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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Darwin
July 9th 2007
Published: July 9th 2007
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Blog 18
We attended a speedway meeting while in Canarvon , not motor bikes , cars with big wings on their roofs , it was strange staying up late . There were lads staying on the campsite who were racing so this gave us an interest , they didn’t win though.
And so having had our ears lowered , what luck there was a hairdresser on site, we again headed north , our destination Coral Bay , sounds nice doesn’t it , the bay was edged with white sand , the water that lovely turquoise blue , but it was full of tourists , you would have a job to paddle for the hordes, the whole area was fringed with caravan parks one on top of the other , also along the beach were cars and trailers either putting in the water or taking out boats , lines of quad bikes touting for trade for rides along the coast. We didn’t stay long , it was a big disappointment as from here the coral reef is near enough to the shore that you can swim out to it , if you are brave enough that is , a woman 2 weeks ago was bitten by a shark while only knee deep in the water , seeing the number paddling they are either very brave or the incident had been played down , in that typically Australian way. We drove further up the coast to Ningaloo , there was just one other couple there , same white sand and turquoise sea , and nowhere to spend any money . We arrived early evening and already the red kangaroos were grazing around us, the silence was deafening. In the morning we wandered down to the shore and found a giant clam shell , Trevor and Kathy asked if we were going to fish , and why not I have carried a fishing reel, given to me in Eulo , for thousands of miles , Kathy gave me some bait and the line was launched into the sea , it wasn’t in there ten minutes when there was an almighty tug , I let out a bit more line , then started reeling in the mighty fish , Dave ran to get Trevor , we hadn’t a clue what type of fish it was or if it was dangerous , both Kathy and Trevor ran to the shore , it was so exciting , ‘’reel it right in ‘’ Trevor said , ‘’oh yes it’s a beaut’’ . It was called a shovel nose , one of the shark family , Trevor filleted it and we had it for dinner , even Dave ate some , and he doesn’t eat fish. My first fish I hope I can get the photo to download to the blog , had a bit of trouble last lot.
From here we followed the coast road , which was dirt to Exmouth , on the way we had to cross a creek that flowed into the sea , the tide was still pretty high , so we waited , a German couple in a rented van arrived , took a look at the water jumped in the van and drove through , we still hesitated ,they had a snorkel on the van , then a local arrived towing a boat , Dave studied the water with him , paddling across picking out a route , we followed him through.
Exmouth is a good place to go on tours to Ningaloo for diving or snorkelling trips , we headed back to the north west highway , there were no distractions until we got to Onslow , there are pull ins along the road at intervals but there is no shelter , no barbeques , no tables and chairs , just a pull in at the side of the road with two overflowing rubbish bins. We stayed at three mile pool just outside the ruins of old Onslow town , I am amazed this is not in the lonely planet guide , Onslow was proclaimed a town in 1883 , and named after Sir Alexander Onslow , chief justice of western Australia . It supported nearby stations along the Ashburton river and the gold mines that had developed . By 1890 all the land along the river was taken up running mainly sheep and a few cattle , now mainly cattle with a few sheep. The town became homeport to pearling luggers . By 1925 the port facilities were affected by the silting up of the river causing more problems in the loading and unloading of ships that called , there was a survey done and deeper water was found at Beadon point 18 kilometres east , and so the town was moved. At this point I should mention that there were very few roads in Western Australia , everything was done by sea , all along this coast are small communities that haven’t long been joined to the main highway , the trip into Onslow was a round trip of 162 kilometres . At the site of the old town were great piles of champagne type bottles and heaps of oyster shells , looks like they had a good time., the museum also has an extensive bottle collection , it is a very tidy town , looks well cared for. Our next stop was Dampier , in fact to Hearson bay , there are some Aboriginal rock paintings here , and lots of them in a pretty gorge , from the gorge we wandered down to the sea and stumbled across a plaque , it was in memory of Francis Thomas Gregory an Explorer , now this was more like it , he had landed in the Barque Dolphin on may 13th 1861 , his object was to assess the suitability of the area for the cultivation of cotton. The area of course was not suitable but his report led to the establishment of North West Pastoral industry. I guess that is what this side of Australia lacks , this is the first record I have found of any exploration , I’ve just remembered seeing a plaque near Alice Springs , about a chap who set off on a camel , from the known to the unknown ,I believe he was heading west , I will look back at that and see if he came out anywhere .
And so to Port Headland this is very industrialised , big iron mines and salt mines , the iron ore trains are 2.6 kilometres long , this has the longest privately owned railway in Australia. The funniest thing happened here David handed me a street map to get around the town , it might have worked better had it not been a street map of Broome. We are now at eighty mile beach , I might go fishing.
I did go fishing , no bite though. Here we meta Scottish lad who emigrated 8 years ago on our last evening here we saw the most spectacular sunset , there were dolphins swimming in it’s glow , none of us had a camera.
