Point Samson, Millstream Chichester NP, Dampier, Murujuga NP, Karratha & Perth

Our preferred route from Tom Price to Point Samson was via the Rio Tinto Rail Access Road that follows the line for around 200km through the Pilbara outback. To get permission to use the road it is necessary to obtain a permit from the Visitor Centre, which requires watching a 20 min safety video warning of all the potential dangers en route, especially when the weather is poor, so that Rio Tinto is not liable for any accidents, such as: 

It was another great experience to drive alongside the track and see the immensely long iron ore trains transporting their valuable cargo to Dampier, as well see the countryside that would not otherwise be accessible.

Fortunately, the conditions were kind and no disasters befell us!
 

After we left the Rail Access Road, we briefly visited Millstream Chichester NP, which contains more extraordinary landscapes stretching to the horizon and a beautiful spot called Python Pond

where we had our most enjoyable picnic of the whole trip, entirely alone, consisting of smoked salmon sandwiches, cream cheese and lemon, followed by strawberries, all watched down with Bundaberg ginger beer. If there is a resident snake, he didn’t show up during lunch.
 

Our 2 days at Point Samson on the coast were fabulous, constant blue sky with no clouds and a temperature around 28C, and we were upgraded at the superbly appointed Samson Beach Chalets. It was the best weather of the trip, which continued as we stayed in Dampier and Karratha, before flying to the cooler and stormier climate of Perth for 2 days at Cottesloe Beach prior to our UK return on Monday.

This is one of our favourite places in Australia and a wonderful place to celebrate Mary’s birthday on Sunday, but so different to be here in the winter with the waves crashing onto the beach and a wild and windy night!

The day was memorable for taking advantage of an impromptu opportunity. We had seen an Outback art exhibition advertised in Subiaco, a Perth suburb, which turned out to be excellent and then we came across the Regal theatre, a beautiful old art deco building. We explored inside and found a small café then realised that an Argentinian Tango show, featuring the famous Tango Fire was starting in 25 minutes and tickets were available. They were absolutely outstanding so Mary was delighted with her surprise birthday treat.

Dampier,

named after the British explorer William Dampier who visited in 1699, thrived during the mining boom in Western Australia but that is over now and the town has a tired feel, with lots of worker accommodation no longer being used. We visited the IGA in the shopping mall at lunchtime and we were the only customers and the guests at the 65 room motel numbered about a dozen, so quite sad, although the locals we met seem to be happy living there. One peculiar fact is that all the houses face north, presumably to benefit from the warmth and all are low rise to counter the regular cyclones in the wet season. 

On the plus side, the nearby Burrup Peninsula has the North West Shelf Project Oil & Gas Plant which is the largest in Australia and is exploiting the vast resources of the Carnarvon Basin, employing hundreds of people and providing a significant boost to the economy, with huge exports of gas to China, Japan & Korea and oil to various countries. It is a highly successful 30 year story which we learnt from the impressive visitor centre overlooking the vast site on the coast.

The Pilbara red rock landscape is spectacular and the Murujuga NP on the Burrup Peninsula contains thousands of petroglyphs dating back 30,000 years.

We had to clamber over the rocks of a dry creek in Deep Gorge to find the rock art. At least we had reasonable footwear, many of the Aussies were wearing “Aussie walking shoes”, what we call flip flops and they call thongs. We also saw our first 2 kangaroos of the whole trip! The Peninsula also contains a couple of lovely coves and almost deserted coastline which we explored.

Karratha (Aboriginal word for “good country”) is 21km from Dampier, a modern city established in 1968 to cope with the expansion of the mining industries, now has a population of over 25,000 and every other property seems to possess at least one boat – wealth that accumulated during the mining boom, also indicative of an Aussie hobby which includes fishing of course! On the other side of the coin, at the airport we met a couple of women who the previous day had been laid off by the closing of a magnetite mine at Marble Bar in the Pilbara, which brought economic realities to life.

