- 6th September to 18th September
We ended up staying in Roebourne for a week and did the tourist thing and some shopping plus veged out on a couple of days. In Wickham, a purpose built mining town, there is a Woolies and in Karratha these is a Target, KMart, Woolies & Coles. Believe it or not but the prices weren't too bad. The township of Dampier is also situated nearby & at the entrance to the town is a statue of "Red Dog", The Pilbara Wanderer. He was a legend in his own right back in the '70's. The area is very industrial/mining orientated although the area around Point Samson & Cossack have a different flavour with historic sites & local commercial fishing. A few in the caravan park come here for the fishing but it has been windy these past few days making it unpleasant in the smaller boats.
Cassie managed to pry open a piece of of the fly screen on the caravan door (my fault for the lack of maintenance) in the early hours of one morning & did her own local investigating for a couple of hours before I eventually found her.
On Friday (5th Sept) we watched the Broncos beat Newcastle, thank goodness for the Sat TV.
2. Left Roebourne and headed for Robe River and camped there for a night. Very peaceful and relaxing as we camped right beside the water. The "desperates" managed to have a swim & then a roll in some more red dirt. The joys of it all!! We are starting to find a number of "free camp" spots having a 24 hour stay limit.
Then onto Barradale (Yanmarie River) for a couple of nights. On the way we visited Onslow and would you believe they had a Bakery. Yum! Here they have a War Memorial in the shape of the "Rising Sun" and on Anzac Day the sun rises through the middle of the structure. Onslow was bombed during the WW 2, a fact that I was not aware. The Memorial is being dedicated on the 15th September the Anniversary of the first bombing raid in 1943 & the RAAF are providing aircraft for a fly past. It crossed my mind that the "do gooders" & lefties want us to remember Hiroshima but our children are not taught about "incidents" that occurred on our own soil. Hmmm, we could go on, but........
At Barradale I came across a few of the Citroen 2CV's that have completed a trek through outback WA including the Canning Stock Route, the Gibb River Road and they finished in Kununurra.
Right across the top of the country there are many Museums etc with untold memorabilia from those times. Old airfields etc are littered all over the place and some relate to the early days of Aviation in Australia.
Instead of staying in Exmouth I opted for a Homestead stay at an ex Sheep Station that has been bought by the WA Government. The area is to become a National Park. Giralia Station buildings were nearly wiped out by Tropical Cyclone Vance in 1999 but most were rebuilt. The stay was interesting but more information could have been available.
Whilst here I visited Exmouth & looked around the area. The dogs spent time in the sea and have returned to their normal colour. At least the red dusty look has disappeared.
There is a RAAF base at Learmonth but from what we understand it is mainly used for joint Army/RAAF exercises. There was a Sentry position on the airport perimeter & for those of us who did a "sentry" night at the end of the runway at Nui Dat, this structure would give you a giggle.
Managed to see a couple of whales frolicking in the water off the west cost, Cape Range National Park, but they appeared to be small in size. The views from the lighthouse at North West Cape were spectacular.
The Harold Holt Naval Communication Base is big set up & much larger than I anticipated with a predominance of Naval & Federal Police personnel on site.
Exmouth was expensive for food & out of kilter with other areas we have visited. A rip off for the tourists?
I left Giralia Station & headed for Coral Bay on Thursday (11 Sept). The views of the water here were colourful but everything here revolves around the tourist & I expect the permanent population is below 200 people. Expensive, yet again!
11th September - Carnarvon
We looked to stay at a rest stop further to the south, but we were there soon after midday & as it was an open area without shade we pushed on to Carnarvon. We will stay here for a week and probably move to Bush Bay which is on the coast not far from here. Meanwhile we'll do the tourist thing, buy some supplies & catch up on the domestics.
Watched the Broncos do a number on Easts last night (Friday the 12th). Sweet, indeed!!
One of the others checked out the road to Bush Bay & it is badly corrugated so we will give that a miss.
Here we have been a bit slack but have managed to visit the OTC dish that was closed in 1987. This communication dish was used during the "space days" & played a part in the first moon landing. The One Mile jetty & Train Museum were worth a visit as well as the Memorial to the HMAS Sydney. There is the HMAS Sydney Memorial Drive that has a tree planted (645 in total) for every member of that ship with a plaque bearing the name of each crew member at the base of each tree. There is a further Memorial in the town centre along with a Memorial to a Vietnam Veteran who was KIA in 1969. He has been a member of 5RAR.
There are many plantations in & around Carnarvon & many market gardens producing fruit & veges. Bananas, tomatoes, tropical fruits, mangoes, pumpkin, grapes etc are grown here. I read somehere that this is the "salad bowl" of WA.
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