1998
Lionel the Landcruiser
and Tap-Tap go Walkabout

In the BIG country
Day 24
Broome - Nullagine

Hi everyone from East Pilbara

Yes, here we are in the place where they reckon big is best! So far we haven't seen much evidence of it 'cos we've only just driven in via Marble Bar (famous for the weather forecast and not much else) and are camping in Nullagine, but we are sure we will see something big tomorrow when we carry on to Newman (or 'Hello, Newman' as Hild calls it - said with a Seinfeld accent).

Termite mounds at Sandfire Roadhouse (between Broome and Port Headland). Not as impressive as those in the Northern Territory... (See end of Day 9)

As those of you observant enough will no doubt have observed, we have changed our minds once again and gone back nearly to our original plan to go via Marble Bar. This decision was taken on the fly somewhat as it was only studying our Pilbara map that we saw a route to Marble Bar that was shorter than going into Port Hedland at all. As it meant using gravel roads, the wimps had to stop and phone the Shire Council to check the road was OK first (as if there would be something I couldn't handle - O they of little faith), but then we detoured off to the left about 200 k before Port (the Hedland bit is superfluous here) and did about 170 k into Marble Bar. Which wasn't actually much use as there is not much there! Now there may be more in the surrounding area, but there was very little in the townsite. The general store only had frozen bread left (but we can't blame them for that 'cos it looked like they baked their own here and you can bet that they only baked enough for the local demand) and there were only two petrol stations!

But I've done it again and got ahead of myself, I'd better go back to the beginning and do this properly or I'll get confused. Usual getting up time, but then the lazy bones were very slow about getting started so we only left the apartment at 8. This gave time for the local tourist info place to be open so we stopped there and checked up on Exmouth. This is a later stop in the tour, but as one plan is to snorkel there (it had been to go diving but they went and forgot their diving licences didn't they - silly people) they wanted to find out what times of boat trips are like. Turns out it's been pretty windy lately, so there hasn't been much snorkelling, but the boat trips go in the afternoons so now we know when to aim for.

This kind of far-sighted planning is a definite Hild trait - working out how far we need to get on Friday so that we get into Exmouth in time for the boat trip is one of these things Rob wouldn't even consider. On the other hand, trying to work out what we will eat over the next six days so that we don't end up getting home with anything not eaten is perhaps a bit excessive. Humans are such a funny lot.

So, we left Broome after seeing almost nothing of this famed historic coastal town (I got the best view from the car park of the ocean in the morning once the sun was up), but then that is for ordinary tourists and we are anything but ordinary (or so we like to think). By 9 we had got as far as the junction with the road down to Port and had filled up with diesel (at 79.9 c/l the first time below 80 since Southern Cross on the first Sunday) and chocolate milk. This is where my 3.5 l engine really took over as Hild powered on down the road stopping for (almost) nothing. I think two cars (cars, mind you, large-engined family saloons were the only things fast enough) overtook us in 300 k while we left everything else in our wake: road-trains, cars and caravans or trailers and even small and medium sized saloons all got the treatment - wait for a straight bit, pull out and breeze on past. I'm really built to climb and pull rather than to race, but I have to say I do enjoy a bit of this kind of thing every now and then, blows the cobwebs away as they say. One thing though, it does do shocking things to my fuel consumption - especially with the extra spare on the roof and the aircon on. By the time we got to the next roadhouse 300 k later I needed 49 l of diesel to fill me up!

An unusal hitchhiker - called Charlie. (We didn't pick him up though...)

By then Rob had discovered our 'short cut' so we 'phoned the Shire council (after 'phoning the neighbouring council first to get the number 'cos the number on our map was wrong!) and got the news that care was needed crossing creek beds, but a Lionel would have no problems (again, the man didn't actually say 'a Lionel will have no problems' what he said was that we needed a 4WD, but if he had known who was asking that is what he would have said I'm sure). The road was actually pretty boring as far as road conditions are concerned - nothing we've not had (and worse) a couple of times before, but it was an interesting bit of road as it went through some nice rocky and hilly country and made for pleasant driving.

Hild got her usual afternoon slump, so she decided to do some real 'mobile computing' and got Tap-Tap going to start on the trip spreadsheet. I'm sure you will see a copy of this at some stage, but it will contain all of the time, distance, fuel and GPS data and will be analysed in every possible way imaginable (and then some because Hild has a good imagination when it comes to analysing data). This was decided to be far too nerdy, so we stopped after a while (but only because the road got a bit too bumpy for Hild to hit the right keys I'm sure) and concentrated on where we were going.

And where we were going was Marble Bar. This town(?) looms large in Australian culture, but I suspect very few have ever been here. For a start the roads in are all gravel and probably closed every time there is decent rain (even I had to slow down on a few occasions to check out some of the dips and hollows where little streams run across the road) and then the actual main route misses the town by 8 k and you have to detour that far to actually get in! No, what Marble Bar is famous for is its weather. It consistently has the highest maximum temperature in WA (and probably Australia as a whole) and is mentioned in nearly all the weather bulletins. I had heard the name so much I thought it must be a big place, but there it goes, if you want to hear your name a lot in Oz what you need to do is be the biggest or hottest and preferably both!

So, after sampling the delights of Marble Bar we left and carried on towards Newman, down the road the man in the Shire council had said was fine even for 2WD cars. Actually, this had some of the worst creek crossings as they appeared almost out of nowhere and you were never quite sure if they were just puddles or holes with rocks in. As far as water crossings go this has been a pretty boring trip. The only one to speak of was the one to get Twin Falls in Kakadu. The Pentecost river on the Gibb River Road was dry (although we did cross it as a pretty small stream a couple of times in El Questro, but only up to my hubs - say 10 cm) and there had been some water standing on the other crossings, but nothing to get Rob out wading across first to check the depth (and I've been waiting for that for such a long time....). After the warning we had about being careful I had hoped there would be something here, but all they really mean is don't go splashing through at speed in case there is something hidden in thee. Oh well, there is still time.

So we got to Nullagine and found a little campsite by about 5.30 and are settled down (fed and watered) for the night. This town looks larger than Marble Bar if you ask me, but it looks like it is a fossickers place. The people staying here have all been here since Saturday at least and don't look like your usual tourists. Furthermore, there are big signs saying you are not allowed to pan in the campsite drains and the do's and dont's include no mineral processing or extraction on the site! I've even seen a couple of metal detectors around the place so I think it is conclusive. And I suppose there is not much else to come here for, unless like us you are obsessed with not coming back along the same route you went out along and want to see 'Hello, Newman'.

At that point I'm going to sleep!

Lionel