Dales Gorge

In the morning, did some schoolwork, then tried out the walk near camp to Circular pool, Fortescue Falls, and the pool at the end. The walk into the gorge was lovely. The falls were really spectacular.

Left: near the campground. The earth is rich red, greens can really pop brightly and the sky is the deepest blue overhead.

Right on the way into Dales Gorge.

Banded iron.

The path to Circular Pool is like it has been paved out especially, with random wall placements.

The Circular Pool was kind of cold.

Fortescue Falls. I can't imagine a less Aboriginal sounding name. At least this park is now well known only by the name Karijini, and not the Hammersley Ranges National Park. It's overkill to rename everything when it has a name already, mostly since about 40 to 60,000 years ago.

In the pool at the end - Jubura (since renamed Fern Pool and going back to Jubura again.)

 On the unfortunate unthinking renaming of everything that should have gone out with Terra Nullius.

Fortescue Falls pool, not sure what the proper name is.

Overlooking the gorge - we took the shortcut out rather than backtracking, and the view was fantastic.

Dales Gorge.

A tour of Pilbara transport followed by the stars

On the road to Karijini, we came across at least three oversize loads - that took up the entire road in fact. This guy pulled to the left so we could pass. The other two were coming head on. The escort forced us off the road. Richard and Penny were really mad that it happened by the time they arrived at Auski/Munjina.

There was a malfunctioning rail crossing that meant everyone waited for about a full 20 minutes. It made for some good photos though...

Finally the train appeared!

Then it kept rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, for about 240 carriages, like aout 2 to 2.5kms long. They do take a while...

The road trains could finally cross.

We finally got to Munjina (aka Auski Roadhouse)

On arrival in Karijin, luckily Marie overheard the hosts talking about a great star tour. We had a fantastic star viewing session - saw the Alpha Centauri twin system, the Jewel Box, just above the Southern Cross, all different colours, hot new stars 14 million years old, two Globular clusters, the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. The Omega Centura globular cluster has 10 million stars at 16000 light years. The jewel box is 6440 light years away. ETA Carina will go supernova soon. There are now 2 trillion galaxies in the known universe. It is expanding faster than the speed of light, so space is expanding as well as the stars flying fast. There are like 2 billion stars in the Milky way galaxy along. We each got a Milky Way chocolate bar at the end and a little summary card. We need to get a 10 inch Dobsonian telescope. Phill Witt.

Phill got this magic shot via the telescope and onto Marie's phone - pretty amazing. 

Lou was super excited, particularly when we could see Saturn's rings so clearly, you could see the gap. It finished so late that when we got home, he slept on his bed before getting into the sleeping bag etc.

Bore Line Road to Marble Bar

On a lucky tip from the old owner at Port Smith Caravan Park, we travelled the Bore Line road, which did have a lot of interesting country to see, all lovely, rocky outcrops, hills, etc.

Today we're in Marble Bar. This place is pretty cool, a nice, very neat town with a couple of historic stone buildings from the 1900s, a history of gold mining. The caravan park has grass - yeeha.

Right: at the visitor centre.

Left: the many many languages of the Pilbara, at the visitor centre.

Day 1, went to the local natural pools. The water is a bit low and green for swimming. We had a lunch and got an odd dust shower. The food was still ok.

In the arvo we went to Comet gold mine. Gerald the host from Holland told us many fascinating facts about it. It extracted about $200 million worth of gold. At least half probably went out in the pockets of the workers. The discovery of gold is completely luck. There's sure to be a whole pile more in the mountain, but it may not be worth trying to dig all that dirt. The rocks contain arsenic, so need to be heated up to release this before they could crush the rock for extraction. The chimney is hopefully high enough to send the vapours elsewhere on the wind. Sorry for the surrounding areas. Seems gold is not the most environmentally friendly.

Left: walking around while black, no trials, identification or evidence necessary. Owners of the land were pushed off, then chained up when they took some food while starving, after their own lands were ruined and converted to European style farms.

 Night one - had one beer at the pub, set up, chatted to travellers.

Day 2, went out to the secret ww2 air base - Corunna Downs. It is spread over a wide area with the old camps, plane parking, 2 runways, and taxi way. The main runway is 2.3kms long, so a jumbo could still land there if it's in trouble. It used to be sealed but has long since been graded enough to scrape off the bitumen. It's funny that the Japanese never found it. It was deliberately placed out of range of their fighters. Our bombers could reach their bases however.

Corunna was used to strike Japanese bases in Java. The Japanese tried to find the base, but never did.

 Left: you can see the airstrip in this photo.

Marble Bar is a pretty town.

The Iron Clad hotel.

Up at the bar with fellow travellers Richard and Penny. It happens pretty often that you bump into the same people along the road.

Karajarri, temporarily known as Port Smith

Stayed two nights at Port Smith. The lagoon there is just a vision of paradise, with the white beaches dotted with the odd mangrove tree.

Ollie fished during the morning, but we got nothing and lost his lure. 

In the afternoon at full low tide, we got two silvery fish, about 20cms long and half a kilo. The first one got themselves off the hook after some swinging, and another that we had to wait for it to tire out, then I grabbed the hook with my hand and tipped him off.

