Next stop Karratha! After an action packed week of snorkeling, it was time to let our hair down in Karratha for a week. We didn’t really want to spend a week in Karratha, but we didn’t really have much choice as so many places nearby were booked out because of school holidays.
Karratha is a smallish town of about 17,000 people and it’s on the coast near Dampier, a spot made famous by Red Dog.
Our plan for the week is not to get up to much and just relax and recharge our batteries. Maybe a couple of day trips here and there, but nothing too big planned whilst we’re here.
Monday, JUL 3rd – (DAY 88)
Ahhh, the dreaded long journey. Today we had a 6hr drive on our hands so we decided to set off a bit earlier than normal, departing around 9am.
It was a shame we only got 3 nights in Exmouth as it was awesome here, but it was also starting to get loud and busy, with kids running wild during the school holidays. After packing up, we said goodbye to our neighbours. The guy was a champion and we’d look out for him in his van Flasha on our journeys.
First stop, time to fill up with some fuel, then we’d take turns doing three 1hr stints each, which would get us to Karratha!
Along the way we finally finished the Ready Player Two audio book. It had a real nice twist at the end and we ended up enjoying the book as a whole. Now time to think of a new book for our next trip.
About halfway we stopped at Nanutarra Roadhouse. This was pretty much the only sign of civilisation for the entire journey, so there was a fair lineup for fuel and also at the food area.
It cost $2.35 per litre to fill up which was crazy. But I guess they can charge what they want and people would still pay it.
We finally arrived to Karratha around 4pm and realised pretty quickly this wasn’t the greatest caravan park we’d stayed at. It was okay, but just felt a little unclean. Our spot wasn’t too bad though, right next to the toilets and amenities, plus a nice grass patch behind us.
After packing up, we went for a walk to the IGA about 15 minutes away. This IGA was unreal, in fact it was better than the supermarkets we have back home.
We cooked some tea, then went to find the camp kitchen to do dishes. This tiny little kitchen could barely fit two people and was the worst we’d seen on our journey so far. We’ve got 7 nights of this, damn!
Tuesday, JUL 4th – (DAY 89)
The plan for this week was to do some relaxing and learn some new skills. We’d signed up to a Canva course on Udemy and planned to finish it by Sunday evening. Hopefully we’d pick up some new skills and start some new kind of money making project from it. That’s the plan anyway.
We spent the rest of the morning doing some much needed washing, some reading, as well as playing each other at the new game we’d learned – Ticket To Ride. This game was a cracker.
After lunch we decided to go for a little drive and check out the area. First stop was a drive through Karratha for a little peak at the town centre. We didn’t get out or anything, it was just a quick look and we’d come back later in the week.
Next was a drive out to the beautiful Hearson’s Cove which was a lovely little beach cove in the middle of iron ore rocks. It was an unusual place, but pretty awesome. This is a spot we’ll be coming back to later in the week.
Finally we made a stop in Dampier for a look around. We saw the Red Dog monument. This is where that dog knocked about and where the movie was filmed about a decade ago.
Dampier was quite nice, lots of lovely palm trees along the foreshore near the beach. Plus it also had one of the nicest footy ovals we’d seen along the beach. We also learnt that Dampier is one of the sunniest places in Australia, with the most sunny days of the year.
When we drove back to the park, we setup our little awning so as to block the sun beaming in and turning our caravan into a sauna. We asked for a shady spot, but they didn’t seem to heed that request.
Around 5ish we went for another walk to IGA to grab stuff for tea and then cooked up an Indian feast. Then we spent the night chilling catching up on some work, playing some games and watching Righteous Gemstones.
Wednesday, JUL 5th – (DAY 90)
Today was the lazy day that we both needed. We pretty much spent the entire day at the park, with the exception of a quick walk to IGA to get ingredients for lunch and tea.
Like yesterday, the classroom bell rang at 11am and we continued our Canva graphic design course. So far, so good. It’s a great course and we’re learning quite a bit.
