Steep Point

Steep Point is the second of our Australian geographical extremes- the westernmost point of mainland Australia. We set off early and naively thought it shouldn’t take all day…

From the Shark Bay road turn off, you continue on the tarmac and then that turns into an unsealed road. For the first 98km the road is fine and verging on highway territory. Then it rapidly changes… Considering the road wasn’t meant to be too rough we were in for a bit of a surprise. Margaret, as well as us, had other thoughts. EVERYTHING was shaking, not just shaking; the internals were thrusting up and down on the corrugations. It was so rough that the car thought we had crashed and put on the hazard lights! And our top shelf fell off. It wasn’t the smoothest of rides.

They don't look like much but man did she shake!

Letting down the tyre pressures to 18psi on the front and 20psi on the back helped no bounds. With the tyres down, Margaret glided over the dunes and was more compliant on the corrugations too. The worst part of the drive was at the beginning and a fair few others we met said the same!

The fun task of letting down your tyres... Long but necessary. 

And what do you do while you wait?... Look at the view while cleaning your teeth!

At Steep Point the must done snapshot of the “Westernmost Point” was taken and we were ready to have lunch… But then got distracted by the limestone headland.

The drive looked much like this with a brooding sky and dunes in the foreground.

We were lucky enough to see people at Steep Point to take our photo...

...but if there is no one around it is all covered!

The drive back to the campsite was much better with us waiting until the Salt mine junction before re-inflating our tyres again. The trip was definitely worth it, however we would recommend people staying at least 3 nights to soak up the place. Also, BOOK WELL IN ADVANCE! They were full for 4 months when we contacted the ranger and it sounds like most people book a year in advance…

Lots of huge sand dune views along the drive.

This is the limestone with lots of shell fragments cemented together. Who said geology isn't picturesque!

If we were doing it again, this OKA is what we would want!