Ningaloo Reef to Karratha

Sun 2 June – We walked back to the small supermarket and bought a few things to get us thru the next 6 days before leaving the beautiful Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef. We are at the base of the Exmouth Peninsula and drove north for 150kms to the town of Exmouth where we filled with free water at the visitors centre. Drinking water is a problem in this area. Most water comes out of bores and is salty and undrinkable. Exmouth gets all its drinking water from a de-salination plant. We are now only using ‘Andy’s’ tank water for drinking and bore water for dishes etc. Very tricky!  We left Exmouth and drove to the top of the peninsula before heading south down the seaward side. At the Lighthouse camp we booked a couple of days on our way out of the Cape Range National Park. Into the park for a 55km drive to our first camp at Osprey Bay. Our bookings in the park are for 2 nights here and 2 nights back up at Neds Camp, all done 3 weeks ago. The whole park is booked out! Shelter from the easterly wind is priority when parking.

This park has the Ningaloo Reef protecting it from the surf so the water is calm. Off to the beach for a snorkel. Not much coral but plenty of fish, all colours shapes and sizes. At sunset we joined some campers at picnic tables and watched the sunset swapping stories. There was a dust cloud forming all around us.

Mon 3 June – It was much cooler in the night. A nice walk around to Sandy Bay with beautiful turquoise water. We walked back along the beach with a dingo following us in the sandhills. Some great snorkelling in the afternoon! Happy hour overlooking the ocean and the sunset. The stars at night are very bright.

Tues 4 June – We woke to a dust storm blowing grit everywhere and were happy to drive north to our next stop at Neds Camp, picking up more bore water on the way. The camp was very small and we are in a sheltered spot. After lunch we snorkelled but did not see much. Nice swimming beach however. Sunset drinks with a couple from Jakarta and Switzerland.

Wed 5 June – We walked along the beach to the next camp. Read in the shade before lunch then down to the beach for a swim. The water was a bit cooler. There is still a strong easterly wind so no happy hour at the beach tonight.

Thurs 6 June – Left Neds Camp and drove out of the National Park and on to the Ningaloo Lighthouse camp. Rain is forecast for the next few days. Val did some laundry and I did some cleaning before we climbed a steep goat track at the back of the camp to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse.  Great views in all directions including some huge radio towers used for defence during  the cold war.

Fri 7 June – A cloudy day with light showers in the afternoon. We walked to beach opposite the camp with the wind howling, rough seas and grey skies. Haircuts all round in the afternoon. Rain set in around 4:30pm.

Sat 8 June – (My 70^th Birthday) Eggs on toast for breakfast and phone calls and emails to wish me Happy Birthday. Back around the tip of the peninsula to the town of Exmouth for fuel and shopping. Exmouth was constructed in 1966 to service the American defence radar station and the military air base. It had the feel of Twizel with the shopping centre being pedestrian only. We checked into a camp and went for a walk around the town. There was an Italian restaurant at the entrance to the camp and we decided to celebrate my birthday there. Val rode her bike back into town for a bottle of wine as it is a BYO and cask wine did not seem appropriate! The restaurant was a great choice! We both had creamy pasta, mine seafood, Val’s chicken followed up by a large gelato.

Sun 9 June – After some “quikeeze”, seems I can not handle rich creamy sauces now I am 70!  We drove south back down the Exmouth peninsula and across the bottom of the gulf to Bullara Station where you can stay and experience this cattle station. There were quite a few caravans etc there.

 In the afternoon we went for a short following a track around the homestead and camp. In the evening we went to “happy hour” where John was cooking damper. Unfortunately, it was for the staff on a Sunday night. We had a great chat around the camp fire however.

Mon 10 June – We decided to spend another night here and went and sampled the famous scones and coffee in the homestead gardens. After lunch we followed another short trail passed several windmills.

“Happy Hour” was packed out as this time the damper was for the campers. We all got a small sample which was more like a bread baked in camp ovens. Another good chat to a NZ couple from Nelson.

Tues 11 June – Back on the road across the bottom of the Exmouth Gulf and eventually we joined the main road north that we had left 13 days ago to go to the Ningaloo Reef and the Cape Range National Park. We drove north and stopped at the Nanutarra Roadhouse for the night beside the Ashburton River. The weather has been cool with several rain showers but it now seems to have cleared. It is amazing how quickly the bush greens up with some much needed rain.

Wed 12 June – We have now turned north west on our drive towards Broome. We stopped at the Robe River rest area and thought it was so good we stayed for the night. There were cattle wandering around in the dry river bed. There were huge flocks on Corellas (white cockatoos) racing from tree to tree screeching as they flew. There were about 20 caravans and campers in for the night.

Thurs 13 June – Breakfast outside with most of the campers gone before we got up. Drove to the Fortesque Roadhouse where we paid $6 for a loaf of white bread! This is iron ore mining country. The rocks and ridges are dark rust red. It looks like you could get iron ore everywhere. On to the Miaree Pool. A slight navigational error took us down a rough track (probably 4WD) before we extricated ourselves and found the only flat site for the night. A beautiful pool but we decided not to swim in it as the entry was thru reeds and we thought of snakes. We sat in the shade and were joined by a mini bus load of miners returning from training at Karratha. They were all New Zealanders and interested in our trip. There were 2 huge mines in this area that they were working at.

Fri 14 June – Only a short drive to the port of Dampier. This is a huge port where Rio Tinto exports Iron Ore from 15 Mines and loads it onto ships at a rate of 10,000 tonnes/hour. The trains delivering the ore from the mines are now unmanned and controlled in Perth. Our camp overlooked the loading facility. After lunch we drove to the other huge installation here.

 The North West Shelf has 6 off shore LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) production platforms 135kms out in the Indian Ocean. The gas is piped to a processing plant where we went to the visitor’s centre. There was a great video explaining the operation processing the gas ready to be frozen before loading into huge LNG transporter ships for the Asian market. It is the second largest processing plant in the world. Back at camp we went for a bike ride along the waterfront and around this very small town. Most of the accommodation is for the miners who fly in for their shifts and fly out back home (FIFO workers).

Sat 15 June – Off to Hearson’s Cove for lunch. A lovely shallow shell beach. The tides are quite large here and we walked about 1km over the sand in the afternoon.

 Drove back to Deep Gorge and walked to an area of Aboriginal rock drawings that were 30,000 years old!! The aboriginals want to drop the word “young” out of “Advance Australia Fair”, cannot blame them really! Back in Dampier we watched the local AFL team give the visitors from Port Hedland a thrashing. We spent some time booking a camp in Darwin for about 6 weeks time.

Sun 16 June – We left Dampier and drove 20kms to the large town of Karratha (pop 25,000). This is another modern town built in 1963 for the mining and the gas. Well set out with very nice homes. We had a big shop as we will be away from civilization for the next 10 days. Val washed all the bedding ready for the next phase of the trip.