Cable Beach 11th - 14th August

We drove into Cable Beach Caravan Park and were directed to our campsite. It is a huge caravan park with over 400 sites and a great swimming pool. On arriving at our site we found that our neighbours were Pip and Dean with sons Archie, 11, and Sam, 9, from Tasmania who had previously been our neighbours at Karijini 1000km ago. Sam and Archie were just as surprised and excited to see us as we were to see them.
Highlights:
                - All three kids playing with Sam and Archie who were fantastic big brothers to Jasper and our Archie. Their caring playfulness was a delight to see.
                - Camel ride on Cable Beach.
                - Early morning walk to Gantheuame Point to see dinosaur footprints in the tidal rocks, only exposed at extreme low tides. Archie and Jasper stripped off their clothes and enjoyed swimming in the large rock pools.
                 - Swimming at Cable Beach. Imogen loved getting in the water again and Jasper is getting more adventurous tackling the waves.
                 - Archie sitting in holes dug in the sand and waiting for the fast tide to fill them in.
                 - Having a drink at sunset with Alan and Susan Harrison, long term family friends of Lisa's who were holidaying in Broome coincidentally at the same time.

Eighty Mile Beach 8th - 11th August

After setting up our tent we headed over the low lying dunes to the beach. What a great surprise the beach was. The sand was a chalky pale grey and the water beyond was a beautiful blue. The sand was very flat and extended over 100 metres before the water was reached. It was 30 degrees so we headed for a swim. We found that the sand was prolifically covered with an amazing array of shells. Despite the heat we couldn't resist at least half an hour of shell collecting before reaching the water. We headed back to our lovely grassed campsite (no red dirt) for dinner.
The next morning we woke up and decided this was a much needed place to stop and relax. So we decided to spend another night here. We spent the day swimming, shell collecting and washing the car. At the end of the day we had two clip lock bags full of shells. When we returned to our tent in the afternoon we found that we had new neighbours, a German couple with two sons, one year old Jesper and four year old Jarvis. Our Jasper quickly befriended both boys and we were destined for a third night and another day of relaxation. So we ended up enjoying a third day of swimming and shell collecting (four clip lock bags now).
After our third night we said goodbye to Jesper and Jarvis and drove to Broome.

The drive to Eighty Mile Beach 7th - 8th August

We planned to make Eighty Mile Beach our next stop, however over 600km separated us from our destination. A distance too far with 3 kids in the back. We left Karijini around 10am (our pack up are improving and we are getting faster) and drove the dirt track out to the Karijini Road that connects with the Great Northern Highway.
The drive was relatively uneventful except for the wide (extra wide !!!) load that came towards us. We decided to stay at Indee Station just south of Port Hedland. It is a working cattle station that supplements its income by running a small campground and housing miners. It was a quirky place to stay. The biggest benefit being the free use of the washing machines. These got a work out trying to eliminate the red dust, an impossible task. The children were lucky to have the opportunity to feed a two week old calf which thought their fingers were delicious as well. We managed to leave by 9am the next morning.

The drive towards Port Hedland was dominated by masses of road trains travelling in both directions as well as a huge number of flouro striped, numbered, flag waving mine vehicles. One of these road trains threw up a stone that resulted in a cracked windscreen (30cm long). We have had it checked and have been assured the crack may creep but the windscreen is secure will survive until we get home to Sydney.
We arrived at Eighty Mile Beach expecting to stay one night before heading for Broome.

Karijini National Park 3rd - 7th August

Everything was red. The landscape, was dominated by a rich red. And by now every fibre and crevice, including the interior of the car, had been penetrated by red dusty dirt. Our faces, hands, arms, soles of our feet, hair, shorts, t-shirts were all red. The red seemed to penetrate our skin and however hard we tried it could not be washed off. Clothes remain red, more than a week later, after two or three washes.
Karijini was a stark contrast to the beach camping we had enjoyed at Coral Bay and Cape Range.
We camped at the Karijini Eco Retreat. The campsites were separated by trees and we had a lot of space. There were basic solar showers, necessary to wash the dust off.
Some highlights:
                         - Walking down Dales Gorge and swimming under the waterfalls at Fern Pool.
                         - Imogen and Lisa went to a night sky viewing. A local astronomy enthusiast set up a high powered telescope and on their night their was only Imogen, Lisa and two others. He shared his knowledge and gave them time on the telescope. The highlight was a clear vision of Saturn and many stars and satellites.
                         - Boyd shaved off his facial follicles
                         - Walking down and along Kalamina Gorge. A watercourse at the bottom was a small creek (in the wet season it contains much more water). We traversed the creek several times as we made our way down the gorge. We sat to have lunch and floated sticks, leaves and shoes down the creek and small rapids over the rocks.
                          - We went on a tour of Rio Tinto's mine at Tom Price. Everything was on a huge scale. We felt very small alongside trucks, machinery, processing plants, piles of ore and one huge hole in the ground. Whilst in the town of Tom Price after this tour we were able to buy a new gas stove at the small local hardware.

