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Published: August 22nd 2013
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Happy Campers
De Grey River - secluded camp spot with a musical trio. From Karratha, the journey is only a little north of east as we follow the coast past Port Hedland to Broome. What a truckie does in a day, we took a week camping by various rivers and or free camps.
We must commend WA Main Roads for the excellent new toilets and dump points for travellers in the region. They leave other states in their dust, and the sites are quite rubbish free, probably because they are serviced weekly including emptying the many rubbish bins.
So what do you see? This is the beginning of wild flower season, so we were able to enjoy the many colourful flowering shrubs along the way.
The area has an interesting diversity of bird life, so again we had fun trying to get the perfect shot of the whistling kites and many other smaller birds that survive in this arid region.
The De Grey River is a very popular spot to camp. Down by the river there are many spots to park, but very unlevel. We chose to camp in the sun - good for solar power, level, and away from the seriously dusty central rest area.
In July 2013
Sunrise
De grey River the De Grey area had very unseasonal heavy rain which washed out the railway approach to the river crossing. $1.2 billion repair for BHP to service their Goldworthy mine. I think this included a rebuild of a troublesome area of track just uphill from the river. The BHP trains have 100 to 130 carts per train (6 locos) and each cart holds 150 tonnes of iron ore.
Typical of northern WA, we had many road trains and wide loads to avoid, but generally found everyone up here very courteous on the roads. These trucks travel around 100ks, we cruise at 85-90ks, so often we see them for quite some time before they pass us. Some car drivers have a form of blindness where 130 or more looks like 110ks on their speedos. They come and disappear more quickly.
It was interesting to see the daily variations in fuel use. Some days, under 11 litres per 100ks, but on one windy day on this stretch about 14.5. David noticed the same with his van.
Wandering cattle are more of a problem here than 'roos, but because of wide road edges and long straight roads, we were able to
Termite mounds with miners helmets
A tradition is for miners leaving a site to hang their hat on a tree. No trees here, so the many termite mounds have been adorned. travel safely. David had to stop for a large frilly necked lizard. Unfortunately the co-pilot couldn't find the camera to confirm the description.
The Goldwire rest area is tucked amongst trees but it was not until nearly dark the small birds showed themselves. The grey honeyeater would be at the extreme of their normal habitat. One sat on a tree close to our MH and sang for more than an hour. We could hear others responding from a distance.
Then, when it was getting dark, we could hear a real commotion from a tree not far from us. Marg got me to bring cameras and we photographed a family of hooded babblers. Once mum and dad arrived home, the young ones popped out of the nest one after another for a bed time feed. Not sure how they all fitted inside their enclosed nest, but it would have been very snug!
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Mum & Dad
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Another interesting blog
Enjoyed your efforts again sort of like being there too. Great experiences to tuck away in your memory bank and in pictures.