April 24 - 30 - Exmouth to Karratha (via Onslow, Fortescue River and Millstream) (Day 352 - 358)

950km

 Saturday 24 April - Exmouth to Yannarie

We left Yardie Homestead around 10:30 after packing up and then cooling off in the pool. We had seen on the map as we were coming into Exmouth that you could get right out to the tip as there is a ship wreck there that you can see from the shore and possibly swim out to. Firstly though we revisited the lighthouse we had been to last time we were up here. I remember it was so blustery and we were trying to hide away so that we didn't get so cold. But this time it was quite a hot day and the view was just as beautiful.

Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

The view from the base of the lighthouse

 

We then made our way out to where the shipwreck was. I went and had a look first and also saw some turtles from the shore so quickly went and got our bathers on in the hope we'd be able to get a bit closer and also see the wreck up close. But as we got out into the water the turtles swam away pretty quickly so we weren't able to get photos or videos of them. Also as we were swimming we could feel quite a current pulling us to the left of the wreck and it looked as though it was going to take us some time to even get out there and then be too tired to look properly. So we turned back to shore. We saw some younger fellas who had flippers swim out to it and even then it took them a good 10 mins with the current pushing them off line also but they did manage it but we still thought it best to give it a miss. It was still a lovely cool off though.

S.S. Mildura wreck just offshore from Exmouth tip

Beach at the tip of Exmouth peninsula

We drove into Exmouth where Greg and the kids did the shopping for a change!

Jude picking up some shaved ham

 After shopping and having some lunch we made our way back down the eastern side of the peninsula. At one point along the road Jude realised he didn't have his thongs and remembered he'd left them at the service station where he'd been sitting on a post while waiting for Greg. So we turned back and drove the 40km's and thankfully this time they were still sitting there. We have been teaching them to take responsibility for their belongings and to make sure they double check the area before leaving any spots we've visited. We'd hoped the hat lesson would have sunken in, but it seems this is still a work in progress!

We came across another blue tongue lizard which was catching some of the afternoon sun on the road but had scampered off by the time we had got back to it. It did this funny thing of flattening itself out as you went to pick it up which was quite amusing.

We then carried on, took a left when we rejoined the North West Coastal Highway, and stayed the night at a lovely rest stop near Yannarie. Greg took some pretty cool photos with Jude of a nearby tree and the night skies and some other shots that had some pretty amazing lighting from Jude's torch and he wrote some words.

 

We then had a quick dinner and did our evening readings and got to bed.

Sunday 25 April - Yannarie to Cane River

This morning we headed off towards Onslow. We first popped into Nanutarra roadhouse along the way for some nice cold refreshments (our fridge seems to struggle to drop its temperature when it's quite hot so having some nice cold drinks are very much welcomed). Bek and Jude bought some magic fire dust which they hope to try out on our next fire.

As we drove towards Onslow the landscape was covered with lots of huge termite mounds.

One termite mound we came across looked like a huge warrior the closer we got to it. 

Closer to the Onslow coast there were a number of salt pans on either side of the road and then we saw in the distance the salt machines at work.

Onslow

Onslow is accessed by a ~80km access road from the North West Coastal Highway, and it sits right on the coast between Exmouth and Karratha. It seems to be a base for the nearby salt operations, and supports mining operations in the Pilbara. We'd heard from a few others that we wouldn't be missing much if we didn't visit there, but we wanted to see for ourselves. We were there on a Sunday so it wasn't a great measure of the busyness of the place, but it was quite quiet. The town centre is several streets, and the houses then branch out from there. Close to the beach there's a resort of sorts which seems to mainly be to accommodate miners rather than being a tourist destination in itself (although apparently the Mackerel Islands nearby are good for fishing). But it would probably only be maybe a kilometre on each side. Not a big town by any means. One supermarket, two petrol stations and no fast food if that's a guide to go by.

We were hoping to stay somewhere in Onslow or near the Ashburton river but when we went into Onslow itself and went down to see what the ocean was like it didn't look that appealing and there were midges around. The beach sand was brown rather than yellow or white, although it wasn't muddy. Just not so pleasant to look at. A little like Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsula if you're familiar with that. Our past experience with midges back in Queensland wasn't good so we thought it would be best to pass up the idea of staying here and headed back out.

Onslow was a pleasant enough place, but it didn't have any particular redeeming features to make it worth the 80km drive from the highway.

Cane River rest stop

We then found a lovely spot near the Cane River. It had signal which was great to be able to get more school and business work done. 

The water was unfortunately no good for swimming in. It was completely opaque with suspended red silt, the banks were very steep and when you did get in you sank about half way up your calves in mud!

