Boring, Boring, Boring........

That is how I see the last few hundred kilometres!!! Keith on the other hand is enjoying evey inch of this wide brown country. Just as well someone is!!
It is nice to call into the towns but in between there is just miles and miles of nothing!!
Port Hedland was just as I was expecting...........a very dirty town but it is so dry and dusty.
We are presently camped in another dust bowl, next stop Broome or maybe Barn Hill Station which is about 8o kilometres from Broome. It depends on the state of the road. We were going into 80 Mile Beach today but the road was too rough for us.
I guess I have to get used to these long dry stretches as there is still more to come..........or do I!!
I did want to have power tonight so I could watch the Rafters but it wasn't meant to be although I did mention that to the man next door with the satellite dish so I am waiting for an invite!
Other than that it is all good!!!!!!

This photo does not really do justice to the Stairway to the Moon. We really needed Tania here with her "big lens"! The full moon reflects on the low tide and it is very impressive. We were lucky to be here just at the right time.

Another dust bowl where we camped on the way to Karratha.

A nice block of land in Dampier!! The place should be called Boulder I think. There are mountains of rocks everywhere.

Keith the Snorkeller.

This park at Quobba Point was set in and around the sand hills and there were caravans and motorhomes everywhere as well as

permanent shanties.

Cape Range National Park, Osprey Bay where we camped for 3 nights. Note the absence of any trees.

There we were stranded by the flooded river. The catchment area had it's annual rainfall in two days and this was the result.

Karratha and Surrounds

We are currently staying in Dampier approx 20 klms from Karratha. We were going to stay in Karratha but after being told that it was $44.50 a night for a powered site we decided to try Dampier. What a rip off!! Worse than Exmouth. This park is a community park and you are restricted to staying 3 nights so we are staying 2. It is right across the road from the port so can see the ships docked and it is only $24 a night. Bargain!!
There are so many mine sites and gas fields around this area it is amazing. There must be so much work here and so much money. Apparently you can buy a block of red dust for $450,000 and then build a house on it for about the same amount! The good news is that if you choose to rent it out you can get $2,500 a week for it!! Unbelievable.
Karratha has K MArt, Coles and Woolworths and quite a lot of other shops as well as McDonalds. Yes it looks like I will be paying a visit tomorrow so will post some photos. I can taste the thick shake now!!
It also has the advantage of being on the coast.

Moving right along.......

We are heading for Karratha but I didn't tell you about the experience getting into Cape Range National Park. We stayed at Yardie Homestead which is a property that has been transformed into a caravan park and about 17klms from the park gate. We were in the "overflow" because they were so full so no power....$22 a night.
We had been told about lining up to get in the park so we were up at 6.20am and waiting at the gate at 6.45am!! There were 5 in front of us. The ranger then comes at 8am after they have heard from the camp hosts about vacancies. Luckily we only had to line up one morning! It is very popular and once you are in there you can stay for up to 28 days and you have priority. Many people are turned away apparently.
The caravan park in Exmouth was $39 a night.........what a rip off!
Tonight we are in a roadside camp but we do have phone reception. Yay.

Keith the Snorkeller

Is there such a word...........anyway, Keith has a new passion, snorkelling. We have just stayed three nights in the Cape Range National at Exmouth. We had heard about the snorkelling so I gave Keith the gear for his birthday.
We were camped in a beautiful spot right on the beach and he could snorkel right where we were staying.We also went to the Oyster Stacks for him to snorkel. Apparently it was awesome. He couldn't believe the size, colours and variety of fish that he was swimming around with....almost indescribable.
I "happily" sat by and watched........not one to go outside my comfort zone, otherwise known as a sook.
I couldn't help but think how much Josh would love to be here knowing his love of fish and all things fishy.
Exmouth itself is not very impressive and quite expensive but it is nice to be back in the land of communication.
Tomorrow we head towards Karratha. It is very warm here........about 27 degrees.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to Rachel for tomorrow, 20 June.
Sorry we can't be with her.





