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Published: August 17th 2012
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Days On The Road = 44
Tuesday 7th August 2012 Heading to Point Samson today where we will setup camp and base ourselves for a couple of weeks. We arrive not too late and set our annexe up ready for our two weeks in the surrounding area. As we setup Charles and I enjoy a couple of cold ones which go down a treat.
Point Samson (Fact File) Located in the West Pilbara Region this delightful little fishing town is just idyllic for our two week stay. Not far from the mining towns of Wickham, Karratha and Dampier.
Point Samson was named after Michael Samson in 1863 and was established as a deep water port which serviced local and surrounding areas. Although it was a small port it actually was the third largest annual port tonnage in Western Australia! The original jetty was 1900ft long was taken out by the cyclone in 1925 and for historical purposes, in 1991 a section was rebuilt on the shore.
Today, the town is still used by large fishing fleets who supply some of the best fresh fish in the area. There are numerous beaches in town but the best in my opinion would be
Point Samson
Another hard day in the office. "Honeymoon Cove", however, you do have to make sure you visit this beach when the tide is in otherwise it's too rocky to swim. There are also a number of fishing spots which we will try our hand at whilst here.
Wednesday 8th August 2012 Not much to report today except my eldest hurt herself at the park which eventuated with a massive bump on the shin and a visit to Karratha Hospital (115km round trip).
After quite a few hours waiting in emergency we emerge with the result that they don't think her leg was broken just really bruised. She's a very lucky girl. Not the way I really wanted to visit Karratha, but oh well.
Thursday 9th August 2012 My birthday! After a great awakening by my husband and the two girls we sit down outside in our alfresco dining area (The Annexe!) to enjoy my pressies, breakfast, birthday cake and a great rendition of "Happy Birthday to You", what more could a girl ask for!
We're off today to Dampier to visit the memorial of "Red Dog" the wandering dog of the Pilbara. I'd watched the movie and absolutely loved it
and couldn't wait to see the statue erected in his memory. I wasn't disappointed and the kids just loved it. The statue was located at the information bay just as you hit the town and everyone flocks here to have their photo taken with Red.
We then drive around Dampier which also offers some lovely beaches, fishing spots and opportunities to go on mining tours of the local industries. We went to the North West Shelf Venture Visitors Centre where we learnt about the largest natural resource (oil & gas) development project. Dampier is also well known for its salt operations.
Next we headed back to Karratha, but there's not much to see except a shopping centre. We went into the shopping centre but we actually felt abit out of sorts as we hadn't been to the shops for quite a while and we actually didn't want to be there. What could we buy, it's not like we had the space in the caravan! The town is home to most of the workers that work in the area where they pay a fortune to rent properties $2000/week plus. AMAZING.
That night Charles and the girls took me
out across the road to the local tavern in Point Samson where we enjoyed a lovely meal and a bottle of red.
A massive thanks to my husband and beautiful girls for a fantastic day and one I will remember for a very very long time. X
Monday 13th August 2012 Today we took a day off schooling and took off on our next day trip to an old ghost town "Cossack" which is only 15km away. This town has so much history and ruins and dates back to the 1800's. Cossack was the original port during the period of 1872 before the port was transferred to Point Samson.
We got a map from the visitor centre where you could do a self-walk/drive tour of the local streets to view where the buildings used to be and what the ruins of the remaining buildings used to be used for. The girls especially learnt alot from looking at the old artefacts in the museum and enjoyed locking mummy and daddy into jail! We also drove to the cemetery where we read some of the stones to find that there was alot of young people that had die
Roebourne - Old Villa
Built in the 1800's and residence to Magistrate Augustus C Roe there. We also saw the grave of the little girl, Laura Pierl, who tragically died at the age of 10 after she stood on a rusty nail in the school playground and died of tetanus.
Cossack - so much history
We also visited Roebourne Visitor Centre and learnt and saw more about the history in the surrounding areas. There are also a view ruins in Roebourne that you could go and view.
Please enjoy the photos that I have taken over the last few days of the area and local flora.
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Julie
non-member comment
Beautiful photos
Am loving the commentary too! So lovely to be sharing this with you. The girls are looking simply gorgeous and as if they are just having the most wonderful experience. xxx