86 days till departure

July 17, 2023

Leaving Eucla we cross into South Australia. Goodbye WA, we will be back, there is much more to see. From Eucla we follow the coast along the Great Australia Bight. We stop in at all of the scenic stops and admire this amazing coastline.

(P) Steep cliffs, Southern Ocean rolling waves, secluded beaches. We have a windless day (unusual) and almost a cloudless sky to enjoy the spectacular views of the “Bight”. We spot a 2 wheel 4WD track winding it’s way to the coast, we reverse up and crawl down and find the most awesome future campsite well off the road. After enjoying lunch and a pleasant walk (with my “Don’t get too close to the edge” audible alarm (Judith) sounding several times!) this place is GPS marked on our navigation software for our next visit.

As we reach the “Head of the Bight” we decide not to go in as we stopped here on the way over, but at the last minute we turn off, may not be back for a while. We are so pleased we stopped, as we walked down the walkway to the lookout points we spot whales in the distance. Mother and calf, single whales, groups of whales, about 18 in total. What a sight, they are close to the coast and pretty easy to see but our binoculars bring them so much closer. We enjoy watching these majestic animals for a while before getting back in the truck and driving on. These stops make travelling so worth while.

We make further stops over the next few days at places like Colona to see the shearing shed (although we can only look from the road), Cohen old school site, Penong Windmill Museum, Ceduna, where we stop in at the fish shop for Philip to purchase some oysters. Of course he can’t help himself and emerges from the shop oversupplied with other Seafood specialities as well as Oysters!!

The Penong Windmill Museum was very interesting. It showcases old, new, small and large windmills. This includes “Bruce” the biggest windmill in Australia. It has a span in excess of 10.67metre span, built in 1932. It was first owned by the Commonwealth Railways and was situated at McKinnon Dam to provide water for the railways near Kingoonya.

Another stop was at Pidalpa Rock. This is a large granite outcrop one of many on the Eyre Peninsula. The wave shape was caused by moist soil in contact with the rock causing the granite to weather inwards.

We overnight in Kimba, who’s claim to fame is that it is the halfway point across Australia between the east and west coast. After parking our rig at the Recreation centre we head off for a walk around town. This is a lovely little town that seems to be flourishing at the moment. There are some lovely old homes and commercial buildings. We stop at an old garage that has now been transformed into a hub for local artisans. Inside are several shipping containers made into small retail outlets selling anything from soap, made on site, ceramic pottery, also made on site, homewares and gifts, antiques, quilts. It’s a great idea and after talking to one of the four women who have set this place up, feel that it has a great future and we look forward to visiting again on another trip. We also stop to admire the painted silos. They are stunning, depicting a small girl in a wheat field. We return after dinner and see it lit up at night and it really comes to life. Whilst outstanding to see the Silo art of a day, the floodlit night scene was absolutely awesome!

(P) Chatting to a farmers wife and the following morning a farmer ( no connection) we find out that the area needs a rain to “finish” the wheat and grain crops off to make a good season, Hay crops (for export) are viewed being cut and raked with bailing for the season about to commence. The rolling fields of crop with the Gawler ranges as a distant backdrop are a stunning sight.

From Kimba we head to Iron Knob and then on to Whyalla, where we park the truck and walk through the town centre that is extremely quiet and then up to the Queens Lookout. Looking to the North we can see the industry here and Philip loves it. There’s a steel mill and iron ore plant, chimneys belching smoke (steam), dust in the air and the low hum of big machinery working. Looking to the south is totally the opposite, clear blue waters a lovely beach, parks and playgrounds. Boats at the marina and kids playing make the scene almost idyllic, if only there wasn’t the rumble of industry in the background. Reading about the area we decide this is another place to put on the bucket list to revisit and spend some time.

We are now retracing steps that we drove at the start of our trip passing Port Augusta, and heading down to Locheil where we camped again. On the way up Lake Bumbunga was almost dry and people were walking out to the sculpture in the lake. Not today the lake has a considerable amount of water and it’s pink/ purple with the salt content in it makes it look pretty good.

Next day I am expecting we will follow the same track towards Murray Bridge, avoiding Adelaide. But I am much mistaken. We have time and the crops around here look so good that Philip decides to take the “tourist route”. Taking various roads around the area we enjoy the beautiful views over flourishing wheat, barley and canola crops, interspersed with beautiful old homes, silo art and quaint towns. Instead of doing 300 k today we travel 450 but it’s well worth the side trips.

