Half-lap Day 101: Esperance

There was a fair amount of rain overnight, although the wind wasn’t too bad. It was cold and a bit hard to get out of bed, then everything was wet once we got outside. I spent a bit of time over in the kitchen, having a cup of tea and blogging and sorting out photos. Millie and Tony came over after a while so I could take Millie to the toilet. The three of us had our breakfast, and the other two had a bit of a sleep in. I had a lovely hot shower. Once everyone was up and had eaten we got ready to go out for the day. It was sunny by now and not quite as cold as it had been earlier in the morning. I handed our Census form in and then we set off to look around the area.

We drove through the town centre and along the foreshore, it has been done up nicely and we all wanted to come back later and have a better look at it. It looks like there are lots of islands offshore (it reminded us a bit of Albany) and there were large ships anchored in the harbour. We got petrol and then drove out of town towards Cape Le Grand National Park. The girl at the caravan park suggested we go and stay out there for a few days – we’d love to, if we had a bit more time (and the weather wasn’t quite so cold and windy).

We went straight to Lucky Bay, which she’d told me has the whitest sand in Australia. On the way we passed a very cool looking mountain, and a cove that looked wild and fascinating. The bay contained a big curved beach, with rocky headlands at both ends – on the far end the rocks extended a long way out across the mouth of the bay, so the water can only come into to the bay through the right hand side and on a bit of an angle. The surf looked pretty high, and the water was a deep blue out in the bay and a turquoise blue close to the shore. The sand was indeed very very white. It was a beautiful scene, even from the carpark. 

We walked down onto the beach and were surprised at the feel of the sand under our feet – like nothing we’d walked on so far. It felt most like we were walking on a hard crust of snow, and that underneath would be a deep pile of softness if we broke through the crust. At times it felt rubbery, or like we were walking on springy floorboards. The kids discovered that if they ran along it without lifting their feet it made a cool (and soon rather annoying) squeaking sand. I think there were a lot of air pockets in the sand, and the grains were extremely fine and rather wet, and that all contributed to the weird feel. When we picked it up in our hands it felt rubbery and quite a lot like kinetic sand that we play with at home. It was also like oobleck (which we make using cornflour and water).

We bounced around on the sand for a while and watched the waves, then started walking along the beach. As we walked further from the carpark the waves got bigger and rougher. Watching them crash in towards the beach, with the red rocks behind them, was pretty cool. The sound was exhilarating too. There were also waves crashing against the rocks in all directions around the edges of the bay. The kids wanted to get to the sand dunes further along the beach so they could slide down them. There were warning signs that the sand could collapse, so they were careful to pick only clear, sloped areas of sand once they started exploring in there. Tony walked part of the way along the beach with us and then sat to watch the waves.

The kids played in the dunes and on the sand (LiAM found a toy Hawks car buried in the sand in his digging ) and we saw various seagulls and other sea birds (some with a long red beak, who were poking their beaks into the sand to catch their dinner), and seaweed and lots of interesting plants and flowers on the dunes. We walked to the area that the kids had wanted to see, and they had a bit of a play there, before heading back, trying to beat the rain that was threatening from big black clouds that had rolled over. The wind had picked up a bit too and was blowing spray off the top of the breaking waves which looked very impressive. The clouds passed over us and out to sea and it was sunny by the time we got back to Tony and all walked the rest of the beach together. A sea eagle was soaring around above the bay. We dug in the sand a bit more and after much talk of swimming and temperature and so on, Caitlin decided to have a quick dip in the ocean. Everyone except me had waded in the waves, Tony thought it was the coldest water we’d come across yet, Caitlin said it was warmer than the pools in Karajini. She was pretty refreshed by her dip, and it was exciting for her to go in the ocean, even just the shallow water.

We headed back up to the car and she got dry, Millie and I walked over to the toilets and checked out the campground – there was a camp kitchen, and hot showers so we partially wished we had stayed here instead. It could have been very blowy if the wind was high, but it would have been much cheaper than staying in town… It doesn’t matter though, we made our decision based on what we knew and needed at the time, and we are happy with that.

We drove around to the wild looking cove we’d seen on the way in (Thistle Cove). There was large rock behind the picnic table, which overlooked the entrance to the cove, called Whistling Rock. We could hear the wind rushing through it, sometimes making a whooshing sound and sometimes more like a whistling. We sat in the shelter of this and another rock, and had our lunch overlooking the ocean. Down below us were smooth, large rocks with rounded sides (kind of like the side of large, flattish eggs). The water was breaking over these and then running off in streams, then mixing with the water that was coming in for the next wave, I could have watched it all day, it created the most amazing patterns and variations in the water. There were big waves breaking over the headland as well, and there was a large rectangular rock sticking out of the water below us which created huge splashes when the waves hit it.

