EXMOUTH - CORAL BAY

Horses!  This five minute stopover is bound to feature largely in the children's journals!

The big prawn at Exmouth

Climbing into the water at Coral Bay

Starting off on their first snorkeling lesson!!

DAY 74 – EXMOUTH – CORAL BAY                                            Wednesday, 14^th September

“Camps Co-Ordinator David Hansen” had us all up and on the road without breakfast this morning to see the Bird and Fauna Hide at Mangrove Bay.  Unfortunately, the birds were all off having breakfast OUT this morning and the Fauna Hide was hidden so well we could not find it!  We did see lots of kangaroos hit by vehicles the night before which was very sad. 

Along the road, outside the National Park, are two horses we had seen on our drives in and out of the park.  They appear to be wild and immediately walk up to any cars which stop on the side of the road for pats and any available food.  My horse loving children were very excited to stop and feed the horses the two remaining apples we had in the car.  So pleased we are now giving our last provisions to mangy livestock on the side of the road!!

Back home to eat brekky (finally!) and then to pack up and head to Coral Bay.   There is an enormous amount of building going on in Exmouth around the new marina – people with a lot of money for homes and beautiful boats!

The trip to Coral Bay was short.  Coral Bay is just beautiful.  White, sandy beaches and beautiful turquoise water.  Setting up the van was a bit stressful for Sarah (but David, as always, was perfectly calm!)  The roads between the vans are very narrow here and there was an enormous boat sitting on the road outside the site opposite us.  We ended up having to manually push the van into place because there was no room to manoeuvre our car.  David was a star!

Off down the beach as soon as we could for some more snorkeling (with our ONE mask and snorkel)!  Unfortunately, everyone thought the snorkeling not quite as good as at Turquoise Bay but they did see lots of fish and giant clams and Bridgie even saw a baby turtle.  The bay here is so protected so no boogie boarding but we have booked a glass bottom boat tour and some snorkeling.  A beautiful prawn and pesto pasta dinner from my husband tonight with prawns from Exmouth!

EXMOUTH

The Naval Communication Base at Exmouth

The Hansen Family - the view across from the lighthouse with Exmouth Gulf behind us

Running away from the surf at Exmouth

Sunset over the Indian Ocean from the lighthouse at Exmouth

DAY 73 – EXMOUTH                                                          Tuesday, 13^th September

An absolutely beautiful morning in Exmouth AND NO WIND!  YAY!  David cooked lovely bacon and eggs this morning while I did two loads of washing.  Pilbara red dirt just gets into everything.  Both the car and all humans are absolutely filthy – I could barely recognise them!  After that, we headed down into Cape Range National Park which is very open coastal country with fantastic sand dunes.  Again, it is very remote and you do really feel like you are the only people in the world.  We looked at the Jurabi Turtle exhibit which was very interesting and then went to the Milyering Visitor Centre.  There was a really fascinating video on display which captured the kids’ attention for ages.  There were lots of scenes of marine life that they will see when they snorkel.  There was also a turtle there which had been found struggling in the surf after having its shell severely damaged by a propeller of a motor boat.  This Loggerhead Turtle had a shell over a metre long and a head that was almost a foot wide.  A beautiful creature.

We drove down to Yardie Creek and did the gorge walk.  The water was so clear we could see some species of Manta Ray in the water below.  Unfortunately, we had forgotten to bring the bathers so had to travel all the way home again.

But the extra driving was worth it for the snorkelling at Turquoise Bay!  We tried Oyster Stacks first but it really needs to be high tide to be any good, so we moved on to Turquoise Bay which was fantastic.  It took a while to show the kids how to snorkel and to get them used to the idea but after that, they were converted!!  To watch Beth come running back up the beach to me, with the most incredulous look on her face, words just tumbling out of her mouth:  “Mum, it was just so amazing.  I saw so many things.  Oh, Mum, it was just so AMAZING! It was the best experience ever!”  It was magical.  The kids can’t wait to get back into the water again.

We headed home for dinner with the Dearness family and sunset watching from the Lighthouse.  The previous evening as we drove into Exmouth, we had the sun setting on one side of us and the moon rising on the other.   It was absolutely stunning.  Tonight the moon took a little longer to rise, but was spectacular once it did.  A beautiful red colour - our own little Staircase to the Moon, since we missed it at Broome because we left before the full moon.

A simple barbeque for dinner with Kate and Bruce while the kids all had fun getting together again in the van – just lovely.

You are lucky with the photographs - the camera ran out of battery half way through the day.

TOM PRICE TO EXMOUTH

David and Beth on top of Mt. Nameless overlooking Rio Tinto Iron Ore Mine, Tom Price

The Hardhat Crew - the Hansens embarking upon the mine tour at Tom Price

One of the dumper trucks which carries 220 tonnes of iron ore in every load.

