From Red Dog to The Big Prawn, Gascoyne WA

Wednesday the 5th of December... was a day of exploring the Dampier Peninsula. After brekky we headed towards Wickham where we picked up a coffee before heading to Cossack, an old ghost town. It was established in 1863 as the North-West's first port for the pastoral and pearling industries. 

Although it's a ghost town, many of the historic buildings have been restored. 

The Old School

Museum 

The General Store on the left and the Court House on the right

I enjoyed reading about the history of the pearling industry, even though some of it was dark.

The treatment of Aboriginies in the early days of the industry was heartbreaking to read about...

This sign speaks of the dark days of the pearling industry

It was heartbreaking to read this

I loved reading about the legends surrounding pearls

It was here that Richard walked out of the information centre a white as a pearl, after narrowly avoiding treading on a tiger snake.

We continued to look around the town which was so deeply steeped in history.

The boys play The Judge and The Witness

We then headed into Karratha,  but stopped on the way when we saw a Christmas tree decorated on the side of the highway.

This decorated tree drew our attention

I got out to take  photo and on closer inspection found a commemorative plaque in memory of a nurse who had died here.

Her children had obviously put up the decorations and left the santa sack... Too sad. 

Arriving in Karratha, we stopped at the local shopping centre. We were amazed at how big the town is and could understand how it is the fastest growing town in the Pilbara. It's a bit prettier that Port Hedland but not by much. It's still very industrial and all about mining.

Shopping done we headed towards Red Dog  country (aka Dampier) and just as we arrived in the town, there he was...  The legend...

All of us with Red Dog

Jack, Nina & Harry with Red Dog

It was this time last year the kids had been excited about the trip ahead because they would get to see Red Dog. We had told them back then we had a lot of ground to cover before we got to Dampier,  which would be at the end of the trip. I suppose it's because of that conversation we had mixed emotions about finally getting to see Red  Dog.
Opposite the Red Dog monument there was this sign... it made us laugh...

The firies getting impatient with mother nature

We continued into Dampier. It's set on the water and is quite pretty in parts. The town is set high on a hill overlooking the Port which was built in 1965. Its one of the largest tonnage shipping ports in Australia.

Dampier

We stopped in at the Mermaid Hotel for lunch where part of Red Dog, the movie, was shot... but being too late, we only had a drink.

Richard and I laughed when a skimpy barmaid put her top on when she saw us walk into the Bar with the kids.... Jack is still asking what skimpy means. We've told him it means very little of something/anything! That should do it for the moment, well at least until he googles it. Who said they werent getting an education?

We had lunch at a little cafe in Dampier before heading back to Point Samson. We were pleased with ourselves for setting up camp on Point Samson and not somewhere else in the region. The little town is by far the prettiest in the Peninsula. By the time we arrived back in Point Samson Richard, the boys had decided we were staying another day, so they could all go fishing again.

By afternoon we set up outside with some more sashimi from the day before. The caravan park owners,  who were up from Perth,  joined us. We all chatted until late with the kids giving their rendition of The Man From Iron Bark. 

Thursday the 6th of December... Jack and I were up early for a walk. After doing a lap of Point Samson and only 3 kilometers, we decided to do another lap before heading back to park. That shows you how small the town is! 

When we arrived back Richard had decided that it was too windy to take the dinghy out fishing so we hastily began packing up.... with  Exmouth in our sights.

We said goodbye to the park owners and headed off,  via Wickham, for a coffee. The drive was long, with not much in between. 

We stopped at the Fortescue Roadhouse to fill up the car and continued on. The flat dry plains were slowly turning into table top hills and ranges, we were in Millstream and Karijini gorge Territory. The mining in the region was still really evident as we got caught behind road train and over length and over width  truck after truck. 

We all celebrated, clapped and cheered when we reached the turnoff to Karijini National Park. We had travelled up to Karijini and Nullagine last October school holidays, so from that point, we were going over old ground and had unofficially done our lap around Oz....

Our lap around Oz completed

The official lap will be when we arrive home in Harvey.

We stopped at the Nanutarra roadhouse for lunch. Richard and the kids had decided they wanted a celebratory meat pie for lunch.  I decided to make a sandwich in the van.
When I opened the door to the van I am sure you heard my expletives from wherever you are in the Southern Hemisphere.

The pantry door had come open, which sometimes happens but what's worse... A full tub of honey had fallen out of the pantry, the lid had come off and there was sticky icky honey everywhere.
Part of me wanted to close the door and pretend I didn't see it, the other part  wanted to cry and curl up in the foetal position somewhere and the part that won, decided to breathe in the honey filled caravan air and start mopping up. 

About half an hour later the job was done as well as possible for the time being. 

Lunch didn't happen for me, somewhere after opening the caravan door and beginning the clean up operation, I had lost my appetite.

We contined on, passing over the Ashburton River,  which got everyone excited.
We had camped in the River bed of the Ashburton last year during a few days at Yannirie Station. 

Just before the turnoff to Exmouth was a sign that welcomed us to The Gascoyne... We really are almost home.

Just as we turned onto the Manilya-Exmouth Rd, poor big red lost power again. We had to pull over to let her cool down for a minute. It brought back memories of our trip mid last year with the Vitalone family. The car, on it's first big run decided to die about 80 kilometers from Exmouth. We ended up finally getting to Exmouth on the back of a tow truck.

But this time around after a small rest, big red started again and found enough power to get us to Exmouth. The big prawn was testament to that....

We've arrived!

Ok now we've really arrived

After booking in to the caravan park and getting the mop out to clean up the rest of the honey,  we set about cooling off in the pool and then headed to our favorite Italian restaurant... Pinocchio's.

A family dinner at Pinocchio's