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Published: September 27th 2008
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Before arriving, we never knew much about Karratha. It was just another place ‘up north’, and the only thing that drew us to linger there for longer than a portion of a day, was an opportunity to develop our Cinema Advertising business. It took very little time for other opportunities to arise alongside, and within a week of staying in Karratha, we had both found work to support us whilst setting up advertising at Karratha Cinemas.
Adrian took up a bit of labour work: balancing atop steel trusses with angle grinders and lightening the load for Karratha builders. Despite Karratha’s land limitations (a lot of vacant land is restricted for one reason or another), there were buildings and extensions popping up all over the place. Every employer in Karratha was crying out for employees, and since most workers in the Pilbara, are involved with Rio Tinto, Pilbara Iron, Northwest Gas Shelf, Woodside, etc, wages for common jobs were high. Josie worked in a deli at Coles (supermarket) for most of our stay in Karratha.
The most exciting thing to share about Karratha, is that we didn’t pay for a single night’s accommodation: in a town where standard rent exceeded
$2000 per week, and a ‘standard’ hotel room cost $400 per night, we managed to dodge accommodation fees. Free (hot) showers and toilet facilities were situated at the beach, and water was available for free at Tourist Info Centres. We paid a minimal fee to wash our clothes every now and then at a Caravan site, and enjoyed staying out of town by a freshwater pool, and at the back of a Roadhouse with $4 showers and oodles of spare land. We still turned up to work looking dapper, with happy tummies and at ease with our environment and its people.
We have successfully learnt how to use software on our new Apple laptop, to produce adverts that each client has been pleased with, and look forward to using these tools for producing a DVD of our trip, and lots of other things.
Karratha Landscape Karratha is part of the ‘Shire of Roebourne’. The surrounding area had a lot to offer. The Burrup Peninsula is home to the Northwest Gas Shelf Venture, and in contrast, over a million aboriginal rock carvings, dating back 10,000 years ago. Hearson’s Cove is one of the few places where
you can see a ‘stairway to the moon’: Adrian also saw a huge python there, of about 20cm diameter we reckon (caught it on film); we both caught sight of a red kangaroo on the beach, jumping between sandy red rocks, and there were a couple of dead turtles. It was interesting to look at the real texture and colour of ‘tortoiseshell’.
Further up the road, Dampier facilitated as very well. We certainly had some adventures at Dampier Beach: swimming lots, even once at night, lots of barbecues (using free barbecue facilities on the beach) and a couple of beautiful sunsets. From this beach, you could see everything: three or four of the many boats that took 9000tonnes of iron ore from Dampier to Japan/China every day, a huge pile of salt from Dampier salt lakes, and if you were in the same place at the same time as us, a croc! At least, that’s what we’ve decided the mysterious creature was: perhaps Nessie was lost.
Another favourite place was Cleaverville. It had a really jagged coastline, with grassy sand dunes and a myriad of different rocks. I had a great evening playing violin whilst the sun set,
and liked to think of the sound vibrations travelling the ocean.
So many times to share! We certainly have enjoyed swimming: despite having no rainfall at all here, which certainly shows in the dry spinifex and red dirt, we have always found a place to quench our thirst, to wash and to swim. Python Pool near Millstream was one to remember. A beautiful pool in the middle of nowhere was surprisingly busy when we found it, and we prided ourselves on being the only people to swim in it.
Millstream is a National Park about 200km from Karratha. We tried to find it after work in the dark. Unsurprisingly, we failed that evening, but woke up to one of the most spectacular views I’ve seen. It was one of the best camp spots we have found to date, and far exceeded the reserved spots at Millstream (where of course, we had to pay). That said, Millstream was amazing. In the middle of all this dry land and red dirt, was an oasis. Palm trees, paper bark trees, lilies and the clearest, warmest water. It was like paradise to walk among those trees and dip our hands in the
water whilst eating bits of juicy melon.
We were able to visit all of these places and more, at the same time as doing all this work - so Karratha certainly hasn’t done us bad. In an isolated town fed by only two supermarkets, we’ve eaten very well. We’ve really enjoyed shopping at the Sally Army charity shop, where we’ve both made over our wardrobe and picked up some good cooking utensils for absolute bargain prices.
The week’s drawing to a close and we expect to be gone by Saturday: back on the road to Broome. I wander what more adventures await us…
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