Gone, Again... ( Random Adventures in Oz )

The weather was still patchy, with the odd shower here and there...

i figured it would be cold back home (hell its winter now)..

i also figured that i'd be riding in the last 3 days rain all the way home...

so i figured..

(a lot of figurin goin on! )

so i figured, i'd duck up the coast a couple of 100 km north of Perth for a couple of days of warm weather before heading home to months of cold..

there were a couple of showers heading out...

first detour was into the pinacles...

it was about 5pm by time i got there...



pretty magic spot...



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from there it looked like i'd get to Jurien Bay..

i rolled in just in time to pay for an (overpriced) camp-site, quickly set up tent and made it down to the jetty just in time for sunset..



contemplated fish n chips for tea, but that was almost as expensive as the overpriced camp site.. :eek1

the next day was June 29...

"dont ride a bike day"

Since Phil (Philmeup) and i had both written off our bikes and broken a few decent bones
on the 29th of june (albeit a year apart) we decided it was a pretty big co-incidence... and decided we wouldnt get on bikes
again on that date...

so i spent the day in Jurien Bay...



not really a hell of a lot there... but it was a good day to work out what i was doing...

although i didnt end up working out what i was doing...

what i did work out, was, that i could not be buggered with the ride home.... (about 3,300kms)

so tomorrow i was heading a bit further north...

no idea how far.......................................


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ya going well there greg,i reckon i will be a year older by the time you finish the r/r,intresting trip you are having,good look around.

Great stuff keep it coming.
What a wonderful trip

Mate, this is bloody marvelous.

hmmmm...

fair point... but i got a few spare days now... so i 'might' try make a fibber of you



(might )



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so the next day i was up and out of overpriced Jurien Bay...

and further north up the WA coast...



was a bloody nice day (for a change) for a ride...






getting closer to Geraldton, which i half figured i'd stop at (and probably turn around at), i was running early and so decided
on an inland detour thru Walkaway to Ellendale Pool

there was a 'not so impressive' railway museum at Walkaway...



so i plugged on to ellendale pool...

hmmm, looks like its been raining out here...




there is a tyre hiding in there somewhere...



and there she was in all her glory, inviting me in..



ummmm, maybe not.. dirty, dirty...! :huh



did look nice thou...



the campground looked good too... but i was gone again..

taking the scenic back way into Geraldton..
past old stuff..



so i made it into Geraldton...

but it just didnt do it for me...

so another look at the map....

and i decided i would head just a bit further up to Kalbarri.. had a much nice ring to the name...

so i pushed on up thru Northampton,
a bit of a detour to 'Gregory'..

and made it in to Kalbarri just as the shadows were about to take over..



which gave me just enough time to get a tent site in the campground, and get back to the pub for a beer..

and then mosey out onto the jetty..



to watch the sun
fall into the Indian Ocean..



oh and then get back to the pub for a feed

sigh.....



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so the next day, after a bit more 'map looking', i decided to stay another night in Kalbarri, and spend the day
having a look around the 180-odd-thousand hectare Kalbarri National Park...

first stop was the 'Natures window' area..



the Murchison River...




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the view thru the 'Window'...




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then it was off down to 'Z-Bend'...



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day was warming up, and it was only a bit over a km down, so off i went (on foot )

amazing where trees will grow...



down...



thru..



down (note the ladder..)




getting closer..



and then



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looks like a good spot for a swim....




aww yeah...



from there i headed back into Kalbarri..

yesterday, on the way in, there seemed to be a fair few lookouts in the 20-odd kms south of the town... but cos i was running late i didnt get time to stop at any...

i had a little bit of time before sunset, so south i headed..




i checked out a couple of lookouts as the sun dropped...



really brought out the colors in the cliffs..



and then the day was over..



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and i rode back into Kalbarri in the dark..



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next day was time to head off again...

there was a quick trip in to the southern end of the national park to visit Ross Graham Lookout..



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and then to 'Hawks Head', where i parked under this wierd tree..



and walked down to the river again..



