This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Monthly Archives: May 2019


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2004 Travels July 10

SATURDAY 10 JULY     KARRATHA

We did a food shop in the morning – tedious but necessary. Refuelled – $1.08cpl.

Drove out to Dampier – the port for the export of iron ore from the inland Pilbara.

Had intended to take M to the processing plant for offshore gas, on the Burrup Peninsula, but the Visitor Centre we’d intended to visit was shut.

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Burrup Peninsula

We drove out along the rough track on the Peninsula for some way and had a good view back over the gas loading port.

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Ship loading LNG for export

Drove around Dampier town for a look.

Went back to Karratha in time to get the Weekend Australian, which came in on a late plane.


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2004 Travels July 9

FRIDAY 9 JULY     KARRATHA

John’s face was still very swollen and he was not happy.

I did the washing in the morning, to get that out of the way before we headed off for a couple of weeks of solid activity.

In the laundry, I was recognized and accosted by a lady who had stayed, with her friend, at Adels Grove, last year. They stayed for two or three nights in one of the creekside tents. They were from NZ and had been travelling Australia for more than two years. I didn’t actually recognize her, but so many travellers passed through.

We rearranged Truck contents to fit a passenger onto the back seat. As usual, when travelling, we had removed the two seat part of the back seat, leaving just the seat for one, and packing gear like spare clothes into the space. Things like the picnic basket, folders of maps usually sat on the spare seat, with the picnic table, boxes of spare fuses and hose attachments, small tool kit, spare torch and so on, in the foot well and wedged in front of the seat. Those items all needed temporary relocation.

Went to the shops. Still no mail, so had to do a redirect – to Newman PO. How long DID it take to get an Express Mail delivery from Melbourne to Karratha?

I posted some more gifts off to the family – birthday card and cheque to daughter in law, knitted jumper I’d recently finished for grandaughter, a booklet on El Questro for son, and a note to them.

After late lunch, drove off to the airport to meet M’s plane, which arrived at 4pm. We were surprised to see that it was a 737 – and it was full!

We went straight back to camp. M pitched her tent on the corner of our site. It fitted in well. She settled in with us straight from the start.

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Karratha camp

The NZ ladies came across to have Happy Hour with us and stayed for nearly two hours. It was very pleasant. They were interested in Trakmaster vans.

Went out and bought fish and chips for tea. Pretty expensive here, but very nice fish and not too greasy.

After tea, we squeezed one of the camp chairs into the van so we could all watch “Old Dogs” – such a funny program.


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2004 Travels July 8

THURSDAY 8 JULY   NANUTARRA RH TO KARRATHA   280kms

When we woke in the morning, it was not raining, but was still really muddy.

According to the radio news, the highway just north of Carnarvon had been cut by floods.

John’s face was still swollen.

The drive to Karratha was very scenic, with the typical Pilbara hills and spinifex country.

We stopped for a break at the Fortescue River Roadhouse. It would have been a better overnight stop than Nanutarra had been. Diesel was a lot cheaper there, too.

At Karratha, we went into the Rosemary Road Pilbara Holiday park – another Top Tourist one. $23.80 after discount. It was much nicer than the previous one we’d stayed at. Apparently that one had now been given over entirely to permanents, anyway.

We had a very generous site that would also hold M’s tent.

After setting up, drove to the Post Office, but there was no mail waiting for us. Posted some cards. I’d phoned L last weekend to send a bag of mail here.

Went to the Tourist Information Centre to get a permit to drive the Hamersley Iron railway access road, between here and Tom Price.

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Ore Train railway road (from Pinterest)

We had to watch a short video on how to drive on it – common sense stuff, like give way to ore trains! Really? There was no fee for this. No mention was made about towing the van on it, and we didn’t ask.  All good.

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2004 Travels July 7

WEDNESDAY 7 JULY   CARNARVON TO NANUTARRA ROADHOUSE   370kms

It rained steadily and heavily all night.

The park grounds were very muddy. We got very wet, packing up and hitching up.

I seemed to recollect D telling us, just a few days ago, how wonderful Carnarvon was at this time of winter, and that it never rained!

