Day 43 - Sunday
The aim today was to leave Broome early (well early for us) and try to make Karratha. It is very hot in Broome now and we are looking forward to the temperature being in the 30’s instead of the 40’s. As always we left late (8.30am – I know Gerry very late!) so making the 850 odd kms before dark was going to be difficult. The drive was fairly boring. A few road houses (where they requested you wear a top for service – women included – not sure what people normally wear around here), lots of flat open land, lots of big bridges over dry river beds – it really must be something to see in the wet season – and lots of side roads to mining sites. We had left the Kimberley behind and were definitely now in the Pilbara. We bypassed Port Hedland but from what we saw it seemed very industrial. We made it to the Harding River Caravan Park which is just outside of Roeburn around 50km out of Karratha at dusk so we stopped there for the night. Caravan parks in WA are much pricier than other places. This one was definitely not ranking on the star chart but still charged us $50 (cash!).
Day 44 - Monday
It is still hot. The highway runs inland so there is no cool sea breeze, thank God for the air conditioner. We stopped at a road house that had the temperature as “very very hot”; last rain “can’t remember” and last snow “the ice age”. We had originally intended to go to Karratha for a night but because we didn’t make it the night before we just stopped in for some supplies, extra snorkelling gear and books. We rang a family friend but because it was a Monday he wasn’t around. We wanted to go to Exmouth but as it is still school holidays in WA we can’t get in until Wednesday so we decided to go to Onslow. It looked like a big town on the map but on arrival we weren’t sure why. We had to detour 80km off the highway to get there and another 80km to get back out and Andy was wondering why we had bothered but we got a site with a sea view and a sea breeze so it was very pleasant camping. Onslow is a little coastal town that has the dubious honour of being the most southern town bombed in WW2 albeit by only one plane. Andy thinks the pilot must have been drunk or lost.
Day 45 - Tuesday
Today we had a look around. There is a salt mine here which started in 2001. It has revived the town somewhat – housing prices are through the roof ($750,000 for not much) and the population is 818. The original town was around 25km away at the mouth of the Ashburton River but when it silted up in the 1920’s they moved the town to Beadle Bay which was deeper. Back then the main industries were tourism (State ships used to dock here), pearling (which died out after WW2) and transport of livestock (they had a huge wharf that had its own livestock race but this died out when trucks began to be used for transport). The town must have been prosperous or at least had grand plans because when they moved it they made the main street in the new town a double sided strip with a medium strip dividing it planted with trees. There aren’t many shops there now – supermarket, tourist information, pub (of course), petrol station, café and nursery – but I guess there is still potential. You can drive a bit out of town, past the salt mine wharf which is a conveyor belt and still drive your car on to the beach, a bit like Broome but not as much beach so you have to be careful of the tides. You also need to look out for turtle nesting season so as not to harm the turtles as they are protected. The highlight of the day was when Andy arrived back from yet another very long trip to the shower block and he had no facial hair left! Yippee!
Day 46 - Wednesday
Today we drove from Onslow to Exmouth. An uneventful drive so we decided to listen to a CD we had be lent called “The Trip Diaries” about a family of 5 who go on a driving holiday around Australia. It was very funny and had the kids in stitches for 2 hours. I think they could relate. We passed the Learmonth Naval Base which is unmanned – a skeleton crew of 4 maintain the site and squadrons come in for training at various times of the year. We picked up some fresh prawns and fish at the fish market (again we are in WA so not cheap!) and set up camp. Who ever photographed the pool on the website deserves an award for the largest wide angle camera lens ever as the pool is about a quarter of the size it looks on the website – still it is very cold so refreshing!
Day 47 - Thursday
It is the end of the season here so things are winding down. We had a look around town, checked out the supermarket and bakery (there’s not much else here) and had a great lunch at an organic café (the owner’s face when Andy asked for a Zero Coke was priceless!). We drove to a few of the beaches for a look and took in the view from the Light House (where we spotted a couple of Whales). We also drove past the Communications station which has really high towers and is 1 of 3 in the world that is used to communicate with submarines – any 2 have to be in operation at one time so the engineers get paid really well to be on hand just in case something goes wrong; cushy job til something goes wrong! We organised a few tours for the next couple of days, hung around the pool (Madi swam in the cold water nothing stops her) and watched an outdoor movie at the caravan park.