It was wind and occasionally some of our stuff tried to blow away so we had everything held down by heavier stuff. We watched some little birds and some crows hopping around on the rocks, interacting with each other and the wind and with us. The crow was very interested in our food. We went for a bit of a walk further down the rocks, and admired the hill on the far side of the cove – the rocks here are fairly smooth, with lots of vertical lines on them, possibly creases worn away by water running down. The bases of the rocks tend to be black where the ocean is beating up against them. The hill opposite us was mainly rock, with a little bit of plant coverage, and had a big cave about 2/3 of the way up. While we were looking around, LiAM said he’d found a fireplace – in under one of the rocks near us he’d noticed a gap, and looking under he’d seen a circle of rocks laid out, with sticks set up ready for a fire. We climbed over a small rock and past a bush to the other side of the large rock, and there was a larger opening that side – the kids went through the opening and there was a cave large enough for them to all sit in. There were even rocks placed around the fire pit to use as seats. It felt pretty exciting to be in there.

We packed up our lunch and then explored a little bit the other way form the carpark– I wanted to see the beach (the rocky bit we were sitting on cut off our view to the beach). From the top of the beach trail we could see back over to the mountain we’d driven past on our way in. The sun was shining on it and reflecting off the water running down its side – it looked like it was covered in snow, as the reflections were so white. We walked down the beach access path, through lots of bushes and wildflowers (including some we hadn’t seen before, yellow banksias I think). There was a rock overlooking the beach so I ran down to stand on that and then was ready to head back – the others kept walking down to the bottom of the rock to the edge of the beach itself.

There was a channel of water running out of the brush and down to the ocean. The water in it was clear but quite yellow, I’m assuming that was stains from the plants that surrounded it. The kids were playing along the edge of the channel, then Tony jumped across the channel and onto the main beach. The kids all soon followed, with various success at not landing in the water (none of them had shoes on so they weren’t worried about getting their feet wet anyway). The only way on to the beach was through or over the channel – I wasn’t sure if I could make the distance in a single jump and I really didn’t want to take my shoes off. I waited until the others were walking onto the beach and then I jumped – I made the distance easily although I did twist my ankle a little.

The sand here was white again and had a similar rubbery feeling to Lucky Bay. The waves were quite rough here as well, and once again it was cool watching them run along the side of the rocks and crash onto the shore. We walked along h beach a little way and compared footprints in the sand and investigated the plant life. Heading back I made the jump over the channel quite easily, then we climbed back up the rock (I’m doing a lot of walking on sloping rocks on this trip, not normally my thing, and I’m getting more confident), and headed back to the car.

On the way back to town we called in to see Le Grand Beach – it was much longer than the little bays we’d looked at and possibly more protected. The hills and rocks leading in to it were beautiful and impressive to look at – more of the smooth rock hillside, with vertical (squiggly) lines running down them. There was a good view of the mountain from here too, it had kind of a hooked rock at the top, it looked a bit like an eagle’s beak.

Back in town we drove past the foreshore again and the kids wanted to play on the playground. We decided to go and see Pink Lake first then come back. The lake was huge and quite pretty – unfortunately it wasn’t looking pink today. The pink and orange colours are caused by salt and bacteria, and I guess they need the right light and heat conditions to be seen. Back to the foreshore – Caitlin and LiAM went straight to the playground, Tony went to find some hot chips, and Millie and I checked out the fountain in the middle of the roundabout – it was made like a rock, with metal seals and birds sitting on it.

Millie went back to the playground and I watched the kids and the fading light over the harbour (the sun was getting close to setting). There was a port over to the right, and a few ships anchored out in front of us. We’d looked at the map and there were lots of islands outside of the harbour, they all looked very cool in the late afternoon light. There was a water slide on a pontoon not far from the foreshore – would be very cool to swim out to and play on when the weather is warmer. A passing family pointed out some dolphins to us – 2 dolphins swimming up and down the shore line, only a few metres from the edge. It was quite unexpected and very exciting to watch.

Tony returned with a hot chicken and chips from Red Rooster, and we sat at a picnic table and ate as the sun set. Caitlin and I went for a walk to find an exercise equipment park she’d seen further down the foreshore, we had a bit of a play there which was highly amusing. We joined the others back in the playground and all had a play – 5 of us on a large seasaw thing which was fun until I started to feel sick. We walked out towards the breakwall, having a bit of a play on a large and beautiful sculpture of a whale’s tail. We all wandered out to the end of the breakwall and sat and watched the lights on the harbour and listened to the water lapping against the rocks. The kids put on a bit of a stunt/ gymnastics show for us, then we walked back down to the exercise park and everyone had a go on the equipment.

