Chris's space

Cygnet Bay, Cape Leveque – is a Pearl Farm not a town, it has a Restaurant, Pool, Caravan Park and runs tours, very professional and organised. It is on the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome. There are a number of Aboriginal communities on this Peninsula but they are all closed due to the deadly virus. We should call it the Stealth virus because some people who have it don’t even know they have it hahaha. Only two places are open, the Pearl Farm and Kooljaman Community, not sure why? I was planning to spend more time here but with all the closures not possible.

It’s about a 215 km drive from Broome with 63 km of dirt road which is in the process of being paved and should be completed by the end of the year.

Day trip to Kooljaman Community, beautiful beaches and views.

.

Horizontal Falls and Cockatoo Island Tour – at $843 it’s not the cheapest tour I have been on but it’s the cheapest way to get anywhere near this region of Australia. It starts with arriving at the airport at 0625, a short briefing and then 13 passengers and one pilot get on the Cessna Caravan, we left at 0705 . Seats are allocated based on your weight and if you weigh over 120 kg you cannot do this tour. They only run these tours when the tide is at least six metres or the water rushing through the gaps will not be very forceful. This week has the highest tides of the month so tours are on every day.

One hour flight and we landed on a dirt strip at the very top of Cockatoo Island (population 7). Off the plane and onto a small 4wd bus to drive to the beach and board a boat for a 70 km trip to the Horizontal Falls which took two hours. The journey took us through Buccaneer Archipelago which has around 800 islands, we saw a crocodile and had brief sightings of dolphins and turtles in the mangroves, a very scenic journey.

Don life jackets and then we were taken through the first gap which is 20m wide and back again several times a bumpy ride which I think would be similar to the rapids in a river. There is a noticeable difference between the water levels on both side of the gap but its not huge. The second gap is only 12m wide and the current is too strong for the boat to get through plus the way the boat get pushed around going through might just mean we crash into the walls and go for an unscheduled swim.

.

.

On the way back we stopped in the Mangroves for lunch on the boat and then a small beach on one of the islands. Finally a beer at the Iron Bar on Cockatoo Island and the flight home which took us over the Falls for a view from the air arriving back in Broome at 1700.

.

Broome – population 15,000 off season, 45,000 during the Tourist season but not so many this year because the state borders are closed and people from Sydney, Melbourne and overseas cannot visit. I heard one travel agent say the place is a Ghost town. I would not like to be here when things get back to normal hahaha.

The weather is perfect, sunny skies, 30c during the day and cool 18c nights. White sand beaches though you need to look out for crocodiles, the authorities shoo them away from the popular beaches so check before you go for a swim. The water is too cold at this time of the year for the deadly Box Jellyfish. It is an expensive place to visit like any other tourist hot spot.

.

Eighty Mile Beach to Broome, a few kilometres on the dirt to get to Highway 1 and then cruise control for 3:40 hours, arrived in Broome at 12:00, first stop was a 12 volt shop to get some parts to rewire my Solar Panels/Battery/Inverter connections. From Broome I drove to the Broome Bird Observatory a distance of 25 km of which 16 km is a dirt road. There is no phone signal but they do have Wifi around the office and there are only 6 rooms and 10 campsites and it is rarely full, the perfect place to hide out during the school holidays.

The big picture – 5,236 kms in 28 days. Green = Dirt roads

.

Stairway to the Moon occurs when the full moon rises and it is reflected on the mud flats making it look like a stairway, use your imagination, very beautiful and mesmerising.

Bar-tailed Godwit – Incredible Journey 21,780 kms every year from Roebuck Bay to Siberia and back, 94 hours non-stop flying marathon.

.

Roebuck Bay Broome Bird Observatory

Day trip to Broome to visit the Museum and Town Beach

.

Eighty Mile Beach Marine Park – I thought I would spend a few days in this remote location relaxing, wrong! It turned out to be a Caravan Park with 150 sites and it was quite full, being a weekend and the start of the school holidays might have something to do with that hahaha. The beach is actually 140 miles or 220 km long. You can drive and camp on it though it is not recommended due to nesting turtles etc but the advice is largely ignored and fishing is the reason, there is nothing else here.