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then it was out to the main road, a drink stop at the 4-mile pool..



and then it was punch out a couple of miles..

i'd decided to head up to Monkey Mia...

so about 180km up the highway, i turned left on the Shark Bay Rd..

i stopped at the turn-off for Steep Point (the western most point of Oz)

but my jerry cans were empty, so i wasnt carrying enough fuel to do an extra 300kms..

and i couldnt be assed riding back 50kms to the last petrol station..

and i figured i'd leave it so i had something to come over here again for..



so i headed off for another nearly 100 kms to Denham...

about half way there, i pulled in to a place called Shell Beach..



fair enough name i guess...



after a quick swim (it was after 4 o'clock)

i followed a few tracks north



before poping out on the main road again and rolling into Denham..

it was too late to pop around to Monkey Mia, so i decided i'd go out into Francois Peron National Park..

I figured i'd be out there 2 nights... and i probably wouldnt cover a lot of kms tomorrow..

So, i hit the bottle shop and grabbed 3 bottles of red wine...

and remembering that i didnt have a cup cos i was only going to be away for 10 days, i also bought me a plastic cup, with a handle..

i packed each bottle seperate to the others and headed off to the National Park..

i'd kinda planned to head to the top of the park, but the first 10km was pretty sandy and rutted and took a bit longer than planned..

and it was getting late...

so about 10km in, there is an info bay... apparently from here on it was 4wd.... and warnings that
it was slow going, sandy, high clearance blah blah blah...

so i said bugger 40 km of that tonight, i'd turn west and go 10km to the coast and camp there..


the track was sandy and rutted.... oh and as you can tell from the shadow..



straight into the sun... :eek1




anyway, the bike somehow stayed rubber side down..

and so just on sunset, i got to where i'd be campin..



a few photos..



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then setup tent in the moonlight...




cook some tea.. drink some red..




and take my own picture before finishing the bottle and calling it a night...






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Ahh!!!! memories Top place. Did you visit Steep Point?? That kept me and the 1150 on our tows.
Top report keep it coming.

cheers Tony..

nah didnt go to Steep Point..

i hadnt really thought about it, and was belting along and saw the sign to it... so pulled over and saw how far it was (about 150km each way if memory serves me), i had no fuel in my jerries (didnt need any for the highway squirt i was doing)

I knew it was a tough last 20km or so... and given the time, and the fact that id have to go do a 100km trip back to get fuel first...

i said bugger it...

i'm sure i'll get another chance to go that way again soon

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next day i decided to pack the maps, some lunch, a bottle of red and a few other things into a backpack go for a walk....

to work out where the heck i was and what i was doin...

so down (and up) some sandy tracks, thru some gates and i poped out at this lagoon..






i followed the edge round a bit... odd seein red sand in the water... note the footprints..!




i found a good spot to sit and look at maps, think etc..

so i plonked, opend the plonk and pulled out some paper and a pen, maps etc...

should i be home...? hmmm..

all too hard, went for a swim...






odd having red dunes as a backdrop to the beach...





so i battled the battles that had to be fought in my head and worked out some sort of a plan...

in a nut-shell, i still couldnt be assed with the long ride home... so was gonna keep goin a bit...

i'd ruled out doin a lap though!

day was getting on so i figured id head back to camp... lookin at the GPS, it seemed i could just follow the waters edge and i'd get there eventually..


mangrove shoots..





the day getting on..




no idea what these belong to....




couldnt get over how calm the water was...





more tracks...




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not even going to speculate what happened here....




and no idea what this is.... i didnt eat it..





the moon started comin up...




and the tide came in... so i had to start wading...





such a magic end of the world...




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how good it this....






good enough to have tea in front of...!





next day i packed and hit the sand ...




