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 Topic: An Epic Outback Trip (Part Five)
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27/10/2017 at 5:11am
Location: Melbourne Australia
Outfit: Windsor Rapid Off Road Van + tents
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Welcome to my fifth report from my recently completed five week trip across Australia.
I awoke on the banks of the Oakover River at Carawine Gorge, about 160 ks east of Marble Bar.
Pre dawn, then the early morning sun lighting up my camp and cliffs on the opposite bank with some lovely warm colours.
Just before I drove the 15 ks of station track back to the main road, I strolled along the river capturing the cliffs with the sun now shining brightly on them, for when I had arrived the previous day they were all in the shade.
As I made my way back to the main road, I decided to take a detour along another property track to a geological feature you don’t often see, a glacial slide. What impressed me here was the owner of the property alerted the visitor to this feature and encouraged you to visit this most unique spot,
I loved the track that took you there, you felt as though you were in the middle of know where which basically you were.
The rocks there had been ground smooth by a glacier slowly moving (grinding it’s way) over them. That event obviously happened when it was covered in thick ice, tens of if not hundreds of thousands of years ago and for that movement to occur it must have been moving down a steep mountain which no longer exists there.
The glazed appearance is where the rocks rough surface has been ground smooth by the glacier moving over it.
I just hope like anything that visitors/travellers/campers etc continue to treat this private property with respect (Warrawagine Station which is a approx 4,100 sq kilometres in size). It is still a working cattle station and the Mills family have no need to allow access to any of it but they do and I applaud them for giving us the opportunity to experience all that is there.
A couple of pics of the country I drove through on my way to Marble Bar, it was so different to what I had experienced crossing the deserts from Alice Springs.
Just before you reach Marble Bar these signs/silhouettes are an interesting introduction to the town and region. Marble Bar got it’s name when prospectors thought that rock deposits found in the local river bed were Marble but they turned out to be Jasper which is common and basically worthless, but the name Marble Bar stuck.
This one in particular took my interested at the time, so on my return I looked up just how big it was and how did that compare to other areas or countries. The size of the East Pilbara Shire is 380,000 sq kilometres which is approx three times the size of England with just over 12,000 people living within it’s boundaries!
Most would be aware that Marble Bar gets hot, (as does a lot of places around Australia) and it does but it was the 161 consecutive days of above the old temperature scale of 100 degrees that was set in 1923-4 that gave the town notoriety, still to this day it is an Australian record.
I didn’t spend a lot of time there as I knew I would be returning with Jen in a little over a week and I thought it would be good to see a bit more of the town and it’s surrounds together, however there were a few things which deserved to be photographed and enjoyed. The first thing which impressed me were the Government Offices and Post Office building which was built in 1895 and are now heritage listed.
I visited the Marble Bar Pool on the Coongan River and had a lovely swim, how nice does this look?
A short distance north of there is Chinamans Pool, so called due to a number of Chinese operating a market gardner there over a hundred years ago, servicing the many prospectors that had come to find their fortunes with considerable gold finds being made in the area.
I will show more from there in a later report, I now left Marble Bar and headed towards Broome taking the Shay Gap road, which would bring me out onto the Great Northern Highway. On my way I called into Coppins Gorge to check it out. I lovely swimming hole and Gorge that doesn’t get a lot of visitors.
North of there I stopped at the De Grey River, not only was it pleasing to the eye at the river crossing but the possibility of a refreshing swim certainly attracted me so I drove down a side track beside the river.
With a little bit of time left in the day but not enough to find a campsite comparable to the one I was now at, I decided to camp here at Muccanoo Pool.
The still conditions were ideal for photographing these reflections, something that had been a feature of many of the spots I had visited so far on this trip, how nice are these.
A stunning sunrise to welcome in my final day on my own.
Again the scenery along the way was striking and quite different from what I had expected with the occasional flowering shrub complimenting the rugged outcrops along the way.
I stopped at Barn Hill (part of Thangoo Cattle Station) about 130 ks south of Broome for my last night camps before meeting up with my partner Jen the next day.
To smell the sea air and feel the humidity was so nice and quite a contrast to the dry desert conditions that I had experienced over the last 10 days or so.
I was impressed with their shower/toilet block, it had the first flushing toilet I had seen in the past nine days!
No need for roofs out there as the sun shines for most of the year and even when it doesn’t it’s still stinking hot!
I made my way down to the beach for a sensational swim in the Indian Ocean, something I hadn’t done for a number of years. I loved the rugged coastline that abutted the sand, some of the formations were so rugged and photogenic.
I took these next few pics a bit later in the afternoon. Even though this is a popular place, because of it’s size I still felt as though I was the only one on the planet strolling along this beautiful beach.
My tracks and then a couple more pics of more tracks to show you I wasn’t there on my own.
Late in the day I revisited those rock formations to capture the setting sun casting a totally different light on them.
And then the sun slipped below the horizon for the final time before I would be reunited with Jen the next day in Broome.
Then the sky taken from beside my tent.
I arrived in Broome an hour or so before Jen’s flight would touch down so I paid a quick visit to a couple of locations to kill some time, first the wharf area then I popped into the beautiful Cable Beach.
What a stunning spot as most of those who have been there would vouch for. I had driven 5178 ks from Melbourne to reach Broome. Jen had left early that morning and would arrive far more refreshed than I but i wouldn’t swap the experiences I had had for all the tea in China (strange old saying that!)
The next part of my 5 week trip was about to start, what I called the second stage. Jen and I would spend the next 2.5 weeks together and I’m sure you will find those experiences we had just as enjoyable to see and read about as what I have already shown you.
Regards from Col.
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The worst day above ground, is a whole lot better than the best one under it. Live life to the fullest while you can.
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