Onslow to Monkey Mia

Before starting this episode it is necessary to explain the reason why we chose this coastal route down to Perth from Port Headland rather than the faster inland road. Our intention was to sample the coastal delights for a future Perth winter retreat in the future and to this end it was a case of sampling areas were we could have extended stays in the future.
Therefore we covered Onslow, Exmouth, Coral Bay, Carnarvon, Denham and Monkey Mia.
This blog has very few images from these places since in our view the brochures more than over state the virtues and delights of each location.
In fact in most cases the brochures test reality to it's extreme, therefore why should we bother other than to say:-
Onslow - a small sleepy resort that we might revisit if passing on roue to somewhere else.
Exmouth - Just a place to visit the National Park, worth a visit if you could find a place to stop in the Park and the swimming could be good, unfortunately the wind was not kind during our visit.
Coral Bay - Would not stop there but keep on driving unless you like lying on the beach with 100's of others and don't object to extortionate parking fees.
Carnarvon - Nice town would call in for provisions when passing.
Denham - Same as Carnarvon except smaller
Monkey Mia - Uncertain about this "Beach", the Dolphin reputation is gross advertising exaggeration. The weather and charge of $6 each to basically walk on the beach and endure shops that have no reality to $ values. The beach chalets were perhaps a redeeming feature.
Then we have a delight that is not yet advertised - Quobba, this is a beach north of Carnarvon that is on the southern end of Ningaloo reef and is currently unspoiled. However progress is planning fir it to be another Coral Bay, visit before it enters the 21st century.
This is the sign that greeted us at Quobba


Just to prove that the wet suit did get wet on Ningaloo reef, it was not the best part of the reef but the coloured coral and tropical fish were good viewing.
Again the wind was a constraint.


The sea at Quobba was impressive, at this location was the sign that stated a person had been swept to his death from the rocks and"was the fish worth a life" the fish shop in Carnarvon sounded better to us!!

This is a Quobba blow hole, note the colour of the sky.

Unfortunately the camera was set to take night photographs and was reset for this image.

The landscape did have some Fauna, this fellow stayed long enough to be captured by the camera, all of the other wildlife we have seen, except Crocodiles have disappeared into the bush before camera were ready.

The travel down the coastline did have some very good roadside flowers and these images only give the individual groups, the carpeted large groups did not look has good has reality.

Even on coral rocks can colour be obtained.

This was the Quobba shoreline with a lone Katherine fossicking.

This is an image of the dieing Quobba - Shacks( or is it Aussie icons!!) that have been holiday homes for years and due to be demolished.

They certainly do not look good -but they must have been good times during yesteryear.

We cannot leave this coastline without a Sunset, the rain did follow the red sky!!

But one of the very special sights on the whole trip was the moonrise over the water at Exmouth.

The quality of our photography did not do this event justice, suffice it to say it was a magical moment on a beach that we shared with no one but ourselves.

Distance travelled from Perth = 22,602 kms

Distance from Perth = 704 kms

Number of days on the road = 294

Out of the "Kimberley's" and into the "Pilbara"

The title of this piece tells a lot, the whole landscape changed.



Given our travels we have both agreed that the Pilbara scenery in the Karinjini Gorge area of the Pilbara is unrivalled - must be seen to be believed.



However as always it is the roadway we experience first and this sight - a 420 km stretch of unfenced road is a first, normally it is 50 to 100 kms. Unfortunately we seen a number of Cattle road kill on this stretch so the warning was appropriate.

On reaching Port Headland which is in the Pilbara but has very little to commend it to the visitor, for us it was refuel and renew food supplies plus an overnight stop with this vision from the bedroom window.

Notice how low in the water the 350m long plus ship is.

The view at night was much more pleasing to the eye.

The ship sailed during the night and the ship below arrived at 12 midnight, Mike awoke and experience a mega tonne iron ore vessel passing within 50 m of the Van.

The ship had berthed by morning and was ready to load more iron ore.
This is the life cycle of Port Headland - millions of tonnes arrive by rail from the hinterland and disappear into the hold of a ship.

Karinjini had more interest to us, whilst Australia needs the Port Headland cycle to support our life style.

Back to the roadside, the first of the wild flowers on show.

Now here is the cream of "The Pilbara".

Colours, shades and contours area are stunning.

To fully appreciate the following group of images they must be opened in a separate tab

This is at the bottom of Dales Gorge in Karinjini National Park.
The trees there seem to grow out of the rocks.

