Another morning after blog.....shame on me!
We set out at a reasonable time today.....about 10am. The road heads north east and is reasonably good, just not very wide (but wide enough) and wriggles around a bit, make that a lot. The twisty part is to allow for the hills that cover this area making for a varied and rather nice vista as they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The ground is lots of dry grass and small trees with the occasional larger tree.
We passed through the aboriginal community of Warmun which is reasonably large and appears to be well run. One is not allowed to take in grog and no photographs. This is also the beginning of the fruit fly free zone so we stopped on the side of the road to eat the last of our oranges, good healthy morning tea! Then we went on to Doon Doon, nicknamed by me as 'up & doon up & doon Doon Doon' silly eh! Then on to the Dunham River rear area where we spent the night.
Sunday, 9 August 2015
Saturday, 8 August 2015
OK this morning plan A was to get up early, as in about 7.30, and get on the road before the wind came up. Plan B was the one we used as we didn't get up early and were a taken aback a bit by some sad family news. We then used the morning to attend to a few minor jobs. One of these was to inflate the spare tyre to the required pressure, now on these vans the spare is under the van just behind the the rear axle making the job rather difficult. But we got it done along with the other jobs and got on the road about 11 just as the wind was starting to drop and stopped for morning tea just a few kms down the road. Continuing after that the wind kept reducing which was great.
The scenery today was scrubland with small trees and grasses and a backdrop of a low mountain range, actually very nice and constantly changing during the day. We stopped at Halls Creek to fuel up, they charge for water there but we were lucky enough to find an untended tap and fill up our water tank too. We then headed off further east to stop at a place called Leycester Rest Area, just your basic place to park with ablutions.
Just to note the effect of the wind on our fuel consumption we are getting about half a km less driving in to the headwind.
The scenery today was scrubland with small trees and grasses and a backdrop of a low mountain range, actually very nice and constantly changing during the day. We stopped at Halls Creek to fuel up, they charge for water there but we were lucky enough to find an untended tap and fill up our water tank too. We then headed off further east to stop at a place called Leycester Rest Area, just your basic place to park with ablutions.
Just to note the effect of the wind on our fuel consumption we are getting about half a km less driving in to the headwind.
Friday, 7 August 2015
This is known as a morning after blog.
Yesterday started with a walk down, being in the general direction of the river mouth, the dry river bed. As usual I was quite amazed by the amount, the size and the height above ground level of the debris obviously brought down the last time the river had water. There are lots of rivers through this part of WA but nearly all are dry at this time of year, maybe more than that as there is not a lot of rain up here. Correction I just looked it up and found out that they get more rainfall than Perth!, that will take further investigation.
Anyway back to the van and straight after breakfast Elaine is doing the washing using water that I have brought up from the little bit of the river that has survived. The bird life here has the usual noisy corellas and crows along with a small flock of Pelicans and some long legged egrets and various small birds. There is also, allegedly a couple of freshwater crocs, but I haven't seen them. I am going to have to get myself a bird book or app for the iPad so that I can identify the large number of bird species that we see. I also cleaned the van with the water from the same source. Interestingling there is green slime on the river bed but the water I collect is beautiful and clean.
Later in the day we got the fire going and were rather put out by a hire van like ours parking very close, something that doesn't usually happens at these camps as normal consideration has everybody parked with plenty of clearance, unless of course it is really packed out. They are not often packed out so we get used to having plenty of room.
Yesterday started with a walk down, being in the general direction of the river mouth, the dry river bed. As usual I was quite amazed by the amount, the size and the height above ground level of the debris obviously brought down the last time the river had water. There are lots of rivers through this part of WA but nearly all are dry at this time of year, maybe more than that as there is not a lot of rain up here. Correction I just looked it up and found out that they get more rainfall than Perth!, that will take further investigation.
Anyway back to the van and straight after breakfast Elaine is doing the washing using water that I have brought up from the little bit of the river that has survived. The bird life here has the usual noisy corellas and crows along with a small flock of Pelicans and some long legged egrets and various small birds. There is also, allegedly a couple of freshwater crocs, but I haven't seen them. I am going to have to get myself a bird book or app for the iPad so that I can identify the large number of bird species that we see. I also cleaned the van with the water from the same source. Interestingling there is green slime on the river bed but the water I collect is beautiful and clean.
