Cape Range National Park

After leaving Bullara early on the 9/9/2014 we headed towards Exmouth. On our way through town we grabbed a fresh loaf of bread & then went straight out to Cape Range national park. All bookings for campsites have to be done online now, so luckily we had booked as all the campgrounds were full. We booked into Kurrajong camp site number 23. The road in is all bitumen until you get right to your campground & then it is only gravel for about 500 meters, so all sorts of cars can access the park. Some of the road is damaged on the way in from the big storms & flooding they had back in April & some of the campsites & beaches are still closed. 

We arrived at our campground to find it was pretty good. The sites were very large by national park standards & also more spread out than we thought they would be. It also had new pit toilets. We had booked for 5 days & there is no shade at all so we also put up our big awning. The ground was rock hard, so putting in the pegs was a hassle, but finally we were all set up. We went down to the beach for a look & wow! Just glorious! The camp is tucked behind the sand dunes, but as soon as you walk over them, the view is spectacular. We went for a bit of a walk, the water looked so inviting, it would definitely be worth a swim & may be a snorkel. 

The beach at Kurrajong campsite above & below

We headed back to camp & the wind really started to pick up, we readjusted all of the awning poles, but it just got stronger. It continued to blow really strong for the next 2 days. Cooking was a nightmare, no fires are allowed, so trying to cook on gas & butane was pretty hard. It started to get cold as well & our fish & salad for dinner didn't seem very appetising again. Instead we had a chuck it all in pasta dish, that was warm in our bellies, we went to bed early again to escape the wind, but the canvas flapped all night. 

Unfortunately it wasn't much better the next day, so we decided to go for a drive to escape the wind. We went back towards town & checked out some of the beaches closer to town, & also the lighthouse, where you can drive all the way to the top of a huge hill & the views are amazing. We then had a look around town. It is pretty flash, they have even built canal estates. There is most things you need in town including 2 IGAs, post office, grog shop, camping shop, bakery, butcher, cafés & pubs. We decided to go to the pub for lunch. We went to the tavern & it was an American style Country music place, it sounds corny, but it was actually pretty cool, with old Willie Nelson & Johnny Cash posters on the walls & American decor & menu. After some pork ribs & chicken wings & to many beers for Mat, I drove us back out to camp, where the wind was still blowing. We watched the sunset over the water on the beach & then finally had our fish for dinner, although with veggies not salad, damn cold weather!!

View from the lighthouse above & lighthouse below

The next day it was still blowing a gale, so we went for a drive down towards Yardie Creek. A very picturesque creek, that you can cross to head towards Ningaloo if the tide it right, but when we were there the tide was rushing in, definitely not safe to cross. 

Yardie Creek

We headed back towards our camp & called into Osprey Bay, another camping area. Wow, just beautiful & you can see the water right from the campsites, but obviously more windy than behind the dunes. The wind was lighter here, so we grabbed our snorkel gear out & went for a swim. Well Mat did. I have only ever snorkelled once, in grade 7 at Tallebudgera school camp & I can't remember loving it. I am not a great swimmer & also a country girl, so am a bit scared of the sea to be honest. We did have the occasional beach holiday as a kid, but I would only ever go out up to my waist or so. Mat on the other hand did marine science at school & snorkelled around the Yeppoon area & then did courses at Uni that did research at Heron island, so he loves it. He was straight in exploring the beautiful coral. I got in & it felt like the current was to strong & I didn't have any fins, so just stayed in the shallows, trying to remember how to use my mask & snorkel properly & how to breath. Mat raved about what he saw, he said there were lots of neon blue & yellow fish, but I just couldn't do it, I did get a nice swim though. 

Osprey Bay above & below

We headed back to camp & the wind had really dropped off, so we had a really relaxing afternoon. The next day we decided to stay around camp. I got up early & went for a lovely walk on the beach, the wind was still calm. We then did some jobs around camp, Mat fixed the brake controller that had snapped on our way here & I did the hand washing. That all done, it was still calm, so we took our snorkel gear down to the beach in front of camp. It was really calm. I swallowed my hesitation & jumped in. It was amazing, the current wasn't to strong, so I felt comfortable. I found I could even breath properly. We swam over heaps of beautiful coral & saw all sorts of fish. Another lady snorkelling pointed out some more coral to us that was further up the beach & there were so many fish, it was amazing. I was hooked, I couldn't keep the smile off my face. I have never ever swam in the ocean like that before, just so free & it was surprisingly calming. I definitely had to buy some fins. 

