Fitzroy Crossing to Karratha

Fitzroy Crossing:

Went for a drive and found the famous Fitzroy River Crossing which in the wet season floods and separates the old and new township…there is an alternative road now…but we did drive across it, not a lot of water around at this time of the year as this is the Dry season until the Wet starts around Nov/Dec and lasts for about 4 months.

Famous Fitzroy River Crossing

We found another caravan park plus ‘Hotel’ and an aboriginal art gallery…while Brenda & I looked in at the gallery the men headed off to inspect the ‘hotel’ when Brenda & I were finished at the Art gallery we went looking for the men and found them in this outdoor area with steel fencing around it and a security guard on the door! So guess where the men were! In the fenced off area with all the locals who just happened to be Aboriginals and having a drink and a chat. 

Historic Aboriginal Pub.

Brenda & I  were allowed in and joined in with the drink and chat, we were the only ‘whites’there with over 100 locals. We had a good chat with one man who is a school teacher and his daughter you could say it was quite an experience

 

Geikie Gorge:

Beautiful Geikie Gorge

Just for a change we did another gorge!! Seriously we went on a boat trip on the river up to Geikie Gorge, it was interesting to see the canyon walls which were part of an old sea reef and we saw some fresh water crocs.

Broome:

It is hard to get booked into caravan parks here and as it happens David & Brenda have friends who live here and they invited us to ‘Park’ our Vans on their nature strip (it is fairly big) It was very kind of them to allow us to camp there and let us plug into their electricity! we enjoyed our stay with them

Lisa & Paul have lived here for 3 years and now have baby Judd (9 months) Lisa’s Mum & Dad are here on holiday from Bairnsdale so it was nice for David & Brenda to catch up with them too (lovely people)

Free Camping on the Nature Strip

They took us to Cable Beach to watch the sunset and have fish and chips for tea a beautiful sunset and the best Barra n chips ever!! 

Cable Beach with Barra & Chips to follow.

   On Saturday night we all went off to the Motor Speedway which we all enjoyed apart from the amount of Red dust we were covered in including Jim’s car!!!

David has a nasty mozzie bite and Lisa who is a nurse sent him off to the hospital to have it checked. He had to attend the hospital for 2 days to have antibiotics.

80 Mile Beach:

 

80 Mile Beach.

We have been told on good authority that it is worth while staying at this caravan park here at 80 Mile Beach, but it means travelling down a dirt and corrugated road for 9 klms it was shake rattle and roll!

It was worth the effort for the scenery was something else. Beach as far as the eye good see in both directions. The tide was out when we arrived about ½ a Klm so it was the next morning before we saw the sea. We have been told that it is a great fishing spot.

Caravan Park at 80 Mile Beach

Port Hedland

There isn’t a lot to say about this place apart from it being a shipping port for Iron Ore which comes by Rail & Road from the mines at Newman.  The township is divided into South Hedland and Port Hedland. South is now where the housing and shopping area is located.  The lengths of the trains are unbelievable about 3 + Klms long with 6 locomotives up front doing a mighty job!  the Trucks are, 1 Prime mover and 4 trailers long which is called a Road train.

On our way to Karratha the landscape changed from the flat red soil we have been used to, to a green landscape and a Mountain Range which was green instead of our usual Red that we had become used to also some wild flowers which West Australia is famous for at this time of the year.

Karratha is a bigger town  than we thought and there is a lot of building going on,  we read in the local paper  how much it is to rent houses here…anywhere from $500 to $1,500 per week!!! People who work for the Mines (Iron Ore) here are paid big money and due to the remoteness and cost of supplies means that houses are expensive to buy here $850,000 to $1.5 million…extortionate prices.