No getting out of bed early this morning. It was quite cool with strong winds so I snuggled down and was happy for Philip to bring me coffee in bed while I caught up on the news.
We decided to do a bit of a drive around the area today. We were given a decent map of the local area when we checked into the caravan park so that would be our guide for today. First of all I wanted to photograph some of the termite mounds and we knew there was a viewing area along the highway. We drove, and drove a bit more, but do you think we could find the place. Not on your nelly, but it was a fortuitous drive because we saw the sign pointing towards Old Onslow Townsite with the "road closed" sign now saying "road open", so we turned down that road.
It's around 30km from the main road into the Old Town and the road went quickly from bitumen to gravel and then to the red sandy soil that we have seen so much of. We stopped for a comfort stop and a little two wheel drive vehicle drove past us at a great speed. That was a good thing, we thought. At least we know the road is indeed open. But the road started to deteriorate with lots of wet boggy areas. We navigated them quite easily in our four wheel drive but the little two wheel car, not so well. They, for god only knows what reason, came to a wet patch and decided to head into the table drain!! Stupid!! They were well and truly bogged. Beside me I could hear Philip sigh. He mumbled that he thought his mud sloshing days were behind him. The gentleman in the bogged car was very relieved to see us and our 'snatchum strap". It was a bit more of an effort to pull them out of the table drain than anyone anticipated and at one stage I thought we might also become a victim of the mud, but my husband is a bushy through and through and managed to get them out of their predicament. They thanked us profusely and even wound up our (by this stage) very muddy strap. They then turned back the way they came, but we proceeded.
There is not much left of the Old Onslow Town, really just the Police Station and Lock-Up. Although we had a map of the township, all that is left of the buildings is a few stumps. We tried to get out to the old jetty but that road was really, really boggy so we turned around. Was the drive worth it? Probably not and considering that Philip spent a good hour washing the vehicle when we returned to Onslow, definitely not.
 |
| Just in case a prisoner decided to climb the wall to escape, the glass at the top would certainly have stopped him. |
Our journey then took us to the Wheatstone and Macedon LNG plants. There are locked gates into both plants so you cannot get too close to the projects but they really are large plants, particularly Wheatstone.
 |
| This photo is to show you just how green the country is at the moment. Normally the grass would be brown and dry. How lucky we are to see it like this. |
The last part of our drive took us along Seaview Drive towards Four Mile Creek. The road follows the coastline and from here you get a very good look at the Salt Mine and at the end of the road you get quite close to the Wheatstone LNG project that is across the river.
We drove for around four hours so the pot roast that I had left to cook in the little slow cooker while we were away was perfect by the time we arrived home. A quick chop of some vegetables went into the oven and a few steamed greens on the side and we had a very tasty lunch. It is our last night in Onslow so we are going to walk down to the Beach Club for sundowners this evening. The Beach Club sits right on the beach so it will be a perfect way to say goodbye to Onslow.
ps
I have been trying to get us on this really great Safari Tour from Exmouth that takes us to the tip of the Cape Range National Park to North West Cape. It is fully booked until the end of August. I asked to go on a wait list in case there were any cancellations and lo and behold, when we arrived back from our drive today there was an email to say that they have had a cancellation and we are on! Just to make the story a little more interesting, the man that we pulled out of the bog today was a priest. As we went our separate ways he "blessed us". Philip seems to think his blessing got us that booking 😂
No comments:
Post a Comment