The MOST WESTERN POINT of the Australian mainland
For our fam that means:
✔️ North – Cape York
✔️ East – Byron Bay and now,
✔️ West – Steep Point
Three outta four ain’t bad at all considering we aren’t big lappers and there’s a whole lotta distance between each of those points! Only one left to go now…
⚠️ THE TRACK
We’ll be totally honest with you, what we had anticipated to be a gruelling, testing track to reach Steep Point was… ummm actually far less daunting than expected. Cue a touch of disappointment from Willow lol. Whilst there were plenty of teeth chattering corrugations, soft sand sections and definitely the need to pull in the clearview mirrors a few times, it was simply a matter of appropriate tyre pressures and correct speed for getting on top of the corrugations. And unlike the Gibb River Road or our trip to the Cape there wasn’t days/weeks of it on end, plus of course the lack of red dust on this occasion was a welcome bonus!
From the info hut where you pay park entrance fees it took us 70mins to get to Steep Point. Yeah it can be rough as guts in parts but it’s certainly not ALL like that and let’s be honest that’s all part of the adventure right? Best of all, it gave us the rest of the day to do some exploring which is what we love to do.
First up of course we did what we’d come here for, we headed straight for the most western point and amazingly upon arrival we saw water spouts offshore. The whales had come by to welcome us!
After capturing the customary snapshot at the iconic sign 📸 we were a little dirty to discover someone had knocked off the visitors book. Bit of a shame that someone felt the need to take a personal momento. Honestly who does that?!?
Rather than head back the same way, we did the loop drive which had some nice rocky sections and tracks that got the cruiser on a decent sideways incline! We stopped to admire and ponder in awe at Zuytdorp Cliffs. Up to 200m high and extending around 200km they are the longest fault scarp in Australia. The boys spotted two giant turtles offshore whilst chatting to some fishermen and even watched as a shark (unsuccessfully) chased in their catch.
We also discovered what we dubbed another “nature’s window”. Not quite what you’ll discover at Kalbarri but a fun discovery nonetheless. Later we checked out Dicko’s Lookout and the Nor 6 shipwreck memorial before continuing on to visit the Thunder Bay Blowholes. The base of the cliffs are cracked and broken from the relentless pounding of the Indian Ocean. Where cracks have reached the surface, the swell compresses and pushes the air up through the holes. If the swell is big enough, water will follow the air.
Most of the blowholes are quite large but the the kids found a coin size hole and had us in fits of laughter taking turns becoming a sumo as the air billowed under their fishing shirts.
If you’re contemplating a visit to Steep Point, our best advice is not to merely snap a pic at the sign and head back to camp. There’s loads to be seen out that way so we suggest take your time, do the loop track and enjoy the journey.
