DAYS 33-34 - KARRATHA – DAMPIER - CLEAVERVILLE

1-2 April 2008

DAYS 33-34 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip


KARRATHA – DAMPIER - CLEAVERVILLE

Tuesday 1 April

I woke up to find hubby already working on the car electrics. He decided to change the regulator to see if that was the cause of the problem. A very muggy day again.

After some shopping we went on to explore the area. Woodside Visitors Centre and lookout are a must. Whilst one is aware of the impact of the North West Shelf Project, the visitor’s centre sure brought home the immensity of the project. An interesting interactive diorama explained the gas petroleum system well. The processing plant is big and its lighted beacons are visible for miles around.

We explored beautiful Dampier and the Burrup Peninsula. The salt mines were clearly visible in the distance


Quite a number of ships are in the archipelago waiting to be loaded either at the Woodside plant, or at the iron ore loading ports.

The tidal flats between Dampier and Karratha provided another bit of contrast to the scenery.

The rocky outcrops continued to intrigue us.

The rocks are over 600 million years old. The way they appear really do suggest human interference. They are however, weathered and cracked and form a very distinctive and unique landscape.

At Deep Gorge there are numerous aboriginal engravings on these rocks. We went to have a look at them as I had read about them in Josephine Flood’s book “The riches of ancient Australia”. As the day was overcast, the light was not good, so the engravings that we did see looked very faded. I think you also had to know where to look as they are supposed to be prolific in the number yet we found only a few of them.


We made our way to Cleaverville - a beautiful bush camping spot. The road in is supposed to be able to be used by 2WD but it was a bit rough with the wash aways from last weekend. When we got here we found two other camp sites set up. A woman who is 75 and travelling on her own in a motorhome told us she will be staying here for about 3 weeks until the road is graded as she cannot get out in her vehicle. In the other campsite a couple had set up home as they cannot get accommodation in Karratha. He is a tiler and goes there everyday unless he can’t get out because of the road condition. The starting rate here for a tiler is $70 per hour. If you prove yourself to be good at the job you can get up to $100 per hour. Shortage of tradespeople it’s called.

Lots of cloud build up again. Wonder what weather is in store. Heard there was another very big cyclone out at sea that will impact on the region. Looks like the dry season may be a little late this year.


The humidity is really wearing us down. It is worse than the dry extreme heat we experienced earlier in the trip.



Wednesday 2 April

At night we could hear the rumble of ships being loaded at Lambert and Dampier.

Stayed put today.

Walked along the beach, collected shells, relaxed and discussed some trip options. A pity we cannot go for a swim but the water seems polluted – some slicky stuff floating on top of the water. Looks like it could be from the ships.

It is nice to just have a quiet day. At night we watched the hermit crabs at play and were plagued by grasshoppers.