The rest of the trip wasn’t exactly 4x4 except when I got bogged on a beach or when we went for a run on 40 Mile Beach.
Here is a quick précis on it:
Pardoo Roadhouse. Expensive to say the least but the stuff has to be trucked there
Cape Keraudren: We had to pay $17.50 for a night’s
camp on
the beach with no facilities apart from a Long Drop. Nice spot though. New legislation in force soon: No dogs allowed
Yule River 24 hr
camp. Some had camped there for 3 weeks. We found a nice shady spot about 1km from the highway. Budgies were nesting in the tree hollows. The river was flowing.
Cleaverville Beach: A nice open spot and for $6 a night a
good camp at the waters edge. At first I ventured down too far on to
the beach with highway pressures and sank the GQ. Dropped the pressures to 15psi and drove out. Rubbish and sullage facilities but no
water and no
toilets. You have to bring your own. Normally about 40 vehicles camped along 5km stretch
Point Samson: The
Gold Coast of the North West….LOL
Cossack: Quaint historic town with some good fishing off
the wharf and agood Look-out.
Karratha Caravan
Park: The only
park, which will take dogs. Ahh….. relegated to the bottom end of the market. Mainly permanents. Domestic fight at midnight. Loud music at 3am. All this cost us $27.90 for one night and $30 key deposit! Sleepless in
Karratha!!!
40 Mile Beach: Lots of open space and
boat ramp and
beach access for driving. No shade. Some open beach and some mangrove beach. $6 per night. We enjoyed our stay.
3 Mile Hole, Ashburton River near Old
Onslow. Only one road in and out of Onlsow. Bitumen all the way with alien
termite mounds on either side of the road. A pretty little town with good fishing, salt
mine and LPG
mine. 3 Mile Hole about 25km from
Onslow. Lots of
Grey Nomads camped there. We had Happy Hour with them.
Lyons River Camp: Spider webs galore as we put our tent up. En route to Mt Augustus. No traffic but lots of bird life. Next morning plenty of Kangaroos, Emus and two beautiful Dingoes.
Mt Augutus: Did not stay there. Refuelled at ’Resort’ on Mt Augustus Station, $1.90 for diesel. Lady told me no diesel until Meeka. Funny, 40km down the road diesel is $1.70 at Burrungurra Community. I had been had….lol. Mt Augustus is awesome. Makes Uluru look like a pebble.
We camped 45km west of
Meekatharra in an
old quarry. Roads OK but 1080 signs everywhere.
Sandstone: Best gravel roads in Australia. Some good scenery including
London Bridge. $16 in Caravan
Park with best ablution block I have seen anywhere.
Lake Ballard: Breeding place of the Pied Stilt. It also has a sculpture installation. There are 51 life-like steel statues of people scattered around the
salt lake. The lake was damp but we were able to walk over. The dog rolled in the mud …yuk!!!
Menzies: We occupied the only piece of lawn in the CP. $10 per night. Stayed 2 nights to do some family research at the Town Hall. Got acquainted with some prospectors who showed us REAL gold. Hmmmm…whets the appetite!
Kalgoorlie: Been there before so this was a
shop and fuel stop. Filled up to our limit of 330 lts at $1.40lt discounted at Woollies. We were then able to drive from
Norseman to
Peterborough (1920km) without refuelling at servo’s along the way and thus saving some pennies.
Norseman: Stopped to have a look at the town and then
camp 22km out off the Eyre Hwy. Although we were 500mts from the road it was still incredibly noisy. Limited sleep.
Enjoyed the road to
Port Augusta as I had not driven it since 1968. Plenty of
camp sites along the way. Got a good nights sleep 4km down the
Eyre Bird Observatory Road and another in the Nullabor National
Park. We drove into every ’Look-out’ over the Bight culminating at Head of the Bight. There is a charge of $10 per head with concessions for pensioners.
Whale Watching: At Head of the Bight we saw 25 Whales, some very close up, frolicking in the blue waters. It was a great experience. We were told that there were up to 70 whales in the bay that day.
Fowlers Bay: What a delightful little Hamlet. We will definitely spend some time there at a later stage. There are some awesome white
sand dunes to play on too. Good fishing, we were told, from the jetty.
We drove home the following day with an obligatory stop at
Port Augusta for some shopping!
It had been a really good holiday. We saw heaps and enjoyed the vastness of the Big Sky Country. Now to sit still for a while to gather some moss for the next venture, Tasmania, in 07.