CAPE KERAUDREN to CARNARVON

Day 98, Friday 31-July-2015
CAPE KERAUDREN RESERVE to MARBLE BAR 266K (11,736K)
On the way out of the Cape we stopped at the Pardoo Roadhouse again to fill some gas bottles and top up our water tanks for a donation to the RFDS, continuing south on the Great Northern Highway then turning onto the Marble Bar Road we camped at the Coongan River Bush Camp with several other caravans about 40k from Marble Bar, a great grassy spot on the river.
Day 99, Saturday 1-August-2015

We unhitched the van and drove into Marble Bar where we went out to the Jasper deposit to collect some rocks to take home, then onto the Comet Mine Museum approximately 11Klms out of Marble Bar, a lot of very old mining equipment plus a history of Marble Bar and the mine, from there we went to China Pool and the Marble Bar across the river, then back into town for lunch, we pulled up at the pub but they did not have a cook, sorry no meals, from there we went up to the café at the historic Government Building which was built in the 30’s and is now a museum, courthouse, police station and café. After lunch we went out to the Hidden Airfield which is about 35Klms out of town, the Airfield was a secret airbase for B24 Liberator Bombers during WW2 launching bombing raids North of Australia, the Japanese never managed to find it, the old runways are still there and in excellent condition plus bunkers for parking the aircraft, concrete floors still remain of the hospital and some of the old

buildings. We returned to town for a cold beer at the Ironclad Pub then back home to camp.
Day 100, Sunday 2-August-2015
MARBLE BAR to INDEE STATION 271K (12,313K)
We drove back along the Marble Bar Road, onto the Great Northern Highway and into Port Hedland, amazed at the size of the piles of salt and the unbelievable length of the Iron Ore Trains, most things were closed so we did the Port Walk where there were some large ships loading Iron Ore destined for China and Japan, it was the “Cars and Café” day in town and there were a dozen or so cars from the local car club on display outside the café. From here we went over to the shopping centre for lunch and to restock at the supermarket.
From the shopping centre we refuelled and then continued on out of town to Indee Station, this is a working cattle station with just the basic camping facilities plus a washing machine and clothes line, we brought the total up to 4 vans when we arrived, 2 campervans and 1

motorhome. This would be one of the friendliest camps we have stayed at, the owners Betty & Colin put on nibblies for Happy Hour in the homestead every night with the guests seated at a very long table, a great chance for every body to get to know each other.
Day 101, Monday 3-August-2015
The morning was taken up doing the washing, it was quite windy today so it did not take long to dry, in the afternoon we went on a drive around the property to the rock pools, a memorial for a Viscount Aircraft crash in 1968 that killed 26 people and the Mouse Pebble Mound. 5.30pm was Happy Hour again at the homestead then back to the van for dinner.
Day 102, Tuesday 4-August-2015
INDEE STATION to KARAJINI NATIONAL PARK 244K
Left Indee Station today for Karijini National Park, still on The Great Northern Highway we stopped at Munjina (Ausky) Roadhouse to refuel and fill our water tanks before travelling into Karajini National

Park.
Day 103, Wednesday 5-August-2015
There are a number of Gorges at Karijini and Pam and I decided to do the walks to the lookouts only rather than the more challenging walks into the spectacular Gorges, some of them 100 metres below the lookouts, on the way out of Weano Gorge our power steering gave up, we were booked in for 4 days but decided we would leave John and Marilyn at Karajini and head to Karratha to get the power steering fixed.
Day 103, Thursday 6-August-2015
KARAJINI NATIONAL PARK to DAMPIER 474K
An early departure at 5.30am from Karajini, it was dark and cold, 4 degrees and a thin coating of ice on the windscreen, we stopped again at Munjina (Ausky) Roadhouse for breakfast and fuel then onto Karratha, we called in to the service centre and arranged to bring it back at 11am the next day so that they could get it up on the hoist to find the problem. Out plan was to stay at the Dampier Transit Caravan Park but when we got there, sorry bookings only the earliest we can get you in is Saturday, so we made the booking for us and the Brutons and headed 20k back to Karratha to the Balmoral Caravan Park.
Day 104, Friday 7-August-2015
I dropped Pam at the shopping Centre and headed to the service centre for my 11am hoist appointment, fearing that it was the power steering pump that was gone it turned out not so bad news, the pipe to the steering box had rattled loose and drained most of the fluid out of the system, the mechanic reconnected the pipe and refilled the fluid, all good and I was on my way.
Day 105, Saturday 8-August-2015
We moved on from Karratha to the Dampier Transit Caravan Park, a great little park, across the road is a beach and a jetty for loading ships with Iron Ore, we set up our camp, got some bait for fishing and went for a walk down to the boat ramp, everyone in Dampier must own a boat because there would have been a hundred cars with boat trailers parked at the ramp.
Day 106, Sunday 9-August-2015
Today was the Dampier Beachside Markets at the sports oval which had lush green grass, there were the usual food, clothing, jewellery and art stalls, I bought a jar of tomato relish. We had a drive around town and went to see the Red Dog memorial, they made a movie about this famous Dampier Dog.
In the afternoon Marilyn and John arrived and we were able to catch up on their trip out to Tom Price.
Day 107, Monday 10-August-2015
John and I went fishing early this morning out the front of the caravan park and caught some “Bluebone”, they are a Tuskfish (Parrot Fish), very colourful and have blue bones when you fillet them, very tasty

