Not too much going on here but very popular place to stay to fish and get away from it all. The caravan site was great with a nice little shop and cafe that amongst other things offered homemade pies and Devonshire Cream Teas.
Beach was fabulous with loads of interesting shells and a short walk meant you could not see a soul in any direction. Made for a lovely stop on the way to Broome.
I was lucky enough to get a private tour of the Rio Tinto Port. A few interesting facts and photos below.
The Dampier Port ships 110,000,000t of iron ore per year. It comprises two car dumpers, four stackers, three reclaimers, four shipping berths and two ship loaders.
Operates 24 hours a day 365 days per year and takes incoming ore from Rio’s 11 mines in the Pilbara and blends them to provide a consistent product of ore at 62% iron. This is achieved by layering the different types of ore on top of each other vertically from the stackers so when reclaimed horizontally by the reclaimers it gets blended.
Rio maintains all the machinery themselves with nearly 150 maintenance staff.
Karratha is the largest town in the Pilbara and is based around the Rio Tinto mines and the Port Facilities in the area. It has all you need, great parks, pubs and shopping etc.
Met up with old friends from Perth who live there for dinner at the Tambey Tavern which does a great schnitzel, but $15 for a pint of Little Creatures XPA, Shame on you
We visited the Ghost Town of Cossack
Cossack is an historic ghost town located 1,480 km north of Perth and 15 km from Roebourne in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The nearest town to Cossack is Wickham.
Cossack is located on Butchers Inlet at the mouth of the Harding River. It is reached by a single, sealed road that follows the original causeway across a series of tidal salt flats. The overall landform of the region around Cossack is a low, flat plain with occasional rocky hills and ranges. The vegetation is mainly grass, spinifex and low shrub, with occasional trees (mangroves) along watercourses and in gullies. The mangrove scrub becomes quite dense along the shoreline and at the mouth of the inlet.
The town was the heart of the Pearling industry, for many years but when the industry moved to Broome the town gradually dwindled and when hit by a Cyclone was abandoned in the 1940s
Many Buildings have now been restored and there is a Cafe and accommodation available.
The Jail has been restored and is used to house the most desperate local criminals!
We were going to go to Chichester Millstream National Park as well but unforeseen illness meant Jools could not stray too far from the ablution block that day.
Welcome to the fist of my round Australia regular features. I am going to detail the most important features of a trip like this, which obviously are the best Pie, Pint of Craft Beer and the best Ablution Block we encounter on our travels. The leaders so far are:
Pie
A Steak Pizza pie from the Red Bluff Bakery Cafe at Kalbarri. Pie traditionalists may not allow this but it is my blog and it was gorgeous so it is in. A square pie crust of nice light pastry filled with chunky steak in tasty gravy topped with peppers and onions and toasted cheese. Delicious. This will take some beating.
Crafty Pint
Storming into the lead by 2 lengths at least is the You’re Dviving IPA from the Froth Micro Brewery in Exmouth. Gread body nice malty upfront taste with citrusy notes and a lovely bitter finish.
ABV 6.2%
IBU 54
Hopheads unite!! You’re Driving IPA is an extremely hop forward ale that packs a punch. If you plan on having more than one, you’ll have to say to your mate…“You’re driving!” Loaded with Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Cascade, and Simcoe hops during the brewing process then dry hopped with them all again! This IPA has a huge resinous hop profile where essence of grapefruit and pine cement its roots as a new age India Pale Ale
Ablution Block
The leader by a country mile so far Outback Oasis Caravan Park in Carnarvon, ablutions fit for a hotel room, in fact I have stayed in hotels with much worse ablutions than this. May try to sneak a pic or two if I can manage it without getting arrested or lynched.
I will update regularly. If anybody out there has any suggestions on our route, which is roughly north then east with a bit of south in the middle, please comment below.
We arrived in Exmouth with hopes of more snorkeling, boat trips and some walking in the Cape Range national park, only for fate to vomit on our cornflakes and send some wind and rain to spoil our plans. Fortunately, Exmouth had other things to keep us occupied, we visited the Frothy Microbrewery (see post below on best pint) and pub, browsed the shops, did some caravan maintenance and visited the Exmouth Aquarium and visitor center. Where we managed to get some photos of the fish we saw down at Coral Bay.
On the way into Exmouth there are lots of Termite mounds made by the Spinifex termite that eats grass not wood like most termites so would be good to have in your back garden to keep the grass down, however at 2m tall it may take up a bit too much space, Jools thought the mounds looked like dinosaur poo.
Just to break up the day a bit we had a visit from 2 Emus into the campsite. Jools chased them to get this photo like Rod Hull in need of a new partner.
Cadillacs bar was just next door to our campsite and was a very well done country music-themed bar with a great soundtrack. Spent a few happy hours there, no craft beer but a very acceptable pint of Guinness cold.