The mine site from the lookout.

My "twins" - Beth and Tess at the mine site.

The Hansen family in front of an excavator.

DAY 72 – TOM PRICE – EXMOUTH                                           Monday, 12^th September

Up early this morning and all hands on deck in case we were able to get an early mine tour this morning.  Unfortunately, no cigar.  So we took a drive up Mt. Nameless which is the second highest mountain in Western Australia and the highest one accessible by vehicle.  The view of Tom Price township and of the Rio Tinto Mine site was fantastic.  It really gave you an insight into the size of the mine.

We went back and attached the van before meeting outside the Information Centre for our tour.  The kids loved having their hard hats and protective glasses.  The man who conducted the tour was very informative and it was well worth doing.  Here is some of the interesting information we learnt:

• ·         There are 32 dump trucks which hold about 240 tonnes of iron ore (or 117 cubic metres). They usually only fill it to 220 tonnes so that the tyres last longer. The tyres are 3.7m high and weigh about 3 tonnes.  Each cost about $35,000! 

• ·         The excavators are so big that they can fill a dump truck in two and a half minutes!  The front end loaders are a bit slower.  They take 5 minutes to fill the dump trucks.

• ·         The trains that depart from there for Dampier have 230 carriages, carrying about 26,000 tonnes of iron.  It takes 1.5 hours to load the train with lump ore and 4 hours to load it with fine ore.  It takes more than 5 hours to travel to Dampier.

• ·         The dump trucks use 5000 litres of diesel every 24 hours and use 20 litres of fuel for every 1km!

• ·         Last year this Rio Tinto Mine exported 220 million tonnes of iron ore.  Rio Tinto have just announced a    HALF-YEAR profit of over $9 billion.   BHP Billiton just announced an annual profit of $22 billion.  I think somebody might be making a bit of money.

• ·         The truck drivers alone can earn $120 – 150,000 a year.  They pay $250 A MONTH in rent to Rio Tinto!

It was a really interesting tour but of course by the time we put our equipment back and everyone had a toilet stop and we got back in the van it was after 12pm.  This is the latest we have ever started a long journey.  We don’t like to travel at dusk because of all the animals and we have really only done it once, on our day to Purnululu National Park.  And our trip to Exmouth just confirmed why we made that rule.  We stopped only twice between Tom Price and Exmouth.  Once, at a rest station for an urgent toilet stop for Mummy and once at Nanutarra Roadhouse to change drivers and to give the kids a little treat.  The little treat did not however extend to hamburgers ($18.50).  David did comment: “At least it was with ‘the lot’!”

Apart from those two brief stops we travelled from 12:30 to 8pm.  The last two hours were particularly difficult with the sun setting right in front of our eyes, and then animals all over the road – cows, sheep, wallabies, kangaroos.  By the end, we had all six pairs of eyes glued to the road for anyone to yell out if they saw an animal.  I really didn’t enjoy the last part of the journey, although it was particularly beautiful watching the setting sun on our left and the full moon rising on our right.  One thing we did notice was the fact that kangaroos have once again appeared, rather than just the wallaroos and wallabies of the tropical north.

We passed Laurence and Violet on the road going back to Coral Bay from a day trip to Exmouth but didn’t realise until we had passed them! 

When we arrived, things did not go exactly to plan as the ground is solid rock and so the tent pegs would not go in.  So the full annexe had to be erected while the kids ate tinned spaghetti and 2 Minute Noodles for dinner!!  Oh well, will get them to pop a few Vitamins in the morning!!  Everyone was very tired from our big day.   Hope the kids will sleep in a bit in the morning…

MUNJINA (AUSKI ROADHOUSE) TO TOM PRICE (VIA KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

DAY 71 – AUSKI ROADHOUSE – TOM PRICE (VIA KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK)

                                                                                               Sunday, 11^th September

At Knox Lookout early on in the day

Joffre Falls

Our beautiful babies at Hancock Gorge

The intrepid Hansen adventurers at Hancock Gorge (Class 5!)

Sarah and the kids at the start of the Hancock Gorge (Class 6) walk - which we didn't do!

The kids with Fortescue Falls in the background

Fortescue Falls

That's our family swimming in the pool at Fortescue Falls

Fern Pool, Karijini National Park

David under the warm water at Fern Pool

We made perhaps only one serious error in judgment regarding our itinerary and today was it!  Karijini really needed more than one day of our time but for a myriad of reasons, we only have one day – but better than nothing. Tried to get up early today but kids were tired so a bit slow off the mark!  Packed up the van and headed to the Visitor Centre at Karijini National Park.  We left the van there as most of Karijini is dirt roads.  Of course it was very safe – no one stole the chocks from behind the wheels – we just damn well left them behind!  Dammit!