.

.

.

Port Hedland – the highest tonnage port in Australia, mainly iron ore. It used to be the main town but due to red dust pollution South Hedland was built 18 km inland and the majority of people live there now. They also have street art and an art gallery.

I went on a Harbour Tour organised by the Port Hedland Seafarers Centre. An interesting organisation which I never knew existed. The scale of the iron ore tonnages can be seen in the daily movement of these huge ships in and out of the harbour. Iron ore exports last year totalled 515 million tonnes at US$100/tonne that is 51.5 billion dollars every year.

.

I slept in the front seat of my vehicle, couldn’t be bothered putting up the tent for one night only, therefore I was able to wake up and depart at 0655, the same as I did at Steep Point. The only disadvantage with leaving so early is I had the sun in my eyes for a while but there is also absolutely no one else on the road.

First stop Python Pool, a short rough track leads to it through the bush and suddenly this absolutely stunning vision appears. Being early morning the sun was shining directly on the rock surrounding the pool.

After that a rough road until I reached the City of Karratha border and then it was a very smooth dirt road until I reached Highway 1 and from there Cruise Control all the way to Hedland.

.

In order to get to the Millstream National Park you have to travel down private roads owned by the Rio Tinto Mining Company. And before they allow you to travel on these Rail Access Roads you must first watch a series of training videos and complete a test of multiple choice questions at the end. If you get the answers wrong you can keep repeating the test until you get them right. Once you have answered the questions correctly you are issued with a free permit to travel on their roads, valid for 30 days.

The road itself being mission critical is kept in good condition though this can change quite suddenly in the Wet (Cyclone) season. This is winter the dry season.

.

.

Millstream is an oasis in the desert fuelled by a vast underground aquifer that also supplies fresh water to Karratha, Hedland, the mining industry, etc.

I flew the drone at the Cliff Lookout.

.

.

Tom Price is a mining town and is surrounded by iron ore mines. I used it as a base to visit Karijini National Park. All the National Parks have a $15 entry fee per vehicle, $10 for Seniors, I have an Annual Pass. There are a few narrow gorges with pools of water, I only went to the Lookouts not down into the Gorges, very picturesque.

I also visited the Hamersley Gorge and the Wittenoom Gorge which was where they mined asbestos and has been abandoned.

I went for a drive up Mount Nameless, a very rough track, walking pace, definitely only 4wd.

.

.

I was planning to leave today but noticed a slow leak in my right rear tyre, it had only 11psi so I decided to fit a full set of good quality new tyres designed for the roads I am going to travel on. The tyres that came with the vehicle were mismatched, 2 were old and 2 were new but rubbish, one of them got punctured, probably by a sharp stone. This is a common occurrence on these roads, which is why I am carrying 2 spare tyres.

.

This was a drive into the unknown, I asked around and checked Main Roads and Google Maps but could not get consistent information on the route. Anyway I set off and very quickly saw that the Gmaps route 297 km was sending me down roads that were private property with locked gates so followed the signs which were few and far between. The first 150 km was a winding road and 60kph top speed if that, good dirt with occasional bad patches and a Grader crew working on it all year round. I eventually came to the Ashburton Shire boundary and a sign that said “Road Closed”, I definitely was not going back and making a 1000km detour so I continued on with a little trepidation thinking it may be a river crossing washed away and I could somehow find my way across. I am carrying 44 litres of drinking water and enough food for a couple of weeks so no worries. The road turned out to be very good, the best so far with again a Grader and crew working on a section. I came to a gate while passing through the Ashburton Downs Station but there were no signs on it and it was not locked so the normal procedure in this case is to go through and close the gate behind you which I did. And continued on uneventfully until I reached Nanutarra road which had a short section of paved road. On the way I overtook one vehicle towing a camper and three other passed me going in the other direction. Arrived in Tom Price completely bypassing Paraburdoo after 442km in 5:20 hrs. The lady at the Visitor’s Centre said the road is officially closed due to road works but she had only heard about it the day before, puzzling because there are no other roads through that area and work on them is continuous, probably typical Shire bureaucracy.

.

.

.