Month: September 2024

17. Great Life lapping Australia 2024

Karratha

The rain came on Saturday morning for a few hours; enough to turn the red dust into red mud. However, apart from keeping us inside for the morning, we weren’t put out too much. Saturday evening, we found a swish Italian restaurant with genuine Italian waitresses. The girl that cared for us had a very strong accent but a great sense of humor. There are so many backpackers from Europe, South America and Japan in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions. Makes you wonder how many Australian backpackers are seeing the world in their youth.

Sundays, the town is dead. Nothing open and no one doing anything, so we found some motor home owners we have met up at various campgrounds and spent a few hours talking into the sunset. They are taking off to Karrijini in the morning and we towards Onslow more towards Perth.

On to Onslow

Always interesting when you arrive at a roadhouse or small cafe in the middle of nowhere; busy as. The cappuccino machine performs to the max to “bring drivers back to life”. At one stop, it was evident that electric vehicles weren’t on the wanted list – the recharging point had security fencing around it.

We weren’t far from Onslow and came to some roadworks. The water truck had been through to dampen the road for setting ready for a next coat of blue metal. With the speed limit at 60kph, we got through quite quickly, not realizing we were preparing both the motor home and Suzuki for the car wash. We didn’t know until we arrived at the check in at Onslow Caravan Park. My sense of humor is usually “laugh because it was funny” but Lyn is a little different “$&@?!&$”. (Disappointment written all over her face). And right after you get through the security chain, a sign that says, “No washing of vehicles in the caravan park”.

Onslow

We found the water towers at the towns entry very colourful. They were quite different in that they depicted some of the lifestyle of the locals when Europeans arrived. The paintings of the marine life was well done too.

This little town prides itself in having lots of memorabilia from years gone, on display in the little museum. The volunteers were very well versed in what made this town tic from when the region welcomed miners and farmers to the Pibara.

At one end of town, is an interesting sculpture that depicts a sun rise. We had an early morning just the once, to see the sun rising within the sculpture.

There is a sculpture along the coastal walk of paparazzi dogs. I do not know why the sculpture exists here, but there was some way-out explanation.

Onslow is in the midst of expanding its ports and access from inland for mining companies who are now eager to export minerals from “them there hills” and gas from “way out there”.

Bullara Station

This cattle station covers an area of 250,000 acres; that’s BIG. There are at least 1700 head of cattle that regularly get rounded up by helicopter for tagging and health tests. The station closes in the second week of October to spend the next month preparing the camp ground property for the cyclone season. All the old farm equipment, which is on show during the open season, has to be secured in case a BIG cyclone arrives. Reopening happens in April.

There is a “we’re happy to have you” feel about the way staff settle you into your site and advise you of just how the station works in busy season. I found a couple who are members of my facebook group “Working on the Road in Australia”. They were ecstatic to meet, of course. Haha.

The building around Bullara are all restored from original wool sheds, shearing sheds and shearer accommodation. The showers and toilets are made to “the old days” specifications; rustic and often with an ingenious motivation. There is a coffee shop and a bar in the wool shed. Scones and cream are top of the list for the morning teas prepared by courteous staff from many countries around the world. The pies use meat from the property. There are copious amounts of red dust, but it’s an experience to remember.

We’ll be back after a week at Exmouth.

16. Great Life lapping Australia 2024

Port Hedland Twilight tour

Fortunately, there were just the four on the twilight tour of the land side of the port. The trains laden with iron ore come in to Port Hedland each hour with 2 “rakes”. A rake is made up of two locomotives and 132 cars each containing 120-130 tonnes of ore. Most trains have 2 rakes or 264 cars and are almost 3km long. It can take half an hour to walk from one end to the other. BHP mining and processing hubs are connected by more than 1000km of rail infrastructure. From Mt Newman to Port Hedland is 426 kilometers. The operations of the mining and railway is controlled or monitored from Perth using solar power.

Dampier Salt

Amongst all this iron ore and other metals are large salt pans where salt is processed from Indian Ocean waters. The sodium concentration in the waters nearby makes good free raw materials for Dampier Salt Mines with major shareholders Rio Tinto. Fortesque owns and operates eight purpose-built 260,000 tonne capacity Ore Carriers to move the salt. Current production is 3.2 million tonnes per year.

A little poem I found on a Starlink page -Hope you enjoy it!

