From Tom Price back to the West Coast

It was a cool night, but nothing like that penetrating cold I experienced at Dales Camp the night before. After breakfast I pack up and drive into Tom Price to pick up a few bits of food as well as a large piece of shade cloth from the hardware store. I have seen many campers use it as ground sheets outside their vehicles as it holds down leafs and dust quite well, providing a bit of a 'clean' space before getting into the van.

With all the dust I have been driving through I am beginning to think that the dust is going to be an everpresent thing I will need to deal with. Wiping down surfaces with a damp cloth is certainly a step in the right direction but total removal would be a very big job indeed. For the time being, I am prepared to live with it. Even though the orange dust is very fine, it is very gritty at the same time, something you can feel when I rub my dusty fingers together. Enough of that.

In the mirror, some of my dust behind me...

By the time I am driving out of Tom Price its already after 11.00am. Today I will use the dirt road which is significantly shorter than the sealed road I took on my way in via Paraburdoo. The road turns out well graded, in fact several machines are working on it just outside of town. I have been told that the road is about to be sealed too in the near future. In total, I need to drive about 65km until I finally am back on sealed road highway that will take me back to Nanutarra Roadhouse where I need to top up my fuel again, before driving on the remaining distance of about 75km to Barradale Camp, my third stop at this place to spend the night. I arrive there about 4.00pm, find a flat spot under a tree, get a cold beer out of the fridge, go talk to my neighbors, an English couple who live in Tasmania, also heading for Coral Bay tomorrow. We have a long chat about this and that, in the process of which solve several of the world's problems in just minutes before we all finish our drinks.

In the morning I am on my way nice and early so I can find a good campsite for a few days. I drive into Coral Bay around 10.00am because my GPS takes me in there in order to go to "14 mile Beach", the place I have chosen to stay at. I have noticed though, that the map data for my GPS is often very short on detail since I am travelling in Western Australia, so, when I get into Coral Bay, its asking me to turn left into a non-existant road. I stop at the Tourist Information to get direction, the young girl there seems less than co-operative and gives some vague and as it turns out, misleading information regarding the distance, also that there is no camping available there. I have it on very good authority though, that there IS camping there. I drive the 12km back to the highway, turn right and travel about 17km south where I find a turn-off through a Homestead, quoting a further 12km to a campsite. I already know that the road is dirt and as it turns out, quite badly corrugated where I have to go really slowly.

The road is wide enough for two cars to pass until about 5km in there is a T-intersection, the left turn identified as access to the Homestead, the right-turn pointing to the Beach Camp, another 6km ahead. Behind me a 4-whell drive Nissan is about to pass and take the turn to my right. I follow him and see another vehicle of same size coming up behind me as well. The road is now single lane, sandy and corrugated and bordered on both sides by a sand embankment. A short distance on a motorhome is pulled over hard to the left, the 4-wheel-drive Nissan ahead of me stops and after a few moments decides that he won't be held up by anyone and drives over the embankment on my left, the car behind me follows suite, they obviously belong together. Now why is the motorhome in front of me now, stopped. A lady is signing me to go past her vehicle but I think that would not work. She is obviously stuck. I get out and take a look whats going on. Yes, stuck solid in soft sand on the left bank. Of course I will help her, not shoot through like those two vehicles who were in such a hurry. I get my sh.. Shovel from behind my seat and help move aside some of the sand so the car can at least move again. A couple of backwards and forward she goes back onto the road again, says thank you and drives on.

I follow at a distance and end up right on the beach, still part of the Ningaloo Reef I was staying at, before going to Tom Price. Beautiful white sand, turquoise waters and only a few Motorhomes along the beach. When the Ranger arrives in the afternoon, I book myself in for 3 days.

Sunset on 14-mile Beach