Day one of our trip was the drive from Geraldton to Cue.  We made a few brief stops on the way, including Pindar to find out that the wreath flowers were in peak bloom and then Mt. Magnet.  Although rain was intermittent through the day, everywhere we decided to stop and walk around, the weather held.  Mt. Magnet is essentially a large mining town with a tourist driving loop which leads you to big holes in the ground.  [Later in the trip, we saw a truly giant hole, so more on that when we get to it.]  One of the more interesting stops there was at the hill in the photo above.  The geology of the area led to some really strange rock shapes.  We stopped to explore these for awhile.  Then we drove to Cue for the only hotel stay of our trip.

Cue is a moderately old historic town.  The photo above shows about a quarter of main street.  The “hotel” stay was actually at the tavern in town.  In these towns, the local pub/restaurant/hotel/campground/whatever else you need along those lines, are the main form of lodging and food.  This one was entertaining.  For some reason, (which we still don’t know) it was a full house, so the pub decided to put on a buffet instead of the standard a la carte.  It was actually quite good, and we chatted with an interesting character for a long time.

Day two was the drive to Newman.  We stopped off at Millie Soak, a historic watering hole for Cue back in the day.  Today, it’s a dry hole in the ground with an interpretive sign giving a history of the importance of this watering hole.  A few hundred feet past the hole are a few old graves from an emergency hospital which was established here.  As we continued driving, Em saw the sponge bob creation below.  We just had to go back and get a picture of it.

In addition to the manmade strangeness, we did see examples of natural beauty.  I think the white trunks of the gum trees with the red dirt and blue sky is rather striking.

The bush below appealed to me as well.  Interesting colors and form.  That is one thing that isn’t lacking out here.

Day three was driving from Newman to Karijini National Park.  Newman exists because of the BHP Billiton mine at Mt. Whaleback.  It’s the largest single pit open cut ore mine in the world.  Naturally, we had to take the tour.  How often do you get a chance to check out something like that?  Each ledge you see in the photo below is 45 feet high.  This mine is massive.  More details on it are at: http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/ourBusinesses/ironOre/bhpBillitonIronOre.jsp

On the way to Karijini, we noticed the Governor.

We camped in the park for 2 nights.  This was quite an experience.  First, camping in Australia is different than the camping we’ve done in the states.  The park provides a gas BBQ and stove in a central location for each campsite group.  This cuts down on people doing stupid things which lead to wildfires.  It was really convenient.  Other differences were the lack of ranger led interpretive events like the national parks have in the states, and not providing a picnic table or a place to sit within your campsite.  [Later on this trip, we also find that buying portable picnic tables are popular here.]

The best part about camping here was hearing the campground surrounded by a pack of dingos at about 1 am.  That’s an experience you can’t get just anywhere.  An added advantage of camping in the middle of nowhere is the complete lack of light pollution.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars.  The Milky Way was a glowing river of light in the sky.  This is a far cry from the night sky back home where you can only see the brightest of stars.  Em and I enjoyed 2 star-gazing night walks while we stayed there.

After a long day, we were able to refresh ourselves with a swim in this pool below.  The hike down to “Fern Pool” begins as a 2400 foot steep rock descent, followed by a 900 ft rainforest-like walk to find this secluded and absolutely breathtaking pool. There were lots of bats hanging upside down through the mini-rainforest area to the pool, which were awesome to see and wow, are they noisy!  Size is deceptive, but that waterfall is about 8-10 feet high.  The water was very cold, but you adapt quickly.  It was worth swimming over to the waterfall, since the water pouring over it was quite a bit warmer than the rest of the pool.  This was, undoubtedly, Em’s favorite part of the trip, so we swam there twice!

The falls below are at the bottom of the descent, before the rest of the hike to Fern Pool.  They were quite spectacular in their own way.

