Still it was cold and windy at
Gladstone Port – time to pack and get out of here – although I’m sure in good
weather it would be a lovely spot, especially at $11 for the night! As it had rained overnight, we were being
sent along a detour route to get back to the main road but it was still a dirt
track. The mud beneath us was pretty
slippery and it was flicking up everywhere out the back of the car and onto the
front of the van as we drove – not happy considering we’d only just given it a
quick clean! Back onto the main road,
Josh pulled out the hose and turned on the pump to try and get some of the
thick mud off but most of it was determined to stay stuck on. We stopped at the Overlander Roadhouse to
fill up fuel and grab a nice warm coffee and then found our way into the Shark
Bay World Heritage Area, stopping in at Hamelin Pool Caravan Park for the
night. We set out for a walk around the
park area including through an old shell quarry – pretty amazing – as they
didn’t have access to timber or rock for building, they would cut out blocks
from this quarry and would use them for construction. The shower block here is even built from
these blocks. Further along the beach we
found the boardwalk out to the stromatolites – again amazing – these small
black layered limestone rocks were one of the earliest forms of life and
contributed to creating oxygen for us (amazing for something that just looks
like a small rock!). Back at the van
park we entered the office, which is in fact the old Hamelin Pool Telegraph
Station. Built in 1884, this was a
repeater station used to pass along telegrams to the far north west of the
state and is actually one of the last outposts still standing. Josh hung around in here for a while watching
a bit of TV (yes the footy was on) with the managers that run the place. I ventured off to do my own thing including
catching up on some well overdue washing and enjoying a few games of cards with
the kids. After dinner we settled in for
a movie, Real Steel, even though we had an early start tomorrow… I guess we
could always sleep in the car (except for Josh of course).
We
were up early today – around 6.30am and it was a bit cold for our liking. We were heading to Steep Point today, the
westernmost point of Australia’s mainland.
Seeing as though we were driving along the top of cliffs again today and
taking in the views of the Indian Ocean, I decided it was the perfect day for
long pants and jumper – I even took my slippers in the car. Josh stuck to wearing shorts (he was lucky to
have brought his jacket) but the girls did dress warmly. At that time of the morning, nobody was
really paying much attention to what clothes we were putting on (but I did
notice the kids wearing socks with their thongs as they were getting into the
car - not a good look). It was around
7.30am when we left the caravan park and we had about a 3 hour drive before
getting close to this famous point of our great land. We had made it a fair distance in towards the
ranger’s station and had passed majority of the corrugations when I turned to
find Sami not looking so good. Josh
pulled over and we got her out of the car and into the fresh air. Again on we went, but another stop for more
fresh air for Sami who was really not keen to get back in the car. I then took the back seat and gave Sami the
front but not even that helped – out she got again. I left it to Josh this time to get her back
in the car and he did it, but she was now sitting on his lap helping him to
drive and Zoe took the front seat… the quiet of the back seat was fine with
me. We picked up the map from the ranger
(who was also kind enough to pass on some lollipops for the girls) and we
didn’t have too far to go now before reaching our destination. We pulled up at the sign and were the only
people around – for a little while at least.
We took our happy snaps, grabbed our lunch and decided to eat it by a
big window of rock overlooking the ocean – very pretty although still quite
windy! After eating we checked out some
fishermen using balloons to catch their prey – not sure what that is all about but
it didn’t look like any of them were having any success. We stopped at a few other amazing places
including some spectacular cliff sites, the Nor 6 memorial (amazing story about
a boat that crashed into the rocks below, the boat sank within a minute, all
crew drowned except for the skipper, the skipper was saved by and lived in the
trawler’s icebox for about 14 days, the wind changed direction and blew him
back towards land, he’d made a surf ski out of the icebox lid and when near
enough launched it and paddled back towards land and was picked up by a fishing
boat), Zoytdorp Cliffs, Thunder Bay and Thunder Bay Blowholes. Our drive back home was fantastic – Sami
slept for most of the way. It was a long
way and a big drive but well worth it for the spectacular scenery!!!
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