Monday, Aug 24, 2015 at 22:31
Johnny,
We found that the Hamelin Station Stay was absolutely first rate. It is very close to the Stramatolites of
Hamelin Pool. The station has recently been taken over by the Bush
Heritage Organisation. There are no powered sites just
well organised bays to park your caravan or campertrailer. The communal kitchen is exceptional as are the eating areas. One eating area is inside away from the flies and the other is covered but outside. The toilet/shower facilities are absolutely first rate, in fact probably the best we have experienced in our recent WA trip. You do need to be a little careful as there is another CV park about 5 km away very close to the
Stromatolites, however this is not nearly as good. It is probably a good idea to pre-book if you are thinking of staying. The eating area has a Telstra 3G hotspot. Very convenient!
We used this as a base for our day trip to
Steep Point, the most westerly point on the Australian mainland. It is about 140 km from Hamelin Station and takes a full day. If you are keen you can book campsites there, however once you enter the national park the road turns into a soft sand track. The track is utterly not suitable for any caravan and you would have to take great care if you were towing a campertrailer. Nevertheless with a 4x4 and not towing a day trip is very worthwhile. You can certainly practise your sand driving skills! Just make sure you lower your tyre pressures otherwise the very soft sand track will make its presence felt in a very big way.
Because of the narrowness of the tracks and the vegetation I would recommend a sand flag. We attached ours and although we could not see other vehicles they could see us. Unfortunately the signposting in the park is very inadequate so you do need to take care. The
Thunder Bay blowholes are very interesting and if they are not blowing water they are blowing air.
Cape
Peron is similar and is not far from
Denham. Again the tracks are soft sand so no towing. We did a day trip from
Denham. There is a tyre deflation/inflation station with free compressed air available as you enter the park.
Monkey Mia dolphin feeding is a must. Extremely
well organised and very informative. The trick with this is that the first session is generally very busy with lots of tourists. However, the dolphins often come back a little later and by then the crowds have generally moved on.
We did a
snorkel with the Whalesharks at
Ningaloo. There are a number of operators, however we chose "
Ningaloo Blue". A totally professional operation. Not cheap at $350 pp but an experience that you will not forget. Unfortunately finding a Whaleshark cannot be guaranteed.
Onslow is worth a visit. It is a town undergoing a transition from a sleepy coastal town to a support centre for the massive Wheatstone Gas project.
From
Karratha you can visit the petroglyphs of the
Burrup Peninsula. Unfortunately the area is somewhat neglected and the petroglyphs, although very numerous, can be challenging to find.
Close to this area is the massive onshore processing plant for the NW Gas Project. It has an excellent information centre. The now semi-restored abandoned town of
Cossack is worth a visit as it is not too far from
Karratha.
Hope this gives you a few ideas for your travels.
Robert
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