Day 67 - Exmouth and our first taste of Ningaloo Reef

Jasper:Our last day at Exmouth we got our first real taste of Ningaloo reef. We went to Turquoise bay which had the best reef so far because it was so close to shore and we saw all these fish, Bluespot butterflyfish, Griddle parrotfish, Red speckled parrotfish, Three spot spine foot,Neon damsel,Freakled hawkfish,Humbug dascyllus,Three spot dacyllus, Half circled angelfish, Pink striped butterflyfish and a huge groper about my arm width and I saw a Clownfish in an Anemone and much much more. But the water was freezing.
It Was Sooooooo Awseome!!!!!

Turquoise Bay - Cape Range National Park

Day 66 - Exmouth (18 June)

Kate: Thought I would indulge and post a few of the amazing wildflowers I've seen in WA.  The kids have become used to me yelling "stop the car".  They don't even ask if I need a toilet stop - they know I have seen another flower on the side of the road.  Steve has likewise become an expert at stopping the van and car pronto - not an easy thing to do at 100 km/hr!!! 

The drive to Exmouth back on the coast was remote and beautiful.  Hardly a car on the road.  The wedge tailed eagles have been huge since arriving in the Pilbara region.  They swoop along the highways looking for road kill.  You can always tell if there is road kill ahead by the big group of eagles or falcons swooping and circling together.  A really maginificent sight.  You get a sore neck as you drive under them - trying too look up!

We also enountered the largest locust plague swarm on this drive.  They are enormous and make such a loud noise as they whack into the windscreen.  The seagulls have had a ball picking them out of the radiator since arriving in the caravan park!

Day 64/65 Tom Price

Jasper: In Tom Price, we did an awesome lookout which we could see the view of the mine which is what the whole town is made around.  We also did a really cool mine tour that we stopped and watched huge mine trucks go past.  Everything there was huge!!! Emily and I also went on a bush walk from the caravan park into the most bush I have ever done on my own.  We used the sun as a way of direction and I was teaching Em alot about bush survival.  We also made a shelter in a tip area from rocks, wood and any other thing we could find.  And another thing Em and I did is saved a lizard that was dying in the the tip area and we brought him back and put him in a plastic bucket and gave him some water.  The in a bit, he was back to full life.  It was awesome.

Kate:  I really liked the town of Tom Price.  I think Steve was a bit worried I wanted to move there.  It was a really clean, tidy and well cared for town with a really great community feel.  It stood out from all the other dusty outback towns we had seen.  The town is not only reknowned for it's mine,but also becaus it is the highest town in WA. (it's nicknamed the "Top Town" - cute!) 

The tour of the iron ore mine was interesting to drive into the mine itself and learn how it is dug out, crushed, sorted and "trained" out to the closest port. A typical train is 230 carriages long.  I thought we may have seen more of the mine by foot but alas no.  The obligatory hop off the bus for a photo in front of a "Big" piece of machinery then back loaded in again - all 52 of us.  However, the info and insight into the mine was well worth it.  Tom Price mine has the highest grade of iron ore in the world.  70% is the purest form you can find and this mine is 67% pure so it's an incredibly high standard. 

To explain the last two photos below, we found a really wierd roadside stop just before we arrived into Tom Price.  It seemed like a really big memorial site for anyone's loved ones.  There were lots of piles of rocks all with some sort of message or someone's name on them.  We assume it started as a memorial spot for local miners killed.

Lookout from Mt Nameless over Tom Price Mine (Hamersley Range in background)

Tom Price Iron Ore tour

Those huge trucks

Iron ore pouring out from conveyor belt

Th only place we were allowed to get out on the tour

Nice look



62-63 Karijini national park

Jasper: Karijini National Park was awesome. First the camping ground had no power or water which made it like real camping. Then we went to a few amazing lookouts (Oxer Lookout was the best) and two awesome waterholes. The first was Fortesque Falls which had a steep walk down then a waterfall that was not that powerfull but beautiful. Then we went to the second water hole which is called Circular Pool which had an even steeper walk and a freezing pool. On the way back Em hurt her wrist really badly. Also I made a sling shot and we all got junior ranger patches for answering all these questions about protecting national parks.

