Half-lap Day 95: Kalbarri -> Cliff Head North

It wasn’t too cold this morning and although it was quite cloudy it wasn’t raining. We’d all slept a little later than usual due to our late night, so got up and started getting ready to leave as soon as we could. We are getting so much more efficient at packing up, so it’s not stressful at all. When the kids got up they went to see the goats, and our neighbours were up by now as well so took all of the kids into the pen to pat them. There was a little bit of rain on and off as we packed up, nothing heavy, it just meant we did things in a slightly different order so that the important things stayed dry.

While we were packing a couple with a young child drove past on their way out with their camper trailer. They hit a bump near our tent and one of the wheels fell off their trailer. I was impressed at how well they coped – they just got out and figured out what they needed to do to fix it, with the help of the guy across from us, and then went into town to get the parts they needed. Our neighbours and we were very thankful that nothing like that had happened to us, and that this had happened at low speed in the campground and not when they were somewhere more dangerous.

We were packed up by 9.30, then Tony went up to the kitchen to make a coffee and get breakfast for the younger 2 kids. We chatted more to our new friends and the kids played a bit more totem tennis and barrel walking, we said goodbye to all the animals, and our friends, and finally reluctantly left the station. Caitlin had briefly seen one of the station kids in the morning and been able to say goodbye to them as well. If we didn’t have a deadline to be home in a couple of weeks we definitely would have stayed longer here, we all really loved it. It was so peaceful down near the river, our campsite was flat and not too rocky or sandy, having the animals around was exciting and always interesting, the camp kitchen and lounge area was the best we have seen on our trip, and the location was great, we would have loved to have spent more time in the National Park as well.

We drove in to Kalbarri and got fuel, and could see the river winding past the town and then meeting the sea. The water was calm and flat in the river, then at the mouth there were waves going in every direction, it looked crazily tumultuous. There were big, thick grey clouds in the sky now and it was a lot windier near the coast. We drove up to Red Bluff, which was the main place I had wanted to see in this area (before I knew about Nature’s Window). It was a little walk from the carpark to the top of the cliff, there were a few lookouts along the way before reaching the bluff. It was obviously pouring rain out to sea, and the ocean was a deep, dark grey. The waves were pounding on the bottom of the cliff, splashing over the rock and churning into white water, with a turquoise blue colour just behind the break and as the water rushed back out. I love the sound and the feel of waves breaking onto rocks, and Millie was surprised when I said ‘I love cliffs’, then asked everyone to be careful where they were sitting at the top of the cliff. There was a great spot to sit and watch, where the bluff sloped down for a while so it wasn’t sheer, so I didn’t have any vertigo, but I still wanted to make sure everyone watched their step. I explained that I love how cliffs look and feel and my fear of heights doesn’t get in the way of that, I just need people to be careful. We walked out to the end of the bluff and looked at more waves crashing onto different rocks. It was quite magnificent. We could also look back and see the green ampitheatre type area we’d admired from the road into Murchison House Station. On the walk back to the car we admire lots of wildflowers either side of the path.

View from Red Bluff

As we drove further through the National Park (the park follows the coastline here for a while) it started to rain, really heavily for a while. We’d wanted to look at more of the coastal sights but didn’t know how that would go in this downpour – then we came out the other side and it was still overcast but no longer raining. We could even see some lighter patches of sky moving northwards towards us. We drove out to the carpark for Island Rock. Millie wasn’t keen to get out of the car to see anything else, so she stayed and the rest of us wandered down to the lookout. There was a rock coming up out of the water that would once have been part of the cliff, but the adjoining rock had been eroded away. It felt and looked a lot like areas of the Great Ocean Road. While we were at the lookout our friends from last night arrived. We looked at the view with them, then the mums and kids all walked to the next lookout, and the dads drove the cars and trailers to the next carpark to meet us there.

Island Rock

LiAM walked with the 5 year old and chatted to him more about Star Wars and other stories, and they looked at the views and birds. Caitlin walked with the mum and the 3 year old, helping to keep him from running along these paths (a boardwalk) that came close to the cliff edges at times, without any fences. Caitlin was impressed that I was able to walk along there without any trouble – I was fine as long as I stayed on the path and didn’t go right to the edge. As we walked we had a changing view of Island Rock, then the next attraction was the Natural Bridge – an arch in the rock, reaching out into the sea. It was very cool as well, especially when the big waves hit it and we could see the spray splashing back through the arch.