Looks magnificent in the photo, but the water's opaque with suspended red silt!

Greg set to work fixing one of our caravan stabiliser legs which was replaced back quite a few months ago but the new leg is a bit shorter so he needed to take some parts of the old one and put them on the new one so that all the legs are the same length.

There are so many crickets and locusts around at the moment. Apparently talking with the owner at Karalundi they have come in thick and fast just recently and it's a bit unusual this time of the year. Also flies can be quite a problem sometimes.

Jude wanted to make a fire so that he could try out his magic fire dust which he got at one of the roadhouses recently. It turned out quite well.

Monday 26 April - Cane River to Fortescue River

BUSH HAIRCUTS!! It's not what you think.

Before we left the Cane river spot the kids and Greg did some school and business work. I also gave the boys a haircut as they've been looking a bit scruffy lately.

 

Matt really wanted to drive out of our spot in Cane river because we'd had to do a dry river/creek crossing which looked a little difficult at first but ended up being super easy to through.

 

Matt driving out of Cane River

We only travelled for about 100km today but we found this amazing spot near the Fortescue River. It looked a much better spot to swim because the water was clearer. It had signal which meant we could get some school and business work done and cool off when needed.

Our beautiful spot by Fortescue River

The nights have been cooling down so Jude made another fire. This time we also made damper for dessert with jam & cream. Yummo. I think the last time we had damper was back in Queensland.

It turned out pretty well.

Tuesday 27 & Wednesday 28 of April - Fortescue River

 Another few beautiful days by the Fortescue river canoeing, swimming and catching up on school & business work while we have signal. 

The kids also discovered a tree that they could jump off which they loved. It was about 3m above the water level. Greg also jumped quite a few times also but I'm not as keen to get up high like the others. I did eventually do a few jumps after working myself up to do so. Greg and Jude went down to the bottom of the river and worked out it was about 4m deep where we were and free of any snags, so they graduated onto diving!

 

Wednesday evening Jude & Bek cooked a lovely spaghetti bolognese for us, which was delicious, in celebration of my few jumps off the tree. It's certainly something I find extremely hard to do and it took some time to get over the fear of being up high and to take the leap. Even the 2nd and 3rd time it was still just as hard but I did it. (Yay for Mim! - Greg)

Thursday 29 April

We are headed for Karratha today. It's a place we've heard of over the years. One of my Uncles in Perth used to work there and we've heard of it from other sources also so it will be interesting to see what the town is like.

First we went back over the Fortescue River to the petrol station and met a lovely American lady (who was a customer at one of the tables) who is - wait for it - riding her bike around the world! I'm not sure how much of the world she has managed to ride so far but she has gone quite a long way around Australia since the start of 2020. Her partner is also doing Australia with her but he was further along the road or behind I can't remember because he needed to have a puncture fixed. We chatted for quite some time about all sorts of travel topics and how we can feel so much closer to God out in His creation, which she heartily agreed to.

Looking north west along Fortescue River

Last view of our camp spot, looking south east from the main road

Approaching Karratha we saw several gas flames
burning from gas refineries.

The little Pajie that could -
well at least that tried!

Our first stop just before Karratha was at a fuel station. I think it was to get some cold drinks as our fridge has been struggling to keep cool in the heat. Greg spoke to a truck driver who had a flat battery and tried to give him a jump start. If you're thinking truck electrical systems use 24V and we would only have 12V, you're right - but we just connected to one half of his battery bank. Something else must have been the problem because it did crank a bit faster but still didn't fire. It was a funny sight, our 'little' Pajero giving this big prime mover a jump start!

Since we had no luck with him, we returned to the highway and drove up to Karratha.

Karratha

Karratha is quite a pleasant, tidy town. It's considerably larger than Onslow, which is a village by comparison. It's got a Woolies, several fuel stations, Repco, Auto One, Target and several fast food outlets. Like Onslow, it's accessed from the North West Coastal Highway by an access road but it's only about 7km from the highway instead of 80km in the case of Onslow. Travelling towards town, you first come to the Karratha Industrial Estate on the right before reaching the town proper a few more minutes down the road.

Karratha is built at the edge of a semicircular bay which would be quite pretty if only the beach was better. But more on that later, as we didn't actually get to the beach for another few days!

We had various bits of shopping to do in Karratha, after which we drove back out and started our journey down to Millstream. It's similiar countryside to Karijini, Flinders Ranges or MacDonnell ranges, with fairly hilly countryside but maybe a bit greener and and a bit more vegetation.

