Millstream Chichester National Park

Packed up and set off this morning.  Joseph was very keen!  We spent a bit of time clearing out the car and making ourselves comfortable again without the litter around our feet.  This National Park asks you to take your rubbish with you, so we have a big black garbage bag of rubbish in the van, waiting for the nearest town.



Circular Pool



We drove by the lookout for circular pool and had a quick look out....that was the pool that we didn't quite make it to on Monday afternoon.  It was very spectacular - sheer cliffs down into a round swimming hole.  A long way down.

We also stopped by the bee covered water tower and filled everything up again.  If anything, today they seemed more angry.  Someone must have upset them.  But we filled up with no incident, so that was good.  Once again I did the honours.

It was quite a drive out to the Munjina Roadhouse, where we filled up with petrol again, and Joseph put a great amount of effort into cleaning squished bugs and red dirt off all our windows.  I looked for some bread to buy, but there was none.  No fresh fruit either.  So we're down to tinned peaches and crackers.  It certainly makes you more creative.

We turned left at the roadhouse and headed off towards Wittenoom, a small town that is known for being shut down because of asbestos mining.  Everyone there kept getting sick so they just told everyone to just go.   It should really be called Wittendoom.  Apparently it only recently appeared again on maps of the area because the government didn't want people coming to see the asbestos site and getting asbestos poisoning themselves.  We passed a large "asbestos area" sign and turned off the aircon and fans.  Bit hot. 

The road was rough red dirt, and Grant got out of the car to plug the vents in the van to keep the dust from sifting over  everything inside.  Suddenly a big truck roared past, leaving the biggest cloud of dust  behind.  I couldn't even see out the windscreen.  After it settled, Grant opened the door of the car and dropped into his seat.  He wasn't completely red, but it was a close thing.

Up the road a bit we picked up some internet and phone connection so stopped for a while in some shade.  Then we continued along the long red stony road for a long way, turning off eventually to the Millstream Chichester National Park.  Along the way we passed through stretches where there were just tree stumps and red dirt on either side of the road.  Not sure what happened there, but it didn't look like a nice place for a picnic.  Then the trees grew taller, the spinifex was joined by a few more plants, and at one point crossing the Fortescue River in the national park, the surrounding trees and bush reminded us of Queensland - thick trees and undergrowth. It was lovely.

This area has year round rivers fed by an underground aquifer, and supports a huge variety of plant and animal life.  The aquifer is filled from runoff from the Hammersley Ranges, and stores a lot of water.

We reached the Visitor Centre, the old homestead from Millstream Station, and found it was open but un-manned.  We looked around at the bark hut on display and the outdoor kitchen, then wandered along a hot red track and found the ranger.  He was south African and very helpful in directing us where to stay and what to do.   Bit more of a drive along the dirt track and we stopped in a lovely, small shady campsite beside the Fortescue river, called Crossing Pool campsite.  It was so nice after the exposed campsites at Karijini.

Our neighbours are the couple I noticed at Cable Beach caravan park in Broome, Gary and Trudy, who stopped to help at the bad road accident on the road to Port Hedland.  They reported that the ambulances made it to the accident, but the injured passenger was very badly hurt and may even be paralysed.  He was flown to Perth Hospital that afternoon, while the driver was taken to Port Hedland Hospital with bad bruising.  We had a nice chat with them, it really is funny who you keep running into!  They have been travelling for 11 months, but are from Perth and are due back in Perth in three weeks.

Everyone had a swim in the beautiful  river , we had some dinner, and then it was time for bed.  Let's try that school work again tomorrow!  I think we forgot about lunch today....
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Vicki