Natural Bridge

While we were admiring the view and talking about how it would have formed, we saw dolphin fins. They disappeared and reappeared a few times, then we saw that it was a pod of about 14. One of them leaped out of the water and they swam around for a while, surfacing and ducking under, obviously fishing. Once they had moved out of sight we headed back along the path, stopping at one more lookout over Island Rock, where Tony and Millie joined us. (Tony had popped down to the Bridge lookout then gone back to the car to be with Millie). Millie was sad to have missed the dolphins – I saw them briefly again but she missed them. We watched the waves for a while, then went back to the Bridge lookout and watched there – with no luck. I’m glad she saw the view, though it was disappointing that she missed her favourite animal.

dolphins

Island Rock from the other side

Back at the car we had some sandwiches, then continued driving south. The countryside was quite green and pretty, all farmland here, dotted with windmills. The next town we reached was Geraldton, which seemed very full of traffic after so long only seeing smaller, remote towns. It felt a lot like Newcastle, with a large industrial looking port to the south of the main town (I hadn’t realised that was there), and lots of very old buildings, with a new, modern precinct along the foreshore. I had heard about a fantastic playground near the foreshore, with games as well as play equipment, so we headed there for the kids to play while I went to the shops. There were some deep parking spots nearby, so we unhitched the trailer to make it easier for me to navigate a shopping centre carpark, and Tony took the kids to the playground. They said it was awesome, lots of things to do and a great place to hang out. I tried to find a new carseat for Millie, with no luck, but did get her some new thongs. I stocked up on food for the next couple of days, then headed back to get the trailer and the rest of the family.

We hitched up again and stopped at KFC on our way out and bought a small $1 chips each, a nice way to tide us over until dinner. We continued south for another hour or so, trying to get as far south as we could while keeping in mind that the sun was getting lower in the sky and we didn’t want to set up after dark. A little way south of Dongara we pulled into a 72 hour rest area at Cliff Head North. I’d been worried that we wouldn’t be able to find the turnoff or that the road in would be hard to navigate – the sign was obvious on the highway, and we turned into the rest area and were greeting with the ocean only a couple of hundred metres along a straight, wide access road. The water looked silky and was starting to turn orange and blue as the sun approached the horizon. It was so beautiful, and had been rather easy to find! There were several caravans set up there on either side of the road, and we were thinking of setting up at the last space towards the water – our tent would have come a fair way out on to the road though and I was concerned that if the caravans behind us wanted to leave first in the morning, they might not have room to turn around. There were a lot of puddles on the ground and there didn’t seem to be anywhere else suitable. We wandered down a track leading off the cleared area, talked briefly to a couple who had their caravan in a campsite down there, and found a large campsite, close to the shore, with enough dry, flat area for us to put our tent. Tony drove down and we spent a bit of time figuring out the best orientation for the tent (I wanted a bit of shelter if it got windy, we needed to avoid a couple of rocks, and the slight slope works better if the tent is sloping up not down. We eventually got it figured out and set up as the sun slipped over the horizon.

There was an oil rig out on the horizon which in the daylight looked like a large bird perched on the water, then was just a huge orange light glowing out to sea once it got dark. Our site was separated from the ocean only by a beach of seaweed. We could hear and see low waves breaking against the seaweed, it felt very cool to be so close to the ocean. We had our dinner (rissoles and eggs and bread rolls) and got ready for bed. I walked back down to the toilets and they were pretty gross – they had the buckets with disinfectant and brushes for washing out the bowl before and after use (most Western Australian national parks and rest stops have these, and they’ve meant clean and non-smelly drop toilets so far) – but in this case the water in the buckets was dirty and disgusting, so the brush couldn’t clean the toilet bowl so they were gross as well. We decided to do bush wees for the remainder of our stay here – easy enough because we were in such a secluded spot, we could see the top of the caravan nearest us and otherwise were completely alone.

The night became quite cool, so we rugged up a bit and sat looking at the stars and listening to the ocean, before heading in to bed to read for a while. Thee was light in the sky from Geraldton, quite bright to the north, so the stars weren’t as showy as further north, but we still had a great view of the milky way.

