Wednesday 4 August 2021

Heading Back Up North Pt 2

 As we continue to head back up north, we yet again cross over the Tropic of Capricorn just 9 kms south of Newman.

We stoppped off at the Capricorn Roadhouse, thinking this was actually where the Tropic was, only to find out after we had our morning tea, but no, we had to go a couple of hundred metres up the road.

Would you believe we still have another crossing of the Tropic to go before we get home. That will be a bit further down the track though. From here it was into Newman for a look around. Our friends from the UK (their surname is Newman) had mentioned to us previously that there was some family connection  - not sure what or where), so it was a nice surprise to find ourselves here. After wandering around for a bit looking for the Information Centre, we pulled over to check with the GPS when a work ute pulled up beside us and the guy in the passenger seat began asking Peter about our van. It appears he has recently purchased the same one and wanted to know how ours was going. We had about a half hour chat to both guys, showed them the inside etc, and off they went happily. The Info Centre was just around the corner from where we were.

As you can see from the above photo there is a big dump truck out the front, and as most of you know I am not exactly a tall person (1/2 pint size actually) so you can imagine I found I could walk through under this big monster without having to bend. Actually in the photo below you can see I only come half way up one of the wheels, that is how big these monsters are - they are H-U-G-E!

After Newman, we turned and headed back towards the coast near Port Hedland again. Now I have to tell you a funny but frustrating tale. We pulled into a service centre to get fuel and some morning tea on the outskirts of Port Hedland. Got our coffees and cakes and settled down at a table there to fill out our entry border passes for the Northern Territory - we had to list where we had been for the last 28 days, not just 14 days as on previous ones. All good, had all the information required at hand. Well ..... it was the funniest sight you have ever seen, the three of us, each with a mobile phone, trying to work through this process. Gee, it was frustrating particularly as we had to put all the overnight addresses in as well for the 28 days. Finally got them completed and submitted them, the poor truckie at the next table had more than a funny smile on his face as we were quite vocal when they were approved. Only took a hour to fill the things in! One step closer to heading home.

From Pt Hedland we continued up the coast,  stopping off for the night at Pardoo Roadhouse - now this place was not overly special in itself, however the pre-dawn fog the next morning was something else, and as I got up I saw the following out the caravan door and had to take a photo of these two trees with a floodlight (for the roadhouse) surrounded by the fog. 

Continuing on, bypassing Broome, but calling into the Roebuck Plains Roadhouse for an overnight stop. What a performance. Now I will ask you if this makes any sense to you - we had tried several times to ring and book a couple of powered sites, and were told they do not take bookings - OK I can handle that, BUT, when we got there to see if they had a couple of sites, we were told "we are all booked out"!! If anyone has an answer as to the logic of this please let me know. They actually were not the only ones who did this that we came across. 

And so we had to hit the road again and find yet another free camp spot for the night. This one was really lovely and as it was quite hot, we decided to eat 'alfresco' (?) What a beautiful night.

We are slowly making our way back across the top of WA - none of us thought that this was going to be the way we would be heading home - and after a night's stopover at Fitzroy Crossing, we stopped off the following morning where we found the most delightful free camp site called Mary Pools on the banks of the Mary River. To add to the place, we found quite a number of cattle (you can just see one in the background of the above photo) just wandering around amongst the various campers parked up.

After another free camp night we continued on into Kununurra again, but not before marvelling at the ancient rock formations and mountain ranges along the way.

After a quick shopping trip, it was time to catch up on some washing (never ending isn't it?) and get ourselves organised to cross the border into the Northern Territory. We still have more places to go as we head home.

'Til next time, 

June



1 comment:

  1. That's a fun photo, tiny you and the monster truck!

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