Karen and Bill, in their caravan so grand,

$250k worth, they’d proudly demand.

But when it came to Starlink, their frugality showed,

For an extra $20, they’d rather hit the road.

Through the Outback they traveled, so rugged and free,

But Wi-Fi was sketchy, as you’d surely agree.

Karen would mutter, “Our budget’s so tight,”

Bill’d grumble, “A hotspot? It’s just not right.”

From Sydney to Perth, their adventure was grand,

Yet, without decent signal, they’d just wave their hand.

They’d stop by a town and beg for a free fix,

While their $250k caravan stayed in the mix.

They saw kangaroos, koalas, and more,

But buffering screens left them feeling quite sore.

So next time you hear of a couple in strife,

Remember Karen and Bill and their Wi-Fi life!

Interesting though. There’s truth in that. Its interesting that much wealth is ploughed into vans and cars to tow them but the owners complain about caravan parks charging $35 a night, just for a patch of grass, while they drink 2 bottles of wine every night.

Port Hedland port tour

The movie below is our port tour of Port Hedland. I hope you gain something from the movie, there is so much happening at the port each day. The tour is organized by the Seafarers organization. They are interested in helping those who work on ships for months on end. The crew can go there knowing they have friends on shore who help make their lives just a little easier to bare. The crew can “click and have delivered” food and goods from the seafarers store. We saw a delivery to one crew on our port tour.

We drove out of Port Hedland feeling we had learned a lot about Australia that can only be learned by being there. Seeing all the industrial support given to export this nations rich mineral wealth so that Australians can enjoy the good life that this country makes available to its population made us feel humbled. Over 50% of the mineral exports reach back to every person in their wages or grants to their locality. Gina Rinehart has painted some of her trains pink and gives the profits of those trains to breast cancer research. I applaud innovators who provide freely for us to benefit.

Point Samson

We found the little township of Point Samson on our way to Karratha and decided to stay a couple of nights. Talking to a mother of two kids at the pool, she said how her husband works the mines as an engineer and she homeschools the kids. They change campgrounds each few weeks. That’s the way they have chosen to bring their kids up. Evidence of her work was shown when her daughter commented on Lyn’s pretty bathers. Wow! from an 8 year old.

Many of you know, Lyn still runs our travel agency, Grey Nomads Travel and Cruise. You can see her hard at work in her office making an Azamara Cruise booking. (Anyone jealous of her office?)

Karratha and Dampier

The mining industry is spread well in the Pilbara area of West Australia. We travelled on in to Karratha to find a modern looking town but, like Port Hedland, covered with a thin layer of red dust. The weather forecast is for rain in the next couple of days so we wonder if we will see a clean washed town soon.

Our first duty after lunch is to the visitors center. We had good words about the lady there and they came true. She guided us to the things we could do and visit while here. The first in the agenda was to go to Hearson’s Cove for the month’s “Stairway to the moon”. Many places along the West Australia coast have this every month the best known is Broome.

Dampier

Dampier certainly is a red dust village. We tried to find the shopping center and could only find a tiny IGA and a shocking pub for lunch (the tortillas were great tho). However, Dampier is more known for being another iron ore despatch port, not as busy as Port Hedland. The “north-west shelf” gas project is BIG with some massive infrastructure at the processing plant where the gas is treated before being shipped for energy sources in many countries in Asia.

This is the beach we watched the moon rise from.

15. Great Life lapping Australia 2024

More of 80 Mile Beach

We had not expected to extend our stay here to a week, but we were finding the beach suited our style. There has been constant sunshine and high temperatures. Each evening, we chose to drive a kilometer down the beach and walk in the setting sun. The west turns on a good show all along the coast and many sunsets get noticed by all those camping on beach side camps. One of our neighbours turned out to be New Zealanders. They were doing all the desert roads of Australia in a 4WD truck with accommodation built into the tray of the truck.

A guy from Perth has provided a few nights of Australian country songs and ballads, many of which, he has written. His guitar solos have been very well performed; fast and furious. Of course, he was name dropping as he introduced some of the music.

It is unusual at this time of year, but the skies seemed ready to drop some sort of storm on us, so we got away by 7:15am on the day we departed. Firstly, 9km of red dust corrugated road to the Great Northern Highway intersection where we checked tyre pressure. We had reduced tyre pressure on the Suzuki to drive the beach.