Now unfortunately we have our G2G’s and Tassie Permits and have made it back to the Spirit of Tasmania Terminal in Melbourne ready for our “cruise” home tonight.

We have had an awesome 20 weeks travelling

(P) As Judith mentioned it’s been an awesome “Clump” of weeks travel. Almost every day was an eye opener and we now have as many “To Explore” destinations as we initially commenced with noted on our “Bucket Lists”!

A few highlights for me were –

-Travelling some of the original Eyre Highway and Koonalda Station

– Visiting friends

-Big Sky starry nights

-Golden Sunrises and Sunsets

-Heavy Industry and Mines by the “truckload”

-The many Cattle (former sheep) stations we visited and were fortunate to camp on

-Historic Wool sheds and station ruins

-Dirt Roads travelled with minimal or no planning and in general just “where will we go tomorrow” planning

-The Station owners, Workers, Truckies, Mine workers and Country Butchers (experts at a good story) who shared a conversation or more with us. Also a few good people we met and look forward to keeping in contact with.

– the spontaneous “Kimberley Cruise”

– The Wild flowers ( yes even Phil was stunned by them)!

– Plus a heck of a lot more!

A couple of statistics-

-20 weeks ( that went quick)!

-24,860 total klm

-14,700 klm of dirt roads, sand tracks, Station Access Roads and 2 wheel rut stoney tracks.

( sometimes not another vehicle to be seen for 2 or 3 days)

-700 nautical Miles of Kimberley coast exploring

– approx 550 klm of walking and wandering ( no wonder my sandals are stuffed!)

– Quite a few litres (gallons) of Fuel

– Great food ( mostly cooked ourselves with awesome local ingredients)

– Possibilities of a slight weight gain each!!

– 12000 photos, they will need some sorting once we get home.

Where to next? Who knows but will be good to see all at home.

As I mentioned once before- How lucky are we?

The decision has been made, we are driving back home from Western Australia. So after spending a few days with our friends in Binningup, shopping, eating, washing clothes and the vehicle and van and just relaxing, we head off for the 3500 kilometre trip back across the bottom of Australia, heading home. We are sad to be leaving Western Australia but glad to be heading home. We had a list of places and things we wanted to do while we were here and we have ticked many of those things off but we have also put many more places back on the list and we haven’t touched the south west yet. Looks like another trip here sometime in the future.

Philip and Peter had time to fit in a short flight while we were staying with them. Everything is looking pretty good from the air.

Our first stop on this leg of the trip was at Meckering. What an interesting little town. Very non- descript until we go for a walk and find that this town was hit by magnitude 6.5 earthquake at 11am on October 14, 1968. It was one of Australia’s strongest recorded earthquakes and tore through the wheat growing community destroying most of the town. Of the 75 buildings in the town, 60 were damaged by the quake. The surrounding roads were cracked and impassable, water pipes burst and the railway line was twisted and buckled. There is a great little walk around the town with photos showing before and after photos.

Another stop on the road was Balladonia Telegraph Station. This is not a designated tourist stop but Philip pulled onto the verge and then backed up the highway 500 metres so we could walk in the driveway. It’s set back off the road a bit and is fenced off with a small ( climb through a fence) access. It was quite a big residence but has unfortunately been damaged by vandals. The fences are amazing, built of limestone rocks stacked a metre high. When it was being used it would have been a lonely place to reside. Overnight somewhere down a track in amongst the beautiful Desert Oaks.

After a slightly misty dawn, we depart as usual around 7am. Eucla Telegraph Station was also a stop on our way east. This one is almost on the coastline and is slowly being swallowed by the sand dunes. There is a beautiful stand of gums behind the building which would have been a lovely oasis when the station was operating. We continued walking past the station towards the coast, over some small dunes, reaching the beach and walking along the sand towards the remains of the old jetty. The original Eucla town was established in 1877 as a manual repeater station for the overland telegraph. The remainder of the town is now under sand as a plague of rabbits ate most of the dune vegetation which then caused the large sand drifts to creep over the town site.

The Eucla jetty was built in 1887 and was used by sail and steam ships to bring supplies from Albany and Esperance. It was also used to export Sandalwood from the Eucla region. The jetty was another reminder of the remarkable engineering achievement of the Overland Telegraph. The original length of the jetty was 151 metres.

1000 kilometres from Nanutara down the Wool Wagon Pathway and the Mullewa De Grey stock route, tracing the history of wool transportation in the early 1900, to Mullewa and Pindar and then on to Perth. We have been incredibly lucky to see an abundance of wildflowers. From minute ground covers to masses of everlasting daisies. Orchids, bottle brushes, and the amazing wreath flowers. It has been a treat for our eye, purples, pinks, yellows, whites, oranges and blues.

