Hitting the road out of Broome
We decided to camp for a night at a roadside camp and met up with these fellas who were doing the Perth to Broome Postie Bike Challenge, which is an annually run challenge for charity. Each year the challenge takes in a different part of Australia and this year was Western Australia's turn. There are approximately 30 riders from all over Australia taking part in the event.
There are a huge number of charities the organisation raises money for and tens of thousands of dollars are donated each year. Added to the total all of the postie bikes are auctioned off once they reach their destination and money donated to charity.
The route the challenge travelled this year avoided the tourist route along the western coastline, and instead took the more interesting route east from Perth through Kalgoorlie prior to winding their way north to Broome.
The route took these guys through regions as remote as can be found in any other state of Australia. The countryside included Eighty Mile Beach, Millstream National Park, Karajini National Park, and Opthalmia Range around the Pilbara region.
All done in 10 days
On these bikes, carrying 5 litres of fuel in a Jerry can to refuel with. They had seen a number of different animals on the track and just saw a large monitor lizard today before stopping here
More information on the challenge can be found at;
http://www.postiebikechallenge.org/
Pressing on we head South again towards Port Headland.
Heavy earth moving gear
On the straight and narrow....
Well sort of....
We hit this place called Sandfire road house only to find that they don't have EFTPOS for most of the time which is blamed on a dodgy phone line! So needless to say they only accept cash when the phone lines are down which means there were quite a few cars and vans that looked like they were camped for a while.
We were lucky enough to have $65 in notes and coin that gave us enough fuel to get to the next destination.
I think people sold their hats for fuel here... hahaha
on the road again
Another beast on the side of the roads. Unfortunately I just heard on the radio someone in the north of Australia came to grief after hitting one of these animals at high speeds. Really not a good idea to travel at night or in poor light in these areas.
Road trains coming through
We hit Port Headland, one of the centres for iron ore exportation
and salt mining
These ore trains just about stretch for as far as the eye can see and they use two large locomotives, one at the front and the other around the middle to push the ore
The rail cars go on....
and on.....
and on!
BHP the big Australian
I can imagine these palm trees bending over in one of the many cyclones that pass through these areas.
Port Headland on a beautiful day
Ello, ello, ello, did you look left then right then left again and proceed across the road if all is clear Karen?
The first time we have seen the Indian Ocean since we departed on our trip around Australia last December, around 10 months.
Road work improvements are a constant around this country.
We settle for this nice little campsite about an hour south of Port Headland
Hello Karen
As the sun sets one day
It rises the next
We head for our destination just north of Karratha at a place called Cleaverville where we are going to spend the next couple of weeks at the beach and watching the AFL football finals! Yeeehaaa!
We pass through Roebourne
The old gaol
The pub with sign writing to boot....
I reckon a professional did this work be Karen reckons it's a home job!
We hit Cleaverville
Yeeehaaa!
Our camp site!
Beautiful
and you can camp on the beach if you want
Stunning
Two weeks of this, it's just hard to handle...
:)
The following 2 pictures shows what a 5 metre tide is like.
This picture was taken around 1:30pm
This picture was taken around 5:30pm from the same spot.
In the afternoon you can go swimming here as crocodiles don't venture this far south, there is a little thing about tiger sharks though but still the water is too inviting not to go in for a dip.
and you can go reef walking in the evening. Sometimes you will find sea creatures caught in the rock pools that form in the reef and the fish aren't quick enough to get out so they have to wait for the tide to come back in. We got to see a small stingray, sea slugs and some fish. Others have seen octopus in the pools.
Interesting walk
Fun in the sun
I'm working on a new song and here is a version of it.
The sunsets here are absolutely some of the best!
The colours were beautiful
The sun sets....
and the moon rises.
The view from our camp looks out over to the Burrup Peninsula where the North West Shelf project is and we have planned to check out the visitors centre for a bit of an insight into the business of gas and oil.
We head over to the peninsula
The refinery with the visitor centre in the foreground.
Here is the burner tower. The tour guide described the towers as similar to a pilot light in a gas boiler, except this flame is there for a safety device so gas can be burnt off safely in the event the plant is require to shut down.
Here you can see the towers in the distance from our campsite
The tower burning above can be seen over the very right hand side of this picture
Here we can see the production plant
Here are two LNG storage tanks of which it takes 3 tanks to fill one of the ships. There is a ship sets sail from here with a full payload every 2nd day. The ships are owned by the companies and the gas is distributed across the world.
Models of gas pipeline that sits on the bottom of the ocean that feeds gas from the Rankin Platform
Accounting for more than one third of Australia’s oil and gas production, the NWS Project is a joint venture between six major international companies. It is one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers, supplying oil and gas to Australian and international markets from huge offshore gas, oil and condensate fields in the Carnarvon Basin off the north-west coast of Australia.
For over 30 years, the NWS Project has been Western Australia’s largest producer of domestic gas.
Delivery of LNG goes to customers in the Asia Pacific region and other parts of the world, the NWS Project has delivered more than 4000 LNG cargoes since 1989.
The NWS Project also produces liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), oil and condensate – a light crude oil – for international energy markets.
The Emu Head in Karratha
Some of the sunset photos were so beautiful I had to include them all
As the sun sets today tomorrow we head to catch up with our son who we haven't seen for just under 12 months. He works up in this neck of the woods and we will travel down to Exmouth for a week with Karen's sister and Brother In Law.
Time to hit the road
