Step 71 Onslow – Dampier 318 km's

Sunday 5^th June TED

Overcast again this morning but while we slept someone has been out fishing. Well crabbing to be precise. A flurry of activity at the cleaning table as they sort out their catch of the day.

The guy setting up next to us this morning has been living in Karratha for a few years, in his van. Apparently the big money they earn on the mines is somewhat whittled away by the cost of living up there. He has been paying $400 per week for a powered site at the caravan park and that's the long term rate, with a $1600 bond. Property prices and house rentals are astronomical. Mean house price in Karratha is apparently more than in Sydney. 

The lady in the office at our park suggests we head for the Dampier transit caravan park if we are only staying for a night or two, the Big 4 at Karratha charges at least $55 per night.

So it's on the road again, after a quick stop at the public toilet dump facility. For those of you interested, Western Australia seems better set-up for motor homes and has many more toilet dump sites than other states. Come on, secretly, you were interested weren't you?

Slight drizzle as we set off and then it turns into rain as we head down the main road. But at least that seems to have got rid of the locusts for a while.

The road is certainly outback up here and red. Even the road kill has changed, today we saw a dead cow beside the road. Reminds me of the Top Gear episode where they were on a trip and only allowed to eat road kill. Jeremy drove in to camp with a cow strapped to the roof of his Mustang. Di didn't seem keen to re-enact this, so we just kept driving.

After morning tea stop (iced coffee and muffin) Di took over driving for a while, which was unfortunate because we saw another dead cow and she wouldn't stop.

It's much greener now (although still red underneath) 

and even some of the wild flowers are blooming red, yellow and purple.

For the non-botanists amongst you this is a Sturt Desert Pea

As we get closer to Karratha there is a lot of activity. Lots of mine vehicles, new gas plants being built, road works and plenty of evidence of the mining boom up this way.

Following our advice from Onslow (well the lady at the town of Onslow, not Onslow Hyacinth's brother-in-law) we checked in at the Dampier Transit Caravan Park. Now technically it's prime waterfront accommodation but given it's a major mining shipping port it's not as attractive as it might be. Mind you at $24 per night it's better value than the Big 4 charging $55.

Dirty cockie
Even they can't resist the money of working in the mines

As you will have noticed from the heading, it's Sunday. So Dampier is shut. Apart from the pub which appears to have every mine vehicle that's not actually working parked in the car park. Tempting as it seems we did not venture in to the bar. Although the sign advertising “skimpy barmaids this week” nearly tipped us over.

Proof readers note: well it nearly tipped Steve over

I'm not saying that this place is a little old fashioned
but even the photo came out in black and white

Sam's Island

 Had a quick walk and read up on a few local brochures and settled in for the night.

Apart from the history of the town the local brochures featured two main stories:

1: Sam's Island. A tiny island in the shipping channel that a local Hungarian guy settled on and built his own little castle.

Editors note: I realise that strictly speaking you can not be a “local” Hungarian in Dampier Mr./Ms smarty pants. This guy was born in Hungary and settled in this area in his 20's. In his 40's he took up squatting rights on the island and Rio Tinto eventually signed a “gentleman's lease” with him, allowing him to stay on the island. He became quite a local celebrity and ended up passing away on the island where he is now buried. By the way his name was Sam. That's how they cleverly came up with the name Sam's Island.

 2: The other story which crops up in all the brochures, appears on the Information Board on the way in to town and even includes a statue: concerns Red Dog. Now I would enlighten you on the details of the story but none of the aforementioned sources actually provided any information. So apparently the famous Red Dog, was …...

a red dog that lived in the area.

We may all be more enlightened later in the year because apparently someone has made a film about Red Dog. We all wait with bated breath.

 A nice finish to the day with the rest of the spangly for dinner, with greek salad this time. We also managed to have a chat to Jean Leary on the phone and get Steve's weekly update on dancing with the stars. Devastated to hear that Luda has gone ( a personal favourite). Not quite sure who Dan the celebrity was but Luda, 5 times world salsa champion, darn... :-(

This is William Dampier.
He found Australia quite some time before Captain Cook
But he was deemed too unattractive to be credited with
discovering a country.
Eventually they named the town after him though.