It continued to rain heavily, out of Carnarvon, all the way to Minilya Roadhouse.

It was hard work driving. Lots of depressions in the road had water in them and some floodways were flowing. Some out of Minilya were running nearly two feet deep. There was an amazing amount of surface water just lying on the land, between Carnarvon and Minilya.

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Flooded highway north of Carnarvon

The road to Gascoyne Junction had a Closed notice on it, as we went past. I was happy that we were still not out in the Kennedy Range when this lot came in!

Refuelled at Minilya – $1.17cpl.

It continued to rain. A car had gone off the road about 10kms north of Minilya – perhaps was going too fast when it hit water over the road? It was being loaded onto a tow truck as we passed.

By the time we reached Nanutarra, the rain was slightly lighter.

It was all mud there too. It cost us $20 to stay on bare muddy ground, next to a power pole!

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How many stars would this rate?

We could not bush stay – even if we could have found a place dry enough to access – because the batteries had not been charged up overnight. John had turned the charger off, to watch TV, and said it was not necessary to turn it back on. Whoops!

Apparently, it was raining right up to Karratha. I hoped we would not have to change our plans.

John topped the fuel up here – $1.34cpl.

Apparently, the culprit was a cloud band from the north west that had sucked in wet, tropical air. It was raining all the way to Kalgoorlie! The forecast for Carnarvon, for tomorrow, was just as bad, so we would not have gained from trying to wait it out there – and may have been caught by closed roads.

We had wet clothes from this morning – and then this evening – draped everywhere in the van.

It was cold as well as wet.

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2004 Travels July 6

TUESDAY 6 JULY     CARNARVON

We did a food shop in the morning.

John bowled in the afternoon. His team won. He received a very big block of chocolate and was really pleased with himself. One of his allocated team members was very old a fragile and had to be helped about – he was really chuffed to be in the wining team. John felt good about that, too.

Drizzling rain set in about 5pm.

About that time, M and her friend K came round for a drink and a chat and stayed until 6.30pm. We firmed up the arrangements for meeting M in Karratha. They were making their way back to Perth now, where the hire car would be surrendered. K would fly back home to Melbourne – she had to go back to work. M would join us. She is “practising” for when she takes retirement, which might be at the end of this year.

Tried to do some packing up, despite the rain.


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2004 Travels July 5

MONDAY 5 JULY     CARNARVON

John’s face was still swollen and he was not feeling well.

We drove out to Miaboolya Beach, some 20kms from town, thinking to go for a walk along it, but when we got there, John did not feel up to it.

On the way back, we turned and drove through the plantation areas on the northern side of the river, crossed on the main road bridge, then came through the southern side plantations, to town.

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Gascoyne River mouth – and mud flats

John found a shop where he could do a download on his laptop. There was a notification that I’d won $78 in OzLotto. It must have been on 22 June – was my mum’s birthday.

Refuelled – $1.05cpl.

I phoned and booked us into a Karratha caravan park for Thursday to Saturday. I did not want to go back to the one where we spent a horrible, hot month in 2000, watching the Olympics, so decided to try a different one.

We spent some time talking with E and D at their van.


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2004 Travels July 4

SUNDAY 4 JULY     CARNARVON

John woke up with the noise in his ear back, and his face all swollen up again. He’d thought he was getting better, so was really depressed about this. However, it did not stop him from playing Scroungers  bowls in the morning!

I wondered whether the regular bending over for bowls unsettles something in the face/ear? But I wouldn’t be game to suggest it, though.

I did the washing, which had built up over the last couple of weeks. It was quite windy, so good for getting the washing dry.

As I was walking back to the van from the laundry, recognized another camper. It was D, who we’d gotten to know when staying at the same caravan park in Hobart, in 2000.  I had been sending him and E Xmas cards, to their home base address in Orford, but in 2002 that card had come back. He told me they were full time on the road now – which he’d really wanted to do. They had sold the Orford place. They were really pleased to see me again. Over the next couple of days we did quite a bit of catching up and talking travel. This was their third winter in Carnarvon, but they planned to try something different next winter and head for Queensland.