The beach at camp, nice & calm

The next day was our last full day & we decided to go into town to see if we could extend our stay. Sadly our site was already booked, so we did our grocery shopping, went shopping for some fins for me & we also unfortunately had to buy a chemical toilet. We really didn't want to, but all of the places that we want to stay at in the next month you must have one. You can hire them, but at $10-15 per day, it was cheaper for us to buy one. 

On our way back to camp we went to a beach called Oyster Stacks in the national park, one of the most famous snorkelling sites. I was confident, I had my new fins, I was ready. When we arrived it had got quite windy again & it was pretty choppy. The beach is all rock where you enter the water, so we walked down a bit further, so we could enter the water a bit safer. We got our gear on & went in, Mat was off & straight into it as usual, but I could feel the current was stronger here. I went in, but couldn't get the hang of my fins & had trouble breathing & swallowed a heap of water. I did manage to see about 5 minutes worth of reef & it was spectacular. The coral was so close to the surface I thought I was going to crash into it, the amount of fish was 10 times more than the day before. Pretty soon though the current had washed me back towards shore & I got out disappointed. From snorkelling legend one day to a bit of a fail the next! Oh well I am hoping I will get the hang of it in some calmer waters at Ningaloo. Mat continued on, doing 2-3 more sweeps over the area & said it was some of the best snorkelling he has ever done. When he finally got out, we made our way back to camp to start packing up. 

Oyster Stacks, 3 photos above

We ended up taking down the awning in the afternoon to make it easier the next day & packed up what we could. I then sat down to get all of these blog posts done, so I didn't forget anything. We loved our time at Cape Range national park. We would definitely come back again & there is still  heaps to see. Make sure you check out the campsite booking page online if you plan on coming here, every campsite has to be booked online as of April 2015 & they were full every night while we were here. The cost is $10 per person per night, the only facilities are pit toilets. There is no phone reception. If this is the start of the Ningaloo reef experience, we can't wait to explore the rest. 

Kurrajong camp, I only realised I hadn't taken any photos after we put the awning down

Typical country in Cape Range, low scrub leading to the ocean

We didn't get any really spectacular water sunsets, but it was still lovely. 

40 Mile Beach & Bullara Station Stay

We moved on from Cleaverville Beach, not far up the road to 40 Mile Beach, another campsite run by the Karratha shire. It was the same as Cleaverville in terms of cost $10 a night with no facilities. It was also right on the beach, but a lot of its sites were behind the mangroves. We paid the caretaker & followed the track along checking out the sites. It was much busier here with a lot of long term campers. We weren't to keen to camp on top of the mangroves, as the midgees were keen, so we followed the track along, all the way to the end & ended up at the very last campsite 33 on the beach. It was tucked into the dunes, but you could still see the water. It was pretty private, except for a road down to the beach itself running nearby, but we only saw a few cars a day. We set up & Mat went to find some fire wood, he came back with some of the heaviest, hardest wood we have seen for our whole trip, it definitely gave the chainsaw a work out, but burned really well, making awesome coals. 

40 Mile Beach above & below

The next day we went for a drive to explore. You can get a fair way down towards a creek inlet, we had a fish, but not luck & also a swim. We then made our way back towards the caretakers camp &  found a pretty good beach up that end as well. Back to camp for some lunch, we then rang our dads for Father's Day & cooked up a delicious roast chicken & veggies for dinner, we had to take advantage of that beautiful wood. 

Creek at 40 Mile beach

40 Mile Beach campsite

2 nights was enough for us at 40 Mile Beach. It was another good spot, but we did prefer Cleaverville beach. 

