We set out around 8am after a refreshing night’s sleep. It had been a very hot night, so we were thankful to have access to power and could have the air conditioning running the entire night.

Our destination for our 32nd night was the Wintersun Caravan Park in Carnarvon. It was an uneventful trip with just one toilet stop on the way at Barradale Rest Area.

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A tour of an iron ore mine has been on our list for some time now. Being stuck in Newman waiting for new tyres to be freighted up seemed like a perfect opportunity.

First, a look at two of the Haul Trucks on display in the town.

The superseded model:

The truck on display at the visitor’s centre was one of only 30 such trucks produced. BHP purchased 22 of the trucks for Newman’s Mt Whaleback mine in 1973 at a cost of $2.5million dollars each. Each truck could carry a weight of 200 tonnes, and when fully loaded the trucks weighed 75 tonnes more than the take-off weight of a 747 jumbo jet. In 1992 BHP sold one of the trucks to the visitor’s centre for the princely some of $1.00.

The newer model truck:

The second truck on display in the town is located near the south bound exit to the Great Northern Highway.

Currently there are 40 – 50 of these 240 tonne trucks in the mine’s fleet. The left hand drive monsters are produced in Ameria. They have 6 forward gears, reverse, and of course, power steering.

The air conditioned cabs are fitted with a 2 way radio, dust suppression kits, and a CD player. There’s also a monitor fitted that views the drivers face looking for signs of fatigue. This is linked back to an office in Perth, approximately 1200 kilometres away.

Length – 13.2 metres

Width – 7.4 metres

Goodness me, if it ran over me and I was in the right place underneath, all I’d have to do is duck and it’d miss me altogether.

About the tyres:

Tyre weight – 3.6 tonne each

Tyre diamètre – 3.5 metres

Tyre weight with the rim inserted – 5 tonnes

Expected life-span – 100,000kms (average 1 year)

The on-site tyre store can hold $2million worth of tyres

The mine tours are run from the visitor’s centre. There’s clothing requirements for anyone going onto the premises, and we all had to wear long pants, a long sleeved shirt, and closed in shoes. The visitor’s centre then supplied us with the other compulsory items, the hard hat, hi-viz vest, and safety goggles.

Most of the tour comprised of being driven around the various areas in an air conditioned bus. Our tour guide, Michelle, pointed out the various working areas, provided statistics, and generally gave us a good insight into the workings of the mine. There were a lot of statistics, far to many to remember. Fortunately, Michelle gave us a print out at the tour’s conclusion.

Pit statistics

Mt Whaleback was originally 805 metres above sea level. They are currently mining down to 135 metres.

Each step on the sides of the pit are called benches, each bench is 12 – 15 metres high.

The water table starts on bench 18, they are currently mining on bench 30.

They pump 46 million litres of water out of the pit each week. The water is used in the water trucks used to keep the dust under control, and used to assist with other production processes.

The trains

Once the ore is mined, it goes through a number or processes before being loaded onto trains and transported to the Port (Port Hedland) for shipping overseas.

The average length of each train is 2.7kms.

Each train consists of 4 locomotives, 268 Ore cars, and only one driver. Two locos are at the front of the train, the other two are in the middle. The driver in the front loco operates the other three locos remotely.

Each car holds approximately 130 – 138 tonnes of ore.

Loaded trains pull a payload of approximately 33,000 tonnes.

When fully loaded the trains can reach up to 65kms per hour, with a braking distance of 3kms.

The conclusion of the tour

The tour lasts around 1 1/2 hours. We learnt much more than I have included here, but if you want to know more, I’d recommend doing a similar tour. It was extremely interesting, and definitely not just ‘a man’s tour’.

The tour concluded with coffee, scones and jam back at the visitor’s centre (included in the price of the tour).

But that’s not all

The following day our tyres arrived and were fitted by 10.30am, enabling us to get on our way again by 11am. We were heading south towards Cue when an oncoming support vehicle for a massively oversized vehicle approached us driving down the our side of the road. The driver of the support vehicle was a few kilometres in front of the oversized loads he was escorting, so we knew it was going to be a big one.

Next came a second support vehicle with all lights flashing immediately in front of, not one, but two trucks, each loaded with a massive piece of machinery on it’s back. Clearly we hadn’t seen the last of the mining machinery, as these two massive babies would have undoubtedly been on route to one of the mines. They took up the full road, so all traffic travelling south had to pull right off the road to allow them to pass, easy enough for us. Not so easy for any road trains though, and there were two in front of us. 

