Leaving Broome, heading south, we passed the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, which could be seen as sandy flats amongst the flat coastal grasslands and heath. We stopped at Eighty Mile Beach, which lived up to its name: a huge swathe of pristine coast line, white beach that appeared to go on for ever. (Thanks Aunt Marian for pointing us in the direction of this beach). The full moon made for a huge tidal flat, with the waters edge having to be several hundred metres from the dunes. From here we headed to Karijini NP, via Port Hedland, a large industrial town, with little appeal, and few signs to tell us how to leave it. We were stuck here for a few hours trying to find a car part. This was an unsuccessful search for a trailer wheel bearing cover (for which ½ a disposable paper coffee cup has done a sterling temp job for the last 1,000 kms!) Thankfully we were able to eventually find our way out of Port H and aimed for Karijini, hidden within the iron-rich Hamersley Ranges. The ranges rise up, with magnificent orange-red colours, out of the green Spinifex - a stunning landscape, with carpets of flowers in every shade of mauve and blue, yellows and whites. We passed some massive mines, the roads being busy with mining vehicles and road trains. Had any of the burly blokes or sheilas looked in at us they would have seen me driving, with Russ, glasses perched on his nose, concentrating on his knitting! We must have looked a sight! (Hey! We’re an EEO family, and he promises to tell this tale in all its gory detail in a later entry). It is here in the Pilbara that Lang Hancock, and later James Hardy made their fortunes, and where hundreds of miners and local indigenous people sacrificed their lives for the blue asbestos found in the range. Whole mining towns and roads are now fenced off due to the health risk of the residual asbestos. Karijini is a series of small gorges that drop below the landscape, and are accessed via some steep descents. Once within, the hard, shiny incredibly smooth rock walls form a wall around a magical environment, with swimming holes beneath small water falls. The walls are striped, in blues, browns, oranges and yellows. It was almost as if we had entered a Japanese garden, so perfectly laid out were the tufts of sedge in the shallow water ponds, with the surrounding edges of rock looking as if they had been cut in perfect angles to form the ponds. It was here that we saw snake number 29, a 4metre long Olive Python that was unfortunately dead. Back up the top, and snake number 30 slithered in front of us metres from our camp. It was a beautifully coloured Yellow Headed Whip Snake, sporting a yellow head, bright green body and a stunning orange-red tail. Nellie had seen it first earlier in the day and we had difficulty believing her description. It wasn’t until it slithered in front of me later in the day that we believed her. From Karijini we headed to the start of the beautiful Coral Coast, visiting Cape Range NP, Exmouth and the stunning Ningaloo Reef. The North West Cape communications base is in Exmouth, and in fact, Exmouth didn’t really exist until the Americans arrived in the early 1960s, just after the Bay of Pigs / Cuban Missile crisis. The Cape has water on 3 sides, and was the perfect spot for a VLF (Very Low Frequency) Transmitter. This allows the base to communicate with submarines way out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It consists of 13 huge towers, forming the second highest human-made structure in the southern hemisphere. Tower Zero is higher than the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower. The surrounding landscape is beautiful heath land, with limestone ranges, white sand and incredibly aqua blue ocean. Maeve and Ellen are going to tell you in the next blog entry what we did and saw at Ningaloo and surrounds.
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