These paper barks are in the base of the gorge and must be inundated with water during the wet season, but somehow have survived to become substantial trees.

This is circular pool at the Dales gorge view from above, when we went to the bottom, the water was cold with water seeping continually from the surrounding rock face.

This is the pool from below.

At the opposite end of the Dales Gorge to circular pool was Fortescue Falls, imagine the view of these falls in the wet when the river is in flood - Awesome.

This is the pool at the bottom of Fortescue Falls.

The Dales Gorge landscape from to top.

Light and shade

The intrepid traveller arriving at the top.

To end this sequence what about a view of life and death, this we believe is a"Snappy Eucalyptus" which has grown a new tree around
the dead trunk - unusual !!

Distance from Perth = 1382 kms

Distance travelled on trip = 20,872 kms

Number of days on the road = 280

Down to Eighty Mile Beach

It has been Southward for some time now and our road companions have been numerous and varied. the Grey nomads on the last couple of thousand kilometres have been the most prolific from our count at least 80% were of our vintage. Without us were would the outback be - uninhabited.

This is a fairly common sight - count the vehicles on the road train!!.

This is one our travellers revelling in an approaching sunset at Derby jetty, one of the very few jetties that allow public access. Port security these days extent to the remotest corners of Australia.




The reason for the access is the sunset from the jetty.

Well at sunset or 5 minutes before the event - 2 bus loads of tourists arrived, watched the sunset and after another 10 minutes they embarked the bus and left. We then settled in at the boat ramp for a very quiet night by the water.

This image is for Anna, she will understand the importance of the feet and their covering.



This is another of the Kimberly specials, they have been around for thousands of years and this one must be over a thousand years old.

So special the authorities have created a rest stop with BBQ's just to enjoy the sight, there is little else there except the cattle that joined us in the evening.




This is the travellers next morning having spent a night at the site, you can just see the Van's front wheels in the picture.

The centre of this tree could easily accommodate a person in the void.

More Crocodiles - or more accurately - Croc on a Rock.

This was sighted on our river trip up part of Geikie Gorge.

Another spectacular part of the rugged Australian outback.
This was just one of numerous reptiles sighted on this trip on the Fitzroy River, they can not be endangered surely??



The colours in the rock are equally stunning as the fauna.

When expanded this image is exceptional.

Another view of the Gorge wall




The reason for the colours was explained by the Guide.

The white is the normal flood level every year and the red is the rust that percolates through the soil and discolours the rock.

After leaving the Fitzroy and Derby we headed south to the real tourist country - Broome and Cable Beach.

Broome had changed remarkably since Katherine visited the town on her backpacking adventure with Alan.

However we sampled the oldest operating outdoor Cinema in the world and visited a doctor for prescription renewal.

The doctor came from Perth each week for a few days and charged $70 just for the privilege of authorising the paperwork. Nice work if you can get it and apparently not many people want it!!

The cinema being directly under the international airport. Planes were about 100 metres above the screen - so there were a few interruptions with Mama Mia that evening.


The scene here is Cable Beach in early afternoon, quite impressive.

A view of Cable Beach for Alan who had a special evening with Katherine here and we had a few drinks on the veranda waiting for sunset.



Part of the sunset adventure at cable Beach is the Camels has they march across the sand with sea and sun in the background. We missed that image due to the Veranda drinks.
However you should note the girl following of the Camels. Please forward your explanation of the covering on the left hand of the girl and why the green bag. By the way she must be left handed!!.

We again headed south after a few days in Broome and came across this sign.



Behind the sign was the following image.


Do we go or pass it by - 10 kms of dirt and corrugated road - our rule to date is 5 kms there is OK and only once have we gone over the limit.


This time it was go.




The beach was enormous and as you can see very few people using the facility.


One of the reasons was the Camp site did not recommend it's use for safety reasons - which were not identified and more importantly the water depth was too shallow.

Disappointing!

More enjoyable was the evening.


This was Katherine waiting for sunset at Eighty Mile Beach.







We have seen a lot of setting suns on our travels and this is another good one.


A reflection at the time by Katherine was "The setting sun from our kitchen window has not been bettered"

The next morning gave a different perspective on the Eighty Mile beach with the sun rising behind Mike and creating a significant shadow.

Distance from Perth = 1826 kms

Distance Travelled = 19,627 kms

Number of days on the road = 269