Exmouth/Ningaloo Reef

Monday 17th August

We left Point Samson and The Cove Caravan Park in reasonable time as we knew we had to do a free camp on route to Exmouth. Helen has family in Karratha who she has never met, Catrina is Helen's 2nd cousin and they communicate through Facebook. Unfortunately Catrina and family were away in Geraldton so it wasn't to be! But, thank goodness for the dreaded internet we realised that Catrina and family were travelling north as we were travelling south on the same highway the North West Coastal Highway, and on the same day... Communication was done while travelling and lo and behold we arranged to stop at a large area at the turnoff to Onslow. We pulled in and made ourselves a coffee and waited, we were soon joined by another caravan that had pulled off from our Park before we did. The lady, immediately approached Helen and said "she was sorry that we had never spoken to each other at Point Samson" very strange but she was very upset about her little dog that wasn't very well. Helen was very sympathetic!!
Along came a vehicle and trailer that we recognised to be Catrina, Les, Chris and Matthew with their two little dogs...
It was quite surreal meeting this lovely lady and her family in the middle of nowhere. Catrina was a little confused as to our family relationship, Helen brought Catrina up to scratch and told her that she (Catrina) was a little girl when Helen's parents met her in 1976/77 out somewhere around Drummond Cove, when Helen's parents visited Australia. Catrina's grandfather is Helen's father's brother....work that one out folks!!! We spent about half an hour chatting before we waved them off and we travelled on to our overnight stop at a free camp called Barradale.

After leaving the meeting spot we need to fuel up again and of course we had to called in to the Nanutarra Roadhouse, that we visited in August 2007, well, there is another story I could tell, but no I won't. The roadhouse was under new management and I must say looked a lot cleaner than I remember from 2007. Our overnight stop was extremely good, with lots and lots of Grey Nomads parked up, as usual the next morning we awoke to find many had left.



We were excited and so looking forward to staying at the Ningaloo Lighthouse Caravan Park for a week.  We had heard lots of stories about the area being out of action from the Cyclone which hit at the end of April this year.  Our park is approximately 15km north of Exmouth and closer to Cape Range NP but, first, we needed to fill our water tanks in the caravan as the caravan parks water is highly saline and we would not put that through our caravan system. Although it will be fine to shower and wash clothes in.  We had to locate the Information Centre in Exmouth where we could fill with water for free, then negotiate our big rig so it would be easy for us to fill. The town didn't look as though it had been damaged, even the big shrimp was still on its pedestal.



The big Shrimp at the Information Centre,
next to the water taps.



Richard filling up

Arriving at our destination we both went into the office for checking in.. The lady was checking in some campers and proceeded to give the young lady a well rehearsed speech about the caravan park and its facilities. She was quite something! the next young lady another camper received the same speech even though she said she had overheard from the previous camper...but no, the lady insisted on doing her spiel.... Needless to say we got it too.. and just smiled and said thank you.
Our stay here is mainly for us to see the fabulous National Park and try and find the Park campgrounds, fishing from the beach and snorkel in the Turquoise Bay, yes, we had managed to buy some snorkelling equipment and a fishing rod for Helen in Kmart at Karratha that was very reasonable too. The Information centre in Exmouth were selling their snorkelling gear for $75 a rip off...

We were soon joined on the neighbouring spot by two motorhomes, they recognised us from the free camp last night! The lady in the office allowed them to share a spot, which made it less expensive for them. They were obviously together as a couple but had separate vehicles. We were having a chat with them our first evening when Richard suddenly made us aware of something in the sky... it definitely wasn't a shooting star but did look like a piece of debris from outer space that was burning up and travelling so fast, it was something all of us would remember. No photos though sorry.
 


The view from our caravan

First catch with Helen's new rod

 Turquoise Bay and snorkelling.

Friday 21st August we had a trip out to see the SS Mildura wreck and check out the some other beaches. The beach where the wreck is had some amazing shells and beach coral lying around.  Richard did a spot of fishing here and Helen did lots of reading... We didn't catch anything that we could take home to eat!! We did however, have the most amazing view of the migrating whales, breaching and generally having a good time out in the ocean, these massive creatures made us shout out with "Wow" and really gave us an amazing feeling making us smile and laugh, it was a performance that we had never experienced before.  However, we did see many more whales over the next few days whilst we were fishing, relaxing from our nearby beach.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Tonight we decided to eat at the caravan parks café which had a special on of chicken parmy... Helen was OK with this but Richard decided on the T-bone. We could take our own wine so all good...but even better was the young waitress. Richard went inside and had a chat with the young man who was our chef... he was really a mechanic from Bunbury, this gave us something to talk about. Richard ordered our food and paid with cash, the waitress then gave him is change all in $1 coins all 7 of them. Richard is being Richard and said "Oh, just what I need" she replies in the most straight pan of face "Is that supposed to be sarcastic" he replied "It can be, if you like" she was not amused!! We were joined by another couple that made 4 of us!! the young waitress brought out two plates of food to our table and stood there, once again with a straight pan face and said "Who's having what"? Helen managed to keep a straight face until the young lady left, then we both had the best laughing fit for a long time.. much to the amusement of our fellow diners... The young lady had obviously gained an Honours Degree at some Australian Charm school!! a number of times while we were eating she walked past and we smiled but she continued to say "What, what" it was so funny. However, we did decide to book in again for the Sunday Roast, hoping she won't remember us.