The next morning we packed up & headed off. We had a fair day ahead of us. We decided to not go to Onslow, so bypassed that & headed towards Exmouth. We decided to stay at a station stay for one night before going into Cape Range National Park. We needed to do some washing & badly needed a decent shower. So we stayed at Bullara. They had pretty good facilities, & we got the washing done & long showers in. By about 4pm the wind really started to pick up & it got really cold. We weren't used to that after the Kimberley!! We were supposed to have fish & salad for dinner, but that was less than appetising on a cold night, so we had a tin of soup & bread followed by a coffee & fruit cake & snuck off to bed at about 7pm with our teeth chattering. We even had a few spits of rain during the night, our first rain in, we can't even remember how long. The cost was $14 per person per night at Bullara. Definitely an authentic station stay, it even had a hot water donkey.

Bullara campsite

We were up early the next day, for another blissful hot shower & then headed towards Exmouth & Cape Range National Park. We were very excited to see the Ningaloo reef. 

Karratha, Cleaverville Beach, Dampier, Roebourne & Point Samson

On the 2nd of September 2014 we made our way towards Karratha. We had heard of a couple of places that you can camp that are run by the shire & are cheap, but still close to town & right on the beach. We did a quick drive into Karratha itself for a look around to see what facilities there were, it had everything including a Woolies & Coles, so we knew we could restock. After a quick lunch we headed out to our camping spot, Cleaverville Beach. It is between Karratha & Roebourne, right on the coast & only about 30km from Karratha. The dirt road in is good quality & we were soon greeted with sweeping blue views of the ocean, what a great spot. We pulled into see the caretaker & paid them our $10 a night & went off in search of a campsite. We found one right on the sand dunes, looking out over the water, that was a long way from any neighbours, heaven. 

Cleaverville beach 3 photos above & 1 below

We had soon set up & went down to the beach for a look. It was a sandy beach, but as soon as you got to the water it was more rocky & with some coral. We explored until it was time for a beer. We enjoyed the night & were quite chuffed with ourselves for finding  a great spot for cheap. 

Camp at Cleaverville beach

The next day we headed into Karratha. We went to the visitor centre first to get some water, we also used their free WiFi & they also have computers, so I backed up my photos. We then went for a drive around & picked up a few things from the shops. There was a Tyrepower who was a Cooper dealer in town & we decided to take one of our tyres in to see if we could get a warranty on it. One of our rear tyres on the car had developed a split in it, we noticed it first at Langi Crossing, & just kept an eye on it, but it had continued to split. It looked strange & didn't appear to be from stone or rock damage. I was pretty dubious that we would get it under warranty, couldn't be that lucky, but the guy came out, looked at it & said yep, definitely a warranty job. As it was worn, they gave us a 50% discount on a new tyre pro rata, so we were very happy with that. They couldn't do the job until 3pm so we went for a drive to Dampier for a look. As you drive towards Dampier you go past some huge salt lakes, where they dry & then process the salt in the salt mines, it was pretty impressive. Further out we took the turn off towards the port, which is a huge gas port. There is an information centre there that is really worth a look, it explains the gas process really well in a 15 minute video & it has many models & other information about the size of the offshore gas operations. 

Going towards the salt lakes

After that we headed into Dampier. There isn't much there to be honest, although it does have a nice little bay & the water is really green & pretty. Most importantly the do have a pub, so we decided to go for some lunch & they did a great feed. We then went back to Karratha to get our tyre done & by the time that was done, we were ready to head back to camp after being away all day. 

Dampier water front

The next day was a quiet in camp day, so not much to report. 

Birds around camp

The day after we explored towards Roebourne. We had a look at the visitor information centre, which also has the old goal attached. It was a great way to spend an hour & there is some interesting history there, especially the treatment of indigenous prisoners. We then headed towards Wickham, it is really just a mining town, it even had a Woolies & was pretty flash. We think they do it big in mining back home in QLD, but it has nothing on WA. We  moved on towards Point Samson, a beach holiday town. Very beautiful & if you lived in the area, you would spend a lot of time there. The beaches were just beautiful especially Honeymoon Cove & it looked good for a fish. 

