Important news first:-
- found a couple of cartons of Bighead at Port Hedland (who’d have thought).
- did not have a bet on or watch Melbourne Cup. We were swimming at Fortescue Falls when it was run. It feels good not giving money to the bookies.
- Caitlan & Tristan are having another baby. Yeh grandparents again.
I think they are in the right order of importance!
We spent a couple of nights at Port Hedland. Well, it is well designed to ship shit loads of Iron Ore. It is definitely not a tourist mecca. Having said that we found enough to keep us busy for a couple of days.
A different sort of sunset over the ore loaders.
I even tried to get another Stairway to the Moon. A bit late in the year for it, got more of a stepladder to the moon.
A couple of pics from around town.
If you are into trains these old fellas are great.
Left Port Hedland & headed for Tom Price. As well as long trains there are lots of road trains on the road, lots of road trains.
The reason we were at Tom Price was to visit Karijini National Park. We went to Sunday arvo markets & the first thing we noticed was the town is made up of young single people & young families. Makes sense because most of them work at the mines.
First up was Hamersley Gorge. Easy walk down 500 steps, great rock formations & nice pool for a swim.
Ulrika took her time getting into the water as you will see from this video.
Next on the list was Hancock Gorge & the Handrail Pool. Long walk along bottom of gorge & then a side trip to Handrail pool accessed through narrow gorge.
This is called the Junction Lookout as four gorges meet here.
Joffre Gorge Lookout was next. Yes you can climb down & have a swim but we left that to the younger ones.
And then Knox Gorge Lookout.
We finally ended up at Fortuscue Falls. A great spot, much better than the Melbourne Cup.
The morning we left we went for a drive up Mt Nameless. It was just behind the caravan park. When we got up there we found out it is the highest mountain in WA at 1016m. It was a steep climb in low range 4WD most of the way. View wasn’t bad.
We had a great time & is one of our favourite spots so far. We even had our first rain & storm since we left. Only a few spots but some thunder & wind.
Stopped at Cheela Station for one night on way to Exmouth. Not real impressed in comparison to other farm stays. Only positive was we could swim at a private gorge. It was called the Mussel Pool. Just after the photo of Billy was taken he jumped into the water & forgot to swim. He sank straight to the bottom!
Drive to Exmouth was long & boring only broken up by lots of scrub fires.
Arrived at caravan park at Exmouth & was welcomed by local resident.
So we have finished Stage 3 of our trip.
Since the 15th May we have travelled 21,500km, used 3831 litres of diesel, spent $5,168 @ average price of $1.36/litre & averaged 17.8l/100km.
Word of the day:-
Clandestine – keep secret or done secretively
Peter – decrease or fade gradually before coming to an end
Alacrity – brisk & cheerful readiness
Perfidious – deceitful & untrustworthy
Just a Hi, I watch the travels of the Pete and Ulrika show and think its great. The O’Kanes have a bit of history in the west. Scot was a locum optometrist servicing Port Headland, Karatha, Broome etc for several years and My bruv was owner of the Port Gregory caravan park some years ago. As you know we have a caravan which is still under wraps as Scott has sold his home last month and contracted for some acreage in Ormeau , which subject to a passing building and pest next Monday will settle 15th Dec so travel is on the back burner, added to this he has a new owner for the practice he locums for so we are waiting for the dust to settle.But then???? Its a great opportunity for him as he got “a record price” and bought well, he is the hardest negotiator and dosn’t bend.We breed them tough. A few of the boys went away for a long weekend to play golf at Ballina and Byron couple of weeks ago(staying at Byron)-Wesie, Craigie, Ratshit, Duddsie,Johnsie, Glennie and mei. It was a good bit of fun and of course I won the golf both days, in fact I won the day at Ballina, assumed outcome. Still at Southport and the course is to be raped next week(cored scarified and everything else), but we play over 50, 000 games a year so does need the job. I try and go on a charter fish once a month with my mate from golf and last trip was tough, with wind at 30 knts and gust to 45 kn, there was 10 on board but only 6 finishing fishing, they did not look well. Captains rules are clear, we return at 3.00pm and if you want to return earlier, say because of sea sickness, you must reimburse the costs of those who want to keep fishing. Poor buggars looked green but we found a patch of jew and caught our 50 limit but it was tough. Our weather has been mixed with some great rains and good days. Always busy at Surfers and I have booked to go to NZ to escape the Cwlth Games as it will be a total grid lock and Council will still not give out details. I have no interest in the games as I believe they are an elitist event and a waste of money serving egos only-wow!!! So keep the news coming and occasionally I will respond??? keep well and safe and cheers anon alias Roddles
Good to hear from you. Thanks for the update. Glad you are well. We both miss having a drink with you