Broome to Exmouth
Wow,
What a leaving present… Our parting gift the night before we left
Broome was to see a sensational sunset on Cable Beach and some more compulsory
photos of the camels and then drive around to Roebuck Bay to see the most magnificent
“Stairway to the Moon” that you could imagine. The moon as it rose from the east was a vivid
golden colour and the stairway across the mudflats
reflected the same shimmering golden colour. After having spent the best part of 6 weeks
in the Kimberley
this was just a spectacular way of departing on the next leg of our trip.
Eighty Miles Of Beach…. It was onto Eighty Mile
Beach for four days. You cannot book a site here so you just turn
up and they will accommodate you somewhere.
We had a holding bay powered site for the first night before we moved
onto a shaded, grassed site for the rest of our stay. It is a very popular spot for travellers and more so since our last visit in 2000. Our days were filled with the
“ultimate max of relaxation”.
This consisted of Liz walking along the pristine beach looking for
shells. The beach goes forever and at
low tide it can be one kilometer to the water and high tide 40 metres to the water.
Quite amazing. It would be then
time for breakfast, a read of a novel and then it would be time for fishing, as
the tide was approaching the high water mark.
We would drive about 3km along the beach and try our luck.
Along the front of the caravan park, there
would be a fisherman or fisherwoman every 100 metres
trying to catch their dinner. The only
thing was that not many were catching fish which was disappointing. One reason being that there were 
people netting the beach, another was that the water
was too cold. This didn’t stop
everyone going down each day and fishing though.
Once the tide started going out, it was time
for another walk along the beach to find more shells to add to your collection
and bring home. Liz hasn’t worked
out yet what she will do with them. It
was like an addiction. You would sort
them, wash them, put them in rows and look at them. Some ladies even left them
on show outside their caravans for everyone to admire. Liz (being more mature!) didn’t do this
– thank goodness. At the end, Liz
became more selective and even returned some back to the beach. Rock collecting could be next on the agenda!
It would then be time for drinks on the
beach watching another beautiful sunset (left), dinner and bedtime –
ready for the next busy day. After four
days we decided it was time to get moving again - the caravan 
was starting to be filled up with shells and there
were no fish being caught.
Off
Road….. Our next stop was De Grey River. This is an off road camp spot right on the
banks of the river with river gums and shady trees all around. The Pilbara region
had had 5 inches of rain three weeks earlier and the river had filled up with
lots of water which made it quite picturesque.
Again Rob tried his luck at fishing, but no fish. We had a camp fire that night and another two
couples joined us for drinks. You do
meet some interesting people along the way especially when you stop overnight
at roadside stops.
Conned, There Is No Marble…. Next morning we decided to
visit Marble Bar, 200 kms away. This was not on our itinerary, but we had
heard good reports along our travels. We
didn’t know what to expect. The
road was bitumen all the way in, so an easy drive for Rob except for a rather
strong easterly headwind.
We were greeted at Marble Bar Caravan Park
by Ingrid and Gerald, a couple of New Zealanders who took over the park three
years ago. It was a small park with
lovely green sites and spotless toilets and showers. Ingrid gave a talk twice a day to all new
arrivals on what there is to do in Marble Bar and surprisingly, there was a lot
to do. She was so helpful and deserves
to get Marble Bar on the tourist “must visit” list.
Marble Bar is the hottest town in Australia
during summer with temperatures of over 38oC for days on end. The record is 160 consecutive days of
temperatures over 38.7oC (100oF) 
back in 1923-24, but last year they nearly beat this
record only falling short by a couple of days.
While we were there in the middle of winter it was a warm 31 degrees
with a low of around 14 degrees at night.
Rob and I had to put on a jumper as we felt cold.
The town is very small, with of course, the
local pub called “The Ironclad” which is clad in corrugated iron,
the general store and service station, the tele-centre,
shire offices, civic centre, school and the Travelers Inn – a motel and
licensed restaurant which, would you believe was booked out for three
weeks. We had a counter tea at the
pub. We ordered the seafood platter 
which arrived at the table wrapped up in
butcher’s paper. We 
later realized that all meals at the pub were served
take away style. It was a huge meal and
very nice.
