Barn Hill Station - the brightest pearl on the WA coast

We are slowly moving up this wonderful coast and finally arrived at Barn Hill at the camp area of this large working cattle station.  We stayed here 10 years ago and I have been hankering to come back here ever since.  We finally made it.  It was as enjoyable as we had found it all those years ago.  It is a must do stop on this part of the coast.  

Barn Hill is situated on Thangoo Station, a working cattle station of approx 430, 000 acres and stretches for 85 km along the coast between Broome and Port Hedland. The property runs 8000 head of Brahman cattle and is part of the live export trade from Broome.

Photo of our campsite on the top of the cliff - there is Winnie.  Ahead is the ocean and the sunsets are amazing.  You sit on the edge of the cliff and slowly watch the sun going down.

As well as the beach there was our favourite rock pool with permanent water in it.  Apparently it used to be deeper but it gets filled up with sand.

We went there each day to wallow in it a bit.  Safer than the surf :-)

The variety of rock formations along the beach is terrific.  We think this is a mini-Uluru.

The combination of red and pink is also very eye-catching.

These rock formations are referred to as cathedral city.  They are a much darker and redder colour than the other rocks along the cliffs.

As well as looking cathedral-like they also look slightly extra-terrestrial.

They reminded us a little of a place in the NT which is called the Lost City in the Limmen NP somewhere between Roper Bar and Borroloola.

The residents at Barn Hill many years ago built a bowling green which is very popular with visiting campers.

There are not many bowling greens in the middle of a red Kimberley sand and surrounded by RVs.

Last but by certainly not least, we came across this solar power cooker.  There is a pot in there held up by a rod.  The couple cooked a curry in it yesterday and a cake and then a loaf of bread today.  The cooker folds up into a small oblong box and is easily transportable. Cooking time is about the same as on an ordinary cooker but costs nothing in terms of gas or electricity.  It just needs a sunny day.  It is called a Simplicity Solar Power Cooker and can be purchased from sisters Wendy Wales at wgwales@gmail.com or from Sandy Furtado at sandy.furtado9@gmail.com

Marble Bar

There are few towns in Australia whose names have such power to conjure up images as Marble Bar.  Mining, isolation and most importantly heat come to mind, as it is known as the "hottest town in Australia". a fact that is still recorded by the Guiness Book of Records.  For 161 consecutive days leading up until 20 April 1924, the maximum daily temperature never dropped below 100 degrees F (37.8 degrees C), and this record still stands today.

The series of plaques at the edge of the town depict in a series of metal sculptures the history of the place.

Marble Bar is named after a local deposit of mineral first thought to be marble, but later turned out to be jasper.

The jasper is at its best if you splash some water on it.  You can see the colours much better then in their natural dry and parched environment. Unfortunately you cant carry buckets of water around for each photograph :-)

WA during Covid - we are free to wander out yonder

In what may be the world's most pleasant hostage situation, West Australians have been effectively barred from leaving the state due to the hard border closure that has been in place since late March.
With the annual winter pilgrimage to Bali off the table, most West Australians have been fanning out across the state in record numbers.  Kalbarri, with its spectacular cliffs and gorges has been one of the go-to destinations for people from Perth and further south.  But others from Perth and elsewhere are more adventurous and they wander all around the vastness that is WA.  Campgrounds all the way from Geraldton to Broome are chock-a-block full.

As tourism operators in the rest of the country grapple with an uncertain future and beg for an extension of government assistance, the biggest challenge for WA business has been keeping up with the unprecedented demand.  West Australians typically spend more outside the state than visitors from the east ever bring in.  The Australian newspaper reported that the border closure had begun to look like a cynical exercise aimed at boosting domestic tourism.  But the subsequent outbreaks in Victoria and NSW have justified the health reasons for the WA Premier's unmovable border stance, while delivering some economic boost.

Here are some photos of the diversity of landscape in the Pilbara that we have come across.

Doolena Gorge on the way to Marble Bar.

Strange rock formations on top of a hill.  These rocks are similar to the granite jumble of black rocks we came across in Qld at Black Mountain, on the way to Cooktown.

Landscape near Karijini.







The divide this pandemic has created between places and people has been very sad.  The enormous difference between life inside the contagion and life beyond, where life feels almost normal has been very marked.  We are very fortunate to be, at this time, in the safety of WA.

