Pilbara Region

The Pilbara region is well-known for mining – particularly iron ore. Everywhere you look, you can see tons of red rocks.

80 Mile Beach

After we left Broome, we stopped for a night at 80-Mile Beach (you can guess how long the beach is…). We watched a beautiful sunset on the beach and shared a glass of wine with some other campers there.

Port Hedland

After 80 Mile Beach, we drove to Port Hedland to spend the night. Port Hedland is the biggest port in the area exporting all of the mining extracts to various countries overseas (mainly China). It is not the nicest looking city and I realise as I’m writing this blog that I didn’t even take one single picture there! Here’s one I grabbed from the internet so you can see what it looks like.

The city is also extremely expensive – the most expensive caravan parks we’ve stayed in yet for what you get. For example, we paid around $75 per night in Airlie Beach for the Big 4 with mini-golf, tennis, waterpark, heated swimming pool, petting farm, etc. Whereas in Port Hedland we paid $70 per night for literally a patch of red sand. The pool and the amenities were really old and looked as if they hadn’t been cleaned / fixed since the mid-1970s. What a rip off!

After our first night, I was ready to get out of there. The next stop was Karajini National Park which I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately, after 1.5 hours into our 6-hour drive, the car decided that it was just too hot and it wasn’t going to go any further for a while – it shut off power. This had happened to us before on this trip normally when the temperature was over 37C (98F), after about 4 hours, and when towing the caravan. However, this time it happened after only 1.5 hours. Knowing that there were no mechanics or services where we were headed, we decided we’d better turn around and go back to Port Hedland (urgh – not another night in that dump!).

We called around and found that there was a Ford mechanic in Karratha (2 hours away). We were planning to go to Karratha after Karrajini park anyway so we decided to head on to Karratha the next morning. Unfortunately, this meant that we made the decision to skip Karrajini park which was a disappointment since I was really looking forward to it.

From Karratha, Karrajini is just too far away. I also rang the visitor centre and they said that in another couple of weeks it would start to become very, very hot and there was only one gorge that had any water in it. Also, several of the roads in the park were closed due to 2 bush fires in the park.

Karratha

15 years ago when we did our last trip around Oz, R and I stayed in Karratha for a couple of weeks and R worked as a bartender in the Karratha International Hotel. It still existed.

Unfortunately, the pool bar where he worked was closed for renovations so we couldn’t have a drink there.

The town has certainly expanded since we were last there! It was a small town back then with a severe accommodation crisis – the government and mining companies were in negotiations to get the government to release more land back then. Now, the town has grown into a city with several suburbs. We couldn’t believe it!

A couple of days after we arrived, we were able to go to a beach and witness the Staircase to the Moon phenomenon. It only happens when all of the following conditions are met:

1. It must be between April – October.

2. It must be in the west.

3. It must be on an eastern facing beach (e.g. a peninsula).

4. It must be low-tide.

5. It must be a beach that has mudflats at low tide

6. It must be a full moon.

Unfortunately without a great camera (we’re just using our phones), it’s difficult to get great pictures, but here it is. You can see that the lines created in the mudflats look like a staircase leading to the moon.

Dampier

About a 10 minute drive up the road from Karratha is the town of Dampier. Dampier has a port where the mining industries around Karratha export their goods. Dampier had a great little town beach with a fantastic playground. Further down the street was another little beach where you could see the big tankers at the port.

Roeburn, Cossack and Port Samson

We did a day trip to see the old towns of Roeburn and Cossack. Roeburn had an old jail and the town of Cossack was built for the pearling industry, but when the industry moved to Broome, the town was vacated. The town really only flourished for about 30 years. Now, the ghost town has been restored and you can visit the old buildings.

After visiting the town, we drove up the road to Point Samson, a tourist town, to check it out. While there, we discovered a great little beach called Honeymoon Cove where we decided to stop for a couple of hours and cool down.

All up we spent about 2 weeks in Karratha. We got our car’s computer upgraded in the hope that that would fix the problem since they couldn’t fit us in to actually look at it for a few more months. We enjoyed our time in Karratha, but were looking forward to getting to Exmouth, our next stop, where R and I lived and worked for about 7 months before.

Emu Creek Station

On the way to Exmouth, we stopped for 2 nights at a working cattle station called Emu Creek. They have a permanent creek running through the property where we could swim. We were originally going to only stay one night, but we liked it so much we stayed for 2 nights. It was really peaceful. We camped right on the edge of the creek. Here’s the view from our van:

The kids discovered a rope swing and had a blast swinging into the creek.

The property also had an old sheep shearers shed on the property which was heritage listed. Apparently, it used to be one of the largest wool producers in Australia!

But one of the best things about the property was the toilet (what a weird thing to say!). It was very ‘bush’. There were two toilets in the block. Each one had a shower. However, in order to have hot water, you needed to start a wood fire out the back below the water tank for it to heat the water. So this meant that every time you stepped into the toilet, it smelled like a campfire.

Next stop: Exmouth. We’re looking forward to seeing old friends, swimming in the turquoise water and doing lots of snorkelling.