The Pilbera

6th June to 18th June.

This leg of our journey took us to Karatha, Millstream Chitchester national park, the mining town of Tom Price, Karijini national park, Marble Bar and Carawine Gorge. The Pilbera landscape is dominated by spinafix, rocky outcrops on red plateaus and gorges with the occasional pool. Average day time winter temp is about 26c.

the Pilbera

The East Pilbera shire, where we have spent most of our time, is the biggest shire (municipality) in the world covering just over 376,000 square kilometers.

Karatha is all about mining, the infrastructure Rio Tinto has established is on a mammoth scale, with rail lines linking the various mine sites to the port. We applied for and recieved a permit to drive the Rio owned road from Karatha to Millstream national park, passing several trains which were 2.5km long and carrying $4,000,000AUD worth of iron ore.

Millstream NP Oasis

At Millstream we camped at the crossing pool site and had a swim in the stream, the area is a surprising oasis in the surrounding dry hills. Originally the area was a working cattle station with tennis courts, race track, swimming pool and a chinese gardener growing vegetables... that was in the early 1900's and droughts and cyclones have seen most of the buildings demolished.

Leaving the national park we headed back to Tom Price to stock up on supplies. Until the 1980's Tom Price was a closed town, owned by Rio, and if it wasn't for the demand driven by the mines it would be a ghost town. We took the mine tour to see some of the big machinery up close.  Everything at the mine site is on a huge scale, the tyres on the mine dump truck are over 4M in height and cost $44,000 each with the truck itself work several million dollars.

Mine dump trucks

Tom Price Mine

Leaving Tom Price we headed for Karijini national park. Karijini has several gorges and we explored most of them, the walks were mostly easy to traverse either along the ridge line, or along the gorge floor. However on each circuit there was always a very steep up or down to traverse. We took our time and enjoyed the scenery.... Making sure of our footings of course!

There were dingo's in the park, and signs everywhere telling you not to feed them or leave small children unattended, but we only saw one dingo. However we saw several out near Carawine gorge and heard then howling at night. 

Dales Gorge

Spinafix pigeons

Next stop Marble Bar, the hottest town in Australia. It holds the record thanks to 161 consecutive days where the temperature NEVER dipped below 37.8c(100f). The biggest surprise in Marble Bar was the chef at the pub. He was thai/Vietnamese and cooked the best Asian style meals we've had in a very long time, and as good a quality as in any capital city restaurant. Hope the pub manage to hang on to him. The second surprise about Marble bar is that the fellow who discovered the place mistook Jasper for Marble. So the town should really be named Jasper Bar.

Marble (Jasper) Bar

 The plan now is to head to Broome for a few days R&R before we tackle the Gibbs river road.

Ningaloo Reef WA

16th May to 4th June
The Ningaloo Reef Marine Park is world heritage listed, and stretches 260 kms along the coastline from Coral Bay to Exmouth. Apart form the majestic coastline, the reason we are here is to swim with the Whale sharks, which are in the area each year from April to July.

Our swim with whale sharks, was an amazing experience. We managed 5 swims in one day on the boat tour departing from Coral Bay. It's quite hectic as the dive boat drops you in the water in front of the 6m whale shark, then you have to wait till it swims past, then speed after it with fins, mask and snorkel and try to keep up.... once you loose the shark it's back to the boat to try and catch up with it again!

snorkeling day with the whale sharks 

The water is crystal clear, a pleasant 24C, and we had a chance to snorkel the reef before heading out into the deep water. I'm sure the crew do this to work out the various swimming abilities of everyone on board before the whale shark swim.... no point loosing a tourist.

whale shark

Each tour boat uses a spotter plane to locate the whale sharks, and luckily we found our whale shark before 11am. We felt very small in the water beside such a large fish, and whilst they only feed on coral spawn, krill and plankton, it's a little unnerving having a fish that big swim towards you.