A third support vehicle followed behind, also travelling down the wrong side of the road to prevent any following vehicles from attempting to overtake.

A lot of tourists won’t use the Great Northern Highway because it’s well used by big trucks and road trains. For those of you unfamiliar with road trains, they’re a big road truck pulling 3 or 4 carriages behind them. They’re long, and can get a bit of sway on the carriages, but the drivers are pretty good at controlling them. We always give them space when they’re passing, and we find by conversing with the drivers on our two way, they’re always really considerate.

Because the Great Northern Highway is used by such heavy vehicles, and often has oversized mining equipment being transported along it, it’s kept in tip top shape. Even though a lot of the traffic is big and heavy, there’s still a lot less traffic than on the coastal highway. We personally prefer this route when travelling up and down Western Australia. Mind you, we’ve never been stuck behind any convoys such as we saw today for any length of time. For us, the reduced traffic, the considerate truck drivers, and the prime condition of the road has always made travelling this route a pleasure!

 

 

We first visited Karijini National Park in WA’s Pilbara approximately 15 years ago. We’ve been promising ourselves a return visit ever since. This year we made good on that promise.

We left De Grey River early on Saturday morning, and arrived at Dales camp ground in Karijini around lunch time. As I remember it, last time we were there, all camp sites were booked directly at the visitors centre within the park, and you chose your own site. Now, you drive directly to your chosen camp ground (there’s two within the park), and you pay the camp host, who allocates you a site. We were allocated a lovely big site with lots of open space around us.

Karijini is full of the most beautiful gorges. Some are reasonably easy to access, and some aren’t so easy. At the time we booked in, the two park ranges were assisting the victim of a fall down one of the gorges as they waited for SES and an ambulance to arrive. Apparently, it’s the fourth serious fall within the past four weeks.

On our last visit we trekked down several of the gorges, most of which Paul found relatively easy at the time. I struggled. Fifteen or so years further on, and it certainly hasn’t become any easier. Most of the gorges that we did on our last visit, I wouldn’t even attempt this time round.

We did return to Fern Pool. We remembered it as being one of the easy ones to get to previously, and it’s even easier now. Metal steps now lead the way (around 240 of them I believe) make it considerably easier, even though a reasonable level of fitness is still necessary. It’s as beautiful as we remembered it, with an abundance of maiden hair fern, and a tranquil waterfall dropping into the inviting swimming hole.

Having done most of the other gorges before, and understanding how difficult they were, we chose to by-pass them this time around. Instead we decided to do the 200 km round trip out to Hammersley Gorge, one we missed out on during our first trip.

The trip was on dirt roads, but they weren’t too badly corrugated. When we arrived the view from the top of the gorge showed some stunning, wavy rock patterns with some gorgeous colours. The walk down into the main part of the gorge was relatively easy as promised. However, we crossed paths with a family returning to the top with their son of around 10 hoisted over his fathers shoulder, and a towel wrapped around a gaping wound in his leg from a fall. Apparently, they were heading straight to Tom Price (the nearest town), to get his leg stitched up. I hope it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

The gorge was beautiful, and different from the other gorges we’d seen in the park. However, I found the main water hole at the base to be a little uninviting compared to Fern Pool. Paul managed to get in, entering via some quite slippery rocks. I chose to give it a miss.

We walked up as far as we could safely, and in the distance we spied what looked to be a much more inviting swimming hole. However, to get to it would have required crossing a small stream that looked quite slimy, and then scrambling up a steep incline. Getting up there may have been easy enough, but then we would have had to return. It looked to steep for me to be able to safely manage it, so we gave it a miss. I will usually give most things a go if it looks like I could possibly manage by taking it slowly. I’m sure this would have been one of those times. But having heard about the other four falls, and having witnessed the boy being carried out – it just knocked the adventure right out of me that day.

The gorgeous rock formations at Hammersley gorge. I only wish we already had the new camera we’re planning to invest in. Our current little Lumix isn’t really up to the job.

The landscape in Karijini is arid, but beautiful. It’s dry, and it’s hot. When you manage to clamber down into the stunning gorges, the water holes provide a welcome, cooling dip. I was cruelly reminded that accessing the gorges requires a good level of fitness and agility. Whilst my fitness isn’t too bad, my agility leaves a lot to be desired. I wished, and not for the first time, that I’d had the good sense to start travelling around this beautiful country 30 odd years ago. But as my mum often said, ‘if wishes were horses, beggars would ride’. Now I am travelling, but sadly, there’s so many experiences I have to miss out on because I left my travels too late.

