Trying to stay out of the rain!

Wednesday 12th August

Well, we haven’t actually got very far. Having left Pardoo we had to go to South Hedland for a large shop as the next option will be Carnarvon 600 or so ks. We got back on the road again and headed for our planned night stop which is a place on the Jones River (we first came here with our travelling companions, the Jones!) The site itself is about 15ks off the highway on a dirt road that goes to Wittenoom and Millstream NP. The actual camping area in called Kialrah Pool a lovely spot even though, like just about everywhere, the water level is a lot lower than the last time we were here. There was plenty of room and we got ourselves set up by early afternoon.

On Thursday morning we decided that since it is nice and quiet and the sunshine is good for charging the batteries we decided to stay another night.

Friday 14th August

In the morning, we set out again but with an unscheduled diversion to Karratha because we’d forgotten to buy a cucumber previously in South Hedland!!

Our route to Karratha takes us through Roebourne, a place with a very prominent place in history on account of its prison. At one time this was the largest prison in WA but it has a very dark history in the treatment of Aboriginals.

We’re only passing by today but there numerous accounts of its history if you want to Google it.

Currently it is being restored and maybe we’ll be able to visit next time we’re here.

It is relatively easy to nip in and out of Karratha, there is special caravan parking, once you can remember where it is!

So now, having left Karratha all cucumbered up we can head for the Fortesque River, our next stopover.

The entrances to some of these campsites are sometimes a little difficult to spot and you have to be prepared for a bit of a track.

This is a place that we’ve passed several times but never been into, mores the pity because it really is a really lovely spot. We expected it to be pretty full because it is an obvious weekend camp for people from Karratha. however, we found a spot next to the river, a bit stony but better than dust!

Although it’s not that far from the highway and the river bridge it is surprisingly peaceful.

The view from the kitchen window.

Again, the water level is pretty low but its quite deep at the edges on the outside of the bend where the flood waters undercut the bank and more than deep enough to swim in.

It is a very easy spot to settle into and we spent the weekend lounging around watching the world go by. The yabbie net was quite productive each night and provided some anticipation every morning. The yabbies here are called Red Claw and are a pest across the top half of Australia as they destroy the native marine fauna, lillies, etc. It is actually against the law to put them back in the water!

We compared catches with our neighbours who were also catching Catfish. The are not very nice look at with big heads out of proportion to the rest of the body. They are also difficult to fillet and don’t taste particularly nice either!

It was, in fact, quite busy over the weekend but now on Monday we have the place to ourselves and went for a walk to explore the stony riverbanks

We decided we were in no hurry to leave and just stayed and vegged out.

Our neighbours left on Sunday and on Monday another couple turned up and took their place. On talking to them we discovered that they had camped next to us and we had chatted over a glass of wine, five years ago on the de Grey river at Muccan!

They left on Tuesday we stayed!

Wednesday 19th August

We had to leave so that we could get to Carnarvon on Friday.

We had a very pleasant run before looking for a gravel pit for our overnight stop. We hadn’t been here before and it was quite small and very close to the road. Fortunately most of the heavy traffic stops between 2230 and 0600.

The next day it started raining!

Thursday night and another gravel pit, this time we knew about it and it was a pretty reasonable, however, we needed to be confident that the rain wasn’t going to make it difficult to get out. It rained lightly most of the night but it was no trouble in the morning and we set out for Carnarvon.

The rain stopped as we headed for Carnarvon but the sun didn’t come out!

About 100ks out of Carnarvon the car started to slow down for no apparent reason. it did this a couple of times before something Pat said made me think of the caravan brake controller. When I turned this right down the car seemed to run normally! At the first opportunity we pulled off the road and checked the brake drums – they were pretty hot! This more or less confirmed that it was the brake controller rather anything to do with the car, a big relief. After another 10ks we pulled over and checked the drums again and they had cooled down to normal!

The rest of the trip into Carnarvon was uneventful, we arrived at the caravan park, checked in, connected to power and water. We had just finished when our friends Brad and Denise turned up. We both got settled then met up for ‘wine at five’ and did some catching up.

On Saturday we went into town shopping and then had lunch with B&D at a local cafe down by the Gascoyne river. A pretty setting and a healthy lunch.

On Sunday we talked to the people at the camp site Mount Augustus and discovered that the roads were still closed due to the recent rain. They expected them to be opened again in the next two or three days but we will need to keep tabs on it because all the roads in and out of MA are all dirt and we can’t afford to get stuck in MA as we have to be home the first week in September.

We had to do some more shopping this morning but after lunch we went to Babbage Island which is only an island after heavy rain combined with a high tide!

Although we’ve stopped in Carnarvon a couple of times the only time we’ve been across here was in 1997 and the whole place has changed dramatically since then. Thirty years ago you could walk out on the railway jetty, about 300 metres. Now that is closed and has become part of a very interesting project to demonstrate the historical significance of this particular part of Carnarvon.

Today we’ve been in contact with our other friends who are up the coast at Quobba, they’re coming into town tomorrow and we will discuss where we go from here.