Coming to Karratha, Continuing to Cossack and Diverting to Dampier

Saturday 20^th July

I told you it was cold!

 

Resplendent as I was in this elaborate garb, I eventually changed from my skirt into tracky dacks!!! But I kept the socks!!!!!

 

The red dust became redder and dustier!

 

We travelled on to the junction of the North West Coastal Highway and this is where we decided to go to Karratha.

Ronnie hates the idea of going into a place and coming out the same way. Therefore, our trip to Karijini National Park took us the long way round. Now we have to bite the bullet and turn right and go into Karratha and back out the same way. This is about a 500 km round trip. Nothing is close to anywhere else over here!!!!!

 The colours of the landscape changed quite dramatically.

 

The land looked almost like bitumen and it was a dark, maroon, purple red.

 

A little further on, we came to a mine site. Perhaps it was the minerals in the soil that had caused the dramatic colour and texture change

  Anyway, as we drove on past the mine, the road went over a bridge and we saw one of the massive trucks in action.

 

 

We arrived at (497) Robe River and set up camp. There wasn’t much water about, probably just enough to breed mosquitos and midges!

 

 

 

Truly, we have camped under so many bridges, I’m sure I could get a part in ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ as the Troll that lived under the bridge.

 

I went for a walk and met a couple, Ray and Mary from Griffith. My Mum came from Griffith and it turns out they know my cousin, Gary. In fact, it turns out they know him better than I. Last time I saw him, I was about 8 or 9 years old!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Sunday 21^st July

We are still here. It is a pleasant little spot. There is nothing to see and not much to do but we are tucked away in a quiet little corner and we are quite comfortable.

It is cold again this morning and Ronnie had to get up last night to bring the awning in. It had come up quite windy.

He prepared a delightful brunch of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup this morning. I am soooooo spoilt!!!!!!

The weather is much the same and I have taken full advantage of a warm sheltered spot and finished reading my novel.

This afternoon, I set off in search of a new friend and found the gorgeous Joan.

 

 

She was a true delight and with hubby Roy (who was mending the fly screen and only emerged momentarily) has been travelling since last November. We chatted about everything and solved most of the world’s problems before a worried Ronnie came looking for me; I had been gone for nearly three hours!!!

 

 

Monday 22^nd July

Joan called by to say goodbye. We have decided to stay on today as well. It is so relaxing.

For a while, I spoke to a lovely young German girl travelling by herself, then retreated to my latest novel (which I am now more than half way through!!!). What a wonderful life!! 

Tuesday 23^rd July

We arrived at Karratha about lunchtime. My friend MacGoo told me her partner PJ used to work in Karratha and there was nothing there and boy was he right!!!!

We called at the Visitor Info Centre and the girl there said there was nothing there as well (including accommodation!!!) It was all booked out (which was quite a godsend since the Caravan Park was $54.00 per night!)

We decided on 2nights at Cossack and 1 night in Dampier instead.

For the first time on our trip, we paid for water!!!!

We ended up buying about 90 litres.

 

 

We then did groceries, bought our first McDonalds since I don’t know when and left town.

 We had read that it was a good idea to buy everything you need in Karratha as quickly as possible and get out before your wallet ignites!!

We arrived in Roebourne at the Harding River Caravan Park ($38.50 per night) and set up camp for the next two nights. It is the closest accommodation to Cossack.

We chatted to a few of the neighbours and went to bed.

Wednesday 24^th July

 After breakfast, we headed off towards Cossack.

 

 

We stopped in at Roebourne Jail (now a museum) and had a look about.

 

 

Cossack is pretty much a ghost town now although it did have a large pearl industry before it moved to Broome and it was the port for the pastoral industry until the port became clogged with silt. It also thrived when gold was discovered in the 1880s. Now there is a lot of restoration work being done to the old buildings in the town.

 When we arrived, we drove up to Tien Tsin lookout. From there, you can see the town almost in its entirety.

 

 

 

The old buildings are fabulous and the Bond Store was housing the 2013 Cossack Art Awards which had been judged just recently.

The Cossack art Award has a total prize pool of $109,000. It is the richest, most isolated acquisitive art award of its kind in regional Australia. It was really great to see.

After we saw the art, we drove to the site of the old jetty and up to the lookout over Settlers Beach.

 

 

Finally, we had a glimpse into our possible future.

 

 

When we finish travelling, we can install an upper level sundeck, with picket fencing on top of Indie and enjoy the Utopian dream.

 

 

Thursday 25^th July

We drove to Dampier, home of the Red Dog memorial

The land is very flat and low.

Even the telegraph poles are in water.

 

 

We went to the Information Centre, parked in a patch of Sturts Desert Peas and sought directions to the Red Dog statue only to be told we had driven straight past it on the way in!

 

We were informed that we should take comfort in the fact that we were the second lot that day and almost everyone coming into Dampier misses it and has to go back.