Purdoo Road House

Arriving at Purdoo Road House, we found a great little shop where Lyn became mesmerised in a thong attached to a stick to be used to smash insignificant flies who had strayed in her direction. The fuel despatch was all done by the customer unlike any fuel depot in more civilised locations. I asked the shops keeper “what brings you to Purdoo?” Both he and his wife sniggered in response. They were from Indonesia and Australians just don’t like to work in “out of the way places” in Australia’s outback. A guy parked beside us, had a starlink receiver attached to his roof rack.

Port Hedland

After setting up at our site for Port Hedland, we headed to the information centre to make bookings for the seasonal active tours that are offered. The twilight Industry Tour and the Harbour Tours are popular and very informative. When they are done, we will know so much more about the world’s busiest bulk export port.

Across the road is “The Kiwi Shop”. Being a New Zealander, I had to check it out. Open the door, and you could hear a kiwi accented conversation happening. And there it was, a fridge full of LnP. Gotta get some. And some Hokey Pokey ice cream, some of that too. And Griffins chocolate biscuits. I felt back home again; and I had migrated to Australia 62 years ago – without the need of a passport. There was also product for Tongans and Fijians too. They come to Port Hedland as FIFO (fly in fly out) employees at the port and the mines.

But what “took the cake” was the Telstra Pay Phone box in the Main Street; space but “no can talk”.

14. Great Life lapping Australia 2024

Cable Beach.

As we have moved our mindset from touring West Australia to experiencing West Australia, we are intending to stay 3 or 4 nights at each chosen location, many of them will be beaches. Lyn loves to sit by ocean waters to enjoy sunshine, her reason for the skin color change. Cable beach in Broome is well known for the sunset camel ride. We didn’t experience the camels but filmed them in 2013.

Broome is a very busy town as many travelers restock supplies to do the Gibb River drive around the Kimberleys or further north or on their way south.

Barn Hill

Not far down the Great Northern Highway from Broome is this interesting farm that cares for many campers heading north or south. The 9 kilometers of private road is not the type I would like to drive to get home each day. But that is forgotten when you experience Barn Hill for a few days. Something like flying to London in economy class is forgotten in a few hours.

The grounds are made of the same red dirt you drive to Barn Hill on; powdery cosmetic dust. The clumps of rock and dirt and shale on the coast put there by nature reminds me, in a way, of the Sacred Valley in Peru but without a plan to build a city. Commonly referred to by regulars to Barn Hill as “the lost cities”, the colors change with both the time of day and the angle of the sunlight. If you’re driving the Great Northern Highway and go past the inconspicuous turn off, go back and experience the unique landscape of Barn Hill.

Everything at Barn Hill is done differently. Even the ablution block has been built of corrugated iron. As the property only has campers in the dry season, there is no roofing on the toilets and showers; just the stars in the sky to provide privacy. There is a lawn bowls club and green. Each morning starts with the smell of freshly baked bread created at the onsite bakery. Pizza and take-away lasagna are available on order some nights. Why not drive the red dirt to experience the charm of this “camp on a cliff”.

Flying a drone has become a hobby that brings a lot of satisfaction to me. After having made many travel movies by shooting from a movie camera on a tripod all around the world while taking groups of clients on a “trip of a lifetime”, moving into drone photography has brought many a “wouldn’t I get some great shots” feeling to me, if I had a drone in the sky! But not to be. I’ve settled now with the attitude “gotta get the drone up, there’s some great photos up there”. Driving along the highways on this lap of Australia, it’s happened a few times. Enjoy!

Most flights, I do not have a plan of what to shoot. The plan develops when I see what’s in the camera. Something like “right spot, right time” intuition. Sometimes it’s “let’s try this maneuver” and out comes “Wow! That’s nice”. At Barn Hill, that’s just what happened. The incoming surf was making lace on the beach, and I was awestruck at what nature freely provides for us to capture and share. It’s there now to enjoy. I’ve watched the movie many times since completing it and yes, there is a few “could be better” spots to improve on. But I’m happy to include it in my YouTube library now.

80 Mile Beach

Moving from Barn Hill to 80 Miles Beach started with the 9 km of red dirt and finished with another 9 km of red dirt but with many more corregations. Arriving here is a relief. The camp has over 200 sites and quite a bit of grassed area. You can also drive the beach in a 4wd.