This part of Australia has lots of the termite mounds as seen below.  Average height of the mounds around the park are about 5 feet.  They are about as hard as concrete.  The “grass” mounds in the foreground are actually a species of spinifex.  It’s not soft like grass we normally think of and can inflict quite a bit of pain if you aren’t paying attention to where you are walking.  Think of it like walking through yucca plants.  You could probably use each “blade” like a needle for sewing if you were hard pressed.  It’s all over the place in the outback and is very important to the local ecology.  More on it here: http://www.alicespringsdesertpark.com.au/kids/nature/plants/spinifex.shtml

After a few other gorge overlooks throughout the park, we checked out of the campground to begin the drive to Karratha through Millstream-Chichester.  Our route took us through a part of Karijini we hadn’t yet seen.  The countryside was quite striking, and we were fortunate to have some cool clouds in the sky, a rarity here.

After 2 hours of driving, the route brought us back into the western side of Karijini, leading us now into Hamersley gorge.  This is one more example of the beautiful features in the landscape.  With a bit of creative bouldering, I was able to work my way upstream to get the following shots.  This area is prone to flash floods.  Fortunately, it wasn’t the right season for heavy rain, so we were safe.  In another month or 2, I wouldn’t have attempted this, as there was no way to get to higher ground quickly enough if we heard a flood coming.  If you’ve ever lived in flash flood country, you know they are no joke.  The curls and twists in the eroded rock speak to the power they have.

Continuing onward, we started driving on the crazy road to Millstream-Chichester.  Why was it crazy?  Well, we were in our low clearance 2 wheel drive Mazda going on a rough one way road blasted through a rocky hill.  It must be said that this road is rather far out and rarely travelled.   We assumed the risk of running into something else would be low; however, the concern was what to did if we actually did.  This is a route created for road trains but was too convoluted for them to go through as a whole.  There were staging areas on both sides so they could deconstruct/construct the road train and continue on their way.  There were a few dicey moments, but we managed to make it through ok.  That white knuckle drive was totally worth it when we started seeing the views below.  The swim at Python Pool was also very nice.

Millstream-Chichester receives virtually no publicity on the Australian national park website, to the point of not even having pictures, so we had no idea what to expect.  As it turns out, portions of the park are absolutely stunning.  It was late afternoon when we arrived to this part of the park, so lighting was getting better for photos.  Pure luck, but happy it turned out that way.  Out here they call this breakaway country for obvious reasons.  It really reminds me of parts of northern New Mexico and was my favorite drive for the whole trip.

The photo below is of  ”The Pyramid”.  The road map we have actually has the names of most large geographic features.  It’s helpful when you are trying to figure out “why aren’t we there yet?” and also for titling your photos.  The sun was dropping quickly at this point, but the color shift of the light really worked well with the spinifex.  After grabbing a few shots, we hustled back into the car to get to the campground for check-in before they closed at 7pm.  This spot was a bit over an hour away.  We made it in 30 minutes to spare fortunately.  And the best part of this stage of the trip?  After 3 days on dirt roads of varying quality, we were finally back on bitumen!  It was now quiet enough to put our music back on.

We stayed in Karratha for a couple of nights so we could explore the area.  The visitor center suggested observing ancient aboriginal rock art just outside of town which we decided to find.  An example is shown below.  You can see literally thousands of carvings on the mounds of rocks; however, their visibility is dependant upon the direction light hits the surface.  This shot captures the surrounding area as well as the art.  The piles of rock look like remnants of mining but are a naturally occuring formation which is prevalent throughout that part of WA.  It’s a type of granite estimated to be one of the oldest types of rock on the planet.  It weathers to that red look but freshly broken pieces are greenish.  When it is exposed to water for long periods of time, it becomes black.

Driving down a dirt road, parking, then walking up a seasonal creek bed gains access to this canyon.  After only a short hike inside, you reach the trees in the photo below which are actually at the intersection of 4 canyons.  It was an interesting experience and easy to see how it could be considered a spiritual place.  Apparently, this site was reserved for initiation rituals for the men in the tribe.  The rock art played a role in those ceremonies, which is why there are so many.  One interesting thing to note about the art was its implementation.  Unlike most of the aboriginal art in Australia formed by painting, this art was done in the same manner as pictographs in the American southwest.  Stone was drilled/chipped away to expose the different color underneath the outer oxidation layer of the stone.

