40 Mile Beach

just above the boat ramp

40 Mile Beach (Gnoorea Point) is a popular camping and fishing spot 64km south of Karratha. It’s a 13km gravel road to the camping area and then you have a choice if individual camps along a 3km beach front or you can camp in the large open area (along with lots of other folk) near the boat ramp.

sunset drinks at club 40 mile

Talking to the locals apparently the campground used to be extremely popular with regulars (even from the east coast) coming for months on end during the cooler months. Recently the max stay was reduced to 28 days and the fees increased to $15/night (that’s progress for you) – so a lot of the regulars stopped coming.

I fished off the beach one high tide flicking out a chrome slice and hooked at least a dozen long toms (all pulled out) and one small trevally. The locals out in boats had been catching some good reef fish.

in the queue - filing up at the gas plant 

A tip for fellow travelers – at the junction of the main North West highway and 40 Mile Beach Road there is Devils Creek LNG Refinery which provides free (gold coin donation for RFDS) R/O water for travelers – everyone at 40 Mile fills up there when required and we topped up all our van tanks on the way out.

We weren’t all that impressed by 40 Mile Beach Camp area – nice spot but a little overpriced at $15/night for a short drop toilet, bins and dump point and open camping - but it was clear the regulars loved the place.

Pardoo will do

Nice grassy powered sites

When staying on the Degrey River we went for a drive a little further north to Pardoo Station just to check the place out.

rock hole in Pardoo Creek - OK at high tide

What an oasis in the bush – green lawns, hot showers, power, unlimited bore water, swimming pools, a general store, restaurant, movie stars (not really), big caravan sites, bowling green (only two rinks), and numerous fishing spots (on high tide) – and all for a reasonable $30/night if you stay 7 nights. 

the mud ramp at high tide

The station is a working cattle station with usually over 3000 head of beef cattle but due to the high prices they had recently mustered so only breeders around when we visited.

The whole place is well planned with over 150 powered sites and numerous amenity blocks well placed throughout the camp. Check out their website here

going to be a long cast!

Fishing required some planning – due to the 6-7 meter tides the only time to fish was an hour or two either side of high tide. Even then you can only beach fish when tides are over 6 meters else you have 200-300 meters to the water. Also it was a 3-8 kilometer drive to the fishing spots.

nice big estuary cod and master angler

We did OK with me catching a (just) legal threadfin salmon and a dozen or so of fat yellow in whiting, and Linda with the catch of the day (as usual 😢) a 3-4 kg Estuary Cod.

small threadfin salmon

There is a boat launching area off the mud-banks at Pardoo Creek only usable for 2-3 hours around high tide – too late back from fishing and your 20 meters away from the edge down a massive mud bank. When we first had a look I thought it was a bit dodgy so I didn’t bother putting the boat together – but after watching the locals I will certainly be putting the tinny in next time we visit.

There are folks at the station who stay for 3-6 months every year and it’s easy to see why. All the luxuries of a 5 star caravan park, good fishing, and $25/night (or less) if you stay a month or longer. When we stayed it was around 30C every day and a comfortable 14C at night – bloody lovely.

Degrey River

Our camp amongst the trees

Degrey River free camp is about 70 kilometers north of Port Hedland on the Northern Highway. Highly recommend by some close friends of ours we planned to spend a week or so there. The free camp is an extensive area but there are only limited sites away from the main road, under the trees and close to the river – the majority of the sites are more in the open and subject to dust and road noise. If you’re intending an extended stay at any free camp and are looking for some “prime” real estate you need to plan ahead – best to arrive at the site between 09:00 and 10:00 on a weekday and not in school holidays. As luck (and good planning) would have it as we drove in at 09:15 a van was just pulling out of a level site, as far away from the road as you can get, and under the trees near the river – and a bonus they left a big pile of wood!

De grey ones

When we were there the River was running and the water was cool and clear. After reading the “Crocodiles have been sighted here” sign and having a warning about bull sharks from our friends we carefully picked a spot to have a cooling dip for an hour each day. Found a spot where there was a 100 meters either side of very shallow gravelly water. We spent many an hour soaking and fossicking thru the gravel for pretty stones.

Upstream from railway bridge

The bird life on the river was brilliant and in particular large flocks of wild budgies were constantly nearby and this gave Wally our travelling budgie a chance to learn to speak “budgie” again.

