Captains Log

Star Date: 19/12/2015 We have spent the day travelling and arrived at Exmouth, and        WOW what a difference, we could be in another world, this town is clean, smart with civilised people, restaurants and bars.  As I lie here now reflecting on the day, I have to say, I do believe we are a lot happier than we were last night.  
The day began slowly after a restless night and only one cup of tea at breakfast time, due to the journey being a mere 546kms, I wanted an early start, especially as it was going to get us from the North to the West Coast.  
Apart from being sideswiped by a mini whirlwind, clocking up our 10,000 kilometre and having to do an emergency stop so as the arse end of a snake did not go through the windscreen, (it had been caught crossing the road by an Eagle, who was slower than normal at obtaining the height he normally would achieve due to the extra weight of the snake he was still clutching, subsequently the end of the snake he was carrying almost collided with our windscreen, had we not undertaken the training we received from Lewis Hamilton before we left) we arrive in Exmouth, a town that apparently the Americans built, I'll say this quietly as apparently they have sensitive monitoring equipment nearby.........
Good for them I say as this town is smaller than Dampier but oh so different, for a start it has several restaurants, it has numerous bars, one of which has become my new favourite, not only is it similar to my last favourite, except for the sea view but it serves GUINNESS..........   it also has a nice comfortable area to relax and drink in, where the 'Cow girls' come to your table to serve you, a Trip Advisor review will be posted tomorrow...... it is also smart, casual and obviously designed to encourage families rather than the manual 'my wife is a thousand miles away' worker........
So having tested the quality of the Guinness, we venture forward to the Italian attached to our camp site, OMG, it's got real Italians working there, they have been here 6 years and appear to be making a good living out of it, the restaurant is busy, they deal with you in a European manner, free water with dinner, order at table, table service and pay when finished.........Belisimo!
It should also be noted that today is the first day we have become really aware of it being so close to Christmas, not only are some houses, tents, caravans, offices, shops, petrol stations, termite mounds being decorated in Christmas dec's but several Lorry Road Trains went past today with Tinsel wrapped around their 'Roo Bars'.........  So in order to enter into the festive sprit, whilst in a bakers I had a slight delve, well twice actually,  into the 'try a taste' basket and ended up buying a Homemade Christmas Pudding as well as bread, I tell you this with no word of a lie, the tasters were delicious..........
In our Lonely Planet Australia guide book it makes mention to and when we booked into the campsite, the receptionist also made reference to the fact that Emu's wander about both the town and the camp site, within two minutes of walking to the Town Center we see an Emu strutting it's stuff down the middle of a road, 30 minutes later when arriving back at the van, there's another one being photographed outside the our passenger front door by our camper neighbour.........
I don't mind Emu's being around us a bit, it's just if I have to get up in the night in order to participate in a call of nature, I now have to do it, paying special attention to where I put my feet.........
And so, here we are, once again as happy as, well as happy as before we went to Dampier, enjoying it as a holiday should be enjoyed, but only better, this time it's on a belly full of Guinness...... Beam me up Scotty........

    Mini World Wind 

    Out on the Town.......

