First job was to get a few things , that was after I changed the pressure switch on the air compressor on the ute .
Down to the shopping centre we go , Karratha is a modern town of 28,000 people , most of the employment would be either iron ore operations or gas operations and support services . We feel out of place here , we don't have high visibility tape and a flashing light on the ute !!!
We found the voting centre and pre poll voted , that's something else we don't have to worry about !!
From here , we headed out to Dampier - only 25klms away , and located at the base of the Burrup Peninsular . First stop was at the Red Dog Memorial and information bay .
On our map for Karratha & district , it shows Queens Lookout on East Intercourse Island ( one of many in the Dampier Archipelago ) so we headed off out to there . The road took us through a small valley , on a private road down to the marina that has public access . The road over to the island is gated and secured and closed to the public , there's also a conveyor system that transports iron ore to the loading facility . A little further down is another road that also has a conveyor system that transports salt to it's loading facility .
The thing that has stuck us most about the landscape here , is the rock !! This place looks like a quarry , with piles of rock stacked everywhere !! I think the meaning of the word Dampier is quarry !
This is not a place you would just go for a walk across the field? , you would be risking life and limb, or at least a broken ankle !! It is inhospitable !! The colour of the rock is pretty cool though - anything from orange to dark red , iron ore is just popping out of the ground here in the Pilbara !!
At the height of the mining boom , people were queueing to get jobs here , to buy investment properties and rent them out at exorbitant prices , there are blocks of apartments , many blocks - they all look like school buildings or old motel units , most of which are now empty , you can even buy them now - bet they aren't selling for $1.5 million per room now though !!! Here's one block for sale .
We found another lookout and had some lunch there , wildflowers were starting to bloom , we spotted our first Sturts Desert Pea for the year .
The view from the lookout is over East Intercourse Island , and further to the west and also around to the east . A lot of boats use the sheltered bay for mooring , and a fleet of tug boats are based here as well .
We drove down to Dampier and checked out the beach , nothing to write home about there , there are plenty of sporting fields here though , soccer , league & AFL fields , bowling green & tennis courts . There is an old hotel that is now Rio Tinto training centre , and so many roads around town that are private - no public access . There are houses here as well , but I'm tipping they are all employee's houses .
We then headed out the peninsular where the visitors centre is , it overlooks the North West Shelf Gas Plant - this plant covers approximately 50 acres !! There is a road to Withnell Bay , it goes to dirt , sand & of course - rock . The view back to the gas plant wasn't too bad either .
The track took us to the Murujuga National Park , then the track turned to loose rock - we didn't go any further and went back to Hearsons Cove .
Hearsons Cove beach is made up mostly of shells & shell grit , sand is hard to find !! We drove up to the northern end of the beach for views back toward Karratha and Point Sampson ( some 30-40 klms away )
There is another track that leads from the southern end of the beach , and leads up into the valley beside more rock stacks .
Back out onto the road and we turned off again into Deep Gorge . There are petroglyphs here - aboriginal etchings - and there are thousands of them . There would be millions of them on the peninsular , if you had the time to look - they don't like you climbing up the rock stacks , as it is a sacred area for the aborigines . We stayed in the gully below , and besides it was flatter but still not easy to walk around . You need to walk looking where you are going to put your feet , otherwise you will end up flat on your face - we chose to walk 5m and then stop and look all around us , spotting many etchings all over the place , here are just a few.
There is a selection of white gum trees and other rough barked trees in the gully , as well as spinifex sprouting new seed heads , and there is also some water flowing down .
Making our way back to the ute , we drove back toward town and were lucky enough to be coming out at the same time as the shift change at the gas works , so had plenty of traffic to contend with .
This is a view of Karratha from our park .
And that's it for today , here's map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eZ_4Owx2m6JfPXhIximdOndAFHw&usp=sharing
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