Day 48 - Friday
Not much happened today. Madi and I went to the pool. The boys were all a bit tired so they lay around in the van. We had a tour booked for 4.30pm to go Whale Watching but when we got on the bus they cancelled it because of the wind and the swell – end of the season and I don’t think they liked the idea of having a bunch of sea sick people to clean up after – so we have now transferred to another one for tomorrow night. We drove around town to find some food (we were supposed to have food on tour) and ran into the “friends from road”. They had just arrived and the kids were very excited but they aren’t staying where we are as our park has a strict no check in after 6pm – they are not very customer focused!
Day 49 - Saturday
Today we drove down to the National Park (another entrance fee – got to love WA) and went snorkelling at Turquoise Bay. The water is crystal clear, you step in and in about 4 metres it is deep and you are swimming over coral reefs with lots of fish and reef activity below you. Chris who hadn’t wanted to go (none of you are surprised by that are you?) said it was a “wonderful experience”. We could have stayed there forever but we had to get back for the tour. The tour was great. At the moment the largest population of Humpback Whales anywhere in the world is in the Exmouth gulf – I think around 750 – lots of mother’s and calves resting up and growing stronger before they head to Antarctica. On the tour the boat drives you around the gulf stopping frequently to watch the whales blow water, come up for air, flap their fins or their tales and while you are watching the crew feed you nibbles (which we told the kids was dinner). It was very civilised (except for the pushy Germans who had to move around a lot trying to get the best pictures or views) and we watched the sunset before we headed back to land. It is very hard to photograph the whales with an Iphone so don’t expect to see much in the photos it is more like pictures of the sea where a whale just was! When we got back the friends had rung to invite us to dinner and the kids decided they hadn’t really had enough so we went for Italian and shared a Pizza.
Day 50 – Sunday
Today we had to get up early for a bus pick up at 7.20am. Chrispie was none to happy but everyone else managed just fine. We went on a snorkelling tour to the Murion Islands which is a 90 minute trip out across open sea. The wind was up a bit so it was a very rolling trip and there were a few kids on board who didn’t cope too well. I am pleased to say that none of ours were sick. Bubba went green but held it together, Madi wisely accepted the homeopathic remedy provided by the boat before departure and felt squeamish but survived and Chris was just so cranky he refused to get sick! When we got to the islands we jumped into the swell and snorkelled above beautiful, colourful untouched coral reefs. The visibility was crystal clear and schools of fish swam in front of us, lots of different coloured fish, lots of different sizes of fish and even some turtles. It was great fun you just had to get used to the fact it was open sea so you were floating in the swell – thankfully we don’t have motion sickness. We snorkelled at another area – more of the same – and then when we got back into the boat the captain said he had spotted a large pod of dolphins and he was going to see if we could get close. That was the understatement of the month. They turned out to be False Killer Whales and there were at least a dozen that decided to perform a stage show for us. We drifted in the water for around half an hour and they swam beside us, jumped through the wake, and swam under the boat and jumped up the other side. They were very playful. You know you are seeing something extraordinary when the crew are all excited and running for their cameras and exclaiming over what they are seeing. Eventually the captain had to bring everyone back in to line and announce that if they had a working crew we might have lunch at some stage and after a while we did have a very nice lunch. We drove around the island to have another snorkel but the wind had come up even stronger and that side was unsheltered so we had a vote and decided to go back into the Gulf and spot some more whales in the calmer waters. The ride into the Gulf was very bumpy. If you had a seat you stayed in it or else you just held on as the swell was big and it threw us around a bit. Once we mad it into the gulf it was much better, very calm and I am glad we didn’t stay out longer and have to come back in when the wind picked up even more. In the gulf we spotted lots more whales. One mother and calf where so lazy that I even managed to catch them on the iphone! One guy was having a great time slapping his fin into the water and swimming around which was fun to watch. We saw a couple of sea snakes and a pod of around 6 dolphins so we were very happy. Once back on shore it took us a while to get our land legs back even when we went to bed it still felt like the caravan was rocking. The wind has picked up so maybe it is.
Tomorrow we are off to Coral Bay.
