2012 Around Australia: June 2012

Day 132 Sunday 24^th June 2012.

Relaxing day today. I cannot get a spare wheel / tyre till Monday so Vania and I have decided to do the “sights” in Port Headland and maybe take in a “movie”.

Our campsite was approximately 60k’s south of Port Headland. For those that are not aware this part of Oz is very much the hub of the Iron Ore export. Iron Ore is trained / trucked into Port Headland and then loaded into HUGE ships which take them all over the world. There are at least 11 loading berths where these HUGE ships are loaded with iron ore. The turnaround time on each ship is 36 hours. There is always around 30-40 ships anchored out waiting to come into Port and load. This may give you some idea of how much iron ore Oz is exporting.

Port Headland itself is purely a “mining” town. The commercial area is actually in South Headland. When I asked a lady in the South Headland shopping centre where the picture theatre was I was laughed at. Picture theatre does not exist in this part of the world, however occasionally they do have movies at the Civic Centre.

If a person is young and energetic and willing to work and not blow the salary on “grog” this would be a great spot to save for the future. Note however that housing and rental are extremely expensive. The caravan parks are always occupied with workers who have permanent sites. I hate to think what will happen if the iron ore export trade diminishes. Lot of people will be looking for other employment and towns like Karratha, Newman, Tom Price and Paraburdoo could become “ghost towns”

In the evening we joined about 12 others around a campfire, had the compulsory drink (or two), chatted and solved the problems of the world. Great to listen to peoples stories. The folks that travel along this way are absolutely fantastic. I had a great conversation with a “prospector” who was currently at Marble Bar (hottest (supposedly) spot in Oz).

Till next time, take care from Vania and Oscar.

Panorama shot on the "De Grey River"

The locomotaive trains that pull up to 350 carriages are absolutely huge. This was in Port Headland.

This truck has seen much better days.

Made out of solid iron cast in Port Headland. Very clever.

Rio Tinto also produce salt at Port Headland.

This was the control tower for the Port Headland authority. They monitor and manage the port with all the huge ships carrying iron ore all over the world.

his bee was totally engrosed in collecting the pollen.

Arty Farty flowers.

And another arty farty.

Day 133 Monday 25^th June 2012.

Up with the “sparrows” and headed into Port Headland to firstly get a spare wheel / tyre for the caravan. When I rang a tyre place last Saturday I was fairly confident that this exercise should be fairly straight forward. NO. Firstly there is no way you would get a “matching” mag wheel (unless you wanted to wait about 2-3 weeks). Then there is an issue of getting a wheel to fit the caravan. What stud pattern does it have, does it have 5 or 6 studs. Is it a Holden or Ford pattern? What width is the rim, etc…… I reckon I clocked up about 100k’s running backwards and forwards to firstly get a white steel rim that fitted the caravan and then back to another place to get the tyre. Very, very stressful. Although we got the “blow out” on a dirt road you don’t want to be driving even on bitumen without a spare. Word of serious advice to anybody considering coming up here and travelling around or working. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE 2 SPARES FOR THE CAR AND CARAVAN, SERIOUSLY. Also try and make sure that the wheels / tyres between the car and caravan are exchangeable.

OK, that was my preaching for today. After all this ”mucking” around, Vania and I checked into the Cooke Point caravan park where I had made a booking on Saturday. Caravan parks are a blessing after about 2-3 weeks of “free” camping. Provides an opportunity to catch up on “domestics” (ie laundry, maintenance, lovely spacious and longish showers, clean toilet canister, etc….) I spent all of the afternoon fixing the issues caused by the “blowout” as well as general maintenance. On rough dirt roads it is absolutely amazing how bolts, screws, etc… all become loose. On one of the stabiliser legs there are 4 “bolts” holding it to the chassis. Only one of these was half tight and the other 3 were just about to fall out. If this had happened then NO stabiliser leg. However, this is all part of the package, which I am slowly starting to understand and realise

This Brahma bull was HUGE,

Panaroma photo of the bridge over "De Grey River".

Reflections.

Ripples and sunsets.

Sunset with a large "kite" hovering.

Our home. Beautiful campsite near the river.

