Leaving Exmouth , we head south , then east , then back north again . The change in scenery from when we were here last year was amazing , the plants and shrubbery looked like they wanted to be there , fresh & green instead of dead & dying .
The temperature was also increasing to around 33 degrees , causing mirages on the road in the distance.
Last year we wanted to stop at a free camp about 6klms in on Onslow Rd , it was pouring rain and mud , this year completely different .
And this is how it looks from above .
The colours out here are stunning .
We clambered past the spinifex and up onto the small quartz outcrop and checked out the many bones in the small caves at the base .
Then we had a sunset like this .
We were surprised to see how many cars & caravans coming out of Onslow - we thought great , there should be plenty of available spots . Checking at the 1st caravan park , we found the town was booked out - now that was a problem !! The managers of the park told us that the other park was also booked out , but they could give us a spot in the overflow section - so this is where we ended up for the night , not such a bad view !!
Onslow has a large Salt Production facility , here's a couple of salt piles waiting to be loaded onto the conveyor that takes it to the ship .
The piles don't look large in that view , but from the side , it gives you a better size comparison .
Beside Onslow Rd there are hundreds , if not thousands of Spinifex Termite mounds , we drove round and checked them out .
Not too far away from the termite mounds is the salt farm , with the salt concentration ponds that you drive through .
The colours in the salt & round are great , making for some great shots from above .
Somewhere we didn't get to 4 years ago was Old Onslow - due to wet weather again , dirt roads get closed whenever they get much rain up here .
There's some buildings left of the original township - being the jail and the police residence . This is the jailhouse .
On top of the walls of the jailhouse are broken glass bottles cemented into the top - they didn't want any escapees !
This is the police building .
The bricks were sourced locally from the rock shelves near the ocean , you can still see the shells in the bricks .
This is the view from above .
Another major industry here is Liquified Natural Gas , this is the Wheatstone Gas Plant - it would be larger than the huge gas plant at Dampier !!
Old Onslow was located beside the Ashburton River , utilising it as a port facility - unfortunately it kept on filling up with sand & silt , making it unviable to remain as a port . This is the Ashburton River
Onslow has one of the best Anzac Memorials in Australia with views out over Beadon Bay - the sun comes up in the middle of the memorial - too early for me to get a photo hahaha .
After having a night in the overflow area , we had to move again because the grader was coming to flatten the area out , so we moved down to another council owned property where there was room for about 6 vans to fit , then went back up and paid another $10 for another night .
We drove round to Sunset Beach where the Salt loading jetty is
We went to the supermarket to get some things and ran into a couple that we met at Meentheena this time last year , they are from Bunbury , we chatted to them for a while before a relaxing afternoon .
Sunset was interesting from above us looking out over the Salt Loading Jetty .
That's it , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1e6GMPMutjujwDZQ5WgkEWvPEFlt0tdKA&usp=sharing
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