Half-lap Day 94: Kalbarri

I woke before sunrise and sat outside with the computer, gradually watching it get lighter. I’ve been having trouble with the keyboard again, since the first day at Shark Bay, so typing anything can take a while sometimes – I know how to temporarily fix it now, but it can start playing up again at irregular intervals and it is a little frustrating. Having the beautiful bush and river around me though helped me feel quite calm and peaceful even when the computer wasn’t working easily.

Millie came out and went to pat the goats. I mentioned that we were allowed to go in the goat pen, as long as an adult was with any kids – she was keen to go straight away, I suggested she have breakfast first, and wait for the other kids. She decided she wanted French Toast, cooked up in the camp kitchen – the idea of sitting on a couch, or around a large table, with real (non-folding up) chairs, really appealed to her. Tony took the food he’d need up to the kitchen – it is really well equipped (like staying at a backpacker hostel) so he didn’t need to take any cooking utensils. He made French Toast with bacon, and the other kids wandered up there too as they woke up. I sorted out our washing and had a good chat to the guy in the tent across the road from us – again getting a few tips about places to see, and sharing our love of these remoter, less populated campsites.

Breakfast was delicious, and the kids enjoyed playing in the communal area. They got out a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle from the cupboard and started working on that. We considered just hanging around at the station all day – we haven’t had a rest day for nearly 2 weeks and it is more tiring when we are really active every day. There was one thing at least that I wanted to see in the National Park so we decided to still do that, but not stay long in the Park, so we could come back and have a quiet afternoon. The kids had agreed to meet up with the kids from the station this afternoon as well, so they were keen to be back before 4pm.

I took the kids in to see the goats – there was a small goat kid lying in the sleeping area, and when we looked closer we realised that it had died. The kids were very sad, and we went to look at the rest of the goats a bit more somberly than when we’d first entered. The other goat kids were sleeping, some of the mother goats came over to us for a pat. After a while some of the kids woke up as well and everyone had a great time playing together.

We got ready to go out and headed for the National Park. We stopped at the entry station to get a new tag for our National Parks pass – ours appears to have blown out the door at Cape Range. (We had the receipt with the details on it from when we paid for the pass, so we didn’t have to pay again, just get a new tag.) This is our fourth National Park since buying the pass, so now we’ve saved money by buying it rather than paying day entry each time). Driving in was quiet pretty, there were wildflowers everywhere, purple, red, yellow and white. The road was sealed for about half the way, then dirt – it was a little corrugated in parts, and sandy occasionally, but the car handled it fine. We did unplug our fridge cord in case it was the bouncing around of the corrugations that blew the fuse last time (at Karajini).

Our first stop was Nature’s Window, which was the one thing I really really wanted to see in this area. As we approached the carpark we were amazed at the view – wide, deep gorges with sloping cliffsides leading down to the bottom. The rock layers were horizontal and obvious and the gorge sides looked like large cakes. The scale of the gorges was quite overwhelming. The walk down to the window was quite easy – and very pretty. We were up close to the wildflowers now, with the gorges and river in the background. At this point the Murchison River does a massive loop, as well as doing a hairpin turn on either end of the loop – so walking out to the lookout, we had a U-bend in the river on either side of us, and we were walking on a narrow isthmus (high up on top of the cliff, which dropped down to the river on either side. Except around the area of Nature’s Window the cliff top wasn’t so narrow that it was scary. Beyond the window the high land widened out again and filled the whole circle of land within the loop.

View of the gorge as we approached it

We reached Nature’s Window and clambered around to get a good view – it is a natural hole in the rocks, large enough to stand in, and it frames the view of the river quite nicely. I was excited to see it and to take photos through it – I always love framing my shots with something like a tree branch or a rock, so having a ready-made frame on all 4 sides of the shot was quite cool. The kids loved it there too, looking at the river and the cliff faces and the birds and the flowers. We saw 6 emus down on the grass next to the river, and several bushes that also looked like emus – again, the natural features of an area often imitate the shape of the local animals (or perhaps the other way around). There was a walk that went right around the loop, 9km and at least 5 hours – we’d decided not to do it but once I was there I really wished we had the time and the energy to attempt it, it would have been amazing.

