Down the West Coast to Porth Hedland

(Magyar összefoglaló a végén)


Monday, 9 July, Port Smith caravan park - This morning again I worked on the blog and managed to finish the last missing bit and upload it. Then we packed up and left Broome. We went down South-West along the main coastal highway towards Port Hedland. According to the map on our left hand side was the Great Sandy Desert, but it had far too much vegetation to look like a desert. But there was sand all right, we saw it in a parking area which was not sealed. It was dark-red fine grain dust. 

Cleaning the day's catch

We only travelled about 150 kms, then turned towards the sea, and on a 23 km stretch of red dusty road we came to Port Smith caravan park. It is a very different environment from what we saw in Broome and all in the Kimberley. There are no foreigners here, only aussies, mostly fishermen and their families. A very friendly, quiet laid-back  place, a nice change after the tourist-centered life in Broome. We came here to have a bit of rest, to do nothing for a few days. And that's what we did in the rest of the day. I mentioned to a cleaning lady that we are not fishermen but would be interested in some fish if there was some available. Around 6 pm she called me and took us to the place where all the fishermen were busy cleaning and filleting their daily catch. There were a few big cods and other fish I don't know the name of. After a bit of wait we were given some nice pieces of fillets for free - so we also had a good catch today.

He got a good size pike

Tuesday, 10 July, Port Smith caravan park - We stayed here for another day, and we did not regret it. In the morning we just sat outside the van in the shade, reading and resting. It felt good not doing any sight-seeing for a change. At noon we took advantage of a free (or rather for a small donation to the Flying Doctor Service) boat ride to the adjacent lagoon. We were picked up first by an open 4WD in groups of 6 and taken to the muddy shore in the mangroves. It's a popular activity for the guests, we had to wait half an hour to get in with the 3rd group. Then a small dinghy took us across the lagoon to a nice sandy beach which can only be accessed this way, so there were only the people from this caravan park on it, mostly fishermen and a few like us, just enjoying the scenery. It was a beautiful spot, and the water again had such amazing light blue to opaque colours. The air was quite warm, we also had a swim but the water was just as cold here as in Broome so we came out quite quickly. Then we had a walk along the beach and collected some nice shells, ate our picnic lunch and drank our pre-brewed coffee, and just rested, reading and enjoying the scenery. At 4 pm the boat came back to pick us up, group by group and we were back at the camp by around 5 pm. At home we had a nice dinner from the fish we got yesterday. It was an interesting experience and a very nice day. 

Port Smith Lagoon

A small part of 80-mile Beach

Wednesday, 11 July, 80-mile Beach caravan park - We came further down South-West about 220 kms, and booked into the 80-mile beach caravan park. This park is just behind the dunes of this very long stretch of white sandy beach. It is a very popular place at this time of the year, especially for fishermen, we could only get an unpowered site but we are reasonably self-sufficient with power, as long as there is enough sunshine for our solar panel. And so far there is no shortage of sunshine, although today was the fist day for a very long time that we have seen some clouds on the way here, but they disappeared by the time we got in here. But the temperature is getting a bit cooler, we can feel that we are on the way out of the tropics already. A pity, but what can we do if we want to see the Southern part of the country as well?...
We did not do much in the afternoon, just relaxed, had a long walk along the beach, fossicking for pretty shells, watching the birds and the sea. And then, of course, the sunset over the sea that can't be missed while we are at the Western shore. We even managed to call our children in the evening from the top of a dune, the only spot with weak but working mobile reception, with a bit of luck...

Sunset in the Indian Ocean

Thursday, 12 July, 80-mile Beach caravan park - We stayed here for another day. Although in the morning the sky became fairly cloudy and we were hesitating whether to stay or go, but ended up staying and the sky has cleared out by noon. In the morning we rested reading under the awning of the van. In the afternoon we took our chairs out on the other side of the dune, and watched the beach life and the sea. It was high tide at 4 pm, all along the water's edge the fishermen were out as long as we could see in both direction. Byt 5 pm they started to leave, but they did not catch too many fish, if any. Then of course, we had to wait for another sunset, perhaps even prettier than yesterday.

Salt hills at Port Headland

Friday, 13 July, South Hedland caravan park - We left the 80-mile beach park quite early, heading further South-West. The landscape around us was not very interesting, flat, little vegetation, almost no sign of life. As we came closer to Port Hedland, the land became more undulated, with rocky outcrops, and mine sites appeared on both sides. We got to Port Hedland around noon. It is a very busy industrial and port centre, lots of big road trains and other traffic. We went to the caravan park, but we could not get in, it was completely full. We are now in the first week of the school holidays here, we can expect more similar problems in the next week unfortunately. 

The port

After some searching around we found a place at the adjacent South Hedland, 12 km from Port Hedland. We set up the van, had lunch, then went back to Port Hedland, mostly to check out the visitor centre, but also to have a look around the town and the port. We found the visitor centre (it was not easy, with all the construction works around it), but were not overjoyed with the info we got: it looks like all the campsites are fully booked in there, too. Anyway, we have not much choice, we will go down there and hope for the best.
We drove around the town centre, had a stop at a lookout to the port. An interesting sight, big cargo ships, and loading facilities. Not much else to see. Then we went shopping to refill our stocks. 
Back in the caravan park, this evening we can take advantage of the good mobile internet reception; we have a lot of emails and communications to catch up with.