There must be more red dirt in the Pilbara than in the rest of Australia put together!  Car and humans are totally filthy.  EVERYTHING is coated in a not-so-fine blanket of red dirt! 

First, we headed straight to Knox Gorge.  The amazing thing about Karijini is that, unlike other places, you don’t have to climb huge mountains to then peer down into the gorge.  The rim of the gorge is at ground level.  So when walking to the gorge along the track it suddenly comes to an abrupt stop – AT THE GORGE!  Knox Gorge was beautiful

From there we went to Joffre Falls where we saw many people climb down into the gorge and swim through the pools and then climb up to the waterfalls.  It was absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately we did not have time to climb down into the gorge.  We really haven’t had a day of proper hiking since Fitzroy Crossing.  Two and a half weeks of lazing on the beach, drinking wine and eating cheeses has not only expanded my waistline but we are definitely no longer “match fit”! 

From there we went to Oxers Lookout which overlooks Junction Pool.  This is where Hancock, Weano, Knox and Joffre Gorges all meet.  There was a memorial there to an SES volunteer who had been killed in a flash flood while attempting a gorge rescue of an injured hiker.  It was a timely reminder and good lesson for the kids to learn that such gorges can be very dangerous.  We took a walk into Hancock Gorge which was just gorgeous.  David tried to prevent me from noticing that it was a Class 5 walk (it only goes up to Class 6 – and THEY require special permits!)  But it actually wasn’t very difficult and we all enjoyed the peacefulness of the gorge.  We had it all to ourselves!

We had lunch there and then drove back to the Visitor Centre, changed into bathers and then drove to Fortescue Falls which was absolutely stunning and everyone (except Mummy, that is – it wasn’t THAT hot!) jumped into the beautiful crystal clear pool at the bottom.  After warming up a bit on the rocks, we walked further on to Fern Pool which was just stunning.  A kind man let the kids have some of his biscuits to feed the tiny fish in the pool.  It was gorgeous watching the kids squeal with delight as the fish nibbled the biscuit – and then their fingers!!  David swam over under the waterfall and found the water so warm from the hot rocks above.

As it was 3pm, we decided it was time to leave.  By the time we went back to the visitor centre, attached the van, and drove to Tom Price Tourist Park it was 5pm.  By the time all the kids had had a shower, David had set up the caravan and the tent and cooked dinner, and I had been to the supermarket and filled up the car, it was 8pm before we got the kids into bed (very late for us!) 

It is getting much cooler at night (which is displeasing me no end!).  At Eighty Mile Beach, I got out the winter pyjamas again as it can get down to zero inland at night – especially during “winter”.  (Sorry but these people up here have no idea of the meaning of that word!   Their winter is better than our summer!!)  Not looking forward to the day when we need the jeans out again!!  Our constant catch-cry to David is “Dad!  Take us back to Broome!!”

EIGHTY MILE BEACH TO MUNJINA ( AUSKI ROADHOUSE)

Beth and Tess at the park at Port Hedland

Ben at the park at Port Hedland

Our toothless terror at the park at Port Hedland

 In front of a big iron ore tanker arriving in Port Hedland

 

In front of an iron ore tanker arriving in Port Hedland

Oh no!  Back in winter pyjamas.  Cold at night

DAY 70 – EIGHTY MILE BEACH – AUSKI ROADHOUSE (NEAR KARAJINI)   Saturday, 10^th September

Lovely to wake up at 5am this morning rather than 2am with howling winds!  A beautiful day at Eighty Mile Beach but just still so windy.  I had a most unpleasant experience in the shower this morning – yes, one I can share.  For the first time in my life, as I washed my HAIR I saw the water turn brown as it was running down the drainpipe.  I think the wind had blown half of Cape Leveque into my hair!!  Everyone is talking about the wind so I am guessing that this is not usual.  We were planning on a morning walk on the beach but the wind just makes it so unpleasant.  The colour of the water was absolutely stunning – a beautiful shade of aqua.  But I was too busy scoffing down another ice cream as an after breakfast treat, to walk down to take another photo.  (Thank God for that, I hear you say!) 

We had left the van on the car last night so it was easy to leave this morning, especially since we had put up the awning because of the wind last night.  Still it does take a bit of work to get Tess out of bed!

There is pretty much nothing between Eighty Mile Beach and Port Hedland, but the Tedescos stayed at Cape Kedaudren and the Parsons had heard that Pardoo Station (not to be confused with Pardoo Roadhouse) was good, so there are other places to stay.