After leaving Hammersley Gorge we decided we’d stop off at Mount Bruce, the second highest peak in WA. Apparently there’s a viewing platform there that looks out over one of the iron ore mines, and it’s supposed to offer a pretty good view. The track up to the viewing platform was much rougher than the road out to the gorge. We’d only travelled a couple of kilometres when we blew a rear tyre. With our only spare fitted, we decided we’d better by-pass any more unnecessary travel in the park, so we did an about turn and headed back to camp.

Yesterday we left Karijini and headed for Newman (a Pilbara mining town) so as to arrange for our spare to be fixed. I must admit it was a bit daunting to travel more than a 200 kms with a 3000+kg van on the back of our ute, and with no spare tyre. Anyway we arrived without mishap, but there’s no tyres of the same size as ours in the town. So, we’re stuck here in Newman for a few days while we wait for our replacement tyres to arrive. They should be here tomorrow, so we’ll have the best of the older tyres moved to the rear and the spare, and we’ll have the two new ones put to the front.

While we’re here we’re catching up on some mining tours and sightseeing that we’ve been promising ourselves for some time. So, whilst we’re stuck here, there’s things to do, places to visit, things to see. So, fear not – we’re not suffering.

 

 

 

On our second day at Dampier we took a day trip to Point Sampson, for research. And what are we researching I hear you ask? Dog friendly caravan parks! Paul and I have decided after almost a 1/4 of century of being dog free that it’s time to add a four legged companion to our household. We’re both extremely fond of cats, but cats aren’t as practical as caravan travelling companions, nor will they take kindly to the occasional few nights being pet sat at Alice and Paul’s when the need arises, and I’m sure there will be an occasional need. We have our name on a waiting list for a miniature Labrodoodle. It’s almost a nine month wait, a bit like waiting through a pregnancy, and almost as exciting.

We’re spending much of this trip researching pet friendly accommodation in the North West, and yes, having a pet is going to restrict both where we can stay, and where we can go for day trips. So far we’ve found between Perth (but not Perth itself) and Carnarvon will be a breeze. The Winter Sun in Carnarvon will be perfect for a week or two for sure.

There’s plenty of overnight free stops that are good enough for a night or two between major destinations. We just need to determine the best places to put on our list for longer stays of a week or two. We’ve worked out Point Sampson looks to be the nicest of the pet friendly parks in the Pilbarra. There’s nice beaches there for playing with a dog on, good for a paddle or a swim too, and certainly good for fishing. So, Point Sampson will most likely be our 2nd major place to stop after Carnarvon on next years trip. While at Point Samson we called at Tata’s restaurant for a light lunch – good service, a pleasant lunch, and interesting decor, and so, so clean.

Meanwhile back at the caravan park in Dampier the corollas were waiting for Paul to return. We’d no sooner returned to camp and sat outside with a drink when one came visiting.That’s what you get when you give them a nut or two, they remember for the next night. Several watched from the trees while the first one came in to test the waters. Yep! once it was established that Paul was indeed a ‘soft touch’ for the second night, the whole family/flock quickly descended upon us. I’m not sure if some had found water to have a good bath in, or if some had just taken a dust bath.

Next stop,  Pardoo Station which gets great reviews for being pet friendly. As it turns out it wasn’t a good week-end to try it. Being a long week-end in WA, every man and his dog from Port Headland, only about 100 kms away, had decided to have a fishing week-end at Pardoo. It was jam packed. We were lucky to get a site, many that arrived later in the day weren’t so lucky and were turned away.

The station was in the middle of mustering, bringing the cows into pens directly opposite our caravan for re-tagging. Being confined to small holding pens after roaming free on the station didn’t make for happy cows. They bellowed their discontent well into the night. The wind was up, in fact, it was blowing a gale, carrying the noise, along with the smell of a couple of hundred penned cows directly towards the campers – but one has to expect that as a possibility when camping on a cattle station. Obviously the cows needs must come before the needs of the campers, and rightly so.

We drove down to the beaches to check out fishing spots. The tide was out, so what we saw I’m sure didn’t do justice to what the spots would look like at high tide. Perhaps, we’ll give it a second look one day, but for now from our first impressions, and despite the glorious sunset on our last night, it hasn’t made next years list.

Tonight we’re camped in a free roadside camp at Stanley, approximately 200 kms from Broome. It’s a great overnighter with heaps of space and plenty of level areas for parking on. There’s lots of tables under shelters, and the toilets are in reasonable condition. A good, clean freebie before we head into Broome tomorrow is most welcome. After tonight, we’ll be paying Broome’s ‘high season’ prices of more than $50 a night. The caravan parks  fill up despite the high prices, so the cost is just a reflection on how much people love Broome – including us. Can’t wait…..

