Point Samson - Day 31

Fletcher : Today was a great day, we saw the Red Dog statue and to the town that Red Dog was filmed.  I collected an old plate off a dump truck that worked at a mine, dad said I found a piece of history.   I find everything these days, I even found money under where we saw a big diesel engine.  My dads friend came over.  We saw the pub that red dog was at.

Mackenzie :  Today we got up and me and Fletcher went to the TV room and watched ABC3.  After that we went to where Red dogs statue is and went to the pub where the film was made, it was cool.  Then my dad's friend came over, he works at my dad's work.

We headed to Dampier today where they have the statue of Red Dog.  Before we left this seemed to be the only thing the kids were interested in seeing so there was a bit of pressure to make sure we got to it.  The statue they have erected is at the information Bay and its a gorgeous statue, we all had a photo with him.  Dampier is a beautiful town, the grass is green & the ocean is turquoise blue.  Everywhere we have been in the west it seems there are 3 constants - the red dirt, the green grass & beautiful blue sea.  Its such a contrast, a professional photographers heaven I'd say.  I also never really understood the saying "that the desert meets the sea", but it is amazing to see the desert landscape going right up to the ocean in places.  We went to the pub where Red Dog was filmed, it had a massive beer garden that has nightly & weekend specials like $20 all you can eat BBQ on a sunday, free sausage sizzle with every drink on another night.  Apparently you cant move in the place on a weekend.  We moved onto Karratha which is the shopping & business hub of the Pilbara.  We shopped at coles which all the prices were comparative to what we pay, but a trip to Mcdonalds saw our normal meal of around $25 cost $39, how crazy the prices are here because of the mining.  We were pretty cross that we had wasted so much money, I had wanted the kids to try something from a local but they were set on Maccas as their treat so what can you do?  Funny to see the stickers on the shopping centre windows, you know like a skateboard with a cross through it, smoking with a cross through it etc, well I knew I was in for a treat when the first picture I saw was bare feet with a cross through it, who shops in bare feet?  Well the lady I saw being asked to leave does, I say lady but the words she was saying weren't very ladylike.  It was a good little shopping centre with kmart & target and a heap of specialty stores, we had heaps to do so we didn't get to have alook.  The post office was our next stop and it was a funny set up, you went into the post office to get your envelopes and parcel packs, and the counters to write on them were actually back outside, then you go back in and just leave your parcel on a set of scales at any counter and they grab them for you.  It was a bit strange but pretty efficient and lovely postal workers there.  We also went to the Gas plant - north west shelf, wow it was amazing.  Built in the early 80's it is awesome to see,  Dan has always had a bit of a fascination with it so he was really pleased to be there in the flesh.  We could see the gas flare fire burning for absolute miles when we were heading into Point Samson last night, so it was amazing to be up close and see just how massive the fire was.  It is one of the worlds largest producers of gas, it alone accounts for 40% of Australia's total oil & gas production and is a $27 billion production system including their off shore facilities.  I am blown away by what our country has to offer and what we have seen so far - gold, gas, oil, iron ore & salt.  We headed back to the park and booked an extra night and as Dan was leaving the office his mate from work was walking in.  He is on leave for a few months and decided last Wednesday to head off and has taken 6 days to get to here.  He set up camp next to us, well set up car as he is living out of his car, got a bed set up and all the essentials on board.  It was so lovely to finally meet Mark who I had heard so much about over the years, such a nice guy, it was lovely to have dinner, drinks and talk late into the night.  It was a short catch up as he is on a mission and had places to go & people to see.  It was great for Dan to see a familiar face and get to be a bloke for a while and have a break from listening to Pokémon talk and me! I'm a pleasure to live with so I'm cant name any reasons he would need a break from me though!!  It was another warm evening but a bit of a breeze so we sat outside for the night and the kids got the chance to play with new friends in the park and tv room until way after they normally would so they were rapt.  The W.A. kids are on holidays now and the kids next to us are here for a week, they live in Karratha which is only 59km down the road, they couldn't believe how far we had come for a holiday.

                                                 Look how big these dump trucks are

                                                  one of the gas flares at North West Shelf

                                                                       Mark & Dan

 This train engine pulled the carriages the queen was in when she was here in the 50's

                                                             The colors of the Pilbara

Point Samson - Day 30

Fletcher : today we drove from Exmouth to Point Samson.  It took 10hours to get here, we stopped at Aunty Jane's home town, Pannawonica.