Depressing Dampier

After an early morning walk along the beaches of Dampier, I cannot help but think of the depressing conversation being held by four guys on a table near to us yesterday. There is basically nothing here, the sign may say Town Center but could easily say "Tesco Express" because that's all that is there.  The only reason to come here is sleep after a day's work at either the Salt Mine, The Iron Ore works, The Port or the Liquid Gas Plant, which apparently you can see the lights from space at night........ 
Last night we watched the DVD 'Red Dog' which according to the locals made this Town famous, in it are scenes that could be recorded exactly the same today, the town itself has simply stood still in the last 25 years........
That may explain why some two hours later we are standing in the Deep Gorge, in the Murujuga National Park on the Burrup Peninsula looking at Rock art that is believed to be 30,000 years old.
Rock art being different from Aboriginal painting as it is made by grinding rubbing and scraping rocks together.  It takes us some time to recognise what is what but eventually we can make out some rocks with what appears to be some sort of a drawing on, albeit by a child..........  What also surprises us is the way in which the kangaroos can camouflage themselves so easily on these rocks and their agility when bounding/climbing over them.  We then find one with his rear end stuck up in the air and nose buried down between a group of rocks on the ground, unfortunately our agility and camouflage skills are some what lacking and we disturb him, when we look we find a hole about 4 inches wide 8 inches deep with running water at the bottom, no other signs of a stream/creek/river whatsoever......
No holding us back now, we are off to the Salt mine look out, 9 million tones of Salt are produced here annually from the sea, a lot of which goes to melt the snow on European roads and is made into chlorine for swimming pool treatments........ However the making of so much salt, take it from me is not a pretty sight.......
Hearsons Cove is possibly stunning when the tide is in but when it's out its another pretty beach surrounding mud flats.......
The Natural Gas plant is huge and a scar on the environment as is the Port with all roads leading into closed to the public, so that's it we have been all over and seen all that is advertised in this areas publicity, to say tomorrow we will be glad to be making our way from the North Coast to the West Coast is an understatement, as we possibly feel the same way about the area as did those British Nuclear Scientists in 1952 when they set off and tested Britain's first Nuclear Bomb 120 miles SW of here.......
Out for dinner to the Sailing Club, I shower, shave, put on dark blue shorts with a white 'Boss' polo shirt and clean my deck shoes so as to look the part, but we can only order something to eat without alcohol as we are not members, WHAT! forget it, and we go to the Bistro in the local Hotel, where we are the only customers but meet a lady from Ireland working there, she sums Dampier up as, "You only come here for the money, when you've got it, then you get out"  "Most of the people in the bar tonight are 'FIFO's' (Fly ins, Flys out!)"

    30,000 year old Kangeroo rock art 

   The real thing blending in with the background

    A rock art Goanna 

    Salt production pens

Pilbarra Python Pool

So there I was last night thinking, what to do tomorrow, found a place 120kms south of us in      National Park, it's basically bush desert all the way.  It's called Python Pool and has a free camp site nearby called 'Snake Campsite' I continue to read and I quote, " it is home to some of Australia's most dangerous snake species, it is important to make sure care is taken when walking through the rugged landscape".  As such I think it's high time I stepped back in this holiday and advise the female representative of this holiday duo, "As it's going to be hot tomorrow when we go to Python Pool, why don't you lead the way, that way we can take our time and you won't have to rush about" She replies, "okay"..........
First stop is for Tea bags, Shower Gel and some plasters, just in case of some unfortunate incident befalling someone later in the day........ Grab a Coffee in the slowest serving Coffee shop in Western Australia, 4 members of staff and yet the one that is making the Coffee, is also the one serving it and taking it to your table with the numbered flag on........
The drive goes from Coastal Dunes, to Grassy Plains to undulating hills before ravines and gorges however it all appears to be dead, dry and without any animal life whatsoever, all that is except for the Black Headed Python we see........ The road becomes a dirt track and yet all around it becomes even more attractive whilst the temperature gauge climbs to 45 degrees.
We arrive at 
Python Pool, no one else is here and Snake Camp is closed, so out we get, one of us taking the precaution of wearing trainers whilst the other is just in sandals, off we set when I stop and check the van is locked........ We make our way along a dry river bed and arrive at the pool safely accompanied by approximately 12-20 flies buzzing around our heads each.  The water here is slightly green, don't fancy swimming in it even though there is a cormorant swimming and diving for the fish that are living here..... 
Back to van and whilst en-route to Dampier, we drive alongside some of the 3kms long iron ore freight trains, we got to 236 wagons but then ran out of road.......
Arriving in Dampier we drive around and it looks stunning with its white sandy beaches, its bright blue sea and 42 Archipelago islands and islets but then we see the town itself, it's poor, it's neglected and run down, we think due to Karratha the up and coming new town being so close by, that said it does have a nice looking Boat and Sailing Club which if we stay another night after seeing the rock art tomorrow, it may well get some new attendees...... 
After checking in we find out we are in the town that stars in the famous award winning film 'Red Dog', I don't think I enamoured myself to the manageress when I said, " Never heard of it"........
And so as I write the final paragraph of today's events having just had dinner, I look at the lady next to me, who says, "Are you really going to watch that (Red Dog) DVD, she gave you" "Yes!" I reply, "we might be back here tomorrow".......
Ps: Anyone want to buy a unopened box of plasters........