Finally an opportunity to visit Millstream/Chichester National park. Despite good intentions to visit this national park several times, something has always managed to come up that’s thwarted our planned visits. This time we made it, albeit only a day visit.

The drive from Dampier where we were camped was over 130km each way, much of which was on corrugated dirt roads. It would be an understatement to say the scenery on the way there was gobsmacking – the colours glorious. Words can’t describe the awesomeness of the wide open spaces, the deep red of the earth and rocks, the stunning flowers growing out of the seemingly barren earth….

Hopefully the photos will tell a better story than words ever could. This is what we saw:

So, that was our day at Millstream/Chicester. The drive to the park with the promise of better things to come had us enthralled – then we came to Python Pool. I’m not sure if the pool is actually in the park, we found the pool before we found the entrance to the park. It’s amongst the best of any natural fresh water pools we’ve ever been in, those rocks towering above you when you look up – words, nor pictures can do that justice. It was awesome.

After our refreshing swim, we journeyed on with eager anticipation to the actual park. And from there on we were a bit disappointed. All the best scenery seemed to be on the approach to the park and at Python Pool, and in comparison the actual park was relatively flat and uninteresting. Are we pleased we went though – absolutely, I would go again. The 260 km round trip to Python Pool was worth every kilometre of the bone shaking drive. To float in clear, clean water looking up to the top of the rich rocks, and the contrast of the vivid blue sky above – an absolute pleasure!

We’ve recently finished five nights at Kurrajong campsite in Cape Range National Park. There’s several campsites in the national park, all not that far as the crow flies from Coral Bay. However, not having the benefit of wings, the trip to get there from Coral Bay takes considerably longer for mere mortals than it does for the crows. Accessing the campsites means a road trip up the east coast of the Exmouth peninsula, through Exmouth, around the cape, and then down the west coast of the peninsula to reach the campgrounds.

The arid landscape means there’s no fresh water there, and the campgrounds have no electricity. There’s no phone or internet cover, and no TV reception. Our solar panels ensured sufficient power for our needs, and by being economical with our water we survived the five days using only our 180 litre tank, plus 4 additional 15 litre jerry cans. In fact we had water to spare, and so treated ourselves to a really good shower on the last day. TV, wasn’t missed at all, but the internet….. I think I had withdrawal symptoms. I think I’m addicted!

It was good to see one person had managed without the benefit of being able to use their mobile phone. We found a message written in the sand at one of the bays – clearly the meeting place had changed to Turquoise Bay.

Being just up the coast from Coral Bay, Ningaloo reef is just offshore, so water based activities are high on most peoples agenda. Despite several fishing attempts, Paul only managed to bring in one Dart, which was one more fish than I managed to hook. Other people, however were bringing in some beauties. One of our fellow campers reeled in a Golden Trevally that fed two for four meals. Another caught a 60cm Spangled Emperor one night, and another of similar size in the middle of the afternoon the next day. The fish were there, just not for us.

Paul did a bit of snorkelling at Turquoise Bay, but somehow I couldn’t seem to get in the mood. Perhaps it was the wind that blew each and every day while we there, or perhaps it was those internet withdrawal symptoms….. Eventually, I started to feel sorry for poor Paul, out there looking at the pretty fish and coral with no-one beside him to share the experience. I donned my mask and headed out there to join him, only to discover as soon as I took my first underwater breath that the seal had disappeared from the end of my snorkel. Coughing and spluttering I returned to my towel on the shore and left poor Paul to it.

There’s plenty of walks in the park, and had the wind not being blowing incessantly perhaps we may have tackled a few more of them. We did one short walk at Yardie Creek. Yardie Creek is at the southern end of the park and signals the end of the accessible area on the north western side of the peninsula. The red shoreline provides a striking contrast between the deep blue waters of the creek and sky above. The photo below hasn’t been enhanced at all, so the colours you’re seeing are just as they were to our naked eye.

The winds usually blow all along the WA coast from around September until around Easter, and then they drop. This year they seem to be continuing on much longer than usual. On one of the days the wind was almost gale force, and blew for the entire day. Most other days it either blew up strong during the night, continuing into mid morning, or it blew up in the mid afternoon. So, sorry folks – we didn’t get to experience the park as much as we could have, and don’t have the amazing photos that I’m sure were there just waiting for us to snap. Perhaps next time…

 

 

As promised, a few shots of the coral accessible just twenty metres or so out from shore at Coral Bay.

