Tues, 9th August, 2022 Karratha Travel Stop, south of Karratha, WA (exploring Burrup Peninsula, Dampier & Karratha)

7am 19 degrees, warmer night. Sad news on the radio. Olivia Newton-John passed away aged 73 years on the 8^th August in USA. Another one to sing with the angels as Judith Durham (The Seekers) passed away on the 5^th August. I love listening to both of them.

Mean dark clouds in the south but no rain predicted for here. Topped up the fuel $2.019/litre - yeah the prices are coming down though they say the government will be adding the fuel excise back on in September. Two chaps bailed us up to ask lots of questions about the truck and the camper.

Back to Dampier to finish the Red Dog Heritage Trail. Parked near the oval. Lovely new parks and picnic areas.

Two info boards on the beach.

I climbed up the lookout in the playground for a better view.

Followed the trail along the foreshore to where the shark cage enclosure used to be.

A ship is being guided into the loading jetty.

Not the normal looking land around here with lots of rocks everywhere.

More info about the many islands of the Dampier Archipelago at the boat ramp.

Very interesting story about Sam’s Island. Looks like an amazing place to live.

The ship has reached the jetty, now the tugs are turning it around so it can dock facing the correct way.

Lots of Bougainvillea everywhere.

Back to the camper for a cuppa. A cool wind is blowing as the cloud band comes over.

Headed back out of Dampier. One train of ore is on the line heading to Parker Point Loading Facility, another engine rumbled under the overpass as we crossed.

Back out then up the Burrup Peninsula Road. As we turned onto the road to Hearson’s Cove we saw this facility on the ridge and then the tanks on the lower area. We think this is part of the North West Shelf Project but there are no signs about it.

The hills here are like the Black Mountains near Cooktown but the rocks are smaller here.

Into the Murujuga National Park and on to Hearson’s Cove with lovely picnic areas. Very nice spot. No info about who it was named after.

Opposite the gas facility we passed we turn off to explore Deep Gorge, now called Ngaijarli, and learn about the Petroglyphs. Lots of great information. Along the path to a raised platform. A few other people were trying to find the carvings on the rocks as shown on the info boards and between us we found them all. The Thyacine is the hardest to see as it is on an angle and very faded now. There were so many other etchings but hard to work out what they were.

Along the other path was more information and more ‘etchings’ which were hard to work out what they were. The ship was further over and we had to use our imagination for this one as I couldn’t see any markings on the rock they showed.

There is a creek bed nearby and it is full of white stuff - salt or lime?

Back out to the main road, passed the turn off to King Bay and up to the North West Shelf Project Visitor Centre. On the side of building I found this plaque about how Burrup got its name. Very sad but interesting.

Unfortunately the visitor centre is closed due to Covid but we could check out the information boards outside. Hasn’t been updated since 2014.

A chap opened the door and we saw replicas of the petroglyphs inside.

Great view over the facility from here.

A section of pipeline from the Woodside Petroleum trunkline.

A sculpture representing workers helping someone who has been hurt.

Drove back along the road a bit then down Withnell Bay (obviously named after Emma and John Withnell that settled in Roebourne).

Looking back at the facility - it is amazing how the engineers etc figure out where all the bits and pieces have to go to get it all to work efficiently.

Down a sandy and rocky track to the near the bay for lunch. Lots of Sturt Desert Peas and spinifex on one side and mangroves on the other. Great view point of facility then out the bay.

Back out to the bitumen and onto Burrup Peninsula Road. Turned off into King Bay Road to Port of Dampier and up a hill to a big No Entry sign but there was a view across to the iron ore loading area, tanks and tugs.

Along the main road again where we turned off a bit further along and followed a track over the hill to find the Flying Foam Passage massacre plaque. King Bay is part of Flying Foam Passage between Angel and Dolphin Islands in the Dampier Archipelago. It was named after a 33 ton coastal schooner ‘Flying Foam’ disappeared without a trace there in March 1872 (obviously during a cyclone).

Good view of the port too.

Back to Dampier Road and then back towards Karratha. Noticed a new Liberty servo that wasn’t on my app and it has diesel for $195.9 so will go back and top up there before we head out of town.

Into Karratha and through the town to Maitland Lookout. Long walk up the sand ridge to the lookout. Great information - we learnt a lot about Captain King and the Mermaid on the cruise in April.

View over Nickol Bay, across to Burrup Peninsula and then back across the bay to Cleaverville area. Then behind to the hills.

Only a short drive back to check out the other lookout called Searipple Lookout which is named after a ship.

Karratha appears a nice ‘happening’ town with lots of interesting things going on. The whole area has been very interesting and it will be a great place to come back to and spend some more time. The last of the information from my booklet - on Karratha.

While at the shopping centre the Wandering Walshs drove by on the main road and saw the camper so gave us a toot. I got some cask wine for a change, $15 for 2 litres but that’s better than $11 for 750ml bottle.

We went to the Information Centre to update apps on the tablet etc using their Wifi and to find out about booking a campsite in the Millstream-Chichester National Park. I have to do it online and the lady said ‘good luck with that’. Eventually I got a booking using my phone to access their website. Then I got two emails from Commonwealth Bank saying someone tried to withdraw on the Mastercard internationally but as I have that blocked they didn’t get anything. Open Wifi - I should have know better. Luckily I don’t do any other banking on my phone. Outside was a great drone photo of Python Pool where we are heading to tomorrow.

Back down the road to the Truck stop for another night. The cloud band is still over us but there is blue sky in the south and east now and the forecast is for clear skies for the next week.

I got onto the CBA and told them what happened. She said to cancel the card to be sure - luckily we have another with ANZ so we are all good. They will send a new one which I can get Jon to post to me later. I am so diligent with checking the credit cards etc so this is very annoying.

Had a lovely chat with Annalise. We had normal TV reception so watched Grease which was on as tribute to Olivia.