Barn Hill

BARN HILL STATION – WOW!

When in Coral Bay Les and Sandra told us they spend 1 month up at Barn Hill so we thought we’d have a quick look.   

It was 12kms of dirt off the Highway, very dusty track but not too bad in the scheme of things.

In retrospect we should have stayed in the unpowered section as they are up on the cliffs overlooking the water, a much nicer outlook than we had in the powered section But we were in the shade which was lovely as it was quite warm.

Barn Hill name their sites rather than number them.  We felt most privileged to get the ‘Bush Pig’ site. Hmmm

We had visitors when here - Paul and Gary were able to pop in and visit us for the night on their way down from Broome.  It was amazing to hear about their Buccaneer Achipelago trip in the boat, what an awesome experience they had.

All in all, Barn Hill was extremely beautiful.  The station stay there was basic and I know many don’t like the shower/toilet arrangements but they did the job, the open aired ones were very cool.  The beach was absolutely spectacular to say the least.  The Pinnacles right on the sand were incredible and the boys loved the rock pools.  Stephen went out with Owen in his boat one day and caught a Monkey Fish (well they're ugly) and many other fish.  Definitely not a place to miss.  We could have stayed for ages.

80 mile Beach

Once again we had in our minds that we would pop in at 80 mile beach for a couple of nights and then move on, six nights later we took off.  Seems to be a bit of a pattern with us.

80 mile beach was very long, go figure, it was also the best shell collecting spot we’ve come across yet – shells of every colour were collected.

The tide change here was substantial as it was very flat.  800 metres in and out, unfortunately we decided to go for a walk out to the water at low tide one day and my shrieks were heard way past 80 miles when we sunk into the mud up to our knees, I found it quite horrifying and there was no escaping it, you just had to keep trudging through until the mud got harder, some 50 metres away.  I’m still having nightmares (shudder).

We all had a great time fishing here but nothing was caught, apparently the cold waters had arrived and the fish had gone elsewhere.  I wish they told that to the people who seemed to catch metre long Salmon only 100m away from us each day.

De Grey River

After nearly a week at Karratha we headed onwards and upwards.  Stopping in at the historic town of Cossack allowed the boys to judge Dad in the old courthouse, but although they found him guilty they're the ones that ended up in jail. Cheeky monkey's!

We had been told to stay at De Grey river road stop on the way up and it was definitely well worth it.  A great spot to spy Blue Kookaburra's and dare I say it, a lovely spot to soak up the serenity!  Stephen took a few shots of some cars left behind some time ago (he's still looking for the all important abandoned Monaro - I'm not sure what he's going to do with one in the condition these cars are in - maybe the Monaro won't rust the same way ;-))

On our way to De Grey the day before we also stopped at Whim Creek Hotel for some lunch, amazing feed for modest price in a wonderful setting.  The boys checked out all of the old mining gear and had a chat with the resident cockatoo, the boys remember his name as Harry.  Definitely worth a stop when you're driving through.

Cyclone chasers and Karijini

 

Karijini was a ‘side trip’ from the WA coast.  Must say we’ve not heard a lot about the Karijini but Stephen had it on his ‘must do’ list.

After being evacuated from Cape Range in Exmouth (big prawn pic only one we got in Exmouth) due to Tropical Cyclone Quang we headed inland.  Leaving at 8am in the morning we arrived after many hours of fighting huge winds and a heap of rain at a free camp spot on the Nanutarra-Paraburdoo Road.  We really weren’t that far away from Exmouth but we arrived at 4pm, tired and really fed up of the noise of pounding rain on the car roof.

A fairly quiet night with not too much rain left us rested and ready to go further.

We drove through Paraburdoo, with all the houses going up in number, no matter what street they were on.  An interesting phenomenon we city folk haven’t come across before ;-)

And on to Tom Price, wow Coles is huge, is that sad I notice these things now.  Reasonably priced food is quite sought after in our life these days.  I do not like paying $15 for a small block of cheese. Grrrrrr

A lovely lady knocked on our caravan door at Tom Price and introduced herself and her children, they had seen us along the way and wanted to say ‘Hi’.  Jada mentioned the Karijini Eco Retreat sounded great so we decided to pop out there for a few nights.  It was in a great spot for the Weano Gorge (our favourite) and right on the Joffre Gorge.  Weano Gorge – loved it. Our first trail we took was to Handrail Pool – it was an intriguing name and one I really hoped would have been chosen due to an unusual natural phenomenon – it wasn’t – it had a metal handrail into the pool, or else you wouldn’t be getting back out of the pool.  Lol – it was amazing.  We had an absolute BALL going through the gorge, walls so close to you, you were able to hold onto both sides whilst walking through the stream, walls so high you could only see the top and the blue skies shining down on you. 

The next day brought a new adventure to Kermits pool. 

If we had thought we had had an incredible adventure the day before we had an even better one this day.  Even more stunning cliffs, more stunning pools, more stunning views.  A walk through pools and gorges brings you to a natural amphitheatre with waterfall.  Then we headed on down through a small gorge to Kermits pool where the boys all had a go at ‘bombies’ in the deep water.  This will truly be a day to remember, we loved this spot.

After popping back into Tom Price for a couple of things and a water top up we headed off to Dales Campground in the Dales Gorge area.  Camp ground hosts are in residence at present, so we were lucky enough to be assigned a spot and advised of all of the rules and regulations of the camp spot. 

We took off for a walk the next day to Fern Pool, Fortescue Falls, Dales Gorge and Circular Pool.  Fern pool is quite beautiful with a great deck and fish that nibble your toes (we had to pay for that in Thailand). Fortescue Falls weren’t huge as there wasn’t a lot of water running but they were still quite beautiful. 

It took us some time to walk through Dales Gorge, sighting lizards, butterflies and snakes on the way to Circular Pool.  The pool was quite spectacular but for some reason we all didn’t like it – it felt sad somehow – isn’t it funny how you get feelings from areas.  Fern Pool was the opposite – a very serene place.

So after many, many, many steps back up the gorge wall we went for a walk back to the campground. 

When we first arrived at the campground I picked up a couple of work booklets for the boys, they finished them a couple of days later and so we took them to the camp ground hosts and the boys received their Karijini Junior Ranger badges.  What an exciting time! All sewed onto their caps and they’re ready to go.

Its been really nice hanging out at Dales Campground for a week, although we are travelling around its still constant and can be quite tiring (does that sound pathetic, yeah well it is) so its nice to make camp for a week to settle in and get into a bit of a routine.