    Pilbarra Country

    Python Pool

To Sit or Not to sit.....

Up before the Sun and down to Honeymoon Cove, where apparently you have all been whilst being seduced into purchasing things via the adverts on TV. I am alone apart from the dozen flies or so that have taken to me, the sky is still grey and yet one man and his dog have beaten me here and already gone. As the sky begins to change colour out comes my iPhone but it is useless as a fly swat so half a dozen photos and back to the van for a spray down with repellant.
There are dozens of finch's flying around building nests, one being no more than 15ft away, they are on the ground in the main picking up matter to build and line their humble abodes......
I'll help them, use beard trimmer to cut hair and give them a lot of grey matter to make a silky soft bed for their eggs........ 
Drive to Karratha, been here before and hit the shops, someone gets a new thong as an early Xmas present, now before your minds start going into overdrive creating a picture, remember out here, thongs are flip flops....... The shops remind us that it is almost Christmas, some are sparsely decorated with Xmas decorations and two are actually playing Christmas songs/carols........
Whilst driving today, noticed at lunch time, that nothing had a shadow, the sun was directly overhead which I suppose makes sense as its almost mid summers day here...... and even
though we are moving further South each day, the temperature is going North, over 40 at midday, 38 mid afternoon and still over 30 at sunset........
Some of you in UK, may think lucky you however there are certain things that one just cannot get used to, the sun has a bite like that in Seville or Córdoba, the flies invading every orifice,  the condensation on your beer glass dripping all over you when you drink from it and by far the worse, the warm toilet seat, it always feels as if someone else has just got off it.......
We have decisions to make re the next couple of days, shall we do an extra 1000kms to see Karijini National Park or kill the time around here, research completed, looks like we best book another night or two here...... 

Still we have TV, telephone and Internet here, we can catch up with the rest of the world but that does involve sitting still, staying stationery, not moving from this location, Ho Ho Ho, what chance that..........

    Honeymoon Cove Sunrise

 

    Nest building Finch's

    Trying to keep Cool and Dry..........

Cossack the Ghost Town

First off to all those that said 'Yes' he will have a hangover, hard luck........ Whilst I accept I was a little sluggish this morning, it was definitely not classifiable as a hangover.......
That said, I expect you can imagine the morning getting off to a slower start, than normal....
First stop, Sam's Hatchery, where we are told that's the place to go to see wildlife, birds and Turtles..... We get there and after reading the Government Trespass Warning notice, for which penalties apply, we step forward into a boggy marsh with the only noise being the squelch and sucking noises coming from the sand/mud as it releases its grip on our foot ware.  Not a living thing although I do believe I heard laughter coming from the homes of the people who told us about Sam's Hatchery....
Next stop, Cossack, a town that was once thriving with a big, fishing, turtle soup and pearling industries in the early 1900's.  The creek then began to silt up and when bigger ships were necessary, they built a new jetty at Point Samson (remember this for later) and moved operations there until eventually moving the Pearling to Broom.  The Turtle Soup enterprise was 'canned' as it became too expensive and the Asians got involved.......
So Cossack became a ghost town, it was wiped out twice by cyclones and then with everyone moving out as the work went elsewhere.  It then fell into disrepair, before the state government gave it National Heritage Status and opened the town back up basically as a museum...... 
Everything, Court, Gaol, School House, Police Station, Transit Camp and Cemetery is open, no people were there so we had the run of the town but left after an hour or so, as you can only get so much excitement from a broken cup and saucer with a tea spoon from the 1900's and worse still there was no Costa Coffee shop in town, the Coffee shop that is there, does not reopen until April..