Having left Coral Bay we booked into a few different camp sites in the Cape Range National National Park out of Exmouth. There's limited camping here, and the travel season is starting to get going, so we were lucky to get in. Although each of the camp sites is small (holding between 5 - 17 sites only) they are all lagoon/beach-side and provide fantastic snorkeling and fishing.

snorkeling lagoon

These few weeks have been about wearing our swimmers most of the time, and spending time in and by the water. We've seen turtles, beautifully coloured fish, coral, rays and even a few sand sharks. 

Thank goodness the camper-trailer has a fresh water shower as the ocean seems to be extra salty??  

There are several gorge walks in the park, which have small populations of the endangered black footed rock wallaby. We were lucky enough to stumble across a group on one of our afternoon walks. They are tiny little creatures.

The country side is arid to semi desert, with very little running fresh water. We've hardy seen a tree with gnarled acacia and spinifex being about all that grows. Yardie Creek is the only permanent fresh water in the National Park, so it's a popular spot for the wild life. There are dingo's in the park but I haven't seen any yet, just tracks in the sand.......

black footed rock wallaby

Yardie Creek

We've had a couple of trips into town to restock supplies,... and search out a latte and flat white.  Kevin's also met some new golf buddies, and played golf in the Saturday Exmouth Comp. 

When we've had enough of the beach life, we'll be heading to Karatha to check out some of the mining boom, then turn inland to Tom Price.

Mt Augustus to Red Bluff

1st May to 15th May

I always thought Uluru was Australia's largest rock, but it's actually Mt Augustus which rises 715M out of the desert landscape, and 1,105M above sea level. Its now a national park, and we set up camp on the cattle station adjacent. In 2010 the station was flooded in for several weeks, can't imagine it now.

Mt Augustus

Land Rover Maintenance

There is no fresh drinking water available, so we needed to bring our own, although there was bore water for showering... quite salty 

There are several walks at Mt Augustus and we chose the 8km Peak walk and 12km Summit walk, setting off each morning before 7am to beat the heat. Another National Park in the Gascoyne region is Kennedy Range and we spent a few days there bush camping in one of the water-less gorges. 

Kennedy Range NP

The region is red dust, red rocks and spinifex. There are very few trees in the area, with the exception of a few white barked river gums growing in the gully line, water holes or dry creek beds. Despite the sparseness, it's quite an impressive landscape,  

white barked river gums

 

After 6 weeks on the road, we fare-welled the arid centre and hit the West Australian coast at Carnarvon. The 'West' is such a contrast to the east coast of Australia, which has a fertile coastal strip. In WA the desert runs straight to the coast... desert beside white sand and blue ocean.

The Gascoyne river rarely flows, but provides abundant underground water to the township of 8,500 and they have a thriving fruit and vegetable industry. We spent a few days in Carnarvon dusting the red dirt out of the car and trailer, enjoying fresh water showers, and stocking up on wonderfully fresh 'lunch box banana's', tomatoes, rocket and plenty of other fresh foods. 

champagne red bluff

surf break red bluff

Leaving town, we headed to Quobba Station about 120k up the coast where we found the surfing retreat of Red Bluff to spend a few days. It's a well known surfing spot and whilst we don't surf, we've been enjoying watching the wipe outs and rides on the 2M waves.

From here on we have a few weeks on the coast.

The gunbarrel highway - Giles to Carnegie

25 April 30 April

Our journey towards the start of the gunbarrel highway took us to Giles WA, 750km west southwest of Alice Springs where we camped overnight and went to Giles weather station the next morning. It was built to provide weather data for the UK atomic weapons tests at Maralinga and rocket testing at Woomera. Managed by a staff of 4 we saw the 8.45am weather balloon released, and had a look around the very remote site.

start of the gunbarrel

From Giles we headed through Warburton, only stopping to buy fuel, before hitting the heather highway and onto the gunbarrel. The first 126km on the heather highway took us 7 1/2hours..... so it was 'no highway'.... and the gunbarrel was in worse condition.

