About an hour in to the trip we stopped by the local cops from Bidyadanga Aboringinal Community doing RBT on the main highway, think that they were just missing the interaction....passed with full colours and then kept heading south.
Without a concrete plan on where we were going to spend the night we dropped in to 80 Mile Beach, a popular place in the season but little too quiet for what we were looking for. It is renown turtle breeding beach but we had missed the hatching for the season.
Next spot Cape Keraudren, council run nature reserve right in the coast, popular with the tourists and fishermen alike. A great location and we spent the next few hours exploring. Down by the creek we spotted a large bull sitting in the mud. Initial thoughts were that he was stuck in the mud....
On further inspection he was not stuck, may be the mud was just cool and helping with the swelling.....you be the judge.
After managing to get Trev dry bogged momentarily we decided not to stay the night but not before having a little fish in the creek, no success but based on the number of sandflies it was probably a good call not to stay.
Heading straight for Port Headland and the caravan park at Cook Point, whilst initially the bloke there was not happy at the lateness but was soon put back in his place by the wife. Had a good night and met some of the locals that work on the tugs in the port. Sounds like a good gig.....
In the morning we had a good look around the port, shame the tide was out, would have been interesting to see them bring in those big vessels in to the small port. Was interesting to travel around town and have a look at all the loading facilities etc and everything was a great shade of brown. What was interesting was the cost of real estate, basic houses were selling for up to $2 mil and standard 3 bedroom houses were renting for $2000/week, should have bought here instead.
After a good look around we headed towards Karratha and Dampier with a plan to stay in or around the area. On the way we stopped of at Whim Creek Hotel and the site of an old copper mine. This pub was flattened by a cyclone in 1999. Karratha and Dampier was the same as Port Headland, the gas plant and mines are going nuts, and seem to be the place to own a big boat....must be work and fishing...sounds like a good place except its in the middle of nowhere.
Salt mine in Karratha
From here we decided that we should push on to Tom Price for the night with the plan to visit Karijini NP the next day. The drive was a little longer than we though as the initial route required a permit and we didn't have one so we had to head the long way around. Was an interesting drive and the scenery was different from anywhere else, arid but green. Red rocky hills covered in green clumps of spinnafix. Drive was a little slow as Trev decided that he would have some temp issues and as a result A/C off and speed down, arriving in Tom Price about 8pm.
After a good nights rest and amazing that it was the coolest night we had had since been back on the road we headed off to Karijini National Park, this was fascinating. Sparse areas of semi arid areas with a collection of very deep and bright red gorges opening up in the middle of nowhere. it is like the earth has just cracked and the water has opened these cracks up. We visited a number of these gorges but as usual we were travelling to these places in the middle of the day (40+ again), you would have thought that we would have learnt. anyway we got a good look at most and then walked down in to Fortescue Falls for a look and quick swim. Managed to get a few shots but limited with the number of people around.
Next stop Exmouth and the coast, hope its cooler there....
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