Karratha and Surrounds 20th October

 We left Broome heading Southish. We did an over night stop at Pardoo station again had a great swim in the pool. 

Headed off for a place called Cleverville which in the off season is a free camp on the beach just North of Karratha. There was not many people there and we pulled up with a beach front camp. A bit of exploring the rock pools as it was low tide and a fantastic sunset from the mouth of the river there. Almost full moon again. 

The next day we stopped at Dampier a small port town that services the mining industry. It is the home of the famous 'Pilbara wanderer' also known as 'Red Dog' ( there have been movies and books written about this guy). He was a red kelpie that lived in the Pilbrara. He did have a couple of owners however his true owner was killed tragically in a car accident and this dog never really got over it and never settled down. He wandered the Pilbara with people looking out for him until he ate a bait and passed away in 1979. 

We also saw the massive trains that take the iron ore to the port they are huge. (surely we don't need to mine so much)! 

There is a dark history in Dampier. The town bore witness to an event called the flying foam massacre. History tells of a policeman that was killed by the local Aboriginal people and the settlers retaliated 

(with government approval) by murdering 60 members of the aboriginal tribe. Women and children were not spared.  I believe it was the entire population that lived in Dampier. There is small memorial out of town.

There is evidence of a strong aboriginal culture which can be seen in the art work just out of town in the Murrujuga National Park. 

Petroglyphs are rock engravings made by the Aboriginal people and are dated back to around 50,000 years ago. (wow)

Head out to Deep Gorge Nganjarlin. Here there is a great raised platform and some excellent signage in place. No kidding there are hundreds of art works and the more you look the more you see, well worth a visit and its free!

A wall of art

Emu

looking for art.

Feature Creature 

This is a Thylacine. (Tassie Tiger)

Maya the lifesaver

                      Congratulations to Maya Lewis 

           For saving the lives of two very lucky children in the pool at Cable beach Caravan Park. 

Maya rescued both children from drowning in the deep end of the pool.

One child 4 years of age and another 2 years of age. The children had decided to jump in the deep end of the pool with no parent supervision.

 Maya to the rescue! 

She got both kids out of the water after witnessing them struggling and going under. Maya said the four year old was trying rescue the 2 year old and they both were under when she got there.

                                                   Congratulations Maya you saved 2 lives.

Footnote to this story is that there were no parents present in the pool area and the 4 year called her Mum on her watch phone after the incident and told her "we drowned". 

I don't think the Mum has any idea how lucky her kids are that someone was watching them.

WATCH YOUR KIDS IN THE POOL PEOPLE THEY ARE PRECIOUS.

Broome "Just one more night"

 There is now a running joke with my family about the Cable Beach caravan park. You book in for a night and inevitably you end up at the office in the morning  asking for just one more.  My sister did this 10 years ago and ended up with a grand total of 14 nights after originally booking for 2! We started with 3 nights and have had 7. 😁

The weather is hot so we are in take it easy mode. Lots of swimming in the pool.

We took a day doing some sights around Broome. First stop art supplies shop. I told Bruce the artist from Cygnet Bay (see earlier post) about Posca pens. (For those who don't know what posca pens are, they are fantastic coloured pens that when applied to paper give you a smooth seamless colour a bit like paint). He hadn't heard of them so I thought I would send some up to him and rock his world! So the next stop was the Cygnet bay pearl shop in town. A gorgeous shop with lovely beautiful pearls and interesting history display and even some live oysters in the shop busy working making their masterpieces. People from the shop often go up to Cygnet bay itself so I handed the package to them so it will be on its way to Bruce by now. 

                                    Nash and Maya decided to see what life would be like as a pearl diver.

Next stop was lunch. We had been told the best fish and chips in town were at the Broome fishing club. This place is located just past the port of Broome and the colour of the ocean from the lawn is picture perfect. 

Unfortunately for me I suffered a thong blow out upon entry and not even a bread tie could fix this. I asked the girls behind the bar  if they still served people with only one shoe. They had a look at  my one naked foot and then produced a new pair of thongs my size from under the bar. Happy days! Lunch and free thongs!!!

Me and my new thongs thanks Broome fishing club.

There had been some very strong westerly winds last week and the Red Bell jellies had arrived in their thousands no swimming today!

Not deadly but they do pack a punch. 

After lunch we went in search of dinosaur prints along the coast.  This area of coast is famous for prints and beautiful red cliffs against the sand and blue water. Gorgeous of course. . We saw some shapes in the rock but couldn't be sure if they were our prehistoric friends.

Round to Gantheaume Point. You can take your car on the beach here and watch the sunset it was a bit busy and very humid.  The windows the car fogged up

Chimney of old lighthouse

Feature creatures

Broome Brumbies

Ollie the Osprey and whos that in that the nest?????

Charlie chick

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Broome means Camels

 No trip to Broome is complete without a camel ride on Cable beach.

We booked the kids in for a sunset cruise on the yellow Camels. There are 3 groups that operate Camels in Broome, Red, Yellow and Blue.

The guy who works for the Yellow Camels is the original guy who started Camels in Broome. He sold his business a few years ago but was back working at the request of the new owners.

There were a few safety instructions about how to get on and what not to do on a Camel. Then they were off into the sunset down Cable beach.

Camel Selfie check out the camel photo bombing 

Adam and I opted out of this one as we rode Camels for three or four days in the desert in India and my bottom has never been the same.

Maya and Nash's Camel was Raj and he was 17 years old. All the camels were introduced and the staff walked along side and took photos for you of your journey down the beach. The trip was for approx an hour. The kids returned with big smiles check it out .

Feature Creature 

Raj of course

"Say cheese"