Mackenzie: today we left Exmouth and me and Fletcher played games on the way.  It took 10 hours to get to Point Samson we got there at 6.30, it was a long drive for dinner we had stir fry,

Day 30 already, I can't believe it.  It really doesn't feel like a month on the road, and all those promises I made myself that I could have changed is now a month wasted!  You know the normal new years type of resolutions, eat more salads, walk each day, cut out soft drink, go to bed early.... oh the list goes on but a month in and I'm still the same me.  Never mind!!  Well I do have an admission  to make, today being so long I decided to watch a movie while we were driving, but the movie turned into me watching Dawsons Creek and nearly to the end of season 5!  Ok I'm not proud of it but it was an easy watch and funny to see the 2 main actresses before they had Tom Cruises Baby & Heath Ledgers Baby.  It only went to season 6 so when I finish that season I hope the words Dawsons Creek never leave my lips again in my lifetime.  Today as you can tell from the kids blogs was long.  It was a big driving day as we detoured inland a few times to see points of interest and actually spent a lot of the day driving at 80kms.  We have spent days wondering whether to go to Onslow and after talking to a lot of people no one had anything to offer us as in what was there or whether to go.  The best we got was "a cyclone went through there a few years ago".  We stopped for lunch at the Onslow turnoff and made some sandwiches, I didn't want to ask for the 10th time where we were headed so I just waited to see if we turned.  We kept driving and Dan had hoped to camp a night on the Robe River which is a free camp, which would have been great as we are a bit over, well a lot over actually, in our accommodation budget after Exmouth, but it was well worth it.  We got to the River and it is a beautiful spot, a drop toilet and trees for shade, no water in the river, kind of place you would see on a postcard.  We drove in and out again, Dan had his mind set on something so I just let it be.  We took a drive into Pannawonica where our friend Jane is from and did a drive about and took some photos.  It was a great spot.  By now I was in on the top secret agenda, he was going to try get through to Point Samson, so a call to the caravan park to see if their were sites and to let them know we would be there after close.   It was a pretty uneventful day, well of course until we had an emu try to play chicken with our van.  Dan and I were both watching it, he saw us, he looked at us, made a move to walk away from us, but nooooo what does he do next...... runs straight at us, still with full eye contact?!  Silly thing hit the van and ran off, I of course being a dumb girl let out a little girly scream.  How did he run off, made of steel I'm thinking.  By now the kids have looked up from Pokémon, nothing to do with their mothers scream!! Dan and I just looked at each other and couldn't believe it, knowing mr emu was ok or as ok as we would ever know, I suggested Dan check the car and van for any damage.  None, which had it been a kangaroo I'm sure we would be on the phone to our insurance company by now.  We pulled into Point Samson after dark to set up, we did well finding the park and really well to set up and cook tea.  Not that I like Dan driving that big a day or setting up that late, we were happy to be where we wanted to be and wake up there in the morning.

Exmouth - Day 29

Fletcher : Today was also a lazy day, we went to a market across the road.  Then the rest of the day was at the caravan park, we went to the pool and it was cold.  Then we went back to the caravan and mum and dad had a chat with the people behind us then we went back to the pool.  We had leftovers from Pinocchio's for tea and went and got a gelati.

Mackenzie: Today we got up and played some games and went into town.  We came back to the caravan park and went to the pool.  After that we had a rest and got a gelati, I got cookies and cream and lemon it was yum.  We went to the market and I got earrings.

