Exmouth to Monkey Mia

Coral Bay 24^th October 2009

Coral Bay

Coral Bay is a very pretty place with coral formations close to the shore and easy to get to for snorkeling. They feed the fish at 3pm each day which attracts quite large ones there. Not as good as Cape Range national Park at Exmouth but still worth it. The caravan park had no fresh water to hook the van up to, only very hot bore water which they used to water the grass and also for the showers so we decided to leave for Carnarvon the next day.

Carnarvon 25 and 26^th October 2009

Carnarvon jetty

Joined the other caravanners for a BBQ that evening at the Carnarvon caravan park and met some of our fellow travellers, most of whom are heading south as we are. It rained heavily overnight and early the next morning which was a novelty for us as we had not seen rain since arriving in Townsville about 6 months ago. Not much to see in Carnarvon except for the 1 Mile Jetty which mysteriously caught fire 2 years ago and has not been repaired to date. There is a small train that runs out on the jetty but due to the rain was not operating that day. It was a refreshing walk out along the jetty and back again. Even saw a small shark.

Denham/Monkey Mia 27 and 28^th October 2009

Denham foreshore

From Carnarvon we drove to Denham and booked into the caravan park there. Met up with Ian and Roz who we first met at Carnarvon and had a very happy hour with them that night.

Shark feeding near Monkey Mia

Monkey Mia

Karratha to Exmouth 23rd October 2009

Stayed only 1 night at Karratha as it was the most expensive caravan park so far at $44.00 per night and a large proportion of the inmates were workers as normal accommodation is horrendously expensive. An average rent for a 3 bedroom house costs $1200.00 per week with house prices well over the $600,000 due to the shortage of accommodation for the mine workers. We even contemplated trying to sell our caravan as we had been told much earlier on our trip that you could get what you paid for it originally but decided that we may have to stay too long there which would have been like purgatory with the heat and dust!

Karratha caravan park

On the way out from Karratha we went to Dampier where iron ore is shipped from a huge terminal. Very impressive.

Red Dog's statue

Ore loading facility

We overnighted at a free camp at Robe River which was very pleasant however we watched in horror early the next morning as 2 European girls washed themselves in the river. Having just come from the top end and been assailed everywhere about the danger of crocs in most rivers or water holes it was a relief that they were not taken.

Robe River

More sunsets

Booked into the caravan park at Exmouth for 1 night. Barry and Cherrie William’s daughter, Sharlene and her partner Barry, called around to the van and they helped us with what to do and see here. Barry even lent us his snorkeling gear to use at the Cape Range National Park where we spent 3 days and thoroughly enjoyed the  snorkeling experience. I am hooked on it now and will check out getting some snorkeling gear for Bev and I to use when we get to Coral Bay which is our next destination from here.

Being greeted at Exmouth caravan park

Camp at Yardie Creek in Cape Range Nat. Park

Sandy Bay

Look Bev, a fish!!!! (there were heaps of beautiful ones right there)

Sharlene, Barry and Flo on their putting green?

Broome to Karratha Sunday 18th October 2009

Left Broome last Wednesday 14^th after about 3 hours waiting for an auto electrician to sort out a battery charging problem in the van.We had intended to overnight at Eighty Mile Beach  caravan park but due to the delay we opted to stay at a free road side camp not far from there and check in at the caravan park early the next morning. This turned out to be a good move as we had all day to check out the beach (beautiful) and caravan park and just relax. We will try to do that in future instead of getting there late in the day and leaving early the next day.

Eighty Mile Caravan Park

Onto Cape Keraudren which is in a National Park. Very basic facilities, no water or power, just a drop toilet but the view from the site on top of the cliff overlooking the bay was just gorgeous. It all changed around 3 am the next morning when we were buffeted by very strong winds which we endured until first light, had a quick breakfast and moved on.

Cape Keraudren

Our view from the van

Another sunset over the water - just love them

Stopped briefly at Port Headland, having driven over 100 klm through a dust storm whipped up by the very strong winds, took photos of the bulk iron ore carriers being loaded and arriving, and checked the very long trains that haul the ore from the mines to the port. The outside temperature, according to the car thermometer was 44 degrees and as it was not very pleasant in the wind and dust we decided to keep going as it was better in the car aircon than outside.

There are 4 tugs berthing this carrier

Main street Port Headland

The free camp we chose was the Herbert Parker Rest Area 62 klms past Port Headland and we had it all to ourselves (except for the cows, cockatoos,sandflies and heat ). It was down a short dirt road and through a gate into a cattle station beside a nearly dry river bank lined with lovely gums. Very picturesque and the cows kept their distance.

Under shade thankfully

Next day, the wind had died down and as we had run out of water after 2 or more showers per day, mainly to cool down, we headed off early and booked into the Karratha Big 4 caravan park, needing to wash all our clothes and sheets etc to get the red dust out of them. It gets everywhere!!!  Here for 1 or 2 nights.

Had to give way to these monsters

Broome Thursday 8th October 2009

It is definitely getting noticeably hotter here and also seems to be more humid. The caravan park has emptied out considerably since we first arrived and the grey nomads are heading South. We have extended our stay here for one more week and will leave for Port Headland on the 14th.

The Staircase to the Moon, a natural phenomenon, where the  reflection on the wet sand at low tide appears to be stairs, occurred over the last 3 nights and unfortunately the photos are not worth putting up on the blog as the camera is simply not able to take night time exposures properly.  It looked lovely but we were eaten alive by sand flies for our efforts.

Sunset at Cable Beach

We did the very touristy camel ride along Cable Beach yesterday (past the nudist section) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The red team (we were the blue)

Len and Marilyn, a couple who we had met at the Bungle Bungles, joined us and we had a great time. Getting on and off the camel was a bit scary with it getting up first on its back legs from a sitting position then it’s front legs with us hanging grimly on.