Armed with new information regarding its location, (and directions to other points of interest), we enjoyed a quiet cup of coffee out on the deck overlooking the harbour. Later we found the elusive statue that has been erected to the memory of Red Dog who died November 21^st, 1979.

 

We made our way to Dampier Transit Caravan Park ($28.00 per night) and set up. Then we headed off to Deep Gorge to see the Petroglyphs.

To get there, we drove out along Hearson’s Cove Road (mainly gravel) and turned right at the Fertiliser Plant onto the even more gravelly track until we arrived at the almost impassable walking track which disappeared entirely after about 30 metres.

I have never clambered over so many rocks. The creek was lovely and so clear and the landscape very imposing with its great stacks of rocks.

 

Fortunately, I can remember when you tucked your skirt in your knickers when wading at the beach or riding push bikes and this modification worked just as well in negotiating streams and rock piles!

 

Since the place looked like no one had ever been there, we were relieved to see a family group emerging near us. They said the place did in fact exist and not to give up. So we pushed on.

Petroglyphs are rock art images made (not by painting) by carving, pounding, abrading and scoring. In the Burrup Peninsula area there is estimated to be 500,000 to 1,000,000 petroglyphs with about 1,000 of them here at Deep Gorge.

 

It was really hard slog to get to them. It was really hot and the ground underfoot was entirely stone and creek crossings. We were even tempted to turn back at one stage. I must say we were not overly impressed. Many of the motifs were hard to discern but I’m still glad we did it.

From there we drove up to North West Shelf Venture.

 

 

Built in 1984, and covering approximately 200 hectares, the Woodside operated North West Gas Venture facilities constitute Australia’s largest oil and gas resource development and currently account for more than 40 per cent of Australia’s oil and gas production. (You can tell I went to the North West Shelf Visitors Centre!)

Our final outing in Dampier is tonight. We are going to see ‘Staircase to the Moon’. No it is not a theatrical production or mega movie, it is a natural phenomenon. When the full moon rises over the mud flats at particular times of the month, the reflection caused appears to be a staircase leading to the moon. It is really built up as a ‘must see’ here and in other places. We missed it in Broome so were determined to see it this time. We travelled out along the gravel road again to Hearson’s Cove (a recommended viewing area) and arrived at the beach (along with about 40 or 50 car loads of other keen tourists) and settled in for the show.

 

 

In the beginning, it did look a bit like lines in the reflection across the mud flats but I do think there needs to be a lot of imagination called into play before it could be classified as a stairway!

But it did look pretty specky!

 

We are leaving Dampier in the morning and heading back to (497) Robe River.

It has not been our best break with break being probably an appropriate description. In the past few days, we have broken the hose fitting, table legs, electric lead, radio, Ron’s wet pack, aerial, Ron’s chair, smoke detector, side mirror on Indie, cigarette lighter and the last straw came when we sat down for sundowners and found the wine had gone off!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kicking on towards Karijini

Sunday 14^th July

We left Marble Bar this morning heading towards Karijini National Park. It meant backtracking to Port headland first which was not too much of a hardship. Being that it was Sunday, we were surprised at the number of road trains, in front, behind and coming the other way!

 

 

The scenery in the Pilbara is very different from that of the Kimberley and truly lovely.

 

 

 

As we came into Port Headland, we noticed that the Salt works were a flurry of activity also. Maybe everyone gets paid double time on Sundays because it wasn’t that busy during the week.

 

After we left Port Headland, we drove about 20 km past the Karijini National Park turnoff to (517) Herbert Parker (Yule River). It is a lovely spot but the entrance is well camouflaged, so much so that we drove straight past, over the bridge and had to do a u-turn and come back. Obviously we were not the only ones because the side of the road has its own little u-turn bay carved out in the foliage!!!!

 

I was speaking to a fellow who has been here a few days and he assured me that lost campers provide hours of amusement as they scuttle back and forth across the bridge.

 

The sunset was beautiful. I have included this because my friend, Ros is getting homesick seeing all the sunsets into the ocean. I thought a river scene would be a nice distraction!

Monday 15^th July

We headed off towards Karijini national Park this morning through more breathtaking country. It is so hard to come to terms with the enormous distances between places. And always there is the red dust.  

 

 

 

Now the strata in the rocks are becoming more evident.

 

 

The area is made up of Banded Iron, Dolomite and Shale.

It varies in age from 1 to 2500 million years old.

We stopped at (581) Albert Tognolini rest Area for lunch. 

 

As we were getting closer to Karijini, we heard on the radio that it was really crowded due to school holidays and one should phone first to make sure sites are available. Chance would be a fine thing since we have no phone coverage!!!!! So dauntless we charged onward.  On arrival at the gate, we had to fill out our registration and pay our once only $5.00 day fee and were directed to proceed 8km past (582) Dales Campground to the Visitor Centre.

 

 

We dutifully did as instructed and were told that we should go back to the campground and we would be given a site by the campground hosts there. So we drove back the 8km to (582) Dales Campground and were duly allocated a site. You can tell Dept of Environment and Conservation are a Government concern. The radio had it wrong and there were plenty of sites ($24.00 for 2 nights).

