Into the Pilbara

 Made camp on a the DeGray river outside Port Hedland and headed in for the day. Picked up some mail and looked at the port from the lookout where we saw 2 ships coming into berth. Also saw 18 others outside the channel waiting to come into load. We did part of the tourist route through town topped up the supplies and fuel and went back to camp. We think the massive LNG gas hub that was planned for James Price point could be built in Port Hedland and hardly anyone would notice it.  Headed south for Marble Bar as I wanted to see the hottest town in Australia.

Took a detour (175km) west to Carowine George which is of the track a bit but a great  spot. We found a nice camp near the water with the cliffs as a back drop and no one really close by. Has to use low range 4x4 to get in and out, but well worth it. Would be a great place for a canoe also. This is the first time we have really been on our own since leaving home. Took a drive to running waters which is a little oasis in the desert, had lunch and a nice swim.

Marble Bar recorded 160 days of 37.8deg. Also The name Marble Bar was derived from a nearby jasper bar mistaken for Marble and now known as Marble Bar, which runs across the bed of the Coongan River.

 Port Hedland

 Carrawine Gorge

Running Waters. Notice anything peculiar about this pic....

 Carrawine Gorge

 great camp at Carrawine gorge...

 Jasper bar

 Bath time at Glen Herring gorge

 Nankeen Kestral

Broome and 80 mile beach

Arrived early from Quondong point and called into the Visitors Centre. Not all that helpful here. Made our first major clanger by staying at the Roebuck Bay caravan park. Location was ok as it was close to town and near the local beach, but we had to take power which we did not need and then they charged $7/head each for the boys. We kept hearing how hard it was to find accommodation in Broome so we took one of the first options without looking around. This aside, Broome was wonderful. Hit the local market at the courthouse and then spent the afternoon and dinner at Cable Beach. Next day was the Pear Lugger tour which followed on well from the farm tour we did a few days earlier at Cygnet Bay. We all got to pick up and handle some of the diving equipment which the boys in particular loved and because they were so well behaved the guide gave them a large pearl shell each. From the lugger tour it was straight to the museum which was one of better local ones we have seen and should not be missed on a visit to Broome. More info on the pearling industry and Broome history plus the attacks in WW11. This afternoon we  went touring to the town wharf and then went looking for the dinosaur prints at Ganthemou point, unfortunately they were still covered at low tide so could not be seen. Got to camp exhausted from two days of running around, the boys not getting any schoolwork done and still some things we wanted to see so we decided to stay another day which was great. Boys had lessons, Toby spent some time catching up on his diary, we went for another trip to Cable beach for lunch and a swim for the boys (plus a nice lady next to us gave the boys a boogie board to use which was a huge hit), visited the Japanese cemetery and then then went back to see the Dino prints which were visible this time at low tide. Thoroughly enjoyed Broome quite a bit to do here, had a nice feel to it. Had a big tourist industry, awesome beaches, and a lot of history with the early Pearling industry, WW11 etc.

Left Broome for a couple of quiet days at 80mile beach. This is a well organised caravan park on station property over the sand hills from a beach that seemed to go forever. Went for 80 miles, anyway. Packed with nomads who come from everywhere and stay for months. It really cracked me up when I saw the blokes packing the quad bikes with rods, chairs, umbrellas and heading off each morning before high tide.  Tried a bit of fishing but still nothing. Took the car up the beach on the second day and spent the best part of the day attempting to fish, collecting shells, kids dug in the sand, jumped down the dunes and swam. Tough day!

 divers helmet at the Pearl lugger

 Cable beach

 Dinner at Cable beach

 Dino tracks at Ganthemeau point

 An Osprey having lunch

 going for a run at 80 mile beach......a long run!!!!!!