eating. After returning from our successful fishing trip we had lunch and then went for a drive on the nearby Burrup Peninsula to Deep Gorge to see the Aboriginal Rock Etchings then Hearson’s Cove beach and the Visitor Centre for the North West Shelf Gas Project, a huge project bringing in billions of dollars in revenue each year, then onto the lookout for Dampier Salt before returning home. Back at the caravan park there was a sausage sizzle and happy hour at 5 which continued through to 8.30pm, a great evening and a chance for every one in the caravan park, about 50 people, to get to know each other and discuss our travels.
Day 108, Tuesday 11-August-2015
John and I went fishing early this morning at Hearson’s Cove, caught plenty of very small whiting which we threw back, returned to camp and then all of us went into Karratha for lunch and some shopping, that afternoon at 5pm we all gathered at the camp kitchen again,

Skipper Brad runs the local charter boat and was there to give a talk on the history of WA, the explorers that arrived long before Captain Cook and the history and development of Dampier, it was a very interesting and informative talk finishing up with a plug for his charter boat tours. Marilyn borrowed (from the caravan park library) the DVD of the movie “Red Dog” which we watched after dinner, it was very interesting to see many of the locations that we had visited and Skipper Brad as an extra in the movie.
Day 109, Wednesday 12-August-2015
We did a day trip today out to Millstream Chichester National Park, the road follows the rail line to Tom Price mine fairly closely for most of the trip so we got to see a few of the huge trains (250 rail cars plus

3 engines ) that transport the iron ore to Dampier, some spectacular Gorges on the Fortescue River, plus there is the old Homestead open to the public with its wide verandas and separated kitchen building plus a walking trail around the Homestead where hundreds of date palms have been planted by the original residents almost 100 years ago. On the walking trail there are a number of running creeks and a large pond with spring fed crystal clear water, in some places the pond would be over 4 metres deep and you can clearly see the bottom, the water lilies growing to the surface and hundreds of small fish. We had lunch under the shady trees in the garden and then headed home via Python Pool, Narrina Creek Gorge and Roebourne.
Day 110 to 112, Thursday to Saturday 13 to 15 August-2015
DAMPIER to BARRADALE REST AREA 337K (13,937K)
We have booked for a week in Cape Range National park near Exmouth but cannot get in there until Sunday the 16th so we have

travelled down along the North West Coastal Road to the Barradale rest area for a couple of days before travelling into Exmouth, it’s a very popular spot and we have met up with several other people that we have camped with recently, also an excellent opportunity to have some camp fires. The North West Coastal Road is straight and keeps on going into a dead flat horizon, nothing much of interest along the way although we are starting to see the wild flowers, the temperature is fairly constant around 28 to 30 degrees with cloudless blue skies, we still have not had any rain since we left home.
Day 113 to 119, Sunday to Saturday 16 to 22 August-2015
BARRADALE REST AREA to CAPE RANGE NP 281K (14,130K)
Travelling on to Exmouth for fuel, shopping and lunch and then onto Osprey Bay Camping area in Cape Range National Park in the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area famous for the whale shark and its abundance of marine life, at Osprey Bay the Ningaloo Reef comes to within half a kilometer of the beach, beyond the reef we could see