Steak and chips tonight

Only downside to the area was that the long drop toilets we blocked most of the time we were there. Think this was caused by fellow grey nomads and back-packers not liking to “look down the chute” and ling the top of the long drop toilets with paper and thus blocking the whole system. Didn’t cause us any problems as there we are fully self contained and there were two working dump points at the site and lots of bins.





Great spot – we will definitely take a break here when we next travel this way.

Perth to Port Hedland

As we sat in our new house in Collie looking out over the frost covered lawn to our lonely caravan (and the weather forecast for the next day being a subzero morning and peaking at a 15 degree maximum) we decided, bugger this, lets head north for a few months. Plan was to get north of Port Hedland as quickly as possible (relatively speaking as we don’t travel too far on any set day) via the inland route.

 

Stuarts Desert Pea  - lots along a small section of the road

So after a week of packing and a few days in South Yunderup at our Park Van off we went to seek warmer weather.

First overnight stop was just north of Dalwallinu at a roadside stop called White Wells – nothing special, close to the main road (thus trucks passing thru all night), and still down to zero overnight. Lucky the diesel heater was charged and primed.

Night 2 was spent at Kirkalocka Roadside spot – the local shire has done a great job here with a large camp area back from the road a little and many fireplaces, tables and lean-to’s.  Toilets were spotless and a double dump point kept the place clean. Met a lovely travelling couple - Bruce and Anne who shared our campfire and forced us to drink wine till late.  Turned out Bruce was the brother of a regular at the Collie RSL.  Again temperatures overnight dropped to around zero – so once again we pointed north in search of the mystical 15 degree night.

Lots of room at Peace George

Night 3 was spent just a couple of kilometers outside Meekatharra at a free camp called Peace George (apparently called so due to a picnic being held there to celebrate peace at the end of WW1).

Couple of cold rockers at Peace George

Really pretty spot with many large granite outcrops and room for at least a hundred vans (only five spread out the night we were there).

Sunset and moonrise

Still bloody freezing early in the morning so early on the road heading north!

Nice along the Gascoyne River

Night 4 was spent at the Gascoyne River free camp (around 200 kilometers south of Newman). We had camped here in 2008 on our way to Karijini National Park and camped much too close to the road bridge (with the roar and clankity-clank of trucks to keep us amused all night!).  So with the wisdom of hindsight we drove further up to the river to a quieter treed camp next to a large waterhole.  Birdlife was brilliant even our pet budgie had some distant cousins flit past. It’s a small world we live in – about half an hour after setting up we get a shout – “what are you doing here Kerry?”  Friends of ours who live in Falcon were on the way home from a Cape Leveque trip and had decided stay for a one night at the Gascoyne. Great to catch up with these guys but still below one degree in the morning – start the car!

View of camp area from Mt. Robinson

After stopping in Newman to fill our water tanks we headed out a further 80K’s to Mt. Robinson rest area. 

Linda and friends at sunset Mt. Robinson

A great spot well off the road (no truck noise that night!) with clean sites, bins, toilets and a view to kill for. A credit to the local shire.

Only got down to 8 degrees that night so things were looking up – but warmer nights beckoned further north.

Georgous at the George

After leaving Mt. Robinson and travelling a huge 72 kilometers we reached our planned two night stop over at Albert Tognolini Gorge - look-out and rest area.

Table 1 at the Tognolini Diner

Pretty interesting guy was Albert – born in Armadale WA in 1927 and started working as a young engineer with the WA Main Roads.  Went on to become Commissioner of Main Roads - see Link for more info.  The camp areas are along a ridge with every site overlooking the gorge.

Holly Gravellia was in flower everywhere - nice

We were surprised to find an abundance of wild flowers in bloom – the most impressive being the Holly Gravellia. For the first time since leaving we were looking for shady spots during the heat of the day – now this was getting closer to what we were seeking! So after storing our dressing gowns, slippers and big coats under the bed (where the wine merchant lives), and saying “see ya later” to our diesel heater we set off to Port Hedland. 

Some massive dump trucks up in the Pilbra

Port Hedland today – 35C max and 16C min – MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Home!

Well – it’s over! 407 days on the road and we are home again. We have travelled through every mainland state of Australia and stayed at 80 different camp sites for durations ranging from 1 night to 2  months.