Our itinerary can be seen at the following Google Map:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8 
(Note that to see the route after Bowen, you need to move down to the bottom of the right panel, and select the following pages!)


Sok érdekes nem történt ezen a héten, az elmúlt hetek exotikus látnivalói után ez egy csendesebb idoszak volt. Hétfo reggel, miután befejeztem az elozo blog-ot, felpakoltunk és elindultunk dél-nyugat felé Broome-ból. Nem mentünk messzire, csak kb 150 km-re, egy Port Smith nevu helyre. Ez az Indiai óceán partján van, 23 km földút vezet le hozzá, de nem volt nagyon rossz. Más nincs az egész környéken, csak egy kemping, ami nagyon népszeru foleg a horgászok körében. Itt töltöttünk 2 éjszakát. Nagyon barátságos hely, és teljesen más, mint a korábbi környezet. Broom és följebb az egész Kimberley régió tele volt turistákkal, rengeteg külföldi, foleg európai utazó. Itt meg csak helybéli "ozzi"-k, és a kemping üzemeltetoi egész családiasan kezelik az ittlevoket. Rendeznek mindenféle összejöveteleket, szórakoztatják a népet. A második nap elmentünk mi is egy ilyen szervezett akcióra, déltájban kis motorcsónakkal kivittek minket (a többi jelentkezovel együtt) a kemping melletti laguna külso oldalára, egy szép homokos tengerparti szakaszra, ott letettek, és du 4-kor jöttek értünk, visszavittek. A legtöbben itt is horgásztak, mi meg csak letelepedtünk a parton, olvastunk, nézelodtünk, fürödtünk is egyet, de csak röviden mert a víz itt is elég hideg volt. Nagyon kellemes volt. Bent a kempingben is ezt csináltuk, foleg pihenni jöttünk ide, jó volt egy kicsit lazítani, jó volt hogy nem kell látványosságok után járni pár napig. Az elso este kaptunk is egy adag firssen fogott és kifilézett halat a helyi horgászoktól, így még finom halvacsoránk is volt.
Szerdán reggel tovább indultunk dél felé, de megint nem messzire, kb 220 km-re a "80-mile beach" caravan parkba. Ez is közvetlenül az óceán partján van, mindjárt a partot szegélyezo homokdune mögött, és egy 80 mérföld hosszú folyamatos homokos tengerpart közepén. Ez még népszerubb és ismertebb hely mint az elozo, csak áram nélküli helyet tudtunk kapni, de annak is örültünk. Itt sem lehet sokat csinálni a tengerparton kívül, de az nagyon szép. Fürödni nem ajánlatos, mert cápák és krokodilok is lehetnek, a horgászat a fo szórakozás. Nagy az apály-dagály különbség és lapos a part, apálykor jó messze van a víz széle, foleg dagály idején horgásznak, olyankor tíz méterenként áll a parton egy-egy horgász véges-végig, ameddig a szem ellát. Le lehet jönni a partra terepjáróval is, így jó messze el tudnak menni. Mi megint csak pihentünk, olvastunk, sétáltunk a parton, kagylókat válogattunk, vagy csa üldögéltünk és élveztük a látványt, no meg a naplementét az óceánba, ez itt a fo attrakció, olyankor megtelik a part a nézelodokkel, mindenki fotózik, mi is... 
Szerencsére eddig az ido végig szép napos és meleg volt, de már messze nem olyan meleg, mint korábban, napközben csak 26 fok körül, és ejszaka 14-15-re lehul a lakókocsiban. És már kezd néha elfelhosödni, tegnap láttunk eloször komolyabb mennyiségu felhot, kb 3 hónap óta eloször. Ma reggelre meg komolyan elfelhosödött, és eros szél fújt, nem is bántuk, hogy tovább indultunk. De azt bánjuk egy kicsit, hogy kifelé megyünk a trópusi télbol, vissza a szub-trópusi télbe, ami már nem olyan kellemes, foleg ha felhovel-esovel is párosul. Ugyan eddig erre még nem került sor, de már elore fázom tole...
Ma lejöttünk tovább délre Port Hedland-ba. Ez egy nagy ipari kiköto, itt hajózzák be a vasércet és más bányatermékeket a környezo bányákból, viszik mindenfelé, foleg Kínába. Más érdekessége nincs, csak éppen útba esett a következo célpontunk, a "Pilbara" felé. Itt akartunk megszállni, ami nem ment könnyen, itt most 2 hét iskolaszünet van, minden tele van, és ezzel még lesz gondunk a jövo hét végéig. Végül sikerült helyet kapnunk 12 km-el arrébb, South Hedland-ben. Visszamentünk a városba, körülnéztünk a kikötoben, voltunk a turista-központban, ahol semmi jóval nem bíztattak, a Pilbara-ban is minden szálláshely tele van állítólag. De sokat nem tehetünk, bízunk a jószerencsében. Bevásároltunk és hazajöttünk. Most kihasználjuk a jó mobil-vételt, aztán holnap indulunk  Pilbara felé.  


Az útvonalunk a következo Google Map-on látható:
http://g.co/maps/wcwv8
(A Bowen utáni szakaszokhoz le kell menni a jobboldali panel aljára, és a következo oldalakra kattintani!!)