South Through WA

Unlike our last trip through this area when we took the Gibb River Road across the Kimberly, this time we are skirting around it on the tar along the fringe of the monsoonal woodlands. With the fruits of our labour sent off, we headed south to the meteorite crater at Wolfe Creek. It's about 100 km off the highway down the Tanami Rd on the edge of the Tanami desert. (Love those cool desert nights - 24 C - bliss!) The hype is "the second largest crater from which fragments of the meteor have been recovered". The largest in this class is in Arizona. The impact cone remnant of Tnorala is bigger, but that doesn't seem to count.

A quick hike over the rim into the crater itself is about the only exploration option. The edges are quite eroded, but are still steeper on the inside than the outside. The crater bottom has filled with sand over the years and is now only 20 m below the surrounding land. Salt has accumulated over the years too, staining the earth around the waterholes that form over the impact fractures. The vegetation is sparse, and there are more lizards than birds.

We headed back up to Halls Creek, and managed to land a few jobs, including flashing the BIOS of a faulty commercial oven. The range of work we land never ceases to amaze us. Before leaving the area, we spent a night at Saw Pit Gorge. The gorge, and nearby Palm Springs still had enough water for a cool off dip. That cool night in the desert was an anomaly, and we're back in the heat.

The next town is Fitzroy Crossing, a stark contrast to Halls Creek. Halls Creek is clean and friendly, whilst Fitzroy Crossing is dirty and impersonal. The only real camping option, The Lodge, charges a whopping $21 for a dusty shadeless patch of dirt. Fitzroy is also home to Geikie Gorge National Park, another bastion of dictatorial fascists. On our last pass here we were disappointed about the situation, but this time we are outraged.

They lock the entrance gates to the park preventing any access until 2 hours after sunrise. Private boats then have half an hour to launch, and must immediately move out of the area used by the tour boats. Two windows are allocated for returning, 11:00 to 12:00, and after 4:00. So if you choose to launch, you have to stay out in the scorching midday sun. And what is all this over-regulation for? The official line is to ensure that the paying customers on the tour boats get a "natural wildlife experience". In reality, it is pure revenue raising. By the time they get their boats going, all the wildlife has retreated from the heat anyway, and people with their own watercraft are effectively prohibited from getting exactly that. It's our National Park too, and we are prevented from seeing it at its best. And just how many paying customers do they actually get in the final weeks before The Wet anyway?

On the road again, and we are passing road train triples full of tyres for the mine haul trucks, and loonies on overloaded bicycles. Unlike our National Parks, the roads ARE for everyone, no matter how much road tax they pay or how dangerous their activities may seem. As we passed one of the many kangaroo roadkill on the highway, we noticed it was only wounded. Helen jumped on the radio and asked the next passing trucker to put it out of its misery. We made a quick stop in Derby, and then made our way to Broome. Again we see the huge contrast between neighbouring towns, Derby is a service town while Broome is a tourist town.

Neither is a work opportunity to us, but there are still chores to be done. Another service for the cruiser, buy and pack supplies, fuel, water, all the usual stuff. There's time for a morning stroll and a sunset swim on Cable Beach. There's always time for a bit of bird watching, and even a bit of photography when the subject stays still. This time in Broome we also had to see Anistasia's Pool with our own eyes. It certainly is a serious candidate for the most over-rated tourist attraction in Australia.

For over 300 km south of Broome the Great Sandy Desert stretches right to the ocean. It is a flat virtually treeless plain with an occasional stand of low shrubs. There are a handful of places to stop along the way. Having heard many good reports about it, we stopped at Barn Hill, but the locked gate told us we were too late in the season. Instead we camped at Eighty Mile Beach, which like Broome has a sea breeze to take the edge off the heat. Strolling along the beach, we encountered the tracks of turtles that had recently used the beach for nesting.

As we approached the Pilbara, we headed inland to Marble Bar which has the reputation of being the hottest town in Australia. At least it can only get cooler from here. After trying to generate interest in our services, we poked around a few of the local haunts. An afternoon drink at the Ironclad Hotel (where Charles Kingsford-Smith was married), a visit to the local WWII secret airbase, a trip to the museum. Who could forget the landmark for which the town was named, a ridge of jasper that creates a deep rockhole in the local river.

