The
Ashburton River is certainly a beautiful spot and particularly in the warm glow of early morning light; the eucalypts that line the bank reflected in its mirror still waters. In this area of the Pilbara trees only grow along river banks – the only places with sufficient water to sustain them presumably – providing an indication of river valleys long before the bed comes into view. The nights are now quite chilly and the chill doesn’t leave the air until the sun is well up. Even at 8am I still need a fleece to keep the shivers at bay. Tiny ants are everywhere in this camping area and they are very invasive. I have succumbed to wearing socks (the first time since we arrived in Darwin) with my trousers tucked into stop the little blighters running up my legs and forever nipping.
We spend the day in Onslow trying to find enough to occupy us until the evening, for we have come here specifically to see the Stairway to the Moon. This naturally phenomenon only occurs at certain points along the north-west coast hen only three days a month when the low tide and full moon coincide. As the moon rises light is reflected in the pools left by the retreating sea creating the effect of stairway up to the moon. The best place to see this is in Broome, but were there too early in the month. Unfortunately, there is too much cloud on the horizon tonight and the moonrise is completely obscured. It is only later that the moon emerges shrouded in streaks of cloud that a shaft of light reflects on the sea – beautiful still but not quite what we had hoped to see.
We spent the day pleasantly enough visiting Old Onslow – which was moved, literally, to it’s present site in the 1920s due to the silting of the Ashburton `River estuary – the beaches, walking along the foreshore boardwalk as far as the salt jetty and doing a spot of fishing (still nothing on the end of the line though! ) Onslow is small and very quiet – people come here primarily to fish – and doesn’t warrant more than a couple of days.
In the evening we return to the Onslow Bush Camp which tonight has attracted several other campers.