Travelling

The road from Broome to Port Hedland can best be described as 600 kilometres of monotony. We drove it over two days, decided that Port Hedland was not for us and moved rapidly on another 250 kms to Karratha. There’s nothing of note from the journey to describe, so instead, as mentioned few blogs ago, I’ll describe our camping set up.

Vin Rouge, our Land Rover Defender 90 is a very small vehicle. There’s little space and so everything has to be packed in carefully. We don’t live in Vin Rouge, rather we live on and around it, which is fine if the weather is good. You’ll have seen pictures of us as we’re travelling. The roof top tent sits on the roof rack, so does the ‘washing machine’. The awning hangs on the passenger side and apart from the gas bottles on the back, that’s about all you see.

Setting up camp takes about ten minutes. Firstly the tent is opened up. It simply unfolds, similar to opening a book, over the back of the vehicle. The ladder is used as a lever to make the job easy. Next the awning is opened. Two strong arms fold out from the roof rack to support the canopy (there’s no poles). The galley folds out from the back door. A two burner stove and grill drops into place, the gas supply simply plugs in and it’s ready to go. Lastly the water supply is connected to the tap under the stove. Job done. Kettle on and we’re ready for a cuppa. All the domesticals are in those two drawers which also provide kitchen work surfaces and a chopping board. The only extras are two folding chairs and a table. Packing up takes about ten minutes, a bit quicker if it’s raining!.

When the weather is being unkind, or we need some privacy, we add walls to the basic set up. This makes a two-storey tent. It’s not huge, but provides sufficient space for our needs and protects us from the elements.

Storage is of course limited. We have twelve boxes; six of them hold clothing, shoes and swimming gear. Three are for food, and there’s one each for toiletries, laundry and the odds and ends. These stack in three columns of four boxes so it’s a trade off as to which goes on the top for easy access. The fridge runs off a second battery as do the LED lights built into both arms of the awning, in the tent and under the tent.

As Kim says, it’s basic but sufficient.

Now back to our travels. At certain times when the moon and tide are aligned, a phenomenon occurs that’s known as the ‘staircase to the moon’. It’s visible from a few places on the west coast of Australia and we were fortunate enough to see it on the 30th August just outside Karratha. As the tide ebbs, mudflats are exposed and as the moon appears to rise from the sea, this is the effect, although the photo doesn’t really do it justice.

Next day and we’re at Dampier. If you’ve seen the film Red Dog, you’ll know of it. If not, try and find the DVD, it’s a different sort of movie and one based on fact. There’s even a statue in town dedicated to the dog.

Dampier is a seaport where hundreds of thousands of tons of iron ore are exported each week. Much of it arrives by train and we obtained a permit to drive the Tom Price Railway Road that runs alongside the railway line. It’s a dirt road, but generally a good one, if dusty. The trains rumble by at regular intervals. We tried to work out how much is carried on one of these trains with three engines taking the load. Told that each wagon holds 200 tons, we tried counting the wagons but when the train is 2.4 kilometres long, our counting failed long before the train passed by. Whatever it is, it’s a big, big number.

Diverting from the Tom Price Road into the Karijini National Park we first stopped off at Hamersley Gorge for a quick look at the amazing volcanic rock formations. Look carefully and you’ll see a couple of people in the photo. It’ll provide some sense of scale – and the picture shows just a small part of the gorge.

Overnight we camped in the park where the southern hemisphere provided its usual dazzling display of stars. No pics, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

We thought the scenery in the Karijini National Park as lovely as we have seen anywhere. Deciding to stay a couple of days, we visited Fortescue Falls, the really beautiful Fern Pool, took some walks along the rim of several gorges and wondered at the extraordinary rock formations, laid down 3,500 million years ago. Apparently it’s some of the world’s oldest visible land. Oxer Lookout is reckoned to be one of the most scenic spots in Australia and it would be difficult to disagree. The pictures don’t do it justice but here goes.

It’s Spring in Western Australia and wild flowers are in bloom. We haven’t yet reached what we understand are the best places to see them but have been really pleased with what we have seen so far. More about flowers later but here’s just one for a sample. It’s called Sturt’s Desert Pea. It’s rather a favourite with us.