We booked an extra night as it is such a beautiful pool and being in the dog park you can leave your dog in the van knowing he is getting looked after and if he does bark he is surrounded by dogs who are doing the same.  So we get to go to the pool together without having to tie him to a fence which is great.  We got up early and went to the market across the road, there were only half a dozen stalls but it was still nice to be at a market, 1st one in 4 weeks, I was having withdrawals.  It was funny to see that many of the stall holders had dogs tied to their market tables.  There was a burger caravan there and it was typical power family style for them to be working out whether to get a burger or souvlaki, a little reminder that it was only 8.45am didn't seem to discourage them at all especially Daniel.  I don't know how but we made it off the oval without a burger, but we had the menu and there was every intention to be back before they closed at 2.  We went back and forward from the pool today, there was quite a breeze today and the humidity had dropped dramatically, we later found out it had gone from over 70% to around 40%. only for the day but still it was such a welcome relief.  We have had the coolest surfie blokes staying next to us with a very loud snoring bulldog, great taste in music and the best set up ford transit I have seen.  There was a raised platform in the back with plastic storage tubs underneath, their beds on the top of the platform and a timber board dividing the 2 of them with little hooks screwed into the wall with bits and pieces hanging off them and a skateboard minus its wheels on each side as a storage shelf.  We headed into town for some bread as after our night out for tea we decided that burgers wasn't great on the budget and we would save our money to treat ourselves to gelato again after dinner.  We had made the mistake of taking Bentley into the shopping strip the day before only to see the No dogs sign as we were leaving and as he was pooping on the footpath.  As you can imagine the earth couldn't swallow us up quick enough and even though we weren't finished shopping we made a really quick exit after cleaning up after him.  So today we put Bentley and the kids on the opposite footpath in the shade and we rushed around IGA and Brumbys as quick as we could.  We went back and made salad sandwiches before going back to the pool.  We have again got to know some lovely people and a few from previous caravan parks we've been to so you feel like friends when you see them again and its nothing to sit and chat for hours.  Its also great to hear everyone's disaster stories that make us feel a whole lot better about our constant mishaps.  We had thought about doing a glass bottom boat ride or quad bike ride but sort of ran out of time, there is plenty of other places we can fit it into though.  The tours sound amazing but are really expensive so we have to really work out what it is each of us want to see or do.  The kids would be happy with a movie at the cinema at the moment to be honest.  We chatted to a friend who is doing the whale shark swimming which is costing over $700 for he and his 15yr old son.  It is obviously going to be an out of this world experience but well over $700 is an awful lot out of our budget.  We did some washing in our amazing bucket and the lady behind us came over to tell me how cross at her husband she was as he had thrown out a similar bucket and she is kicking herself as she wants a "washing machine" too.  We had leftovers from Pinocchio's which fed all 4 of us so I think you can tell just how big the serves were.  We headed back to Pinocchio's after tea for our gelato treat, the manager says to Daniel, " Oh good you come back Mr Power" in his strong accent, well 3 days in a row we were regulars by now!  The flavours had changed from the night before just showing how fresh and how big the turnover was in there.  We were up late again but had our surfie friends music to listen to so it was good.   Its hard to believe but we haven't been taking photos of our food, we normally photograph anything and everything we eat and text it around to people, Dan does this with his cousin all the time, we have to lift our game I think and get some photos happening!!

Exmouth - Day 28

Fletcher: Today was a lazy day we went to town then the caravan then we went to the pool.  We had Pinocchio Italian restaurant for tea.  We also went to a light house.

Mackenzie :Today we went to town and we went to a light house that was there since world war 2, it said there are lots of whale sharks.  After that we went back to the pool then went to a restaurant , I had spaghetti.  And all the lights were on around the pool at the restaurant, the pool has a fountain that is right at the restaurant.