Both nights on the gunbarrel we camped near a bore, so we had water to wash with. The first night there were spinifex fires in the area, and we had a visit from some local aboriginals on the way out hunting Kangaroos. 

The second night was quieter... no scrub fires and no people..... In fact we didn't pass another car for 5 days. These two video's will give you a taste of how travelling on the gunbarrel felt. Slow and steady was the only way.

In total length the trip from Warburton to Wiluna was 845km, with only 1 fuel stop at Carnegie station 439km's away, the most remote cattle station in Australia where we paid $2.50ltr for diesel.

It took us 3 days to get to Carnegie and at times we were averaging 20km an hour over tracks which looked like they hadn't been graded since Len Beadell and the team put the road through in the 1950's.

Plenty of feral camels were to be seen along the way, they are in plaque proportion in the west, even with recent aerial culls where they shot 7,000 out of Giles in 3 weeks and 47,000 out of Carnegie over the last few months. We also saw a few dingo's so we were sure to lock up the camper trailer kitchen each night.

Coober Pedy to Uluru

18 April to 24 April

All the crazy people seem to move to Coober Pedy, well at least it seems you need to be a little 'eccentric' to live there. The area produces 70% of the world's opals, and the mining is hot hard work, with no guarantee of finding opal. Many of the original shafts are hand dug, with the miner often having to descend over 30 feet before reaching the opal layer. 

Days can get up to 45C, so the majority of the homes are underground. They are refreshingly cool and stay around the 22C mark throughout the year. Coober Pedy also has a number of underground churches, with the Serbian one being ornately carved and decorated. 

Underground Opal mine

Underground Church

Leaving Cooper Pedy without an opal, we took the Stuart highway via Marla to Yulara. As an update to our geography knowledge, I now know that Uluru is the traditional name for Ayers rock and Kata Tjuta are the Olga's. We had the best of both world's at Uluru, we saw a brilliant sunrise, and the next day the rain came causing water to cascade down the usually dry rock. Quite a contrast.

Uluru Sunrise

Kata Tjuta in the mist

We walked the 10km around Uluru, which the traditional owners prefer you to do rather than climb. Sensibly we started very early one morning before the heat set in. By 11am it was already 30C+. By contrast our walk into Walpa Gorge at Kata Tjuta was done in a mist of rain, and there was a water course running. The weather can certainly change quickly out here.

Walpa Gorge

We also did a tag along walk with the local Ranger, to learn a little about which plants are eatable... just in case... and the wildlife in the area, mainly small birds, emu, kangaroo and goanna. All a good food source for the locals in days gone by.

The roads from Yulara onward are a mix of gravel and dirt, so we're hoping that the rain stays away to make our travelling possible. With the fine red dust out in the centre of Australia, only a few ml's of rainfall cause roads to be closed. We've had to arrange for two permits to travel through aboriginal lands for the next leg of our trip, so as soon as they arrive we'll be off!

Broken Hill to Woomera

10 April to 17 April
The countryside is getting flatter, and the vegetation more sparse and arid looking, however there is still plenty of water about in the rivers. We'd originally planned to do the Darling River run from Wilcannia to Menindee lakes, but both sides of the Darling River were flooded, so instead we headed to Broken Hill and Silverton.

Plains Driving

Both towns owe their existence to mining, Broken Hill is still thriving and is the regional hub, whilst Silverton's mines have been worked out and they rely on their heritage of old building, galleries and pub to gain the tourist dollar.

We had a drink in the pub, which has featured in many beer tvc's over the years, and Silverton is well known as the place they made the movie 'Mad Max'. Still plenty of photo's of Mel about! The days are now hitting 30C, but the nights are a pleasant 17C.