Later in the day we got the fire going and were rather put out by a hire van like ours parking very close, something that doesn't usually happens at these camps as normal consideration has everybody parked with plenty of clearance, unless of course it is really packed out. They are not often packed out so we get used to having plenty of room.
Thursday, 6 August 2015
Thursday August 6
Today was an interesting and trying day. First we woke up to a howling easterly wind that made our beautiful perch high above the surrounding world a little uncomfortable. So we shifted the van to lower section to get shelter from the wind and got the van filled with red dust, sort of out of the frying pan into the fire! So we took off to find a dust free roadside park and clean up our van. Before that I walked down the cliff into the valley which features multicoloured rocks, very nice and very energetic.
About 30 kms down the road we found a spot and did a pretty basic clean up before heading off to one of our favourite spots, Mary Pool. As we left we spoke to another van who turned out to be friends of my sailing companion Brian Williamson and they decided to join us for the night. We or rather I also left behind our doormat and the new wood bag that Elaine made and it was full of wood cut to size for our fire pit.....silly boy.
So having arrived at Mary Pool we found a spot and undertook a major cleanup, as usual Elaine was the driving force and did most of it. But we did get to relax and enjoy a sundowner with our new friends and another couple who we met at Ellendale Lake.
Mary Pool is an official rest area with toilets and dump spot reached by turning off the main road and crossing the river on a very old bridge. The bridge is actually better described as a causeway and the river has very little water in it. It is a very popular place and tonight has 50-60 RVs parked around the trees. However I note that the sign now says 24 hr parking and wonder if this will be policed, as a lot of people spend a few days here, and that would be a pity and spoil things a little.
Well yesterday's camp spot was very very nice, a large grove of trees spread around a small clean looking lake. Last night one of the couples organised a sundowner which was attended by about 30 people but on my morning walk I reckon that there was at least 30 RVs parked there. We were surrounded by birds, willy wagtails, swallows, kites, very noisy corellas, pink and grey galahs and others that I could not identify. Add to that cows and you have one great camp site which we made the mistake of leaving this morning.
But we wanted to get going and make tracks east despite the headwind which has been dogging us for the last few days of driving. Headwinds are not our favourite because they cost us close to 1 km per litre of fuel consumption.
Today the scenery was well spaced trees mostly under 5 mtrs, scrub, grassland and of course the ever present Boab trees. We were also treated to some good large rocks, actually small mountains. There were also a number of 1 lane bridges after Fitzroy Crossing. Talking about Fitzroy Crossing we had to pay for water, not bad seeing that the area is very dry at the moment, and there was no public dump point. Derby has the same issue which makes both towns unfriendly to RVs , not good.
Tonight we are camped on Ngumban Cliff which offers a magnificent view of the roar below and the surrounding countryside along with more than 20 other happy campers.
Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Well life at the campsite/paddock has settled down. Tom completed the camp fire oven for the owners and Monday night I made bread and Mike, the owner, made scones for the assembled multitude at sundowner time to test the new oven. Then yesterday all was routine as Tom made our campfire pit then Elaine made scones on our campfire in our camp oven. Then Tom made a camp oven stew in his big camp oven and we finished the night off with Baileys ice cream and milk before heading for bed. By the way a camp oven is a cast iron cooking pot which can be used in all sorts of ways to made roasts, stews, scones bread, etc and a campfire pit, in this instance, is an old gas bottle cut down and fitted with legs and a door.
This morning we all, our group of people not the whole camp site, started packing up which after a few days in the one spot takes a bit of time. Then we queued up to fill our water tanks, paid our bills and headed off. They headed west towards Broome and we headed to town to go shopping and fuelling. Then back on the road heading east towards the border. This is all a snapshot of life on the road and in a campsite. Other people there were following their plans, most heading west and doing some sightseeing before leaving Derby. We didn't do any sightseeing this time as we did that last year and the main reason for stopping in Derby was to spend some time with Laureen and Tom.
Back on the road again we soon got back into routine with Elaine driving and me studying the passing countryside. It is quite scenic up here with lots more growth than one would expect although most of it is fairly low there is also quite a bit of colour. The Boab trees are a feature some with and some without leaves, both look rather special. We also stopped today to collect a few Boab nuts and will look up how to prepare them for display. One of the other features are the thousands of anthills, or termite mounds, in all sorts of colours (depending I presume on the local soil colour) and shapes from large to small.
Tonight we have stopped at a place called Ellendale Lake, which is a very nice bush camping spot on private property. Obviously a very friendly owner! Here we will put the portable fire pit and camp oven to good use making roast chicken.