Today we did a bit of sight seeing.  We went to the information centre and got a brochure with "25 things to do in Exmouth"  We crossed off the National Parks which Bentley can't go into and set out to do a few of the others.  We first headed out towards Bundegi Beach and along the way came across the Harold Holt communication station, Very Low Frequency Transmitter & Antenna System.   It was built in the 60's and is an amazing credit to the people who built it.  It was decided after a problem with communications in America when they were in battle with the USSR that they needed something built to put them in the front running in the communication technology department.  It is made up of metal towers and cost $33.5 million in 1967.  It consists of 12 towers in 2 circles around the central tower Zero.  It is the largest and most successful built to date.  The central tower is taller than the Empire state building.  There is a big army base here too that is a little deserted looking but there was a huge American presence in the past with many tourists who have been here before saying in its day there were many American cars to be seen driving around Exmouth.  The barracks look bare but the office buildings still house army, navy and federal police.  We were down the pier at Bundegi Beach and a federal police car came down behind us, he drove right out onto the boat ramp to the point it dips down, I was hoping for a funniest home video moment but bummer he was in total control.  We went up to Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, another really interesting place in the history of Australia that we all should be taught about at school.  It had the light house which is no longer in use but still beautiful and well kept.  The views were amazing up there.  There was a radar stand from world war 2 that would detect any movement of Japanese fighter planes before they reached shore and it was surrounded by sand bags that are from world war 2, it is unreal to think they are still there and preserved, at first look you would think they were rocks, but once you read the signage and take another look it is mind blowing to think of the history on that hill.  There is the anchor off the SS Mildura that ran aground in 1907 after confronting a looming cyclone, it had 498 head of cattle on board, the captain had done this trip 68 times before, he was found guilty of neglect and lost his Masters certificate for 3 months but it was also decided to build a light house to guide ships away from the reef and coastline.  The wreck can still be seen in the water.  We pulled into a few beach spots and I had my first drive in 4 weeks!  The kids were all excited - like I don't drive them around all day everyday normally!! We headed back to the park for a swim before drying off to go out for tea.  We got our good thongs on - too funny - a dad said that to his 2 daughters in Coral Bay as they were going to a wedding "girls go put your good thongs on"  Our friends were telling us and we had a laugh- thongs are thongs!  We have brought a pair of joggers which haven't made it out of the cupboard and 2 pair of thongs- neither I could class as good thongs.  Daniel the poor guy is down to one set of thongs after an incident on the way to gelato last night.  He had a run in with a speed hump, a trip, a fall and recovery pose only to realise he had snapped his beloved RM Williams triple plugs.  The kids and I muffled our laughter long enough to sympathise with his loss!  Tonight even saw me put mascara on, I gave up on mascara somewhere across the nullabor as we were so hot it was just running like you were crying at a chick flick.  For those who know me well although I don't wear makeup I do wear mascara everyday, even in the delivery room after having my babies, I cuddled my babies and then put on mascara!  It was short lived though, we ate tea and I took it off as soon as I could.  We went to Pinocchio Italian restaurant which is very fitting for the kids as their school production this year will be Pinocchio.  The restaurant has won best Italian restaurant in the whole of W.A. the last couple of years.  It lived up to its awards, it was insanely busy with 3 wait staff that looked after us like we were family, I was called mamma power when I walked in and we did not have a moment were we felt like we were waiting for something.  The atmosphere is fantastic, the staff are mainly Italian with beautiful manners.  The pasta was enough to feed the whole table, Fletcher had a kids pizza which was the size of a normal large pizza you would buy.  We got to take home our leftovers which would do us all for at least another meal.  The tastiest complimentary ports which Mack had said earlier, Mum have a look at the baby glasses of coke, she was mighty disappointed when I told her they were alcohol and only for adults, water she was stuck with!  The pool area looked beautiful at night with rope lights twisting around the rails and the waterfall splashing right up to the restaurant.  Again it was full and takeaways were going crazy, I have never seen staff handle such a busy place so well.  We went home carrying our leftovers, full and to another 2 episodes of Monkey Magic.  The kids are now practising his signature moves.

 Hard to see but these are the communication towers, built to blend in with the landscape

                                           Dan and the kids at the light house lookout

                                                      what is left of SS Mildura

                                     Dan snapped a photo and caught Mack upside down as usual

                                                           Me and my new husband

                                                               beautiful frangipani flowers

the kids at Pinocchio's with the waterfall in the background

Exmouth - Day 27

Fletcher : today we drove from Coral Bay to Exmouth.  When we got there we went to the pool then went to town.  Then we went back to the caravan park and went to the pool again.

Mackenzie : today we left Coral Bay and went to Exmouth.  We setup the caravan.  After that we went to the pool.  We went into town and it is a bit small but a lot of shops.  After that we went back to the pool.  For dinner we had tuna pasta and then we watched Monkey Magic.