At Nature's Window

The layers in the rocks were quite obvious up close as well as from a distance – like some of the other places we’ve walked (Karajini, Kings Canyon) the vertical layers wear away so the layers themselves make natural steps. The layers here were very thin, only a couple of centimetres high, so the steps were quite shallow. We hung around at the lookout for ages, then wandered back along the path. The kids and Tony raced back, and I took my time, enjoying the wildflowers and the view from different perspectives.

We had lunch at the picnic area back at the carpark, then everyone was happy to go back to camp. Driving into the station we could see the river winding through the land towards the coast (we were only 13km from the ocean here), large sloping cliffs that were whiter as they got closer to the sea. There was also a large green grassy area that looked like a natural ampitheatre in among the high river banks – it was a long way away and we weren’t sure if it was grass or crops or what, but we loved looking at it.

Back at camp Tony took the kids in to see the goats again, while I got a few things organised. One of  the kids kept ‘hugging’ Caitlin, and then tried to eat her hair. The little ones are so cute, its great watching them play. Tony went in to town to get some food for dinner and to organise our accommodation in Perth. The kids and I had a bit of a play with the totem tennis and Caitlin practiced walking on the rolling barrel, as well as showing Millie how to do it – she was pretty good!  Caitlin told one of the station managers about the little dead goat, and the lady took Caitlin and LiAM in with her so they could show here where it was, then she organised for someone to remove it. The station children arrived home and I left the 5 kids all playing together with the totem tennis and the barrel, everyone looked very happy. I had a bit of time at the tent by myself which was nice and relaxing.

Tony decided to take advantage of having an oven in the camp kitchen, and made sausage rolls. LiAM and I went to the kitchen with him,  I played cards and he worked some more on the 1000 piece puzzle. A couple of horses walked past the window – they walked all the way down past our tent and LiAM and I ran around trying to find Caitlin so she could see them. She was playing with the girl from the station, who started to call the horses so they’d come back up – Caitlin did get to see them when they wandered back past. She and Millie played with the girl for a while longer on the ipad and with the tennis pole. Once she went inside they joined us in the kitchen and helped LiAM with the puzzle and Tony with cooking tea.

The sausage rolls were delicious – Tony hasn’t made them for ages and he’s so good at it. While we were eating, the lady from the family who had just set up next to us came into the kitchen. We’d seen them out at Nature’s Window today, they looked like a relaxed and fun family, with 2 little boys. We chatted to her for a while and discovered they lived not far from us (Park Orchards) and she knew some people in Healesville – she listed them and we know some of them as well.  Tony offered to bring down any leftover sausage rolls to them, and she said we were welcome to join them at their campfire. Tony had cooked apple pie for dessert – we ate it with ice cream and it was magnificent. We did a bit more of the jigsaw puzzle, then cleaned up in the kitchen and Millie and I went to have a shower. Caitlin joined us after a while and we also ran into our neighbour again. We walked back down to the campsite with her and she invited us to their campfire again, we offered to bring marshmallows.

We had a very pleasant evening chatting to our new friends. We have a fair bit in common (similar interests and lifestyles and beliefs) so had lots to talk about apart from comparing trip details. As we talked we discovered even more people who we know in common – the guy used to play cricket with some of the guys from Tony’s baseball club. Their littlest boy was asleep, and their 5 year old stayed up chatted and played with our kids. The kids all roasted marshmallows, then LiAM talked to him a lot about Star Wars and they played with his toy light saber. Caitlin played with them and talked to the adults, Millie played with them then snuggled up on Tony’s lap once she got tired. Our friends shared a bottle of scotch with us, it was really lovely sitting and drinking and chatting and laughing around the fire, even when it sprinkled rain occasionally. It was a much warmer evening than the night before and sitting outside felt really comfortable. We could see the goats in their pen and they were often awake and walking around, even the kids – we weren’t sure if that was usual nighttime behaviour for goats or if they were up because we were up. Eventually everyone was very tired and we decided to call it a night – back at our tent we discovered it was 12.30! Definitely our latest night on the trip so far! No reading tonight, Millie was already asleep and everyone else bundled into bed pretty quickly and went straight to sleep.

