Travel Diary

Heading home seemed a bit of a sunset tour—boy did we get some sunsets. Our apologies if you get sick of sunsets, but there are actually more. Ellendale Lake was a “must do again” stop along the way home. If you are ever travelling along the Great Northern Highway in the vicinity of Fitzroy Crossing it is a “must stay” overnight stop. Be warned though, there are no facilities whatsoever. It is about 6 km northwest of the official Ellendale 24hr Rest Area. You will soon learn why the official stop is almost always empty.

This time at Ellendale we chose not to camp on the edge of the lake itself—amongst other reasons we didn’t want to crowd the campers who were already there. We decided that camping under a boab tree would be sort of nice and very “Kimberley” - so we did it. We arrived early enough in the day to take in a walk while the sun heated our water for a shower. Met a fellow bird watcher in a dry creek bed. Saw some babblers, a kingfisher and some northern fantails.

We got away from Ellendale early and after a very long drive eventually found our way into the 80 Mile Beach caravan park. The road in from the highway is pretty good although there are some badly corrugated sections. It is however always a joy to reach you destination when you have been travelling on an unsealed road. Inquiries revealed that there were no powered sites left so we opted for a non-powered site. Not

much choice really. What are those solar panels for anyway. Decided it would be nice to try for a fish so decided to stay two nights. This place is a little like Barn Hill, only a bit more plush (and more expensive). Nevertheless we had a good time—I even caught a blue nosed salmon for dinner. Yum. Jan enjoyed it too. Sunset on the low tide is spectacular as you can see. The only disappointing thing about this place was the number of people collecting seashells that others will now not have the opportunity to see.

After a couple of nights at 80 Mile Beach we headed off towards Karratha, stopping overnight at the De Grey River. What a beautiful place to stop. A couple of years ago when we in the Pilbara we did not see too many birds, but this time, after a very wet summer/autumn the birdlife was prolific—saw many flocks of budgies in particular. We stopped in a Karratha for some supplies—caravan park was full—and moved on to 40 Mile Beach. What a lovely spot. Stayed a couple or three nights. The weather was great and to our surprise we didn’t get any plagues of insects. (loud hooray from Jan).

 

We had never been to Warroora Station before so decided that we would call in there and stay for a few nights. Catching some fish would certainly be on the agenda if they were cooperative. Stopped overnight at Manilya Roadhouse—good place to stop but don’t try to drink the water out of the taps. Jan got some washing done and once again we got to meet some very nice people—they’re everywhere. Its actually so good someone is bound to

outlaw being nice one day. We fuelled up the following morning and headed for Warroora. A good trip, not long, and along a very good to very average unsealed road, but we made it well before lunch time. Cup of tea, set up van, take boat of car ready for fishing—before you know it, time for drinks. We were camped here, on the beach, the night of the Four Corners show on the Ningaloo Coast. What a load of C*+#@@+**!!??%&P the politicians and various government departments go on with’ Seems to me that all they want to do is make something that is accessible to everyone available only to a select few.

Five nights, 3 nice fish, and some everincreasingly windy conditions saw us leave Warroora’s 14 Mile Beach camp. We will return some day soon in perhaps April or May. Met Lindsay and Susan who come from Victoria—the place to be, and John and Alice from Mandurah. Really heading home now, after a little over 6 months on the road, we stayed overnight at Galena Bridge (Murchison River), and Oliver’s Bridge (Cataby) for our last two nights on the road. We met lots of nice people along the way and shown below are some of whom we took pics.

 

We have now been home for a couple of weeks or so, and have just about caught up with family and friends—even had a chance to see our sone Adrian and his wife Lou before they set off on their adventure to Edinburgh. Tessy  was excited to catch up with us and it is good to be around for Natalie (our daughter) and our son Vince and his wife Sarah. Much work to be done around the house in Padbury—what to do first?

 

September 21, 2006.