Karijini National Park

We couldn't decide if we should go to Karijini or not. Just a couple of weeks ago a man died trying to rescue his 7 year old son who fell down a cliff on one of the easier walks. However we kept meeting people who told us that it was worth the trip. Since it is such a long way from anything we thought that we should make the effort to check it out for ourselves. Which meant back tracking 200km nearly into Port Hedland and then driving another 230km to get there! It is so hot now in the Pilbara, coolest temps about 36 most days so camping in a national park was always going to be hard work. We found a good spot and set up with the McCloskey family next door. It was lunchtime at this stage and so hot that we had to find somewhere to go for a swim. We decided to walk to Fortescue Falls as it seemed like the easiest walk for a swim. The McCloskeys have a 4 and a 5 year old so they needed to stick to easier walks too. Luckily it was only about 15 minutes down some extremely steep rocky steps to get to the swimming hole.






Not only did we have searing heat to contend with but the flies were unbearable. This was Jack's solution thanks to my mum.



Another 300 metres on was Fern Pool which was also really lovely for swimming.



After cooling down we went back to our campsite and waited for the sun to go down and the flies to go away. By about 10pm it was cool and by about 3am we were looking for blankets!

Dampier and Red Dog

We drove to Dampier for the day from Point Samson. We stopped at the Karratha Visitor's Centre for some info on what to see. I was really keen to do a tour of the Rio Tinto Port Facilities but unfortunately the tours didn't go every day and kids had to be 8 and over. Something else to do another time! We then drove to see the Red Dog statue. We saw the movie 2 months ago in Darwin so it was great to finally check it out. It is actually hard to find, just tucked away in an information bay on the side of the road as you drive into Dampier. Took plenty of photos!









Can't write too much more about Red Dog or I will start to cry again like I did in the movie!

There wasn't much else to see in Dampier. There are the salt mines, port facilities and the enormous North West Gas Shelf Gas Plant so it is a very industrial area. Very expensive area too with most houses around $1m or about $1800 per week rent for 4 bedrooms! The North West Shelf had a visitor centre which was very well run and informative. The kids learnt about mining for natural gas and completed a quiz which earnt them water bottles and pencil cases.

We spent the afternoon shopping in Karratha as there was a Kmart, Target and quite a big shopping centre. It has been a while since we saw big shops! We had dinner at one of the mess halls of the mining companies. They have an extensive buffet and anyone can eat there for $20 per head and free for the kids. The people working for the mining companies get their meals included in their packages. Not bad when they are already earning well in excess of $100,000 a year! Drove back to Point Samson for the night to get ready to move on again.



These are a couple of the big iron ore ships at Dampier.



This is the salt that you drive past on the way into town.

80 Mile to Point Samson

We drove from 80 Mile to Port Hedland and stopped for the night. Not a lot to see there except for huge trains (240 carriages long) and huge ships at the huge BHP Billiton Port. This is where all the iron ore from the mine at Newman is exported. The caravan park cost $63 for one night and it had nothing but a tiny pool! Everything is so expensive around here because of all the mining. Makes it hard for the tourists. This was the view from the caravan park.



The next day we drove to Point Samson which is about 200km south of Port Hedland. It is a little fishing village with a lovely caravan park.

We are now travelling with 2 families which is nice. Both families have girls! We went for a day trip out to Millstream Chichester National Park with them all today. Long drive in to a place called Python Pool where we had a picnic and a swim. Only lasted a couple of hours as it was heading towards 42 degrees. Lovely swimming area.








We will stay here another night and then head to Dampier for a day trip tomorrow to see Red Dog! The kids are very excited!

80 Mile Beach

From Barn Hill we drove a couple of hundred k's south to a caravan park on 80 Mile Beach. It was the most beautiful looking beach but unfortunately you can't swim there. There are strong currents, sea snakes, stingrays and sharks! Good fishing though, plenty of people were pulling in little sharks.




One morning we drove along the beach for about 10km to look for shells as we heard there were lots around. It was true. We found really big shells just lying on the beach. It is turtle nesting season so the whole way along you can see the tracks they make in the sand at night.



The boys tried fishing a couple of times with no success but stood next to someone who had a lot of success and he gave them a catfish. We cooked it up for dinner and it was very nice. Here is Michael having a fish filleting lesson from out friend Dion.



Then another beautiful sunset.

More from Barn Hill

I just got more photos from the camera onto the iPad and realized that there were a few Barn Hill pictures I didn't include in the previous blog. Apologies also for the posts being out of order. I am having a lot of trouble uploading photos so hopefully people can still work out where we were!

The kids loved Barn Hill as it was like camping in the bush with plenty of wildlife. These were new pets for a couple of hours. They found them in the bathrooms!









We still have the hermit crabs although there was a mass breakout at Barn Hill and about 5 escaped! They all really miss Banjo. There was a dog at Barn Hill called Roses who adopts a family, usually with kids, for as long as they stay at the Station. She reminded us of Red Dog!

Broome Part 3

We spent one morning out at the lighthouse at Gantheaume Point trying to find the dinosaur footprints. Took a while but we found them eventually. You can only see them when the tide is at a certain level a few days each month. They are approximately 350 million years old. There are lots of them all along the coast.


Some more magnificent Kimberly scenery.