Half-lap Day 93: Shark Bay -> Kalbarri

We’re feeling more confident and efficient with our packups now, so there isn’t such a feeling of rushing and urgency on the mornings when we are leaving, even when we are supposed to be out by 10. Tony and I started packing up and then got breakfast for the kids, and started packing in earnest around 8.30. The kids talked to our neighbour and played with the dog.

The caravan park had been interesting, fairly basic although quite comfortable. The ground was covered in tiny shells, no sand or dirt which was a nice change. The view from the top of the stairs near our tent was pretty cool – our tent at the bottom and then the units on the other side of the fence, and then the beach. We couldn’t quite see the water from our campsite, but could see the water and our tent at the same time from the top of the stairs. One thing that we hadn’t realised was that there is no fresh water source out on the peninsula – the artesian bore water is very saline so not suitable for drinking. There is desalinated water available and is probably one reason why the caravan parks are so expensive. It was a surprise that the place we’ve been that was most water conservative was on the coast, not in the dry centre as we’d expected.

We were ready to go by 10.30 and headed back down the peninsula. We stopped at Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites – they look like little columns of rock in the water, but are actually piles of microbial mats – groups of bacteria that join together and then attract more bacteria and microbes, eventually growing into these stromatolites. It’s a life form that has been around for over 3 billion years and has survived almost everything, so is very interesting from an evolutionary viewpoint, as well being really cool to look at.

The bay from there looked amazing too, flat and calm and clear, such a beautiful place. We walked around a little bit and read all the information signs. I could smell an ammonia type smell and kept checking everyone’s clothes – eventually I figured out it was one of the bushes there that was letting off quite a strong aroma. The girls and I wanted to go to the toilet and the sign at the carpark said there were toilets at the telegraph station, where the caravan park was. We walked over there while Tony got lunch and cuppas ready. We saw some cool birds, and heard the same type of bird that we’d heard at Edagee Rest Area, repeating the same do-do-do-doo-do over and over again. At the caravan park there were (better) explanatory signs about the stromatolites, but we couldn’t find a toilet. We asked in the shop and the girl said there were some out the back, but really only for guests. I said the sign had directed us here, and she asked us to make a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service in order to use them. I hadn’t brought my wallet and it all got a bit awkward – then I found Millie’s wallet in my camera bag and scrounged 30c so that helped the situation a little. It took us a while to find the (single) toilet even then, and longer for all of us to use it – we were all hot and tired and hungry by the time we got back to the car.

The stromatolites

Sandwiches for everyone and a hot drink for Tony and I and we were back on the road. We coasted in to the Overlander roadhouse with our petrol gauge way below Empty. We’d thought we might catch up with our Kings Canyon friends today as they were heading in to Shark Bay – I got a text as we approached the roadhouse and then looked up to see them driving past us the other way. We all waved excitedly then felt a bit sad that we’d just missed them. While we were filling up with petrol there was a knock on our window – Millie’s friend was jumping up and down outside – they’d turned and come back to see us.

We stood in the carpark at the roadhouse and chatted for half an hour or so – great to catch up one more time before we head home. The girls played in the car and the rest of us caught up on news. The sun was hot by now and I felt like I was getting sunburnt – we were so careful with sunscreen when it was hot and sunny all the time, I feel like we’re getting a bit more relaxed about it now which increases our chance of getting burnt on a day when we’re not paying attention.

Eventually we said goodbye again and headed our separate ways. We drove south, through more sparse looking vegetation, which slowly turned into taller trees, the tallest we’ve seen for a while. Not thick bush, but lower bushes interspersed with taller trees. We finished listening to the 6^th Harry Potter book (always emotionally draining) and moved on to the 7^th book. Its wildflower season in WA at the moment, we didn’t deliberately plan to be here at this time, and it’s great to see all the flowers that I’ve heard so much about. Areas full of yellow, white or purple flowers are dotted about everywhere, very cool. As we drove we came over a hill and suddenly saw green fields and hills everywhere – it was such a shock after so many months of dirt and dust and grey or yellow fields. Lots of crops – something green in some, and yellow canola in others. I can’t remember the last time we saw crops growing, probably not since Port Augusta. The scenery was so different to what we’re used to, it just blew us away. I have found driving down the West Australian Coast (since we left Fitzroy Crossing) quite uninteresting, I’ve been getting bored in the car, which hadn’t happened up until then. Once the scenery started getting greener and more changeable today I stopped being bored, I feel like I’ve got something interesting to look at again, it was an interesting change.