We left Coral Bay quite early this morning, there were no tears shed as we farewelled the sand.  We have had an amazing time here, this holiday is turning into a bit of a swimming trip.  We only had about 130kms to travel so it was a quick run to Exmouth.  We only stopped along the way to look at the enormous termite mounds, these things are unreal and its hard to fathom that such a small creature could create something so big.  We got to Exmouth and got to our site and guess what.....yep sand.  Dan was about to have a heart attack, this time he didn't even turn the engine off before ringing the office and asking for a different site, they were very accommodating and gave him the pick of the area.  We got a lovely grassy site and harmony was restored!  You wont believe that the park has a sign up at the back where we are saying Dog Park.  Just in case we had forgotten that no one like us dog people.  Funnily enough this is the only section of the park that has caravans in it.  It is a gorgeous park and the grounds staff and people in the office are lovely.  It is called a resort and the swimming pool is straight out of a travel brochure, it is amazing and nearly 3 mts deep at one end.  We set up in record time today with the kids doing more work in 10 minutes than they have the whole holiday, the lure of the pool had taken hold of them.  We all headed to the pool and it was just as great as it looked, warm and crystal clear, it had a waterfall that cascaded in front of the restaurant and was surrounded by palm trees & frangipani trees.  It was a beautiful setting.  We had some lunch and headed into town.  There was some great shops, they were all in a strip, a newsagents, bottleshop, bakery, dress store, chemist, booking agent for tours, 2 IGA's and 2 surf stores.  What? 2 IGAs, ones called IGA  Exmouth, one is IGA Ningaloo, 10 steps away from each other??!!!  I've said how many IGAs there is over here but 2 in the same set of shops is unbelievable, think of Parkhill Plaza in Berwick and picture 2 supermarkets and 2 surfstores.  We came back to the park and went for another swim till dark and then headed back to cook tea.  We decided we had to try the gelato at the Italian restaurant, when we got out of the pool there was a few tables eating by the time we went back for gelato the restaurant was full to the brim and doing just as many takeaways, Dan was hooked and made a booking for the following night.  The gelato was yum with a capital Y.  We all had something different and Bentley of course sat like the good boy he is (when a treat is involved) and got to have a lick at the end.  Oooohhh almost forgot the boys had buzz cuts today, the heat had got too much for both of them and Fletcher got a number 3 which is pretty much his normal and Dan a number 1, the 1st time I've seen Daniel without his moussed down hair.   Daniel says to the hairdresser "it doesn't make my head look so big, she totally agreed and so a conversation went on about how it slims his face and head.  I was still in shock and couldn't even say how ridiculous their conversation was, Mackenzie was horrified when he walked out of the salon.  It actually suits him but will take me a while to get use to my new husband.

                                                                    my new husband

                                      35 degrees, lets have an icy pole and share the same chair??!!

                                                                  a termite mound

Coral Bay - Day 26

Mackenzie : Today we got up early and tried to find a beach.  The first one we looked at was a big walk.  The next one was perfect and we had a look, when we got down there we looked in the water and there was a strange fish jelly thing so we decided not to swim there.  The next beach we went to had lots of people so we swam there.  We saw lots of fish.  We went back to the caravan park and had lunch.  After that we had a rest and then we went to the pool.  When we got out of the pool we went to the jumping pillow.  For dinner we had pizza.

                                                 resting on the beach half in the water

                                                   a big fish that we saw snorkelling

Fletcher:  Today we woke up early to snorkel at the beach, we left, it was 9.51 till we got to the right beach.  We went snorkelling, we saw coral and millions of fish.

a fish out in the reef

Today was another first for experiences for the kids.  We went snorkelling in the ocean.  We tried to find a beach that took dogs, the one that did was miles to walk to so we gave it a miss, its ok making the trip down but the trip back is always a killer.  We found a nice quiet stretch of beach near the boat ramp with little caves so we gave it a try, we walked down and set Bentley up in the shade.  We took a step into the water and Mackenzie saw this strange looking critter, it was coloured like a rock or puffer fish but was jelly like and was breathing in and out, I was freaked, Mackenzie was beside herself, Daniel didn't know what it was but didn't want us to touch it.  So when the 1st wave crashed in and our little critter was on the move,  we girls let out a scream and started packing up our things.  We went for a bit of sand dune four wheel driving which I must admit was a bit exciting, I initially asked to get out and meet them at the end of the track because unfortunately I missed out on the adventure gene when I was born and was given 2 scaredy cat genes instead.  But it was great, Dan was in total control and in his element so we were safe and happy.  By now we decided to just go to the beach that everyone goes to that dogs are not allowed.  We drove back to the van and put Bentley inside as the people behind us said that they would keep an eye on him if we needed and vice versa for their little sausage dogs.  We headed across the road to the beach and snorkelled.  The water was so blue but clear.  The fish were monsters, who were very inquisitive and swam right up to you, looking at you and brushing past our legs.  The kids were so excited to be there and even more excited when Daniel took them out deeper to see the coral.  Out deeper were where all the coloured fish were, think "finding nemo" type fish.  They were beautiful and the coral was a work of art.  We really could have stayed all day there but we went back to check on Bentley and for a swim in the pool.  The kids made friends and played Marco polo for most of the time.  It gave Dan and I a bit of time to float in the water and relax, instead of the constant, mum look at this, dad watch my back flip, mum can I dive in, but mum they are diving in.  We had another evening walk and watched all the quad bikes come in from a day of adventuring and also saw a wedding on the beach having their photos taken.  The kids were in bed when Daniel decided to watch Monkey Magic, if anyone remembers this show it was a favourite of Dan's with the worst dubbing ever done, and I think it may have been on purpose.  Dan was so happy to be watching it he got the kids back up to share a few episodes, a few minutes in they were so saying, this is dumb by the end of episode 1 they were begging for more and have not stopped saying the phrases from the show and are nagging for the next episode.  Personally not my cup of tea even though I loved it as a kid, thanks Peter Carroll for the episodes you have made Dan and the kids very happy.

