We made phone phone calls first thing this morning and found that we could get into the Cable Beach Caravan Park for four nights so we quickly made our way there. Once we'd found our site at the very large park, we spend the day discovering Broome. This time we went to have a look at Gantheaume Point - what fabulous colours - the intense red of the outback meeting the white sand and the intense blue of the sky and the ocean, the different colours of the rocks. There are dinosaur prints on show on the rocks at very low [View Full Entry]

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We had a couple of days at Port Hedland, most of which were spent at our very nice caravan park at Cooke Point which was grassed, had very nice trees and a pool. By comparison, Port Hedland itself was very industrial - the solar salt flats, piles of processed salt, the longest trains we've ever seen loaded with iron ore, steelworks, big loading iron ore terminals and big ships being loaded. We'd had a good look at it but decided we'd rather relax at the caravan park while we were there. Yesterday morning we left Port Hedland and had a long [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we left Karratha and drove towards Point Samson, about 70 kms away. We turned off to have a look at Cossack about 18 kms before Point Samson and where we were told is another good place to view the Staircase to the moon. Cossack was once a busy port for ships loading and also for pearl diving, and was a thriving little town. Evenually the river silted making if hard for ships to get through so they moved the wharf to Port Lambert, a few kilometres beyond Point Samson. Now Cossack is a ghost town. A few stone buildings are [View Full Entry]

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We had a lazy morning at home, I sorted photos on the computer, caught up on emails etc. while Doug did motor home things. Then we decided we’d go and have a look at Dampier, 18 kms away. It was a bit of a bleak drive at first - bare hills, lots of telegraph lines, signs to mines (Rio Tinto), railway yards, salt flats but when we climbed up the hill and came to Dampier, we were pleasantly surprised. This town was built in 1965 as a port for iron ore. There is a lot of industry - a big iron [View Full Entry]

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After a pleasant couple of days at Carnarvon where we met some very nice 'neighbours', we left there yesterday morning, still trying to decide whether we'd go to Tom Price and Karijini National Park or straight north. We saw the sign to Karratha and that decided us. Yesterday's trip was through outback country - the usual red dirt, grey-green scrub with the occasional beautiful white trunked, weeping gum. Our overnight stop was at Nanutarra Roadhouse, which had a very large area beside it with powered sites with water available too. It was very popular and by evening it was full of [View Full Entry]

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We enjoyed our time in Kalbarri. We took some great drives around the red cliffs where the limestone coast made similar formations to the Great Ocean Road. There is a walk from one end to the other but we mostly drove and walked to the cliff edge. We also went to a sea horse farm where sea horses were bred to go to aquariums. It is another area for wildflowers but it's still a bit early to see a lot. Yesterday we drove the long outback road to Carnarvon - red soil, grey-green plants and not a lot else but one [View Full Entry]

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We left Geraldton this morning and had a pretty drive north - each side of the road wheatfields as far as the eye could see. At each town there was a very big silo and sometimes the town that was marked on the map was just a very big silo. South Australia and Western Australia must produce so much grain - we've seen huge silos everywhere in both states. We saw we were in the region of the Hutt River, which, of course, meant a visit to the Principality. Many Australians will remember the battle between Leonard Casley and the Australian, [View Full Entry]

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We drove south, yesterday to the town of New Norcia. This is a town founded by the Benedictine monks in 1846 where they helped the indigenous population and started an orphanage for aboriginal girls. We did intend touring the town and abbey but found the tour would take over two hours. We had a long drive ahead of us and it was raining off and on so instead walked around the very interesting museum there. There was a collection of Europen religious paintings from the 16th and 17th century which had been stolen from the monks in 1986, but all but [View Full Entry]

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We left Perth yesterday in wind and rain and were pleased to finally stop for the night at the little beachside town of Cervantes to bed down for the night. After a rainy, windy night, we were thrilled that this morning the sun was shining. We left the caravan park and drove the 17 klms to the strange moonscape that is the Pinnacle Desert. We drove through the national park and once we’d parked the motor home, we walked amongst the Pinnacles. These are are statuesque wind-carved limestone pillars up to three metres high, rising out of the sand like ancient [View Full Entry]

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After two very wet days, when we drove around the city and the beaches - usually beautiful with torquoise water and the whitest sand but in the rain just plain dreary - and spent a fair bit of a time at a shopping centre to save from doing each other harm !!, we were very pleased to see the sun today. We had to leave the motor home at the Fiat dealer to get all sorts of bits and pieces done so had an early start getting there, and from there we were driven to the local station to get the [View Full Entry]

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