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a bit easier without the sun in your eyes...



so on the way out of the national park, you pass an old homestead 'Peron'... and out the back there is a
hot bore hooked up to a water tank hot tub... good place for a warm bath!

no photos

so out and around to Monkey Mia...

where there was an entrance fee, cant remember how much it was, but fairly steep... i was just comin in for a coffee...

anyway i explaned all this to the bird on the gate... and she let me in... but said she'd come lookin for me
if i was longer then half an hour (ya promise? )


so went in... i was to be honest expecting a town... but no...

on and your not 'guaranteed' to see/feed dolphins either...

anyway... shitty place...



i had an ordinary coffee and buggered off... girl on the gate gave me a wave on the way out..

from there i headed back round to Denham, got a pie from the bakery...



from there it was back out the way id come in, but visiting a few more side tracks..




taking any opportunity to dry out my towel from this mornings hot-tub..




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stopped in at shell beach again for a late lunch..




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just south of shell beach is the narowest part of the peninsula.. and they put this big electric fence across it.. and then removed all the feral animals from inside..

so its a huge native animal sanctuary... hence all the crazy footprints in the sand a few photos back...

anyway, as i rode off from takin this pic, a dog starts barking madly and scares the bejeebuz out of me...

i look around expecting some wild mongrel dog about to latch onto my boot, but see nothing...

cant be stuck under the grid i wonder...

anyway, i turn round and pull up at the grid and the barking starts again...

turns out there is a motion sensor at the grid and a speaker... to scare off animals that may be able to get over the grid...

bastards...

google project eden for more info..




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i continue on, and make a detour into Hamelin Pool...




these things ( stromatolites) are the oldest living things on earth........ :eek1



pretty damn interesting spot to visit...

as usual, the day was getting on, another 40kms and i was on the highway heading north..

i'd decided to hit a place called Gladstone that had camping... was only about 7km off the highway.....


the road there wasnt what i was expecting... :huh




but hey, it worked...



i rolled in, straight past the 'ranger' hut (a fee applied to camp..)

i found a spot and set camp... there was quite a few people camped in here, and after the experience of the
last few days in 'project Eden', this place was a wasteland, ruened by rabbits, stripped of all firewood etc..


anyway, i went found the 'ranger' who had a beer in his hand, had a chat, paid the cmp fee, asked if i could by a couple of beers of him, how many you want..?

oh, just 2 or 3...

he roots around in the back for a bit, comes out with a bag... "theres half a dozen in there..."

oh, ok, what do i owe ya, pulling a 20 out... nah dont worry about it mate, enjoy...



my site...



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it was a fair ride to find some firewood...



while i was collecting, the moon came up again..



the beers were going down well..





a good feed, a few more beers, some gratuitous bike shots..




but the wood and beer eventually ran out and it was bed time again...





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Lucky man.............................burn those images into your long term memory...............you will want to relive those some day.

Doubtful, with all the alcohol he consumes.
When I get to his nursing home, he's going on "Ignore", rather than be subjected to all his journeyman stories.

But seriously, beautiful photo's, G. Thank gawd the West hasn't been developed too much. What a magic area. Your photo's and travels are an inspiration.

next day was back out to the highway and a fairy dull blat about 150km up to Geraldton..

i booked in to a caravan park in town (best bathroom setup of any caravan park ive ever stayed in)

anyway, i set up tent and then head off around town to see whats there and to get a hair-cut (turnin in to a freakin hippie! :eek1)

pretty much the whole main street was dug up and blocked off for some 'beautification project'... found a good pub..

returned to camp and found a big plastic chair sittin next to my tent with a note on it...'thought you might like something comfortable to sit on...'

thats nice

i spent the weekend there..

gascoyne river...




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trawlers at the port..



ITC communication dish..