We took a day trip to a place called James Price's Point. It is about 50km north of Broome on another red dirt track. It has become a very controversial area with Woodside planning an enormous gas plant here in the near future. There are protestors living out there permanently, trying to cause as much disruption as possible. We stopped at their camp and had a chat to them. We wanted the kids to hear their side of the story. Although we didn't really hear Woodside's and the government's side of things, we cannot work out why you would want to destroy such a beautiful place? Here is what it looks like, hopefully these won't become the "before" photos.










Unfortunately the time has come to say goodbye to Broome. We stayed nearly 4 weeks and would love to stay longer but there is a lot more of Western Australia to see. We hoped Michael might be able to find a job here and we could stay but there is nothing at the moment. However if an opportunity comes up it would be very hard to say no, so we are hopefully saying see you later and not goodbye to Broome!

Barn Hill Station

We didn't get very far from Broome, only about 100km south, before we stopped again. This time at a place called Barn Hill Station. After being in Broome for so long it seemed a bit basic, back to camping again! You could only use a small amount of power so no air-con etc. Luckily although it was about 38 degrees inland, it was cooler on the coast so it didn't really matter. The kids loved it as there were loads of green frogs and enormous stick insects everywhere. They managed to catch a frog each and keep them for a couple of hours before letting them go again. They climbed plenty of trees and played on the beach.






This is a picture of the rock formations they call their version of the Pinnacles.











More red dirt. Apparently by the time you get to Kalbarri the red dirt disappears. It won't be missed!

Everything has been going really well for us. The kids are having the best time of their lives, they have made so many new friends. We are travelling with another family again, this time with 3 girls so that provides a bit of a contrast. Michael and I are having a great time too. Everyone is totally settled into it now. It is coming up to 3 months that we have been away. Hard to believe! We do not want to come home yet but it will be interesting to see how we feel towards the end of the trip. Bet we still won't want to come home! We miss all the people but I know I could quite happily fly home for a week or so, see everyone, then come back. We are seeing the most amazing things all the time. Life in Melbourne seems very different. Don't think I could be on the road full time but we would like to do more trips like this if we can. We have to get to Cape York next!

Broome Part 2

We spent a lot of time relaxing in Broome, it's that kind of place. However there are lots of things to see here. Tom and I checked out the museum which had a lot of interesting information about the old pearling days, before they began farming them. It also had information on the bombing during WW2 which I didn't know anything about.

We got to watch the staircase to the moon one night which is when the moon rises over the tidal flats and makes it look like there are steps leading to it.



Very hard to photograph without a tripod but you can get the idea from the above picture.

We had a great time catching up with the Thorne family including a BBQ at Gantheaume Point, another place you can drive right onto the beach. The kids played cricket and soccer and we enjoyed another sunset.




We took the kids to the Malcolm Douglas Wilderness Park where we saw lots of birds and lots of crocs. They had a tour guide feeding the salties, freshies and some alligators. Watching him feed 5-6m salties was unbelievable. You could get so close that Charlie got splashed when one jumped out of the water to get some meat! We were on the other side of a fence of course but there were plenty of holes in it!

Cape Leveque and One Arm Point

We spent a few hours at a place called One Arm Point which is about 20 minutes drive north of Kooljaman. We swam and snorkeled at Jologo beach and went to the Hatchery where they look after various sea creatures for release back into the wild. The also farm Trochus shells and sell them to Italy to be made into buttons.
This is what the beach looked like.


The boys enjoyed snorkelling in the crystal clear water.





We spoke to some locals who told us there had been a croc spotted recently but we figured the water was so clear that we would see it coming and get out quickly!

We also saw 2 dogs swimming around in the water just off the boat ramp. Turned out they were the famous shark chasing dogs. You can find them on You Tube. They chase Lemon Sharks and try and grab their tails. Not sure what they do when they catch something!

Kooljaman sunset

We watched a sunset at Western Beach. Very beautiful.






And a random good photo of Jack!

Cape Leveque Kooljaman

I haven't been able to upload anything for a while so this is from a couple of weeks ago.
We needed a break from the stress of Broome so decided to head north on a camping trip to Cape Leveque. It is about 200km away, 100km of sand and dirt and the rest bitumen. We stayed at a place right on the Cape called Kooljaman. The whole area (the Dampier Peninsula) is aboriginal owned and managed and all the accommodation is run by the locals. Kooljaman has everything from beach shelters right on the beach where we stayed, to ensuite cabins. It is really beautiful. This is a picture of our shelter. We pitched the tents inside it.



This is the view from the shelter.


The beaches have the most amazing white sand, red cliffs and crystal clear turquoise water.


Spent the first day on the beach then got to have a fire at night which we hadn't done for a while. We even made damper!

The boys fishing trip

Michael, Jack and Tom went out for a day on a fishing charter. Unfortunately for Tom it was a bit rough and he spent the whole day throwing up. However Michael managed to fish in between vomiting and Jack wasn't sick at all! He was the only one on the boat including the skipper who avoided sea sickness.
Here are the results:














The mackerel was Michael's but he was throwing up when the photo was taken! We have been eating the fish and have to say that the coral trout was the nicest so far! The next photo was on the way home.



Next time we will remember the Kwells!