I was off early this morning to the One Mile Jetty. I wanted to see the damage caused by the catastrophic flooding which occurred a few weeks ago. I couldn’t get onto the jetty as it’s now considered unsafe and is all boarded up. There is a little museum (closed) and lots of ancient machines on display outside.
After a quick visit to Woolworths for supplies, I was keen to find a car wash. Some nasty birds had left deposits all over my car which had been parked under a tree at MM. When I eventually found the car wash, there was a queue as not all the machines were working. I didn’t want to hang about so I left that job for later in the trip.
Passing by the banana plantations and veggie gardens near the river, I couldn’t see any sign whatsoever of flood damage. There had been absolute devastation shown on TV a few weeks ago. A few kms short of Minilya Roadhouse, I did see where the road had completely fallen away on the left hand side. It was now banked up and had a gravel surface, almost ready for a new layer of bitumen. Machines were working on the verges and there were several sections with one-way traffic and a pilot vehicle taking cars though at slow speeds.
I drove as far as Nanutarra Roadhouse and booked into a single donga. A man in the cabin opposite described how he had got completely bogged by going off-road near Carnarvon, intending to set up a bush camp. It cost him several hundred $$ to get pulled out, he told me!
This is the vehicle that got bogged. The dongas are behind: very basic accommodation, but handy on the road.
View of the bush from my cabin.
Interesting post. I looked up donga and learned linguists are unsure of the origin of the word, though it was properly described. Cabin suits it a little better.
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