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31st July 2008.
Karratha was built in 1968 to service and accommodate the workers mining iron ore in the Hamersley Ranges. It's a huge shipping port which exports iron ore from all around the Pilbara region and is also the business centre of the Pilbara. Not much of a tourist attraction, but we're heading there to get the air conditioning fixed and to catch up with friends.
The biggest eye opener in Karratha was the BHP trains bringing in the iron ore. Never seen anything like it. Varying from 1 to 3kms in length, you have to see them to believe it, they just go on forever. We had to stop at a train crossing on the way in and sat there for over 15 minutes and counted 2 engines pulling 154 containers full of iron ore and that wasn't a long one. We saw one along the way that had 2 engines pulling, two in the middle and one pushing up the rear and it just went on forever. Unfortunately there was no place to stop so couldn't film or photograph a sight we'll never forget.
FeNaCING Festival:
We arrived in Karratha just in time for the FeNaCING Festival. The name, FeNaClNG, comes from the chemical symbols of the three main production and export commodities in Karratha and Dampier: Iron Ore-Fe, Salt-NaCl and Natural Gas-NG.
Pronounced fee-nack-al-ling, it's basically the same as our Perth Show but on a much smaller scale. The Karratha based festival celebrates its 36th anniversary this year and is of such importance locally that a public holiday has been declared. We enjoyed the day and had to chuckle at the sign on the boat :)
Cossack:
Headed north to Roebourne on the way to Cossack and as we're there, had a quick look around the streets of Roebourne. There are some historic buildings, including the Union Bank, church, Victoria Hotel and the old jail. Not much else to see but did notice that every window and door had extensive steel grilles protecting every form of entry. Assume they have a big crime problem here.
Anyway, onto Cossack.
Cossack, the first port in the northwest was originally a pearling and farming centre, but is now just a ghost town with some of the original buildings restored to their original glory. If you're interested in heritage and history, it's worth the trip, if not give it a miss.
Point Samson:
Point Samson was Point Samson, what more can I say.
Dampier and Burrup Peninsula:
On the way there, you drive through the solar salt catchments. Much bigger than the ones we saw in Onslow and actually quite picturesque with the white salt contrasting against the red sandy landscape.
Dampier seems to be the holiday and weekend retreat for Karratha as everyone was lounging around on the beach just chilling out,
Burrup Peninsula was significant to me personally as around 20 years ago when I had my paint shop, we won the contract to do the industrial spraying of thousands of kilometers of piping, gas valves and control valves for the On and Offshore gas project at Karratha and it was inspiring and satisfying to see the finished working product in the flesh.
Life On The Road:
As we pulled into Karratha and got within phone range, got a missed call message on my mobile from the air con guys, so return their call.
"Sorry Ken, but we have an issue with Karratha, so you need to go to Darwin where we will either repair the unit or replace it if it can't be repaired.
May be possible at Kununura, but we'd prefer you go to Darwin".
You gotta be joking, we won't be in Darwin for at least a few months.
The aircon guys wouldn't budge, so we phoned the warranty guys at Jayco.
To cut another long story short, we spoke to Peter at Jayco and after him liaising with the air con guys, he organised for the air con to be replaced in Broome which is only a couple of weeks away. Well done Peter and Jayco customer support. Really looking forward to having some cooling when we get back to the caravan each day as it's getting hotter the further north we head.
We caught up with Ken and Dana and had an absolute ball. As there are now 2 Ken's, I'm Ken and he's Ken2.
Ken2 and his son Alex took me out in the boat fishing in the mangroves next day and it was good fun. Mind you, I was a bit disapppointed at first. Wasn't catching much and by lunch time, I was the the only one to catch anything ( 2 hairy tails). Then all of a sudden they came on the bite and we were pulling them in as quick as we were casting out.
Now that they're on the bite, Ken2 says it's time to go coz of getting back before the tide gets too low and we get caught on the sand banks. The fish were on, we're all having a ball and it's time to go????
Fortunately, Ken2 treated us to a few more casts before pulling the pin, coz we gotta outta here before we get stranded. It was close in a few places with the prop hitting the sand banks a few times.
Then on the way back, the banter and bragging started as to who had caught the biggest and the most fish.
Truth is, I caught the biggest Mangrove Jack plus the 2nd biggest, Ken2 caught the most Salmon while Alex caught the biggest Cod and plus the biggest fish of the day, a Catfish I think it was. A good fun day was had by all plus a bonus few feeds straight into the freezer. We were then treated to a barbie in the evening at their place. Good onya guys, it was good catching up with you :)
Another town without a proper bakery. Marlene's getting edgy again........
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Our Trip 