We found a track off the main highway on the satellite map so that we could stop for the night. As we drove in it didn't look that promising but it was still somewhere to sleep for the night. We ended up finding a spot clear enough of spinifex to be able to hop out of the van without getting pricked and to be able to cook outside.

 

Friday 30 April - Millstream Chichester National Park

We got up around 6.30 so that we could get out to Millstream and visit the various sights and then possibly even further. We heard quite a few trains going up and back during the night.

Sunrise near Millstream Chichester National Park

The road out to Millstream has a parallel trainline for Rio Tinto's iron ore mining operations.

Millstream Chichester National Park

Another corrugated road means all hands on deck to let the tyres down for a more comfortable ride.

Our first stop was Python Pool which we'd heard was very nice. The road in was pretty rough so we had to drop the tyres, but once we got in it was lovely country!

We caught up with some Volunteers who were doing the rounds and cleaning toilets and they said it's the best spot if you can get in early before the crowds come - and we were the first visitors for the day!

As you can see, the water was glassy still! We enjoyed a lovely swim for a while and the peace and quiet of the surroundings.

Python Pool, Millstream National Park

Jude took this lovely photo of the Sturt Desert Pea

Having enjoyed our swim, we drove all the back to the main road and continued onto another part of the national park where some other attractions awaited.

At one point along the road we had to stop at a train crossing, presuming it was a train, but in fact it ended up being worker truck that needed to get onto the train line!

We took the opportunity to pump up some of our tyres
while waiting for the crossing to clear

After about 15 minutes the truck was finally on the track
and we were able to continue on our journey.

Our next stop was a pool named 'Deep Reach'

After being to Python Pool I think we had similar exceptions for Deep Reach but our expectations were soon dashed when we came to the waters edge and it was very muddy looking. Nothing wrong with muddy waters but it just wasn't quite what we were expecting.

We went to a nearby picnic table to put out things done and were soon swamped by a whole heap of bull ants. I was the first to notice my foot was getting bitten and they didn't let go and then Greg and Matt quickly realised they were about to be swamped as they were quickly coming up on the legs of the table and covering one of Greg's shoes. Greg and Matt hopped up onto the seats while I hopped away and left my thong amongst the ants. Matt and Greg then hopped down and quickly got away and Jude quickly got my thong with a stick and put it in the water to try and get them to release. 

We moved out stuff to another table and went down to the steps to the water. Greg and Jude swam out a little but I wanted to stay near the steps and have a quick dip. Greg said he felt something solid under his foot which he thought was some sort of fish. Once we were all back on the steps again we saw quite a few cat fish. Jude threw something into the water and we watched in a amazement as at least 20-30 catfish came to the surface and swarmed around whatever Jude threw in.

This dragon fly was happy to pose on this water reed for us!

After our quick dip we drove to Millstream homestead to have lunch and went to the nearby cliff lookout to see what the view.

 

Impressions? Overall, we were a bit disappointed in Millstream Chichester National Park. We'd heard good things about it, and it being spoken about in similar terms to Karijini, which (as you'd know by now) we love! I think it probably comes down to what you like doing. We really like swimming more than extensive hiking. Karijini had a good mix of both, with the gorge walks taking an hour or two, and opportunities to swim along the way. However of what we saw of Millstream Chichester it doesn't seem to have that much water, so I think it would be better if you really like bushwalking and hiking and aren't so fussed about waterfalls and billabongs.

After Millstream we headed back up north to Karratha to stock up on more shopping and other essentials. 

Returning to the character of Karratha from my earlier comments... we drove to a look-out which looked over the bay. However unless there's a nicer beach elsewhere, this main beach looked very unpleasant. It's fringed by mangrove swamps, beyond which an awfully long, flat beach reaches out for probably a kilometre or more before the water's edge at low tide. There were some binoculars at the look-out, and we spotted an adult and child on a long, lonely walk across the low tide beach on their way to the distant water's edge.

The mangroves reminded me of St Kilda beach north of Adelaide, while the extraordinarily long low tide beach was reminiscent of Hardwicke Bay on Yorke Peninsula, or what I understand Weston-Super-Mare on the Bristol Channel in England to be like. It's definitely not a place one would choose to go swimming, if all the beaches in Karratha are like the one we saw.

The bay at Karatha

Our fridge had been struggling to drop in temperature especially after putting away all the shopping so we bought a bag of ice and started the process of putting the ice into zippy bags and putting them into the fridge and the back drip tray to help drop the temperature which has worked really well other times.

Filling the fridge tray with ice to cool it back down!

The left over ice went into our water bottles

Another beautiful sunset to end the day.

From Karratha we made our way back along the highway and camped the night near the Sherlock River.

-- Mim & Greg