The drive to Karijini National Park (disaster strikes) 2nd - 3rd August

Cape Range National Park to Karijini National Park was over 700km so we decided to split it into two days driving. We stayed overnight in a "free camp" at House Creek. It is a small area under the trees about 50metres off the road and by a dry creek bed. There were about three other overnight campers there that night. House Creek marked the start of the red dusty dirt. And it was very red and there was lots of it. As we set up the tent it took no time for Archie and Jasper to become covered in red. Skin and clothes changed colour within minutes.
The next day we left about 9.30 and headed for Karijini. We estimated about four hours of driving and looked forward to an early afternoon set up for a five day stay. We got to Paraburdoo, a small mining town comprising of an IGA and not much else, about 100km from Karijini. This was our stop to buy supplies before we entered into the national park. As we pulled into the shops car park two locals waved us to a stop to tell us the tail gate at the back of our trailer was wide open. Uh oh !!!! We had just driven 300km and not knowing how long the back of the trailer had been open we quickly parked and went to the back of the trailer to see what had happened. The tailgate has the kitchen attached to it and the sink and shelves were still attached however they were now empty. Somewhere along the North West Coastal Highway or the Nanutarra Wittenoom Rd was our cutlery, gas stove, cups, mugs, assorted food and a few other odds and ends.
Of all places for this to happen. Paraburdoo was tiny and the IGA had only a few things that could have replaced some lost items, mainly cutlery. A local shopper recommended we drive to Tom Price to see what we could get there as it was a bit bigger having a Coles and several other shops. Tom Price was the last place we could buy things before entering Karijini. We decided to not buy anything in Paraburdoo and made our way to Tom Price.
We managed to replace all we could remember that was on the kitchen shelves. Except a gas stove. Luckily we have a small single burner butane stove that would have to suffice until we found somewhere to buy a new gas stove.
It could have been much worse. Two crates at the back of the trailer were full of heavy items and didn't slide out of the open trailer. These two crates prevented all our belongings being deposited on the road as we drove. The tail gate hinges held on. The disaster would have been much worse if the it had fallen off. It doesn't close as neatly as it once did as the hinges have been slightly damaged. Over the subsequent days we realised other things that we had lost and not realised earlier. An adjustable spanner, mixing bowls, some tupperware. a jug and .... we are sure the list will grow.
We have no idea when the tail gate opened, or how it opened. It is now padlocked whenever we drive.
We arrived at our campsite without the luxury of an early afternoon setup. Instead we set up in the late afternoon just in time for dinner.

Cape Range National Park 28th July - 2nd August

We found paradise !!! We camped 80km south of Exmouth in this spectacular national park. Our campsite was called Kurrajong, a 50 metre walk over the dunes to the beach. The Ningaloo Reef stretches along this coastline and snorkeling from waist deep is easy and the marine life is prolific. We spent the days on the beach (Turquoise Bay being one of our favourites), snorkeling, swimming, rolling in the shallows, jumping the rippling waves and bush walking.
Some highlights:
                        - The termite mounds on the drive into Exmouth. These mounds were with us, in varying densities for the next 800 km.
                        - Archie in his Ripcurl budgie smugglers
                        - Archie putting on his own sunscreen using a tub of Philadelphia cream cheese
                        - The Tarago having a close encounter with a kangaroo as it jumped out of the roadside scrub. The front number plate has been remodeled and a Toyota badge has been recovered from the road and reattached in a somewhat less secure way. Unfortunately the kangaroo wasn't so lucky.
                         - Snorkeling for twenty metres less than 2 metres above a green turtle as it swam over the coral and pushed through the sand on the sea floor
                          - The pit toilets at Kurrajong - definitely the cleanest in Western Australia, if not Australia
                          - Meeting Julia, David, Emily and Oliver, a family from the Mornington Peninsula, who are travelling around Australia in the opposite direction to us. We compared notes to help each of us plan the next part of our respective trips. Imogen, Jasper and Archie loved playing on the rocks and sand dunes with Oliver and Emily. They collected crabs, slid down dunes, laughed, talked and all five found relief from spending too much time with their parents. And we found relief from spending too much time with them.
                          - Eating fresh king prawns (just come of the boat - could not be fresher) and fresh bread on the beach at Turquoise Bay.
                          - Meeting Hugh and Inez, a retired couple from Perth (originally from Wales - migrated about 30  years ago, although their accents are still heavily Welsh) who were camping at Kurrajong for an entire month.
We left the Cape Range National Park ready for four or five days in Karijini National Park.