Words can’t describe just how magnificent the flowers have been so we will let the photos do the talking.

Our next stop for a few nights is Pardoo Station, run by Pardoo Beef Corporation. Although this station is not on the beach front, there is access to the beach at Pardoo Creek, Red Point and Mount Blaze. This beach area is still part of the Eighty Mile Beach Marine Park. There is a lovely park here complete with swimming pool which we frequented each afternoon.

After waking to a very heavy mist shrouding the caravan park we whiled away the morning doing some jobs, washing, cleaning etc. waiting for the fog to lift. Late morning we packed our lunch and took off for a drive out to Pardoo Creek about 4 kilometres away. We were expecting a nice beach but at low tide the creek is almost empty and the sand/mud flats roll on for miles. It is quite eerie with the fog hanging low over the mud flats and mangroves, but is great for some different photos. Talking to some fishermen here we found that there is at times a 6 metre tide range although today it’s only going to be about 4.75 metres, which brings the water level up to the top of the creek banks but not over the mud flats. Walking out onto the flats we watch fishermen disappear into the fog, we can see stingray shapes in the sand, red crabs scurry away as soon as we get close by, and the mud/sand is so fine it clings to our feet and is very soft to walk on. After spending some time chatting we head off just as the fog starts to lift, driving along the top track around the beach front/sand flats towards Red Point. Then on to Banningarra Creek. This creek is much like Pardoo Creek, steep banks, silty with beautiful blue water just starting to rise as the tide comes in. It looks so tempting to swim, that is until as we are watching the fisherman a 2.5 metre shark cruises up the creek and then several more smaller ones. Guess we will stay out of the water today. There are also turtles swimming up the creek and a few fish being caught, although they aren’t very big. We sit and enjoy our lunch while watching the fishermen, turtles and sharks and enjoying the beautiful day now that the fog has lifted. Driving back towards Pardoo Creek we are lucky enough to see dozens of Brolgas along the sides of the road and enjoy watching them for a while. We stop back in at Pardoo Creek to actually see it now without fog and at today’s high tide. The pelicans are enjoying some of the rewards from the fishermen. They know where to get a good feed.

Returning to the van we enjoy a refreshing swim before thinking about dinner. Its been another great day, enjoying new experiences and hopefully getting some great photos. (P) a good feed of slow grilled bbq’d beef ribs hit the “spot” this evening. The Butcher shops up north sure have good meat and always a story or two to share about something, someone, or just fresh from their imagination it’s always interesting or a good laugh. Ribs tonight and roast duck tomorrow night- A tough life it is indeed)!

Pardoo Beef Corporation is part owned by a Singaporean Billionaire, Bruce Chueng ,who made is money in the Duty Free business, paying $13 million for the station in 2015. He was attracted to it after being told a largely untapped fresh underground river ran under the

200,000-hectare cattle station, and irrigation licences were available. He has spent $20 million on 18 centre pivot irrigators to water 840 hectares of pasture and is planning more.

(P) over the last few months we have camped on several working cattle stations, from rustic to fully serviced campgrounds we have really enjoyed the experience. Access to remote beaches, “breakout” (cliff and crater) country, waterholes, rivers, wildflowers, river gums, cattle, mustering, old sheds, machinery and most importantly awesome “ salt of the earth” country people. We will continue this style of camping in the future, way better than town and city parks full of “yuppies”!

Friday 3rd September

Pannawonica and the Robe River Rodeo

Dust, dust, dust and more dust, but what a fantastic couple of days. This was on Philips wish list. He has wanted to go to Pannawonica, (where the Rodeo is held) since we first passed this way early in our trip. He purchased tickets a couple of weeks ago so here we are, not quite knowing what to expect. Camping is on site and what a site it is, acres of flat dusty plains edged by a railway line with huge trains passing regularly and on the opposite side a rodeo arena and camp draft arena. We arrive about 10am Friday morning so we can watch some of the camp draft, which we don’t really understand yet and then tomorrow for the Rodeo. There are bands playing tonight and tomorrow night. When we arrive there are a few vans and camper trailers set up so we find a spot towards the rear ( we thought) and settle in.