The water’s had a bit of chop on for most of the week, but yesterday it was a bit calmer so we took the opportunity to photograph some of the coral. We’ve seen fish in far greater numbers on other occasions when we’ve snorkelled the reef. Isn’t that just Murphy’s law though, the day you take your camera, they all become camera shy and go into hiding.

A short walk from the main beach around to the start of Paradise beach, don your snorkelling gear and swim out a mere 20 metres,  (actually you can walk most of it). Then drift slowly back with the current…

Twenty minutes or so later we were back at the main beach. Time for a  welcome drink of iced water, an apple and then a good read relaxing in the shade of our beach shelter on our beach chairs – talk about living the Life of Riley – what a pleasure.

 

Book a week at Coral Bay and I can almost guarantee your first impressions will be, ‘what on earth am I going to do for a whole week.’ It won’t take you long to realise how wrong you are. For such a tiny town there’s a heap of adventures to be had.

Our first major trip here was twelve years ago when we rented a house for a week and came up here with eight friends and relatives.

The trip was to celebrate Paul and I reaching the mid century mark, and to commemorate the occasion we decided we’d like to swim with the Whale Sharks. What an experience that was – AMAZING!

There’s so many experiences to be had. As I mentioned there’s boat tours from here that take you out past the reef to swim with the Whale Sharks. If you enjoy snorkelling – this is definitely a ‘bucket list’ experience not to be missed. They visit Ningaloo from around April to June to feed on the coral, so plan your trip here at the right time of year to coincide.

There’s also boat trips that take you out to swim with the Manta Rays – gentle giants not to be confused with Sting-rays. This is still on our bucket list, but we’re undecided if we’ll do it on this trip, and whether we’ll do it from Coral Bay, or a little further up the peninsula from Exmouth.

There’s quad bike tours that take you out adventuring through the countryside and to surrounding bays where you’ll see turtles swimming.

There’s deep sea fishing charters. We’ve seen people coming back with some fish worthy of a photograph or two for their albums, not to mention several tasty meals from each fish.

There’s canoe coral snorkelling trips too. On our 50th birthday trip here we went on one of the canoe tours courtesy of our daughter. It was something we would never have looked at doing ordinarily, but I’m so pleased we did it. The coral we saw was awesome. I’d suggest another bucket list adventure for any snorkelers – it won’t disappoint.

And for the Littlies (and the not so little) there’s afternoon fish feeding of the North West snapper that live a protected life, in the protected bay. The crowd gathers in the shallows at 3.30pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, standing with legs apart. Small portions of fish food is distributed to the visitors to drop for the fish. Squeals of delight abound as the 50cm long Spangled Emperor dart in and out of legs with the sun bouncing off their iridescent blue scales. What a delight!

We were here at this same time of year in 2005 as we’re here this time. However, last time it was considerably warmer. This time the breezes are a bit stronger, and any breeze seems to drop the water temperature several degrees. My memories from twelve years ago are that we were all in the water virtually from sun up till sun set. With the breezes up this year, we are getting in most days, but it’s not ‘bath warm’ as it was then, so an hour at a time seems to be the longest we can manage.

As the main bay is a sanctuary zone, there’s plenty of tropical  fish swimming in the shallows just a metre or two off shore that will keep you spell bound for as long as you can stay in the water. There’s still remnants of the coral that used to abound in the bay, but unfortunately most of it has been eroded in this section now. Sadly things like coral reefs and tourists don’t co-exist very well without sanctions, and, in this case, the sanctions came a little too late to preserve the reef in it’s entirety. I’m pleased that the sanctions did come though, and in time to still preserve enough of Ningaloo Reef for us still to enjoy.

Unlike the Great Barrier Reef where you have to visit on a big boat taking an hour or two to get you out to the reef, the Ningaloo Reef comes almost up to our shore. As I’ve said you can row out in a canoe taking less that half an hour to get to some amazing coral structures. However, you don’t even need a canoe. Apart from the small bits left in the main bay, a short walk around the point will bring you Paradise Beach.

Drop your towel at the point and walk about 100 metres south, don your snorkelling gear and swim out about 20 metres. Then drift back with the current – I’ve seen more fish and better coral on this 100 metre drift only 20 metres off shore than I saw on several snorkelling stops at the Great Barrier Reef. We haven’t as yet done the shore to Coral swim this trip as the breezes are creating a bit of water chop – but watch this space in few days time when hopefully we’ll have some awesome pictures of coral for you to see.