Into Wickham, take a photo of me and one of the giant trucks they use to convey the iron ore for grandsons birthday card, but horror of horrors, I forget to pull my stomach in........ buy bread in Woolworths, try and have a coffee but whilst the shop is open the lady inside said it was closed..... and out of Wickham, it is a nothing town, being in the main a residential overspill for the workers at the Iron Ore works at Cape Lambert.
Go past Roeborne Prison and think, I do hope they have air con! It's a series of individual blocks, behind two razor wire fences, only of course, the blocks all have corrugated metal anti cyclone roofs and it's 39degrees outside so what would it be like inside a metal box without air con? 

Prison I suppose.......
Get to Roebourne, drive around and think, why would anyone live here? It is dire! 
Start to head back when we see Leramugadu Cafe, it's in a Aborigine Cultural Complex, nothing matches, it's a pile of odds and sods with 1960's advertising outside, if you saw it in your local high street you would walk on by however next to this cafe was a Hotel that looked as if it would fall down if you slammed a door....... So in we go and although it is run by a white Australian couple they employ four aborigine waitresses.  If any one of these girls were to be employed by some big London company, they would be achievers, they were polite, happy, helpful, did not stop working for a second, efficient and made the place run like clockwork.  No disrespect to the male owner but when asked what muffins he had, whilst pointing at a dark brown coloured one, you know the normal colour for a chocolate muffin, he replied I think that's a red velvet muffin, I'll just check....... Waitress replies it's not even red, it's a double chocolate chip muffin...... Please do not get rid of your staff they made your place work and together with your wife's cooking, a pleasure to be in.........
Now being suitably refreshed we return to Point Samson, it's really too hot to do anything but we go for a walk to look for the Historical Jetty which just happens to be within 100 yards of where we are staying.  Now think back to when I have previously mentioned the Australian Tourism PR machine, this is an example.  This jetty gets a mention all over and you may, well we did, have a certain image of the jetty from what we have read elsewhere.  Now look at the photo below and tell me wether you conjured up that as an image of the Point Samson Historical Jetty....... 
Back at base and as the heat becomes unbearable we take refuge in my now favourite watering hole, just across the road, especially as someone else on holiday likes the small finch's that inhabit the pubs grounds....... Win Win
And now as I write this, i'm sitting outside, with that comfortable feeling of having had a nice afternoon and a couple of beers in the best bar in NW Oz, with the warm Indian ocean breeze cooling us both and keeping the flies at bay, all around us takes on an orangey pinky glow from the setting sun, the lighthouse and sea warning lights start to show, my dinner arrives, it looks amazing, I cannot wait to finish the day in this perfect setting, with a perfect meal and a chilled glass of wine as I think can it get any better...... Then I sit on my iPad..........

    Can you believe she let me do this.......

    Michelle, don't show Jackson this yet........

    The view from my favourite bar..........

    The Historical Old Point Samson Jetty.......

Zippa de do da, Zippa de day, my.......

Oh my what a wonderful day!
Up early, 06.00hrs, to liaise with Turtle people, some professional some, what can I say, they are volunteers who want to feel important but fail miserably because they are at best jobsworths......
So we are there on the beach with said professionals, when a woman starts clambering over the dunes, I say to her, you will get told off if they see you, she replies, I love this woman, I don't care I've just seen movement it's a turtle............ Sod the professionals we are off, get along side woman and YES, two turtles have emerged and scampering over the sand to get to the sea.  The sea however is out once again, this time about half a mile but it's over rocks, rock pools, a reef with octopus by the hundreds and then the general population of seagulls plus the osprey lurking up and above us all..... He in fact was heard earlier by someone to be having a crunchy breakfast........ So we follow said two hatchlings, get told off by said jobsworths, numerous times but stay with them until the sea reaches them, they were so knackered after the two and half hour scramble to the sea that the Tide had turned and it actually came to them....... What a result, we and the Australian couple, well she was from Wales..... that persevered with us to the end were ecstatic, the professionals had gone about their business of recording etc and then to work, oh the joys of being retired.........
Cannot wait to see photos and videos, so straight into the Dome for breakfast, a big boys for me because, it's Monday, it's 10 o'clock, I'm so happy with the last 4hours, oh and I'm bloody hungry........
Fast forward 3hours and we arrive in Point Samson, the only place in Australia where the sun rises and sets over the sea.  Check into new modern camp site, go for a walk along the coast and end up in the pub on the old tired camp site......... I leave, slurring to the barmaid, this is the best bar we have been in since being in Australia..... She laughed and replied, I hope it's not the only one you have been in....... No I meant it, it was raised on the second floor above accommodation, it had a sea view, it was light and open so had a breeze, it had water mister's, it had nice staff and what amazed me was, a group of 6 guys left the bar to smoke, on the bar they all left their, phones, their wallets, their car keys, some even left bank notes, I commented to the barmaid rather disparagingly about a similar Situation in a UK pub and she replied, you could do this in most places n Australia...... You know what, I believe her.......
We are now sat outside the van with a lovely cooling breeze and the Suns rays just about to depart our part of the world, over the sea of course, so I'm thinking, one glass of red wine won't hurt will it.......... Could this be my first hangover in Australia? Comeback, same time, same place tomorrow to find out.........