Honeymoon Cove

There was a creek on the way in that we decided to have a fish at. We were getting all the gear ready & setting up the lines, when a gust of wind blew the car door shut & snapped Mat's fishing rod in half. It was pretty much brand new & he had only bought it at Christmas time (yes family, the one he want supposed to buy!) so he was not happy to say the least, as it had happened to one of the other rods a few weeks ago as well. So we had to go to the tackle shop & some how Mat managed to walk out with 2 new fishing rods!  It was then time to head back to camp & start to pack up ready for our next move. Cleaverville beach is a great spot to camp. The cost was $10 per night, $60 per week or $280 a month. There are no facilities, but there are toilets down at the boat launching area, that are supposed to be day use only, so you are supposed to be self sufficient. There is water at Karratha visitor centre for $1 per 50L, they also have free WiFi. We ended up staying for 4 nights, definitely a good spot either to chill out & relax or as a base to explore the area, or both. 

Millstream Chichester National Park

We left our camp at Balla Balla & headed towards Millstream National Park. We turned off the North West Coastal highway onto the Roubourne Wittenoom road. The scenery soon became stunning, big red hills covered in spinifex & Sturt Desert Peas flowering profusely. The red flowers light up the landscape. 

It wasn't long before we reached the border of the national park & made our way into Python Pool. After a short walk from the car park, you come across Python Pool & it is just beautiful. As we hadn't had a shower in a couple of days, we jumped straight in the water, it was cold but so refreshing. Finches & other birds zipped around us, it was a magical place to have to ourselves for an hour or so. We finally dragged ourselves away, unfortunately the campground near by (snake creek) has been shut, so we headed further south west towards the other campground. The northern part of the park was just beautiful & we were so excited to see what else we could find. 

Python pool above & below

The drive through the hills was amazing with sweeping views, but started to flatten out as we continued on. 

We arrived at the Stargazer's campsite & did a quick drive around. It was okay, there were no other campers there except the camp hosts. The sites were pretty small, gravel & most had no shade. We decided to have a look at the other campsite as well to see if it was as any better. It was just up the road & called Miliyanah. We drove in, it was much the same, but some of the sites backed onto a creek bed, so there was a few trees, it was much busier, so we decided to go back to Stargazers because it would be quieter. We paid for 2 nights & set up camp. It was pretty hot with no shade, so we used the car awning. We figured we would check out the rest of the park the next day, so had a quiet afternoon. Only 2 other camp sites were taken, so it was a very peaceful night. 

The next day we were up early & went for a drive. Soon we were crossing the Fortescue River & it was lovely, with lots of water & a family were canoeing. We kept driving & were going to call into the other campsite for a look (Murlunmunyjurna) unfortunately it had also been closed, despite it looking like a great campsite. We moved on towards Deep Reach Pool, the last thing to look at, it was only 9.30am. We decided we may as well go back & pack up & move on. We went back to camp, told the camp hosts we were leaving as we had seen it all & they weren't suprised, we couldn't get our camp fees back though for that night. 

It had been a pretty basic camp, so we we were packed in just over half an hour. Once packed, we headed out & called into Deep Reach Pool also on the Fortescue River, for a look & swim on the way out.  Wow, what a fantastic spot, we dived straight in the inviting waters, it was much warmer & just heaven to wash the dust off. The river was really wide but the water was pretty clear & little fish swam around. It was a great spot. If only they let you camp down here, we would stayed for a lot longer. 

Deep reach pool above & below

After our swim we hit the road, this time travelling back north on the bitumen road that brings you out just south of Dampier. The road follows the railway line & also the main water line back to the north & was an interesting drive. The water for Karratha & surrounds comes from the artesian basin under Millstream. Millstream national park has some really great spots, including Python pool & deep reach pool, the northern end was just spectacular. We were a bit disappointed you couldn't access more of it though. I still can't believe we only stayed one night. You can definitely see it all in a day if you wanted to. Camping was $10 per person per night. The campgrounds had drop toilets & a water tank of non potable water. There were some walks you could do, but they all seemed pretty uninspiring. Especially when all the good bits are only 200 meters from the car parks. 