To finish on a lighter note, more examples of Aussie straightforward terms for their shops and products, with no fancy branding; the Bad Back Store in Perth and this sting relief, called Sandfly and Mozzie Stuff!

 

Karijini National Park

Karijini NP is the 2^nd largest NP in Western Australia, situated 325km from Port Hedland in the Hamersley Range at the heart of the Pilbara. The rocks that make up the spectacular landscape, with more than a dozen stunning gorges and waterfalls, are amongst the oldest on Earth, over 2,000 million (2 billion) years old. Erosion and rapid river flows created the gorges and compression of iron and silica rich sediment has sculptured the geological rock formations we see today.

We explored Port Hedland during Friday, including learning about the turtles that hatch locally as well as more on the critical iron ore industry (which gives the whole town a red dusty layer, which I imagine must be unpleasant when the wind blows!), saw evidence of the long trains and boats that transport the minerals, visited the impressive Seafarers’ Centre, ate dinner at the Yacht Club but our second evening was cloudy and therefore the Stairway to the Moon did not appear, so we were lucky to have seen a perfect one on Thursday.

More evidence of local industry in action was to be seen on the Great Northern Highway on the way to Karijini NP, when we passed countless 4 truck “road trains”, this being the longest:

 We had left early on Saturday to drive to Karijini NP and stay 2 nights in an eco-tent, located in their Eco Retreat village. Here is the tent and the view from inside:

This gave us the opportunity to explore Dales Gorge in the afternoon, followed by Weano, Kalamina and Knox gorges on Sunday. The surprise was not how spectacular everything we saw is, including walking down into and along three of these gorges, it was the un-seasonally cold and partly wet weather, which stopped us exploring other gorges – we had expected to be scorching hot, especially sleeping in a tent during their dry season. An unexpected bonus was the superb dinners we had each evening and meeting various travellers from different parts of Europe and Australia.

When we woke this morning, the blue sky and sun had returned, so before leaving we walked to Joffre gorge, closest to the Eco Retreat, and saw how the sun brought out the rock colours better. Words and even photos cannot do proper justice to the sights we witnessed in Karijini NP, but suffice it to say that it more than exceeded our high expectations and we would recommend highly. Here are a few examples:

 

 

 





On our way to Tom Price today, a mining town 50km from the park exit and also the highest town in Western Australia, we followed a camera sign off the road assuming we would get a good shot of the surrounding Hamersley Range mountains, only to find a secluded car park with numerous messages on rocks and other materials for loved ones who had died. We were trying to understand the significance when fortunately a Ute arrived with 2 Aussies who explained that it was the Miners’ Sorrow, a multiple shrine for miners and relatives, some killed tragically in accidents, who “watch over us”. It was a moving experience.

Throughout our drives through the Kimberley and Pilbara regions we have seen literally thousands of termite mounds of all shapes and sizes. Here is an example of a large one:

Sandfire, Eighty Mile Beach, Cape Keraudren & Port Hedland

Sandfire is just a roadhouse,

around 330km from Broome, heading south along the Great Northern Highway, simply a place to stop on the way to somewhere else. It is situated on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, a huge expanse of outback Oz.

Eighty Mile Beach runs along the Indian Ocean, either side of Sandfire. It is famous for its white sandy beach, fishing, shell collecting, sunsets, sunrises and its solitude.

Cape Keraudren is situated at the southern end of Eighty Mile Beach and is stunningly beautiful, a coastal reserve, with camping sites and white sand beaches, vivid blue sea and creek water.

Port Hedland in the famous Pilbara region, is a complete contrast to the above, being the major Australian port for exporting iron ore to China, Japan and Korea, effectively what has sustained the Aussie economy since the first boat sailed in 1966. It is now a highly industrialised and efficient operation run by BHP Billiton, with 12 trains, each over 3km long, arriving each day with over 200k tons of raw material to be transferred to one of the 850 ships, each over 300m long,

that leave annually, worth over 3 billion Aussie dollars. The Pilbara supplies 34% of the world’s sea-borne iron ore trade.

