Au Day 44 - Putting a Dampier on the Plans

Tuesday 2nd November    Aus Day 44


I was up at 06.10 this morning to progress the Blog. Eileen up at 06.30 as she couldn’t sleep any longer. Showered, breakfast, checked van and ready to vacate site by 08.30. We headed back towards Roebourne but turned off to have a browse around the remains of historic Cossack which used to be the major port before the river silted up and Point Samson took over. It is very much a Ghost Town these days but is a heritage site with many buildings preserved and other areas marked.

JB Photographing the Cossack Customs and Bonded Store

The Resultant Photo of the Cossack Customs and Bonded Store

The Galbraith Store at Cossack

Back into Roebourne but nothing else caught our interest so we headed for Karratha, arriving just before10 am. A good shopping centre where we managed to get a pearl ring for Eileen and new pencil leads for me as well as more provisions.

After departing Karratha we headed for Dampier where we planned to spend the night, to check out the proposed camp site. We took one look and decided that we had to wish to stop in the middle of an industrial site, covered in iron ore dust so decided to head on to Onslow about 330 kms down the coast.

We travelled through cyclone country around Yarraloola and Peedamulla, almost taken off the road by a violent gust but managed to arrive safely at Onslow at about 15.15 and booked into the Ocean View caravan park on a site very close to the beach and a stone’s throw from one of our friends from last night at Point Samson.

You May Just Be Able to See The Cyclone - Centre Picture

Onslow Headland Lookout

Onslow Memorial Looking East

Hit the beach for a swim and then grabbed a few rays, before getting back to the air conditioning at about 4.45 pm when I set to, to update the Blog for 1st Nov while Eileen prepared a beautiful chicken dinner.

After dinner we decided to visit the local hotel bar, the Beadon Bay Hotel. An interesting experience considering that today has been Melbourne Cup Race Day. We were engaged in “conversation” by a local woman by the name of Margaret who insisted that I must be Irish. Eileen was interested in the gambling activities which are part & parcel of so many of the Aussie pubs and we then strolled back to the Camp Site having been truly entertained by the local population.

Watched a bit of TV, “CSI Miami”, before retiring shortly after 10 pm. We intend to make Exmouth tomorrow, hopefully about lunchtime.