18^th August: Carnarvon

This morning, while typing yesterday's blog in draft form as I always do, I lost the lot right back to Port Hedland. Glen was asleep and so it was a mini disaster. Now, he will have to retrieve it all from the internet. What a pain!!

Finally, I have TPG – the first time since Charters Towers! So, I have been able to ring all three children which was nice.I've been able to catch up with the family news and this morning (the 19^th ) I rang Rachelle on her father's phone on the way to school. It is her 16^th birthday and this afternoon she passed her written test for her learner diver's licence. Scary, isn't it! That I have a grand daughter who will soon be driving!

On Monday, yesterday, there was great excitement: we had clouds in the sky, the first since Karijini where it rained. We drove up the coast to the Quobba Blowholes. This is odd coast line: conglomerate cemented in limestone. So very hard and yet, such is the power of the sea here, caverns and holes have been eroded into the rocks and when the swell pumps, the water is driven up through these holes and sprays into the air like a geyser. 

We then drove further up the coast. This is the narrow, coastalstrip of land which sitsbetween the ocean and Lake McLeod – a very large salt lake. We went there in the past but now it is impossible to go there. The salt is mined by Rio Tinto. (Last time, we were told the water in the lake is supersaturated by pumping sea water through underground salt and then leaving it to evaporate.) As we drove up a corrugated dirt road with limestone ridges evry so often, we came across the mine roads, complete with stop signs and stop lights, smooth and flat. We stopped; just as well as a B-double came whistling through without pausing, transporting salt to Cape Culver where there is an export facility. Not that we could get anywhere near it. However, just up the roadis an access road to where a ship, The Korean Star, floundered some time ago. No sign of it now as the sea has done an excellent job of removing its litter. But, we could see the port facility very clearly. Salt has been piled up on the edge of the cliff and, where as, in the past, it was pushed over onto the boat 100 metres below, now there is a cconveyor belt which travels on a rather filmsy looking jetty to a ship anchored with multiple ropes. The sea bed shelves very deeply and very suddenly here. Three small tugs lurk about. The site is a little protected by the cape but it is still a very precarious existence! Yet despite this and despite signs warning of killer king waves, two fishermen hadsomehow climbed down the near vertical 100 metre cliff to a ledge just above the crashing waves! Madness!

We continued along the deteriorating road to Red Bluff. Now, that was an isolated spot! Actually a sheep property in a remote position, there are facilities for camping,created by the owners as an alternative income source. Small alcoves around the few trees with basic bush toilets. The six or so safari tents that were occupied, a shop that sells simple ice-blocks and limited fast food and a few rough shacks. Bring your own water and provisions. And the reason? A legendry surf beach, my book tells me. (The beach was protected by the huge bluff on the southern side when we visited. No left-hand break!) However, the reef is in close and there is plenty of fishing and spear fishing when the surf is not up. There were about a dozen or so camps huddled around any available tree as, without the wind, it was hot and dry. But a lovely spot to hide from the world!

We left and sped over corrugations homeward. A stop at a HMAS Sydney II memorial and a couple of detours off the road to look at the sea again enlivened the trip back. The swell was rolling in all down the coast, smashing against the cliffs and is a magnificent, although destructive force. 

There were some seriously rocky access roads and one that went up and over a sand dune. I remarked to Glen that he would have to come back up it and my fears proved to be correct. It took us three goes to conquer it, backing down each time to the edge of the cliff. Some shrieks as we finally rather inelegantly churned abruptly over the top!!

It was nice to be on a sealed road again. A car wash is in order!