It is of course the wrong end of the season, so most of the rockholes in the surrounding area are looking rather uninviting. We'd heard good things about Carawine Gorge, but locals advised us that a recent cyclone had destroyed all the trees and the ensuing flood had washed out the roads and sculpted the rockholes out of existence. Skipping that 300 km round trip we headed for Coppin Gap instead, where a small spring keeps the water reasonable most of the time. The rock strata there were at least as impressive as the dry "marble bar" (which reputedly it looks great when it's wet). With no work on the horizon, we continued inland, into the rolling green hills of the Pilbara. An endless sea of spinifex grass over a huge bed of minerals. A miners paradise.

Anticipating only a brief stop we pulled into Nullagine. Within minutes we had work and were staying the night. Each day brought more jobs, extending our stay further. Five days of stores stretch to six and then seven days, and finally it's time to shop local. One week stretches to two, because we (almost) never say no to work. The wildly differing responses from neighbouring towns never ceases to amaze us.

During our stay in Nullagine we were pulled over by the cops. It was not because we'd done anything wrong, simply that someone had asked them "if you see those computer people, tell them to drop by and see me". A couple of nights before we left, we had our biggest thunderstorm in more than six months. Over an inch of rain, and a very impressive lightning show. Fortunately, we were not in the tent, having been offered a donga for the duration of our stay.

Eventually the work ran out, and we're back on the road. The unexpectedly long stay in Nullagine forces us to seriously revise our plans. We emailed ahead to set up work further down the coast, and placed some ads in local newsletters in selected towns ahead of us. Due to the unpredictable nature of small towns, this is not something that can be done at random, and we rely on knowledge from our previous explorations. Accepting appointments does however commit us to a specific schedule.

Instead of spending a day or two checking out the waterholes and 4WD tracks surrounding Newman, it became a brief stop for fuel and stores (and the most expensive LPG fill we've seen anywhere in Australia). The visitor centre in Newman has a nice vintage truck, that dates back to a time when one man could still find the largest and richest (66%) iron ore deposit in the world. There was time for lunch on the edge of Opthalmia Dam and we squeezed in a visit to one of the local rockholes (Wunna Munna) by camping there on the way out of town. Our first night back in the tent was stormy, but we were dry just the same.

No visit to the Pilbara would be complete without a stop in Karijini National Park. Instead of the couple of days we had originally planned, it became a day stop. We didn't camp even a single night. Our explorations were limited to a hike through Dales Gorge. There was time for a quick swim in circular and fern pools. Unlike our last visit when Fortescue Falls was covered in tourists, this time it was picture perfect.

Continuing west, we passed through Tom Price. Like many towns in the area, it's a mining town. The contrast between neighbouring towns continues to surprise us, Tom Price being far nicer than Newman. We kept driving until late, and simply bush camped on the roadside. Another substantial storm arrived as we finished dinner, so we just dived into the tent.

We finally made it back to the coast at Onslow. It was a place we'd missed on our last pass, and we've learnt the importance of assessing places first hand. Onslow might have been a work opportunity, were it not for the fact that they recently had a visit from another transient computer person. To really appreciate Onslow, you need to like fishing. We only stayed a single night in town, but the campground at "3 mile" looks like a nice place to stay and perhaps even kayak.

Like Karijini, Ningaloo Marine Park is a required stop on any visit to the WA coast. We spent a couple of days snorkeling on the reef directly off the beaches of Cape Range National Park. Like much of this coast, the arid interior stretches right to the coast. In contrast, the ocean is alive. We saw sharks, stingrays, and all manner of fish swimming amongst the coral. Our only mistake was neglecting to buy a disposable underwater camera to capture the moment.

Unfortunately, we're now on a schedule, and it was time to continue south to Coral Bay. We opted for the 4WD track along the coast, and were once again amused at the juxtaposition of the national park beside a military bombing range. Apparently one part of the area is worth preserving, while an adjacent area is designated for sporadic destruction. We did a little destruction of our own, when a kangaroo leapt out from behind a tree alongside the track.

The plan was to kayak across the bay to the outer reef then snorkel, but the wind was too fierce. Instead, a few computer jobs filled most of our stay. There was time for a stroll along the beach to the shark nursery, where we found dozens of small sharks in the calm shallow water close to shore. The friends we made on our last visit made us welcome, making for another enjoyable stay on the bay.

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