In praise of WA rest areas and legal camping spots

No other state does rest stops as well as Western Australia.  Queensland comes a close second but even it does not match WA where free rest stops very often have dump points for the RV chemical toilets to be emptied.  I guess the vast distances people have to travel in WA partly explains why the local authorities are so obliging.  RV travel is a very popular travel pastime in this spectacularly wondrous part of Australia.

From Geraldton, north and eastwards, some of our favourite rest stops have been as follows:
Galena Bridge (Murchison River)
Blowholes (Point Quobba)
Minilya River
Barradale rest area
House Creek Bridge
Albert Tognolini rest area
Coongan Pool

Mary Pool - between Fitzroy Crossing and Hall's Creek

We heard that Three Mile Pool in the vicinity of Onslow is very nice but we opted not to go off the main drag to visit Onslow on this trip.

All these rest areas appear in the Camps Australia book which is our bible.  Many use Wikicamps instead of or as well as but we like the hard copy version which has photos of some of the sites.

 Albert Tognolini rest area where you over look a stunning wide gorge and where Andrew could go for a long fulfilling hike that took several hours.

 

Barradale rest area where we had a huge expanse of tract all to ourselves.  There were many other campers there too but you would hardly know.  The rest area, with toilets, was very large - the largest we have ever seen.

One of the nicest camping spots has been Coongan Pool, between Port Hedland and Marble Bar but a lot closer to the latter.

We stayed here three days and bathed in the river on a daily basis.  It was a magical spot and we stayed one day on the way down to the Bar and two more days on the way back to Port H.

There were a few other campers here too but we only saw them if we went for a walk as we each had our own isolated and private spot.

Andrew very nearly trod on these eggs among the spinifex.  The spinifex pigeons obviously locate their nests on the ground hidden in the spinifex instead of in the trees high up.







We have tried to capture in photos some of these stops but it is not easy to capture fully the spirit of a place.  Sometimes it was the company and the sociability of the people who also stopped there that was so memorable.  At other times, the sheer beauty of the surroundings and the relative privacy of the camping spot was the attraction.  Those travellers who stick to caravan parks with power and facilities miss the wonderful peace and tranquility of a rest stop.  While saving money is certainly a factor, without a doubt, we have come to appreciate what rest stops offer far and above the cost saving.

Driving towards Port Hedland

We drove from Karijini NP towards Port Hedland, missing Millstream  and the coast from Karratha north as the bitumen favoured this route.

The red earth of the Pilbara which stains everything it touches including our white, brown and black dog who is now a red, brown and black dog.

We stopped at another great rest stop along the way, the Albert Tognolini rest area 179 km NW of Newman and 17 km south of the Auski Roadhouse.  We had also stayed here two nights ten years ago and we did the same again this time.

Andrew did the big walk up along the ridge above, same as he did last time.  The view along the valley of this gorge is very lovely.

One of the many cliff faces which greet you along the road.  The land formations in the Pilbara are all spectacular and beautiful.  I think it was the Premier of WA, Mark McGowan, who advised his citizens in this time of Covid-19 and restrictions on overseas travel, to "Make the most of what you have" and what we have is an amazing state, with doors mostly open and always welcoming.

We arrived in Port Hedland on Friday with a number of tasks to fulfill.  I needed a haircut and a replacement for my dead watch which proved nigh impossible to achieve until now.  Tom Price, the biggest town until now, had a very limited range to choose from.  Buying the Weekend Australian was not as easy as you would think.  In many places the paper comes either a few days later or not at all.  I was lucky enough to manage to get one on Sunday after a visit to the craft market which was held in the centre of town, the first market since the Covid-19 lockdown.

Port Hedland is not known for its beauty or as a tourist attraction.  It is a working town, and best known for its massive resource industry, long trains, big ships hauling iron ore and salt piles.  Its natural deep anchorage harbour has been widened and deepened over the years and is the site of the highest tonnage port in Australia.  Other major resource activities supported by the town include the offshore natural gas fields, salt and manganese and livestock.  Grazing of cattle and sheep was formerly a major revenue earner for the region but this has slowly declined. 

The large salt mounds of Dampier Salt located between Port Hedland and South Hedland have almost become a tourist attraction in their own right.

The flat rocks along the beach near Pretty Pool inlet.

The Esplanade Hotel built in 1904.  This Edwardian building is the most impressive building in the town.