Project Pajero
Where are we now!
Day 58 – 63 24-29 October 2009
Whilst at Denham T&C also dropped into the famed Monkey Mia to see the dolphins being hand fed. This is now a very contrived and controlled show with Rangers stipulating what you can and can’t do and only allowing a lucky few to actually hand feed the dolphins. Despite the board outside the resort (where you have to pay an entry fee just to view the dolphins) announcing that feeding would take place at 7.30am, the Rangers announced it would be 8am and as the clock slowly clicked towards that hour more and more people squeezed in to the viewing area, pushing those like T&C to the back. Well Tony had already achieved some nice photos of the Dolphins so all this struggling for a viewing spot was too much for our friends and they left before the Rangers got their act together, the feeding of dolphins at Monkey Mia is definitely over rated!
After that T&C had a much better day driving out to Steep Point, the most westerly point of the Australian mainland. It is a 240k trip meaning over 500k’s for the day, but worth it. The road out past the salt works is unsealed and then you come to all the signs warning you to drop tyre pressure to 20psi with dire warnings of high fines per tyre if you don’t. Tony obliged of course and PP was soon scooting over the sand dunes and along the beaches to the Caretakers home. Here they paid their access fee of $22 and learnt that the imposing stone building that looks majestic amongst the sand dunes is actually over run by mice making this very expensive home practically unliveable.
They made their way to the Steep Point sign atop the hundred foot high cliffs and then followed the sharp limestone track across the top of the cliffs to False Entrance Blow Holes. Inspecting the pounding surf from atop the cliff, Tony was unimpressed with what he thought were the blow holes way down on the platform rock. But then he saw these gaping holes in the cliff top just near where he stood with the air rushing up them, in his words, you could easily fall to your death if you weren’t careful where you walked.
They retreated to the beautiful beach below Steep Point for lunch and even the wind abated long enough to allow them to deploy the Foxwing awning for a little shade before the long drive back to Denham.
The following day they headed down to Kalbarri National park, but now it was raining, their first rain in 2 months. This did not deter them from visiting the lookouts at Hawks Head and Ross Graham which provided good views into the gorge below them. They stopped at the Tudor Caravan Park for $31 for a powered site. The following day was still overcast and drizzling, but it did not stop the Grey nomads from visiting the spectacular Z Bend lookout and Natures Window. They even took a walk down into the red gorge. Roadwork on the unsealed road and in the rain meant the track was like an ice rink and the Bridgestone tyres proved they were not meant for this type of work with the Pajero slip sliding away.
From here they travelled via the incredibly pink water of Hutt Lagoon and into the thriving metropolis of Geraldton, home to 37,000 people and an unusual globe style memorial to HMAS Sydney. On my advice they took the road to the east to Mullewa to see the beautiful Lady of Mt Carmel church, heading west again they passed the town of Walkaway where there is a wind farm with 57 turbines. Tony reckons WA stands for Windy Area and said the wind has been really howling of late. They camped at a place called Ellendale Pool on the Greenough river for a meagre $5 which included flushing toilets and cold showers. Passing through Greenough they were a little disappointed that the historic section did not open until 9am (early starters these Grey nomads) and saw the famous sideways trees, which grow parallel to the ground due to the fierce winds that the area experiences. Reaching the coast near Dongara it was overcast and showery again and Tony estimated the wind was peaking at 100kph!!!
They then travelled down to Cervantes where they made camp before heading out to see the Pinnacles, strange pillar type formations in the sand dunes, thought to be petrified tree stumps but apparently there is conjecture over this, no-one really seems to know what formed them. Tony mentioned that the Pinnacles actually cover a vast area of several acres and is very spectacular. All National Parks in WA have an $11 entry fee but you can purchase a monthly pass for $40 and this has saved them quite a lot of money since they purchased their pass in Kununurra just on one month ago.
As the ARB fridge had ceased to operate they drove into Northam to the Avon ARB store where Phil has bent over backwards to assist them. It has taken two half days but a new part has now been delivered from Perth and the text message I just received indicated all was good again with the fridge. Whilst it is disappointing that the fridge failed, the backup service has been excellent and a big thanks goes out to AVON ARB at Northam.
Day 51-57 17 – 23 October 2009
Tony & Carol left the caravan at Tom Price Caravan Park, it cost nothing to store it overnight, but as the camp ground owner said, no responsibility taken either. The van was safe though. So with OZTENT on top of Project Pajero they took off down the railway road after sitting through a 20 minute safety video to get their permit to follow this road. I had raved about the view from Mt Sheila so this was their first stop. The steep climb requires low range, Mt Sheila once supported a radio transmit tower, so the steep climb is sealed but very narrow now that the vegetation is encroaching the road. The view from the top is spectacular with 360 degree views over the most amazing mountain ranges that form the Hamersley Ranges. T&C were suitably impressed.