Tonight we are staying at Murchison House station, just out of Kalbarri – it was recommended to me by someone we talked to at some stage, I saw an ad for it in one of the tourist magazines I was looking at, and Tony picked it as the best option when he was browsing WikiCamps. I’d rung and booked, and checked that the road in would be ok for our car. It was only 4km of dirt from the highway, and quite easy to drive. We arrived at the station and saw old military equipment around the place, and old shearing sheds and quarters. We checked in at the homestead then came down to the campground, and found a clear, flat and not too sandy site across the road from the river. Some of the sites are on the riverside, we can see sand banks and a bit of water from our site and it is a beautiful spot. As we set up we realised we were camped right in front of the goat enclosure, and there were kids (goat kids) in there – very excited. The kids had a quick look around the farm yard and found alpacas (including a baby one), ducks and chickens. The station musters and sells free range goats, and has a small herd of cattle. Their main income comes from the goats and the tourist industry. As well as the campground they offer quadbike tours and kayaking tours, and people with 4WDs can pay extra and go bush camping in the wilder area on the other side of the river. They also offer a self-guided tour of the station, with morning tea included – it would be interesting but I think we’ll skip it this time.

After the tent was set up I went for a walk along the river, which was beautiful in the setting sun. I chatted to some ladies from Victoria on the way, they left home less than 3 weeks ago, so it feels like we’ll still have plenty of time to get home (we’ve got about 2 ½ weeks). They also gave me some tips about things to see and places to stay along the way. The kids walked around and patted the goats through the fence, then Caitlin and LiAM went up to the communal area near the homestead and found a totem tennis pole. Two kids (human kids) came out of the homestead to play with them – they live at the station and the 4 kids played for ages and had a great time. They played totem tennis and Caitlin and the boy walked on top of a rolling barrel – Caitlin loves doing that and has only done it with small cylinders, it was exciting for her to do it with a big fuel drum.

Millie was tired and stayed at the tent with us. I played a game on the iPad with her and then we set up the beds. For dinner we had pasta and salami and a pasta sauce I’d made before we left home. There was a bit of wind and it was a clear night and very very cold, I ended up with beanie and scarf on and still felt cold. I went up to the camp kitchen to heat water for the hot water bottles, while the kids got into bed. I browsed a few more travel brochures that were up there and eventually the water was ready and I brought the bottles back down to warm everyone up. We read a couple of chapters of Inheritance and settled down to sleep.

Half-lap Day 77: Indee Station -> Karajini

LiAM had a very restless night and was not feeling well. At about 4am Tony got up with him so that he could have a shower which helped him feel a bit better. Tony’s back had been giving him a bit of pain over the past few days, and as he got out of bed in the early morning it was really bad.

When I got up a couple of hours later I let the others sleep in. This was the coldest morning we’d had in a very long time, quite icy when the wind blew. I used the power in the camp kitchen to charge up the computer and my camera battery, and got the dishes done. Millie woke up when I got back to the tent. I had some breakfast then started packing up. Millie helped me on and off, and played on the iPad. The others didn’t wake up until after 9, by which time I’d done all that I could without packing up the beds and the stuff we needed for breakfast. Tony’s back was still extremely sore and he couldn’t bend at all or lift much – I’d figured I’d need to do most of the pack up myself if he was still in pain, so he might as well sleep as long as he could. I finished packing up and got everyone breakfast. The kids went looking for some wild horses someone had told us about the night before, but didn’t find anything. The sun was well up by now and it was hot again, looks like we’re heading back into hot days and cold nights.

Tony helped me get the bikes on to the trailer (probably the only bit I can’t do myself – oh, Caitlin had helped me fold the tent up) and we were hooked up ready to leave by 11.15. Tony was more comfortable driving than being the passenger, which was fine with me too. We headed south toward Karajini, and after a while saw Red Rock from the highway – very cool to see it again and from this vantage point.