We would definitely recommend Millstream, just don't expect to have heaps to see. 

Balla Balla

We decided to do a big days driving south from Port Smith, through Port Hedland as we had already seen that country. After a quick resupply in South Hedland of groceries, beer & bread we left town & headed further south. We had seen a place called Balla Balla in our free camps books that looked good. You turn off on Balla Balla road at the Whim Creek pub & after about 13km on a really good dirt road you start to see tracks on the right heading towards Balla Balla Creek. We chose one of these & soon found a campsite right on the high banks of the creek. We could see our neighbours (mostly caravaner's) but they were about 200-300 meters away on each side, so pretty good. We set up & it was about 5pm by the time we were done, so it was a late arrival for us. 

Campsite view

We had heard the fishing was good, so decided to stay the next day as well. After breakfast we headed back to Balla Balla road & went further along it down to the boat ramp. You can also camp here & plenty of people were, but it's on a salt/mud flat & very open & exposed, the creek was much better. Unfortunately you couldn't really get to the water, as the tide was out. 

Balla Balla boat ramp

Camping area near the boat ramp

When it was up you could fish from the boat ramp, but there wasn't much room. Again I am told we need a boat! We decided to head back to camp & have a fish there instead. Mat got a few bites, but kept getting snagged on rocks, so after breaking off, we called it quits. We had a really quiet afternoon enjoying the scenery & sunset. The amount of birds was amazing as well, from black swans, pelicans to fire tail finches. 

We decided one day was enough & packed up the next morning to head into Millstream national park, more on that next. Balla Balla was a good free camp. It would make an ideal overnighter as the road in is excellent & it gets you away from the highway. There are no facilities, no drinking water & not a lot of firewood around, there is phone reception though. 

Competition Time - To Celebrate 10 000 blog page views

(Edited on 18/09/2014 - this competition is now CLOSED

The winner as found using a random number generator was comment number 2. Congratulations Ray from Austravel). Ray if you email us at reddirtroaming@gmail.com to claim your prize. 

We are super excited to reach 10 000 page views on the Red Dirt Roaming blog. When we started the blog we never expected to receive this much interest. We hope we have provided our family & friends with a way to keep track of our adventures & where we are & what we have been doing. Also we aim to give fellow travellers handy information on the places we have visited. We have also developed a pretty good following on our camp cooking recipes & ideas which is great. We have received some great feedback on the blog & want to thank everyone that has taken the time to read & comment on our posts.

It really happened !!!

So to celebrate, we are teaming up with Tentworld to bring you an amazing giveaway. We are giving away a quality LED Lenser Torch valued at $109. All you have to do is comment on this blog post, letting us know which of our posts you have enjoyed the most. (If you are going to post as Anyonmous please put your first name & surname initial in your comment so we can work out who is who)

Here's how to win

- comment on this post telling us what your favourite Red Dirt Roaming post has been (all comments will be automatically numbered)

- the competition will run for 2 weeks from the date of this post

- once the competition closes a random number generator will select the winning comment based on number

- we will announce the comment winner on the blog

- if you are the winner you will have 1 week to email us at reddirtroaming@gmail.com to claim your prize (if you don't contact us, we will redraw the prize)

- your torch will be posted to you directly from the friendly team at Tentworld 

- this competition is only open to Australian Residents

To give you some inspiration, according to page views our top 5 posts of all time are-

1. Camping Nachos

2. Bilyuin Pool on the Murchison River

3. Pardoo Station

4. Choc Chip & Macadamia Nut Biscuits

5. Karijini National Park - Part 2

But we would love to hear which one was your favourite.

This competition is brought to you courtesy of Red Dirt Roaming & Tentworld. Check out Tentworld's Websitefor great deals on camping gear, they also have a great Blogor keep updated on their Facebook page

Also have you considered signing up to the Red Dirt Roaming blog via email? All you have to do is go to the bottom of page & put your email address in the "follow via email" section. You will then automatically receive an email whenever we post new content. Be the first to read our new posts or information on any further giveaways, to easy!