 

Before leaving we had to take the Ute up to the Lighthouse and once again experience the magnificent sunset.

 



 

very nice sunsets here

This anchor was taken from the wreck Mildura



WW2 gun radar emplacement

 

 

 

 

 

 

A number of times we had spoken about not seeing much wildlife, only, dead Kangaroos on the NP road.. but we were then treated to a beautiful sighting of magnificent Emus who where scratching around next the caravan.

 

Next stop Bruboodjoo!



Port Hedland, Point Samson and Karratha

We left Barn Hill earlier than we would normally leave a caravan park as we had a long way to go. We were heading for Port Hedland and the Golf Club, they take caravans for $30 a night better than paying $54 at the Big4 caravan park.

It seemed to take us a long time but we did tow 489kms... The lady in the Golf club was very pleasant when we asked if we could stay for two nights. She gave us a key for the back door that enabled us to use the shower and toilet area of the club. We soon had neighbours and the gentleman told us about the tour he was going on the next day, it was the tour Helen had heard about that takes tours on a coach around the very famous BHP Billiton Iron Ore wharf facility. Helen immediately telephone the Information Centre in Port Hedland and booked both of us on the tour. Our next step was to contact Jonathan and ask where we could find him! Lo and behold he was only a few kilometres away. Richard went to collect him and we all had a great meal in the caravan, courtesy of Mrs Helen Wood. It was so silly of us not to take a family pic...but we didn't!! Richard had to take Jon back to his motel type room quite early but thank goodness we will see him again tomorrow.
The next morning we were up and about using the Golf Club facilities, then had a trip into South Hedland shopping mall. We wanted to buy some reasonably priced snorkelling equipment that a friend suggested we did before getting to the Ningaloo reef.. We found Kmart but nothing to be had!!  We had to head into Port Hedland for our tour, we were looking forward to this. The area around the tourist information centre was full of 4wd Utes and 4wd Utes with caravans still hitched up... Port Hedland is not RV friendly and it showed as people were trying to park up to leave their rigs and obviously they were booked on the tour!




Our coach trip

We were escorted to our bus and took our seats, our tour guides were two gentlemen ex bus drivers of BHP who now do the tour around this massive site. We were given so much information about how much Iron Ore is produced and shipped by this company but now most of the gigantic equipment is all controlled from the big city of Perth, quite incredible to say the least!! One of the pieces of information we were told that if BHP Billiton didn't like the look of the ship they would reject and pass it on to Fortesque Metals, then Gina Reinhart company then the next company in the pecking order, we thought this comment was a little sensational!!
We decided to check out the Esplanade Hotel for maybe eating here tonight. What a beautiful restored building, so sad that the staff and general malaise of the staff wasn't up to our standard, we only asked to see the menu!!



This evening we had to cook once again and it was another lovely dinner and evening with Jonathan in the caravan. So bad of us not to take photographs!!
Jonathan was flying out early in the morning and so were we...

We were up again in reasonable time and off to stay in a Caravan Park at Point Samson near Karratha. What a great journey we had. It took longer than we anticipated as we could hear lots of chat on the 2way radio as we eventually found out we were following a wide load. Because it was so wide we were not keen to overtake unlike some other caravanners (stupid) we were quite happy to stay behind them for maybe 70kms and had few chats/banter with the pilots and the driver of this major big rig. We listened on the 2way to the concerns of the main driver about the route through Roebourne and he hoped that there wasn't many vehicles parked in the main through road. Well, needless to say big issues manoeuvring this major rig became quite difficult! The pilot who was at the rear had is job cut out, he was zig zagging the main street...Helen saw a situation and tried to tell them on the 2way but the damage had been done, a mirror smashed off a Ford F250... we had to wait for the owner to arrive, but instead it was a café owner and what a debacle!!
The hauliers/professionals decided to wait at the next large area for the owner to approach them. We said our farewells over the 2 way and wished them luck.


Travelling behind the big rig

Another view of the wide load we were following

Our next stop was at Point Samson caravan park where we will meet up with Len and Janice... It is a really lovely park with the most amazing concrete spots, it looks like it was really planned out for a caravan park. We had a lovely happy hour with Jan, Len and Max unfortunately they were leaving the next morning, so we said our goodbyes.

Point Samson Caravan Park

One of our interests in this area is to see the town of Dampier and the sculpture of Red Dog, which is one of our favourite Australian films. We couldn't believe we were actually here in Dampier such a special place.

















We later spent sometime up at the North West Gas Shelf, what an unbelievable vista to see and the gas flares off's this place was something we have never experienced before!! Nothing in the UK or NZ could ever compare!! 

