We left Port Hedland 2 weeks ago and stopped overnight before getting to Newman, as always there's a clown in every crowd :)   Funnily enough, his favourite hat blew off just after this shot and I thought it was going to go right down the cliff edge but he managed to save it!

We had a quick chat to Tom while we were up the side of the hill, the only way to get service.  Not really sure if we will be able to catch up with Tom while we are in the vicinity, between his roster and us getting away from the station.

There were two of these big buggers on the road ahead of us, at 10.5metres it would have been a while before we got past, lucky for us they pulled over to fuel up!

This was just after we turned off the highway towards Tangadee.  We are about 100kms south of Newman on the highway and then about 100kms on the dirt heading west.  Really out in the middle of nowhere :)

Joan and her sister Phillipa who is visiting from the UK.

This is May, about 13 yrs old, who stays at this station.  Everyone was around for the first week but then they all left to go to one of the other properties up near Port Hedland.  They are mustering up there at the moment before heading south again.  They also own the property next door, Mt Vernon.  This one is approx 450,000 acres and Mt Vernon is approx 1,000,000 acres.  

Last Friday we went into Newman with Jade, a pommy backpacker who is working as a cook for a mining crew at Mt Vernon for the next few weeks.  We did the shopping run with her and the truck was full of groceries.  There were 4 very full trollies and the back of the truck was full of eskies, while the tool boxes looked like a mobile supermarket.  We left here at 7.30am and got back at 5pm, we grabbed a few things for overnight and then drove to Mt Vernon, arriving there at 8pm.  Then it was a case of unpack everything into the coolroom and then we stayed there for the night.  A LONG day!!

When we head to town for our shopping at the end of next week, at least we only have to make it back to this station :)

We had a rainy day last Sunday, it drizzled all day really for only 10mls.  Monday was freezing though and I don't think I felt warm all day.

Tuesday and Wednesday are the bore runs.  The west side takes about 4 hours and the east side about 5 or so hours.  May comes along for the ride and begs for scraps of course :)

The countryside changes a lot and there are so many creek beds and river beds.  We said it would be amazing to see it all running but I wouldn't really like to be stuck here at the same time LOL

Wednesday we stopped in a creek bed and had our first campfire meal this trip.  Tough job but someone's got to do it :)

Thursday mornings we have to meet the mail plane!  The 'bull-catcher' is air-conditioned haha

The horse yards, sheds, verandahs, donkey heater, etc have all been partly constructed using pipes that were 'leftover' from a mine somewhere in the vicinity, so a great job of recycling!!

The hot water comes from the donkey heater so Bun has been busy collecting wood and chopping, handy on the cold mornings!

I've got some bread rising at the moment and after that's cooked, we are going to drive out to the Spring.  It's a permanent waterhole that always has a certain amount of water trickling into it however sometimes there's a LOT.  Hopefully I can remember how to get there as Bun hasn't been out there yet.  We have to take a sat phone whenever we head off, just in case we get lost :))

We're not really sure how many weeks we'll be here, in depends on how long the mustering takes up north and whether they still need us around while they muster at Mt Vernon.  We are keeping busy doing some yard work and tidying, maybe a little painting might happen too.

Josh and Kara are settled back in the Riverland now, they moved into a house down near the lake in Barmera and Josh started work on Monday at Morelli's.

Ben is off to the snow this weekend so hopefully he will enjoy the big snowfalls they've had this week.

Callie has decided that she would like to become a consultant with Thermomix too.  I'm sure she will do well because she is loving it so much,  she says 'it completes her life' hahaha

I'd better go check the bread dough so that's it for now.

Cheers

Anne

We spent a few days at Karratha and checked out Dampier and the Red Dog statue.

I would love to see the little creatures that create these masterpieces in action! As Bun put it, so much work that gets washed away hahaha

When we left Karratha, we needed to waste a few days as the truck service in Port Hedland wasnt able to be done until yesterday.  So we wandered along VERY slowly and stayed in a few free camps.  Then we stayed for two nights at Indee Station, about 50kms out of Port Hedland off the road to Newman.

 There's a mining camp on the station as well as the tourist trade.  They started mustering the day after we got there but it's all done well away from where we were.  The station is 450,000 acres.

The river that runs through the station looks like this at the moment but must look amazing when it runs!

