080-81 - Cheela Plains Station Stay

The view from the lookout at Cheela Plains Station at sunset.

Pronouced "Sheila" or for the overseas contingent, "Sheel-la", this was our home after Cape Range. If we're perfectly honest, most places were always going to be a let down after leaving that part of the world. But, in fairness, the road out to Karijini and the Pilbara certainly tried it's best.

As we left Cape Range, we rounded through Exmouth and stocked up. B took the big kids for the shop whilst James and I took the van to the local tap to fill up the water tanks. What should have been a quick job, for some reason dragged it's heels and the others were ready before we were! Still, it gave us time to admire another of Australia's big "things", this time the Giant Prawn.

That's one big crustacean. Interestingly they take it down each wet season due to cyclones. Not surprising I suppose given that Exmouth has recorded the highest wind speed ever recorded on the Australian mainland. A lazy 267km/h during Cyclone Vance. Imagine the insurance report trying to cover the destruction of a house due to a flying metal prawn...

So off we trundled for what turned out to be an reasonably uneventful drive. At one point we even went 15min without a car passing the other way, which given the amount of nomadic travellers we've encountered was quite the surprise. Still, once we hit back up with the highway proper, the van and truck counting could continue as per normal.

James has adopted recording of our caravan survey (post coming on that) and is now the gatekeeper of the notepad. He's going to get to Prep and whilst he might struggle with 'this' and 'that', he can spell 'Jayco', 'Coromal' and 'Crusader'...

It's a massive country...

A little highlight was running into the Butchers unplanned at Nanturra Roadhouse. Well, it's unsurprising we met them there given it's the only place within a bazillion miles to get fuel, but to rock up there in the same 20min window was quite the coincidence. We said hi and swapped notes and realised that for all intents and purposes we'd probably cross paths out at Karijini in a few days.

A bit of the old Sandwhich action for lunch instead of the exhorbitant 30 day old chips and chiko rolls and promised the kids a Zoopa Doopa when we got into Cheela Plains.

The road from Nanturra to Cheela was excellent and I found the landscape changing from the plains and ranges of the Ningaloo Coast in the rough and rugged reds of the Pilbara. It didn't take Einstien to realise that the soils around this part of the world were Iron rich, although after hearing the tales of commitment to mine, it certainally took a truckload of gumption and determination to get it out of the ground.

A distinct change in landscape was coming...

"Someone chopped the top off that hill Dad!"

After the success of staying at Bullara Station, we were keen to try out this Station as well after reasonable reviews were found online. What we found was something akin to a earthmoving depot crossed with outback station stay. The local mining exercises provided Cheela with a great oppurtunity for regular income and baseline economy. Unfortunately this meant the parking of a crap load of trucks, tractors and Toyotas around the place. And whilst the campground area itself was nice enough, it made you feel a little less 'outback' than you actually were.

Our camp site. Dust to the left, grass to the right.

It took every bit of trickery to frame this shot without a bit of heavy machinery in it. But it proves we were out in the middle of nowhere...

The Station had a book swap. I found this. Make of that what you may... Too many puns for my liking.

But the drawcard for us, like at Two Peoples Bay near Albany, was the free washing machine. A week out in the park had our dirty clothes 'pigeonhole' (the middle rung of Sam's ladder) overflowing and looking like it could explode and take out the van at any moment.

So whilst we were only planning on staying there one night, we decided, after a successful night around the campfire chatting to a family from Brighton (6 of them travelling around the country in 8 weeks in a Jayco Eagle... what the hell?) we decided that we'd do two nights at Cheela purely to ensure all clothes were washed and we could do a little self drive 4WD tour of the station.

In hindsight, probably wasn't required, but still we had a great day exploring and it gave us one of the small little impromptu moments of the trip that will stay with me for as long as I remember. One of the moments that couldn't be scripted and yet was invaulable in providing substance and memory to our adventure.

One must always have a co-pilot adept at opening gates. Check!

No need to engage low-range just yet. Glad we have the surfboard too...

The folds and angles of the rock always fascinate me, and sometimes, the kids too.

On the self-drive tour of the Station, that in itself quite boring by 4WD standards, as the track was quite mild, albeit the scenery quite spectacular. We decided to walk a trail after finding the (very easy to find) waterhole. There all five of us spent a good half an hour just walking and talking happily  (that in itself a rarity) comparing rocks and pebbles found on the path. In wasn't seeing Whale Sharks or walking pristine beaches. It wasn't tree top walks or exploring mining holes. Hell, it wasn't even Mt Barker. But it was really special, to me at least.

"Is that a cool rock Dad?"

"They're all cool to me mate"

And then when we realised we'd actually walked quite a way without any gear with us, Evie and I walked back to get the car, that in itself a nice moment. It's always so hard to get a moment to yourself, or as the case may be with the kids one on one. You are always on the go or living on top of each other. Like our walk back to the shore at Whyalla, this was another special Dad and Evie moment where we talked about pretty much everything.

The tacho showed me we'd actually walked 2km without really knowing it and we picked the others up and headed back after a huge bull walked across the track we were on and we realised that we weren't in "Kansas anymore Toto".

Evie rode in the front seat on the way back to get the others...

...and seemed to stay there!

It might not come across in this shot, but that bull was by far the biggest piece of cattle we've seen on the trip. He was as tall, if not taller than the truck. And whilst he scampered off in to the bush, I wasn't trifling with the station after that. U-turn required.

A contemplative James.

A bit of a lesson in skimming stones to the kids whilst lunch was being prepped.

So Cheela Plains was an interesting interim point and, along with Tom Price the next night provided a nice little interlude in our trip between two amazing locations, Cape Range and Karijini NP.

Evie getting acquainted with the red dust proper. She stayed like this for the best part of a fortnight I reckon...