Ronalds on the road

Broome is full at this time of the month. Everywhere is booked out as everyone wants to see “The Staircase to the Moon” phenomenon. It happens over 3 evenings a month (March-October) when a full moon and very low tides happen at the same time. There was a market at town beach, carnival in town and so many people. (Broome has about 14000 permanent people, but at the moment there is around 45000 people! And I reckon 31000 were watching this phenomenon!! (Maybe slight exaggeration, but there were lots and lots of people!!!!!)
Regardless, it was quite stunning to watch and it reminds me of how perfect creation is. Genesis Chapter 1, verse 14-15. (and on the fourth day) “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

We had been getting Noah excited for this a week. Ava nearly came with us, but chilled with Mum and Maya doing craft instead!!
The excitement was worth the wait and Noah LOVED the ride on our camel called Jabul. We were in a camel train and Jabul was behind Gemma and in front of Janda. Noah has already repeatedly asked to go on a ride again next time we are in Broome. (Might be a while I’m thinking!!)

We had been encouraged to visit “80 Mile Beach” by numerous people back at home and on our travels. We were not disappointed, despite basically every available space taken up by tents, campers, buses, caravans, 4wds and 4 wheel motorbikes. We hadn’t realised that this was another long weekend for WA and I think every person and their dog from everywhere made the pilgrimage here. A couple of hours each side of high tide maybe 80-100 4 wheel motorbikes headed onto the beach!!! All wrestling for best beach fishing positions. Not to mention 100’s of 4wds in the camp and so many of these venturing onto the beach, all wrestling for the best fishing spots as well. Then there were the fussy people who didn’t want their vehicles on the beach walking to wrestle for fishing spots!!! Crazy!!

So we thought we should give it a go a couple of times in the 3 nights we stayed there. If you were a bit late getting onto the beach, you literally couldn’t find a place to throw your rod into the water without hooking your neighbours ear on a cast for maybe 2kms each way up the beach from the campsite. We had no luck at all catching fish.
We had been hoping to find some nice shells here as well and were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t find many nice ones. It took a big drive up the beach and then a long walk past some rocks to find many beautiful shells. The kids loved walking along exploring the beach for them, but we didn’t calculate the kids energy levels too well. Half way back to the car they were all too tired to walk another step, so we loaded them all up onto dads back for a bit to give them a break!!

There are lots of grey nomads who stay here for 3 months at a time and we met a lovely lady who makes shell animal figurines and lets all the kids choose one each to take home. On the day our kids discovered her, she gave away 110 shell animals to 110 kids. She very kindly gave Bec a great big shell with shell butterflies all over it. The kids chose a shell mouse each.
Sunday night was roast night and the caravan park cooked up a roast for dinner for anyone who donated $15 for the cause. It was great having this watching the sunset.

Oh, and you might be wondering how many fish were being caught? We saw a guy in a kayak pull in 1 fish and we heard of 1 other person catching one over the 3 days we were there!!!

We then went to “Barn Hill Station”. A rough sandy track led to a beautiful beach and a large area with heaps of caravans scattered around. A lot staying for months on end. The showers and toilets were a highlight for the kids and me as they had no roof, so you could see the stars and moon as you were doing various bits of business. Bec wasn’t so keen on the resident big frogs that enjoyed tucking themselves up under the rim of the dunnies!!

One night our neighbours pulled out a guitar and within minutes an impromptu concert/sing-a-long was had with about 15 people. Our kids had their noses pressed hard against the windows watching and listening and the “oldies” coaxed the kids out to join them for an hour or so listening to many old songs including Elvis and Slim Dusty favourites.
There were some great rock pools at low tide we enjoyed fossicking in for fish, shells and other creatures. The West Australian coat is stunning and very different everywhere you go!

On the road between Port Hedland and Broome (about 600kms) I was a bit intrigued as to why one side of the road was neater than the other. It was when we were about 60kms out of Broome we saw the tractors and mowers heading back the 600kms to Port Hedland!!!

