The holiday in paradise within the holiday – Cape Range National Park & Ningaloo Marine Park

August 21^st

Quite a long day of driving today, all on bitumen and nothing much to see. There certainly is a lot of nothing in the WA’s north-west. Our plan was to get to the Cape Range National Park to bush camp on the coast however, the more we researched about the area, the more it became apparent that the securing of a camp site was a much more complicated arrangement than simply rocking up and finding a spot we liked. You can only book a few of the camp sites in the National Park online and the rest are dealt out by the Ranger every morning. By mid-morning all the spots are gone. Given that we weren’t going to arrive in Exmouth till about 3.30pm, there was no possibility of getting into the park tonight.

 

Advice from the Visitor’s Centre was to stay at the caravan park closest to the Ranger Station and get up to be at the Ranger Station early in the hope of getting a spot. Interesting plan but what the heck.

We stopped in at Exmouth to stock up on groceries. We were here probably about 8 years ago to swim with the Whale Sharks and it was a small, dingy little place with not much going for it. Times have changed and the place is now quite a vibrant little community. 

We then headed to the Yardie Homestead Caravan Park for the evening. It was really windy and the camping area for tents left a bit to be desired so we got a room instead in the old refurbished shearer’s quarters and enjoyed a barbecue dinner.

Camping at Cape Range

August 22^nd - August 26^th

So we set our alarm for 6am and were on the road by 6.15am. 8km to the Ranger Station and when we arrived we were the third car in line! Amused ourselves until the Ranger arrived at 8am and by then there were about 10 cars in line. All the campsites informed the Ranger of vacant camping spots via radio and by 8.15am we had been assigned Ned’s Camp and had an hour to get there or we would lose our spot. Weird system but it seems to work.

Arrived at Ned’s Camp and were greeted by the camp hosts* (Kate and Chris from Yamba in NSW) and shown to our spot. Perfect!! The camping area only had about 12 spots in all and our spot was right away from everyone else complete with our own shady tree and sheltered by the sand dunes (which was just as well as it was blowing a gale). We paid for just one night and set up then went exploring in the car.

*What is a camp host? Volunteer travellers who manage the camp sites and the daily comings and goings of travellers so the Rangers can go about their real job of maintain the National Park. Kate and Chris had been camping at Ned’s like us and were asked if they wanted to stay on for a month and be the hosts. They weren’t on any tight schedule so thought it was a good idea. Win-win – the Park had someone to look after Ned’s and after the 8am call through of vacant sites, Chris and Kate were free to relax and ‘go fishing’! We were pleased with that as they gave us some fish for dinner after one of their daily fishing outings. Something we might consider doing one day.

Cape Range National Park is situated on the west side of the north-west cape and is made up of 60km of pristine beaches, limestone ranges and deep canyons and is home to a large variety of flora and fauna. The wildflowers here are quite spectacular and we saw loads of kangaroos, emus, birds and lizards. The NP also offers easy access to Ningaloo Marine Park which is part of the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area and provides wonderful snorkelling experiences right off the shore.

We drove to Yardie Creek at the southern-most end of the park and then beach hopped all the way back to Ned’s. Each beach and bay is unique in some way and all gloriously beautiful. We decided that our camp spot was the pick of the ones along the way. Back at camp we found that our neighbours are very friendly and personable (especially after we shared our freshly baked scones, jam and cream!!) and there is a really congenial feel to the place. We settled in nicely, had an afternoon nap after our early morning and watched the sun set over the beach.

One night just really wasn’t going to be long enough to stay at this wonderful spot so before 8am the next morning we let our camp hosts know we were staying another night and spent the day swimming, snorkelling in the Drift Loop at Turquoise Bay and at Lakeside (it is just like snorkelling in an aquarium here – sooooooo many fish to see along with beautiful coral and even a shark), spotting turtles, reading, fishing and just generally chilling out.

We were under a spell now and three more days turned out the same way – “Yes Kate and Chris, we are definitely leaving tomorrow” then a mad run to pay for an extra night before 8am the next morning.

Our days – swim, snorkel, fish, sleep,eat, read – REPEAT!!