We got to Port Hedland for lunch and spent some time watching the enormous container ships arrive to be filled with iron ore.  All of you with BHP Billiton shares would have been happy!  There was at least one being filled, one arrived and two more were on the horizon waiting to come into port.  And we were only there for 40 minutes!  They work 24/7.  I would say it is a fairly tough industrial town filled with miners.  We purchased some further provisions (now that we have the Tedesco’s Engel we can actually purchase milk without fear) and then headed out to Munjina (Auski Roadhouse) which is near the turn off to Wittenoom.  Just a roadhouse but was perfectly adequate for the night.  Looking forward to our day tomorrow.

CAPE LEVEQUE TO EIGHTY MILE BEACH

A moment of sisterly love in the car on the way back from Cape Leveque

The Black Kites hunting small animals escaping the fires. These birds have even been known to spread bushfires by dropping burning branches. It assists them in hunting their prey. Burning off happens almost continuously in NT and WA.  We drove through many swirls of smoke!

Jumping down the sand dunes at Eighty Mile Beach at sunset.

David and Beth walking along Eighty Mile Beach at sunset

Yes!  Another sunset!!  Eighty Mile Beach - amazing!

As far as the eye can see .............. remote beach!

DAY 69 – CAPE LEVEQUE TO EIGHTY MILE BEACH                         Friday, 9^th September

Shocking night’s sleep last night – the wind howled all night, waking me at 1:52am!!  Did not get back to sleep thinking about all the tree limbs that could fall on our tents.  But David and I managed to convince ourselves that, given how many cyclones this part of the country endures, this gale force breeze wouldn’t scare these trees!!  We did not see any need for a fly for the tent we were using so we were able to gaze up all night into the most amazing starry, starry night, with the Cape Leveque lighthouse flashing out at regular intervals.  Despite the howling wind, there was something very peaceful about the night, no doubt because of the remoteness and beauty of the area.

So by 6:15am we had packed up our tent and anything else we could do and decided our precious babies needed to be woken so we could get back to Broome and pick up the caravan before 10am so as not to be charged for another day!  The kids were so good at helping us to pack up and get on the road – again back over the 90kms of corrugated road!!  We had a great production line back at the caravan, dumping everything in the van so my poor boy could breathe again!  More diesel and some bread and milk and then back on the road to Eighty Mile Beach.  Pretty much 380kms of nothing.

But Eighty Mile Beach was a pleasant surprise!  And yes, the sunsets just keep getting better!!  We set up the caravan but left the car on as we didn’t need to drive anywhere – or more aptly, there was nowhere to drive!!  We wandered down to the most magnificent beach – eighty miles of unadulterated beauty!  As far as the eye could see in both directions, there was just stunning beach.  This beach is known for its beautiful shells, so the kids went beserk, having a ball running around  picking up different shells.  Don’t you love it when you find yourself with a handful of shells you don’t want, but when you go to put them down a plaintive little voice says:  “But Mummy I GAVE them to you.  I want YOU to have them”!  So David and I wandered around with pocketsful of shells.  Beth has decided she will enter into the “shell jewellery making business”, so she was hard at work finding exactly the shells she wanted.  Of course when we arrived back at the van, we had to spend the next hour sorting them all out.

It is such a lovely caravan park.  Just very quiet, clean, and mainly full of grey nomads who come here for weeks or even months during winter.  After thinking how much we would love to come back here for a holiday, we then discovered why there were no families here – there are sharks and sea snakes very close in to the shore, so no swimming.  That counts us out!  But it is just beautiful to walk along the beach at sunset.  (And yes, there will be more sunset photos yet!) My husband was most upset when I asked him to “Get out of my sunset shot!” [Husband’s note: You would think 80 miles of beach would be enough space for her to take yet another precious sunset photo.]  He continually mocks me for my sunset shots but little does he know I am going to fill my house with them when we return!

We intend to have a morning walk as well.  Just to top things off, they have a great shop with REAL ice-cream for $2 a scoop!  Bargain!  It was three times that price in Broome!!  We are thinking an ice-cream for breakfast at this rate!  OH!  And one MORE good thing – a load of washing is only $2!  I think we should have spent our “holiday” here!  Have never had washing so cheap – so made everyone completely strip!  Washing on the line at 9pm and in this wind they will be bone dry by morning. [Husband’s note: Or out in the Indian Ocean!]  It is funny how the little things can engender such excitement!!

The weather has significantly changed too.  It was again very windy down the beach this afternoon and although everything is still now, our “neighbours” told us that at 2am it will be blowing a gale again.  I have also put a jumper on tonight – which is extremely displeasing!  I am remembering fondly the nights at Darwin and Kakadu and even Broome, where I would walk to the toilet at 10:30pm and it would still be 25 degrees!  THAT is my kind of weather.  We have travelled almost 600kms today but it would be interesting to work out how far SOUTH we have come. 

We are travelling mainly south tomorrow, heading towards Karajini National Park.  More adventures!