I had envisaged a lovely drive from here north , with the sea to our left and the great sandy desert to our right , in fact we drove for hundreds of miles through scrub on both sides , stopping at Shamrock where we met up with Bede and Marsha , we had last seen them while walking along a cliff top , they both looked a little worse for wear, she had 2 toes wrapped in band aid ,he had injured his hand , it was just a scratch , but it had gone sceptic , I gave them Dettol and antiseptic cream, we then discovered they were both nurses before they retired , but what really made us laugh was that she nursed in intensive care , and he wasn’t sick enough for her ministrations yet. Next stop was Broome , this was a bit touristy but not over the top. Broome grew up around the pearling industry. Cable beach was vast and again with that white sand and turquoise sea, it was reassuring to see a notice that nobody had been stung in the sea for 2 weeks, the water was a tempting 23 degrees , but there were few takers. And so on to Bedunburra, here we met some interesting people , they were missionaries , it appeared they shot and ate anything that moved , telling of how once in Arnhem land working with the aborigines they hadn’t had meat for three weeks , they ate a donkey , the aborigines , don’t eat donkey, thought it was bullocky , he told them it was long ear , go ee aw, they didn’t believe him and ate some. At Fitzroy Crossing we took a cruise along the Gieke Gorge , named after an English man. We have never seen so many basking freshwater crocs. Our next stop was Mary Pool near Berrangi Bridge , there were lots of birds here, budgies , mynah birds corellas , I don’t know if that’s how you spell it , not in our book of 100 common Australian birds , and many others also not in the said tome. Here on the edge of the campsite down by the river was another croc taking the rays , a lad from Northampton wanted his photo taken with it , Dave did the honours , the rest of us were primed with our cameras as he edged nearer, but our photo’s would be for the newspaper report if he got too close. Here again our medical supplies came in handy , no not the croc incident , that passed with no incident.
First I must trouble you to get a piece of paper and a pencil , we are going to draw a bush toilet , I know I vowed not to write anything more about toilets , but bear with me , first draw an oblong , with the longest sides parallel to the bottom of the paper, now halfway across the bottom line draw another straight line at 90 degrees half way up the oblong. To the right of this line draw a circle , this represents a concrete tube 12-14 inches in height , I don’t know what this leads to , rule number three don’t look down. To the left of the middle line across to the corner is the door , well not so much a door as a piece of open mesh on hinges , air flow being a necessity , this opens out. And so you go through the mesh door and into the inner sanctum. There were 2 of these at Mary Pool .And now for the story. On this morning as I was leaving this contraption I was approached by a man who wondered if I might help him , ‘’of course, if I could ‘’ he began his story , ‘’ last night my wife , who is on the tall side for a lady , and heavy in the middle wanted to go to toilet, she was carrying a torch and toilet roll, I told her to put them on the floor and brace herself on the walls either side , ( this would be in the inner sanctum. )but she didn’t listen , she got herself into the preying mantis position , hovering over the hole’’. He paused , a wry smile playing on his lips, we can only imagine the image he was now reflecting on, he continued , ‘’I got her out but she’s had a restless night , I gave her our last 2 paracetamol , I think she has pulled a muscle in her leg, and I was wondering if you had any pain killers to spare?’’ he couldn’t get to the next town as he didn’t want to move her. Of course I obliged with some Neurofen. Just before we were leaving , he came across to report , ‘’I’ve given her two and the patient is now sleeping , thank you very much.’’ It was hard to keep a straight face.
We are heading for The Purnululu National park , home of the Bungle Bungles. This drive was not without incident , we were approaching a lay by with a photo opportunity , an old man was waving us in , it appears he had mislaid his wife’s sister , and her husband , who were supposed to be following , had we seen a silver car towing a caravan , in fact we had but it was back along in a lay by on the right with the bonnet up , we hadn’t stopped as there were other people there giving assistance. They thanked us and headed back. We took a few photo’s the scenery was getting more interesting now as we were heading towards the Kimberley’s , when we reached the next lay by , there was a silver car in it towing a caravan , the passengers were more than a little surprised when we asked if they had lost a sister and her husband , we explained what had occurred , they were relived , but astounded that the other couple had not seen them overtake. We waited with them , they felt sure the others would return soon as there was only one road. An hour later and there was still no sign of them , Dave and I decided we would go back and see if we could see them , we told them to stay put. We hadn’t gone 5 kilometres when we saw them coming along the road towards us , we turned around and tucked in behind them , as we approached the lay by with the waiting sister and brother-in-law we were surprised , the car we were following drove passed. We pulled in , ‘’yes that was them the other sister announced , and in the distance we could see them turning around., shouldn’t be let out with a wheelbarrow was in both our minds.
