Free Camp experience

         

                                                              At Tom Price Tourist Park. 

John and I left Tom Price with the intention of staying a night in Parabudoo on the way to Nanutarra Roadhouse. We are meeting up with Elaine and Bob on Monday there but realised we were a couple of days ahead of schedule. Parabudoo looked a typical small mining town although boosting an airport. Guessing it would be used mainly by miners in the fly in fly out work they do. Anyway the town looked too uninteresting for us to spend a night so we discovered a free camp about 170 klms from Nanutarra and pulled in for the night. So our free camping experience has began. 

         

                                          Beasley River Rest Stop

                             

We saw a bad car accident on the way, with police and ambulance attending. One car had run off the road, the car looked a write off. We saw one dazed girl sitting up but have no idea if anyone else was in the car.

      

                                           Coming upon an accident

The camp is the Beasley River rest stop. There are toilets, tables and chairs and BBQ pits. I'll try the gas stove later as usually we use electricity. No mobile reception of course. We can't see the river but it is a short walk to it. It is off the road although you can hear the traffic which is minimal compared to other places. 

I cooked dinner, eggs and cocktail franks on the gas stove and in the morning cooked toast under the gas griller. Easy meal. We were careful with the water we used. 

        

                                         John enjoying the warm afternoon.

When we pulled in there was one other caravan now another three lots have joined us. Two lots are travelling together and come from NSW. 

It is warm but comfortable with a slight breeze. The birds are chatting. 

By the time it was late afternoon, another eight vans had pulled in for the night. We had an early night and no noise thank goodness from our neighbours. 

       

                                  Wildflower on the side of the road

Sunday morning we set off for the 170 klms drive to Nanutarra Roadhouse, stopping about an hour later at another rest stop for our morning cup of coffee.

We arrived at Nanutarra before lunch and met another two couples for happy hour later who were next to us. 

Bob and Elaine drive here from Exmouth tomorrow.

       

                                  Looking for wild flowers to photograph

Karijini and Tom Price

       

John and I have spent three days around the Karijini area. We based ourselves for four nights at the Tom Price Tourist Park, which at $49 per night for a powered site is more expensive then Broome at $47 per night. We will be in Broome in a week's time. The park is very clean and in nice surroundings. A mountain soars in the background.  Tom Price township has a Coles supermarket, a chemist, a bank and various other shops including two cafes. The garage is closer to the caravan park. 

        

                                          Fortescue Falls

The drive back into the National Park is 80 klms each way and the first day we concentrated on the gorges near the east entrance,the furtherest away from Tom Price. The landscape around the eastern Pilbara is a mix of vivid reds and greens. These against the blue sky are striking. The drive each day was enjoyable although the only wildlife we saw was a skinny dingo and an eagle. Both on the side of the highway on different days. 

        

     

The three gorges and waterfalls we saw were very pretty. John wanted to do an easy walk while he was there but the uneven surface, rocky steps with no handrail and the fact you have to walk down into a gorge, turned him off when one stops and thinks of the safety factor.  We tried driving out to some other gorges on our first day but the gravel road was so corregated we gave up. 

        

                                                        Dales Gorge

We heard that a young German guy had fallen to his death at one of the gorges. At Hamersley Gorge a young woman had fallen 4 metres and had serious head injuries. An ambulance passed us on that day speeding towards the park as we were driving back to Tom Price . In such a remote area emergency services would take hours just getting to an accident site. 

         

                                          A large termite mound

We drove onto the gravel road leading into Hamerseley Gorge, it was worth the 55 klms each way to see it. The walk down to the lookout was the best we had experienced at any of the gorges and the gorge itself was the best one of all of them.

        

                                            Hamersley Gorge

         

 

                        

        

                                         Landscape on our drive

John is doing the Tom Price Mine Tour this morning while I did grocery shopping. We will leave Tom Price tomorrow and head towards Nunutarra Roadhouse where we will meet up with Bob and Elaine in a couple of days 

Heading to Karijini NP

         

                                 We drove through  Kalgoorlie on the way to Menzies.  In 2011 we spent a couple of days in this mining town

       

       

We said good bye to Elaine and Bob on Saturday. They went off to Perth and to see the coastal road to the north, while John and I headed towards the heart of the mining industry, Tom Price, to spend time in Karijini NP. This entailed a few days solid driving on the Great Northern Road through Menzies, Mt Magnet, Meekatharra and Newman before we turned in the Karijini NP then the 80 klms from there into Tom Price where we will base ourselves. John and I will meet up with Bob and Elaine again next week and continue up to the Kimberly region together.

Saturday's drive to Menzies was a pleasant one but Sunday we struck rain and it got worse as the day went on.

         

                                                                   Sandstone

           

We got into Mt Magnet a little worse for wear, the drive was stressful when we struck torrential rain in one part, so bad that we couldn't see in front of us. Luckily once the rain cleared the clouds lifted and the sun came out. The roads are carefully monitored and drivers are kept up to date of conditions, usually on a large board on the edge of town

          

               

              The Broad Arrow Tavern in the middle of nowhere. They cooked lovely beer battered chips.

       

                         

  

Monday was a good day on the drive to Kumarina Roadhouse. Both days were long ones but we have a couple of extra days by doing the long haul. We were rewarded with seeing eagles on the road and managing a couple of photos. One lone kangaroo on the side of the road soon after seeing the Eagles had us grabbing our cameras again. Today we saw a very skinny dingo on the side of the highway. 

We encountered many mining trucks on the road a lot of them moving heavy mining equipment. A pilot vehicle warns of the approaching trucks with wide loads. Most of the road trains in this area are four bogies.