Coral Bay - Day 25

Mackenzie: Today we got ready to go to Coral Bay.  I was watching a movie in the car.  When we got there we looked at the caravan park, there is a pool and park and a jumping pillow. We went in the pool.  After dinner we went to the beach and we saw a crab.

Fletcher : Today we drove from Carnarvon to Coral Bay it took a long time to get here.  But when we got here we set up and went to the pool.  After tea we had a walk we walked to the beach and I found a crab.

We got to Coral Bay about lunchtime and checked in.  Daniels nightmare begins.  We pull up to the site to discover its all sand!  Those who know Dan will know that sand is his arch enemy closely followed by glitter.  We unhitched the van and he was at breaking point so I went to the office to see if we could change to one of their highly advertised grassy sites, but no luck as there are only 12 sites for caravans with dogs and all 12 were on sand, how's that for my four legged friend being discriminated against :(  Oh well rules are rules so we stayed put.  There is only a couple of taps in the park for drinking water the rest of the taps on the sites are artesian bore water and I found out the hard way that it is boiling hot water.  The sprinklers are special aerated spray sprinklers using water from the bore but because it sprays lightly it doesn't burn the grass but it is gorgeous green grass - just not for the dog people!! Bitter much- me - no.  We set up and went to the pool for a much needed swim to cool down.  We spent a good part of the afternoon there and then went back to van for some school work and a rest.  The kids are doing well with their diaries and work, I get no complaints when they do their diaries but when I ask them to do handwriting or spelling words the groaning and moans are non stop.  The conversation every where you go is how hot it is and how most people aren't coping, have to say its good to know its not just us.  Bentley has had another trim to help him handle the heat a bit better, he is just constantly sleeping now.  A quick walk around of the park and a look through "town".  Coral Bay has everything you need really all within about 1km from start to finish.  Two caravan Parks, a resort, restaurants and quite a few specialty stores and tour booking offices.  The parks and resort on one side of the road and the beach on the other.  The beach is what Coral Bay is famous for so we headed over for a look with our torches, bit of a waste of time but it was fun.  We are all looking forward to snorkelling tomorrow. Wow almost forget Mackenzie and I were in the middle of a robbery this morning.  That sounds dramatic doesn't it!   We stopped to buy some bits at woolworths carnarvon before we left, as we were walking around I said to Mack, I'm not sure about this lady, something is going down, lets change lanes.  We did and I thought nothing of her again while we were shopping, we then saw her at the checkout but she was going through so we decided to line up behind, the checkout chic says to me "she just went through without paying" she was really upset and flustered as the lady while walking away was being quite threatening but smiling at her, she had simply walked thru the register with a full trolley, not put anything on the conveyor belt, just pushed the trolley through ?!?.   I suggested she call someone over so she did and then 4 big men chased after her.  The poor girl was devastated as the woman was using her because they were both aboriginal, she was so upset that she was using their background as an excuse for her to let her off.  I reassured her that she was really brave to stand up to her and to get some support from the company.  Poor little Mackenzie was horrified that someone would steal from a supermarket.  The men came back with the full trolley and we never saw the lady again.