PS: On Facebook I have put a video of our intrepid hatchlings reaching the sea.  Cannot put video on this blogger site and oh boy do I have lots of video........ Dad, you might get bored of it when we get back but believe me, it's much better than 'One man and his Dog'.........

    This is bloody hard work......

   And I have to avoid thisBar steward.....

   After this Bar steward

   But with this Bar stewards help, I've made it.........

Serene Sunday

Yawn, Do we have time for a cup of tea before we go, I am asked, Always time for tea I reply and yet 15 minutes later we are on our way to Cemetery Beach. Meet up with the professionals who gives us the spiel and then off loads us with the volunteer.......... This lady is very nice, polite, tries to be helpful but answers almost every question I ask with, Now that's a good question......
We tolerate it being as polite as possible until she says, "Here are some Turtle egg shells that the hatchlings have left behind"  We look at each other, look back at her and someone alongside me says, " That's not egg shells, that's cuttle fish" A short time after this our volunteer said she had to leave........ We meet up with another couple and hit it off with them, he has some Aborigine blood in him from 5 generations ago and she is a Yorkshire Lass.  They both run a Community radio station here in Port Hedland, he was fascinating to listen to what with the stories he had covered for the station and giving us an insight into the Aborigine youth of today, some of the elders and their culture. We did learn though, Australians, well a lot of them, do appear to lack the Great British sense of humour, that came about after he was advising us where to go to see 3000 year old rock art and someone next to me replied, "We don't have to now we have seen your shirt" She said it with a smile, I smiled, the wife smiled and he changed the subject........
No Turtle hatchlings seen as apparently It was not warm enough yesterday......... It has to be 40+ so as to warm up the sand, which warms up the eggs, which warms up the turtles inside and encourages them to break free and be warm enough to run to the sea, thereby avoiding the gulls, the Eagles and Hawks, the goannas and the crabs, then once they are in the sea to avoid, the Octopus, the gulls and the Sharks......... Apparently only 1 in a 1000 survive........ 
Breakfast back at camp before off to see the high tide at a particular point where baby green turtles come to eat, they then go off and travel somewhere else to lay their eggs when they are 20yrs.  We see the Babies or rather 10yr old green turtles before we find the 'in' place in Port Hedland, the Dome, a clean modern Bistro type Coffee bar over looking the sea............
Off for walk and someone next to me becomes ecstatic when she finally gets a photo of a bird she has been trying to get all week........
Rest of day spent doing domestic chores as we are off to smaller out of the way locations this week until we get to Exmouth, unless things change that is........ 
Sunset tonight could be much better without the industry of Port Hedland in the shot but then there possibly would not be a P H if it was not for the Industry.
Can feel an early night coming on as cooler and have to get up early and not see any hatchlings again tomorrow.........

    Baby Greet Turtle

    Elusive yellow bird......

    A Lizard that wish' she had not got up this morning and won't be tomorrow morning....

    Time to turn down the air con........