Got a lovely piece of Goldband snapper and some prawns from the Fresh Fish Shack. New favorite fish BBQ’ed up a treat
Last, but not least Jools started by feeding one very scruffy looking Cockatoo, which quickly became six cockatoos, four pigeons and a seagull, followed the next morning by all the above and a troop of Galahs. One of the cockatoos even peeled our camping mat back with its beak to get at any seed that had fallen through the mesh.
Words can’t adequately describe the snorkeling at Coral Bay. You can wade out to the reef from the beach and then snorkel to your heart’s content, we saw zebra fish, butterfly fish, clown fish, snapper, eels, flat fish, and many others I can’t identify and Jools (first-time snorkeler) saw a squid. What a fantastic place! I have dived on 3 continents and this was the best fish viewing bar none just by simple snorkeling off of the beach. Unfortunately, no pictures and our cameras do not work well underwater, neither did one of my car key remotes, good job we were only 10 mins walk from the campsite.
You can also go on glass bottom boat rides and swim with Whale sharks, but was a bit pricy so passed, had great fun snorkeling.
Our allocated pitch was just opposite the pub (does our reputation precede us?) called Bill’s Bar where we have a very fresh and tasty fish and chips and some OK beer, not really any choice to my taste I am afraid. But wine at $5 a glass in Happy Hour was good. Nothing much else in Coral Bay except a small supermarket, bakery and tourist/dive type shops.
Next Stop Exmouth.
Little town on the main highway, lots of farms for mangos, bananas etc and produce a lot of seafood, really good for a stopover to go to Woolies to stock up on food and other stuff as we will not see a big supermarket for a week or so now.
Highlights are the blowholes
The waves drive water into an underground cave system that funnels the water up and spurts out at the top.
And the Space Museum which celebrates the part the radio telescope tracking station played in the Apollo 11 moon landing, you can see relic equipment used to track Gemini and Apollo missions and get in a mock capsule with video screens and experience some of what the Astronauts saw during takeoff of the mission.
It also has a range of short films about space and an interactive section with space invaders game amongst other things based around electro magnets etc. Great for kids of all ages.
Other than that not a lot to do tried to get fish and chips but the only takeaway in town was closed due to lack of fish.
Famous for the dolphins that visit every morning to be fed by the park staff and likely members of the public, we arrived too late as they had already been fed, but decided to go in anyway as it was a 1.5 hour drive to get there and there was little else to do.
Glad we did as it is a very beautiful place. We went for a short stroll down the beach away from the main resort to see what we could see, and low and behold we were treated to a fabulous display by a mother and her calf who zoomed up and down the beach no more than 2m from where we were paddling in the shallows.
Stupidly I had left my DSLR in the car but Jools got some great photos on her phone.
It was a special moment we were alone on that part of the beach and the mother was obviously showing her calf off to us
As an added bonus there was a very cooperative Pelican who posed for photos for all-comers for about half an hour.
Welcome to the fist of my round Australia regular features. I am going to detail the most important features of a trip like this, which obviously are the best Pie, Pint of Craft Beer and the best Ablution Block we encounter on our travels. The leaders so far are:
Pie
A Steak Pizza pie from the Red Bluff Bakery Cafe at Kalbarri. Pie traditionalists may not allow this but it is my blog and it was gorgeous so it is in. A square pie crust of nice light pastry filled with chunky steak in tasty gravy topped with peppers and onions and toasted cheese. Delicious. This will take some beating.
Crafty Pint
Little Creatures pale at the Jurien Bay Hotel. Good pint not overly hoppy, but plenty of body and nice smooth finish. Not one of my favorites but craft options have been limited so far.
Ablution Block
The leader by a country mile so far Outback Oasis Caravan Park in Carnarvon, ablutions fit for a hotel room, in fact I have stayed in hotels with much worse ablutions than this. May try to sneak a pic or two if I can manage it without getting arrested or lynched.
I will update regularly. If anybody out there has any suggestions on our route, which is roughly north then east with a bit of south in the middle, please comment below.
Kalbarri National park is a plethora of coastal and riverine scenic wonders, beautiful scenery galore, the coastal lookouts to the south of the town are fabulous and constitute a geology lesson in themselves.
The coastal lookouts are free, but to get to the riverine valleys in the park you need a pass or to pay a fee. We have a pass so had a treck up to Nature’s window, which was well worth the effort, especially as i discovered i need to put a new hole in my belt, this grey nomad life must agree with me.
A couple of the lookouts including Z bend were closed for refurbishment when which was a shame and the Kalbarri skywalk is not yet complete, though I am sure it will be a big attraction with spectacular views when it is.
Nine days in and we have still not seen a wild live kangaroo. We have seen birds and parrots galore, several emus and plenty of roadkill though. I suggested we stop and get a few steaks for dinner, but was overruled by the boss once again.
