Good Morning Karratha!
Low 13°c (55°F) – High 26°c
(79°F)
A pretty ordinary night’s sleep had by all with Miss Kitty needing to
go out in the wee hours of the morning and then me being completely awake
afterward for most of the rest of the night.
And then of course morning came and none of us wanted to get up, least
of all me having to drive 300 kms to our next destination – Onslow.
It was well after 9.00am when we pulled out of the caravan park after
visiting the dump point with thankfully no repeat performance of the last
unfortunate incident although apparently the massive amount of flies that
congregated around the facility were overwhelming.
As we headed out of town we noticed another caravanner pulling over to
the side of the road in a strange place right next to a roundabout when we
realized that his caravan had actually come off the towbar of the car and was
hanging by the chains. A good reminder
to double check everything before you leave.
The road to Onslow, more particularly the North West Coastal Highway,
has a number of mine sites, local airports and mining accommodation scattered here
and there from Karratha pretty much in the middle of nowhere with nothing else
around them. Not so many road trains on
this stretch of the journey but we did have that blessed wind pretty much all
the way yet again making the going slow.
We did however strike about 6 trucks with wide loads carrying donga’s of
some description forcing most of the traffic off the road in their wake.
Lots of caravans coming up from the south but not a lot of vans passing
us which given the speed we were doing was a little bit surprising. I’m in no hurry to get anywhere towing a van
on a windy day but it amazes me how many fly by making my 85km/hr look like a
crawl. Watching their van wag like a
tail on a dog as they try to regain control of it, just makes me shudder. I’m just not in so much of a hurry to risk an
accident.
This part of the Pilbara region puts on a bit of a show with more of
those rich red hills and a contrasting green grass, although still not winning
the pretty stakes against the East Kimberleys for our vote. Well not yet anyway. I think this has been the deepest dark red
soil we’ve seen so far with its enormous red termite mounds and pretty
wildflowers growing on the roadside.
We arrived in Onslow around 1.30pm having secured a booking at one of
the caravan parks earlier in the day.
This park is on the outskirts of the town which we originally thought to
be quite small given the population is about 875 people. The sites are huge although gravel, but they
are flat and thankfully no large gutters to mount this time. We got ourselves set up and as Kitty had
settled in for a sleep we decided to let her be and take a drive a little
later. It’s tough for her just sitting
in the back seat and while we try to give her breaks regularly, and she is a
good traveler, we are well aware it’s not on her list of favourite things to
do.
It was some good relaxing and reading time although I think I probably
could have had a snooze without too much effort today. We bundled her into the car just on sunset
and did a quick drive around the town, took some sunset photos and got our
bearings to have a better look around the area tomorrow. Surprised would be an understatement as the
size of the town is much larger than we anticipated with a unique main street,
a quaint little memorial park and a huge skate park. But the mosquitoes! OH MY!!!!!
We headed back to camp for dinner with a few plans for our drive
tomorrow as we have 2 nights here in Onslow.
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