Volunteers for Isolated Students Education, North Qld, 2013

Tom Price to Karratha - Thu 30th August-Sat 1st September 2012

The red dust of the Pilbara is well known for its ability to insinuate itself into the most unlikely places. After the dirt road from Tom Price to Karratha we discovered several "seams" in the caravan that needed sealing.

We decided to drive north on the dirt road past Hammersley Gorge and Millstream-Chichester NP. Hammersley Gorge was stunning.

The first day ended at Mount Florance station, where we had the whole grass-covered caravan park (about 20 sites) to ourselves. By this time we had covered just over half of the 212km of dirt road. So far the road was in good condition so progress was quite swift.

But the caravan had attracted more than its share of red dust, so we spent a couple of hours cleaning up the worst of it.

Next morning the first 50km of dirt road was good, but it then deteriorated progressively. At times speed was reduced to 10km/hr and we wondered when we would get to Millstream. In the event we spent two or three hours at the old Millstream Homestead, now a visitor centre, and the Deep Reach Pool (which turned out to be part of the Fortescue River).

After Millstream parts of the road were very badly corrugated. Even 10km/hr was too fast on a couple of occasions. The very last few metres before the bitumen were absolutely horrendous. Even trucks slowed right down before tackling it, except a concrete truck that bounced high into the air ... the concrete was well mixed.

We finally reached the bitumen as the sun set, and camped in a tiny area about 50m past the start of the bitumen. The iron ore railway was only about 100m away, with 2.5km long trains passing in each direction about every hour. But the important thing was we made it with no apparent damage, and a lot of cleaning up to do.

James Price Point 60km N of Broome - Sat 18th August 2012

Yesterday Judy and your northwest Australia correspondent visited James Price Point to see what all the fuss is about. What a wonderful, spiritual bit of country. I walked along the beach marvelling at the striking pindan red/orange cliffs and the isolation.

Meanwhile the West Australian government, led with rapacious zeal by their unscrupulous premier - Colin Barnett, is hell bent on assisting Woodside Petroleum to trash a large area of this beautiful coast to build a gas hub to process LNG and a 7km loading jetty to disrupt the humpback whales annual migration.

Sadly the Premier sees this as the "thin end of the wedge". Once this project is given the green light the Kimberley will be ripe for development; for example, bauxite mining on the Mitchell Plateau and coal mining in the Fitzroy River Valley.

I feel very topical because there was an item on tonight's SBS news about the issue. In particular how there is a dispute between the Jabirr Jabirr and Goolarabooloo aboriginal people.

Walking on the beach was an exhilarating experience. I only hope others will be able to do so for years to come.

There are numerous articles on the Web relating to James Price Point. Here's an ABC article that I found particularly relevant.

Albert Tognolini Rest Area 270km S of Port Hedland - Sat 25th August 2012

Caravan parks are expensive.

We are averaging $25 per night in caravan park fees, despite spending about 25% of our nights in free camp sites. The most expensive so far is $47 per night at Hidden Valley, Berrimah, Darwin but 7 other parks have charged us $40 or more. The lowest priced powered site was Heavitree Gap, Alice Springs at $24 per night ... good value.

Our free camping is in three categories:

• Delineated rest areas - 8 nights
• Unofficial bush camps (we find a spot on a bush track and set up camp) - 8 nights
• Staying with (Judy's) relatives - 13 nights

Many of our best camp sites have been delineated rest areas ... Albert Tognolini Rest Area is a case in point. (Albert was the District Roads Engineer for northwest Western Australia in 1960s.)

It is a fantastic location, on a ridge, with great views and it's a huge area. Our nearest neighbours are about 100m away.

Our caravan is furthest up the hill, so there's no traffic past us.

And, inevitably, another sunset photo.

Bush Camp 70km E of Broome - Mon 13th to Wed 15th August

We have to wait in (expensive) Broome for almost a week to get a seaplane flight to Cape Leveque and the "Horizontal Waterfalls". So we decided to spend a night in a bush camp on the 222km trip between Derby and Broome. Seventy kilometres east of Broome we found what we were looking for.

To our delight the "unofficial" wayside stop had a small lake, or large dam, where several Brahman bulls came to drink. We liked the place so much we stayed two nights.

The sun was shining so we put some water into our solar showers and put them in the sun for a couple of hours. Very good open air shower.

After a day in the sun next day the water was too hot for a comfortable shower, but we coped!

We had the place to ourselves on Monday night, but sadly a family group discovered the place on Tuesday evening.