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the morning came to leave and word travelling round the campground that
there had been a crash on the highway and the road was closed...:eek1

the word came around that the highway would be shut til mid afternoon...:eek1:eek1

hmm, what to do..

word went round that the caravan park was now booked out tonight...hmm..


highway was the only road going north..

word went around that it was about 25km north...
(around about the turnoff to Quobba.. )

i poked about on the GPS for a bit and found there were quite a few tracks in the area so , if i couldnt skirt along a fence line, there should be a track somewhere...

so i packed and headed off...

about 20km out i hit the traffic jam....

i crept down the middle of the highway past all the banked up traffic, having plenty of
close calls with people jumping out of cars or from behind trucks...:huh


then a small stream of cars came along... figured it was just cars turning around.. no room for semi's to turn around..

i got to the front of the queue just as a council worker fliped up a stop sign...

he looked at me, looked up to see the back of a car disapearing down a dirt bypass track they opened up thru a cattle station fence..

and said..'yeah go on mate'

i didnt need to be told twice...

i heard him yelling 'slow, slow slow' as i disapeared into the scrub...

the detour was farly rought , was surprised to see commodores towing caravans going thru...

passed faily close to the crash... was a mess of trucks, 4wd's and really big boats....


and so we popped back out on the highway, passed the queue comming the other way... and was gone..

pulled in to Minilya roadhouse and fueled up... the place was chockers...

told a few people there was a detour for cars and they could go, but was mostly greeted with blank looks in response... 'the highways closed..'

turned off the highway shortly there-after and headed for coral bay...

rolled in and was blown away.. what a dodgy bloddy place...

not really a town but an overgrown caravan park.. stopped for a drink and a pie anyway.. but changed my mind about staying there the night...

went for a spin out the back..



and then buggered off for Exmouth..

rolled into Exmouth only to find all the caravan parks booked out... bloody school holidays had started...

found there was another caravan park about 20kms out of town, on the ocean side of the peninsula...

hoond around there, passing signs saying all the camp grounds in the national park were booked out...

a bit of banter, some um-ing and err-ing and i got a campsite... payed for 2 nights since they were so rare...

quickly set up tent and gunned it up to Vlamingh Heah lighthouse to watch the sun drop into the Indian Ocean again...



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yes thats a beer by my front wheel... quite a few people came up to watch the sunset from here... i squeezed in between a few cars, and one
fella (with his family) came over to chat.. my hint about being hot and dry when he asked me 'hows things? worked a treat'

oh, nearly forgot... the lighthouse...



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i spent the next 2 days exploring the area...

wreck off the coast..




Harold Holt Communications station..



massive place... some of the anchor points are right near the road... bloody huge...

a bit about it..



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random tracks in the area..



Shothole canyon area..



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another sunset...



i ended up staying 3 nights and met some top people staying there... they'de go fishin each day and then at
night we'd have a big communal tea around a bbq each night... good stuff..

anyway, as much as i could have stayed longer (they were all staying for the winter! :eek1) it was time for a wriggle on..

next day was to be a long one..

fueled up as i went thru town, stoped in at an old jetty..



and then about 280km of bitumen... stopped at Nanutarra Roadhouse.. and marveled the number of cars, busses, trucks and campers around the place...



ducked into the roadhouse and marvelled at the fact there was 'no-one' in there...:eek1

pretty soon worked out why.... $7.50 for a microwave pie in a plastic bag, $5.00 for a pour your own cup of instant coffee...

i joined the masses outside...:fyyff

i still had a long way to go today so didnt hang around long..

5km further north up the highway and i turned left onto the Nanutarra Munjina road towards Paraburdoo..



about 10km down that road i pulled over and made myself a complementary cup of coffee
(after doing my best to turn my 'new' red cup back to white first)
(god bless those extra little sachets of coffee i got from the motel room at Mukinbudin..40 buck...still cant get over it!



and then it was back out onto the road heading inland...



270 km later i went thru Paraburdoo.. 90 km later i rolled in to Tom Price...

refueled and found the campground... (not as expensive as i was thinking it 'could be' given recent ecperiences with the price of 'stuff')


hmmm... time to tighten the chain... :eek1




not a bad place for the night either...




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next morning, after having breakfast with a couple from europe who were cycling around Oz, i headed for the top of Mt Nameless..



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Tom Price from half way up..




nearly there....




Rio Tinto's Mine...




a bit closer...





