Steep Point

While staying at Hamelin Pool, we achieved our next major milestone – Australia’s Westernmost Point! Steep Point is accessible only by 4WD and we had been rather hesitant about whether Baby Bertha would make it. Having owned a Toyota 4Runner previously, we don’t really consider the RAV4 to be a ‘proper’ 4WD. Our friends from Margaret River/Freemantle had just done the drive, and thanks to Facebook, we were able to ask if we could do it. They gave us to go-ahead, so we planned a day trip out there.

Somehow (with so many sleepyheads on board) we didn’t get away until just after 10am, and then had to drive back after 5 minutes to get the jerry can of spare fuel and the recovery gear “just in case”. So we had a VERY late start. The drive has 3 parts to it. The gazetted road is first, which is bitumen for a little bit, then gravel for a lot, then corrugated gravel for a LONG lot. The next part of the drive is 4WD only, but is basically a whole heap of sand driving. Dunc let the tyre pressure down in instalments as we went – thanks for that wonderful pressure gauge Dad!! At one stage you drive across 2 huge sand dunes, which are simply beautiful. The last section is after the Ranger’s station and is the most breathtaking of all. It is full-on 4WD action – bumps and hills and squeals all round. First we came to a simply gorgeous beach where we stopped for a very late lunch. Duncan and I saw a fin as we pulled up and thought it was a dolphin. We saw no further sign of it though, so it was either a shark or one fin from a ray. I saw 3 sea turtles in the shallows and yelled for the others to come see, but by the time they wandered over, they had swum out to sea.

We had the most wonderful lunch and play at the beach. If you plan to do this trip, definitely head off earlier in the day and spend a good couple of hours at the beach. There are toilets and campsites there and it would make a wonderful base for a few days.

After our break from the car, we headed off for the last leg to Steep Point itself. We had to take the usual lots of photos and we able to use the best device ever – a photopole! How cool is that?! We were also able to get phone reception. Just like at the Southernmost Point in Tasmania. We don’t get how that works – in the middle of nowhere, with no reception beforehand. Anyway, we were able to call Mum and Dad and Monica so that was a lovely surprise.

The trip back seemed longer somehow. It was later in the day and we had seen it all before, so it seemed to drag a bit. We had gone down some VERY steep and sandy and chewed up slopes on the way out to the point, and I was a little concerned as to how we were going to be able to get back up them. In the end it wasn’t an issue as the road back skirts around the 2 biggest hills. Phew!

Even though it feels like summer, it gets dark so early here in WA. It is completely dark by 6pm, so we were driving home quite late. We didn’t get back to Bertha until after 7pm so the last hour was in the complete dark and the hour before was twilight and ‘roo time’. And we did indeed hit our first roo. L “Roo. Roo. Roo! ROO!” I said to Dunc as I spotted it and it kept coming. He slowed down and tried to dodge it, but the bloody thing dodged INTO us and hit my door. We were awfully worried about the car, and the kids were awfully worried about the roo. After checking for panel damage (almost invisible) we checked the roo but it had disappeared. It mustn’t have been that hurt afterall. We all felt better about that, though Dunc and I are well aware that it might not have been able to get very far…