Kate: We'd heard so much about Karijini NP from everyone we had met on our trip.  For once, their raves lived up to reality!!  The red of the Pilbara region is redder than anywhere we have been.  Really deep, deep red and sometimes looking purple.  We think this is due to the iron ore content of the rocks around here?  Anyway, the NP is relatively small, accessible but with the deepest gorges.  Karijini is apparently the adventure NP where you can abseil, rockclimb etc.  Jasper kept looking over edges and scaring us by saying he'd love to abseil down there!!  The kids had complained about seeing "more" gorges and waterholes but we were all blown away by how different and beautiful they were here.  The gorges all have multicoloured little layers which look like lasagne.  Unfortunately we are in a cold snap (not as cold as you in Melbourne!!) where the nights have dropped to 0 degrees and the days only 17 degrees.  So swimming was only an option chosen by J & E!

I loved camping way out bush.  Steve, on the othere hand, was pretty uncomfortable and seriously out of his comfort zone.  I get the fact he feels protective of all of us.  Two nights was enough and we were not sure how long the gas was going to last to keep the fridge going.  Going without showers has become easy peasy now.  We all smell and look the same!!!

Steve: The BHP port tour was sensational, big, massive investment. Everything in the mining world is talked about in billions.

BHP Billiton - Port Hedland

Full moon - Karijini NP

Oxer Lookout (junction of 4 gorges)

Knox Lookout - a long way down to the bottom

Who's that good looking bloke?

Joffer Gorge

Fortesque Falls

Circular Pool

Maddy asleep on the warm rocks

Lasagne layers of rock at Karijini

Day 61 - Port Hedland

Kate:  Now I remember why I loved Broome so much and not sleeping in a caravan park.  We were all woken at 6.00am to the lovely LOUD sounds of the grey nomads next door banging, zipping, unzipping, banging as they packed up.  It's times like these when I curse and wish I'd let the kids scream and have tantrums the night before .... but that would be bad karma......  So I got up and walked about 70 miles of the 80 mile beach and came back feeling much better.

Back onto the road and into the Pilbara region (the size of Victoria) known for its rugged coast, deep gorges and massive mining projects.  We hit Port Hedland with Steve on a high.  I think either the R&R in Broome had gone to his head or he just really gets off on big, dusty, industrial towns!!  BHP's Iron Ore facility is right in the middle of town.  Huge piles of red dirt.  As a result,everything you see in town is covered in a layer of red dust  (and heaps of iron statues dot the town - I assume BHPs attempt to help "beautify" the town).

A trip to Port Hedland is not complete until you sit on a bridge and wait to see one of the iron ore trains drive past - kilometres in length.  And then you drive to the port and watch the huge ships being directed out of the Port by multitudes of pilot boats.  It was actually all pretty interesting.

Tomorrow a tour of BHP then onto Karajini NP for a couple of days of no power/no water camping. 

BHP Iron Ore Processing facility

Watching the ships leave port

Our lunch venue - the 1920's Silver Star train

Day 60 - Eighty Mile Beach

Kate:  As much as we have loved Broome and stopping for a bit of luxury, I think Steve and I were secrectly looking forward to getting back on the road again.  Steve especially, because this last section down the west coast is the only part of the whole trip, Steve has not been to before. 

The scenery from Broome to Eighty Mile Beach was lots of nothing!!  Really flat, wind blown coastal expanses with the odd cow or two.  We finally turned off the highway through a private station, to Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park.  Situated right on the beach (well just nestled behind the sand dunes), it was a pretty spectacular place to stop for the night.  It reminded me of Victoria's 90 Mile Beach near the Prom.  Wide and vast.

Heaps and heaps of really cool shells kept everyone busy (except Steve who sat back enjoying his evening sunset cold one).

Eighty Mile Beach

Guess who.....!

Days 56-60 Broome

Jasper: I'm going to do another 4 days in one so I won't say what day just what we did. First we went to the beach which had the biggest waves so far.  They were so big there were people surfing on them. It also had relaxing chairs for Kate and Steve and buckets and spades for Mads. We also went to Willie Creek Pearl Farm where someone told us about how pearls are made and I learnt that pearl technicians use a small round piece of shell and put it in an oyster which then forms mucus around the shell to make a pearl. We also went on a boat to see live oysters. There is also a shopping area called Chinatown because there used to be lots of Chinese that used to work there. Kate got a pearl, Steve got a real 1914 pearl dive'rs helmet, Emily got a turtle family made of shells, Mads got a pencil sharpener with floating little dolphins and I got a wooden vintage car and a Harly Davidson.
BROOME IS AWESOME!!!

Kate:

Willie Creek Pearl Farm

Cable Beach

Shade, a comfy chair off the sand and the BRW = a happy Steve!



Mads is just happy as long as it's on the beach...



.....even asleep

Anastasia's Pool at Gantheume Point






Life size dinasaur footprint