Touring North

Tuesday 26^th June we are heading north. Stayed with Debbie in Forrestfield for 2 nights to catch up with her, Tracey and Grant before we head off. Not sure when we will meet again.
 

Sleeping Quaters

We were told the Submarine at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle is a must to see so make a slight detour south and west. Wow! What an awesome experience to go inside a real submarine. This sub was decommissioned in 1995. We had to climb up one end and walked right through to the other end. The sleeping quarters, kitchen and working space etc are unbelievably small....not my idea of fun or work. Stayed the night at Yanchep Camping Ground so we were nice and close to visit Francine Grosser. Was a bitter sweet visit as her sister, Danise whom was my bridesmaid in 1982 had just passed away last December. Nice to catchup on some buried memories but sad that Danise and I had not caught up in 20 years. Reminds us how precious life is and to live everyday to the fullest.

Road Signs

Two Rock

Two Rocks is just up the road and had some unusual carved rocks about the town. Found a really nice free camp spot and stayed two nights to rest up and chill out.



Kerry Planking on a Pinnacle(naughty)

On our way to Leeman we came across “The Pinnacles” in the Lesueur National Park. These strange alien forms are amazing to walk around. Scientist still to this day don’t know how they were formed.

Vicki and Petes landlord (Griff and Leanne) has offered his bach to stay in for a couple of days at Leeman, a small fishing town. The bach is a typical seaside weekend home away from home, like stepping back in time. We stay here for 3 nights to catchup with washing and I talk Kerry into highlighting my hair as it had grown out badly from the Wedding. Turns out very blonde lol lol will match the personality :}

Wednesday comes around very fast and we have to leave this cute bach....we travel East to Carnamagh where Griff and Leanne live on a farm that produces Canola Oil and wheat grain. We joined Griff, Leanne and Greg (Griffs nephew) for a nice dinner. Next morning Griff drives us around his huge farm and a tiki tour around the town. We leave around lunchtime to drive towards Dongara and found a nice free camp just before the town. Geraldton is a good place to get more supplies and visit the old gaol. It is definitely getting warmer especially at night now which is good.

Monkey Mia

Shell Beach



Wow...Denham is beautiful and well worth the 150kms drive to get there and another 30kms to get to Monkey Mia. Its like being on an island in Fiji if not better. The dolphins come right into the beach and they have feeding 3 times a day where the dolphins come right in to get fish. We were too late for feeding but it was still magical to see them playing real close. We stay at Flowlers beach 27kms south of Denham. A free camp right on the beach. On our way out from Denham is Shell Beach. The beach is entirly made of small shells 5mtrs deep. Very beautiful, the water is so clear but feels bit cold for swimming.

Heading towards Carnarvon Kerry noticed one of the back tyres looks flat, so had to change it at the Overlander Roadhouse. Good place to stop for lunch anyway lol. Our first flattie! Hope its our last! McIvor (Kerry, his new nickname) makes short work of changing it, so onwards north. Stopped at a camp called New Beach 9kms off main road, where Griffs Sister Kay and Des stay for 3months. Its a rough road in and very low lying so if bad weather is coming everyone has to get out or you will be stuck there until the road has dried out which could be days. They tell us that rain is forecasted tomorrow so i think we will high-tail it out of here in the morning to be sure we are not stuck.

Headed for Carnavon to get the flattie fixed at Tyre Power. Sorted more groceries and had a look around the town. Bought a snorkel and goggles each. Not the greatest place, seems run down with many empty shops. Our first lot of rain starts, getting windy too. Stayed two nights at free camp south of Coral Bay. Rotated tyres, modified the shower, fixed leaks and generally mucked about and relaxed for two days. Until.....I discover this funny thing next to my belly button which looks like a big skin tag....YUCK....Its a TICK sucking my precious blood. Panic set in to remember what to do to get it out. They burrow their heads into your skin and you have to be careful to get the whole thing out without breaking it off. We smothered it with every cream we could think of to suffocate it, then Kerry slowly pulled and twisted anticlockwise with the tweezers. Gross......dont want to get another one of those on me.

Coral Bay Sunset

Coral Bay and the Coral

Got up early (7.30am) and headed for Coral Bay. Booked into Bayview Holiday Park for the night. Here the tap water is from an Artesian Bore which is 830 metres deep and produces HOT water from the tap, no good for drinking but excellent for showers. The beach is beautiful, the water is warm. The coral is just off the beach so we grabbed our snorkel gear and headed to the beach after lunch. The coral and marine life here is better than Fiji and so close.  No need for a wetsuit. You can go out in day trips to swim with the whale sharks, turtles and manta rays. Could stay here for a week. Sat on the beach to watch the sunset.......Our new favourite place to be :P

We seem to keep bumping into the same people at some of our camp sites. Honey, Gerry and Belle the dog, are from Adelaide and have been leaving us their business cards on our windscreen whenever they see our bus....Our bus stands out like a sore thumb as we have not seen many of them on the road.