Visitors. They go to the river in the morning and then simply graze all the way through the campsite. Really nice but you have to watch the cow sh*t!

Railway bridge crossing over "De Grey River". I wasn't meant to be up here, however every man and his dog do as this is the only spot in the campground where you can get communication reception.

Day 134 Tuesday 26^th June 2012.

We had booked for 2 nights at the caravan park, however since we had completed our domestics we decided to head further north. I did not feel like driving too far and we decided to head to “De Grey” river campsite that some people had told us about. I felt like I needed time to get my breath from the stress and it was time to smell the roses.

We arrived around 10.30AM, found a lovely spot on the edge of the river and nestled into a quiet day. This spot is meant to be a 24hour stop over but there are people here that have been here for 2-3 weeks. Lovely spot. Trees provide shade and there is “fresh” water if required. Vania and I topped up with 200 litres of water at the caravan park and we will now have enough till we get to Broome.

The thing that intrigues me about this place is firstly the number of “grey nomads” in this campsite, at least 100 caravans scattered throughout and secondly the “Brahman” cows / bulls that freely feed through the campsite. Lots of cow “sh*t” to avoid but a really peaceful place to simply relax and watch the world go round. This is what life is really about. Possessions are all good and fine but the peace and tranquillity of places like this are memories for life.

Sorry about getting on my “soap box”. It is time you folks in “blog land” REQUESTED Vania to start writing the blogs. Till next time, take care, Vania and Oscar.

Are you looking at me?

This guy is HUGE. He also has the stare to go with it.

Young boy "pondering".

Reflections at sunset.

The color of the trees at sunset.

Life dosen't get much better than this. This chap has been at this site for nearly 3 weeks and has NOT caught a thing. He still enjoys it. Doesn't that say something!

The colours and reflections on the river at sunset.

Day 135 Wednesday 27^th June 2012.

Lazy Wednesday. Vania and I simply recharged our “batteries”. Fantastic spot to do it in. Throughout this peaceful, shady campsite you have Brahman cattle meandering throughout. They come and drink early in the morning and then browse on grass and shrubs in the campsite. I even had a young “bull” pick up my electric cable before I “shooed” him off.

Vania found a lovely spot on a “little” island where we could simply sit, read and relax. I took one of our camp chairs and Vania pitched herself on the sandy shoreline. It really is beautiful and the birdlife (feathered variety) is good as well. Kites / Hawks / Falcons majestically soaring above in the thermals. They look so grand soaring around in circles and then smoothly changing to the opposite direction.

Afternoon was spent listening to peaceful “stuff” on the CD. I lay down and meditated, however Vania said that I did more snoring than meditating. We also had a game of scrabble later on.

A lot of locals (Western Australians) come to these places and they camp here for an extended period. Very, very cheap way of having a holiday. Very peaceful at the same time.

We are packing up our little “snail shell home” tomorrow and venturing further north. There is a place further north called “barn Hill” that lots of people have mentioned along the way. It is meant to be very good for “bowling”. Yippee! Hopefully I can still remember which side the little ring goes on.

Catch you soon. Take care from Vania and Oscar.

This was a "short" train. It onmly had 196 carriages. The longer trains usually have about 220 at the front, then 2 more locomotive engines in the middle and another 250-270 trailers following. They can be up to 3.4k's long. It takes ages at a railway crossing to let them pass.

Another huge catch in my net. Don't laugh Lester! I did throw them back into the river and they were both OK.

Another visitor to our campsite. This "small" bull had been in a few fights. Note scars around neck and bottom of stomach.

Those guys on top of the bridge were fishing. Bloody long way to pull a fish up if you catch one.

"Hello Cocky" (oops corrella??

Arty Farty flower.

One of the many different varieties of water birds at the river.

Smile! Note h

Day 136 Thursday 28^th June 2012.

Up and early out of our beautiful spot on the De Grey River. Upon quick reflection this is one of my favourite “free” campsites. Tranquil, peaceful, picturesque who could ask for more.