There is so much of our natural resources being shipped out of the country. Its when you arrive at the ports of Geraldton, Dampier, Karratha, Port Hedland you see how much is sent away. It hasn’t been unusual to see 10 or more ships anchored outside these towns waiting to be loaded and numerous ships in the ports being loaded simultaneously. But as you look around it is rare to see much evidence of the actually mines. There is so much richness of resources in the whole of the Pilbra and I don’t think we need to be too worried about running out any time soon!

In Port Hedland it was most evident. In the main st, of the town, at the post office you can see the ships coming and going, and getting loaded. Trains with 36000hp almost 4 km long with 208 wagons carrying 26000tons of ore rattling in 24 hours/day. Road trains with 4 trailers going around round abouts and trying to cross busy roads. Quite a spectacle.

Just in Port Hedland, last year they sent out close to 300 million tone, and on top of this another 3 million tons of salt harvested in the town.

To get some perspective on the amount of iron ore that needed to be delivered to the port last year, I calculated how many loads our old prime mover and semi trailer (27.5 tons/load) would need to deliver. Just for interests sake and to see if I should put in a tender to BHP for next years delivers. Our poor old freightliner would need to deliver 19 loads each minute for 24 hours/day, 365 days a year.  Maybe I wont put in for that tender!!!!

The kids have enjoyed seeing all this. Everything is on a massive scale, trucks, trains, excavators, bulldozers, etc. etc. There have been a few places we have been able to stop and watch the action and wave to the drivers. They are always happy to honk their horns at the kids and give a big wave. Noah has now changed his drawing habits from sea creatures to trucks and trains and ships, and his lego is now always big machinery!

 

 

After 10,000kms you would have thought we’d have learnt to look a bit more thoroughly at maps before heading to the next place. There have been a number of times we have headed off after a lazy morning only to discover after a few hours of driving that we have still got lots of kms to get to our destination!!! So once again after a couple of hours travelling and a few enquiring questions “Are we there yet?”, we discovered we had embarked on a journey of close to 600kms. So the dvd player got a workout, all food supplies in the car were devoured and in the early evening we arrived at Point Samson.

A small, sleepy town surrounded by massive industry and ports, trucks and trains. (See our next planned blog)

The caravan park set up their water park twice especially for our kids (as they were the only kids in the park)

Noah caught the only fish which he was super proud of, even it was tiny!!

We also went for a day trip into Milllstream. An old station that is now a National Park, which was beautiful. Python Pool was so nice, but we were there a bit early for a swim (9am), and there was some algae in it which was a bit average, but the 50 metre cliffs were stunning. We then went to the old homestead, which had lots of history and an interesting walk looking through the eyes of a little boy who used to live here in the early 1900’s. There was some crystal clear creeks and beautiful old gardens as well.

We then went to the Fortesque river for lunch and the kids enjoyed feeding the fish their crusts. The fish came right up to us all as we fed them. Mainly catfish.

One of the highlights for the kids was following the train lines back into Karratha. Noah counted 8 massive trains carting iron ore into the port during the day.

We also saw a little Memorial for “Red Dog” from the movie made in this area.

 

After our extended stay at Coral Bay we went to Warroora Station for 2 nights. What another stunning place to visit. We got to stay no more than 20 metres from the waters edge. It is unbelievably green in this area and the station had lush grass a foot high everywhere. I suggested to Bec about moving here to milk some cows, but we are yet to agree that it would be a good move for us!! I think she is definitely the wise one here!!

Well it seems that we might have finally found where the fish have been hiding, or more likely we have learnt how and where to catch some fish!!
Noah is my fishing buddy and really enjoys trying his luck. Some of his regular statements are.
“I caught the biggest fish”, “I caught the ONLY fish”, “Have we caught the most of anyone EVER?”, “Can we show our fish to Everyone” I think we might have to work on tempering his gloating and pride, but then again, I think that’s all part of fishing isn’t it?? We have caught toadies, bream, flathead, tusk fish, Longtom,Salmon crabs and others I don’t recognise.