Category: 4WD

Late start, waiting for the canvas to dry from overnight dew….quite tropical here….once packed we hit the road again for the short hop to Derby, not Darby.  Stopped along at Wilare Roadhouse, starting to see signs for  crocodiles..
Arrived in Derby, the start of the Gibb River Road passed us our right, tempted to venture down there but we had an important pick up the next morning.
Derby is a small town approx 3000 people, 2 pubs, Woolworths and an IGA & bakery, nothing much to see….settled in to camp and headed off the pub for dinner…. reasonably busy, lots of people preparing for the Gibb or just finished it…4wd to<span;>ur buses packed with senior citz ready for adventure….back to camp and packed for our next adventure tomorrow

Another long day in the car, about 400 km further north to Broome. Very flat and unremarkable plains, quite green after the wet season, quite tropical here, about 24 c by 9 am, going upto 29-30 and staying there until about 7pm…cooling just a few degrees to low 20, then 16-18 overnight.. comfortable.

Couple of stops along the way, Sandfire Roadhouse, interesting outdoor area and bar 🍺.

Finally arrived in Broome around 2.30….we are on the outskirts of town…set up and drove into town to have a look around , drove onto beach and had nibbles and drinks and waited for the famous Cable Beach Sunset. Awesome viewing along with 3000 other cars, all having beach parties.

Packed up and drove to other side of Broome to catch the legendary Staircase to the Moon display…..a combo of Full moon and low tide, mud flats producing an outstanding moonrise.

Broome is a very busy town, full of tourists restocking for the big trips north of here.

Tomorrow off to Derby.

Early start to get some more km’s behind us…somewhat sad leaving Karijini after 3 nights….not much along the route, just the usual mining sites, occasional road houses and highways.

Stopped at Port Hedland once reaching the coast, although we couldn’t see the coast…it’s a shipping port so not much to see….it seemed like the town was built at great expense, then just left to rot….quite a shock… nothing but heavy industrial areas and houses in clusters around a town centre, where the toilets didn’t work, broken glass in shp windows…you get the idea….

Continued along the road for another 90 minutes before arriving at the sandy beach camp spot at Cape Keraudren..lots of rocks and as the tides rise and fall upto 6 meters, the water was about 2km from us….huge tides….blue sky and blue ocean in front of us….rock walked around the tidal pools, found some marine animals, 🐙, 🦀 etc

Beautiful sunset and moon rise, but then water descended from the air, heavy condensation, everything got wet….

Arrived via the visitor centre and directed to the camp host check-in hut.
Gwen (COO) and underated side kick Rod were very welcoming sharing knowledge and how to best spend the next 2 and a half days..so we set up camp in our designated spots, nice shady camp near the toilet block… red dirt and rock sticking to everything and everyone…quick drive to various lookouts to gain some perspective on our location, and back to camp to prepare for tomorrow..
First off we walked down to Fortescue Falls and onto Fern Pool, words can’t describe the beauty of the place, see photos….walked along the base of the gorge and ascended the other end via a series of ladders and lots of rock crawling……..we then decided to have a quick bite and back to fern pool for a swim….the water was refreshingly cool, but after a few minutes you got used to it…back to camp and same again tomorrow, this time another series of gorges about 40km away.

These gorges were different and probably harder to negotiate…wading through water, hand rails to hold onto and rocks…sliding across rock walls, spider walking between vertical walls a meter apart…
Nothing more to say, but stunning.

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Sluggish start this morning as we only have 2 hour drive to our next stop for 3 nights.
Last night after settling in, we walked to the local establishment for a pub dinner…guessed we picked the wrong night in a mining town….State of Origin was on and the residents of Newman were to say the least we’re a roudy mob…whne we first walked in, I think we were the only non mine employees,I asked the girl behind thE counter “is there a lounge or bistro?”. No was the answer along with a “sorry” , I guess she could see we didn’t quite fit in….trying to escape the deafening roar of state of origin, we found the TAB betting room much quieter behind what must have been soundproof glass….enjoyed our meal and retired back to camp.

We decided to do some stock replenishment of our groceries, so paid a visit to the supermarket…fuelled up again and set the navigation systems to Karijini.

We arrived just after 1 pm, short visit to the magnificent Visitor centre and then to the camp check-in station where Rod and Gwen (volunteers) checked our papers and set us on towards our respective camps, after some very good advice on what to see and do and when…
Set up camp and then went on a bit of an orientation tour.
The Gorges and rock pools below looked very impressive….this what our appetite for what we had planned the following day….
After the orientation, back to camp , well before sunset and prepared our usual h’ors d’oeuvres and enjoyed the company of our travel companions, Tom and Di..
Dinner followed with drinks and port, then back to our respective homes on wheels…bed and we’ll earnt rest.