Eventually we headed back to the car and then to the caravan park. I’d dressed quite warmly for the day, with multiple layers, and at times had been too hot. I was comfortable at the foreshore – when we got back to the tent though the temperature was much much colder and I didn’t seem to have enough clothes on. It also didn’t seem to make much sense that it was colder here than at the beach. The girls and Tony all went to have showers, and LiAM and I got the hot water bottles ready, did the dishes and watched some TV. We all watched the Olympics for a short while and then headed off to bed, possibly the coldest it has been inside the tent yet so we all wore beanies and socks and lots of clothes to bed, and listened to a chapter of Inheritance.

Half-lap Day 75: Port Hedland

It wasn’t as cold this morning, and it was beautiful again sitting under the gum trees and having breakfast, exploring the site and taking it easy. We got ready and headed off to Port Hedland around 10am. There were some interesting rock features from time to time on the drive there, otherwise the land was mainly flat. We crossed the railway line that LiAM and I had seen the day before, and saw a few mining areas. We also saw some wedge-tailed eagles – a couple in the air and one on the ground. We hadn’t seen one since before Mataranka and we were all thrilled. As always we were astounded at how big they are.

Coming in to Port Hedland things were suddenly busy and there were trucks and mining cars everywhere. We passed the airport and saw several areas with demountable accommodation, assumedly for the mining workers. We decided to go in to the Port first and were heading in on that road when I remembered that we’d been going to go to a camping store first so that we could get a new fuse for the fridge cord, and the store we wanted was in South Hedland. We decided to check out the Port first then come back later.

As we drove in we saw a very large hill of salt with a large digger driving around on it, I’d heard about these salt piles but it was even more incredible to see in reality. The salt was near the railway bridge, and as we approached one of the kilometre+ long trains was driving underneath. It had a 44 and 43 class engine on the front, and we drove alongside it for a long time, seeing the 2 similar engines in the middle and then another long line of empty cars. I’ve wanted to see these trains since I worked at BHP in my early 20s, so I was incredibly excited. We drove past BHP Billiton Iron Ore, the entry way and the works reminded me a lot of the steel works in Newcastle, I was feeling quite nostalgic and excited at the same time.

We followed the signs to the town centre and did a quick cruise around the block, seeing the impressive Esplanade Hotel – 3 stories of sandstone bricks, with a dark railing around the balconies on the top 2 floors. It took up all of one side of a block – a massive and beautiful building. We parked near the port and wandered out on to the little viewing jetty. As we’d approached there was a large ship coming in, and we saw one being put into position along one of the wharves. It was amazing to watch the tugs maneuver this massive ship into place so easily. We could see ships out on the horizon and 3 berthed across on the other side of the (fairly narrow) port. I was a bit nervous on the jetty as it was just iron lattice, and the railings were just 2 horizontal bars. We  went to the lower level of the jetty – even less railing and much closer to the water (which was at low tide) and we didn’t stay down there long.

We walked down to the Information Centre and got info on all the things to do in Port Hedland, as well as about Karajini National Park where we will be headed next. We bought a 4 week National Parks Pass which should cover us for the rest of our time in WA. Millie had wanted to come to this Visitor’s Centre because her friend from home who we’d seen in Broome had bought a toy turtle here, and she wanted to buy one too. We found the turtle and I suggested getting a smaller (cheaper) one, and she decided to buy both of them. They are pretty cute and she later offered to share the small one with LiAM if he gives her half the money, he was happy to do that.

Back to the car and we drove out to South Hedland to the camping store. We saw some more trains on our way out over the bridge. The guy there said that he didn’t sell the fuses we needed – it would be best to go to Pilbara Motor Group, way back in Port Hedland, not far from the Visitor’s Centre. So we drove back in and found the place he talked about, Tony popped in and bought the fridge, put it in the cord – and the fridge started working again, hooray!!! Because it is so well insulated and we didn’t open it much once we realised it was off, all the food stayed pretty cold and we didn’t lose anything.

We drove back out to the railway bridge and sat at the viewing area at the base of it to have our lunch. Caitlin dropped her phone on the concrete as we arrived and smashed her screen. We said we’d get a screen protector for it as soon as we went shopping that afternoon, and she wasn’t too upset. A train came past as we were getting our food out, so we rang my Dad and chatted to him while it went past, he was excited about it as well. We also talked to my Mum and nephew, he was thrilled to talk to LiAM and the girls. A few trains went past as we ate, all of them loaded with iron ore, and with only one set of engines (shorter than the train we’d seen on our first pass over the bridge). We had a great view of the salt hill too, with the huge road trains coming in to collect the salt and take it to the port – the big digger scooped up salt and dropped into the trailers – 2 scoops into each of the 3 trailers, then that truck would leave and another would arrive. There was rarely a break for the digger.

