So, Dampier is a cute little coastal town – with two big port areas bookending it and totally ruining it’s lovely looks. It still looks OK – its still got lots of little funcraft type of boats around. Its not a bad little town. But its got a huge iron ore loading facility at one end of town & a huge salt mine thingy at the other end – so there’s no confusing what its there for.
Salt piles at one end of Dampier
Once again there were ships in at the pier getting filled up with iron ore to be taken away. Its amazing (yet again) how big they are & how quick they fill up. And everytime you look out to sea anywhere near any of these places, there’s always more ships lining up to get in. I think its great that our country is making some money out of this (even if it just the wage earners making some), but I do worry what we’re going to be left with when the mines stop producing to a high enough level to make it worth while for the mining companies. What’s going to happen to those people who have paid $600,000++ for a 3 beddie in Karatha or Hedland??? It might not happen next year – but it will happen I think.
The other thing that I wanted to see in Dampier was the Red Dog statue. I’d been to see the movie for my birthday in Darwin – and I’d loved the movie. But, being the realist I am, I saw it for what it was – a movie. As there is a statue to the dog here, part of the story must be true – but it probably wasn’t quite as the movie showed. The ladies in the tourist info at Roebourne were talking about it when I was there – making comments about it not really being “Dampier”‘s dog. They were also reading an article out of the local paper – which was quoting some women who got together at the library. One of the women said the only thing she really ever thought about the dog was telling her children not to pat it – cause it used to bite!!! Not quite the lovely/loving kelpie that the movie portrayed. But, no doubt there was a dog that wandered around the Pilbara region, coming & going & probably looking for a master to keep. Its a lovely story – even just that little bit.
Red Dog poem
Red Dog & the Barbies
Its a cute statue anyway and a great story – and it made me miss my puppies even more 😦
From here I drove just out of Dampier to the Karratha Gas Plant – part of the North West Gas Shelf project. Its interesting to see the “plant” (from the viewing place only) They have their own information centre out there -so it was good to get a bit more info on how it all works – it amazes me how they have laid the pipeline on the bottom of the sea floor – amazing amount of work in that. I even saw a couple of the “gas ships” (my terms). They have these 4 big bubbles/tanks on the decks of the ships & they are filled with compressed gas and then they go to sea & take it away – just like filling up an iron ore ship I guess.
From there I went to a nearby bay where you could see part of the plant and where the sea comes up to the red rock hills that are around the place. The hills are just tumbled red rocks piled up – amazing really – and at this bay they come down to the sea – really shows what they mean by “where the outback meets the sea” when they promote some of these areas.
Red Rock hills - lots of rocks - really red.
I then went to a place that had some aboriginal rock art – just off the road to the gas plant. It was hot & dry & the walk to the art area was hot & dry!!! I found some of what I think was the art. This stuff wasn’t the same art as the bits I’d seen in the Territory. These were etchings – carvings in the rock. I only tried one lot of them – I think they were actually dotted all over the rocks in the area – but I decided that seeing one lot was enough & I didn’t want to clamber over rocks in the heat. (and yes – again I was worried about snakes – and I hadn’t brought the Sat phone with me this time!!) Also, as this was just before noon on the 1st of November (remembering there’s a 3 hour time difference), the rest of the nation was about to stop – so I wanted to be back at the ute to listen to a certain horse race in Melbourne. So I sat in the ute with my water & a cuppa & listened to the Melbourne Cup. I didn’t have a bet on, didn’t have anything in a sweep, nothing – probably for the 1st time in my life that I didn’t have something going on for the cup. But – at least I didn’t have to organise sweeps – and I didn’t lose any dollars either!!!!
From there I was basically finished with Karratha/Dampier, so back out onto the road to head off into the wild blue yonder again. I was heading for Exmouth and really for the Ningaloo Reef – but didn’t think I’d get that far today. Which I didn’t so I pulled into a free camp at Robe River for the night. When I pulled in there were 2 other vehicles there – I had a chat to one lot & they seemed OK – so I deemed it safe enough to stay there for the night. Its just a road side stop – with a toilet – but they are good places to stay. This one was a little bit too close to the road. It was by a river – so the parking was down at river level & the road was lifted up to go over the bridge. It was quite loud when the trucks came by, but there weren’t as many of them as I thought there would be.
As it turned out, the trucks were the least of my problems. I’d done dinner & was ready for bed, so I took my torch & walked up the hill to the toilet. I was just coming out of the toilet when I saw this HUGE spider running across the path. I’ve got no idea what type of spider it was – but I did not like it. Anyway, I then turned to look back toward my camper & saw some strange lights. I tried to work out which of the vehicles in the car park were shining their torches, but then worked out the light was coming from the other direction – it was coming from over the road. I turned my torch out & walked back towards my camper to watch what was happening. This person was walking along the road, to halfway across the bridge, shining their torch around the place – as if looking for something. Once they had seen our cars in the rest area, they didn’t shine their light over our way again – but he/she had a VERY bright torch – perhaps even more bright than my u beaut rechargeable torch. (When I say that’s MY torch – its actually on loan to me from my cousin Wayne – but I WILL give it back to him – maybe, one day). Anyway, this person was up on the road for about 15minutes – he kept shining his torch in the water & along the river bank. Then, as if he’d found what he wanted, he turned the torch off, walked back along the road (on my side of the river) and then disappeared down the other side of the road.
If ever there was a time for it – this was definitely a ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ moment. oops – sorry – should have given you a language warning there – but seriously – what was that all about???? Every now & then the light would flicker over again from the other side of the road – it kept up for hours. What the???
So, I considered my options and my level of danger. The person had a very big torch. Perhaps they were just playing with it & showing it off. Perhaps they were a vigilante group searching for a mass murderer who had escaped down the river. Perhaps they were drug smugglers waiting for their parcel to float down the river. Perhaps he/she was some sort of scientist looking for some almost extinct frog (but quickly discarded this one as that torch would have blinded all the frogs & then they’d definitely be extinct cause they wouldn’t be able to find each other to breed!!!) Anyway – I could not come up with (and really, still haven’t come up with) any good reason this person was doing this.
However, I then decided that I wasn’t about to close up the camper & move on, as the person hadn’t been bothering us in the rest area. I also decided they might worry some of the others before they got to me – or if not at least if I yelled, someone might come help. So I lay down, not really being all that worried about it – I wasn’t scared and I didn’t think I was really in any danger. I thought I may not sleep well – but I’d just lay down & see how I went. How I went was straight to sleep actually!!! I woke up a few hours later, looked out the window to find the light still flickering around over the road. I looked out the other window to find another traveller had pulled up & set up just near me – so good thing someone wasn’t trying to get me – I’d have slept through the whole thing!!!
I’m not too sure if I should be worried that I wasn’t worried when all this was going on – I’ve been more scared at home when the gate banged – so should that worry me. Either way – it didn’t & I got an OK night’s sleep – so its all good really.
This night was the 1st of November.
margiecrimmins 