There was a lot to do and we started with a
tour of the Comet Gold Mine (left) founded in 1936 by Tommy Star but not
operating now. This was a very
comprehensive 1 ¾ hour tour including a trip underground and a walk through the
gold extraction plant which is now idle.
Marble Bar was named by the pioneers after they discovered rock which
they mistook as marble. This rock is
called Jasper and crosses the Coongan River. The display of Jasper 
and its colours is quite
amazing. The colours
in the rock show up when a bucket of water is poured over the rock (right).
We Couldn’t Achieve Lift Off… Corunna Downs
Air Base was interesting. Approximately
35 kms from Marble Bar there are the remains of one
of the best kept secrets of World War II.
The airstrips (left) are still there and in amazingly good condition
proved out by Rob racing down the runway at 100kph. The Prado however
refused to lift off so we were destined to drive back to Marble Bar. The remains of buildings where once there was
a bustling air base of 2000 people made up of Australians and Americans who
flew out to blast Japanese bases and enemy shipping, and troop movements in 
Indonesia that were threatening Australia in the
north.
Off the Port Hedland Road
and 35 kms from Marble Bar was Coppin’s
Gap a waterhole fed by an underground
spring. This was a peaceful spot and
surrounded with cliffs of jasper rock and tiger iron rock which becomes very colourful when the sun shines on it. Doolena Gorge (left)
was another pretty gorge full of water due to the recent rains and some
interesting birdlife as well. Our last
night in Marble Bar took us back to the Ironclad Hotel for
“dinner”. Most of the people
were the same lot as 
a couple of nights before, with a few tourists as well
who we joined for dinner.
Not Quite The Melbourne Cup… We left to
continue on to Port Hedland where we stayed for two
nights. The Port Hedland
Cup was on so we couldn’t miss it.
It was a beautiful warm day for Cup Day which the whole town enjoys. The majority of girls made the effort to
dress up, while most of the guys dressed in shorts and tee shirts, but they
knew how to enjoy themselves. Rob had a
couple of wins on horses we had never heard of, one being the Port Hedland Cup, but Liz wasn’t so lucky. We enjoyed ourselves just watching the
different sights around us.
Karijini National Park, The Adventure Park….. We visited Karijini in 2000 and enjoyed the park so much we decided
that another visit was necessary. The
road is bitumen from Port Hedland right up to the
Dales Gorge camp ground so we took the caravan in for a bit of luxury. More and more people are visiting this
spectacular National Park due to increased promotion, and more Australians
wanting adventure, and adventure is what you get at Karijini.
The mud maps of the gorges are well defined showing
different levels of difficulty. We
visited Dales Gorge first which includes a rim walk looking down into the gorge
– about 70 metres in depth, then it is a climb
down into the gorge to Circular Pool (left) a beautiful spot for a swim and
lunch. Click on the photo to hear the beautiful ambience of the pool. The
walk along the gorge is beautiful with ghost gums, paperbarks
and natives along the water’s edge.
At the end of the walk you come across Fortesque Falls where the water is tumbling over
the rocks to the pool below. Another
great spot for swimmers but rather popular.
From the falls you can walk to Fern Pool and this would be a favourite spot.
There is a jetty here surrounded by the gorge walls and another
waterfall where you can swim to, and sit under the falling water for a very
good massage. A place
not to be missed.
You
Feel Like Indiana
Jones In This Place, Non Stop Adventure…. The next day
saw us travel to Knox 
Gorge. From the
lookout it was 120 metres below us. Rob made his way down to the gorge floor
while Liz stayed on the top. The path
down consisted of loose gravel and rocks and quite steep in parts but Rob handled
it easily and walked the entire length of the gorge until the Level 6 sign
appeared (left). This Level 6
is for experienced rock climbers and abseilers.