Port Hedland is also a favourite location for witnessing the phenomenon of Staircase to the Moon, on three days each month when a full moon rises in the evening to coincide with an extremely low tide and the reflections on the exposed mud flats create the illusion of stairs reaching to the moon.

On our return from Cape Leveque we spent one last 24 hours in Broome at the Blue Skies resort, witnessed another perfect sunset with Gene & Julian and watched the surfers taking advantage of the decent conditions in the morning,

before heading off on the 3 hour drive, with little traffic but constantly changing landscape, to the Sandfire Roadhouse. It is reminiscent of the Nullarbor Roadhouse where we stayed last year but wins out by having a camel,

a bull, wallabies and bats, plus peacocks and geese wandering around the caravan site and outside the basic motel rooms.

The following day’s 350km drive to Port Hedland included 20km detours to Eighty Mile Beach, which has more sea shells and exotic pieces of coral than we have ever seen in the world,

and Cape Keraudren, where we had a picnic next to the creek and found it hard to tear ourselves away from the extraordinary beauty of the place.

Much of the journey to Port Hedland also crossed the Great Sandy Desert, with views far into the distance in all directions.

At Port Hedland we are staying at Cooke Point caravan site, close to the recommended spot to see Staircase to the Moon, which coincided with our visit. We got in place on the sand overlooking the beach with a bottle of white wine about 40 mins before the due time (19.06) and the crowd grew to at least a hundred by the time we could see a glow in the distant sky, then the moon peeped through and as it rose into the night sky the stairs began to form until there were about a dozen clearly visible – quite a dramatic spectacle.

The last 3 nights illustrates the wide variety of places we stay, a huge room with every facility imaginable, followed by the most basic motel room on the edge of a desert, then a small (but well-equipped) cabin on a caravan site! All part of the Oz travelling experience, which we love so much!

                                                                                                                                  

Fitzroy Crossing, Geikie Gorge & Cape Leveque

Fitzroy Crossing is in the heart of the Kimberley, set on the banks of the mighty Fitzroy River, not the longest in Australia but the one with largest volume of water (in the wet season) that can rise up to 26m! The town has been settled since the 1880s and has a large Aboriginal population. It is the gateway to Geikie Gorge and a regular stopping off for “grey nomads” and other travellers along the Great Northern Highway, as the nearest towns are Halls Creek (291km) and Derby (260km).

Geikie Gorge

is another superb example of the Devonian Reef, sculptured by the fearsome flow of the Fitzroy River during each wet season over millions of years.

Cape Leveque is at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula, 220km north of Broome, accessed by more than 90km of un-sealed sandy road, only suitable for 4WDs.

Having experienced the tropical rain at Fitzroy Crossing on our first evening, we woke to a dry morning and were able to have breakfast on our balcony overlooking the Fitzroy River, albeit with minimum water compared with the wet season.

Our River Studio on stilts was luxury and exclusive accommodation, set apart from the motel rooms and the campsite at Fitzroy River Lodge.

During the day we purchased supplies from the local IGA for a barbie on our balcony that evening and drove 18km to Geikie Gorge NP for a one hour boat trip on the river, with highly knowledgeable guide Harry who described the formation of the gorge and picked out birdlife, sunbathing crocs and playful wallabies on the sunny bank. Amusing sign in the NP car park: SLASHING TODAY.

The following day, we left at 8am to drive 400km back to Broome, with not a cloud in the sky all day and little traffic. The landscape changes subtly with slight rises or falls in the altitude and the area is festooned with termite mounds, mostly small. There are a few magnificent boab trees too, none more impressive than this: 

This was a sign at the Willare Roadhouse where we stopped for coffee:

Back in Broome, we stayed at the Moonlight Bay Studios, with a superb swimming pool, close to Roebuck Bay and met Gene & Julian for a very sociable evening of fish & chips washed down with a few glasses of wine.

Saturday morning and another cloudless sky, breakfast at the famous Matso’s, shopping in the town for our 3 day trip to Cape Leveque and check over our newly exchanged Avis car, including reducing the tire air pressures for the sand surface road. The journey took a little over 3 hours, including a stop at the beautiful Sacred Heart church in Beagle Bay, an Aboriginal community. The church is decorated extensively inside with sea shells.

