Changing Plans

Friday 14^th June

This report is going to be a bit uninteresting I’m afraid.  We’re retracing our steps and having to rethink how we get home.   So some of the photos photos you may have seen before.

You may just want to wait for the next edition and hope that it is more colourful!

This morning we rolled back into Marble Bar and decided that we would go to the caravan park so the Pat could get a bit of washing done. 

The caravan park is quite small and the facilities are tired but clean, we got established and Pat hit the laundry!    3 washes all out on the line by 9.00am and dry by noon. The washing machines were nearly new and did a good job. We also went to the small general store and replaced a few basic foods such as milk, bread etc. We will go again tomorrow to check out the frozen meat and fresh vegetables. The rest f the day we caught up with emails etc. as there is a good Telstra signal here.

Saturday 15^th June

Did a bit of shopping at the small general store where there are no prices marked!   They bake the bread daily here so it’s lovely and fresh but don’t expect to find sourdough and ciabatta!   Roger ordered a loaf to be picked up in the morning when we leave.

We went to have a look at a potential camping spot at Glen Herring, it was quite pleasant but the turning circle for our van would be a challenge if anyone else was there too. Our friend on the motor bike was there setting up his campfire. We met him when we were filling the water tanks in the morning at Marble Bar. He comes from Greenbushes near Bridgetown. He had been riding his motorcycle exploring the area for about 6 weeks and was thinking of going home soon.

We have about two weeks to get home and have a route in mind.   However, we have been looking closely at the weather because rain is forecast for the area we have planned to travel through, they are all dirt roads and we don’t want to get caught out if the roads are going to be wet.

The bottleshop, alias the The Iron Clad Hotel, only opens for an hour at lunchtime and then from 1630 in the afternoon.   Roger thought he’d go and see what they had in the way of wine and discovered that they had a white that we like, nearly twice the price that we would pay at home but it has had to come a long way!

Sunday 16^th June

We have decided that we will go as far as Tom Price and review the weather situation from there.   We will take two or three days to get there and will retrace our steps via a couple of camping places that we like.

Marble Bar fresh bread – a loaf put aside for Roger and collected by him then a casual trip down to the ‘Secluded Gravel Pit’ where we will stay tonight, as we did on the way up.   A lazy afternoon – Roger cooking on the BBQ and nice fire which we decided was acually unnecessary and some satellite spotting – and amazingly we saw an Elon Musk string but only 14 of them tonight!

Monday 17^th June

We decided to go to Munjina Gorge again for tonight – stopped at Auski Roadhouse to get on the internet and check the weather and tried to make contact with Tom Price for camping with marginal success and not knowing whether we had actually booked! Some caravan parks have websites that are so difficult to navigate. We often just turn up and if you are there early there’s usually no problem, but of course, if it is school holidays that’s not a good idea. Fortunately we don’t often have to bother with CPs.

We arrived at Munjina (Albert Toglanini RA) about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, it was fine but got windy so no fire tonight.

Tuesday 18^th June

A very lazy day today, just sitting around reading etc.

Around 2300 the thunder, lightning and rain started……………………

Wednesday 19^th June

………………and continued all day, sometimes pretty hard!

We have no internet here so we don’t know the extent of the rain but from previous forecasts we think it is likely to require a change of route for heading slowly south!

Thursday 20^th June

Rained all night, so nearly 30 hours of rain and that is not good in this part of the world.   It is clearing this morning and anyway fortunately, most of our stuff is inside so not a problem but there are people here with camper trailers and rooftop camper (tents on the car roof) all made of canvas – we hope they are well waterproofed!   

We suspect that when we find out how extensive this rain has been, we will almost certainly have to change our route south!

Our booking message to Tom Price CP did get through so we’re good for two nights.   The caravan park is quite good and twice the size it was when we were last here, also there is a new toilet and shower block in our part.

As we drove to Tom Price (on the tar) we could see the effects of the rain, the red dust had become mud in many places.

Tom Price is a mining town but is also the nearest town to the famous Karijini NP and it has good supermarket so Pats shopping list is quite extensive. We’ll do some shopping this afternoon but will probably come back tomorrow to get what we”ve forgotten!

We rang Mount Augustus to enquire about the road condition and were told it was closed, as were most of the dirt roads south of Tom Price! Most of the grey roads on this map!

This is what dirt roads look like after rain, although this one has dried out a bit so we were OK to drive on it but it’s hard work driving, looking out for washouts and bog holes.

This meant our plans had to change significantly to remain on the tar until further notice. This meant heading for the North West Coastal Hwy, some 300ks to the west.

Saturday 22nd June

Leaving Tom Price we headed west with the target destination a Gravel Pit about 20ks east of the highway. This was a good spot and we were able to get back away from the road and heard very little traffic, not that there was much passing anyway.

It looks like a full moon tonight.

Sunday 23rd June

We hit the Hwy and traffic ,although southbound it wasn’t too bad, northbound though, a continuous stream of caravans – where do they all go?? Refuelled at Nanutarra Roadhouse and continued south, arriving at Minilya Bridge Roadhouse about 1300. Pat had discovered an ‘overflow’ parking area which had been used recently when the rain went through, so we had a look, decided it would do for the night and got set up. It turned out a good quiet spot with few vehicles overnighting. Better than the Rest Area on the other side of the bridge that was packed out.

At Minilya Bridge Roadhouse we were able to check the weather forecast and were upset to see the map below and the forecast the rest of the week!

When travelling in the bush we rely on being able to pull off the road for the night most of the time, sadly after rain the ground is very boggy and the chances of getting stuck in the middle of nowhere is probably not as exciting as it used to be!!! To all intents and purposes we will have to stay on the tar now until it dries out but looking at the weather map that’s unlikely to be before we get home!

Monday 24th June

We have a reasonably good run south on the Coastal Hwy, the number of caravans heading north is amazing – where do they all go? Thankfully we would not be heading north on this road anyway.

We’ve decided to see if we can get into the Gladstone camping area, which on Hamelin Bay a few ks across the water from Monkey Mia, which two people reading this will remember (we hope!)

The road in has been closed and opened several times in the last few days due to the rain, it is very much like the one in the video above but not too bad and we can access it OK.

This place is on private property and is on the edge of Shark Bay Marine Park (opposite is Monkey Mia) and there is about 200 hectares with lots of camping spots. Whilst this is very good there is always a problem when told “you can park where you like” and it seems to take a long time to make a decision on the best spot for your rig and here there was plenty of space.

Some jetty pictures for someone who has a ‘thing’ for them!