you can end up in the overflow area, something we didn't want to happen

The road from Port Hedland was like nothing else we have been on.  It is the main road to Newman, a huge mining area, plus there are many mines off the road as well.  To say the road is busy would be an understatement.  It was just filled with huge road trains going in either direction.  They travel at 90 k's an hour.  Unfortunately a little in front of us was a big cattle road train, and it kept fluctuating its speed which was pretty frustrating as the road was too busy to attempt to get past it.  Eventually we stopped for lunch, and our timing was perfect coming out as there were no road trains in front or behind, so we sat on 90 knowing they wouldn't catch us, or us catch them.

Our stop for the night was the Albert Tognolini Rest Area and Lookout.  Although having no facilities, this is a very popular stopover.  It's a huge area, and we got a lovely spot overlooking the ridge to enjoy the sunset.  We managed to find some wood to have a nice campfire for the evening.  It has wonderful scenery for a free rest area.

Road through the gap looking out from the lookout

Looking back at our campsite on the ridge

Sunset

Early morning light on the hills

We left around 8 the next morning for Karijini.  At the turnoff we stopped to check emails.  We had lost phone reception just before the rest area, but here, right in the middle of absolutely nothing, the local council has put in a wifi hotspot.  There are a number of these across the shire and there had also been one at Cape Keraudren.

Arriving at Karijini, we lined up to be allocated a site by the camp hosts.  This is a great idea that Western Australia has with their national parks in peak times. Camp hosts get free sites and a number of other incentives and in return they effectively manage the camp sites.  This is a busy place and it looked like two couples were here.  One of them told us they had another month here and then were going for a month to the Ningaloo area.  They loved what they were doing.

We were allocated a really lovely big site, but within about an hour we could see it wasn't going to suit us.  Most people would be very happy with the lovely shady site but unfortunately our solar panels had not worked at all when it should have been peak time.  Walking back to the office area, we noticed two sites from us was still empty, and what's more completely in the sun.  They were happy enough to change us over, and we did a quick move over, being able to carry somethings rather than pack up.
After lunch it was time to start seeing why Karijini is so popular.  We headed down the steep path to Fortescue Falls but could see that although spectacular, it was quite shaded and likely to be very cold.  We continued on to Fern Pool.  What a beautiful place and it wasn't long before we were in the water and swimming to the waterfall.  The water coming over was amazingly warm.

Jim under the waterfall at Fern Pool

Fortescue Falls.  We had to climb down the terraced rocks to do the bottom gorge walk

Fortescue Falls from the rim

After returning, we decided to get ourselves limbered up for the big walk in the morning, and did a walk around areas of the campground.  It is a big place, set out in circuits.  Most sites are well spaced from others and the toilets are dotted throughout the campground.  Each circuit also has a BBQ area as fires are not allowed.  It is easy to see why it is rated so highly.

Saturday morning, we were off on our walk by 8.30.  The other side of our circuit, the Euro circuit, has a track that links to the Circuit Pool lookout.  We took this and then picked up the rim walk.  The end of that walk brought us to to steep climb down to the Fortescue Falls.  This time we continued right down to the bottom, using the trellaced rock face as steps.  From here we took the gorge floor walk right back to the Circular Pool.  There were a few people already here, some attempting a quick dip in the very cold water.  I convinced Jim he didn't really need to try the pool out, and we then headed out to they very, very steep climb up to the lookout.  One of the camphosts the day before had said that it was difficult with big uneven steps and was easier to go up than down.  We aren't too sure if we agree with him, but we eventually made it to the top and picked up the track back to the campground.  It was then 11.30, so three hours from when we had headed out.  A good morning's exercise.

Circular Pool from above

and from below

After lunch we drove out to the visitor centre as we hadn't bothered stopping there on our way in.  It was a very unique building, blending well with the landscape with lots of interesting history both aboriginal and white of the area.  But what it didn't have in any form was information on what there was to see and do in the park.  I found this quite surprising.  Not even a photo of any of the gorges.

As there is quite a lot to see on the western side of the park, we opted to head to Kalamina Gorge, about 25 k's from the visitor centre rather than attempt too much the next day.   This is supposed to be one of the easier walks in the park, and we completed this one in about an hour and a half.  It was quite interesting with lots of little pools and waterfalls, but the final destination was lacking some of the wow facture we were expecting.

Kalamina Gorge

The ledges we had to make our way along

Heading back to the camp we were surprised to see that the campground full sign had gone out considering how many spaces we saw the day before.

