Shark Bay (Denham)

We drove down to Shark Bay.

You might have heard of this place, either because of the dolphins at Monkey Mia or because it's near Australia's most westerly point. 

It's this bit here.

The stromatolites on the way are a significant thing to view as well but unfortunately a cyclone in 2021 (funnily enough, we watched the news of this unfolding while we were in Broome previously) ripped up parts of the board walk at Hamelin Pool and it's now closed, so will have to keep our eye out for other places that showcase this significant ecological phenomenon.

We're staying at Denham. It's a small town (population 700 that swells to thousands in peak holiday periods, especially Easter).

You know when you lob somewhere and you love it but can't say why? That's Denham. 

We thought maybe two or three nights here but we're in no hurry so we stayed five.

Actually,  I DO know why I like this place... there's 750 people and two pubs. Who wouldn't want to stay in a town with one pub for every 490 people?

Historic pearl lugger anchored on the foreshore, which has been done really well. Lots of grass, BBQs, swimming areas and fishing jetties. 

They've done a great job on the foreshore 

Denham foreshore 

HMAS Sydney II sits off Shark Bay in the Indian Ocean, sunk by a German cruiser in 1941.
It's Australia's greatest maritime disaster, with all on board killed. The names of the 644 who lost their lives are listed are listed in this beautiful artwork. 

It's windy! I'm surprised we haven't been blown away. We deliberately chose to stay at a park a short walk back from the beach so we aren't sand blown as we have experienced previously. The ground here is a shell grit (picture camping in the bottom of a budgerigar's cage) but it's definitely better than sand whipping around your legs.

We can feel the van being buffeted while inside. 

Late each afternoon, when the sun went down behind the trees, we made the precautionary move to wind in the awning. It's really sturdy in the wind but without it, there's less buffeting and it's quieter.

Each morning we woke to clear skies (surprise!) and one morning we walked down the hill to town to the visitors' centre which was fruitful and we gave us a list of things to do.

One afternoon we drove out to Skipjack Point, the northern end of this finger of land.

Shocking road (again! Glad we didn't wash the car as initially planned at Carnarvon!)

We saw rays, turtles, a shark and thousands of birds. 

The rangers are very keen for everyone to air down their tyres to protect the toad... so keen in fact they provide a facility to air back up. 

Shells are a thing here! 

Metres deep here at Shell Beach!

They are even used as a bricks! There's an old shell quarry that they would saw white blocks out of for building. 

Of course we drove the 30km to Monkey Mia one morning to see the dolphins. We were rewarded with a good view of half a dozen. 

We also saw a turtle and a sea snake in the shallows. 

A golden retriever (and her owners) pulled into the park... Robyn got her dog fix. 

We enjoyed a morning sail and cruise on a boat out of Monkey Mia. 

We were rewarded by seeing a stack of wildlife...

Quite a few dugong, both mothers and calves and young adults mating.

Lots of dolphins 

A  party (that's the collective noun) of dolphins)

Osprey and their fantastic nests

Green turtles

It was a great day!

Our final day here was relaxed- a couple of local visits and walks. 

Moving on tomorrow rowards Kalbarri. 

Carnarvon (again)

We had a good day's drive from Tom Price to here at Carnarvon. 

We headed off early as planned and are glad we did. It was a hot day and the headwinds came up around lunch time as expected. 

When we filled up at Nanutarra with Emily in tow a month ago, we didn't think we'd be back for a third time as we travelled this part of Australia. Three visits later we realise how well positioned this roadhouse is. Very few vehicles travelling north/south or coming/going west to Tom Price don't stop and fill up, even vehicles like ours with a 140L fuel tank.

I can't help but reflect on how Barkly Homestead has made itself a tourist destination, and whether (albeit with significant investment) Nanutarra Roadhouse could do the same.  

We take turns driving, especially on longer days when we travel more than our typical couple of hours. 

We've seen these RFDS highway airstrips before. We first saw them on The Nullarbor years ago and there's been a few on this trip.

We took the opportunity to do a shop, wash the van, do some baking (muffins for morning tea for the next few days) etc. before heading south towards Denman, Monkey Mia and Steep Point for the next week or so.

Tom Price (Karijini)

We left Karratha later than planned after having a much-needed wheel alignment done on the van. 

It was hot- 40+ degrees so we drove pretty sedately along the Red Dog Highway (! True!) over the rolling hills south, keen to keep the engine happy. 

