2geonomads

Sunday 3rd August 2014

Start the day with a lovely breakfast cooked on the BBQ by Dean and then prepared the camper trailer and ourselves for the long trip north to the start of the Gibb River Road.
Kylie had kindly made us some fresh homemade bread and provided us with some corned beef for the journey.
After two great days with Dean, Kylie and the kids it’s time to get out of the comfort zone and tackle some serious outback travel.
Dean had forewarned us that the trip from Dampier to Derby would be less than enthralling and he was ‘spot on’.

This stretch of road is really nothing more than a mini Nullabor Plain and apart from a quick coffee break on a very windswept foreshore in Port Hedland ( not one of the most beautiful towns) and a lunch stop at Sandfire Roadhouse ( about 420 kms south of Broome ) where we enjoyed Kylie’s lovely bread and corned beef we merely tried to cover as much distance as we could during daylight hours.

However, coming into Port Hedland we had to confront convoys of extra wide trucks carrying plant machinery from the enormous Port Hedland iron ore operation. These make Gail nervous and at one point almost screamed at me to pull to the side to allow one large rig to go through. Now I do understand how drivers are required to act in such situations but Gail and I differ on how far in advance of the truck’s arrival one needs to pull over. It’s just that I feel that we should wait until the trucks and ourselves are in the same time zone!

We eventually make it to Nita Downs free camp site which in truth is pretty terrible but after covering over 600 kms we were both happy to get an early night in preparation for next day’s stage to Windjana Gorge some 520 kms ahead off the Gibb River Road.
So far the car and trailer are performing beautifully although we know that stiffer challenges probably await us on the GRR.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret