One night hoppers....Broome to Bullara Station

Thur 11 - Mon 15 July 

We thought the time to start heading south should begin. This statement is still written with a complete lack of energy and invigoration! The itinerary was absolutely needing to be reviewed and the one thing we have learnt over the years is to have 3-4 if not 5 spare nights up your sleeve should we get to that magic spot where we'd like to have more time at. 

Fabulous water views at Jones River

Our full day in Broome was lovely and yep we could have stayed for longer. I'd heard mixed reviews of Broome over the years and I really liked it. Knowing nothing of the pearling industry and hearing only a little of it at times, we booked into the Pearl Luggers Museum for a tour. This was set up and run by Willie Creek Pearls who as it ends up is owned by a chap with the surname Banfield !! You don't see that surname everyday, Bronny my Mum was a Banfield. The tour and learning itself was fantastic and holy cow what a tough and unregulated industry it was from the late 1880's. Broomes history as a highly segregated town is fascinating with white Australians, often owning pearl luggers, Aboriginal workers, Islanders, Japanese and Chinese, the feel was not unlike Darwin , just very different again. 

Mother of Pearl Shell engraved for mens initiation ceremonies, plus pearl buttons

Interestingly, (and quite obviously really) one of the great demises of the mother of pearl industry was the invention of the plastic button !  Plastic changed the shape of harvesting mother of pearl shell forever, and with whittling supplies of the mother of pearl shell, focus changed to culturing pearls. The one thing we would have loved to do was a pearling tour, and is on the list for next time. 

Weight of a full suit was about 160kg from memory

After quite a few weeks on the road, it was actually lovely to cruise around a few shops. I found an awesome Arts Co-op in an arcade with some incredible creations of Aborignal artworks as paintings, carvings and screen printing too. Sash was moaning pretty well by the time we left, and yes there were a few goodies purchased ! A great lunch at the Dragonfly Cafe, more of a walk around with the penultimate adventure to The Kimberley Book Shop - oh wow, she was a cracker. Sash loved spending some of her birthday money, and all in all an incredibly satisfying day. 

Being the last State of Origin that evening it was of course important to Huges to find a caravan part with a screen to watch the event. We had the night at the Broome Gateway, not far from Roebuck Roadhouse. After finally giving in to Hugo's request for a shorn back sides mullet look  (no pictoral evidence will be posted of me actually doing this!!), Huges was well in form to head to the camp kitchen looking smart - as for the event. Eva came back to camp about 20mins in disgust with the swearing antics of some QLDer's there and so sensibly like her Mother read a book, listened to music and cooked dinner in the quiet back blocks of the van park ! 

80 Mile Beach

The following day was the true beginning of the descent south. We wern't sure where we would stay that night and we were early enough to check out 80 Mile Beach (which is actually 220km ??) and we pulled into the place pretty quick for the night. With sea snakes and sharkes around we walked parts of it , drove and up and down parts and loved up the serenity really. 

Incredible Sunsets colours - really hard to catch the true essence of here....

Stunning morning sunrise....

This was awesome, great and well loved vege patch that was well sheltered too

And further along the coast we went. The West Coast is different in patches to the East as really it's not a coastal road. The road is well inland and you could blink and miss a lot if you've not done a bit of homework. We pulled into Port Headland at lunch and yep very weird vibey feel here almost like Port Augusta but different again. Massive ports and massive cargo boats, very industrial and we knew we would see more of this. 

Again winging it for the night, Karratha was completely booked out, except for the Council over flow. One thing we have used a lot this trip is Wikicamps. Stu found a little free camp spot just outside Whim Creek about 40mins from Karratha. This place was just sublime. About 15 or so campers set up alongside the Jones River on Werambie Station. What was really funny though, once we pulled in and began setting up, a bloke came over to Stu and said with a hand out to shake 'Stuart is it ?' 'Yes' says Stu, 'do I know you mate ?' 'Nah' he says, 'I just googled Chesney Pastoral' I was laughing my butt off !! I've no idea what came up but he was a cluey nomad !!!!

The Pilbara....

So we were driving, a way out of Port Headland and the countryside began to change massively. I've always loved Australian Flowers and Wildflowers. One that Dad loved from memory that I think he did see (or not? not sure on this) on one of our trips as kids was the Sturt Desert Pea. Well poor Stu thought we were about to hit a cow or something as I began to shriek with excitement at some massive roadside patches of Sturt Desert Peas and other wildflowers... after settling down I did apologise numerous times as I didn't realise the shriek was quite so loud and unnerving for the troops!!! 