Salt Lakes Karratha - going towards Dampier

Port Hedland

Its Saturday 14^th July and we are just south of Karratha at a free camping spot and who should be there too...Gerry and Honey again. Saw a wild dingo today walking out in the open. Karratha and Dampier were not much to look at. Big salt industry with piles of the salt close to the road. We had lunch down at the beach in Dampier. Port Hedland was a very interesting place. The port was busy with big ships being loaded with iron ore and at least 12 ships waiting out at sea to come in and get loaded. Big metal conveyors and cranes everywhere. Fuel tanks, huge ones. Very dusty, red red dust, busy town. Trains with many, many carriages pulling iron ore. A record for how many carriages the trains had was 687 carriages that took 8 engines to pull to port. Most of the shops were now in the new part called South Hedland where they had to make a new town to accommodate all the workers for the port and mines around the area. We stayed a couple of nights north of Port Hedland in a really lovely spot by a river under some lovely trees....the weather is starting to get alot warmer now especially at nights.

Big drive today to get to the next camp south of Broome. Nothing to look at but bush one minute, then giant ant hills the next, to just brown grass. The mirages on the horizon are incredible to look at you could swear there was a body of water just ahead or in the distance, like a big lake or the sea.

Sunset at Broome - Famous Cable Beach

Broome today is 31° very warm indeed. A quick trip into town to have a look around and get some more supplies. A big difference in the culture here, lots of indigenous people everywhere. Cable beach is beautiful. We grabbed our rug and books and headed for the beach for a bit of breeze. The beach was busy and dotted with umbrellas for shade. We made a beeline for an umbrella that no one was under and set out or blanket and settled into some reading. About 15mins later guy came over to us and asked us if we were going to use the umbrella cause it cost to sit under them. $4.00 for some shade for an hour....we paid. lol We stayed around to watch the beautiful sunset into the sea....this will be the last time we see this as we are making our way east now. Another beautiful attraction to Broome they called the “Stairway to the Moon” which is when the full moon raises about the sea, and at low tide it shines on the sand and it gives the affect like there are steps up to the moon. We are either too late or too soon in Broome to see it. Will be a good excuse to come back another time.

Prison Boab Tree

On to Derby to see the Boab Trees.

What amazing trees these are. They look like something out of Lord Of The Rings....they look like they come to life and walk around. The prison tree was incredible to think police used to keep prisoners right inside the tree as a rest point while escorting them to Derby. Had lunch at the jetty which is open to King Sound which has crocodiles in the mangroves....didnt see any though. The town is not much to see. Very much an indigenous town. Only one way in, and one way out. After the Derby turnoff we came across a camp that had a much bigger boab tree right in the middle of the camp. We parked up right next to it and were sheltered by the hot sun. Onwards to Fitzroy Crossing where we needed to get more fuel. The visitor centre wasn’t open so we carried on north/east direction. The Fitzroy Crossing River must be amazing to see when its in the wet season and full flood. Halls Creek is another very indigenous town. Nothing here but a good visitor centre.

Big Croc at Farm

The scenery is better since Halls Creek with odd shaped hills and scrub. We decided to branch off and go up to Wyndham for a look. As you come into the town we are greeted by a large crocodile. The crocodile farm is a few kilometres out of town by the port but well worth the visit. At 11am the tour starts around the farm as the owner feeds these huge man eaters. The crocs come to him from around the area where these monsters have made themselves nuisances around humans. He is called by the DEC(Department of Environment Conservation) to come and remove these crocs and house them at the farm for breeding. These crocs are never released back into the wild. The young crocs are bred for their skins and shipped off to France, I guess to become nice shoes etc. Above the farm is lookout point where you can see almost 360° around. A stunning view of the five rivers that enter Cambridge Gulf.

In Kununurra now to stock up on supplies. We decided that this nice town would be a good place to stay awhile and seek out some work. On our way to the salvation army shop to buy some more books, we came across a employment agency. Popped inside and were offered a job each immediately at a camping ground. It must be my lucky day as well as getting a job I found $20 note on the foot path....yay!

Kerry and I are both working at the Lake Kununurra Camping Ground for a couple of weeks. Julie and David are the managers and have also offered us to park the bus here for free while we work here. Kerry as maintenance/grounds person and cleaning for me.

.