Pilbarra

16.09.2012 With lots of other caravans but no one too close to us at Forty Mile Beach which is #501 in Camp 6.  Like Cleaverville it’s $7.00 a night and we’ve booked in for three nights.  Only a couple of hundred metres from the beach where the tide comes and goes.  Tim is behaving himself and we’re no longer tying him up to the caravan wheel.  He seems to realise he’s on his holidays and is making the most of being away from The Littlies.

Poor Steve looks as if he has Chicken Pox.  I’ve had to dab Calamine Lotion on him because he’s covered in bites.  I think he must get bitten when he takes Tim for a walk, because I don’t wander more than 10 metres from the caravan I haven’t been bitten.

15.09.2012     Off to Karratha this morning where we pulled onto the verge outside a hardware store and Steve squeezed underneath the van to determine what damage had been caused.  He had to loosen the fittings and a large amount of water drained out but the good news is that he just had to fiddle around a bit and managed to fix the pipe at no cost.

We went round to the visitor centre and filled up with water from a machine, which took coins.  Steve paid $1.00 for 50 litres.  We then had the best breakfast since we’ve been away – Macca’s.  Even Timmy had a sausage McMuffin.

We went to Dampier and took a couple of photos of Red Dog.  Dampier looks really nice,  with boats bobbing about in the harbour.

14.9.2012    Last night and tonight we’re above the beach between Roebourne and Karratha at #506, Cleaverville Beach).  We have neighbours but we can’t see them.  We were going to stay and watch Saturday’s match but we damaged a water pipe when we were coming into the site and Steve wants to get it fixed so that we can replenish the tanks.  We haven’t had a shower since Wednesday, it’s a sink of water and a washcloth I’m afraid.

 Called in Wickham to get some fuel and take a couple of photos of big machinery

12.9.2012    Tonight we stayed at Indee Station, which is #588 in the Camp 6 book.  It advertised water, showers and toilets and was $20.00 for the night.  Unfortunately it didn’t advertise the miners who lived there in dongers, old caravans, sheds etc., but the ones we spoke to were nice guys.

It didn’t have any water we could use to top up the tanks but a few hundred metres away there was a tip where old cars, tyres, fridges etc., had been dumped.

We got talking to a young guy who had been on the road for about 6 months with his wife and two small kids.  They reminded us of Charlie and Sienna, both walking around barefoot in the red dust although our two would have been completely naked.  He’s working at the mine and they’re living in a small pop-top which he’s towed everywhere.

11.9.2012     We are now between Newman and Port Hedland, taking advantage of a free camp near an escarpment and a gorge. (#580 advertising phone reception but we couldn’t find any).  Steve took Timmy for a walk yesterday, they were almost rock climbing and poor Timmy was shattered when they came back.

There were two other caravans here when we arrived and three more joined us.  The existing two were from Wilson and Willetton, one of the others was from the Northern Territory and the last one was a motor home being driven by a couple of oldies who didn’t speak to anyone.

Because of the way we were parked the signage couldn’t be seen so when one of the couples were leaving this morning I sent them to the back of the caravan and they laughed.  Their granddaughter, who lives in Busselton, also has Cystic Fibrosis.