The most stunning and incredible little creatures !! Talk about fall in love !!

Hairy Mulla Mulla from memory I think ?? 

Jones River

One of the best camps this trip...

Gee this was a great spot, super Zen.... Brahmans came down the next morning for a drink. Set up the ensuite the night before for a hot shower under the stars, no street light or van park lights, just a great campfire, a super chicken caesar salad and a big milky way.... complete bliss !!!

Another of Russ's clothesline creations..

Morning jaffles by the fire...

An easy going morning and a short run into Karratha, was a great start to the day. Now Karratha is completely different to what I thought it might be.  A very industrial town, and a great centre to stock up for sure. Also a very new town developed with mining like many towns on the Northern coast of WA. 

That afternoon we did a spin out to Cossack which is nowdays a ghost town from the 1950's. A revamp of buildings for preservational purposes, was a lovely sport to enjoy and learn about for the afternoon.

Cossack...

The Court House

Knowing we were in Red Dog country we thought we better go find him ! So out we went to Dampier and the explored the Dampier Peninsula. Wow heavily industrialised area, with quite a few vacant blocks of flats showing booms and busts of recent times with housing in Karratha and surrounds. We met one bloke at King Edward campground who was from Karratha and he shared with us some families who had mortgaged their homes to buy a second investment house, housing prices crashed with adjustments in mining employment and/or decrease in production etc. He knew of some families who ended up having to sell both investment and home property to cover the up to 50% decrease in the market - big big ouch!!!

Hello there Red Dog

Qlder look goin on ...

Not an overly picturesque or inspiring area out the Dampier Peninsula...with so many mining and gas set ups going on....and then in the middle of it all is Murujuga National Park. An extraordinary area home to Deep Gorge Petroglyphs on The Burrup Peninsula. Etched rock work dating up to 30,000 years ago. Here are some pics of etching that are allowed to be photographed. They weren't initially easy to see on thousands of different rocks but once you got your eye in, we saw probably 100 or so.

Bird feet ?? 

Kangaroo

Boulders just sitting out in piles that go for ages up through a gorge type area

One night in Karratha was plenty, and so on we hopped to another one night spot. Peedamulla Campground is one of about 6 newly created 'Camping with Custodians' campground in WA. We stayed in another one as it ended up at Imintji on the Gibb. We didn't meet any of the local custodians at Imintji, although we did meet a couple fo artists at the arts centre near the roadhouse. At Peedamulla though we met Caroline who's family run Peedamulla Station. The campground itself was brilliant. 20 sites spaciously set out, and off the main drag. A firepit crafted from stone, touch of green grass and yet another cracking Pilbara sunset. Win win all round I'd say.... 

Peedamulla Office

Christmas Bush

Bliss

Quick tune up....

Little bits growing through the rock

Caroline sharing with us about her mob round the fire.....

Lovely short jaunt again to Bullara Station our last stop before Ningaloo Reef and Exmouth. We collected some firewood on our way, as the girls were keen to punch out a better damper compared to our first Middle Lagoon inch thick charcoal attempt !! So we had this place ear marked from early on in our planning and it was a great place to stop. Although it was very busy and the sites were really quite close together which took away from the overall feel for the place. My guess is and I could be totally wrong that the campground has grown with such a great response rapidly, some parts felt very adhoc with add-on areas etc. Met some lovely people there though and got some washing done with damper and beers, and it was a lovely night there. 

Really lovely outdoor bathroom area set up  in the old shearing shed...

Damper prepping......

Damper and campfire chat with John started about 5pm - and gee he can pump out a damper and is a Master Craftsman of it !! Check out the pics below...and yep the tatste was super.

Sat about 15-17cm deep - helluva rise...

So Eves made a grated kit kat dampr and Sash made a Malteser damper and they were tops. Our first success out of two attempts with the Bedourie!! Huges headed off out into the machinery area on dark to play his pipes and as ususal the kids started scurrying across to find him on bikes with headtorches on ! Next thing John the Damper Chef (and originally from Norther England !) was legging it  to find where the pipes were coming from. He was incredibly excited and loved hearing Huges play ! He managed to coax Huges up to the campfire to play for the crowd. There were then offers of free camping if we'd stay and Huges could play a night or two round the fire - so lovely, however Ningaloo Reef was waiting for us to come and explore her !!

Huges playing round the main campfire......

Sashy's Malteser number.....

Eva's kit kat jobby...

A great little jaunt from Broome with all these one night hops and we were super ready for a 3 night stay at Yardie Homestead just north of Cape Range.