Half-lap Day 76: DeGrey -> Indee Station

I was up at 6, just as it was getting light, to get all the food we’d bought yesterday organised into tubs so we could pack the car and the trailer and move on. It was beautiful working in that early morning light amongst the trees. The others came out as they woke up, and we had breakfast then the kids went back up to see the sharks again. Tony discovered some green stuff at the bottom of one of our water containers, so he spent a bit of time cleaning that out and sanitising the container. I had wanted to get away early and was starting to worry that we didn’t ever seem to be able to do it – then realised it didn’t matter. We have relaxed evenings and mornings, there’s no stress and little rush, and we can do this trip at our own pace. Just because most people are up and out between 7 and 8 doesn’t mean that we need to do that as well. And if there is ever a day when we really DO have to be gone that early, I’m sure we will manage it at the time.

So we got away by 10, feeling happy and relaxed and still not sure what our plans for the day were. We’d been thinking of going straight to Karajini (about 400km) but were slightly worried about getting a campsite unless we got there early, and the girls really wanted showers – after 3 days without one here, and with no showers at Karajini, they wanted a shower stop in between. I’d been told there were free public showers near a beach in Port Hedland, so we decided to shower there and then figure out the rest of the day later. We stopped at the railway bridge again because the digger was up on the sand pile and I wanted to get a photo of it – then we jackknifed the trailer as we attempted to back out of our spot. Looks like it’s only cosmetic damage though so it shouldn’t impact on our trip. We reached the beach and it was a beautiful spot, with a creek winding in from the ocean and gorgeous sand hills either side of it. The showers only had cold taps though and no one wanted a cold shower. We filled up all our water containers at the drinking tap there, and Tony rang a station stay we’d heard about to see if we could get in there with our 2WD car – no problems, they said, so we decided to stay there tonight and head to Karajini tomorrow.

We popped back into Woolworths to get bread and cash and petrol, then back out over the railway bridge for the last time, then out of Port Hedland. We only had another 70km or so to go to get to the station, so it was a short days driving today, but makes the trip to the National Park easier tomorrow. On the way to Indee Station we saw more 4-trailer road trains than we have seen on our entire trip so far, they’d be coming past 2 or 3 at a time. I counted the wheels – 84 altogether! They are amazing – although often quite disconcerting as the back 2 trailers often wriggle about a bit as they drive. They always stay well within their lane, but it looks a bit scary as we approach.

There was a big road train in the driveway as we turned off to the station, so we were able to have a good look at it. We drove the 9km in off the highway quite easily. This is dry country, red dirt, sparse trees but with lots of magnificent white gum trees. We saw a few areas where mining workers are obviously staying, and I think there are several mines on the station. Eventually we reached the homestead and were taken out to the camping area. It wasn’t flash, but as usual once we’d put the tent up I felt right at home. The kids played under a big gum tree, LiAM did a magic show, the girls ground up some of the rocks to use as makeup, and we wandered around and explored the place a bit. There were calves wandering through the campground although after LiAM’s cow incident earlier the kids all avoided the cows. They met some people with a dog and chatted to them, I talked to a guy who used to work here and had come back to get his swag which he’d left behind. He said the station was bigger than the whole area of Perth!

Later in the afternoon we drove another 9km into the property to see Red Rock. We had a map to get there, but a couple times we seemed to cross trails that weren’t marked and it was a bit sobering – it would be easy to get lost in country like this. The kids were joking that we were going to see Uluru – and when we saw the rock it felt like we were! It was nowhere near as big, but is a large red rock rising up out of the ground, a similar shape in profile to Uluru.

At the end of the rock was a beautiful rock pool, full of water and reflecting the big rock in it, as well as reflecting the rocks all around it’s edges. The water was freezing! Caitlin had found a path up to the top of the rock, and then saw an easier way up, which LiAM took. Tony followed them and Millie and I walked around the back of the rock looking for the Aboriginal engravings that we’d heard about. Millie decided to go and join the others, so we headed up to the top. The view was fantastic – most of the country was flat with the occasional large rocky hill, and a couple of small mountains in the distance. There was a river which wasn’t flowing but there were many many water holes. The white gums stood out amongst the spinifex and lower vegetation. We could see the big road trains traveling along the highway in the distance. The sun was getting low in the sky and the light was amazing. There was a flat, grassy area about halfway up the rock that Millie thought would be great to build a cabin on – a beautiful, peaceful place to live.

We wandered back down and Millie and I saw a sign that said ‘etchings’ so found one of the engravings in the rock – large emu tracks we think. The boys walked the rest of the way around the perimeter of the rock. Caitlin wanted to go for a quick swim and went to get changed, and found some more etchings – a couple of lizards this time. They were quite cool to see. Caitlin spent a short amount of time getting wet in the rock pool. I put my feet in and felt quite refreshed.

We headed back to the campsite, seeing more cows and a couple of kangaroos on the way. We went over to the homestead for happy hour at 5.30 – byo alcohol, and they provide nibblies. It was fun to sit around a large table and chat to the other campers – most of them were heading north and had just come from Karajini, so we had tips for the northern part of Australia for them, and they told us lots about the National Park. There was a lot of talk about football too – there was enough signal for Tony to watch the Collingwood game on his phone, and everyone was interested in the progress of the game.

LiAM and Millie and I headed back once they’d had enough, and Tony and Caitlin followed soon after. The girls and I went over to have our showers – nice and warm and good water pressure, everyone was happy. We had cup-a-noodles for tea and then set up the beds. Tony watched the rest of the game (with a disappointing result) in the camp kitchen. It was a very cold evening, possibly the coldest we’ve had since we headed north. We got everyone snuggly into their beds and read a couple of chapters and the tent warmed up a bit with us all inside.