One great thing about Ned’s was the impromptu ‘happy hour’ that just seemed to happen the first night we arrived and continued. Each night around 5pm a few people would start bringing their camp chairs and a drink or two to a spot with a fantastic view of the beach, the ocean and the sunset. More people would join the group and each day new arrivals caught onto the little ritual and came along too. Everyone was friendly and keen to share their travelling adventures, thoughts on the best places to fish and what wonderful sea life they had spotted that day. Stephen thrilled the oldies of the group (and some of the younger crowd) with a drone flight one night and everyone wants him to email them the photos the drone took. Stephen also got talking about his other technological gadgets that are accompanying us on the trip and before we knew it, we were hosting an outdoor movie night on the last evening of our stay. He set the projector and screen up in a communal area of the camp and about 16 people brought their chairs and blankets to watch the 7.30pm screening of ‘American Sniper’. Everyone (including Stephen) was very chuffed.

 Drone Shot

 Drone Shot

The only negative experience of our time at Ned’s was something I witnessed early one morning. I was doing a run along the road. The run had taken me into the car park of the Visitor’s Centre and I was coming back out to the road to head back to camp when I saw a huge caravan directly hit a kangaroo. They just keep barrelling along oblivious to the poor injured kangaroo trying to hop into the bush and struggling with what seemed to be a broken leg and obviously massive internal injuries. It hopped to the side of the road and lay down. The poor thing was in such pain. It let me come up and stroke it and check that it didn’t have a joey but there was absolutely nothing I could do to help it and I just stayed with it till it closed its eyes. I was incredibly shaken by the whole experience. Kangaroos get hit every day (they are such silly things and often hop right in front of your car) but to have actually seen the impact and the aftermath and to know the people responsible didn’t even stop was very distressing. Once back at camp, I let Chris and Kate know what had happened and they got the Ranger on the radio to let them know. The Ranger got back to them later to tell them that the kangaroo had died so it wasn’t in any prolonged pain and to confirm it didn’t have a joey. Not such a good start to the day.

All good things must come to an end and after five nights at Ned’s we reluctantly let 8am pass without paying for another night and broke camp. A lot of the ‘regulars’ were also leaving today so perhaps it wasn’t going to be the same anyway…… a great holiday within our holiday and a beautiful place we would certainly recommend to others. 

Point Samson, the Burrup Peninsula & Red Dog (The Pilbara)

20^th August

Lovely morning for a run and a swim in Honeymoon Cove at Point Samson. Crystal clear water and plenty of fish to look at.

Left Point Samson and drove past the Karratha salt flats towards the Burrup Peninsula which is part of the newly formed Murujuga National Park.  The word Murujuga in local aboriginal language is thought to mean ‘hip bone sticking out’, referring to the peninsula’s alignment on the Pilbara Coast. As well as being the WA’s 100^th National Park, it is also unique in that it is the first jointly managed park in the state (managed jointly by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Department of Parks and Wildlife).

 People obviously have a sense of humour in Karratha!

The colours of the Pilbara are just amazing and in such contrast to each other – red dirt, white salt, blue sky, yellow sand, turquoise water, numerous shades of green in trees and bushes. It truly is an incredible place. This was evident once again on the Burrup Peninsula. We drove through to Withnell Bay and Hearson Cove and the water was a blue colour like nothing we’ve seen before. Spent some time exploring the 4WD tracks around these spots and then visited Deep Gorge.

Deep Gorge is another amazing place. This area has been recognised as the most prolific Aboriginal rock art site in the world and has been listed by the Heritage Council of WA. There are reportedly 50,000 plus petroglyphs (rock carvings) in the Burrup Peninsula and approximately 10,000 can be seen at the Deep Gorge site. There are no absolute dates for the petroglyphs but they are estimated to have been produced from 25,000 – 30,000 years ago up to the 1860’s. The petroglyphs here represent the longest know sequence and greatest number anywhere in the world and have a diversity of subject matter. We wandered around here for ages and marvelled at these wonderful pieces of history.

In sharp contrast to Deep Gorge was the North West Shelf Project which also occupies a large space on the Burrup Peninsula.  North West Shelf Project facilities constitute Australia’s largest operating resource development and currently accounts for more than 1/3 of Australia’s oil and gas production. For the past 30 years, the North West Shelf Project has been WA’s largest supplier of domestic gas. It is one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas producers. The Project’s operations and development create jobs and injects millions of dollars annually into Australian businesses however; I couldn’t help but feel it was a real eye sore in this otherwise magnificent part of the world.

