On the Road in September 14

Hi to all our lovely friends,

This is September's Blog, I know October is nearly finished but that's fine. In September we left Broome for our trip south, we had some free camps and expensive parks. We passed Jack and Sandra  at Sandfire Roadhouse and at Roebourne they passed us. We got to Karratha and stayed 3 nights. We went on the Rio Tinto Resources Tour on Thursday and had a great time. On Friday we went out to the Gas Plant and the Rock Art. The gas plant is amazing lots of info, the rock art was astonishing, in the evening we had tea out at a hotel in Dampier (ho hum) then of to the Gas Plant for some night photos. Whilst in Karratha the caravan got attacked by little ants and I got bitten by something that caused a big reaction.

Dampier salt evaporation ponds

Iron Ore loading dock at Dampier

Trains and loaders

Ore loaders

Marilyn at Red Dog statue, Dampier

Iron Ore with Salt in the background waiting for loading

We did a tour of our own to the Woodside North West Shelf Project Karratha Gas Plant, this plant produces, Domestic gas, LNG, LPG for Australia and export. We also went to look at the Rock Art on the Burrup Peninsula not far from the NWSP, this required climbing over rocks to find petroglyphs which are very old indeed, between 25,000 and 30,000 years old. This rock art was still being done in 1860's.

Gas Processing plant

Rock art, Petroglyphs, 

Petroglyphs, 25 - 30,000 years old

We went back to Dampier the next night for some night shots of the ore loading dock and the gas plant, mind the wind is still blowing so it was tricky getting the tripod to stay still.

Iron Ore loading dock Dampier

Iron Ore loading dock

Gas Plant at night

Gas plant at night

From Karratha we headed to Exmouth with  a free camp along the way, we nearly ran out of diesel but a lovely couple in a Cell Homestead sold us 20 lts which was enough to get us to Exmouth, because the head winds were so strong. In Exmouth we had to fix the power cable that goes between the truck and the van as it got chopped up when we went onto gravel road at road works just outside the town, we had to replace the fuse in the truck as well, a bolt fell out of my chair so Ian had to fix that, It was very busy time fixing things and we only stayed 2 days. From Exmouth we overnighted in Carnarvon and a free camp then into Geraldton for a few days as we wanted to see the wild flowers. On Friday we purchased a new coffee machine (finely for the one I wanted at a really good price) Saturday we went on the wild flower drive. We had a great time and finely found the Wreath Flower which was the object of the drive. The little towns on the drive are very sad places, nothing open at all, good thing we took lunch and hot water with us. On Sunday we did the boring stuff, but late in the afternoon  a 5th wheeler went passed our van and it was friends Peter and Rose, we meet them about the same time last year in Kunanurra, had a great catch up. 

Everlasting daisy's

Our day out on the wildflower drive took us to Mullewa, Canna, out Gutha East Rd to see the Wreath Flower, then down to Morawa, Mingenew, west to Dongara and back to Geraldton about 400 km's for the day. These little towns are very sad places, also miles and miles of grain but very dry.

Trying to get fuel at Canna

Canna visitor centre

Wild Flower walk behind the church at Canna

Fringed Lily

the home of Frank Ewin Macklin out in the bush

Everlastings

Wreath Flower

The 400 km day drive to see a few hundred of these "Wreath Flower"

Wreath Flower

After leaving Geraldton still travelling south with the wind still blowing from the south west we stopped overnight at Ledge Point Caravan Park, then onto Perth. While in Perth we visited with many friends, Shirley and Brian, Micheal and Loraine, Bev and Paul, Mike and Ang, Sue and Vic. We had a great time in Perth but it was time to move on so on October 1st we were on the move again heading East, more on that part of the trip in the next edition.

Cheers Marilyn and Ian