We got into Port Hedland on Sunday and have had a slow time here waiting for the truck service to be done.  We are going to leave today but are waiting for the wind to die down a bit, hopefully after lunch.  We are going to Newman today and will be meeting up with a station owner, Joan on Friday or Saturday.  We are going to be caretaking out on Tangadee Station for about 8 weeks!!  It is south-west of Newman, about 3 hours out.  Bun will be doing a bore-run once a fortnight but apart from that, we don't know much at the moment.  It's all part of the adventure!  Apparently there is phone and internet service but I highly doubt that there's much else :)

Lucky I have plenty of sewing and crochet projects with me, Steven has already asked for more beanies LOL.

Another great sunset, just for DAD!

Bun counted 27 ships sitting just out of the harbour, there were more in the harbour!

I made my own peanut butter!  And I had a shot at making some wholemeal bread!

I love the frangipani flowers!  They are everywhere near the coast, Kara wants us to chop a tree down and bring it back for her LOL.

I think that's it for now, we haven't done much since the last update.  I should have lots more information and photos once we've been on the station for a while.

Cheers

Anne

We've had a busy couple of weeks!  It's so hard to choose only a few photos for the blog, I culled down from 645 photos to 105 before choosing these ones.

We visited Monkey Mia but to be honest, found it quite commercialised so apart from having lunch  and looking at the amazing view, we didn't stay long.

After leaving Carnarvon, heading towards Coral Bay, we walked up a hill and as usual Bun performed well for the camera LOL

We detoured to check out the blowholes and spent a while there, it's fantastic to watch!

We went into Coral Bay but decided not to stay amongst the hundreds of caravans and tents there :)

Instead we went up the road a bit and stayed at Bullara Station.  They were busy setting up a donga camp for a crew of Telstra workers who were due to arrive within the week.  As a result, Bun ended up working with them for 4 days so that kept him busy.  

They also have a campfire each night and I spent a few hours chatting to Jenny from Perth about weddings and wedding cakes :)

We visited Exmouth and Cape Range National Park whilst there.  Below is Sandy Bay where we ended up trying snorkeling for the first time!

Considering that I hate putting my face under water and Bun had to shave his moustache off, we did quite well and are looking forward to doing some more!  

We also walked up Yardie Creek Gorge in the National Park too.

Bullara Station has open air showers!!  It was lovely to shower under the stars and it was plenty warm enough :)  It makes this station stand out from the others!

Sometimes I think this is the only way people will believe that I'm still on the trip LOL

When we left Bullara, we headed east towards Tom Price.  I'm loving the colours of the landscape here.
We stayed at another station overnight but it didn't have the same character as Bullara.  It did, however, have a hill that gave me a chance to take more sunset photos hahaha.

Sometimes (what am I saying? Most times) Bun just can't help himself when I ask him to stand still for a photo :)

However, sometimes he restrains himself and I get one I am REALLY happy with!!

We spent two nights and three days in Karijini National Park and walked some of the gorges.  The walks are graded from Class 1 to 5 and we did some of the 5's so I was pretty happy with that.

The colours are amazing!!

There was a colony of bats near one of the pools.

Sometimes Bun grabs the camera LOL

This looks like holly leaves.

Bun reckons he'd love to do something like this in our garden!

A French couple took a photo for us so it's one of the very few of us both.

We also visited Hamersley Gorge after leaving Karijini.

We stayed at another station on the way to Millstream/Chichester National Park and met these guys on the road.

We arrived in Karratha on Saturday afternoon and spent the next few hours cleaning the van, inside and out, as there was fine red dust EVERYWHERE!!  There was a couple of loads of washing done in our machine in addition to filling four machines in the caravan park laundry!!

By the time we'd done that, Bun decided that pizza would be the go for tea LOL

 We had been staying places without additional power or water for ten days or so by this stage so we really needed to tidy everything up.  This morning I spent some more time emptying drawers and cleaning everything in them so that was fun, NOT!  This afternoon we went into Dampier for a look around and checked out the markets and entertainment because the Red Dog Festival was on this weekend.  Below is the view of the harbour in Dampier, taken from the pub :)

It's a public holiday here tomorrow so we are hoping that some places are open so that we can do some maintenance jobs.  

I still think this sign should read 'buggered' LOL

We hope to do some more snorkeling while we're here, we're going to check out the Visitor Info to see where we should go.  Once we are stocked up on food and water, we'll see where we end up next.

In other news, Josh and Kara have decided to move back to the Riverland.  Kara has been diagnosed with Lupus and the extra support from family and friends in the Riverland will be so helpful for them all.

We are really enjoying this trip and although we won't have seen all of WA, we have certainly taken 'the road less travelled' as our guideline this year!

Cheers
Anne