Heading over to the arena we find a spot and park our chairs under what little shade there is and hope to learn something about camp drafting. Luckily we have seated ourselves next to a competitor who had completed her events yesterday and was now quite happy to talk us through the finer points of Camp Drafting. There are two parts to the event with horsemen/women selecting a beast from a mob of 3-7 cattle ( depending on class competing in) in a small yard called the camp then pushing it through the gates and then round markers in a particular order to pass through the final gates all within 40 seconds. It takes quite some control from the rider and there are lots of intricacies that are included but it’s good watching.

In between learning about the camp drafting we also introduced ourselves and found out that Gemma (Cripps) was from Gabyon Station, 1165 kilometres south. Gemma’s transit to the Campdraft was approx 17 hours in her old Isuzu stock truck, upon arrival moving her 4 horses out and sleeping in the back of the truck, like many of her fellow competitors. Campdrafts are one of the most anticipated events on a lot of Station people’s very limited social calendar. Gemma and her mother run Gabyon Station and Station Stay, Recently and sadly due to dementia her father is in a care home in Perth an 8 hr drive away (One way). They have been on the station since 2009 and run sheep and cattle. She was very interesting to chat to all afternoon and at some stage we will try and stay at their station. (P) Gemma and her mother seem to run an interesting operation. Of interest to me are not one but TWO historic wool sheds and a personal invitation to travel the (water) bore run on the 650,000 acre property. I will be declining the offer to ride in Gemma’s Gyrocopter she flies for mustering etc. I am not quite ready to be labeled a “temporary Australian” so will pass on that if offered!

Today, Saturday, has been rodeo day, starting off with the kids at 7am with horse games and barrel racing. Lots of parents helping tiny kids on big horses, all have lots of fun. It’s great to see so many station families taking part and helping each other.

Late morning I went back to the van for a while to get out of the sun. Was sitting reading when dust started whirling round, I head into the van just as a Willy Willy shakes the van and awning and as it passes by picks up tens and swags, towels, hats and whatever is not pinned down. There is stuff flying everywhere and people rushing round trying to pin stuff down. What a mess, the dust in the van now covers everything because all the windows and vents were open to let the fresh air in. Oh well it will clean up later.

Back at the rodeo arena, bare back broncs, bull rides, barrel racing

(P) I note no mention of the morning “siesta” that was taken whilst Judith was supposed to be reading!

With some sadness we depart Derby to start heading south, that means we only have four weeks left before flying home. But we plan to make the most of those four weeks so it’s back to Broome to stock up fridge and freezer and for us both to have a massage (P) to free up our stiff joints after relaxing too much on the cruise). We camp at the Broome Gateway park again and find it almost empty this time. On our last visit they were almost at capacity (300 vans and campers) this time there is only about 30 vans spread throughout the park.

We would certainly come back to this park again. Unlike the parks in Broome this one is more rustic and spacious, ( even when we visited thru the “busy time”), much more to our liking.

After lunch we head off for a drive out to the Bird Observatory. What a beautiful drive around the edges of Roebuck Bay. Making several stops to wander down onto the beach to check out the water and the rock formations. The tide is low and there are hundreds of shore birds feeding in the shallows and mud skippers of all sizes flapping around in the water pools. While wandering along the beach we start discussing the low tide and the moon. Then I did a bit of googling and discovered that today is the last night of this moon cycle for the “Staircase to the Moon”. This has been on my bucket list for a while and though I had checked the dates for this last time we were in Broome, I hadn’t checked this far ahead so hadn’t realised it was happening tonight. As it only occurs for two or three nights in a moon cycle with a full moon and a low tide in Roebuck Bay we thought we best head into Broome to experience this phenomenon. We decided on an early dinner at the Roey Hotel before heading out to Town Beach for a walk before sitting down to wait for the moon to rise over the bay. We were not disappointed watching the big red moon rise and shed its light in a narrow “staircase” ray across the mud flats of Roebuck bay. Another tick off our bucket list.

After both having massages this morning we drive out to the port area and wander out the jetty and chat to some of the fishermen there. Not much luck happening but they are all having fun. Then out to Gantheaume Point for a walk along the rocky headland. A stop off at Divers Tavern for lunch and then a visit to “the Tenderspot Butcher” to pick up some meat for dinner and the next couple of weeks. Then back to the van, for us Broome is done and dusted for this trip. The rest of the afternoon is spent relaxing, reading and planning our trip south.

Friday 27th Aug.

We have a big drive today, all of 109 kilometres. We are heading into Barnhill Station for the next 4-5 days.

