Troubling times for Australia

Well all the borders are closed again, Sydney and Melbourne are back in full lock down as this D strain of Covid seems to be running rampant. Touch wood and so far Western Australia is unaffected, but even so Im keeping well clear of major towns and as many humans as I can. Very trying times and especially for my brother and his family who have already cancelled a trip once and it looks like they are going to have to do so again. The way things are panning out I can easily see Sydney being in lock down until the end of August. All very frustrating. Anyway wishing everyone to stay safe in these very troubling times, and so I will return you to the regular programming of where I am at currently.

On leaving Broome I was going to head North up the Dampier Penninsula to Cape Leveque, but due to a load of road works and a lot of the trip reverting to driving on dirt roads, and the weather being a bit iffy I didnt fancy getting stuck there if the rain did come down. So instead I decided to move a little South down the Coastal Highway. I travelled down as far as Goldwire Rest Area just over 120kms. Now for the past 4 days the weather had been very overcast and it was while I was at the rest area I noticed my battery was getting very low as the solar charging wasnt doing a huge amount due to the lack of sun. So I thought it would be prudent to book myself into a caravan site for a couple of days to get the system recharged. I had past a sign on the way to where I was to a place called Port Smith (not Portsmouth or Portsmiff), so looking at my trusty app I saw that there was a caravan park there, and I managed to get myself booked in for 3 nights. Well it was a bit of a drive down to it, 23kms of dirt road, which in all honesty wasnt too bad for corrugations and tyre ruts, but it was very very dusty. On getting myself booked in and set up I had a quick look around the campsite and came to the conclusion I was the odd one out there. I seemed to be the only unit without some sort of boat or tons of fishing tackle with me. On further enquiries I discovered there was nothing else in Port Smith apart from a place to launch ones boat and go fishing. No township of any size or description. So it was a very peaceful 3 nights and I was unable to regale anyone about the one that got away.

So after 3 very quiet nights and with a fully charged battery it was time to get back on the road again. The sun was showing itself again as I came out of the dust and onto the Coastal Highway again. A shortish trip of less than 100kms to Stanley Rest Area where I needed to use the dump point as the caravan park didnt have one. So after sorting the van out I decided I may as well stop for the night and found a nice little spot away from everyone to relax for the remainder of the day.

The next morning it back to the road and heading further South to Sandfire Roadhouse, mainly for fuel and hopefully for a coffee, well one out of two had to do. The day had warmed up quite a bit hitting the high 20’s and was a tad windy so for $15 a night with power and water I decided to stop for a couple of nights, and even better when I got myself sorted out and the coffee machine up and running I discovered that the chap had only charged me $15 for the two nights. Well after paying over $1.60 per litre for the diesel it was the least they could do. All in all it wasnt a bad little caravan park they had attached to the Roadhouse. The only drawback was that the wind was kicking up a fair bit of dust, even the dogs thought twice about lying outside, but they were ok as I could put the aircon on for them inside. The Roadhouse was very busy with a constant stream of vehicles at the field pumps. For most of the day there seemed to be at least 3 or 4 vehicles waiting to fuel up.

Onwards Southward I saw a sign for Pardoo Roadhouse and called in to see if they had any bread or milk , of which they had neither, but I did espy a proper barista type coffee machine so I thought I had better partake in a drop or two. this has to be one of the very few Roadhouses Ive come across which had such a machine, and not too bad a cup either, so the stop wasnt a complete bust and it gave the dogs a chance to stretch their legs and have a drink. After 200kms I came across De Grey Rest Area where I was going to stop for a couple of nights.

This was a very large Rest Area well over 50acres and I managed to find a spot about 300mtrs from the road so it was very quiet. It got very busy towards the late afternoon, with probably fifty or so vehicles parked up for the night, but due to the size it never seemed to be overly crowded. The nearest people parked up to me were probably a good fifty metres away.

On leave De Grey it was a very short trip of 74kms to Port Hedland, well to be exact South Hedland and to the caravan park I was booked into. I desperately need to do some food shopping as the freezer was getting very low, and I had been out of fresh fruit and veg for a good few days. Port Hedland is a very Industrial town and its main purpose is as a port for the export of Iron Ore. The iron ore trains have to be seen to be believed. They are about 3kms long with six engines 2 at the front 2 at the rear and 2 in the middle and talking to some locals each one is worth about 1million dollars in trade. If you catch one at a level crossing you may as well put the kettle on. you are going to be there for a while. To go along with this you also get the iron ore trucks (road trains) with four trailers and the stretch to 63mtrs long. Each trailer has 24 wheels so for the 4 trailers that’s 96 wheels plus the 10 wheels on the tractor unit, and you are now starting to wish you had the truck tyre concession for the area. These trucks and trains run 24 hours a day, so as you are probably figuring out, in Western Australia there are a lot of very big holes where all this comes from. Just to finish off with the figures Port Hedland exported 725million tons in the fiscal year of 2019/2020 and is expected to better it this year. Anyway I managed to top up the freezer, get some fruit and some fresh bread. Not much else to write home about when it comes to Port Hedland.

From Port Hedland I chose to go inland about 200kms to a place called Marble Bar, which touts itself as the hottest town in Australia, this I could plainly see was due to the weather and temperatures rather than the night life. I couldn’t stop as the caravan park was full and was fully booked for at least the next 10 days. It gave me a chance to nip into the local shop which also doubled as a bakery and they had some wonderful breads cakes pastries pasties and all things boulangerie. So the $30plus later I came out with a lovely crusty loaf a couple of homemade meat pies and a couple of pasties. Definitely worth the trip just to visit this locale. On the way out of Marble Bar I stopped for a couple of nights at Des Streckfuss Rest Area which was a lovely spot right next to what was left of the river with quite an abundance of birdlife. The only drawback was the almost constant sound of the iron ore road trains going past and as I said before these vehicles ran day and night you could probably rely on getting 7 to 10 an hour either going full or coming back empty. 2 different companies coming from two different mines. But being here did give me the opportunity to hone my skills at taking pictures of the birdlife, to varying degrees of success.

Anyway I decided to go back to South Hedland for a couple of days as I needed to get my prescription filled and also I remembered I was due my second Astra Zeneca vaccine so thought I may as well sort that out while I was there. Well the prescription wasnt a problem even though it was the most I had ever paid for it just on $200 which was way more than usual. The covid vaccine was a different matter, the quoted me August before I could get it, which would have been over 3 weeks after it was due. So I will just have to wait to I get to the next decent sized town and try again, but Im guessing due to the delay I will probably have to start all over again.

Finally left Port Hedland behind me and drifted on further South and have found myself at Kialrah Pool which is roughly 40kms from Roebourne and about 10kms down a dirt road off the main highway at a lovely free camp spot right next to a billabong. Think I will chill out here for three or four days and see where is next on the agenda. Definitely cooler down this way, dont get many if any days over 30c but at least its better for the dogs so one can’t really complain. So folks that’s where I am.

Stay safe everyone, and as usual a few photos

All the Egret photos taken at Kialrah Pool Billabong