 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| OUR BIG TRIP MARY & OLI GOING AROUND AUSTRALIA |
WEST COAST - Page 14
18 September 2007, Tuesday
After a very scenic trip to the NP north of Denham yesterday, we started early today for a 500 km day trip to Steep Point - the
most western point on the Australian mainland. First we stopped at Shell Beach on the way to Steep Point. This is a beach
full of little shells up to 10 m deep - amazing to see. They also used the shells in older and deeper sections to make bricks
and build the houses around the area. You can still see a couple of them in Denham. After Shell Beach, you have to enter a
120 km dirt road to a place called "Useless Loop" - great name for a place!!! Well it is useless for us because this is a salt
plant and no entrance for tourists, however therefore the road is also very well maintained - which was great. When we hit the
end of the maintained section the road fairly quickly deteriorated into bad corrugations again - hmmm, not what we like
anymore. We stopped at a Birrada - which is a salty claypan, signes indicated that you should always stay on the made
tracks and do not divert. Well, this was a made track to a rain measurement device and we stopped to let the tyres down. A
guy from the saltworks came rushing down the track to tell us off and turn around. The main reason was that about 20 m
from us and only 3 m next to the track was a nice square hole in the ground which was occupied by another vehicle and it
took them two days to get the vehicle out. As soon as you leave the track the salt cover crushes and you just sink into the
deep mud underneath. We explained that we had no intention to leave the tracks and would have turned around at this point
anyway - just looking at the boghole next to us. The next few kms were pretty rough until we finally got to the 4WD trek which
leads out to Steep Point. This is all pastoral lease and they will charge you $20 for the access to Steep Point - which is quite
expensive but still worthwhile due to the views at the end. By the way, almost forgot - $22 it is now - $2 for John Howard as
the guy explained to us - GST, I guess. Arriving at Step Point you are at the westernmost point of the mainland and the cliffs
are quite amazing - I think I took 150 pictures just of the waves crushing into the cliffs and that was on a relatively calm day.
An amazing site! We did travel in 4WD mode due to the sand dunes and sandy track, however after doing that for more than
50 km's and parking the car on an angle the oil was leaking again out the front axle, so I decided to drive back in 2WD and
just give it some more "momentum" at the dunes to get over them. This worked out quite nicely and got us back thanks to
Cooper's Power - my tyres work very well on gravel and sand. On the way back to the main gravel road, we took a side track
to False Entrance and the beach and blowholes. The blowholes were quite large and the water was going up in the air at
least for 20 m when big waves hit the cliffs. The waves and scenery here were even better than at Steep Point. From here, we
continued down to the beach and found lots of shells and other stuff being swept up the beach. The waves are quite high
and surfing would be perfect if you would know how to survive them - looked quite dangerous. We also found a sea snake
and fishes at the beach - the snake actually still moved when we approached it - so we stayed clear of it. The day was very
nice, but it took a long time to do it. We started at 7 am in the morning and came back to camp at about 8.30 pm in the dark.
Maybe that was the reason why I have so many lights on the front of the vehicle. Except the bonnet lights they work quite
well and you think you are driving during daylight. Here are the photos from the day.
18 September 2007, Tuesday
After a very scenic trip to the NP north of Denham yesterday, we started early today for a 500 km day trip to Steep Point - the
most western point on the Australian mainland. First we stopped at Shell Beach on the way to Steep Point. This is a beach
full of little shells up to 10 m deep - amazing to see. They also used the shells in older and deeper sections to make bricks
and build the houses around the area. You can still see a couple of them in Denham. After Shell Beach, you have to enter a
120 km dirt road to a place called "Useless Loop" - great name for a place!!! Well it is useless for us because this is a salt
plant and no entrance for tourists, however therefore the road is also very well maintained - which was great. When we hit the
end of the maintained section the road fairly quickly deteriorated into bad corrugations again - hmmm, not what we like
anymore. We stopped at a Birrada - which is a salty claypan, signes indicated that you should always stay on the made
tracks and do not divert. Well, this was a made track to a rain measurement device and we stopped to let the tyres down. A
guy from the saltworks came rushing down the track to tell us off and turn around. The main reason was that about 20 m
from us and only 3 m next to the track was a nice square hole in the ground which was occupied by another vehicle and it
took them two days to get the vehicle out. As soon as you leave the track the salt cover crushes and you just sink into the
deep mud underneath. We explained that we had no intention to leave the tracks and would have turned around at this point
anyway - just looking at the boghole next to us. The next few kms were pretty rough until we finally got to the 4WD trek which
leads out to Steep Point. This is all pastoral lease and they will charge you $20 for the access to Steep Point - which is quite
expensive but still worthwhile due to the views at the end. By the way, almost forgot - $22 it is now - $2 for John Howard as
the guy explained to us - GST, I guess. Arriving at Step Point you are at the westernmost point of the mainland and the cliffs
are quite amazing - I think I took 150 pictures just of the waves crushing into the cliffs and that was on a relatively calm day.
An amazing site! We did travel in 4WD mode due to the sand dunes and sandy track, however after doing that for more than
50 km's and parking the car on an angle the oil was leaking again out the front axle, so I decided to drive back in 2WD and
just give it some more "momentum" at the dunes to get over them. This worked out quite nicely and got us back thanks to
Cooper's Power - my tyres work very well on gravel and sand. On the way back to the main gravel road, we took a side track
to False Entrance and the beach and blowholes. The blowholes were quite large and the water was going up in the air at
least for 20 m when big waves hit the cliffs. The waves and scenery here were even better than at Steep Point. From here, we
continued down to the beach and found lots of shells and other stuff being swept up the beach. The waves are quite high
and surfing would be perfect if you would know how to survive them - looked quite dangerous. We also found a sea snake
and fishes at the beach - the snake actually still moved when we approached it - so we stayed clear of it. The day was very
nice, but it took a long time to do it. We started at 7 am in the morning and came back to camp at about 8.30 pm in the dark.
Maybe that was the reason why I have so many lights on the front of the vehicle. Except the bonnet lights they work quite
well and you think you are driving during daylight. Here are the photos from the day.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Shell Beach pictures - shells all over the place and a happy "Shell Girl"... |
| The Birrada where the other vehicle was bogged for two days was just about 10 m from the pictures above. Bloody tourists! |
| During the drive from Useless Loop to Steep Point which is still more than 100 km we came across lots of beaches. Also below. |
| One of the first Oystercatchers we saw on the trip. |
| Nice boat - it looked like a tour, because we saw it back at Steep Point going around it in very high waves - lucky we were not on board. |