The quickest route to Tom Price includes travelling on the private dirt road that runs beside the Rio Tinto railway for the last 100km. 

We did the online course to secure a pass as this shaves 100km off the trip.

It was interesting to travel past these enormous laden trains as they laboured with their iron ore load north to the port of Dampier for export to China. 

We arrived in Tom Price just as a rain squall burst. Our first real rain 6 months.

We ran into a couple of travellers from Switzerland and had a good night with them, and also two other families we met a month ago in Willare, west of Broome. 

Rain!

If you've not come to work, people typically come to Tom Price to visit the various gorges of Karijini National Park. We went into the visitor's centre and picked up various maps and guides etc. to explore. 

Had some interesting chats with people who live in Tom Price. There's a lot of frustration between what some people work for and others get. 

Best leave that there.

You know the road trains are long when these warnings are before a rail crossing!

We walked and swam in some nice gorges. 

Fern Pool. Lovely!

Cheaper than Thailand

What could go wrong? 
Wittenoom is just down the road. 

Off early tomorrow... a big (full) day's drive south west to Carnarvon 

Karratha

We're keen to head down into Karrijini National Park... the gorges there are supposed to be beautiful. 

Before we go inland to the remoteness and heat, we've come up to Karratha to get the car serviced.

Its difficult to find a mechanic who can fit you in within a reasonable amount of time in this part of Australia. It's a harsh place to live and work and not enough people want to live here. 

Couple this with the extraordinary cost of rent (talking to some RioTinto workers in the pool... > $4000 a week for a 3 br house that sells for <1m) means a dearth of trades in some industries,  particularly if there's bigger money to be made in the mining and oil/gas side. 

Anyway, a service is due; the last one was 15000 kms ago at Mt Isa.

We've have to stay another day because we noticed the wheel alignment marks on the van had moved. On inspection, uneven wear is visible so we rang around and were able to get a booking for Thursday morning. 

It's hot here in Karratha. We're unpowered; our solar is good but our set-up can't run the AirCon but at least we're at a park with a pool. 

We'll head down to Tom Price tomorrow and use that as a base to explore Karrijini for the next few days. 

Exmouth

Time to leave. 

After breakfast we packed up. It was a slow process as it involved 

a. getting all the sand trapped between the layers of our floor mat out... took a good half hour, and

b. getting the chocks etc. out from under the wheels in the soft sand. Let's just say that without a shovel, it would have taken longer than the 45 minutes it took to hitch up and be ready to go. 

There's no water at this spot, so the last thing we did was call by a family we met who are there for a week with their two young children and offload our excess drinking water to them. 

There's two roads to Exmouth; the bitumen we drove along a few weeks ago with Emily on board, and the coast 4WD road. Because we were already on the coast at South Lefroy, we decided to continue on this way up the western side of the peninsula to Exmouth. 

The initial 36km from South Lefroy to the end of the track at Yardie Creek took 3 hours. Without doubt,  the slowest going and worst of the trip. Lots of nearly getting bogged on sand stretches, jarring corrugations much worse than Cape York, sharp stoney sections and hard packed salt clay with wild potholes. 

It was good to get through the last sandy section at the northern end at Yardie Creek. 

We aired up the tyres and continued on and stopped at Turquoise Bay for a swim and lunch. A beautiful spot; we can see why it's popular with Exmouth locals as it's just an hour's drive around the peninsula, all on bitumen. 

We treated ourselves to breakfast, the first cafe breakfast this trip... 6 months between smashed avocados!!

Nice drive and walk to Shothole Canyon and a relaxing few days. 

It was windy up there!!!

Heading farther up the coast to Karratha for a car service and another wheel alignment on the van (needed after some terrible roads... we can see the uneven wear.)

South Lefroy

From Coral Bay we headed 100 odd km north into the Ningaloo National Park and stayed on the beach at South Lefroy. 

The roads in are shocking (2 hours to travel 50 km) and the sand gets in everything, but nevertheless a lovely couple of days - lots of swimming, walking, reading and relaxing. 

No reception so a bit of Starlink at the start and end of the day to watch the news and keep abreast of a few things going on with friends and family. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but suffice to say we saw dolphins, sharks, turtles, fish, an osprey or kestrel with a fish in its claws, sunset over the ocean and moon rise on the other horizon... all in all a pretty good three nights. 

Camping right on the beach

That's our van behind Robyn

Swimming in front of our van

Full moon, but only a few turtles swimming, not laying eggs.

North (back) to Exmouth tomorrow.