whales spouting and jumping completely out of the water, within 50 metres from the beach there were pods of dolphins and in knee deep water we had sting rays, reef sharks and turtles, a very popular spot for snorkeling. Our fishing was not too bad, we caught plenty but unfortunately they were a bit small so we had to throw them back, other fishermen however were far more fortunate than us with catches of large Spangled Emperors and Trevalli.
This marine park is very well managed and just a magnificent place to stay with its scenic coast line, abundance of Marine Life and also some great sunsets. We also visited the Gorge at Yardie Creek, the Bird Hide/Sanctuary at Mangrove Bay, and the Visitor centre which has a lot of information regarding the marine and bird life and the formation of the reef , we really enjoyed our stay here, one of our favourite camps.
Day 120, Sunday 23 August-2015
CAPE RANGE NP to LYNDON RIVER (WEST) 295K (14,707K)
Can’t stay here forever and reluctantly we departed Cape Range NP and travelled back into Exmouth to top up our water tanks and fuel, then kept heading south on the Minilya-Exmouth road to the town of Coral Bay at the southern end of the Ningaloo reef. Coral Bay is a coastal holiday town with a couple of packed out Mega Caravan Parks, we found the local bakery which had been highly recommended by other travellers and after lunch continued our journey south to our overnight stop at the Lyndon River West, free camp area.
Day 121 to 123, Monday 24 to Wednesday 26 August-2015
LYNDON RIVER (WEST) to CARNARVON 163K
Continued on to Carnarvon and the “Outback Oasis Caravan Park”, a great little park with green grass, we set up camp, caught up with the washing and trip to the supermarket to re-stock the groceries. On Tuesday we went out to the famous 1 mile Jetty, the “Coffee Pot Train” runs out to the end of the Jetty but we decided to walk it, there is also a Heritage Museum and the old Light House keepers cottage which we found very interesting. Wednesday we went to the OTC Carnarvon Space Centre, this was the centre of NASA communications during the early Manned flights and Space Missions including the moon landing, we also did the food trail where you can buy fruit and veg from the farms.
Day 124 to 125, Thursday 27 to Friday 28 August-2015
CARNARVON to KENNEDY RANGE NATIONAL PARK 233K
On Thursday we put the vans in the storage area in the Caravan Park and headed out with our tents to Kennedy Range NP, we stopped at Gascoyne Junction for lunch at the new caravan park/tavern then continued on the dirt road to Kennedy Range NP, the country is pretty flat but spectacular with masses of wild flowers, we stopped at a dry riverbed and picked up some firewood for tonight’s camp fire. Our tent set up time was no where near the 20 minutes we used to

be able to do it after 5 weeks on the Gibb River Road, after we set up on the dirt camp sites we then drove out to do the short walk into Honeycomb Gorge, a massive rock fall with honeycomb cavities eroded into the rockface, on the way back we stopped at the site of the Dawson Burrowing Bee, hundreds of small chimney stacks about 20mm dia and 50mm to 100mm high formed form soil from the underground nest, the Bees are quite large and do not sting. Back at camp we had a great campfire for the night, fires are only allowed in the central communal fire pit, a great chance to meet our fellow campers around a blazing fire.
Friday we were up early and did the Sunrise View lookout, the easy part of Draper Gorge and Temple Gorge finishing the day with Happy Hour at the communal camp fire.
Day 126 to 127, Saturday 29 to Sunday 30 August-2015
KENNEDY RANGE NATIONAL PARK to MOUNT AUGUSTUS 259K
The road to Mount Augustus is a wide dirt road, smooth as a highway

and wildflowers all the way, after a brief stop at Emu Hill lookout and lunch at Cattle Pool by the river we checked in at Mount Augustus Tourist Park for our 2 nights camping, rule No1, absolutely no wheels on the grass. We parked beside the grass and set up our tents on the luxury of grass then went to see some of the Aboriginal Rock Etchings passing another Dawson’s Burrowing Bee site, this time in the middle of the road and surrounded by orange traffic cones. One of the station hands was having his 26th birthday and they had hired a singer to perform in the bar from 6pm, we went over for a short while then came back for dinner and an early night.
Day time temperatures are around 30 deg C with clear skies, on Sunday we did the walks through Gum Grove, Saddle trail, The Corella Trail and Flintstone Rock then completed the loop drive around Mount Augustus for our return to camp. Once again we had picked up some firewood on the way in, we dragged over a cut down

44 drum (on the dirt of course) and started the campfire for the night, some of our neighbours joined us and we had another great night around a warm fire.
Day 128, Monday 31 August-2015
MOUNT AUGUSTUS to CARNARVON 501k (16,109K)
A big drive back to Carnarvon (500k) today, we arrived back at the Outback Oasis Caravan Park about 2.30pm and moved the vans out of the storage area and back onto the camp sites, the afternoon was taken up unpacking the cars and re organising the vans.
Day 129, Tuesday 1 September -2015
An exciting day of washing and shopping.