Parker-Griffins Venture Up North 2025

 Cape Keraudren  Today we are on the coast - it is fab to see ocean blue after all that orange dirt!  That’s our wee home - in the middle  Cape Keraudren is a marine reserve area with restricted access. We are camped facing the sea. Finally the wind has dropped and we are having wine and cheese, watching the sun setting… We arrived here around 1130am as it’s quite close to Pardoo Station where we stayed last night. The wind was howling so we stayed in the campervan - Mark sorting out tech and me doing mosaic. But by about 3pm I was going what I will call 'camper-crazy'- I was irritable and probably irritating.  Mark had a singing lesson (virtual) in the van, so I went for a long walk over to the other side of the cape. Immediately I got outside I felt better. Within 10 minutes I was happy! Enjoying the plants and flowers, communing with a kangaroo, and saying hi to walkers and bikers. Beautiful purple flowers Kangaroo wasnt in a hurry to jump away Then I decided...

Pardoo Station Caravan Park, North of Port Hedland  Mark performing - note the sign! Setting a new record, we departed Dales Camp at 835am - I think this was more to do with the combination of a freezing cold night and sore muscles than to do with any inherent self discipline. We were keen to get the camper van heater going! Mostly a day of driving on the now very familiar Great Northern Highway.  The Great Northern Highway We stopped at South Hedland (suburb of Port Hedland) to stock up on supplies. Mark advised that South Hedland has the highest rate of crime in Australia; a disconcerting tidbit to impart as we left our home and possessions unguarded in the Coles car park.  About 10ks up the road, we pulled into a P to sort a few things - including checking on Mark’s invention - the Starlink disc (for internet) attached to the camper van skylight. Starlink attached to the skylight - will it work? The starlink appeared to be fine, but an elderly man came up to us and sai...

 Dales Campground, Karijini National Park Together   Don’t panic about the title Melissa - we are still married! (Melissa was very worried we would not survive 9 weeks in a small camper van). However we can attribute some of our success in this respect to an idea we picked up the other night from a couple we met. I asked them who was driving and the man, a lawyer, replied that he and his wife have ‘separation of powers’. He drove, she navigated. We thought this an excellent idea! So here is my view of our separate powers (Mark may have different view!!): Mark - driving, music whilst driving, films at night (too cold to sit out), breakfast, dinner, gas/water/ internet/ power, heating, and toilet-emptying. Sharon - creating itinerary, booking campsites, lunch, washing up after breakfast and dinner, salads, planning daily activities, finding things like marks phone, glasses, and notebook, collecting rocks, and auditing mark’s powers* (I am trying to keep thinking of more so my ...

  Dales Camp, 13 Cockatoo Loop, Karijini National Park Today we relocated from our powered site in Tom Price to 2 days unpowered in a campground near Dales Gorge - the other side of Karijini to where we have been.  We loaded up with fresh water before leaving, only to discover the water all drained into the grey water tank… Quite a feat really. We are having a few other technical challenges, perhaps due to our address, but I wont bore you with those.  The highlight of the day was our brief walk to Jubula falls and Fern Pool. The sun was setting, creating golden reflections on the water. And I was the only person there, which felt a great privilege.  Alas I cannot yet share a photo (one of the technical difficulties). Despite forking out fees for iCloud and iPhotos, and Google Drive, nothing seems to sync today’s photos onto blogger.com  Think it is our location… Hoping for better luck tomorrow!  Fern Pool in early evening  Our spot at Dales Camp, so mu...

  Made it! "Handrail Pool" at Weano Gorge Tom Price Caravan Park & Karijini National Park After a lazy day yesterday, our plan today was for an early start at the gorges. I suggested to Mark that we skip breakfast and fast, so we could get away sooner.  He vetoed that idea, reminding me of our separation of powers (more on that in the next blog).  So at 950am, after a hearty breakfast, we pulled out of the campervan site to head to Karijini National Park. It did occur to me that Jonathan and Sue would have done two gorges by this time.  Anyway our plan was to do a "Class 4" walk, the Upper Weano trail" because Class 5 hikes were  clearly marked for as "very fit and experienced hikers" involving spider walking, scrambling, and other similarly intimidating verbs.  So we started out on our walk. It truly beautiful descending down the hill into the gorge. And yes it was quite challenging, with nimble navigation of loose rocks required. Descending into...

  Tom Price Caravan Site, Tom Price  After a brief shop and coffee in Tom Price, we were planning to hike one of the gorges in Karijini. Tom Price shopping and coffee Very very long train - hundreds of carriages However, we changed our mind and opted for a lazy day- knowing we had a powered site waiting for us at the caravan park. We are having some gas and inverter issues, two separate problems to my knowledge, so the thought of unlimited power was appealing.  Mark wrote a song, I worked on my mosaic, we had a brief walk, several visits from a young autistic kid determined to play Peppa Pig on Mark's speaker, and dinner at home. I finally figured out how to upload photos for this blog so can publish it now! Lovely purple flowers (mulla mulla) Walk out the back of our caravan park Local views Weird tree - Black on the inside and white on the outside Our campsite Half finished mosaic An uneventful day, which we both appreciated. 

Tom Price Caravan Park, Tom Price  Relatively short drive today, just a few hours. But the sun came out for the first time on our trip, and we saw hills, even mountains. Looking for the pot of gold...   Another random road stop and an attempt at a pano (but there should only be one road?) We stopped enroute at the Karijini Information Centre and had lunch in the car park. Felt very American doing this! Scenes from the Karijini Information Centre Have fallen in love with these extremely white tree s We also stopped at Joffre Lookout and had our first glimpse of the astonishing gorges. You could see people down the bottom climbing down very steep stairs, and then spider-climbing along the wall to get to the rock pools. Not sure we'll be doing that hike....  View of gorges from Joffre Lookout A swimming hole in the gorges On arrival, we settled into our Tom Price camp site - no power tonight, but tomorrow we move to a powered site. Mark played to the birds. Then we caught th...

 Newman Caravan Park, Newman Arrived in Newman. Trying not to be too western suburbs here but Newman is a very bleak place. Lots of FIFO workers in the pub, and possibly slow-cooked goat curry was an overly ambitious choice for dinner.  Some of the less elegant aspects of campervanning today... We have a leak in the van (front, right hand side) – very hard to see where the water is coming in, got all the books and maps wet. Mark emptied the chemical portaloo for the first time, successfully, whatever that means. Couldn't book in online for the overflow caravan park as it was 'fully booked' (as in almost entirely deserted) which meant we didnt have the code for the showers/toilets, so had to tail gate other people going in. Glamping it was not. Mark's greatest sense of achievement - emptying the toilet A long drive today. You look outside and its just more and more scrub desert. But I love it. The red of the dirt, the multitude of green, purple foliage interspersed w...