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then back down...




and into Tom Price...




a coffee, a few supplies and then a trip into the Info Centre to loose 15 mins of my life watching
a Rio Tinto Safety video and i had a permit to ride up the railway access rd


but first, i was headed east into Karajini national park..

i caught up to this big fella on the way...



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a quick pit-stop at Mt Bruce...

typical 'family car' up here....

the flag poles even have a red light in the top...



up the corrogated dirt rd into Karijini..

i stopped in at the camp-ground on my way past... booked out... only had 'Eco tents' available for a few hundred bucks a night!:eek1

rode around to Oxer lookout..

a short hike..



to a bloody big hole in the ground....




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from there it was back past the 'eco resort' and on to Kalamina Falls
(Banjima Drive was bloody corogated and dusty and lots of school holiday traffic...)

met this fella on the way to the falls lookout..




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could almost fall down that hole if you werent watching where you were going...



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from there i was headed to 'Dales' campground...

but that turned out to be full up...

but they'd just opened and 'overflow' area a few kms away... so i joined a stack of caravans in a dirt carpark for the night...




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Thanks for the great photos and RR. Riding OZ now, so will see if I can check out some of these places

i was pretty damn happy with how long the Scorpion Rally was lasting...!




first stop of the day was the national park info centre...



interesting enough place... more interested in the building though...

from there, a quick look at fortescue falls..



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and then on to Circular falls..




it was a lot of stairs down... but worth the effort..

check out this rock...





amazing stuff...




surprised to see one of these out here...




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bats...




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awww yeah...!



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anyway, after that it was out of the national park and 30km of bitumen east to the Great Northern Highway....


i came to the t-intersection...


left was North...


right was home...


i turned left...

it was a good highway... thru some nice escarpments..



and it took me to the Auski roadhouse..

I started fuelling up, only to nearly have my head taken off when a hose from a nearby tanker that was
filling the roadhouse tanks exploded, sending a big brass fitting flying past my head... :eek1

no 'whoops', no 'sorry', no nothing... just went and got it and had another go...

it wasnt this truck...




after a coffee and a chat to 3 road bike riders, i was off... west... (Nanutarra Munjina rd)

bitumen first 25kms..
(oh and stray animals out in these parts to apparently...)




wasnt long before i started passing the 'Danger Asbestos, resporators must be worn' type signs..

next stop Wittenoom...



hmmm... cant get fuel here anymore...



this big fella went past while i was loooking around the abandond service station...




oh and this one too...



real interesting place Wittenoom..



funny riding around an abandond town...

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a couple of the houses looked like they had people living in them... and sure enough, after riding around for a bit,
i saw a guy outside a house and rolled up for a chat..

he'd bough the place many years ago (after the mines shut down) for next to nothing... since then, the government has
changed a few laws and its now impossible (illegal) to sell (or buy) property there.. they have also
removed 'Wittenoom'as a town/locality, and you wont see it on any maps anymore...

asked him if he was much fussed about asbestos fibres... he wasnt... 'mine has been shut for over 40 years...and there's been that many
cyclones thru here since that any dust laying around has been blown to Sydney by now...'

fair point i spose.....


most of the houses are gone... or look similar to this...




he recons that Wittenoom Gorge is the best gorge in the area..

i rode out there a bit, but the old blue asbestos mine is out there... and well..



i turned around...


so i left Wittenoom, and continued following the dirt east..





i noticed a big dust cloud up ahead..



so pulled over to let this barrel past...




then waited for the dust to settle a bit..



and then waited for this one too...



busy road this one...





anyway, negotiating lots of mining trucks, i rolled into Hamersley Gorge..



what a spectacular place..



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being late in the day, the sun was off the water... so it was pretty darn cold!




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plenty of little waterfalls and rock pools upstream...