After we’d eaten another train came through so we ran up to the lookout at the top of the bridge to watch the train pass underneath it, which was pretty cool. We had an even better view of the salt pile here too. It was so white, and a great contrast against the blue sky. There were lots of road trains of all types thundering over the bridge. We’d only occasionally seen 4-trailer road trains so far (most of them had had 3) but here, 4 was as common as 3. Everything just seems bigger in Port Hedland.

We packed up and headed towards Woolworths, and as we drove along next to the line there was an empty train headed out, with the engines in the middle again. I counted 132 wagons between the 2 sets of engines, and it looked about the same number beyond the 2^nd wagons.

There was a phone repair place next to Woolworths, so we decided to get Caitlin’s screen fixed as it was a pretty serious smash. We went in to get groceries for our trip to Karajini, this will be our last chance to shop before then. Millie wasn’t really enjoying shopping to Tony took her back out to the car and the rest of us finished it off. The girl at the checkout put only 2-4 things in each bag when she packed them, so I think we now have enough plastic bags to use for our rubbish bin for the rest of the trip!

Next stop was the foreshore where it’s possible to see turtles at high tide. We weren’t going to get a high tide before the sun set, but as the tide was coming in it was worth checking out anyway (I figured they didn’t just turn up exactly at the moment the tide was highest). There was a walkway along the foreshore, then an area of honeycomb rock which then formed a small cliff down to the water. There was still a bit of sand between cliff and water when we arrived, Caitlin and LiAM climbed down and found some shells, then came back up and we wandered along the top. There were bits of seaweed in the water which at first looked like turtles, but no other signs of life at this stage. It was so beautiful to be there though – the sun was low in the sky which made the honeycomb rocks glow red and cast interesting shadows. The waves were rolling in and splashing and to the east it was a gorgeous coastline. To the west we could see all the port equipment silhouetted against the setting sun. To the north we could see all the ships on the horizon. (The coastline here faces north). We sat near the edge of the cliff for a while and watched the water, then Tony took the kids to the playground. I stayed and simply enjoyed watching the waves and the shadows and the increasing tide and the port. Caitlin came back over after a while and I was thinking I’d be saying ‘I haven’t seen any turtles yet’ – and then a turtle popped it’s head out of the water! From that point on I saw them fairly regularly – just a large, dark, round head popping up for a couple of seconds – very hard to take a photo off as they were so quick and could come up anywhere, but very exciting. Caitlin soon saw them as well, and we called the others over.

It took a while for each successive person to see them, and we showed a few other people where the turtles were too. Eventually everyone except Millie had seen one – I had managed to get a photo finally, and when I showed it to her she said ‘oh – I’ve seen those, I didn’t know that was what we were looking for!’ Very occasionally we also saw a flipper, and once one swam by close enough and on the right angle that we could see its shell and flippers as well. Beautiful Flatback Turtles and a very exciting way to spend the evening.

Flat-backed turtle

Once the sun was down we got our hot chook out of the car and had a picnic tea, although soon moved back into the car because the mosquitoes were so bad. We drove back into town because I wanted to see the port at night. We went back out on the jetty – it looked so different at high tide – and watched some tugs moving around, then walked along the Esplanade where we could peer through the security fences and see different parts of the port. I love that night time industrial noise and look – just a dull hum and bright lights which suggest lots of busyness. Walking past the Esplanade Hotel we heard a loud engine of some sort start up – after a while Caitlin said ‘Helicopter!’ and she was right, a few minutes later we saw it appear from behind the building near us and head out towards the ocean – I’d say taking a pilot out to bring a ship in. I always find it very exciting to see a helicopter suddenly appear at low altitude like that.

The walk was very well signposted and decorated and was enjoyable even at night. From the end of the road we could see the salt trucks dumping their load – once we got back to the car we drove around there to see it more closely. They opened a flap at the bottom of their triangle shaped trailers and the salt poured into a big hopper, then along a conveyor belt and up high where it was poured onto another massive hill of salt, ready to be loaded on to the ships. It was incredible to watch.

We drove back out to our campsite (having to stop once to avoid 2 large cows in the middle of the highway) and got back around 8.30. Everyone was exhausted so we went straight to bed and read a quick chapter of Inheritance.