Yes been a bit slack , here we go . Left Exmouth as we had some favourable winds for towing - you don't normally get too many Southerly winds here , mainly East to North Easterlies . There was a head wind for 80 klms but then it got better as we turned to the east back toward the highway . We were chasing the rain up the road , but thought we'd stop if it rained and sit it out .
The road out was interesting , one side of the road has been burnt and is now bare ground , the other side is full of spinifex grass - the spinifex does need to be burnt to replenish it , otherwise it dies off .
This photo shows that burnt on the left & untouched on the right .
The colours here always get us in , and with the spinifex gone you can see just how orange & red it is - it is such a diverse country we live in . The road to the highway goes through a lot of sand dune country , long red sand dunes stretching of in the distance , more flat country then another dune - kilometre after kilometre . We stopped beside the road for some lunch so I flew the drone over to one sand dune , spinifex and scrubby short trees dominate here . That's us over there .
This is above the sand dune , you can see the dunes running into the distance and each darker strip is another dune etc etc .
Now for a different view - straight down on top , showing the spinifex and the dead shrubbery and the colour of the sand .
After lunch we got going again , before long we were back on the highway north and had passed where we stopped for the night last year - it was still fine so we kept going .
The further north we got , the more overcast it became , and we started to get some light rain - now normally we'd have just stopped somewhere and called it a day , but we kept going and the rain stopped & started . We decided to go in toward Onslow about 7klms to a free camp there . As we arrived there was one truck & car stopped just off the bitumen - the mud was about 100mm deep !! We did a 3 point turn on the road and headed back to the highway again , not wanting to go off road at the moment - what looks firm and solid can be very wet and muddy and that's where we didn't want to be - stuck !!
Continuing on in light rain we finally pulled into Robe River Rest Area for the night .
After a good sleep , it was back onto the hwy again and off to Karratha in sunny skies , the rain having disappeared thankfully .
The batteries in the van have reached the end of their useful life and aren't lasting well , so we'll be here till a replacement arrives . In the meantime we'll get out & about and revisit some places with some different plans .
Karratha seems to be missing the rain this year - the locals are calling it the Kabubble - a bubble over Karratha where the rain isn't allowed - apparently there's also something that Rio Tinto & Woodside are doing to the weather so it doesn't rain , that way they don't have any down time due to the rain Haha . At Exmouth we had 30mm , Karratha had 0.2mm . During the cyclone event earlier this year Port Hedland got a lot of rain & flooding , Karratha got the wind but next to no rain !!
Here's a view of the concentrating ponds at Rio Tinto Dampier Salt .
From there we headed out to Woodside's gas plant , the flame coming of the stack was at least 30m long and was spiralling into the air . It can be quite a sight at night from where we are staying , with the flame illuminating the sky .
On our last 4wd adventure at Withnell Bay , we found another track to have a look at , so that was the plan for today to get to the western side of the peninsular . Winding our way slowly down the rocky track we found the track we were to try - it was tidal and fortunately it was approaching low tide and the water was only about 150mm deep . I walked across to check out the track before committing to it . On the other side of the water was a section of rocks , quite passable and well used , after that however was this section of very large rocks , with very little manoeuvring room . After walking further down the track I returned to the ute and decided we didn't need to break anything on the ute just to get somewhere we might later regret . With that we turned around and went back to the bay area and had some lunch . These are the offending rocks - they are considerably larger than they look here .
Back to the black top we then headed back to Hearsons Cove and the tide was out .
We parked at the top of the beach about 2m above the high tide mark , I took this photo from about 8-10m below .
The beach here is interesting in that it doesn't have any sand , it consists of shells and coral fragments . A bit harsh on bare feet !!
Back to town and the weather was nice enough to get the drone out . This is the eastern side of Karratha , not known for it's beaches , there's plenty of mangroves and sand / mud flats .
Plenty more to come , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1B1aun5qabqwdCuRtX5r98gHnRCB3fjO2&usp=sharing
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