Sunday morning we were again off by 8.30, this time to the western area of the park.  Our first stop was Weano Gorge and the nice walk along its bottom.  We did the upper gorge loop and were looking to do the lower which included Handrail Pool, but after only a few metres we could see there was no way through except through the water.  We waited to see what would happen to those in front of us.  A man with a mission took his shoes off and waded through, managing to wet most of the shorts he was wearing  When he had crossed one side, he went behind a rock and changed into his bathers.  Unfortunately this didn't help him as the next step out he took had him slipping and going right under, backpack and all.  The next was a young girl who didn't make it to the first point without slipping as well and dunking the shoes she was holding in her hand.  We soon decided we didn't really need to see that gorge after all.

We took the steps back to the top and walked over to the lookouts.  Now these were seriously impressive.  They are where four separate gorges meet and it is certainly quite a sight.

Lookout where four gorges meet

 As we were walking back to the capark, we spotted a walkway to Hancock Gorge.  This was rated higher than any of the other walks we had done, but we decided to give it a go.  It was very much a straight vertical descent, including some ladders.  Once at the bottom it was beautiful and quite different to the other gorges particularly in colour.  It was orange where the others were red.  It looked like it had been painted on.  After a bit of rock hopping and ledge holding, we came to a body of water with again no way through but in.  Jim changed into his bathers and waded across.  It was pretty obvious to me that I was going to get quite wet, so I left him to explore a little further.  He gave up when the gorge narrowed and there was little space to walk along the ledge with a backpack on.  So back up the steep slope to the top.  We think we must be getting a lot fitter with all this climbing.

Stairs to access Hancock Gorge

Jim wading through and what he found on the other side

Knox Gorge Lookout

We had lunch with us, and after partaking we headed on to the next gorge, Knox Gorge.  Again this was quite spectacular, but another high difficulty rating, so gave it a miss, thinking we might try Joffre Gorge, our last one for the day.  We went to the lookout first, and we could see the track markers on the other side.  A good look at these made us decided it was probably something better to have been done about 30 years ago and we would stick with the view from the top.

Joffre Gorge Lookout.  The marks defining the path can be just seen on the rocks on the left

It was still early afternoon, so this still gave us time to get back to the camp and have another swim in Fern Pool.

I had originally paid for four nights, but by Sunday night we decided we had really covered all we needed to and it was probably better to cut our losses and leave a day early.  The next destination was the town of Tom Price where we sat through our video to gain our permit to drive on the Rio Tinto Access Road.  This is over 200 k's of dirt road, so we hope we don't regret the decision, but it will save us 200 - 300 extra kilometres.

After some supermarket shopping we unhitched the van at the bottom of Mt. Nameless and took the 4wd road to the top.  Some fantastic 360 degrees views are to be had up there.

Views of the mine and works from Mount Nameless Lookout

View of Tom Price township

We drove out ten kilometres to a roadside rest area for the night, being up and gone early for our 8.30 am mine tour.  The bus driver was excellent and we learnt so much about the miming and processing of the iron ore.  

Some of the huge processing area

The iron ore falling here has come 20 kilometres via conveyor belt from one of the newer mines.  The conveyor system cost 1 billion dollars.

Once back from the tour, we refilled the water tanks and headed out with some trepidation on the private mine railway access road that we got the permit for the day before.  Much to our surprise, the road was in very good condition and traffic was minimal.  We passed 4 or 5 of the 2.5 kilometre trains that run next to the road.  We waved as we went past, and every driver gave us a big toot back.  We had heard that morning that the trip takes them 5.5 hours, so I guess they get pretty bored.  

We had trouble finding somewhere to pull over to stop for lunch, but finally found a flat area we could get off the road.  As I walked to the van, I could hear water running.  We had had a few drops of rain, but not enough for that amount of water.   I soon discovered our water tanks running onto the ground.  It didn't take Jim long to discover that the rocks hammering underneath had sheared off the release tap from the tanks.  A makeshift plug saved the little that was left.  We opted what to do but decided to continue with our original plan of stopping at Millstream Chichester National Park, which was only around 30 kilometres away.  

We weren't too sure how worthwhile the stop was going to be, so were quite surprised to find it was a very pleasant place to stop.  The original homestead is now the visitor centre and there was a delightful walk around what used to be the extensive gardens where many date palms had been planted in 1914.  

The beautiful old homestead, now the visitor's centre

Massive old wood stove in the shearer's quarters

This plant was nearly a metre under the water and such a vivid colour

Sturts Desert Pea scattered around the homestead

One of the other interesting things about the park is that it has a massive aquifer that supplies the towns of Karratha and Dampier.  So one thing there wasn't a shortage of was water, which was a good thing for us.