some shells to add to the rock collection

Dampier Peninsular - continued

You would have read the boys stories of their adventures on the Dampier Peninsular. Well it has been an absolutely fantastic 9 days. Firstly we took a short cut from Derby up to Middle lagoon which we heard about from some other travelers. A really nice drive on a two wheel track for nearly 4 hours, only saw another car 30 min form the end. Had the 3 nights at Middle lagoon and happened to be be camped next to family friends from Tickera which was a good surprise. I manage to score a few hours in the boat, but still no luck on the fishing front. We obviously looked deprived of seafood as once again some nice people supplied a large feed of mackerel which was great. We enjoyed the beaches here and the boys had plenty of swimming. From here we headed north towards Cape Leveque. We could not get into the resort which we were OK about so went closer to One Arm Point and camped at Gambanan. This was a nice bush camp on the coast owned and run by some locals who also came and gave a campfire talk one night. While it was busy enough, all the other campers there were looking for something less commercial and some space. Obviously the tagalong tour was the highlight for all of us, Brian really made the tour fun and relevant for the younger group. I would say though, both Susan and I also had a great time and learned a little about the Bardi Jaawi people. The day after the tour we went into One Arm Point (the town had been closed over the weekend for a special Aboriginal law gathering) for a look around, made a visit to the trochus hatchery where the boys enjoyed looking at the fish in the tanks, in particular the blue ringed octopus.  Had some lunch at the beach before a tour at the Cygnet Bay Peal farm. Turns out our tour guide was the grandson of the owner of the campground and stayed at the pearl farm Sat to stay away from the law get together. Tour was great, Susan got to model a $10,000 string of pearls! Actually looked nice on!!!!!!  Packed up and headed south again. Called into Lombadina and then to Beagle bay. No fuel here so had to buy some from some travelers we had met a few days back. Made camp at Quandong point ( a free camp) in  great site with shade and a sea view.   Interesting thing here is that one area was packed with large caravans all set up with annexes and the works. We found out later many camp here for 2-3 months when we read the maximum stay was three nights. All the casual campers were keeping clear of this area.

Saw more whales here plus the boys had a swim with a sea turtle that came into the beach one night. Can see why there was a huge outcry about the planned gas hub for James Price Point. There would be no camping at Quandong if this went ahead. Not to mention the 7km jetty to berth the tankers.

 great beach at Quondong pont

 nice view from our camp

 dinosaur footprints

 saw a lot of  these around the North of WA. Gas hub is not going ahead

 amazing coastline

Brian Lee tagalong tour by Lachlan

Today we went with Brian Lee. We did………

Spear fishing, mud crabbing, ghost crabbing, swimming, shell whistling, sucking green bird flowers, walking through mangroves and jumping down sand dunes.

Brian Lee tagalong tour by Samuel

Today we drove to Kooljaman to start our tour with Brian Lee. We drove off to the beach and stopped to look at some middens which were places where the indigenous had their dining, meeting place and lounge all together. We drove off then stopped to do some spear fishing. We all hurled our spears at a school of mullet but none of us caught one. We stopped at another site and looked at some manta rays swimming past, 50 metres later we saw some stingrays. We stopped again and Brian showed us how to whistle through a periwinkle. After we tried catching ghost crabs down their holes, I was the only one game enough to pull one out. We stopped at the edge of Hunters creek and Brian speared a Mangrove Jack with a speargun. We stopped to see if we could catch some Muddies, along the way we saw stacks of tiny soldier crabs and a few blue crabs. We found a muddie with half of its legs missing and then another that we all took turns picking up. We walked in the mangroves and Brain managed to spear a mullet. We got out of the creek and caught small, flightless (flowers on a bush that looked like birds) birds and ripped their heads off them and sucked the juice out of their necks (this is a dreamtime story). We drove to a swimming spot to rinse of the sand that covered us then drove back over the sand dunes and back to camp where we saw two lionfish.

 at the midden

 Brian showing us how to throw a spear

 practicing

 digging for gohst crabs, I caught one

 looking for mud crabs

 holding the muddy

 hunting

 our tour group

the great beach at cape leveque