We had made some sort of a plan, if that is possible, to get to another free campsite about 280-300K’ outside of Broome. We had been making good time and Vania wanted to see another campsite on the eighty mile beach that we had heard about. There was about 6-7K’s of dirt road to get to the campsite. After the “blowout” on the caravan I’m a bit nervous about dirt roads (suppose I always have been after our episode on the road to Dalhousie Springs), however bit the bullet and everything was OK. We got to the beach when it was low tide. The tides in this part of the world can rise / fall between 5-6 metres. The water was a long, long way out. The water was every shade of blue you could possibly think of. Beautiful and fantastic. Vania has ticked this of her “been there” list but is threatening to come back again and stay for an extended period. There is a LOT of sense in doing extended stays. There are so many beautiful great spots in this fantastic country.

We decided that since we were travelling well and time was on our side that we would go past the original free camp spot we choose and go to a caravan park (loosely termed) at Barn Hill. People had told us that there is good fishin and they also have a lawn bowls rink. For those members in Glen Waverley bowls club this rink looks like it doesn’t matter which way you put down your bias the bowl will not get close to the jack anyway. Will have a game tomorrow and publish some photos. They have tournament on Tuesday’s but we will not be here then.

Once again our campsite looks out directly onto the ocean. At the current tide we are only 50-60 metres away from the water. We have set up caravan to optimise the best view. By the way, I don’t really want to rub it in but it got to 29 degrees celecius today. How’s the weather in Melbourne?

We will probably stay here for 3 nights and then into Broome which is only a short drive (about 120K’s) from here. We are very fortunate in that Vania has a friend in Broome who can put up our caravan. We will probably stay 4-5 nights in Broome and then move on. I believe the caravan parks have been booked out plus the WA school holidays start on the 7^th July. Very, very busy period up here.

I have some communication reception here so I will try and publish later tonight. Till next time take care, Vania and Oscar.

This was at low tide at Eighty Mile beach. Goes out a long way and the length of the beach is HUGE.

The sand was almost like sculputures clay. Lots of interesting varieties of shells.

War memorial at Eighty Mile Beach caravan park. Note the many different variety of shells.

Looks like a pea but 5 times as large. Somebody said you can eat them. I gave that a miss, thank you.

Vania wanted to know what these 2 little crabs were up to. Hmmm!

Males are so much more attractive than females!

Another "arty farty".

Day 130 Friday 22^nd June 2012.

Good campsite last night, however being close to the highway the noise of the road trains could be heard, especially early in the morning.

Whenever WDU564 and the caravan are hitched up overnight it is only 8-10 minutes before we are on the road. We were the third “nomads” out this morning and on the highway by 8.00AM.

We were heading towards Millstream Chichester NP and along the way we had heard a lot about the “pub” at Whim Creek. We arrived there about 8.45AM and the place was like an abandoned building. It looked like it had been shut down only recently. We were of the opinion we could buy diesel here as well. So the contingence plan (ha, ha, ha) kicked in. We decided to go past the turn of to the NP and drive further south to Roebourne and Karratha and have a look late morning / early afternoon before driving back to the turn off to NP. Roebourne is mostly aboriginal settlement and the only things that may attract are the historical goal museum. Vania noted that for a relatively small town they had 6 police cars. I’ll let all of you work that one out yourselves. We simply drove thru Roebourne. Karratha is a fairly significant town that has basically grown from the mining “boom” starting in the 1960’s. There appears to be a fair bit of development happening here. First time for a long time we saw multi story buildings being erected.

After lunch we headed back to Millstream Chichester NP. We were going to camp in a free campground called Snake Creek campground. According to the books we have access was going to be about 60k’s on a dirt road. If you haven’t worked things out yet I don’t like dirt roads especially when they are heavily corrugated. Well, rot my socks off, this dirt road was good. WDU564 and the caravan were extremely happy. Very dusty but NO corrugations.

We drove the distance the book suggested and no Snake Creek campsite. Drove an additional 20-25K and still no Snake Creek campsite. I did not want to drive into Millstream where there were 2-3 other campsites as there was no fuel there. I had a brainwave (occasionally I do think) and remembered we had the satellite phone. Quickly got it out and rang the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) who are responsible for NP’s in WA. Made contact only to be told that Snake Creek campsite no longer exists. Totally pissed off but being the gentleman I am, I said thank you and hung up abruptly. I intend to write to DEC and get them to at least put a sign up at the start of the dirt road saying that Snake Creek campsite is closed. At least we know the satellite phone works.