Just to summerise our trip:

2015

Leaving Perth in April 2015 we headed across the Nullarbor, during May we spent time on Eyre Peninsular and Flinders Ranges in SA, all June was spent heading up the middle stopping at Alice Springs, Longreach Waterhole, Mataranka and Edith Falls for lengthy periods, most of July and half of August was spent travelling across the Savanah Way thru Normanton, Croyden, Mt. Surprise to Tinnaroo Dam in far north QLD, the second half of August and nearly all September was spent in north QLD (almost a  month fishing and camping with my brother-in-law in Mackay), all September, October and November was spent at various lakes, dams and rivers in central QLD chasing red claw and the mighty Saratoga, December and January was spent with family in Brisbane.

2016

We left Brissy at the end of January and spent most of February chasing Murray Cod and Yellowbelly in central NSW at various lakes, dams and rivers, March saw us visiting the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo and catching up again with family at Orange and Wollongong, we spent my birthday week at Wallagaraugh River Resort near Mallacoota catching flathead and bream, April was spent catching up with new friends and old around Melbourne and at Portland in southern Victoria, May saw us camping along the Murray River (in Vic and SA) and catching KG whiting at Venus Bay in SA, and finally during June we trekked across the Nullarbor to home.

What a trip - so many fantastic places visited - meeting up with so many new friends, old friends, family and just nice people who like us are out there enjoying what Australia has on show. We joked, had cook-ups, fishing competitions, card competitions, swapped recipes, fishing secrets and locations of that “best free camp”.

It wasn’t all beer and skittles - we had our share of troubles - mainly car related. Mitsubishi in Alice Springs caused us lots of grief blowing up our gearbox seals and putting cheap petrol engine oil in the motor, ARB in Mount Isa broke and stripped three wheel studs when we got new tyres fitted by them, I banged the intercooler in the Flinders Ranges which caused us grief and a new intercooler 12 months later. Both starting and deep cycle batteries died and a flat tyre in Portland rounded things up. On our first trip around Australia in 2012-2013 we climbed mountains, hiked for miles and rode our bikes everywhere – not so this trip – Linda’s hip replacement and osteo in both my knees slowed us down and made us realise that perhaps we are getting older? – so things were done at a more sedate pace this time round but we still achieved everything we wanted to do.

Thanks  - to all of you who followed our blog, treated us like kings when we visited, shared our camps and strays and made the last fourteen months on the road a trip of a lifetime!

The Penthouse at Murray River Caravan Park - South Yunderup WA 

Heading Home

Finally heading west!

According to the SATNAV in the Pajero its 2,065klm from Haslam on the Eyre Peninsular in SA across the Nullarbor to Pinjarra in WA. We had planned to travel across to Norseman in convoy with our friends Carol and Steve for company and also security/back-up across the wide open spaces – this didn’t quiet go to plan as “someone” miscalculated the number of overnight stays (distance) between the WA border and Kambalda.

The Champs - 2016 Nullarbor Sequence Comp

Usually coming across the Nullarbor involves driving for 5-6 hours, selecting a roadside stop where you can get away from the traffic noise, getting a fire and diner organised, early to bed and doing the same thing the next day.

Roxy and her valets on the Bight

As “someone” miscalculated the distance to Kambalda (and we had made arrangements to catch up with family there) we did a marathon 11 hours and nearly 600lkm on one of the days – this is when we left our friends behind.

Some folk say driving across from Ceduna to Perth is a boring drive – we disagree – it’s quiet an interesting trip transiting from the rolling wheat and sheep farms near Ceduna, to the Mallee Scrub, onto the treeless Nullarbor, across the scenic Great Australian Bight, back into the Mallee and Salmon Gum forests of WA, through the vast cleared paddocks of the WA wheat belt into Perth.

Our last camp for this trip at Meckering WA

It’s an experience that we have enjoyed several times now and hope to do again.

Mission Accomplished

Nice spot - that's our van in the background

We were on a mission! Spend a week at Venus Bay to fill up the freezer with King George Whiting fillets, drop into Haslam Beach free camp for a couple of nights to top up on squid and the fill whatever room was left in the freezer with fresh oysters from the oyster farms along the Eyre Peninsula west coast.

You launch off the sand at Venus Bay

First three days at Venus Bay saw one KG come into the tinny despite many hours in bitterly cold weather soaking bait. Things got worse when pulling up the anchor the anchor rope broke (rotten after many years use) and I lost my anchor. So after a 145klm round trip to Streaky Bay for a new anchor and rope it was round two of KB vs KG.

She's a "keeper" my Linda

The god’s must have been smiling upon me as for each remaining fishing trip it was a bag limit of KG whiting every time! So off we traveled to Haslam to add nine squid to the fridge and six dozen oysters.

Mission accomplished!

Popular with the pelicans