North to Exmouth

Hi to all our friends who watch this blog, we left Perth to travel north to Exmouth & had a couple of free camps along the way. One very noisy & one just great at Hamelin Station Stay (low cost not free). Really nice place to stay, with BBQ's, open fire, great kitchen you can use & a new amenities block. Guess you could say we like this place.

Sun rise @ Hamelin Station Stay, 7.30 am

We continue the tradition of taking photo's of Ian each time we cross the Tropic of Capricorn, this time on the road between Minilya Roadhouse & Exmouth. It took us 4 days to get to Exmouth.

Ian at the sign of the crossing the Tropic of Capricorn

We had one night in Coral Bay in a caravan park, no water (bore water) but power at least. Ian does enjoy the walking on the beaches.

Ian walking on beach of Coral Bay

Power generation for Coral Bay

From Coral Bay we went on to Exmouth, filled the tanks at the info centre water point and continued to the Ningaloo Lighthouse CP, again no water (as it is bore water) but power, poor phone/Internet  reception, had to get an antenna which worked a bit better there but not at Yardie Homestead. We stayed at the Lighthouse CP for 10 days, went to the Friday morning craft, Ian went riding. On the Sunday we went to the market in town (very small) The ladies from the craft morning were there selling there craft.

The wreck of the Mildura

Wind surfer.

Had a few day drives around the place. Shothole Canyon was fantastic you drove in the bottom of the canyon to a picnic spot. The colours of the rock face was ever changing and very dry.

Track into Shothole Canyon

Ian with truck in Shothole Canyon

Sturt Dessert Pea by the roadside

The canyon from the lookout at the end

On another day we went to Charles Knife Canyon, this was different as you drove on top of the ridge & look down 350 meters to the bottom. Nice 4x4 track to the Thomas Carter Lookout, single lane track, sand, rock & lots of scrub. When you get to the end of the track you find a car park full of 4x4's

Car park at the Thomas Carter Lookout

Capped oil well

View of ocean & canyon from track.

Track to ocean over the flat plain from a high point on the track

Near the end of our stay at the Lighthouse CP we went to view a sunset from the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse (built in 1911), we had all the necessities wine, chips, chairs & camera for a pleasant night. The lighthouse does not operate any more as its job was taken over in 1969 by tower 11 of the Australian Naval Comms Station. These towers stand 387 meters high.  

Vlamingh Head Light house

Sunset over the Indian Ocean

The clouds glisten gold from the sun

No camping at the lighthouse but that doesn't stop the van from having dinner up there & staying

Some of the towers of the A-VLF low frequency transmitter  array, the centre one is 387.6 meters (that the one on the building)

This is for my sister, she loves minis

We had a nice week at the Lighthouse CP but as it was school holidays we had to move so went Yardie Homestead CP, more about that later.