Half-lap Day 31: Daly Waters -> Mataranka

I was awake often during the night. It was hot, and I was worrying about our dog at home (he’s having some issues with the chickens) and about crocodiles. I’ve never worried about or been scared of predators before, but this latest crocodile attack has freaked me out a little. I felt less worried when I woke up though, around sunrise. It was cool outside, but still warm enough for us to have all the windows open in the tent and not feel cold.

We packed up as quickly as we could, which included not getting out our saucepan tub so Caitlin didn’t have her usual baked beans on toast and I didn’t have my usual porridge – this made sense in terms of getting away more quickly, but it meant we were both a bit hungrier than usual all day, so next time we do that we need to also eat something with protein as a replacement. While we packed up the kids played with the 2 year old girl camped near us, and Millie’s 6yo friend came over to play while her mum packed. We were ready to go by 9.20, our earliest getaway so far. It was already pretty hot by the time we left.

On the way out we stopped at the Stuart Tree – Stuart the explorer came through here on his final and successful attempt to walk from the south of the continent to the north – crazy to think of those early explorers navigating this tough, hot terrain, with no idea of what lay before them. Apparently he stopped at the waterholes and named them Daly Waters, and carved his initials in a tree. The tree is still there – well, it’s a dead stump now, with a fence around it, and it was a bit sad looking really, but I like wandering around the area and thinking of Stuart and his team being there nearly 200 years ago. We stopped next at the airstrip – it was built in 1927 and was a leg in the plane journey from the east coast to England, so is Australia’s first international airport. It was also used in WWII as a launching place for planes to fly to Java.

We were back out on the highway before 10, driving with windows down and listening to Harry Potter. Because we’ve done 3 stops in a row of only 1 night, I haven’t been getting in to the trailer to pull out extra food, and our snack supplies in the car had run low. We only drove 160km but it was our hottest and most uncomfortable so far. We saw several dead cows on the side of the road, and the live cattle we saw were large and skinny, like the kind of cows I think of being bred in Africa.

We arrived at Jamulark Campground, in the Elsey National Park just near Mataranka. We found a campsite that looked like it would have good shade, and had a swing hanging from a tree nearby, then realised that under the dirt was bitumen so we wouldn’t be able to peg in the tent. We looked around for another site and moved the trailer, then decided that everyone was way too hot and cranky to eat or to set up, so we changed into swimmers and headed for the Thermal Pool.

The walk to the pool from the Homestead was lovely, through tall palm trees, and the pool looked amazing, blue and clear and cool in among the trees. There were quite a few people there, but the pool wasn’t really crowded. We went in at the first steps and it was very deep – Millie was a bit scared and a lady who was getting out offered Millie her noodle to float on, and told us her site number at the caravan park for us to return it later. We floated around and LiAM, Caitlin and I explored the full length of the pool, discovering it was shallower around the corner and it ended with a small waterfall flowing out into the creek beyond. There was quite a strong current, swimming back up to Tony and Millie took quite a lot of effort. We swam around for a while – the water was quite warm but very refreshing, then Millie had had enough, so she and I walked back to the car to get food. She was really quite unhappy and didn’t want to go back in to the pool. After we’d all had some nutella sandwiches and a drink of lemonade everyone felt better and went for another swim, even Millie. We chatted to a few people and floated on our backs – very cool to look up through the trees into the sky and clouds far above.

Millie’s friend was staying near the other springs so we thought we might head there later in the day. By the time we got out of the pool it was nearly 4pm and we tossed up whether to go straight to Bitter Springs, or go and set up the tent first, or some of us go to the springs and some to the tent – after much discussion we decided we were all too tired and hungry to go anywhere so we’d go back to the tent, set up, have something more to eat, then go to Bitter Springs.

It was cooler back at the campground than it had been, and setting up didn’t take too long, although the ground was so hard that we couldn’t get pegs in even though we were on dirt. The beds hold down the end of the tent and we attached guy ropes to trees, so the tent is stable even if it’s not exactly the right tension. We had some sandwiches then drove back to Bitter Springs, stopping for milk at the little supermarket on the way through and catching them just as they were closing up at 6pm. It was still light and there were still a few people in the springs, which were much more natural than the Mataranka ones. There were metal steps and platforms and no other modifications, the Mataranka pool has stone walls and places to sit in the water. The water was beautifully warm and it was also deep, although there was a rock where Millie could stand up. We swam for a little while and soon were the only people left. It was getting dark and even though I knew logically there were no crocodiles in this water, it started to feel extremely spooky and every ripple sounded like a crocodile. We had a real fright when someone swam around the corner from further down the creek! We got out and walked further down the path to another platform – normally the current can carry you from the first platform to this last one, we might come back in more daylight hours and try it out. We saw 2 turtles in the water, quite large, who swam away when we got close. Tony and Millie had one last swim then we headed back to the car before the mosquitoes got too bad.

The drive back was slow as there were so many wallabies by the side of the road. These wallabies are small, with really narrow heads, unlike any we’ve seen so far. We saw a frog sitting in the middle of the road, and thought we saw a cane toad crossing the road – later Tony and Caitlin saw a cane toad at the campground. We also saw some wild cattle. When we drove in during the afternoon we saw a dingo. We had soup and noodles back at the tent, and heard the wild donkeys braying in the bush around us.

We were all as tired as we’ve been on this trip so far I think, so after we ate we very quickly got into bed and read for a very brief time before crashing.