Main weir 

Menindee lakes were dry for about 7 years and only started filling with the QLD floods in 2011. The Lake system is full, and was being reduced to 80% when we were there, as they were expecting the flood peak in 2 weeks.

We wandered around the historic Kinchega Woolshed which was part of a pastoral lease Station from 1850 to 1967, before becoming a national park. The Darling is usually over a km from the old woolshed but was lapping at the edge of the old holding paddocks on our visit.


We camped at the Broken Hill speed boat club caravan park at Copi Hollow ...  lakes edge!  It was the last of the waterfront camping with our next stops a road side pull off outside Orroroo in SA, a dusty site in Port Augusta and another bush camp outside Woomera.

camping at Menindee

Until the early 1980's you couldn't enter the Woomera township without security clearance, and it continues to be managed by the Department of Defence. It's a very interesting but military looking town still... very orderly. A lot of the surrounding lands are still a Prohibited area. If you like military history, rockets, weapons development or are a War War 2 buff it's defiantly worth a look.

Woomera Park

Next stop Coober Pedy to find an opal, then crossing into the NT for a few days at Uluru.

Sydney to Wilcannia

2 April to 9 April
We departed Sydney on the 2nd April, starting a 5 month journey across Australia. Whilst this is a camping adventure we eased ourselves into the trip by having our first stop with friends in Molong. When in Molong a 'must visit' is the Gelato Factory, they export internationally but luckily they also run a cafe for locals to consume Gelato.

Nangar National Park

Next stop was Canowindra, camping over the Easter break with 18 friends. Gorgeous little town with old world sandstone buildings and home of the Age of Fishes museum. A chance finding by a road worker in the 1950's found Devonian fish fossils dating back  350million years.

We did manage a bush walk, all uphill, in the Nangar national park. It was a roughly marked track following the old boundary  fence along the ridge line. After a challenging walk it was a must to stop at the Eugowra Hotel on the way back to town.

Two mornings we had hot air balloons either taking off, or flying over our campsite. The sound of the gas igniting is extremely loud, especially at 6am and the balloons themselves are huge. I have no idea how they navigate or land where they are supposed to!

Canowindra main street

Canowindra was host to a vintage and antique car rally on Easter Sunday, so after speeding into Cowra Saturday night to see Cronulla win a football  game, we saw motoring at a slower pace.

When talking to the exhibitors, many had the same story of locating a rusted out shell of a car and spending the next 20 years slowly resorting it to grandeur. A real labour of love and a very patient wife required.




The days are starting to turn cooler and the nights are 10C, so many layers of clothing are required. After leaving Canowindra for Broken Hill we spent a night free camping about 60km outside Cobar, stopping next day in Wilcannia for Lunch.

Darling River Wilcannia

We found Wilcannia a friendly town with wonderful examples of old sandstone buildings from the days when paddle-steamers serviced those living on the river as far up as Bourke. Matron even gave us a tour of the old hospital built 1876.

The Darling River was in flood at 10.6M when we stopped for lunch, and was expected to peak at 11M later in the day. I expect the last step of the little park were we had lunch was under water by the end of the day.


Next stop Broken Hill and hopefully, flood dependent, Menindee lakes.

Inverell to Sydney

The last of the outback camping is behind us, and we spend a week easing ourselves back into society, bitumen roads, showers and inside toilets.
November is harvest time in north western NSW, and this year it was Wheat and Barley being stripped from the Johnson's farm at Gragin. The John Deer header, with a 10m comb, was working flat chat and the grain harvested was either trucked to the silo's in town or stored on the property for future sale.

grain transfer

Kevin helped out by driving the trucks, loading and unloading grain. Jane was making sure everyone was fed and trying to stay out of the dust generated when the machines are moving around the property.

Header in the creek

Sometimes things don't go to plan, and the 10m wide creek separating one of the barley paddocks proved muddier than first appearances.

A five minute short cut turned into a two hour delay and a tow with the bulldozer.