      

 I helped out by driving each day except Sunday in the rain. We drove an average of 400 klms on each of the three days.  This afternoon we went to Karijini Visitor centre on our way to Tom Price to get info and maps. 

Tom Price will be our base even though it's 80 klms each way into Karijini from Tom Price we should see a lot in two days. 

John and I enjoyed the drive, the landscape is forever changing. 

Nullarbor Crossing 4

          

 

We are settled in Frazer Range Station tonight. Rain came in through the night in Caiguna and stayed with us most of the morning. We set off about 9 am from the roadhouse with a quick photo shoot at the sign with Australia's longest straight road. Another couple pulled up and we asked them to take a photo of the four of us. We then took one of them on their cameras. Bob said he recognised the man and the lady said "his name is Greg" we realised it was Greg Evans the host of the 80's TV show "Perfect Match" he looked different of course and his hair was dyed black. 

Mid morning we stopped for coffee. I had made scones and served them with jam and cream. We look after ourselves on the road. 

        

Around lunchtime the sun came out, not too soon as we wanted a dry stay at Frazer Range. They had had a few days of rain so the station tours were canceled. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon, I did some washing and strolled around taking photos. 

         

We took drinks and nibbles over to the log fire pit about 4.30 and met a few of our fellow travellers. 

We have a long drive tomorrow, Bob and Elaine leaving us near Coolgardie for Perth. We are going up to Karijini NP and we will meet up in 10 days time. Tomorrows drive is over 400 klms. 

          

      

          

                                          Sunrise at Frazer Range Station

Nullarbor Crossing days 2 and 3

ML Nullarbor Roadhouse was $30 per powered site, no water of course and $1 for a shower by coin for about 5 minutes. The amenities are basic but clean. It was quiet and we all had a good night's  sleep. The weather was cloudy and cool as we left the next morning. We knew it would be a good day's travel there were four good lookouts along the coast to see. The sun came out as we got to the first lookout a lovely view of the Bunda Cliffs. 

       

                                          Awesome views of the Bunda Cliffs

         

                                  

It's still a bit cool at the coastal lookouts, but pleasant for the short walks to view the lovely scenery.

We always pull in to a rest stop about two hours of leaving our overnight stops. Elaine and I do a thermos for coffee and one of us has a snack to go with it. 

The Nullarbor crossing has a good highway,mostly straight. We have not sighted any wildlife yet, the last kangaroo was in Ceduna. 

                        Another coastal lookout closer to Eucla, our next overnight stop after our day's drive of nearly 400 klms. We had to have our vans inspected at the WA border. We ate our fruit earlier and cooked veges in the microwave.  

          

        

                                                        At the SA WA border

         

                                 No doctor for over 1,000 klms except for the Royal Flying Doctor.

                                       The view from Eucla Roadhouse caravan park

The amenities block was very clean and more modern than others we have seen. Eucla Roadhouse was one of the better ones we have stayed at.  $25 per powered site and $1 for the shower. I appreciated the nice hot shower. 

        

                                                                  Parked at Eucla

The drive from Eucla to Caiguna Roadhouse today was pleasant and a different landscape also away from the coast. We followed the Hampton Range for a while, it broke the monotony of the plains.

We stopped at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse for a break and bought some hot chips. I drove for 150 klms.

The Nullarbor crossing day 1

          

                                          

The Nullarbor Roadhouse would be our destination at the end of the first day crossing the Nullarbor. 

Our mileage for the day was about 400klms including the 12 klms into the Head of Bight Whale Nursery near the end of the day's drive, since we saw a large number of whales in July 2011 John and I hoped it wasn't too early in the season to sight the southern right whales

          

We were all disappointed as lovely as the scenery is and how awesome are the Bunda Cliffs, the whales didn't appear. 

       

        

                                                  The boardwalk down to the viewing platforms

         

                                                                        The Bunda Cliffs

I was happy to do about 250 klms of driving today. The motorhome is easy to drive. Some days are long ones on the road, although we try and plan the drive not to exceed 400 klms per day. 

We were at the Nullarbor roadhouse by 3pm, a basic park as all roadhouses are. We will be careful with using our water tanks the next couple of days we have left on the Eyre Highway. 

Ceduna

              

Since Ceduna didn't turn on the best weather while we were here I decided to post a photo of Smoky Bay turn off that we visited on the way to Ceduna. Streaky Bay to Ceduna is only about 113 kms. This town was a sleepy fishing village about 20 Kim's from Ceduna. Keith, the owner of Suncamper told us his parents had come from Smoky Bay so we had to stop and take a photo for him. 

We all had a walk on the jetty and saw a few dolphins. 

         

                                                           A Pacific gull

We saw a few water birds that were not a bit interested in U.S. And posed for photos.

        

                                                                A little tern.

The Ceduna caravan park is a handy place to stay as it is right next door to a very modern hotel. After a walk on the jetty it was time for a happy hour drink.

I have more photos to add but might be without mobile internet for a few days. We head over the Nullarbor tomorrow.

           

                                                       Ceduna waterfront shrouded in a fog 

Bob drove us around the local area, out to a small lighthouse, a memorial to those lost at sea. We had lunch there a nice spot on the bay. There also we saw a large quantity of salt, a local industry no doubt. 

          

                                                   Silly us thought the salt pile was fine sand at first.

          

                                                      The memorial to those lost at sea

We all had dinner at the pub our last night before starting our trip across the Nullarbor. The weather could have been nicer at Ceduna but we always manage to enjoy ourselves

We filled our water tanks as the roadhouses on the Eyre Highway only supply powered sites but no water.