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Published: September 8th 2009
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The Cove Caravan Park in Point Samson is fairly new and the facilities were a sharp contrast to those at Black Rock Caravan Park in South Hedland. The sites were also very well laid out with a concrete pad for the annexe and plenty of room to park your vehicle in the bay. We were only one site in from the coast and so had views over water. However, another camper warned us straight away about the bad sandflies so we were careful to spray on the insect repellent. Even so Judy was eaten, perhaps it is insect attractor instead.
The first afternoon we drove around Point Samson and Judy worked out a circuit for her jog the next morning.
We booked in for 3 nights so we had time to stop and relax but somehow this didn’t seem to happen. The first day, as we had battery problems we went to Karratha and bought a new battery but of course it’s not always that simple. It was only at the third place we tried that we were able to purchase the correct size battery for our Jeep. On the way we tried to book the Port to Port
Tour that we had heard was excellent from the Roebourne Visitor’s Centre but Friday’s bus was already full so no luck there.
After stopping for lunch in a lovely spot just north of Karratha with views over mangroves we headed toward Dampier. Rags hadn’t been to the new gas plant on the Burrup Peninsula and neither had Judy. Rags hardly recognised the Burrup as when he was there he had to bump his way along rocky creek bed as this was the only way up the peninsula. On the lovely bitumen road it took us no time to reach the Woodside Visitors’ Centre which overlooks the North-West Shelf Natural Gas Venture. This was a very informative place that had some great models of gas platforms and a short video.
From here we did the nostalgia tour around Dampier and where Rags used to live which is now fairly dilapidated compared with the time he lived there over 25 years ago. This town once won “the Tidy Town” Award for the North West but it certainly wouldn’t now.
Moby’s is renowned in the Pilbara for its fish and chips so we set off that evening to judge it
for ourselves - it didn’t let us down. Having the Skipper’s Platter for 2 was a bit of an indulgence we didn’t need but we did order it grilled so felt absolved from guilt. We struck up conversation with another couple and the food slipped down very easily but we did relish the scallops, prawns, squid, fish and of course the chips!
Rags was keen to try to catch us a fish dinner so the next morning he set off to John’s Creek Jetty while Judy did a few chores at home including trying to catch up with the blog which we have let slip a little since we’ve been so busy relaxing.
Rags was soon home with his catch of a bream and good sized flathead which he then had all the fun of filleting.
After lunch we drove to Cossack, a nearby historical town. Here there is a 6 kilometre trail that explores the pioneering days of the North West’s first port. It was too hot to walk this so you guessed it we drove around the sites some of which you will see in the photos below.
We may have stayed on at Port
Samson if not for the sandflies but Judy had bright red welts appearing all over her arms and legs so we decided we’d had enough and would head inland to Millstream - Chichester National Park.
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Kerry and Steve
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Gotta love those sandflies! Love Kerry.