We drove into the Purnululu National Park , to reach the visitors centre is 53 kilometres of the scariest road we have travelled on yet , the sign did say allow three hours to reach the centre , and engage 4 wheel drive now. Our first major obstacle was a river , we had just passed a vehicle going in the other direction and we could still see the tracks he had made entering and leaving , so we broke the first rule , we didn’t get out and walk across before entering the water , which I have to say didn’t look too inviting for taking a paddle , we knew there were crocs in the area , be then only freshwater , and so we blindly plunged in, what a little beauty the van is she dragged us over rocks through ever deepening holes in the river bed and safely across. Nobody has invented an amusement park ride that would rise and fall, twist and turn like we drove for the next fifty kilometres crossing another five or six creeks. We registered ,we set up camp and downed a few tinnies , for medicinal purposes you understand, all that kept David going was the thought that if we turned back we would have to re-cross that river and he wanted time to think about that, at least two days. The rock formations resemble giant bee hives , orange and black stripped , and they tower above you , we walked to Cathedral Gorge , the floor of the gorge is covered in sand in the middle of which is a pool , the strange light made the water look as if it was under lit, it was beautiful. We did this walk early in the day as we had been warned about the big four wheel drive tour buses that usually arrived about lunch time and when their passengers were disgorged it took on more of the look of a busy shopping mall. We then followed the dome walk , passing the bower of a bower bird and his collection of shiny things gathered to impress the misses, this took us in and out of these spectacular erections formed over millions , if not billions of years by the forces of nature. The next morning while cooking breakfast we ran out of gas , not a real big problem as there were barbeques with wood supplied for cooking on , but this also meant the fridge would not work , there is no power in the middle of nowhere. We would be ok if the beef went off we could fall back on our supply of tins. This day we part drove , in fact 25 kilometres from the camp site , and then walked to echidna gorge , the contrast with what we had already seen was unbelievable , the gorge was strewn with palm trees , and all sorts of green plants , like a mini rain forest , we followed this narrowing gorge until we reached the end where it was only about a metre wide, the walk was quite hard following an old river bed full of big boulders much like those we supposed we had driven over , it was well worth it , just as we reached the end the sun was right over head lighting up the towering red and black walls through the gap hundreds of feet above us . The next day we would tackle the return to the bitumen. After the fifty kilometre roller coaster ride we stopped at the edge of the river to allow a convoy of four vehicles to pass in the opposite direction , the last pulling alongside advising us to keep to the left for a smoother crossing, rule number two , don’t listen to strangers , and so we ploughed through , needless to say after holding our breath we came out the other side. What an adventure !!!
Exhausted , filthy and in need of a rest we parked in a site opposite the entrance to the park , there was no wood or barbeques here , fortunately we met some people who had made the same journey and they offered us the use of their camp cooker and fire. There would be no washing as the next water was miles away , and the quality is always doubtful until you arrive , and so any water you have is kept for cooking and drinking. That evening a couple with a large bus and three large dogs arrived , they were going in to the Bungles the following day , a man who was staying on sight offered to look after the dogs for the day. The next morning we continued our journey north to Wyndham , we hadn’t been on the road long when it started to rain, the caravan park is in the middle of this small town , I asked at the tourist information if there was a nice restaurant , the lady just laughed , both eating places4 kilometres in either direction , neither with silver service. We first went to the pub , telling the landlady of how we had hoped we could have a good meal maybe a glass or two of wine and not having to draw straws for who would drive to the site , she suggested we tuck ourselves up the back , there was a shower and toilet and we could plug ourselves in , four days later we were back on the road , the rain had eased , there had never been rain here in June for the seventeen years they could remember, during our stay we heard the road to the Bungle Bungles had been closed the day after we left , and there were too many people to fly out so food was being flown in for those stranded there. We stayed in Wyndham so long as we were waiting to go down the King River road as there was a lot of interesting things to see , and this road also had been closed , 80 people were trapped down there at a resort , there was plenty of food but the beer was running out , this was a disaster on a grand scale. The road we wanted to go down would not be open for at least three days after the rain stopped , and so we left Wyndham. We are now at Lake Argyle we have been here 2 days and it is still raining, tomorrow we will hit the road again and do this bit another time. From here we tried to keep ahead of the weather , it stopped when we reached Darwin , we are now heading for Gunn point , to catch up with Stephen and Alison who we last saw at Rainbow Valley south of Alice Springs. The van is to be serviced again in 5 days time , so we will just relax , until we head south for the last time , we are going via Innaminka , and the dig tree (Burke and Wills ). Our journey will take us back through Boulia , the min min light area then we are going outback to Birdsville , through Bedourie , we don’t know which route to Innaminka from here until we get to Birdsville , we have to check out the road conditions first, this will be our last big adventure this trip , there is a lot of dirt road between us and our goal , we can’t wait.


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