Back along the railway road, stopping on numerous occasions to witness the 2 kilometre long railway trucks carting the iron ore to Dampier they made their way to Millstream National Park. They had originally planned to camp beside the Fortescue River but roadworks had closed off one of the access tracks and this meant a 40 kilometre one way trip, so they gave that a miss. The camp ground at the Visitor info centre was not appealing also being hot, dry and dusty. So they set off for Python Pool and the camp ground at Snake Creek. The road to Python Pool is spectacular with huge piles of red rock seemingly dumped beside it by giant dump trucks. Python Poll was stagnant being late in the season and uninviting and in Carol’s words, the campground at Snake Creek was little more than a turn around at the end of the road, with no shade, it rated worse than the camp site at the visitor centre. To add to this, and despite my excellent instructions on where to find the petroglyth carvings, they could not find the road to them ??? so they decided to return to Mt Sheila to make camp possibly on top of this amazing lookout. See, I told you it was good!
They made their way along the dusty railway road once more, spotting more trains with their 240 carriages of iron ore. It was very windy on top of Mt Sheila so they camped just before the very steep climb, venturing to the top at sunset, what a sight!
Tony was pretty keen to see sunrise from the top also, so he went back up in the morning, Carol said she saw it from the air bed in the OZTENT. I think Carol likes her OZTENT! I know I am looking forward to seeing the photos, of the sunrise.
After the sunrise they packed up camp and dropped into the amazing Hamersley Gorge with its twisted rock strata and contrasting colours. The water was cold but they still enjoyed a swim. Back at Tom Price they collected the caravan and headed through spectacular mountain country to Paraburdoo and continued towards the west making camp for the night in a rest area near a dry river. During the evening they were joined by a Mitsubishi Magna carrying 3 backpackers, two Dutch girls and one German guy. Tony noticed they had the old Clark Rubber inflatable air mattresses and that they were struggling to inflate them so he offered the use of his 12 volt pump. Cautiously the girls accepted his offer and using this as the ice breaker, they sat around for a couple of hours sharing gossip on their various travels. Fortunately no Wolf Creek murders here!
Next morning T&C continued out to the North West Coastal Highway and down towards the turn off to Exmouth, where they found a barren bus stop served by a pit toilet. It was very windy and dusty here, but Tony had the urge to use the long drop, only problem was, he found there was a very strong up draft in the long drop and despite his best efforts to keep the toilet paper down the hole it kept blowing back up at him! This must have amused Carol very much as she is still laughing when relating the story a week later!!
Leaving the toilet paper flying, they drove into Exmouth and made camp at the Lighthouse Caravan Park. Exmouth is an odd place with its luxury canal development, small shopping centre and generally windy and dusty location. But the view from Lighthouse lookout to the Indian ocean where migrating whales were seen is spectacular. The next day they explored some of the Cape Range NP and drove down the beautiful coast to Yardie Creek visiting such fantastic coastal spots as Turquoise Bay along the way. They found that the National Park campsites were still very busy despite the late season and lack of shade and running water. Despite the warnings, they found Yardie Creek to be only ankle deep with a firm bottom although decided not to venture further south at this stage.
Leaving Exmouth which I don’t think impressed them too much with Carol describing it to me as a flat, wind swept, fly blown dump, they made their way south on the highway to Coral Bay which they found to be busy with tourists but they did spend 2 hours here admiring the colourful water scenery, it is a very pretty place. They continued south stopping at a roadside stall near Carnarvon to purchase 2 bags of Nectarines at $2 a bag and strawberries at $12 for 3 kilos, they opted for half a kilo for $4, they tasted beautiful too! They also purchased fresh bananas which had come straight off the tree and tasted much better than the bananas you get on the east coast. They visited the OTC dish in Carnarvon and finished their day in a rest area at Edaggee on the Highway south of Carnarvon where there were several other grey nomads with the same idea.
The next day they made their way to Denham via the Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, said to be the oldest living organism on planet earth (other than Tony) and the beautiful shell beach where, as the name implies, the entire beach consists of tiny sea shells. They camped at the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park in Denham which was offering a 3 night package for the price of two at $27 per night for a powered site, which they gladly took.
I had mentioned to Tony that he should visit Cape Peron as I found this to be a beautiful spot when I was there in 2006. They found the road out to Cape Peron to be very difficult with soft sand, ruts and constant corrugations. Dropping the tyre pressure to 20 psi was required which also meant that the Big Max air compressor got a work out. Tony was very impressed with its performance pumping the tyres from 20psi to 35 psi in just 1 min 20 seconds.
Following my advice they walked up the beach and around a couple of rocky headlands to find the secluded white sandy beach with its dramatic red cliffs where more white sand cascaded off the top like a waterfall. Sadly the day was overcast so the colours were not as dramatic as when I saw it.
I’ll leave them here now as there is a lot more to tell, I’ll catch up with their stories shortly, in the meantime check out the photo gallery as I have now loaded photos of their walks through Karijini and the amazing rock formations at Barn Hill.
Tony has advised the following, the Bridgestone tyres when new had 10mm of tread depth, with 17,000 kilometres now covered the front tyres have 7.5mm and the rear tyres 6mm, looks like they are wearing quite fast.
Also, the ARB fridge has died showing an error 3 on its read out, so they will try to locate an ARB store in WA to see if it can be corrected, but this is disappointing given its initial good performance. The GME UHF radio is keeping them in touch with other travellers and is working well and even the foxwing awning was deployed near Denham although the high winds have generally kept it in its bag.
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