Feeling a little deprived of pug love, I insisted that we stop in at Dampier on the way out of the area and patted the Red Dog memorial statue. Many of you will have seen the movie ‘Red Dog’ about the Pilbara Wanderer – a cross Kelpie/Cattle dog that was well known for his travels through WA’s Pilbara Region. His nickname of Red Dog has been attributed to the red dirt of the Pilbara (it gets into everything!!). Three books have been written inspired by Red Dog. Apparently a prequel ‘Blue Dog’ is being currently filmed on Karratha Station – keep your eyes peeled for that one.

Some of that Pilbara red dirt!

Tonight we bush camped at the mouth of the Fortescue River, about 20km off the North West Coastal Highway. The dirt road in was maintained by the mines so all good and we got out to the river mouth in no time. A few fishermen had long term camps out there as the fishing is meant to be first class. We found a secluded spot right near the river and enjoyed a quiet evening with no neighbours or generators to bother us and magnificent night sky. 

Millstream Chichester National Park via the Tom Price Railway Rd and a visit to Mount Sheila (was someone having a laugh!)

18^th- 19^th August

Left Tom Price this morning and quickly got onto the private Tom Price Railway Road (the one we needed the permit for) which runs alongside the longest privately owned railway in the world – all for the mines. The road was dirt but well graded and it was fascinating to drive beside so many mining trains – each kilometres long and most fully loaded with iron ore. Commonly the trains have over 200 cars each of which carries 100 tonnes of ore. The analogy we were told is that one of these trains carries enough iron ore to construct about 15,000 family cars. The mine works in the area are so incredibly vast and dominate much of the landscape.

Along the way we took a detour to drive up Mount Sheila. Mount Sheila was originally a Telecom Repeater Station. When I mentioned in a text to my good friend Jill where we currently were in our journey, she looked up the area and mentioned to me that we really must go to Mount Sheila. Pretty funny to have Mount Bruce and Mount Sheila within kilometres of each other. Someone must have been having a laugh – only in Australia! It was a narrow, rocky 4WD track to the top with more phenomenal views over the Hamersley Ranges.

Our destination today was Millstream Chichester National Park (240,000ha). Quite a different park to Karijini but nonetheless very interesting. Lots of rolling spinifex hills, sheer escarpments and wetlands with loads of bird life. The Millstream precinct is a priority one water catchment area and the water feeding the area comes from a natural underground reserve (aquifer) which is feed by the Fortescue River. The aquifer has an estimated area of 2000km square and contains 1700 million cubic metres of water. The aquifer supplies water to industry and for domestic use to many local coastal areas.

On entering the park we set up camp at the Stargazers Campground and just hung out there into the evening. Very hot day but pretty chilly night so into bed early.

We planned to stay at this campsite for two nights while we explored the park. In the morning, we headed to the old Millstream Homestead and did a walk through the surrounding wetlands – really pretty with some interpretive signs telling about the wetlands, the Yindjibarndi people, the early settlers and the natural environment. From there we drove the Snappy Gum Drive loop which took in a lot of the area with some sweeping vistas across the undulating hills dotted with spinifex and fabulous gum trees.

From there we did a short cliff top walk with a number of vantage points to view the Fortescue River and the Hamersley Ranges and then drove to Deep Reach which is a part of the river allocated to swimming. It was another hot day so we were keen for a swim but the water was murky and the mozzies were awful so we aborted that idea and headed back to the car. We then realised we had done all there was to do in that part of the park and it wasn’t even lunch time so we decided to go back and break camp and head to the Chichester section of the park.

The drive from Millstream to Chichester was fabulous – amazing scenery, wildflowers, red dirt and chocolate coloured ranges. The Chichester Range is very rugged terrain made up of basalt and sandstone. Very striking. Our first stop in this part of the park was Python Pool – a permanent plunge pool at the base of a cliff. Pretty but unfortunately no swimming again as the pool was an eerie shade of green because of algae growth. We started along a rocky track to George River but the going was tough and we weren’t convinced that the camp sites at the end of the track would yield anything special so we turned around and headed out to the Roebourne Wittenoom Rd. That was pretty much it for the National Park – a nice place to visit but if someone was pressed for time, it wouldn’t be the end of the world to miss this one.