The rocks both in the foreground and background are actually the same material in the shot below.  This was at Hearson’s cove in Dampier.  This beach is composed primarily of small shells with a few granite pebbles thrown in for diversity.  Em hung out in her camp chair with her feet in the water while I went exploring.  The tide was coming in quickly and caused one of my sandals, which I inadvertently left on the beach, to begin floating away.  I had to hustle and managed to rescue it.  Em was highly entertained and offered no assistance.

Another sight we enjoyed is the abandoned town, Cossack, just north of Roebourne.  The history of this town is interesting with a few of the buildings restored and a museum holding various relics from the inhabitants.  It rose to prominance during the early pearling history of the region, but its port fell into disuse when the newer larger vessels couldn’t pull in.  A new port was opened further up the peninsula at Port Samson, which effectively ended the town’s industry.  Nearing the same time, a major hurricane eliminated virtually every structure and finished off this town.  There is an overlook of Settler’s beach and the original waterway which was interesting.

Back at the campground, we met a gold prospector known as “Wombat”.  He had the look.  Rail thin with a great big bushy beard.  Wombat just returned from a 3 months expedition out in the bush looking for gold and actually found some.  He showed us his prize example about 110 grams, a bit bigger than a golf ball with quartz nodules buried in it. Quite a find which he estimated to be worth between $7000-$8000AUD to a collector.  As it turns out, collectors will pay more than the gold is worth to find a natural specimen for their mineral collections.  It was very interesting talking to him.  There was quite a bit of laughter, some of which had that slight edge of crazy, but we had a good time.  It’s a tempting thought to head out there and give it a go.  Em’s against it, unless I promise not to return until I’ve found something real big.

After Karratha, we drove to Exmouth.  Our original plan was to spend 3 nights here swimming and snorkeling at Ningaloo Reef.  Our first night was mostly uneventful, other than Em seeing a huntsman spider, big enough to carry small children off.  Just a few hours before that, we were at the lighthouse shown below to watch this gorgeous sunset.  While the sun was doing its thing, we spotted a group of whales frolicking offshore.  This provided quite a bit of entertainment.  The rest of our time was cut short due to 4 meter seas.  It’s hard to swim/snorkel in that, plus the added danger of very strong rip currents dragging you out to sea.  We decided to not chance it and instead headed home early.

Two and a half hours south of Exmouth, we luckily did get to snorkel in Coral Bay since the weather here was more accommodating.  This is the first time I’d snorkeled above a reef.  It was pretty cool.  We saw all kinds of strange fish, a couple of rays and various types of coral and sponges.  Can’t wait to do that again.  Since this took a bit of time, we stopped for the night in Carnarvon.  Just north (~80Km) of Carnarvon, there are a few blowholes at the edge of the ocean.  The sea here is truly intimidating.  The waves crashing against the rock threw spray 40 feet in the air at times, just from direct impact, not to mention the spray coming from the blowhole.

Here is a short video I took with the D90.  Not bad.  I killed the sound since it was just wind noise.  I waited for a relatively calm period so you can see the blowhole itself.  Most of the time, the waves were throwing up so much spray it was hard to make out the actual blowhole.

There was also a jetty in Carnarvon, which we were able to walk halfway out on.  It was originally a mile in length, but due to fire damage, the later portion is currently being restored and off limits.  A nice walk over the ocean nonetheless.  Now,  it was time to turn the car towards home.  Not much exciting until Em spotted this emu in the distance.  We saw lots of wildlife throughout the driving portion of this trip, but invariably by the time the car stopped and cameras were in hand, the animals decided they didn’t want to stick around.  We saw hawks, goats, emu’s, big (3 foot) lizards, bats, dingos, etc.,  but no photos until this one.