We stayed at Kooljaman, the Bardi Aboriginal name for the land at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula. Two surrounding indigenous communities of Djarindin and One Arm Point own Kooljaman, which has been established for over 20 years and has a wide variety of accommodation. Ours was a well-equipped log cabin,

with en-suite, that would sleep 5, with fridge/freezer and hot water (solar powered),

modern barbie, large table outside etc and less than 100m from the Eastern swimming beach.  
The options for eating are varied too, so we had our own barbie first night, ate in the fine dining restaurant the next night (the Irish chef had worked in Michelin star restaurants in Europe and designed an incredible menu with lots of local ingredients picked during the wet season, such as riberry fruit).

The third night we opted for a delicious pizza cooked fresh in an oven in the grounds overlooking the western beach and sea – very romantic.

We had flown over Cape Leveque a week earlier on our way to the Horizontal Falls, so it was exciting to be there on the ground and discover the glorious beauty of the place, colours of the sea, sand, sky and rocks

 

and the chance to see humpback whales migrating through the Buccaneer Archipelago to their breeding grounds 200km north. There are local trips worth doing to One Arm Point (an Aboriginal community) and Cygnet Bay (a working pearl farm), so we drove to both on our third day and were rewarded with fabulous views of Kings Sound and

mangrove trees on the beach!

At Kooljaman, we met a friendly, interesting and well-travelled couple from Perth, called Wayne and Leonie, and were discussing politics, travel and sport looking out west to sea and spotted a dolphin doing its graceful dives and then were delighted to witness a whale exhibiting its full tail dive. The following day we were lucky enough to see 4 whales playing and diving out at sea.

By 9 each night everyone is in their cabins, tents etc and most lights are off, which means adjusting sleep times to wake up early, soon after sunrise before 7am and a swim in the sea before breakfast!

Kooljaman is the epitome of remote but with modern facilities although no tv or internet, so for the first time on the trip we have been cut off from the news for 3 days (except for knowing that England lost the Lord’s test to Pakistan, Stenson won the Open golf and GB beat Serbia in the Davis Cup, all received by text). Previously, we have been more than conscious of dramatic World news, waking up 3 consecutive mornings to the UK’s new Prime Minister, the unspeakable horror of the Nice attack and an attempted coup in Turkey. It reminds you when on holiday that life continues regardless!

 

Derby, Wandjana Gorge & Tunnel Creek

Derby is 220km from Broome, located on King Sound near the mouth of the Fitzroy River, surrounded by mud flats and has a huge tidal range producing the largest high tide in Australia reaching nearly 12m. It is also known for its dramatic sunsets. 

The town was founded in 1880s and was the first to be settled in the Kimberley region. It originally provided the port for the export of hundreds of thousands of cattle and supported the gold rush pioneers. Now it is a service town for the pastoral, mining and tourism industries. It is the gateway to the Buccaneer Archipelago and the gorges along the famous Gibb River Road. The Derby streets are wide to accommodate the mule and camel trains of the past with avenues of amazing boab trees and low level architecture.

Windjana Gorge is situated 145km east of Derby and 20km from the Gibb River Road. It became a National Park in 1971 with the main attraction being a scenic gorge created by the Lennard River through the Napier Range which exposes a classic geological ancient reef system, called the Devonian Reef, created over 350 million years ago. The river has taken millions of years to erode the gorge and its gravel has contained ancient fossils of extinct crocodiles and turtles.

Tunnel Creek National Park is a further 36km from Windjana Gorge and takes its name from the 750m long tunnel carved out of the limestone range by flowing water. Fractures in the limestone were enlarged by water seepage and the creek adopted its current underground course.

It also has an interesting history as the hideout for Jandamarra, a member of the Banuba people who lived in the area in the 19^th century. He was a fighter for Aboriginal rights and evaded police for years by using the tunnel as a retreat. He was eventually killed by police near the back entrance in 1897.