This morning we all, our group of people not the whole camp site, started packing up which after a few days in the one spot takes a bit of time. Then we queued up to fill our water tanks, paid our bills and headed off. They headed west towards Broome and we headed to town to go shopping and fuelling. Then back on the road heading east towards the border. This is all a snapshot of life on the road and in a campsite. Other people there were following their plans, most heading west and doing some sightseeing before leaving Derby. We didn't do any sightseeing this time as we did that last year and the main reason for stopping in Derby was to spend some time with Laureen and Tom.
Back on the road again we soon got back into routine with Elaine driving and me studying the passing countryside. It is quite scenic up here with lots more growth than one would expect although most of it is fairly low there is also quite a bit of colour. The Boab trees are a feature some with and some without leaves, both look rather special. We also stopped today to collect a few Boab nuts and will look up how to prepare them for display. One of the other features are the thousands of anthills, or termite mounds, in all sorts of colours (depending I presume on the local soil colour) and shapes from large to small.
Tonight we have stopped at a place called Ellendale Lake, which is a very nice bush camping spot on private property. Obviously a very friendly owner! Here we will put the portable fire pit and camp oven to good use making roast chicken.
Sunday, 2 August 2015
Blog for July 28
Relaxing day today Elaine doing her washing, we have completed the van clean up, I have stripped cleaned and sharpened the chain saw and am now sitting in the shade typing this blog. The area is slowly filling up as people come in for the night probably about 30 plus RVs for the night. Last night one of our friends from earlier this year was parked here last night the same as we were and neither of us noticed the other! Pity as we both wanted to catch up and it is only about 8 weeks since we parted company. They rang today announcing the they had just pulled into 80 mile beach which is just south of here, bummer but that happens sometimes. Hopefully there will still be in Perth when we get back. Our other friends from last year are just north of here so we will catch up on the weekend at a rest area east of Broome. After that we will head East following our original plans to head down the middle of Australia with a view to being home mid October.
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Relaxing day today Elaine doing her washing, we have completed the van clean up, I have stripped cleaned and sharpened the chain saw and am now sitting in the shade typing this blog. The area is slowly filling up as people come in for the night probably about 30 plus RVs for the night. Last night one of our friends from earlier this year was parked here last night the same as we were and neither of us noticed the other! Pity as we both wanted to catch up and it is only about 8 weeks since we parted company. They rang today announcing the they had just pulled into 80 mile beach which is just south of here, bummer but that happens sometimes. Hopefully there will still be in Perth when we get back. Our other friends from last year are just north of here so we will catch up on the weekend at a rest area east of Broome. After that we will head East following our original plans to head down the middle of Australia with a view to being home mid October.
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Wow 3 days without doing a blog, not acceptable so tonight I will catch up, not much to catch up on though.
As I said this place is very basic just a paddock to park on without power or water. But you can get a shower $2 or do the laundry $2 both prices a lot less than other parks. Also this place has very friendly hosts and has a sundowner every day under the big roof, it really is big covering 3 dongas with community space in between. It has only been open since July 9 and our hosts are working hard to make it a viable proposition despite difficulties with the local shire. There have been about 20 people at the sundowner each night and it is very friendly At this stage we are staying here until Laureen and Tom are able to confirm their plans.
Today we made a trip to the local rubbish dump and hardware shop to get the necessary bits to make a portable fire pit. Basically these are old gas bottles cut down and modified slightly, we are getting one and Tom has helped make one for one of the other vans. He has also made a really nice camp oven with fire from a large gas bottle for our hosts and tonight I made bread to test the new oven......big success.
As I said this place is very basic just a paddock to park on without power or water. But you can get a shower $2 or do the laundry $2 both prices a lot less than other parks. Also this place has very friendly hosts and has a sundowner every day under the big roof, it really is big covering 3 dongas with community space in between. It has only been open since July 9 and our hosts are working hard to make it a viable proposition despite difficulties with the local shire. There have been about 20 people at the sundowner each night and it is very friendly At this stage we are staying here until Laureen and Tom are able to confirm their plans.
Today we made a trip to the local rubbish dump and hardware shop to get the necessary bits to make a portable fire pit. Basically these are old gas bottles cut down and modified slightly, we are getting one and Tom has helped make one for one of the other vans. He has also made a really nice camp oven with fire from a large gas bottle for our hosts and tonight I made bread to test the new oven......big success.
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