21 - 27 September 2010

21 September 2010

We headed into Broome today to the information centre and I worked while Ross did some shopping, etc.  We then filled up with water and headed out to Quandong rest area - we have found pariadise!! What a beautiful place!!  We have set up directly overlooking the beach and the water is that beautiful aqua colour you see on all those island paradise pitures!! 

We headed down to the water and had a look in the rock pools and talked to some other campers - we had a great afternoon. 

22 September 2010

Well, our perfect paradise has been rudely interrupted by a bushfire!!  We were just lying about relaxing and enjoying ourselves when our neighbours pointed out a bushfire just over the hill so we thought we had better keep an eye on it.  It kept coming closer and closer and we could then see the flames not too far away from us so we decided it was time to pack up and get ready for evacuation!!  The people who were closer to the fire just decided to abandon their vehicles and take all their most valuable possessions down to the beach (esky full of beer) and watch the proceedings from there!! It kept getting closer though it seemed to be heading inland rather than towards us but it was still too close for comforte, especially seeing as there were freak gusts of wind about - one picked up our solar panel and dropped it down the gully - how rude.  We decided to get mobile and headed over to have a closer look and it seemed to be ok.  The fire brigade arrived and said it should be safe but keep an eye on it.  We decided we didnt want to take the chance so headed further down the beach to a campsite that was nowhere near the fire and set up there for the night.  It had blown itself out by morning and we found out that the way it had started was by some guy lighting his toilet paper after going to the toilet!!  Dont know about you but I wouldnt be admitting that!! 

23 September 2010

We went for a drive this morning - south - past where the fire had been.  We kept driving until we came to an intersection and took a right and then came out onto an open area and headed left along the coast again and eventually came out to a creek where some other people had just arrived and were about to go fishing.  They said you could catch just about anything there but you could only get there and leave on low tide and the tide was on its way in so if we werent staying we had better hustle.  We had a quick look around and I can surely imagine that it would be the perfect fishing spot as there are some rock cliffs that arent too high that go directly into deep ocean - it would be great but we didnt want to stay for several hours waiting for the tide to turn so we headed on out - lucky we did because we already had to drive through some water to get out!! 

We then headed back north again and took another turn to the left that took us towards the beach (there are several turns here but you have to take the one with the red soil rather than the white sand) and it comes out again onto a beautiful beach with the same type of rock/cliffs (only about 10' tall).  It was just lovely so we decided to throw the lines in but werent very successful because, unlike the other fishing spot, you are fishing straight off the beach and we dont have beach rods so we couldnt cast very far.  There is a bit of a cave there too that you can shelter from the sun in - what a great place!! 

We headed back to camp and had a swim then I worked in the afternoon - tough life!! 

24 September 2010

I worked this morning then we headed into Broome as we want to see the Staircase to the Moon tonight and maybe see a bit of Broome before we head south again.  It has been beautiful here but its still a tad on the hot side and there is no water out at the campsite (other than the ocean of course but not much good for drinking or washing in) and it is an hour's drive back to Broome to get more water.

We got into Broome and spent the afternoon looking around - we went out to the big jetty and wandered around, went out to have a look a the dinosoar footprints in the ocean but it wasnt quite lowe enough tide so we couldnt see them.  We went out and had a look at the Buddah temple with the 4 m hand, carved quartz crystal - pretty impressive!  We did some shopping etc and then went to watch the Staircase to the Moon http://www.broomevisitorcentre.com.au/events.asp which we were really lucky to see because it had been really cloudy all afternoon but it managed to clear up just enough for us to see a beautiful Stairway to the Moon - it was a great end to the day. 

We headed out of town for a rest stop just south of Broome for the night. 

25 September 2010

What a stinking hot day!! We took off in search of the elusive Telstra signal so I could work, dropping in at Barn Hill station on the way to see if we could be tempted to spend a week there if it was a nice enough place – you can stay there for $15/night for an unpowered site but there was very little shade and it was very hot so we decided to press on until we found reception which we eventually did at a little roadside stop with no shade but we had no choice but to stop because we didn’t know how long reception would last for as there was nothing showing on the Telstra map that they so kindly provide but it tends to be rather unreliable. (go figure). So we sat in the stinking hot sun for about 5 hours while I worked – I normally only do 3 – 4 hours but my boss is away so there was heaps of stuff I had to deal with.

We were eventually underway and just kept on driving into the night until we reached De Grey River rest stop about 80 kms north of Port Hedland which is a lovely stop right on the river– there is really nothing in between Broome and Port Hedland – bit of a boring drive. It was still hovering around 40° at about 5 o’clock!

26 September 2010

31° by 8 am this morning! There was no reception at De Gray so we headed into Port Hedland and I worked there - it was so much cooler being right by the ocean!!  Port Hedland isn't much to look at, it's primarily a mining town so unless you have a burning desire to go visit a mining town there probably isnt much point in going there.  We moved on after lunch and doing some shopping and started looking for a place to spend the night.  It is so hot and dry around here, every river we go across is dry so we dont hold out much hope of finding a nice spot by a river to camp.  We had a bunch marked on the camps book to look at but every one of them was next to a dry, hot river, bleh.  We eventually reached Karratha and just past Karratha there is a rest stop that we found that actually has water in it, not only that, it beautiful and clear and cool - yay!!  We obviously decided that was the place to stop for the night.  We are even out of croc country now so Boris can safely swim which he is very pleased about. 

27 September 2010

I worked in the morning - yes - finally a nice place to camp that has internet!!  We have a great spot on the river though it seems to be the local swimming hole so all the locals come here to swim.  Apparently only a few weeks ago this hole was almost dry but they had some rain and it has filled it up again - what a relief!! 

Boris was run absolutely ragged by all the local kids today - he sure is going to sleep well tonight.  There are a bunch of Aboriginal kids that come down to swim - what a great bunch of kids - they are like little energizer bunnies though - they just dont stop - they run Ross and me ragged too!!  Its all fun and we had a great afternoon.