The Flare off, a friend of ours told
us he used to work here and 
his office was just beneath the flare tower

The sculpture which commemorates the deaths
of people who built the gas plant

 

Next stop Exmouth, Ningaloo Reef!!!

Broome and Barn Hill

On the road again but this time to somewhere where we had been before! we are both looking forward to seeing Broome, the Wharf and the famous Cable Beach with the camels.

We knew Broome would be very busy and that the Caravan Parks are very expensive so we decided to re-visit the Pistol Club which is classed as an overflow park for the town one of three overflow parks....lots of politics going on in town re Grey Nomads! We intend to stay for a week here. We arrived before midday and had to put the caravan on a spot near the office as there were no other places until tomorrow morning, we were quite happy. The Pistol Club hadn't changed much in 8 years. We went to visit the Wharf this afternoon and there was the same restaurant we had eaten at in 2007 the Wharf (same as Derby). This Wharf was very busy with trucks travelling down to the ships moored. We managed to cross and walked on the purpose made walkway where there were many people chancing their hand trying to catch a fish.




Back at camp Richard used the camp kitchen BBQ to cook our evening meal. It was very quiet here. Sunday morning and caravans were turning up at 8:30 a.m. we got a little worried that we might have been forgotten but no, Gail came and asked us to look at two places that we could choose from. We were once again set up for the week on a nice shady spot with some lovely people around us.
Our plan to not do much here was quite successful, we just wanted a beach holiday for a week...
There are many free camps not far out of Broome but the only way to get to them is via red dirt roads and we were very reticent in taking our big caravan, so we had a trip just with the Ute up the road to Cape Leveque. What an amazing area we travelled to a place called Quondong beach where people had tents, camper trailers, camper vans and even large caravans set up over looking the ocean, they weren't next to each other either, such an beautiful place. We had a few hours on the beach where we chatted to a number of people walking past and watched dolphins not far away from us.

Quondong Point Road

Quondong beach

Quondong beach

Quondong beach our Ranger in the background

Wednesday the 4th August saw us rising early, heading to a Gantheaume Point to see the Dinosaur footprints at low tide. It was like Piccadilly Circus at the Point, hundreds of people at this time in the morning was quite astonishing. Helen managed to lose Rich to, as she went back to the Ute for hats and walked straight ahead instead of looking for him under an information shed thing! Helen did however, had the privilege of seeing an Osprey with large fish in tow trying to kill it by bashing it against the tower poles the Osprey's young were going frantic waiting in their nest higher up the tower to be fed.

Osprey tower

We managed to get together again and make our way down the rugged rocks to find the Dinosaur footprints...

This is a plaster cast version of the footprints

On arriving back at camp we had new neighbours who became new friends, David and Patsy who were on a 13 week holiday from Brisbane. David had a rooftop tent on his Patrol and we were interested in seeing how he puts it out etc. I have not mentioned on here, but we are interested in putting a rooftop tent on our Ranger as this will enable us to visit the outback tracks without having to take the big caravan. We spent an hour one morning with David and Patsy as they showed us their set up and how they get organised when leaving their van and going off with just the Patrol. David and Patsy went off to Cape Leveque for a few days with theirs.

A trip into town saw us visiting the Chinatown area where there are some of the world's finest pearl and jewellery showrooms, they are really worth a look in but no we didn't buy anything this time. There is also some very nice ladies clothes shops but once again Helen resisted! We did however visit a camping store to look for a cast iron camp oven but cam away with a 40ltr Engel fridge that cost quite a bit more than a camp oven ha ha!!

Because we were able to take our Ute on to the beautiful world renown Cable Beach which is named after the Cable that links Australia with the rest of the world, most days were spent here, we parked in one spot and around 3 p.m. we were surrounded by camels, ready for their job to be done taking the tourists on rides at sunset. Other days we went further afield
 

Away from the Camels, Cable Beach

Further down Cable Beach

Barn Hill

We had a great time in Broome and our next stop is a working station called Barn Hill about 115km away, we would have no electric hook up but can have water connection. Our stay here is only for 3 nights as we need to move to Port Hedland to catch up with our son Jonathan as he is there until Friday morning.



The road to Barn Hill is a 9km red dusty road AGAIN!!
















We had a good spot and after setting up our friends Pete and Caron found us, well we were just about opposite them! Another catch up was undertaken and tonight we would all be eating the Sunday roast special down at the main lawn area. We had to take our own table, chairs, cutlery, crockery etc so Rich headed off like a donkey down to the lawn... Sunset once again was amazing.









 Meal was just OK but everyone raves about it!! Whilst in the queue for our main course we were in front of a couple Greg and Pam who we had spent time with back at Lee and Jenny's bushcamp.. that was ages ago and it is seems unbelievable that we are on the same camp ground again. It was good to hear the news about Lee and Jenny they are one amazing couple.

Long walks on the fantastic beach here and photo opportunities galore as we had Dolphins and Whales going by every day but, unfortunately we didn't see any Whales only Dolphins.


View from our camp spot



At the Point we were able to see the Blow Hole at low tide



Blow hole









Amazing coloured cliffs at Barn Hill

Final sunset