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

April 19 - 23 - Karijini, Coral Bay & Exmouth (Day 347 - 351)

 

620km

Monday 19 April

We woke nice and early so that we could make a good head start on our drive to Coral Bay today. The countryside out here is still pretty red, not so much just red sand but a lot more rock mixed in with it and fairly flat in some spots and mountainous in others.

We came across some really pretty spots that had
the perfect lighting so we had to stop and take some photos.

April 15-18 (Day 343-346) - Karijini National Park (plus a day trip back to Kumarina!)

 

Thursday 15 April

As with any 'crisis', it passes and better things lie beyond. And so it was on Thursday. It looks to be a lovely morning today. Plenty of sun to dry out our wet clothes as we pack up. We moved into Dales campground and thought we'd visit Kalamina Gorge as it was the closest one and only gorge open.

A better view of the setup under the verandah

One solitary puddle remained as a reminder of last night's flood!

We set up camp and gathered what we needed for our walk, putting on sneakers, making sure we had plenty of water, hats and some snacks. Jude has been trying to find his brown akubra hat but couldn't find it anywhere. Seems we might have misplaced it somewhere along the road.

On the dirt road out to Kalamina Gorge there were some washouts which had warning cones to make them more visible and still quite a few large pools of water across the road from the recent rains but that wasn't going to stop us, in fact Matt particularly was pretty keen for us to drive straight through them. We did go through a few of them and ended up with a nice coating of red/orange.

Driving out to Kalamina Gorge

Video - The Castaways!

Hi all,

As I mentioned back in the post about Coen, we shot a short video while we were there. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed filming it!

Aug 19 - 28 (Day 201 - 210) - Weipa to Coen, staying at Coen

Wednesday 19 July

Sorry it's been so long! We've had limited signal and limited time (believe it or not!). But here we are, finally publishing this entry on September 4!

Before leaving Weipa we couldn't help noticing a couple of these enormous Mercedes-Benz 4WD ex-Army trucks! I spoke to the owner and he said they were planning to travel for about 10 years in them, and when they've finished in Australia and travel is allowed again they're planning on heading to Africa. Quite a journey! He said it's got about a 7 litre engine so I did ask about the fuel economy (hardly an appropriate term for a tank this size!) and he said he gets about 1km per litre - i.e. 100L/100km. As an indication, when we're towing our van we get about 18L/100km in our Pajero, and most modern vehicles get around 10L/100km or better. I would hate to be paying the bill to run these beasts!

A giant machine - and expensive to run!!

Aug 14 (Day 196) - Jardine River quarry to Fruit Bat Falls

 

Today was the day we really wanted to have a good swim at Fruit Bat Falls and Eliot Falls. We had seen these both briefly on August 3, on our Telegraph Track day, but hadn't had time to really make the most of them.

Our food supplies were starting to get a little low. On reflection we could have bought up a bit more at Bamaga or Seisia, but we were reasonably well stocked then so didn't think of what might be coming. Given we didn't, we realised our best option for a full shop was Weipa. Weipa is certainly the best provisioned place in the northern half of the Cape. This wasn't in our original plan, having already been to Weipa a week or so ago, but it seemed inevitable.

So our plan today was to drive down past Bramwell Station and hopefully stop for the night at Moreton Station, which is a nice-looking station right by the Wenlock River. We'd driven past this a few times already during our commutes from Bramwell to Weipa so thought it would be worth a stop in.

But before that we had to get to Fruit Bat Falls!

Day 57-73 (March 28 - April 13) - Brisbane

Well we had a lovely time in Brisbane!

It was great to all catch up again, and the kids really carried on from where they left off. In the Status Update post I provided some photos so you've probably already seen some of what we got up to, but here are some of the highlights.