For a good while the terrain was still flat and dry, with low spinifex and dotted with white gum trees. There were hills in the distance, and occasionally we’d pass some, they were all interesting shapes. Occasionally we saw areas in the hills where the mines were – cuts in the cliff or terraces of dirt built up from the mine. Signs of the mining industry were everywhere – constant traffic of 4-trailer road trains (all covered in red dirt), dirt roads leading off the highway, with mining company signs at the entrance, areas filled with identical demountable buildings. It was a very busy road, and most of the traffic was the road trains, caravans, and mining cars with their orange flags attached.

We stopped for fuel at Auski roadhouse. We had to give ID in the store to have the fuel released. It was only (!) 1.55/L which wasn’t bad given the remote location. This roadhouse was the least stocked we’d seen, just one shelf with a smattering of groceries and toiletries. They sold hot food and seemed to be doing a good business there. There was a caravan park attached (we’d considered staying here instead of Indee, but the reviews were all bad) and we used the toilets – really not great, although not the worst we’ve used. We were glad we hadn’t pushed on to stay here though, it didn’t feel welcoming.

From there the terrain changed – the hills were more like mountains and were even more fascinating. Deep red cliff faces at the top, and then green grassed slopes from a little way down. There were definite layers of rock and grass, so that they looked stripey from a distance. The road wound between them, and there were obviously gorges and ravines and valleys all through the hills, there was nothing straight or curvy about them, it was all jagged lines and really beautiful.

Turning west to approach Karajini we had those hills on our right, and flatter plains on our left, leading to another range. There were some tall mountains here, and I was wondering which one was Mt Bruce, the 2^nd tallest mountain in WA. We might go exploring there in a day or two.

We reached the National Park and drove around to Dales Campground. We went in to see the camp hosts at the entrance, and asked if there was still a site available (sometimes it fills up, and we hadn’t arrived until after 3 due to our unexpected later start). There were a few sites left and we were allocated a long, thin site. I was worried about whether we’d fit, but the lady said we should be fine. We drove around to find our site and I was even more worried about whether we’d fit. As we measured it out and discussed our options I really wished I’d asked for a different site. Our tent is 5m by 3.5m (including the drawbar) without the awning, and 5m by 6m with the awning. This site was only 4m wide, although she said it would be fine if the awing protruded beyond the bollards at the edge of the site.

In the end we backed the trailer in to the middle of the site and unhitched it, then Caitlin, Tony and I were able to turn it sideways, and fit a good bit of the drawbar in between two of the bollards. I’d been worried we wouldn’t be able to open the trailer gate far enough once we were in place, so we got out all our stuff before we turned it. As it worked out, we’d been able to slide far enough between the bollards so that the gate opened easily all the way. The awning will go a little over the edge of the site, but there’s a cleared spot there where we put our chairs, so that won’t be a problem. Our table fits nicely over 2 of the bollards, so they aren’t sticking up (at shin or knee height) into our living area. We’ve not yet had a site that we couldn’t get to work for our tent, I just have a bit of a panic sometimes when we arrive and I can’t quite see how it’s going to work.

The ground was rock hard in the middle and we could not get pegs in along the door side of the tent. We were able to peg in the other side (we figure the middle part has had caravans driving over it for years and has become extremely compacted), and then used bungee straps to tie down the tent corners to parts of the trailer, or pegs over on the softer side. It worked quite well.

With having to think for so long about how the tent would fit, then the very hard ground, and Tony not being able to bend at all, set up took longer than it ever had. The kids went and explored the campground and met a family with 2 little girls aged 4 and 2, so played with them for a while. Millie got out all her toys and played on the picnic rug near the car. Caitlin went for a bike ride, and Tony started cooking tea. I sat and read my book and had a cup of tea for a short while, then got the beds set up before we ate.

We had a delicious spaghetti Bolognese in the cold evening air – as soon as the sun dropped over the horizon the temperature dropped noticeably. After dinner I sorted out all the blankets and heated water for hot water bottles. I had a spare sheet and the kids suggested I hang it up so that their beds were separate from the rest of the tent – they loved it once it was up and want it there all the time. I found a hanging storage thing in my bag that we hadn’t used it and I hung it next to LiAM with his asthma medication and some Echinacea and butter menthols – he’s still not feeling great and has a sore throat – and he was thrilled to have all his supplies so easily accessible. I got into bed as quickly as I could and we read a couple of chapters of Inheritance. It wasn’t too cold inside as long as we stayed under our blankets, and the hot water bottles certainly helped.