12 August 2013 – Albert Tognolini Rest Stop

This morning we posted the school work from Port Hedland, checked out the old Silver Star train café, and picked up a coffee for the road.  Josh drove all around town both Port and South Hedland trying to pick up some LPG from a garage that 1) stocked gas and 2) didn’t have their bowser out of order.  We ended up finding one and pulling in with the van but it wasn’t fantastic as Josh had to reverse out of it due to some concreting that was underway.  Due to the BHP Biliton trains traversing the roads we took a slightly longer way out of town to avoid the wait of the trains and started on our way towards Karijini National Park.  It was about a 300km trip to where we decided to stop for the night, around the winding mountain roads and just past the Auski Roadhouse at the Albert Tognolini Rest Area.  The views were stunning and there were a lot of purple Mulla Mulla flowers scattered everywhere.  It was a large spread out rest area with plenty of little spots to choose between for the night.  The ground here consisted of lots of very hard scattered smallish red rocks.  After setting up and opening up all our windows we sat and relaxed enjoyed the view whilst the kids did a bit of schoolwork. The night was quiet and for a while all four of us sat outside under the bright starts keeping an eye out for any falling star to make a wish upon.  That was before it grew so cool that us girls decided to head inside.

11 August 2013 – Port Hedland and South Hedland

This morning we said our goodbyes to Ken and Heather and drove to Port Hedland.  As you can imagine, it is simply a bit mining town.  We drove straight to the port lookout area and watched a few boats being loaded while the kids had a play at a nearby park.  Then we headed to the information centre to grab some brochures before driving to Cooke  Point to attempt getting a site for the caravan.  All the signs out front stated that they were full, but three caravans were lined up in their driveway to try their luck at getting in – so we decided to try our luck too!  Fortunately, they offered us their last available powered site so we jumped at it.  As we were back in air conditioning we got the kids to do a few hours of schoolwork before heading out to South Hedland to do some shopping.  We were nearly there when Josh noticed a park area which looked more like a car sale lot.  We just had to go for a drive thru it of course and on doing so, Josh recognised a car parked, belonging to Bruce and Jenny, our friends that we’d met on the day that we crossed from Queensland into the Northern Territory.  We wound the windows down and called out to them – so odd to run into them like this.  We had a quick chat and arranged to meet them after doing a bit of shopping.  They had recently arrived in Port Hedland and were here to stay for at least the rest of the year, as they had both been hired to work at the mine – great money and accommodation provided.  How’s that for earning a bit of travelling pocket money?  After a visit to Kmart for a few items of warmer clothing, we went back to their house this afternoon for a catch up on what each other had been doing before again heading back to the van to do hours more of school work so that it could all be posted tomorrow…  We probably missed out on a big tour of Port Hedland but we got the gist of the town.

10 August 2013 – DeGrey River

We hesitated to pack up and leave Cape Keraudren this morning, the only thing to push us away being the spots that Josh and Sami endured yesterday.  We went in search of a place with fewer bugs.  As we drove back along the main road heading south, we noticed the landscape start to change a little.  We were going from fairly flat surroundings and began approaching a more rugged landscape of red mountains in the distance – we were approaching the Pilbara region!  We had another short drive today pulling up alongside DeGrey River.  Seeing as though we’d gotten there nice and early, we found a great spot that had a very short track to the river’s edge.  The first thing the girls wanted to do was go fishing so we took our chairs and gear straight to the water and threw the lines in.  There was quite a bit of weed where we started and Josh was a bit fed up with trying to save the kids’ lines so instead we took the rods further along to beneath the bridge and threw them at the pylons.  Sami was the only one to catch a fish of any sort, but even then, just as she was pulling it out of the water it came off the hook and swam for its life.  We tried our hardest all day but in the end caught nothing – but we did have a bit of fun trying.  After lunch and a short swim by both Josh and Sami, we were back at the river when our neighbours came to join us.  Ken and Heather were from Victoria and had done quite a bit of travelling themselves, so as usual it was great to swap life stories.  Heather was kind enough this afternoon to take both of the girls under her wing and teach them a bit of craft.  It took quite a while and they had sore hands by the end of it, but the result was a beautiful box for trinkets or jewellery which they made from folding 16 square sheets of paper.  It was really clever and very pretty.  After heading home for some dinner, Josh set up a lovely warm campfire just outside, sure to keep the bugs away tonight!

9 August 2013 – Cape Keraudren

Up early and left Eighty Mile Beach, farewelling Mark & Sharon and Mick and Susan and the three boys.  We weren’t too sure where we would end up but as we were in a nice area Josh decided that we wouldn’t travel too far.  We ended up only driving for an hour or two and took the turn off opposite Pardoo Roadhouse, back down another dusty dirt road towards the coast.  Upon arriving at this spot, known as Cape Keraudren we were approached by the caretaker to collect our fees and point us towards the best spots for setting up the van.  We first went to look at the camp area beside a small inlet, and although the water was a magical turquoise colour and there were plenty of large shells to examine, we decided that we could later be attacked by mosquitoes or sand flies – so onwards we drove.  We headed towards the sandy white beach in the distance where we could see many other travellers with their vans.  Once we reached the sand we were most definitely decided that this would be where to set up camp for the night.  It was high tide when we arrived so the caravans were all only about 100 metres from the water.  There seemed to be many people out the front of their vans at this time staring out to sea, aha – whales were frolicking out there – and there were plenty of them!  I joined in the sea-gazing for quite a while before deciding that I really should set up the van.  But, once done, I had nothing more to do except sit back out the front in the sun and enjoy the view.  It was just brilliant!  Josh went for a bit of a wander around to the next small bay with the girls while I soaked up the sun.  When they returned, the girls decided it would be fun to “dig thru to China” so they gave it a good go.  They ended up using a small plastic cup each and amused themselves for hours.  They were at it for quite a while before I talked Sami into coming for a walk out across the rocks now that the tides were going out.  We found lots of interesting sea creatures to touch and examine such as hermit crabs, small sand crabs and shells all of which she of course had to bring back to the caravan.  The sun was going down pretty quickly by this stage so we all raced to the car and drove around to the cliff edge to view yet another pretty sunset – just making it in time.  It was quite pretty as there was a big flat rock that had emerged from the water due to low tide and it was sitting between us and the disappearing sun.  We noticed a few kangaroos hopping about at this time too – not too hard to miss considering there weren’t many trees or bushes for them to hide behind.  After our quick showers tonight, we realised that there were plenty of sand flies around this camping spot too.  Both Josh and Samantha’s backs were nearly covered in red itchy dots, plenty of Savlon was about the only thing that would soothe them for the night… but Josh’s scratching was to keep me awake for a while before finally snoozing after our great day.