We continued down the Indian Ocean coasts of WA in our Landcruiser with a leaky wheel hub, and half a dozen or so slowly ripening Mangoes on our roof rack, after leaving the Pilbara.
On reaching Carnarvon, I took the car into a local mechanic for another opinion of the leaky front hub. Well, the verdict was, as long as I keep topping up the Diff oil, it should be fine....and the diff oil level is quite full at this point, despite the ugly look !! Well, that's one stone off the worry bead. At this point, I mentally started the process to eventually tame this beast of not knowing about the mechanics of my tourer, and I'll must understand, and better still, to carry out check, repairs by myself on my next outback trip.
And I did ( over X'mas 2011)
Since we were on the WA coast, so it was a no brainer to visit the western-most point of Australia. As soon as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, we went straight for the Useless Loop rd, which would lead us to Steep Point It was the 2nd longest day yet ( in distance ) of the trip, 732 Km before we stopped for the day. We passed many roadside private memorials, which seems to be a custom in this part of the country.
Steep Point is 220Km off Hwy 1, along a very long sandy track, this
is absolutely 4x4 territory, with soft sand everywhere, especially the
final 50Km. There were sand dune after sand dunes to be crossed.
But the destination did not disappoint, laying in front of us, was the
wind swept and never ending rugged cliffs facing the Indian Ocean's deep
blue waters. Especially when it is all to ourselves...except an hour
later, another car decided to join us.
On the way it, we had a near
head on, when our car crested a steep slope at the same time with
another vehicle from opposite direction, unseen to each other,
fortunately we both slowed down, and the track was quite wide. Incident
like this just reminds us of having to be careful, even on remote
tracks.
After camping at a clearing not far off the Useless Loop rd, on the way back to the main highway, we had a brief stop the Old Telegraph Museum at Hamelin Pools. The amazingly white sea shell quarry surrounding the Old Telegraph Station was a highlight of the day.
After camping at a clearing not far off the Useless Loop rd, on the way back to the main highway, we had a brief stop the Old Telegraph Museum at Hamelin Pools. The amazingly white sea shell quarry surrounding the Old Telegraph Station was a highlight of the day.
You are invited to view David's photo album: 2011 4x4 Outback Trip (Gascoyne Coast)
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As we continued south towards Perth, I noticed that
there are many huge sand dunes as we drove south of Leeman, literally
50 -60 Km stretch of the Indian Ocean coast. The last highlight was the
lime stone spikes of the Pinnacles. about 220 Km north of Perth. They
look much like thousands of midgets standing on a sandy desert, a must
see if you happen to be in the area.
At this point, our heart was to head straight into Perth, to deliver those mangoes to our long awaiting friend.
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