13/7/20 The colours of Onslow

       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

3/7/20 Fly Ningaloo

       Been a while to get this blog done , lack of service and being a bit busy will do that . Anyway here's the goss , we went for a joy flight from Exmouth over to Cape Range and down to Yardie Creek , then back up the peninsular to NW Cape and back down to the airport .

  Here's our Ningaloo Aviation Cessna for our hour long flight .

                              

 

     The canyons of Charles Knife Road showed off their colours .

      This is the very popular Oyster Stacks snorkelling site .

      The views down the reef to the south .

      We got lucky with a whale breaching , here's the sequence of the breach in the next 3 photo's .

      That was a bit exciting , then we were back to the views of the reef & coast .

      Here's the view from the plane go pro camera - they do photos for you - we got 84 photos from them all like this - one or two with the plane would have been fine but 84 !!

                                        

 

     This is part of Yardie Creek Gorge 

      Here is the wreck of SS Mildura - a cattle steamer that ran aground on a reef not very far away and was blown here in a storm .

      This is the ultra low frequency radio towers used for submarine communications - we were flying at 1,000 ft and the towers were still above us !

      This is the marina development and some of the canal homes .

     And with that our flight was done and we landed just over the hour from when we took off . 

 We did the flight with Sue , whom we met at Bonneys - Dave & Sue came out to Yardie Homestead CP while we were there and we had a few days with them . 

     Our stay at Yardie Homestead was soon over and we had 3 nights in town getting our washing done and things charged up again , before heading off again because Exmouth was booked out for the school holidays .

2/7/20 Off to Exmouth

      We left Denham and headed north , having a night at a rest area 80 kms from Carnarvon on the way . Carnarvon was a fuel and food stop for us and we continued on to Lyndon River Rest Area for another night . 

     One stop we find ourselves doing each time we come this way is Gladstone Lookout , today it was our lunch stop , which gave me 10 mins to get the drone out . This shot is looking to Gladstone Beach & Camp 

 

     This is the lookout area at the back .

 

    It get's a bit windy up here .

 

     Not much further up the road is Wooramel Roadhouse and then Wooramel Station . We could see some raised dust as we were getting closer and found we had a small dust storm happening close to the station - there seemed to be a climate bubble happening here - almost like it's been in drought for a long time , very little vegetation , certainly no ground cover to hold the topsoil . A few kilometres up the road and we were clear of the dust again .

     Coral Bay was booked out so we couldn't stay there , so we went up to Exmouth and spent a week at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park . It's a great location to access Cape Range NP when you can't get into there either .

      We had plenty of time to check things out , so did a few different things this time . There's a 4wd track that takes you up onto the ranges and does go all the way to Learmonth Airport . Being nice and warm now , we were a little slow off the mark and didn't get going till 10:30 am . By the time we'd gone into the NP , found the track and let our tyres down it was near enough to 11:15 . The track up to the top of the range was rocky and rough and slow going -1st & 2nd gear in Low Range 4wd for most of the way up . 

      This is an aerial view of the track from the top of the range 

     After getting past the top , the track started to turn into mainly a sandy track , with a few sections of rock to slow you right down again .

 

     Reaching a road going off to the right , we took it and found our way down through water courses ( dry of course ) and over sand dunes , then found 3 rocky hills beside each other . The hills were made up of limestone , spinifex and small trees .

     This is what the limestone looks like - with some holes big enough to lose you leg in !

      On our walk up to the top we disturbed one of the locals - a reasonable size red kangaroo .

        We came back to the water course to have some lunch , and were surprised to find this . If you've been to Cape Range before you'd know that there's not many trees of this size anywhere , so this was a rare find .

     We ate lunch at the back of the ute - it makes a great table - and noticed this tiny flower near our feet . It's only about 4cm off the ground  .

      This is the view back down the range to the ocean & Ningaloo Reef .

      Another day we went down to Pilgramunna in the NP , plenty of different colours here . 

 

     If you thought that was good , check out the views from above , they are stunning .

     On our way in another day we stopped at Neds Campground & beach - not a bad spot to camp beside .

      Snorkelling was on offer a few days   

  

     Dave & Sue , who we met at Bonneys during the lockdown , arrived and stayed for a few days . We took them around Cape Range and down to Yardie Creek , this is Yardie Creek Gorge .

     Another day we headed into town to the Ningaloo Discovery Centre . There's a display about the cyclone that ripped Exmouth apart 1997 , very scary !!

     There's also a huge tank containing a lot of fish , and several smaller ones - a great display . This particular fish got our interest - we'd seen a few of these that had been caught the day before at the park where they were being cleaned & cut up . They are Coronation Trout , and are a beautiful fish .

     These trees are in flower at the moment and have been planted in all the carpark around the Discovery Centre .

     There you have it , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1nydmmafqMTljFZcuNBDOQvUkaaZoQeDS&usp=sharing