Deep Reach

No I’m not talking about where I keep my credit card, and this was not our intended destination. We had decided that we should at least make a token effort to see inland WA as we would be hugging the coast all the way to Perth. Millstream-Chichester National Park is about two van hours west of Karratha on the way to Tom Price and iron ore country.   It’s a sealed road all the way to the entrance and runs parallel to the mining railway lines. Those iron ore trains move slowly and inexorably between the mines and Port Dampier and ARE as long as they say. However, once we had turned off onto the access road, it quickly became a corrugated hell after just one kilometre.  We had wanted to stay at Stargazers Campground and limped jarringly for six klms to the entrance only to find it closed.  We refused to go further, but on the way back to the main road, saw a sign for Deep Reach.  The road looked a lot better.  We could see a rooftop in the distance and figured the trip would be short at least.

The campsite was set up mainly for day trippers, but there was parking set aside for rigs. We found a quiet spot and after setting up went looking for this Deep Reach.

Wow, what a find. I can best describe it as a giant billabong over a kilometre long, 200 metres wide and by all accounts, very deep.  This was our first chance to swim in a carefree (read croc free) freshwater pool since leaving Darwin. This particular body of water is one of the most sacred indigenous sites in the greater area and the Dreamtime story that goes with it is worth looking up. Without giving too much away, serpents are very unforgiving when it comes to rule breakers.

We spent two nights there and then headed back to Dampier. We left early in the morning and, away to our to our right on Millstream Road, we could see those iron ranges like gatekeepers to the vast interior beyond. We still had two tyres to fit back in Karratha the next day, so we had to be handy. Dampier is like Port Headland plus palm trees. We found a free park on the foreshore and spent most of the day injecting internet into our veins. Next morning it was only 15 minutes back to Karratha. I will say that ‘a quick trip into town’, does not happen that often when your on the road. We arrived at 8:30am and finally left at 2:11pm. You’d be surprised how many tasks get put on hold till that next “quick trip’ Luckily our next pit-stop was only 70klm down the highway. Our destination – Gnoorea.

Yeah, yeah we all thunk it, so let’s quit the chortling and  move on.  Gnoorea is the prettier sister of Cleaverville.  Now when I say prettier, the location and views are almost identical.  The difference was the ease of access to our favourite marine pastimes, fishing, snorkelling, and swimming. Where Cleaverville challenges you to explore, Gnoorea lays it out like a smorgasbord. Unfortunately, I was still waiting for a few stitches to seal up, so we contented ourselves lounging around in rock pools, my right arm thrusting into the air like I was drowning not waving.

The wind came up on the second afternoon and howled through the night, enough to blow the pilot light out on the fridge at some point. The freezer was still good, but the fridge..well, you lose more milk this way. I managed to make a temporary wind guard with a scavenged pickle barrel lid, a piece of wood, one rock and half a roll of gaff tape. Did the trick, but as mentioned before, gas fridges take a long time to recover from outages. Again, we were seduced by the view and stayed an extra night.

. We had planned to spend some time at an outback station, but because we’re trailing so far behind the pack, a lot of these spots close for the rainy season around the third week in October. So we’ll be sampling a couple of roadside free camps instead. Talk soon!