Whim Creek to Karratha

We were up fairly early and so headed off to Karratha for the night. We passed through Roebourne, an old historic town, but true to form kept on going till we reached our destination. This is a mind set we need to change to make sure we stop and look at things along the way.

We arrived in Karratha by mid morning and so went to the supermarket for morning tea and to do some shopping for the supplies required. We then headed off to the Caravan Park where we set up and had lunch.

I headed off to the Visitor Centre to find out what were the must do’s of the area and so we headed off to see the highlights.

It was off to Dampier, an absolute thrill for Cathy! We saw the big trains dropping off the raw materials, iron ore, that were then transferred to a ship and sent overseas to be processed. Of course we then buy back the finished product at a premium.

We had a drive around Dampier, a very industrial port that sends much of the mined products overseas.

It was very interesting to see the LNG plant where gas is brought in from the ocean bed, frozen and then sent to many Asian countries for the gas supplies. Each vessel that leaves sails with about ten million dollars worth of gas aboard that earns Australia foreign income. We went to see a display that talked about this process, another highlight for Cathy that was actually very interesting as it explained the process from under the ground to the arrival in the overseas ports.

We returned via Hearsons Cove, the location for tonight’s ‘Staircase to the Moon’ and made sure we knew where to go when we returned. After a quick walk along the beach and a splash in the water, we returned to the van for tea.

After tea we had a major emergency, well according to one of the travelling party anyway. We lost the kitchen sink plug! Oh dear what a tragedy! A simple trip to the tiny camp kitchen solved this problem and all dishes were washed and returned to the cupboards clean.

After this we headed off to Hearsons Cove to see the famous ‘Staircase to the Moon’, a phenomenon that only occurs three nights a month when all of the conditions are right. We had been advised that it should occur about 7:50pm and so we made sure we were there in plenty of time.

We sat and waited for what seemed a very long time and eventually the moon rose over the horizon and the reflection on the mudflats created the staircase. Something worth seeing once, but not something I would go out of my way to see again, a little overrated for me but the others seemed to enjoy it.

It was then back to the van for a goodnights sleep.