Day 15

Day 15

It is hard to imagine that we have been on the road now for over 2 weeks. Sometimes it seems like

Pot Shot Memorial

yesterday and others like we have been doing for ages. Today was another gorgeous day (pun intended) as we went to the gorges today. We have a whole swag of pictures but could only get a few on line as they really do not do the views justice. It really was a case a spectacular views everywhere you looked but pictures don’t show it.

Hunting Japanese Soldiers

Pot Shot Memorial

To start with we drove down to Operation Potshot Memorial. This was to mark the coming to Exmouth of World War 2. US Submarines, our airforce and anti-aircraft batteries. It seems they decided to base a submarine mother ship there to shorten the time spent at sea so a base was established in the sand hills near the now Learmonth air base is, in fact this is the start of that airbase. At its peak it had Submarines, Mother ships, refuelers, Catalina flying boat, fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft batteries. The memorial also recounts how some soldiers had to hunt down some Japanese spies. They found evidence of them being there but did not catch them. 

Balls of steel

Krait Memorial

Down the road as another memorial, this time to the Z Special forces boys who operated from there to attack Singapore twice. The ship they used was the Krait, an old Japanese fishing boat. They took canoes to Singapore and planted mines on ships, the first time it went like clockwork and all survived except the Japanese ships sunk, the second time it went astray and although some got through and sunk ships, they were all hunted down and killed. A reminder to some very brave men.

View from lookout - caves

Then we went to the gorges. First was Charles Knife Gorge. The drive into the gorge was spectacular. It follows a road put in by a petrol company that put a well down. The road ollows the tops of the ridge so it drops away both sides of the road. The gorges are deep and steep and

they just seem to go on forever. The look out at the end was in respect very

Charles Knife Gorge

disappointing. Maureen had to walk to it by herself, the track being too rough for me. At the end, the view was disappointing compared to others on the way in. it was also disappointing that there were so few people there. In Karijini there were heaps of people coming and going constantly, here we had it pretty much to our selves for and hour. The local Butcher, Maureen spoke to, later says there is also one of the biggest cave systems here as well but it is not promoted either.

Charles Knife Gorge

The memorial earlier said some soldiers chased Japanese soldiers

Charles Knife Gorge

through “Rough Range”, given you have a beautiful view of the memorial and Learmonth Airstrip, I assume that is “Rough Range” as I can find no other listed here and it would be perfect to watch the Gulf and airstrip. We stayed at the lookout whilst Maureen walked around.

Charles Knife Gorge

Charles Knife Gorge

We drove back down the road and stopped at all the other view points to enjoy the vistas and the plants. Wildlife took a step forward today, we had seen warning signs today on the way up to Shot Hole of pointy headed snakes (see picture) and Maureen was sure she heard one rustling in the bushes at the lookout. On the way down we saw a

Snake warning sign

pair of Euros jump across the road. We yelled out to stop so we could take a

picture, and one did! Euros are like little kangaroos. The picture does not show it, but it is under a metre tall, they look like joeys.

Lookout track

Knife Gorge

Back at the main road we drove north again to Shot Hole Gorge. This was 12 kms of really rough

View down the gorge

View from the top

road with washouts and rocks everywhere. It was listed as a 2 wheel drive, but I don’t think I would take my 2 wheeler down. Trude however ate it up! We put the old girl into 4WD and plugged our way through. We went through a number of washouts without a hitch and the one ones we
stopped to take a picture of was not as bad as the others, but the picture does not do it justice. There you go Gav, more off roading, your mum is starting to become a dirt track junkie and hardly had the grip of death employed. The view at the end was

Lost a bit off the top

Lunch

disappointing in comparison to the views at the Knife, but still spectacular. There were big chunks of rock that had fallen off hill tops showing how they were formed. There was a section where we had lunch that looked like Mount Rushmore in USA but with the heads weathered. The rock here is so different from karijini where it was like hard blocks of molten metal or like slate stacks. Here the rock is

Mt Rushmore

gentler as it is more sandstone so edges are smoother and weathered with a less intense red colour. We finished at Shot Hole and were driving out along the track

The Road in

when there was this grove of Sturt Peas right at the road edge. We had driven past it on the way in and had missed it, must have been the adrenalin rush of expectation for the off roading to come!

Back in town we dropped off at the shops to get some bits for tea – stake sangers tonight! Tomorrow, Trude goes in for her operation on her circulatory system at 10:30 so whilst we pace the corridors at the  done, possibly washing (if Maureen can find the laundry, it is not where we expected it to be so a hunting expedition will have to be mounted) and going to town.

Up the gorge

hospital/mechanic, we do not expect to get too much exciting

Road washout

Sturt Pea

Euro