“Barn Hill Station was purchased by Mr Alfred Grey in 1966, and along with his wife and 10 children they built a thriving cattle business. In 1986 he gave a small part of the land, encompassing Barn Hill to his second youngest daughter, Janice. Janice and her husband Richard Bell went on to start a small tourist enterprise, building the original 3 mud huts. Word of mouth spread and Barn Hill quickly grew to the buzzing hub of campers that it is today. Barn Hill Beachside Station Stay now sees thousands of happy campers visit annually. It’s the rustic charm of Barn Hill which makes it so unique and special.”

We find a very nice (and quite secluded) camp spot and set ourselves up before a wander down to the beach, and what a beach it is. After a climb down the headland onto the white sand we can walk in either direction, there are fantastic rock outcrops along the beach and the water is warm and enticing.

(P). My turn to share my favourite places from our cruise. “A no brainer”! The total cruise and what we saw – on land, tender and at sea. Although we have ticked this off our bucket list it has also added to it. Now I want to do the waterfall cruise at the end of the wet season. And to use one of my favourite sayings to sum up this part of the adventure.

“How lucky are we”

We disembarked at Naturalist Island where a helicopter picked us up and flew us over Mitchell Falls before landing at Mitchell Plateau where we boarded a Cessna Caravan for the trip over the Horizontal Falls and the archipelego back to Derby. A fantastic way to end our journey.

More details from our Kimberley Cruise

526 Nautical Mile (975 kilometres)

29 shore excursions

Waterfalls, rock art, old graves, billabong swims, beach swims and reefs

Whales, dolphins, turtles, crocodiles, sharks, crabs

Osprey, Sea Eagles, Boobies, Terns and Brahmini Kites

Sunsets, sun rises and clear starlit nights.

Helicopter and small plane flight to get us back to Derby.

This cruise has it all.

(P) including my company for EVERY day of the cruise 👍)

The highlights for me were King Cascades and the rock pools and cascades above the main falls. The Horizontal Falls, even though we had been there before the thrill of running the falls with a 1.5 metre drop and also Montgomery Reef. Watching the water cascade off the centre of this huge reef in numerous cascades was mind blowing and seeing the turtles feeding along side our tenders was fascinating.

We have seen rock art that is dated back to 20000 years before the last know aboriginal tribes were living in this area and we have cruised past crocodiles sunning themselves on the river banks. 21 in an hour on our last croc spotting episode.

Montgomery Reef is the worlds largest inshore reef. When the tide falls the reef emerges to rise from the ocean in a torrent of cascading water. The tide here can drop up to 8 metres. The reef is around 400 square Kilometres and supports a variety of marine life, including turtles and whales.

(P) Over the years we have been fortunate to travel a considerable amount. Experience has told us that the best planning is to “frame” out a basic trip and then just go with the “flow”. This year’s Western Australia road trip being no exception. With minimal forward bookings it gives us the opportunity to explore areas without being tied to a schedule, dictated by bad weather etc. Despite reading and hearing on the “travellers grapevine” how busy the camps are, we have not been prevented from staying anywhere we wished to.

Judith was browsing thru Facebook a few days back and saw a comment that some of the Kimberley Cruise companies were cancelling cruises due to Covid-19 state border lockdowns. Further investigations revealed some serious discounts were being offered to fill cabins. After a little more (like 10 minutes) research we booked ourselves on a 12 day Cruise departing Derby on the 8th August. Always eager for a bargain deal, the considerable discounts we received to fill a cabin was almost too good to be true. (I had visions of me scrubbing decks and doing dishes for 12 days to balance out the fare payment!)

As we were cast afloat departing Derby (it must be mentioned I had to sacrifice one day of the 2 day Derby Rodeo (an awesome local event) to board “Discovery One”.

Discovery One is a grand old Catamaran that started her life as a Sydney Harbour Cruise Boat, then a Whale Watcher off Harvey Bay, Queensland, before being refitted as a Kimberley Cruiser.

She is very well fitted out and carries an experienced crew of 6 for the maximum 22 passengers. The 3 most important crew (Captain Lennie for 17 years ) and hostesses Melissa and Sarah, have been on board for many cruise seasons. Equipped with 2 well powered tenders we were treated to 29 shore excursions during the cruise.

The scenery and shore excursions were awesome, everyone was friendly and fortunately there was an abundance of food ( I have been able to avoid those salad options!) A few nice compliments from me has worked wonders with our Hostesses Sarah and Melissa delivering my daily Latte requirements on time without needing to order!! As we have seen so many awesome places we will let the photos do the “talking” over the next few blogs.

More to come over the next few days as we sort and collate photos.