Red Dust to the Coral Coast

One thing I forgot to mention was that in Broome Peter requested that "Nurse Gladys" shave his head - the result you can judge for yourself, however we have all collectively decided that this will be a once only happening!

Anyway, we arrived in Port Smith which was a little fishing village 140k south of Broome after being told that it was a "beautiful caravan park" - the road in was corragated red dust, and the sites and facilities were about a one star rating. We had travelled with Irene and Brian and we all decided to make the most of it as we were also told it was a fantastic fishing spot. The two "hunter gatheres" decided to try their luck - first at the lagoon, which was very pretty and at least we were able to update the suntan - but no fish!.

The next day Judy and I stayed at home while the other three tried their luck at another "fantastic fishing place" - off they set, following the handdrawn map over the sanddunes. About two hours later back came the 4WD at a fast pace so we naturally thought they had had success - wrong, they could not find the place and were sick of playing Malcolm Douglas so returned to camp.

"Nurse Gladys" did have occassion to use the large first aid kit we have been storing when Brian scraped his arm on some oyster shells, also came in handy for doctoring the sand fly bites (Port Smith is the sandfly capital) - we really do now have every potion known to man in order to treat these.

After a couple of days, off to Port Hedland the only way to avoid the bumps on the Port Smith road was to drive as far as possible up the side walls of the road, many times we thought we would tip over on that bloody 23 ks of dirt and sand.

The drive to Port Hedland was so boring - red dirt..... We had been told to pass through Port Hedland but thought we would have a look. Certainly opens your eyes as to the size of the mining industry - everything is big and it seems that each person has a white 4WD with an orange flag attached. Highlights were the mound of salt, the very long mine trains (up to 3 kilometre long) and the red dust covering everything!. We had to get some new tyres and the fellow while talking to us told us that the best restaurent in town was the BP Roadhouse - this tells you something! The good part was that we met up with some other people in the caravan park and enjoyed a good meal and laugh.

Interesting information fromPort Hedland was the pay rates. Unskilled people cleared about $1800 per week- skilled people much more! The rent for a one bedroom unit in the park was $1200 per week which was paid by the mining companies - disposable income was huge.

We aslo visited South Hedland which was the dormitory town built when Port Hedland got rocking...... unbelievable. In places it was difficult to discern it from a tip, very high crime rates and violence at night reported and very high indigenous unemployment rates.

We heard about another small beach area Point Samson (50 km north of Karratha) and thought we would go there, so the convoy set off. Getting close we went through Roeborne and thought oh no this could be another Port Smith - but we were pleseantly surprised. We decided to go the the park behind the tavern which was directly across the road from the beach. We settled in here for 3 nights. Bill and Emma (Kiwis who had worked in WA for 28 years) that were staying in the park insisted in putting on drinks and eats for us on one night, they were extremely nice people and very generous hosts.

While in the area we went to do banking etc at Karratha (which is not exciting) and then took a drive down to Dampier - a very pretty harbour, and also took a drive to Cossack an abandoned town that has a few buildings left that have been restored. Cossack was the pearling capital prior to Broome.

The convoy then decided Exmouth was the next stop. Again the drive was not exciting - red dirt a few large mines, big trucks - it really did remind you just how remote some parts of this country are. (Did you note the changes made to the sign in the photos). Exmouth was a beaut few days - good park, Judi and Brian Moodie (who we had met in Port Hedland) were already there plus some others we had met in Point Samson.

Peter managed to snorkel and go fishing and the water was just so blue. The view from the lighthouse was spedtacular. Judy, Irene and I managed to find the big prawn and we had a nice lunch of fresh prawns. Peter and Brian tried beach fishing, fishing from Learmont Jetty but only caught small ones - but still had a good laugh and enjoyed themselves. Emus are protected and in Exmouth they are seen strolling down the main street.

We have been on the road for 5 months now, travelled 20,000kms and all that time have had a Weber BBQ under the bed (we had used it once in Port Macquarie) - well we decided to have a communal Roast Lamb - so the weber came in very handy and it was one of the best roasts we have ever had.

Judi and Brian decided to go the Cape Range National Park and free camp for a few days, but Irene and Brian and us decided to go on down to Coral Bay.

We had been told to go Peoples Caravan Park at Coral Bay as it had good water - this was true, only what we were not told was that you could not hook up to water but obtain it from taps in containers for drinking and cooking. Neither of us filled our water tanks in Exmouth, so the first little while was spent bucketing water for our tanks. Once that was complete we were right. We had a site 20 metres from the beach - just beautiful!. The cost of living is pretty high (luckily we had stocked up before leaving Exmouth) and the bakery cannot make coffee - but Coral Bay is a delightful place. Peter managed snorkling and Judy and I went to sea in a submersible - got a very good view of the fish and coral.

Brian and Judi joined us after a couple of days - so again some good socialising. Irene and Brian left for Carnavon a day before us, and we decided to travel in convoy with Brian and Judi., hoping that we would not have a head wind, but we were wrong!!!