After lunch, went to town and went for a walk on the One Mile Jetty. This structure, built in the 1890’s for coastal shipping, had to be this long to reach deep water. The amount of silt coming down the Gascoyne River system, in floods, had created an extensive sort of delta formation, some of which was exposed at low tide.

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Out on the One Mile Jetty, lookung back to town

Back in ’93, we watched people fishing from the end of this, but in 2000 the last section was closed off, because some morons had lit fires and burnt parts of it. Someone said it was people fishing, who wanted to keep warm. What idiots light fires on a wooden jetty?

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It was still closed off.

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Closed off last part of jetty

The little Coffee Pot train – so named for its shape – was running, to take people who did not want to walk, up and down the jetty.

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The Coffee Pot

Apparently, full restoration of the end of the jetty was expected in the near future. They had done well – massive task.

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We drove around the Fascine – the waterfront – and the small boat area,  just looking.

Honey chilli prawns for dinner tonight!


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2004 Travels July 3

SATURDAY 3 JULY     CARNARVON

In the morning, went to the Growers Market in the town centre. There were lots of tomatoes, capsicums, grapefruit, bananas and other vegies. Carnarvon was a very productive  agricultural centre, reliant on irrigation water from under the Gascoyne River bed. We stocked up – very good value.

I bought a Weekend Australian. A newspaper again!

After lunch, John bowled. This caravan park had its own bowling green – which was the reason we always went there! Regular competitions were run throughout the tourist season – which we were right in the middle of. John was very rusty, he said.

I read my paper.

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Carnarvon site

Friend M phoned. She and friend were at Nanga, south of here, on their hire car jaunt. She would contact us when they reached Carnarvon on Tuesday. That was a couple of days later than they’d planned to be in town. We could have stayed out in the bush for another couple of nights!

Fortunately, I was able to extend our booking here by a night.

Garlic prawns for tea tonight – lovely.


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2004 Travels July 2

FRIDAY 2 JULY   KENNEDY RANGE NATIONAL PARK TO CARNARVON   240kms

The Kennedy Range extends south almost to Gascoyne Junction. So, today was attractive driving, that far, with the Range to our right.

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Roadside patterns

Not far after rejoining the main road beside the Lyons River, we crossed that again, at a dry point. After that, the river was to our right, as well. Again, we crossed several dry stream beds – tributaries of the Lyons, and hence eventually, the Gascoyne.

Just north of Gascoyne Junction, we crossed that river, on a dry causeway ford.

Refuelled at Gascoyne Junction – just 20 litres, at $1.30cpl.

Last time we came this way, in ’93, the road west was closed by rain, and we could only go south west, via poorly signed station tracks, through Pimbee and Meedo stations, to Wooramel Roadhouse, on the highway. It was an adventure!

At Gascoyne Junction, I used the public phone (no mobile signal out here) to phone the  caravan park in Carnarvon to book us in for four nights. John was impatient to get going again and cross about me doing this – until I informed him that the park had only one multi-night site available, which I’d booked. So it was a good thing that I’d thought to phone ahead.

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The unsealed road between Gascoyne Junction and the main highway, just north of Carnarvon, was rather corrugated, and with patches of bulldust in parts. We could see why this road was closed as soon as it rains – runs right by the river.

This section of the drive was pleasant – a little undulating, with very low sand dune sections, scrub covered, in places with little lakes between. Nice variety.

As we approached Carnarvon, the sky ahead was clouding over.

Went into the Wintersun Caravan Park. Top Tourist. $19.35 a night, after discount. The park was full, but did not feel too crowded. We were next to a big van, a couple with two little boys, the younger just walking. He reminded me of my little grandson – I was missing that little guy.

After setting up camp, drove into town – this caravan park is out on the edge – to get some foodstuffs.

We went to the prawn processing plant and bought a kilo of king prawn meat, for $27. For that, we got fifty one prawns!

We had TV again.

The showers were very welcome, after our showerless, dusty stay out in the bush.

Bought fish and chips for tea. Very greasy.

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