Lombadina - Dampier Peninsula

Today we're in Lombadina doing school work. Going is slow. I'm getting super duper frustrated with Lou who has spent the morning so far on one single page. He really doesn't like writing much. It's a shame - the subject is first white contact with Aboriginal people, a subject I'm very interested in at present. Since Yuendumu, we've been reading up a lot on the achievements of Aboriginal agriculture, food, culture and kinship systems. They are vastly underappreciated. Louis loves learning about their culture, just not writing anything except two word sentences that don't have a verb and hence don't make any sense, dammit!

After a frustrating day, we went for a frustrating walk for a km in the dunes to get to the beach. But once we arrived, as the boys splashed around, wrestled, and caught waves, all our cares melted away, except for the gripping fear of sharks in this totally isolated area full of fish. One guy blasted past on a motorbike, a car or two came for a bit. The walk back took no time at all with all the pleasant chit chat.

Right: Ollie tries out spear making.

Satuday went for a cultural tour with BUndy, a local elder. He explained words for white people (it's the same as for the white sand), Bard is one person, Bardi is many people from this area. OOdnaday is a woman. There was one missionary who said language and cultre was wicked and must be stopped. The next minister was German. He said he had his language, and there's nothing wrong with the culture, so keep both, and he'd just teach some religion, and take care of people. Lombadina was a variation on the Bard name Lombadinar, and Chile for Chile Creek also.

He was part of the stolen generation and grew up in an orphanage with his parents and other family right nearby. He is concerned about the nearby oil and gas extraction, oil spills. Climate change is happening noticeably here, with changes in bird life, dry spells and rainfall. He showed us how to find fresh water. We went spearfishing, firstly knee deep, then waist deep, then me and Ollie were up to our necks swimming trying to get some. He got 3 fish, we got none.

We got some larger pippies, like mussles, superbly delicious over mangrove wood fire, like a smoked fish. The fish itself was also sensational. He threw another fish to a sea eagle. He has a spiritual connection where he can see the water, and become one with the birds to astrotravel. Lastly we saw petrified footprints from 7000 years ago.

Right: at Kooljaman for the wood fired pizza night and trivia.

Snack at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, pizza at Kooljaman with a trivia night. Louis went nuts for the science questions.

The following day we went to the Trochus Hatchery at Ardyaloon. There was a map on the wall with al Aboriginal names for all the places on the peninsula. If there is a single r, it should be pronounced like an American r, and double rr is rolled like an Italian R. The guide warned if we're tall like him to be wear of the bar over the entrance, which he missed by at least 50cms. They used to only do Trochus shells. These were to make buttons in the days before plastics. They made a good living. The coming of plastic brought an end to that.

The guy was telling a lot of funny jokes about bumping your head if you're as tall as him, the fish that was as handsome as him, and the turtle who's 20 like him so they get on.  There were Barras. mangrove jacks, the ugliest fish in the world. Each get fed when there are visitors, so they all love visitors. Barramundi change form male to female after about 40 years of age. That's why they get so grumpy; can you imagine feeling and thinking while going through that change? The Barras like fish fingers. He popped his finger in, and the Barras snapped onto it. Easy fishing eh.

The turtle loves a scratch on the back. He was right - we spent a good 10 or 20 mins scratching the turtle as much as he wanted. He breathed just near then swung his back to let us gently scratch the moss etc off. What a cool turtle.

Drove back to Broome on the dirt road, not too bad, walked into the Cable Beach Caravan Park, and got back our devices, bless them. Not sure how we ended up at the other park, but I guess we were looking for cabins for one night, then decided to stay for two. Got an appointment with the optometrist, who was extremely extremely thorough. Now I have full 20 20 vision, great for watching the stars at night. Can't wait for the next low moon. We bought Ollie a fishing rod.

Gnylmarung - Dampier Peninsula

Left: Kai your camp host doggie

When we turned off to Gnylmarung. About 10km in, we decided the kids could have devices. Then we realised they were still in Broome. What to do? Turn around for Beagle Bay to make a call, go back to Broome (about 2 hours drive)? We pressed on and called them up when we arrived.

The road in was a bit rough and sandy. Definite 4wd is required with a crown of sand and deep rutts in places. The campsite itself is mainly sand tracks with good tree coverage. It's right beside the beach, a very short walk to the water. A stone wall is clearly hand built, so that it forms a pool that water can run out from. These are fish traps. Alphonse says they don't use them anymore as they have nets etc.

We spent a few nice days swimming and sitting around the place. The boys enjoyed playing with Juda and Mila. There was another family: Janet from Germany and her two girls, locally born. They go back once each three years. She plans to also do a 6 month stint there, so that the girls are forced to use their German skills. On the last day another family turned up as well.

We didn't see the boys during the day often. Ollie also had a day on the boat with Mario the mad keen fisherman. Ollie got the first big fish of the day, and was really wrestling with it. The line snapped off. He got a few other good ones. We think we should get him a fishing rod. Ollie says we should also go get a boat.