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i was thinking of camping here, but they were in the middle of building a proper carpark, toilet block etc there so there was loads of machinery etc everywhere...

i had one last look...



and buggered off..

from here, the idea was to take a track 30kms east to the Iron-Ore railway line and follow that about 110km north-west to the Millstream-Chichester National Park...


the track was only suposed to be about 1km from the Hamersley Gorge entrance... i think i got about 20km before turning around
for a second look..




i found it (or what i though 'had' to be it.. no signs but the only track...)

the mining companys seem to have 'moved' quite a few road out here...

anyway, there was a fair bit of mining 4wd trafic out here, and lots of fences and mines...

i figured i'd need to camp somewhere on this 30km stretch of track, as camping near the railway would make for a noisey night..

keeping a keen eye out for a suitable exit, and plenty of shrub coverage to hide me from the road, i settled on an area, and making sure there were no
4wd's around, i left the track and buggered off into the bush...

and settled on this luxurious site...




it wasnt to bad when you scrape a few stones away...



thats gonna be magnificent!



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and the sun dropped...




and i slept like a baby...




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no worries welcome to Ostraya!

plenty of great riding and top folks out here... might see you out there somewhere!

enjoy!

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Wow Greg you are making me very jealous for all the bits we missed. That's the problem travelling with a dog.. no np's (well not many )
Great pics! Thanks for sharing.

so i'd placed tent carefully so i could have a little sleep-in in the shade..





but the railway access road awaited, and i was lookin forward to that..





plenty of this stuff goin past regularly...





dont want to get in its way.... :eek1




yep, they aint stoppin...



anyway, the road was in fantastic condition, and was a real hoot... no pictures, but its really well maintained and fast...
and since it was a sunday, there wasnt much traffic on it..

i rode it 110kms until i hit the Millstream N.P., where i turned left (west) and headed into the park..

funny, i was only in this road for 15kms, but it was here that i had my most "i'm in the middle of no-where" moment... :huh



the first swiming/camping spot..




a ford... wasnt as slippy as some...




the Millstream Homestead (info centre, rangers station etc)




inside...




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natives..!



lookout over the Fortescue River..




and todays bath!




from there, i headed back to the railway road, headed north another 20kms, then turned right to go check out Python Pool..

the Roeburne-Wittenoom rd..



as you can see, reasonably flat and... empty..

then all of a sudden you hit a bend in the road and this....





a quick stop at the manky waters of Python Pool...




some more Sturt's Desert Pea's...



and the road north continues...




couldnt get over all the piles of rock....and no, a mining company didnt put em there...





the country started opening up again as i got closer to the coast..




so i popped out on the Highway (north west coastal Hwy) and headed out to Point Samson on the coast...

got there and 'everything' was booked out.... nice lookin place but..

i made the call to duck back to Karratha... but didnt really like the place that much so went out to Dampier instead..

got a site in the caravan park.. overlooking the bay..



and the Ore loading port..



caught the courtesy bus to the pub, had a good feel and had a few too many beers served by barmaids wearing, ummm, not much


next day i decided to head up to the Burrup Peninsula..

turned out to be a good way to sweat out last night beer..



the track wound round for ages... and then just stopped here...nowhere...



oh well, back out again...





theres a gas plant up there too..





boat full o gas...




i headed over to the east side of the peninsula for a look ... no rocks over here.... kinda wish there was...



and back to Karatha for some shopping and a look around...




then back out past the salt ponds...




to Dampier for another night..




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next day saw me hit the highway the 220-ish Km around to Port Hedland...

nothing much to take photos of along the way... and was fairly un-eventfull... oh, except for the bike deciding it wanted to cut-out every 4 seconds... :eek1
(but because i was hooking along, it would roll start again within a second or so... ) after a few stops to check a few things, i ended up riding the last 80km or so with the fuel cap open...

gave the cap a good clean the next day and didnt have a problem again..


after spending most of the day looking for somewhere to stay for a few nights (and having no luck..) i ended up
pitching tent in the golf course carpark.... (and payin $25 for the pleasure....)

i had a site in a 'proper' caravan park the next 2 nights..

not much here....

rusty old boats coming in for Iron Ore..




salt......




and Ore trains...




not even a bakery!! :eek1

anyway, i needed a couple of days, to work out what i was doing... kinda running late getting home from Finke..



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yep, been there....


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