Image Martha Stewart

No Phone Reception

We have found that we don't have phone reception at a lot of places out here in outback WA and we are heading into the National Park at Exmouth and won't have service for a few days so no blog for a few days either. As for Mc Donalds I don't think I will be seeing one of them for a long time...........maybe Broome, I don't know.
To all my concerned friends............I have recovered quite well from my fall and the bruise isn't quite as bad it it could have been thanks to the first aid from my quick thinking nurse.
Last night we spent in a roadside park beside the flooded Lyndon River. We could have crossed late in the day but then it would have been late getting into Coral Bay.
We made it into Coral Bay early this morning and did the glass bottom boat trip to see the coral on the Ningaloo Reef. They were very excited because there was a whale carcass amongst the coral and the tiger sharks were still around eating it. It was a worthwhile trip.

There has been another fall.........

Today, it was rainy so we waited until after lunch to go for a ride. We rode into town about 5klms and then at my suggestion we rode the extra 3.5 klms to see the mile long jetty...........because we have never before seen a long jetty!!
Unfortunately, as we were leaving, down I came off the bike again. Ouch!! Big briuse. The worst part was I then had to ride the 8.5klms back to the caravan park. I have just mastered swinging my leg over to get on and off but still not very steadily.
I would hate to see what I would do to myself if I fell off in full flight!!
Keith makes a very good nurse.
Never a dull moment.

We are at Carnarvon

We haven't had much of a look around yet but it is not such an appealing town........a bit like Cloncurry if you know what I mean!! We will stay here tomorrow night as well so that Keith can watch the State of Origin. We have just seen it advertised for 8.30pm here 10.30pm over there.
This is one of those caravan parks where everyone knows everyone and all come here year after year apparently. They all have name plaques in their windows!! Cute. One lady arrived at the same time we did towing a caravan and would be in her late seventies I would say. A great effort. She had to get the man from the park to reverse the caravan in but still..........
We are still heading north and looking forward to seeing Exmouth and Broome.
The bus is going well now and hopefully we won't have any more major dramas. We were lucky we had it fixed in a day once we got it organised.
Yes, Brian, Monkey Mia was busy with many people lining up to feed the dolphins, expecially at the 8am feed. You had to be very lucky to be picked as they only allow each dolphin to have two fish and there are only 3 or 4 dolphins to be fed.

On the road again............

We are all fixed and on the road again.
We are at Monkey Mia at the moment leaving later this afternoon. We weren't going to come here but heard that it was lovely so we thought we should check it out for ourselves even thought it is over 100klm detour. We didn't really come to feed the dolphins as we have done that in Tin Can Bay but we did see some. You have to be picked to feed them. It is a beautiful place.

We are currently in Geraldton sitting in McDonalds waiting for the bus to be fixed.

I very generously allowed Keith to go to the Salinig Museum in Mandurah by himself!

Margaret (my old school friend), Russell & I in Fremantle

The latest in reading lamps...........Very romantic too

The lovely little fishing villag of Dongara/Port Denison we were stranded in. It could have been much worse.

At least we saved some petrol

Help is on it's Way

We are being trucked out of Dongara tomorrow courtesy RACQ. There is an engineering works in Geraldton who are going to make some new springs as they can't find any to buy in.
Hopefully it will work out.
We are hoping it will all be fixed tomorrow but if not we will have a night in Geraldton..............in a motel!
In the meantime, we have been pedalling around here and enjoying the outdoors!

H-E-L-P!!!!!!!

Does anyone have a couple of spare leaf springs they could drop over to us????????
We have been stopped in our tracks with these springs breaking. Luckily we were in the nice little town of Port Denison and not in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately though, there is not much here and nothing open yesterday when it happened and it is a long weekend in WA this weekend. Apparently today is Foundation Day. Why don't we have a holiday for Queensland Day which happens to be the sme day!
We can't even start to try to have it fixed until Tuesday. All we could do was pull into a caravan park and this is where we could be for a while! All part of the journey apparently.......
Brian, maybe you could rent the bus now as is!!
Luckily I insisted having the TV antenna fixed and guess what is on at the moment...........the football, Broncos v Manly, so Keith is happily watching that.

Old New Norcia

Last night we stayed at New Norcia and did the tour today. It is a mission town founded by Benedictine monks in 1846 and is still operating today. The whole town is the mission so very little there but there is a hotel!! We did see one monk!!
We drove on to Cervantes which is the closest town to the Pinnacles so some more sight seeing tomorrow.