On our last full day in Broome we visited the Sunday market which was excellent and several purchases were made, had a couple of hours on Cable Beach, watched another great sunset over a beer and cooked a barbie for the six of us. Here are a couple more Broome photos:
 












We said goodbye to Aid & Ed at Broome Airport on Monday and also to Gene & Julian (although we’ll see them again in Broome at the end of the week) before setting off for Derby to stay 2 nights at the modern Spiniflex Hotel (known by the locals as the Spini).

Unfortunately the weather prevented us seeing sunsets on either day but spending a day in the town was still interesting, particularly to witness the art and meet the owner at Mark Norval’s gallery

and to visit the Mowanjum Aboriginal Art & Cultural Centre outside the town.

The Derby visitor centre is one of the best I can remember and the numerous boab trees are a lovely feature of the town. Neaps Bistro provided a cracking breakfast and an enjoyable evening meal!

The trip to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek meant an early start since we would be driving over 300km during the day to reach our next stop at Fitzroy Crossing, including over 120km on Fairfield Leopold Downs Road, an un-sealed route that passes both the national parks.

The first part of the journey was our first experience of the Gibb River Road which was quiet and unexceptional (since the classic parts of the road are further east). Once we turned off, the quality of the road was constantly varying, so the car and drivers got a real test, but we suffered no mishaps. However, we did help to rescue a couple of British girls driving a rental van without 4WD who had stopped at a creek crossing where there was what one described as a “puddle” but was in fact a foot of water covering the road. By putting on my trusty jelly shoes I was able to establish the best route through the water and then Mary drove our Mitsubishi Pajero through it successfully before encouraging the girls to do the same.

Windjana Gorge was a gem, with its beautiful colours and strata of the high rocks, the birdlife, variety of classic Aussie trees and numerous small and medium sized fresh water crocodiles bathing on the banks or in the river.

We walked along a scenic path for an hour in both directions before returning to the car park to eat our packed lunch and then head for Tunnel Creek, which also more than lived up to expectations.

By clambering over rocks and through a narrow entrance, we reached the tunnel, which is 12m high and 15m wide in places, and walked through water (using our jelly shoes) and over sand in darkness, lit only by a torch, which was really atmospheric with incredible rock formations created by dripping water. The bats that roost there were not to be seen and when we were warned there was a snake in the water we turned back!

Finally, we drove the remaining 111km to Fitzroy Crossing, where we arrived at the beginning of what turned out to be a highly dramatic, unseasonal, tropical storm that lasted over 4 hours and shocked even the locals with the volume of water that fell!

Horizontal Falls

The Horizontal Falls is the name given to a natural phenomenon on the coast of the Kimberley region. David Attenborough described them as "one of the greatest wonders of the natural world". They are formed from a break in-between the McLarty Ranges reaching up to 25m in width. The falls run horizontally rather than vertically. The effect is created as seawater builds up faster on one side of the gaps than the other, creating a waterfall up to 5m high on a high tide. Within each change of the tide the direction of the falls reverses, creating vast tidal whirlpools.

For more than a dozen years, Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures has been running trips by seaplane to see and experience this phenomenon. We had made our booking last October so were very much looking forward to it as we were bussed to Broome airport in a party of 12 to board the seaplane that flew north up the coast to Cape Leveque then east low across the Buccaneer Archipelago, with its multitude of small and mostly deserted islands, before landing smoothly on the sea in Talbot Bay and mooring at a highly well-equipped pontoon.

The hi-speed boat ride through the first falls was exhilarating but the second falls was deemed too dangerous by the skipper because of eddies that can swallow a boat of that size. So we went back to the pontoon for a barramundi and salad lunch and then a close up look at a group of tawny nurse being fed from behind a cage. On a subsequent boat trip later it was possible to get through the second falls which is significantly narrower than the first so even more exciting.

The one hour flight back to Broome was straight as the crow flies and overall, we all agreed it was a wonderful experience, expensive but well worth it.