At the other end of the gorge is the
most beautiful fern pool (left). It was
his highlight for the day. Close by is Joffre Gorge and from the lookout there are a small number
of little waterfalls that combine into one big waterfall that falls down to the
pool below. Again you can reach the
bottom by climbing down into the pool area and looking back behind you into the
narrow gorge.
Handcock Gorge was next.
Once you climbed down to a certain level, a ladder had to be 
descended to the gorge floor and from here you
continued until you either had to wade/swim (left picture) or climb around the
rock ledge to reach the Amphitheatre, a large open area with high cliff walls
on each side. The gorge kept going but
we decided to stop here.
Next was Weano
Gorge. Again you climbed down into the
gorge and walked through water and beautiful scenery until you reached a very
narrow opening of cliff face. Care had
to be taken here as it was slippery, but further on there was a handrail (photo
right) that had been put in place for you to move along to a suspended rope
that lowered you to a fairly cool waterhole, again surrounded by steep cliff
walls towering above you. Truly
amazing.
It really is a great National Park, and no
doubt, as more people hear about this wonderland, it will be even busier in
years to come. At the moment there are
only a couple of camp grounds and only a couple of local tour buses bringing
tourists in. Let’s hope it remains like this, but times are changing so
much, even since 2000.
Tom
Price For The Day… We spent our
last day in Karijini visiting Tom Price, the iron ore
mining town. We had lunch in the town
which is not a bad little town – nice and green and fairly clean. We drove up Mt Nameless and reached the
highest spot, 1016 metres, accessible by road in Western Australia. It is a steep, strictly 4WD track, but good
fun. It was a great spot to view the
workings of the mine (left) and see the town and surrounding area. Drove to the lookout of Mt Bruce and saw the
mining town of Marandou
and waited at the railway crossing for the 220 carriages of iron ore being
railed for export.
Oh No, Bad News From Home…. After four
nights in Karijini it was time to move on towards Karratha. We decided
to stay at Point Samson a small holiday fishing town just north of Karratha. We had
been off mobile reception for four days and on arrival in Point Samson, we
received a phone call from our son Andrew.
He had had a skiing accident at Mt Buller that
day and was being transported to Cabrini Hospital
for surgery. He had broken the main bone
in his leg, the tibia, and was operated on the next day. He is now recovering at home for two weeks
off work with at least 8 weeks on crutches.
Unfortunately, their two week skiing holiday to New Zealand the following week, has now had to be cancelled.
Friendly,
Friendly, Friendly…. Point Samson was a very friendly small park
and we ended up being invited for a freshly caught fish dinner that night with
some people staying at the park. The
next day we went fishing with them at the boat harbour. Here Rob managed to catch a few golden trevally before we moved on. We called into Cossack, an historical town
just out of Karratha.
An interesting place full of history but also full of sand flies as well,
but we must be getting close to civilization as they had Cappuccinos. We then moved onto Karratha
for the next three days, and the Pilbara Holiday
Caravan Park
- a well organized and clean park. Worth
remembering. Karratha
gave us time to tidy up and have a bit of a spring clean to remove some of the
red dust that we had collected along the way.
It was also a stopover for the Landcruiser to
be serviced before we made our way to Exmouth and the
Ningaloo Reef.
On the Road Again…. Karratha to Exmouth is a long stretch of road of 550 kms, so we had an off road stop to break the journey. The wildflowers were now coming out and we
saw our first Sturt
Desert Pea just out of Karratha. Once seen,
they were everywhere. We also started
seeing the mauve Mulla Mulla,
Featherheads, different wattles and masses of little purple flowers. It definitely made the trip more interesting,
and it must be a spectacular sight further inland on the way down to Perth. We arrived at Exmouth
and settled into Ningaloo Caravan
Park for the next couple
of days. Hopefully we will be able to
stay in the Cape Range National Park
and explore the Ningaloo Reef from there. We will cover this leg of our journey in
the next episode.