We set up camp and shared the camp bar-b-que with two young Dutch back packers and a primary school teacher on exchange from America and working in Perth.

Tuesday 16^th July

We were up early (for us) and set off on our Gorge Rim walk

 

We started off overlooking the Fortescue Falls. It was too far down for these fat little legs to go but several intrepid hikers were down there swimming.

 

 

 

We had decided very early on that we would stick to the top of the gorge.

 

 

 

The views were spectacular and we did not have to risk life and limb scrambling up and down ladders and negotiating other obstacles.

All the way along we were seeing the incredible rock formations and finally our walk ended at the Circular Pool, many metres below. Again intrepid hikers were enjoying a well-earned dip.

 

 

By taking the easy walk, we had plenty of time ‘to smell the roses’ or the wildflowers as the case may be.

 

 

 

 

We even met a couple of the locals!

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to Indie for a well-earned rest.

 Some people have fairies at the bottom of the garden; we had a giant Termite Mound!

 

 

As I was sitting reading through my information on Karijini, I found out that blue asbestos was discovered in Karijini National Park in 1908. It occurs in thin veins within the iron formation, in seams parallel to the layering in the host rock. In the late 1930s serious attempts were made to extract it but these were hampered by limited size of the veins and their flat-lying attitude. Underground mining took place in nearby Wittenoom and Yampire Gorges. Operations there closed in 1966.

There is also a warning. “Asbestos dust may cause cancer when inhaled. Please do not disturb.”

The only thing here ‘disturbed’ is me!!!  I would not recognise Asbestos if I fell over it let alone inhaled it! I only hope it was found in areas far away from Dales Gorge!!!!

The weather has changed and it is really cold tonight. There has been a Southerly change come through.

Through Tom Price and Past Paraburdoo

Wednesday 17^th July

 

 

We headed out towards Tom Price this morning and as we were driving along there was a rest stop signposted ‘photo site’. 

 Never one to pass an opportunity, we pulled over and it was a lookout.

 

 

Further investigation showed it to be (584) RIP Lookout where people are asked to place a stone in memory of a loved one. There were hundreds of them. Most were just painted rocks but there were a couple of very elaborate metal plaques as well.

 

From here we drove into Tom Price and went to the Information Centre and found a caravan park (the only one) and decided to drive around town and take in the points of interest.

The lady at the info centre was saying that ‘Red Dog’ of the movie fame did actually live around the area for a while and her partner had him in his donga for a night. He said he was the most awful dog. He was dirty, smelly and had fleas. The only reason he let it stay in his room under the table was because it tried to bite him when he went to evict it. Apparently the dog’s nature has been somewhat softened and glamorised for the sake of a good story.

We drove around. It is quite a nice little town. It has the usual facilities and even has a travelling butcher! I’m not sure how Coles felt about that!

 

 

We went up to the lookout as well and saw the town and the golf course with its Putting Green that was really Red!!!!

 

 On our sightseeing tour, we came across this ‘Lectra Haul’ Truck. You see these things on the telly and in pictures but until you stand next to one, you have no idea of the size of these things. They are immense!!!!

 

This one is not much longer than Indie at 11.8 metres but it stands almost twice as high at 5.7 metres.

 

And I would not like to pay for fuel since the tank holds 2,877 litres!!!!!!

The truck served at Tom Price Mine between 1980 and 1992 and moved an estimated 23 million tonnes of ore!!!!

After a bite to eat at the local café and a top up of fuel it was off to the salubrious Tom Price Tourist Park ($42.00 per night) with more rules and regulations than most others.

There was even a sign saying ‘Lights Out at 9.30pm.’

The wind has picked up again and it is freezing!!!!! I’m not sure if my washing is snap frozen or still damp!

 Thursday 18^th July

We headed off towards Paraburdoo, another mining town.

 

The scenery was at its usual best with lots of pretty flowers (not as many as expected since this is one of the advertised ‘wild flower trails’)

 

We did a drive through of Paraburdoo. It is a rather pretty mining town.

In spite of the fact that there are lots of green spaces and parks, the white corellas are still fighting a losing battle against the red dust!!!!!

 

 

 

                                           

It has its very own Area 51, but instead of little green men, they have big green trucks!!!!

 

We travelled on to (493) Beasley River Rest Area and have decided to stay here for today and tomorrow.

There is not much here; a few more flowers and heaps of other campers.

 

 

 

 

It is very crowded but they are not a friendly lot.

Maybe it has something to do with the temperature. I’m sure we are getting the winds directly from Antarctica!

It is freezing.

Friday 19^th July

After a night wrapped in doonas with bed socks firmly on feet, today is sunny but still the icy winds continue to blow. It is lovely if you can get a sheltered spot and curl up with a good book (which is precisely what I am going to do right now!)

After a hard day’s work of reading and taking it easy we settled into a night of TV watching while trying to ignore generators. A person really is defined by the way they use a generator!!!