For lunch we made ourselves a potato salad which was awesome! And we continued playing games with our friends back home, with Ticket To Ride, Catan, Azul and a new game called Carcassonne which could become part of the rotation.
All in all, a very lazy day, but a good one! Productive at times too.
Thursday, JUL 6TH – (DAY 91)
In a dusty little town like this, there’s not a lot to do, so we continued chilling out and relaxing like we had been the last few days.
The class bell rang again, but we were a little late to class today. It was day 3 of our online course and it’s awesome so far. We have learnt a lot of new things that we didn’t know existed. I think a new project has a lot of potential.
After lunch we decided to go for a little afternoon drive to Wickham and Cossack. It was a 45 minute drive to get out there, so it would be a nice day out.
Wickham was a bit of a fizz, it’s basically a mining town with barely anything happening. A dusty old town of about 2,200 people, which I am guessing is basically mining people and their families.
We saw a couple of digger trucks and a train there, so Linnie enjoyed herself on the heavy machinery. Damn, these things are massive! It brought back memories of Kalgoorlie earlier in the trip.
Next stop was Cossack which is an old historical town from the 1880s. There was an old prison and a tiny little Sovereign Hill looking town, but there wasn’t much happening here either.
On the way back we checked out Settlers Beach, then saw Red Dogs grave on way. We got back home around 4ish and spent the rest of the night playing games, catching up on some work and eating tea.
Friday, JUL 7TH – (DAY 91)
Another day, another day in Karratha, again much like the other day so far. We spent the morning doing our usual thing, then the bell rang for our Canva class at 11am. The course is coming along well.
Unfortunately we were both under the weather a bit with a cold, one that’s been lingering since Monkey Mia. We did another Covid test but as usual it showed up negative.
About 1pm we drove into Karratha with our laptops to do a business meeting and after a little walking around, we opted to go with Subway. Then after that we found an awesome sportsbar called Stadium 26 where we spent an hour or so.
Then we headed back to the park for a while and did our usual walk to IGA to get food for tea. Given we were under the weather a bit, we just got ourselves a little salad bowl for tea.
And what has now become a regular thing, we played online boardgames with Jamie and Rach again. This is becoming really fun!
Saturday, JUL 8TH – (DAY 92)
Today started with an Adam piano lesson. Yep, it was the weekend again, the days are going really quick so far. After the lesson we continued our Canva class which was ticking over nicely.
The rest of today we basically did nothing. We were still feeling pretty average from this cold we have so we just planned to have a rest day.
We sat around and listened to some footy on the radio, and more or less juts played games or worked on projects for the remainder of the arvo and night.
Later in the arvo we went for a walk to get some stuff for tea. We weren’t that hungry so just got those little premade salad plates which did the job nicely.
Today was also super windy, so we had that to deal with as well. Our little awning was flapping around in the wind like mad and we pondered whether we should take it down or not, but we needed the shade. The sun is relentless during the day here.
Sunday, JUL 9TH – (DAY 93)
Today was basically a carbon copy of yesterday. Adam had another piano lesson, this time continuing on the theme from last week with The Simpson’s song. It’s coming along nicely.
Unfortunately this cold we have is getting worse and has knocked us around a fair bit, so we don’t have a lot of energy to go exploring. But really, there’s not a lot happening in Karratha anyway and having 7 days here has been a good break.
We put some washing on the line before lunch, then we went for a walk to the Grand Central Tavern. No, that’s not a train station, it’s a kick ass sports bar that is next to the IGA we go to every day.
For some reason, Karratha have amazing sports bars for such a small little place. It puts Ballarat to shame. This is where we kicked back for a few hours as we watched Carlton smash Fremantle and watched some of the other sports, whilst enjoying some beers in the sunshine, plus some live music.
After that we walked back home and died back at the caravan, still feeling really ordinary. We didn’t even eat tea, rather deciding to have the apple crumble that we’d been planning to eat on the final night in Karratha.
Damn, we’re really going to miss this IGA. It’s the best supermarket we’ve come across anywhere in Australia so far. And in dusty little Karratha, of all places?