Graham and Edith 2011 Trip: Day 109

Had a big day today. We met Colin & Gail in Wickham at about 9-45am and along with his mum & dad, brother & sister-in-law we went for a long drive. We drove to Millstream Chichester National Park. Along the way we stopped at Harding River Dam. The Dam was built in 1985 and provides water for Roebourne and surrounding towns. It was very picturesque. It reminded me of the Lake District back in England.

We then drove on to Crossing Pool where we had lunch. Unfortunately Colin got a puncture on his way to Crossing Pool so he had to put his spare tyre on. The camp host at Crossing Pool was very kind, he came over with his compressor and blew up the punctured tyre, found where the puncture was and plugged it for Colin. Meanwhile Graham was cooking the BBQ lunch, he was flabbergasted as to how much food Craig had brought with him, needless to say when everybody had finished eating there wasn't much left.

After lunch we went to the homestead and walked to a small river which was covered in water lilies. It was really very pretty. Then onto The Bluff (I am not sure that this name is right but it is what Craig calls it). This was a high cliff looking down onto the Fortescue River. We then went to Python Pool via a few small river crossing. Craig had a swim but nobody else was game.

The National Park is well worth seeing but it is a hell of a drive in there, we went in Colin and Gail's car and Colin drove some 300 kms on some very dirty corrugated roads. All in all it was a really good day with some very beautiful scenery along the way. Mountains covered with spinifex grass contrasted with red rocks. We saw some very long trains, the cars of which were filled with iron ore. Apparently the longest trains are 234 cars and are 2.5 kms in length . It is very hard when you get stuck at a train crossing and one of these trains are crossing, you just have to sit and turn off the car engine.

On the way back we came across a mountain, I have put a photograph but will leave it to your imagination as to what the locals call it.

We then went to Wickham to see the "Staircase to the Moon". It wasn't the best but we did get a photograph, which is really hard to do. I think tomorrow is probably going to be a better night but we will not be here.

When we got back to Point Samson we were just going to have a quick dinner but a couple of people that we had been having drinks with over the past few nights insisted that we joined them for dinner. They were cooking fish and it was very nice. Helen, Trevor, Adrian and Gus are two couples who come from Kattaning in Western Australia and are farmers. They were the nicest people and most helpful.

As you can probably imagine we were all very tired when we got back and ready for our beds. It was a wonderful day though, thank you Colin for driving us and I hope that you can get all the red dust out of the car.