Hansen's around Oz

15 September 2010

Days 366-367 – Newman, Mt Magnet, WA (14-15 Sept)

Left Port Hedland to a very pleasant morning and some very ominous back clouds, hoping we leave them behind! The Pilbara has had some very unseasonal cool and wet weather over the last few days. Few puddles around. We are travelling 452kms today to Mt Newman. We travelled through some spectacular scenery with lots of hills with some pretty neat formations, big boulders and the colours are just wonderful. I really do like the Pilbara landscape. We got out of the car to refuel at Auski Roadhouse and it was freezing, damp and grey. Of course we were in our shorts and tshirts having left a balmy Port Hedland morning. When we got to Mt Newman it was so cold only 17 degrees and raining! Only the day before it was 37 at Barn Hill so we have dropped 20 degrees with no time to get acclimatised. So out came the heater from under the bed and our winter woollies and uggies from out of the cupboard. It rained the rest of the day and night, yuk. With the umbrella found buried at the bottom of all our stuff in the back of the car, I braved the rain and took Coco for a walk into town. Not much in town except a Woolworths, PO etc. Oh there was a Subway. Out of the mining town we have seen Mt Newman is probably the nicest (as far as mining towns go) and the mining companies seem to take care of their workers with nice facilities. Next day we left Mt Newman by 7.22am – getting earlier – heading to Cue 545kms today. Certainly raking up the kms. There is not a lot to see really except evidence of lots of mining, mining vehicles and lots of road. The only stops between are roadhouses, there some nice looking free camps but timing not right (don’t want to stop too early) so best to keep going. Coolish when we left Mt Newman but I braved it and hoped it would get warmer and put on my shorts. At least it had stopped raining. Today we have seen quite a few wedgetail eagles particularly on the roadkill. If there are crows on the roadkill then an eagle generally is not far away. They are magnificent birds and too watch them soar is fantastic. Unfortunately we counted five dead wedgetails – because of their bulk they can’t take off too quickly and end up getting hit by trucks which move so fast and are huge. We also saw about six oversize vehicles with escorts moving various pieces of mining equipment. Proves just how much mining is going on. Scary really. We re-fuelled four times today including a stop at Meekatharra – not much there except a few businesses which have burglar bars on the doors and windows. Both Meekatharra and Cue are looking like ghost towns with hardly anyone around. We eventually get to Cue and the park was horrible. It was busier then we anticipated and discovered there were a lot of prospectors staying there. We had wondered what all the diggings were along the side of the road must be the prospectors. So we decided to move on another 80kms to Mt Magnet. So in total we travelled 615kms today. Another big day!

Colours of the Pilbara - Port Hedland to Newman near Auski

Enroute Port Hedland to Newman

The Hilditch's - Mt Newman iron ore finders in 1957

Oversize road train with escorts

and another one

Lunch stop - near Cue

Meekatharra Picture Theatre - who would have thought!

Mining tailings outside Cue

another oversize vehicle

and another one

13 September 2010

Day 365 – Barn Hill to Port Hedland, WA (13 Sept)

Awake early at 5.30am! So on the beach in 6.00am with Coco for our last walk. We have had a wonderful time at Barn Hill and is hard to leave but have to leave eventually I guess. Heading to Port Hedland 490kms south. We have decided to head home via the inland route (Great Northern Highway) which is a little shorter than the coastal route and we are hoping to see some wildflowers along the way. Were originally going to go home via the coastal route and stop in Exmouth but with the impending school hols and noticing the number of kids that were coming into Barn Hill decided to get home before the school hols start as it is always bedlam anywhere on the coast then. And we have done the coast run twice this trip so wildflowers sound like a good option. After 12 months on the road I discovered today that I can watch DVD’s on my laptop in the car! Can’t believe I didn’t think about this before, when we are doing the big kms in a day time sure goes quickly! We put $250 worth of fuel in the car today, two fills - that is scary! We stopped at Sandfire about halfway between Barn Hill and Port Hedland and were surprised to see peacocks, about 15 of them wandering around the shop entrance and around the bowsers, not worried at all by cars, trucks or people. An albino one had his tail on display, beautiful! We stopped at the entrance to Pardoo Station for a celebration photo as this marks the exact spot where we completed the circuit around Oz! (this was as far north as we got this time last year before deciding we’d missed the window to go clockwise as it was then too hot and we turned around and heading South East via Kalgoorlie. The Ellis’ and Smiths will remember Pardoo Station, we spent a few days there together before going our separate ways.
We should be in Perth by the weekend and will spend a few days there before the final trek home. We really are on the downhill track now and the ‘big dread’ of getting home and back to reality is biting hard!! We really don’t want our trip to end (even temporarily) but a little part of us is looking forward to having some space again, stability (not packing, hitching and unpacking/unhitching the van/car every few days) and having our own clean bathroom again will be heaven! Just hope summer will be kind to us and be warm.

Welcoming committee, Sandfire Roadhouse

What a display, Sandfire Roadhouse

11 September 2010

Days 359-364 – Barn Hill, WA (7-12 Sept)

Well just can’t leave the place keep extending our stay. It is soooo nice and relaxing although starting to get a little hot, mid 30s every day and mid 20s at night and due to the limited power we can’t run our air conditioner so feeling it. Some days there is a nice ocean breeze which keeps it a little cooler but not all the time. It is quite a different experience to be in the heat in a van which is more like a tin shed rather than a brick and tile home – not quite as comfortable. We have spent a fair bit of time with David and Carmel and Nellie with the boys going fishing and Carmel, Nellie, Coco and I spending lots of time of the beach cooling off and long beach walks. David was the first to catch a fish, a giant threadfin salmon so the following day for lunch we cooked it on the Webber and devoured it for lunch. It was beautiful. For anyone who has not tried giant threadfin salmon try it is is delicious. Its not a fish you see in the seafood shops though. The next day John also caught a giant threadfin salmon and a shark mackerel. So we had another lunch the following day. In the afternoon David caught another salmon. In the meantime David and Narelle and Daisy (maltese dog) arrived and David caught a giant threadfin salmon the following morning so that day we had two salmon for lunch. So deja vu lunch three days in a row! Wonderful that’s what it is all about. David and John went to Broome on Tuesday to restock on supplies (240 kms return trip). John did very well and got everything on the list without buying any extras! Other than the excitement of catching fish Coco and I have been doing lots of beach walks and wallowing in rock pools at low tide. Today (Sat) the tide went out 10m at 6.15am. It comes in quickly and goes out quickly. When the tide is out the rock pools are exposed and there is an amazing amount of live coral on the rocks, oranges, greens, yellows. Quite surprising. Its a shame that everyone walks over the rocks to look at it, so much must get damaged. When the tide is in it is great swimming and the water is cool but not cold. Spent our last day packing and went to the evening roast again with entertainment. Same band as last week, another good night. John spotted a frill necked lizard in a tree nearby us, gee they move quick and we have gorgeous tawny frogmouth nesting pair in the tree next to our van. Did you know they are not related to owls, don’t catch food in their talons and basically just camouflage themselves in a tree fork and wait for anything to wander by like a lizard, frog, mouse etc and they catch it with their beaks!