Day 29

Day 29 – Cleaverville

It is hard to imagine that we have been on the road now for nearly a month, on one hand it seems like

Turning ship

Turning

Turned

yesterday and at times like we have been doing this for ages, but in a good way. As you can see from our location, our plan did not come off as we planned. The morning was excellent, Maureen got up and saw a bulk carrier come into the port. From our camp, it looks like they are going to drive ashore right in front of us, but they stop them and then swing them around and put them up next to the jetty. Maureen was able to get pictures of all the stages except the last when the tug suddenly started spurting water everywhere, must have been a first timer. When I got up, they were doing the same

Caught in the act

thing to another ship, but spurting water at the end. We again packed up our goods and chattels and started to get ready to leave, every time we turned around, there was our suspicious Spinifex Pigeon trying to get into the van, we now suspect that this is how he is following us!

Loaded up, we drove down to the village well (the tap) and filled up our water tanks and jerry can. Our hose is a funny thing we got in Exmouth. It is a collapsible hose that shrinks down to nothing. We filled up the tanks and as is required, when you unplug the hose, it collapses back and squirts out the water. Maureen was doing the disconnecting part and was dodging the squirting hose when she missed seeing the light pole in front of her and walked straight into it!

On the road we filled up with gas and fuel and hit the Tom Price road that would take us to Chichester National Park – Millstream. The first 90 Kms are bitumen, the last 60 Kms are gravel, but they said it was okay. Well we drove the first 90 Kms without a hitch through some awesome country, with hills and valleys, quite spectacular and came to the end of the bitumen, I would hate to see what a bad road was like if this was good. We went about 4 Kms to see if it got better but at 20Kmh it was no good. A war council was called and a change in plans was formulated. We would go back to

Our view

Flat out

Karratha and see if we could get into Point Sampson early. So round we go and back to town. The road follows the Rio Tinto rail line and it is mind boggling the amount of trains on it. We saw at least 10 trains in the 3 hours we were driving there, some full, some empty and they go day and night.

Back at Karratha, we again filled up the gas and whilst there we reviewed our destination. I thought that instead of Point Sampson, why not try Cleaverville. We were already geared up for free camping at Millstream so why not try that, we had to go by it anyway to get there, so we might as well have a look, plan accepted and we hit the tarmac. The drive to the cleaverville turn off was uneventful and we found the turn off without any issues. The track in is gravel and for once it was driveable. We followed the track for about 14 Kms until we found the caretaker. After nearly 4 hours driving so far I

Our beach

Info sign

was about to accept anywhere to stop. The caretaker was lovely, we could stop just about anywhere we wanted. There was a large group where she was or we could go back down the road we came on to some other sites there or go further up the track where she mentioned we could go down to the beach. Being unrealistic in my expectations, I decided that we would go and find this beach access. All of the sites could see the ocean, but being calm and logical, I wanted to get closer and more important, get away from others for a while after all the caravan parks.

Off we went down the track and it just got worse. Maureen was starting to get the “just give up and go back” tone to her suggestions about finding a turn off, whilst I was still being calm, logical and reasonable, was not going to give up without a bit more effort, after all, how bad could it get! Well not much as it turned out as we found a lovely turn off that looked like we could turn around in if nothing else and when we got to the top, it over looked the bay and there was no one else in sight! Perfect. It was not without its hassles with boggy sand and stuff, but nothing a little low 4WD and a few pointed words would fix – mind you I was starting to wonder why Maureen was not shouting instructions for me until I realised my window was up! 

Us from the beach

Taswegians on the move

Well we set up the van in no time and were sitting down to lunch with panoramic views of the bay, absolutely exactly what we wanted. The sand here is very course, so there is no body to the ground so you dig in very easily, I even had problems with the gopher and got bogged 6 times in 10 m. I am afraid the Beast will have to go away for this bit. We had lunch and I got down to some studying of the inside of my eyelids whilst Maureen found her way down to the beach. I was about to unload the Beast when another camper

Getting ready to cook tea

Sunset on the beach

rolled up. They set up about 30 m away and came over to say hello, well there 2 ½ yo son Mason came up first, followed by Mum then Dad. A lovely young couple from Tasmania who are on their way down the coast. You will love this Rob, they come from near where the Salmon are grown and every so often, the cages get holes in them from sharks and seals and the salmon get out! A whisper goes round and the locals volunteer to help clean up the pests with their square hooks, seems very few make it back to the cages.

Sunset

Soft light of sunset

We had a few drinks with them and swapped some advice on destinations and as you can see from the picture, the view we have. Or plans are not so organised for the next few days, I am happy to sit here for the 3 nights before Point Sampson, but we may do some sight seeing from here. One advantage is that we do have internet connection.