Exmouth to Karratha

A big day of driving from Exmouth to Karratha - some 570 kms. Again I had my entertainment planned with recordings of Margaret Throsby on ABC Classic Radio - how I love to select the interviews, and record them to a memory stick and listen to them while driving.  I'd never listen to them on radio at home - manage to catch snippets if I am driving, but love it to entertain me on long drives.

So many "Floodways" in these parts - but no rain = no floods.

Look up - this is what I saw!

There are a number of websites with details of the amazing 'dare devil schemes' during World War II which set off from these parts.  You can check here about Operation Jaywick, here for Operation Rimau, and here for more information.

Exmouth is quite a significant place for the protection of Australia with a RAAF base, and the Harold Holt Naval Communication Centre, and of course the significant historical memorials.

Broome

Photos and information to be posted

Eighty Mile Beach

Photos and information to be posted shortly

Port Hedland

Photos and information to be posted

Karratha

Oh, the scenery!!!  In some ways I’d love to ride a bike or walk along the highway, as there are photo opportunities everywhere, and though I stopped frequently, I would lament at the missed photos.  Apart from the time to stop, get the camera, take the photo etc which added not inconsiderable minutes to my day, it was not possible to stop – no room to park the car off road, or double lines (plenty of those) traffic etc.  I did what I could – and just marvelled in the beauty of the scenery.

Karratha is clearly a mining town – with men and women mine and other workers in “high vis” clothing everywhere, and much of the road traffic clearly mine vehicles with clear markings.

I drove through to Dampier, and came across the statue for “Red Dog” – the dog that inspired the movie of the same name, based on a true story of this amazing dog up here in the Pilbara.

I stayed on night in a caravan park and set off early the next morning.

Huge piles of salt!

Apparently an old sign, but still scary

Near the caravan park.

Roebourne and Cossack

The town of Roebourne is just 40 kms from Karratha and is the oldest town of the NW coast (according to my precious resource Amazing North.”  It was established in 1866 and many of the old buildings have been restored.

I visited the old gaol, which now houses not only great museum items significance to the town, but the Visitor’s Information Centre as well.

Roebourne Gaol - Visitor Information Centre

Not far from Roebourne is Cossack.- actually about 11 kms north.  Cossack’s claim to fame was that it was the site the earliest pearling industry, but sadly the pearls were overfished and the industry moved on when Broome became the centre of pearling in the area. The town’s population decreased from the heady days of the pearling industry and by 1950 the town was abandoned.

However it has become popular as a tourist destination and a lot of work has been done. Some of the buildings have been restored, and one can go for a drive to see where other buildings were.  There are signs along the roadways explaining what used to be in place there.

There is some accommodation, but it was not operating when I was there.  I visited an old store, and the old court house and of course took quite a few photos.

Exmouth

The changing scenery has me enchanted.  I’d love to take more frequent photos but it would double the time needed to reach my destination, and really I already have thousands of photos!!

I am enthralled by the amazing rock formations – in fact the many rocks of all shapes and sizes along the roadway, up hills, or just piled up (perhaps from the road construction) is fascinating.

Time and funds do not permit me to ‘linger longer’ in these places and as I go I am  planning to revisit these areas.  What about a motor home?  Mmmmm.

Going into Exmouth, I saw for the first time hundreds, no thousands of termite nests on both sides of the road.  They are quite bizarre really – and I conjured up what they looked like.  Some looked like huge gorillas in the grass, others looked like sumo wrestlers, others fat folk with many bulges, or women in Arabian dress – I had an enjoyable time trying to work out a fitting description.

Exmouth was established as a support town for the Harold E Holt Naval Communication station in 1967, so does not have the old buildings and history associated with many of the other places along the northern coast.  It is also the home of the Learmonth RAAF base.  The road into Exmouth has many low lying areas with warnings of flooding – but again, as there has been little rain at this time, the creek beds and flood prone areas were devoid of water.

There is so much new development going on at Exmouth, with a huge marina development and other areas opening up for housing.  Beautiful new homes – looking quite expensive too, not only because of the cost of building here.

The town is very much about fishing and diving – and clearly very popular for this – but otherwise not terribly interesting for me.  I drove to a few places, took a few photos, but was keen to move on.  I stayed in the Exmouth Cape Holiday/Caravan park cabin near the centre of town, spent time wandering around town, did some shopping (not much) and rested.  I was keen to move on...