Luckily several men were on hand to give advice to the unfortunate header operator.




Timing was perfect as the harvest was finished on Tuesday and the rain started on Thursday. Sorgum looking good and enjoying the drink. We celebrated with a night in town and a meal at a Thai restaurant.

Home in Sydney now for a couple of months preparing for Christmas, birthdays and our trip next year to Western Australia. Hope you've enjoyed following us on our travels. Jane & Kevin.



Thargomindah to Inverell

Now it's getting hot! This week saw temperatures in the 38C - 40C range, so I thought it was time to get out of the hot centre and head towards the east coast. Kevin wanted to head to the coast after he had to pay $65 for a case of beer,... and being in QLD the Pub only sold XXXX.

Thargomindah was the first town in Australia, and third in the world, to produce hydro-electric power, and even the water is hot out there, coming out of the bore at 84C. No need to heat the town's hot water, it's pumped to cooling ponds then straight to the house.

Hydro power plant

About 40km outside town is Lake Bindegolly, and we bush camped there a night so we could do a 9km bird watching walk around the lake. It was a 5.30am start to avoid the heat. A bit early for me normally but well worth the effort. The dry thunderstorms have started and we had a huge one come through about 1am, which saw sand and grit blown all through the camper before we could secure the canvas....

Flat Tyre

On the journey to Bollond we saw hundreds of feral goats by the side of the road. The locals were telling us they get $40 a goat if they can catch them.....

Just out of St George, a big cotton growing region, we had the first flat tyre of our 6 week trip. Kevin tells me it's pretty hot work changing a tyre on a bitumen road at 1pm on a 38C day.





Camping by the creek that night at Nindegully Pub was a welcome relief to the heat and the stress of tyre changing. Many of the remote area pubs offer free camping & showers, and its a great way to get travellers to stop in.

We've now landed at the family farm between Warialda and Inverell to de-dust, wash and play farmer for a few days.

happy reading, Jane & Kevin

Arkaroola to Innamincka

After leaving Leigh Creek we've spent 8 nights in the Gammon Rangers SA, first stop was Iga Warta which showcases aboriginal cultural tourism, Terry Coultard, a local elder from the Adnyamathanha people, showed us the local bush tucker available, took us to painting sites, and talked about their beliefs and ceremonies. It was a great couple of days and we felt really welcomed.
 Melbourne Cup was spent on the veranda at Iga Warta watching the race on the big screen with 4 Kiwi's and a dozen Coultards's  ... My horse ran last in the $2 sweep.

weetoolta creek


Camping along the river in the national park gave us a chance to do some morning hikes.... and finally see some water. With the temperatures getting close to 30C we were setting off pretty early in the morning. We've spotted the yellow footed rock wallaby which is an endangered species, 3 days in a row, and seen plenty of bird life including bee catchers down from the NT, and wedge tail eagles looking for unsuspecting rabbits.

Arkaroola saw the scenery switch from gorge walks with limited water and abundant bird life, to ridge top vistas, hot and dry. The Acacia ridge walk and hill top drive were highlights. We joined the tour on the private roads built by mining companies in the 60's. All were built on the ridge line not the valleys so pretty scary stuff if you looked down, but the views were amazing. Lucky for us Arkaroola had a swimming pool so each afternoon we could cool off...


ridge line drive

After two weeks in the Flinders/Gammon ranges we headed for the flat country. The strezlecki track was 500km of gravel and dust to get to the Innaminka Hotel for a cool drink in the afternoon before camping by the Cooper Creek. Innaminka has the mission where the Flying Doctor Service was started, a general store and a pub.

We had morning tea at the Burke & Wills ill fated DIG tree... if only their rescue party had waited that one extra day.... before racing a thunder storm and a 50km front bush fire started by a dry lightening strike to Thargomindah just across the QLD boarder. Glad to say we outran both safely.

Hope you enjoy the update, Jane & Kevin.