Early start again to get more km’s down..

Headed out to Big Bell, a gold mining town that grew to 600 people and they all left pretty much over night when the promised gold didn’t surface..there is only 2 building standing and the massive hotel, art deco style is still standing… explored around here for a while then off to Walga Rock… WA’s claim of Uluru size.. well not really but still impressive… Aboriginal art all around..some of dubious origin…headed north again towards our next stop Newman.

Roadworks stalled our progress, so much so Tom decided to engage in conversation with the traffic management staff over the 2 way radio..

Passing through Meekatharra and other un notable towns , passing the Tropic of Capricorn just before Newman..

Setup camp and already notici was WA

Spent the morning at the Gwalia museum then Devonshire tea at Hubert Hoover’s house (US PRESIDENT), he was the chief designer/engineer of the mine…back on the road for the long stint to Cue…heading west again, as far west as we will go… Nothing to see really except gold mine after good mine…each one having its own mobile cell.. something we took advantage of….passed through tiny towns, Sandstone, Mt Magnet..km after km…of low mallee scrub…fuelled up at Mt Magnet where we hit the final stretch north to Cue..arrived just on sunset , found the free shire camp and settled in for the night….locals exhibiting DJ skills with the worst set of music available…these people were no match with Avicii.

Up at first light to get to our tour pickup location for the Super Pit. Looks like everyone around us is going too….just as we were leaving at 0800, I received a text message advising the tour is off due to absence of a bus driver….not happy but what can we do……found a coffee shop and sat down for a soothing refreshment….to ponder and stew over the cancellation..we stayed and extra night to catch this tour but we were sh#t out of luck…. Swan luck…whilst sipping on our coffee/tea, the other campers that were packing up also come in….they also we gazumped…

We decided to head out to our planned destination , Niagara Dam.

Another failed construction of a dam that was never used, the sheer amount of manpower and resources to build a dam out here was astonishing….walked around and explored the area, joined by 1000000 flies..

Back in the car for the short drive to Kookynie, a ghost town from the gold rush days, the Grand Hotel was the last one standing out of five others, so we went in and had a drink….a very old lady was serving and she was witty and very sharp… originally from Victoria. Had a look around of what was left of the town and decided to head to Gwalia (Leonora) to camp.

Free camp right next to the gold mine…huge hole in the ground and right on the doorstep of the museum….had a quick look around the museum and decided to come back in the morning to revisit.

Rest day…well not really…more like refresh and restock…off to Coles , stocked up on things we couldn’t bring in to WA, fruit, vegetables…back to camp and some running repairs on an electrical plug and lunch….then into town to visit Museum of the Goldfields….free and fantastic, even a Scotsman telling jokes, and ribbing tourists..had a great conversation with him and left for camp….

Kalgoorlie is a big mining city… everyone here works or has some association  with the mine, there is no place for flashy EV cars and even the coffee culture is just evident…if you own a white ute/4wd you’ll fit right in..

In typical Swan planning, the Super Pit lookout is closed for renovations…dang…oh well, we have a booked tour in the morning for the super pit so looking forward to seeing that..

WeEarly start after some light rain . So a wet pack up and pretty cold overnight..down to about 6C.  We had a great night with our first campfire, the dried wood burns very hot and very little smoke…somewhat different to the Victorian High Country…we camped at a free camp just off the road, east of Caiguna Road House some litter around, but otherwise a good camp, I don’t understand why people thinks it’s ok to leave rubbish behind…stopped at the Road house, ablutions and the obligatory 90 mile sign….then back on the blacktop heading for Balladonia…site of the unannounced landing of Skylab…”fragments” on display and a cheap mock-up of the actual craft… disappointing to say the least, anyway fuelled up and made tracks for Norseman where we finally started our push north east towards the Kimberly…. Norseman is a mining town so lots of mining trucks, utes, wagons and miners in hi vis.abd red dust…lots of it..standard outback apparel..

Headed north out of town for Kalgoorlie…arrived after 3 pm…another 600-700km today…but we are here for 2 nights,  so down time for a day at least.

Settled in and headed for the local establishment for a nice dinner and few refreshing ales.

Back to the cars and saw some local entertainment of 2 persons dancing and yelling around the round about…. quick to get in the car and head back to the gated safety of the caravan park.

A snap shot of our trip so far

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