 Python Pool

So….. onward to the coast. Spectacular drive through some quintessential Pilbara landscape listening to our latest audio book – ‘Paper Towns’. We popped out at Roebourne and decided to spend the night at Point Samson – a small coastal fishing village. Had hoped to possibly catch up with my good friend Ali’s sister who lives in Wickham but they were in Brisbane for a family function so we checked into the caravan park and went across the road to the tavern for happy hour and the biggest seafood platter ever! We met a couple there who are travelling by boat. The man had spent four years building a kit catamaran and now they are sailing around Australia. Quite the journey. This piqued Stephen’s interest and he has all sorts of ideas now for a boat building project – as you do!!

Sunset at Point Samson

Tom Price (The Pilbara) with a view of Mount Bruce and a side trip to Mount Nameless

17^th August

Headed out from Karijini this morning (past all the people lining up for a campsite) and started to make our way towards Tom Price. On the outskirts of the National Park is Mount Bruce (they could have thought of a more inspiring name for this impressive mountain – the aboriginal name is Punurrunha) which you can climb (9km uphill) but we were satisfied with just seeing it from a distance. 

Our gorge days were not over just yet and we stopped in at Hamersley Gorge which we viewed from above at the lookout and then climbed down into the gorge to a small waterfall and an even smaller little rock pool. The water in this pool was surprisingly warm given that it seemed to be bottomless and was a beautiful light blue colour.

 

We arrived at Tom Price mid-morning and booked a room at the pub. We would have arrived about 15 minutes earlier but got held up at a level crossing waiting for a train. When you arrive at a level crossing in the Pilbara you may as well turn off your engine and have a cuppa as the trains can be up to 2km long. It is quite a sight to see. Stephen counted 236 cars adjoined to an additional three diesel engines hauling them.

Tom Price (established in only 1962 and the highest town in WA at 747m) itself is a nice place serving the mines around the area (predominantly Rio Tinto) and the town has a lovely plaza area, great visitor info centre, a few pleasant parks and lots of grass which is nice change as the Pilbara red dust has impregnated everything we own. The town was named after Thomas Moore Price who arrived in the 1960’s from the USA to appraise deposits of ore and was instrumental in convincing the mining companies that it was worth mining in the area.

Stephen was also very impressed with the hardware store (Muzzy’s Hardware) which stocked just about everything (we bought masks and snorkels there for the next leg of the journey) and all the spanners, wrenches etc were mega sized to cater for the mines.

We couldn’t check into our room till 2.30pm so took a drive about 5km out of town and then made the steep and rocky ascent to the top of Mount Nameless (height 1,128m). The aboriginal name for the mountain is Jarndrunmunhna meaning ‘place of the rock wallabies’.  It is the highest accessible mountain by vehicle in WA. The track was really quite challenging 4x4 driving, all in low range but the view at the top was terrific. 360 degree views taking in the surrounding Pilbara area, the town of Tom Price and the vast open cut Rio Tinto mine. The harshness of the mine was juxtaposed by some lovely wildflowers at the top.

Back in town we busied ourselves with housekeeping stuff – washing, shopping, water, fuel etc and I managed to find a good coffee and a beautician. Up until now on this trip we have filled our car water tanks with a bucket which is a slow, tedious process but does the job. When we arrived at the spot in town that supplies drinking water to travellers, we had to wait while the person in front of us finished filling up. They then had trouble getting their fitting off the tap so Stephen had a tool to assist. They then offered us the use of their hose to fill up our tanks which we kindly accepted – so much easier and quicker with a hose so Stephen immediately went back to that great hardware store and we are now the proud owners of a blue hose!

The other thing we needed while in town was a permit to travel on the Tom Price Railway Road tomorrow to get to our next destination. The permit is free at the Visitor’s Centre but you have to sit through a 20 minute safety DVD before they will give it to you. The road is owned and maintained by the mines and therefore lots of huge mining vehicles use it. You need to be well versed in driving etiquette with road trains and other rules and regulations that apply to the use of this road such as sticking to the 80km speed limit and a 0.0 blood alcohol level for both the driver and the passenger.

Interesting dinner at the pub. We both ordered pasta which came with garlic toast which was exactly that – two slices of white bread spread with butter and garlic seasoning and toasted.