We did a U-Turn and pulled into at a large parking bay. We decided that this was going to be our home for the night and set up camp. We will do a 4k walk from here first thing in the morning, then drive to the Python Pool (main reason we came here) and then head back on track towards Port Headland. Will probably stop at the Herbert Parker campsite again on the Yule River before actually going into Port Headland. May stay in a Caravan Park in Port Headland for 2-3 days and catch up on some “domestics” (ie laundry, clean caravan, car wash, may have a haircut, check out why the generator sounds like it is going to take off, etc….

Till next time, take care, love Vania and Oscar.

Pelican having difficulty taking off after good feed of fish

Head down bum up. Plenty of fish in the Yule river

View into Millstream Chichester NP.

Vania and I added our own rock to this cairn on top of Mt. Chichester.

Vania's panorama shot.

This was actually a "good" dirt road.

Could not find "Snake Creek campsite" so this had to do. Great spot to ourselves but very windy during the early hours.

Day 131 Saturday 23^rd June 2012.

Today was a day that Vania and I would rather forget about. Yep, shit happens in paradise as well.

Day started off by strong winds in the morning which really scared Vania. Must admit when the canvas is flapping and the caravan sways / shakes because of the wind it is a bit frightening. This however was mild to what was to come. Stay tuned.

Vania did actually spot a sign to “Snake Creek Campsite”. This sign was well hidden and indicated the campsite was closed. We walked into Python Pool. Lovely spot but too windy and cool to have an early morning swim. After this we hit the gravel road (about 60k’s). At one stage I looked in the rear vision mirror and noticed that the caravan was tilting “badly” to one side. My first thoughts were that I had done a shocker on the van or it was simply the camber of the dirt road. Virtually at the same time that I noticed the lean on the caravan a car passed us. I noticed that this car quickly stopped and was doing a U turn. I immediately knew that something was drastically wrong. Pulled up the caravan just as the other car pulled up as well and noticed that the driver’s side wheel on the caravan had “blown”. I had been pulling the van only on the outer rim (check out photos), who knows for how long.

The two guys in the other car were cattle drovers on the station and they noticed the blown tyre and quickly turned around to notify and help us. These 2 guys were absolutely fantastic. After a few verbal exchanges these guys proceeded to pull out there jack, wheel brace and remove what was left of our wheel and tyre. One of these characters was so down to earth, friendly and helpful as you would ever want to meet. It was great to know that people like this still exist. It taught me yet another lesson on this trip (don’t judge people by their appearances).

Eventually I got the spare wheel on, gave the 2 guys a bit of liquid refreshments (not lemonade) and made our way a little bit more gingerly towards Port Headland. We still had about 30 k’s to go on dirt and I did not have a spare for the caravan. Not sure if the car spare fits onto the caravan or not.

We pulled into the same free campsite on the Yule River that we stayed in on Thursday night. Rang a few tyre places to see what could be done in getting a new wheel and tyre. Nothing can be done till Monday. Accommodation in the caravan park in Port Headland is non-existent but I managed to get in for Monday. Somewhere along the line we will have to have the caravan fixed as well as the blowout caused other damage as well (eg trim around wheel arch half ripped off, water pipes broken, stabilising leg had been knocked down and became warped and difficult to use, etc…)

On top of this I am having difficulties with the Waeco and auxiliary battery in the back of the car. However, I think I have worked out what is happening. Fundamentally, we appear to be drawing more charge than the charge going into the auxiliary. Although auxiliary is being charged, the Waeco, Caravan fridge (when being towed) plus phones are drawing more. Solution, charge auxiliary battery on AC every 2.5 weeks.

There were more incidents after this but they were minor and trivial. Upon reflection, I have decided that I have done as much as possible and now it is a matter of time and letting “things” happen in due course. There is no point worrying about it as I cannot do any more.

Tomorrow will no doubt be much better (I hope). Till then take care from Vania and Oscar.