Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Happiness Is The Road
It rained again during the night but thankfully by morning the rain had stopped, the clouds had cleared and the sky was a gorgeous deep blue. Anthea, Ruth and the two Pauls were still there when we got up but they were packing up ready to leave. They were really lovely people and it had been great to meet them after encountering so many inconsiderate nutjobs recently. We made our goodbyes and Paul reiterated that he would phone us from the the flood area. We then had our brekky and I went into the roadhouse to find out what they knew about the road conditions. I was told that the road was now passable by two wheel drive vehicles with care. We decided to leave and hope that Paul would phone us with good news before reaching the flood area. The highway was dry and the big puddles that had been on the bitumen yesterday had massively subsided. The rivers and creeks that had yesterday been raging torrents were now flowing without as much rage and force. Water levels had definitely dropped. It would take us just over an hour to reach the point where yesterday we had to u turn. About 45 minutes into the journey Jay took a phone call from Paul with the good news we wanted. He said that there was still water right across the road in a few places but that it was now shallow enough for us to safely cross. He also said that the centre lines in the road could be clearly seen today. Jay thanked him very much for this news, for their hospitality last night and wished them all a safe journey. We had noticed on the way down quite a few two wheel drive vehicles coming the other way so it looked good. Eventually we reached the flood area. The water had subsided a lot but was still completely across the road. We could though quite clearly see the line markings and it was obvious that the water was shallow enough for us to get through. We followed a caravan that was in front of us into the water and down the centre of the road where the water was at it's lowest level. There was a lot of spray and our gorgeous little camper emerged the other side very happy. After this we had to go through about another three sections of flooded road before reaching the edge of Port Hedland but it was no problem as the water was very shallow. It was actually great fun to drive through and we laughed all the way. We stopped at Port Hedland for petrol and then we took the Great Northern Highway inland. We had decided to deviate away from the coast to see Karijini National Park which we had been told was well worth going to. We had now entered the Pilbara region which is a big mining area. It is home to a massive mining industry in crude oil, salt, natural gas and iron ore. Port Hedland was very industrial and is a big service town to the mining industry. The highway to Karijini was a very very busy road train route. We had never seen more road trains on a journey before. Every few minutes we went past the gigantic beasts, most with four or five trailers, thundering through. They are absolute monsters. We had decided to stay at the Munjina Roadhouse tonight which was not too far away from Karajini National Park. By the time we got to the roadhouse we had covered over 400 kilometres and we were knackered. The roadhouse caravan park was nice and quiet and we got a good spot. We didn't need our fan tonight as the temperature cooled right down after dark. It was nice to snuggle up tonight under warm covers.
- comments