Tom Price to Exmouth

We woke to a beautiful morning after a peaceful night back in the van and back on the road with not a single car traveling the road all night until the first one about 7.30am. Since it was almost dark when we arrived at our roadside camp spot the night before we took a little look around our surrounding and then once we had had breakfast hit the road again.

Our windmill roadside camp

We took the 4kms back to the rail access road and continued north. As we turned onto the rail access road there was an iron ore train heading towards the port that we followed for the next half an hour or so. We would catch up to it, overtake it, stop at a rail crossing, watch it go past, then catch it again, overtake it again, etc, etc. It had 234 trucks full of iron ore and was our entertainment for the morning, and the kids kept the driver entertained by waving every time we saw him and he returned the gesture with a blast of his horn. We did also see about 7 empty trains heading back to the mines for their next load.

We had a quick visit to Millstream National Park where we checked out the Homestead, saw some kangaroos, took a short stroll along the Homestead Trail to a lagoon full of water lilies and then moved on to find a lunch spot without an inch of shade. This was our whole experience of Millstream, a place we had intended on spending two nights and exploring had we not got held up at Tom Price.

Millstream Homestead Visitor Information Centre

Lilies, lilies, everywhere

Back on the road after our quick visit to Millstream we continued up the rail-access road till it became the public road and also beautifully sealed. The scenery became quite stunning and Thea wished she had taken a photographic course so she could capture it more vividly. We may just have to come back around again just to spend more time taking photographs of this great country. Once we met the main coastal highway we had to turn right and head north for a little bit. It felt very strange doing this as it has been a long time since we had gone in a northward direction. Our destination was Point Samson just north of Karratha.

At Point Samson while parking our van we were spotted by the family we had first seen at Eighty Mile Beach and then at the Tom Price Mine Tour. Nigel, Fiona and their three kids had been at Point Samson for a couple of nights already and they welcomed us to what they called ‘Paradise’. It certainly was a fabulous spot and after seeing Karratha, beat it hands down. With the play equipment directly across from our caravan and plenty of kids to play with, our children had a ball and were a little upset with us the next day when we suggested and then made them come in the car for an explore of the area.

The play equipment

The van and Mr Kai 

Our first explore was of the old pioneering township of Cossack. Cossack was first used by Europeans in 1863 and established itself as North West’s first port, which was used for pastoral, pearling and mining industries. Cossack boomed during the 1880s when up to 80 pearling luggers were operating in the area and more than 400 people were living there. Unfortunately most of the grand stone buildings in Cossack were built in the late 1880s when the town was already starting to reduce in numbers. By 1900, pearling operations were moved to Broome and the port was deemed unsuitable for larger ships. So a new jetty was constructed in Point Samson where in 1910 the harbor facilities were relocated. Other enterprises slowly drifted away and by the 1950s the town was completely abandoned. We bumped into Nigel, Fiona and the kids again there and spent some time walking around the township following the Heritage Trail with the information leaflet provided. We read through the township's history mounted on boards in the historical lock up while the kids locked us in, and ended our time there with an ice cream from the shop located in the old Bond Store building. Cossack has amazing turquoise water just at its doorstep, which was lovely to admire while we took in the history of the town.

The stone buildings of Cossack

Post Office and Telegraph Building

Courtyard behind the Bond Store

The Courthouse Museum

The kids and Tig off to the next building

Galbraith's Store

Kid's mayhem in the lock up

Ella locking us in

In the end we spent 3 nights at Point Samson and had a chance to catch up on some washing, collect precious birthday mail from Karratha, see the million dollar houses in Karratha and see the Dampier Port where the Tom Price trainline ends. At Dampier we saw some big ships loading up with iron ore and stumbled upon the North West Shelf Natural Gas Visitor Centre. The kids had a great time using the interactive screen game at the first display while Tig and I wandered around looking at the other displays.

Ships being loaded with iron ore

Maddi in front of the North West Shelf Natural Gas Plant

Maddi having a go at the interactive screen

Model of a gas rig

With 2 nights up our sleeve before our booked campsite at Cape Range National Park and Maddi’s 7^th birthday we did a huge drive down towards Exmouth. After a total of about 470 kms we finally decided to stop for the day at Giralia Homestead, which was only 123 kms from Exmouth. Giralia Homestead is a working cattle station, which provides camping sites and some basic accommodation, showers, toilets and meals just behind the homestead. On our arrival there was already a very very old Jayco Outback camper, a flash looking full-size caravan and a tent tucked away behind a few bushes for wind protection. The camping area was also the horse paddock which was home to a Shetland pony, Buckskin gelding and a Bay mare that would apparently be locked up overnight. The Buckskin was particularly friendly. While we sat outside our caravan eating dinner just before the sun went down we watched as the Buckskin started to scavenge and rummage through the Jayco Outback’s food and belongings that sat outside. The camp was unattended so we intervened once we saw the Buckskin was successfully getting into their food and rubbish. It took a lot of convincing to get the horse to leave their things and a little rearranging to secure the food. Maddi was very excited to be camping in an area with horses roaming through and her confidence soared as she continually approached and patted her newfound love. All we heard about that night was could we please get a farm and a horse for her. This particular Buckskin was very friendly, even placed its head in Thea’s lap, tried to pick up her chair while she sat in it and gave Kai a massive kiss on the face. Our neighbours in the Jayco returned well after dark and we watched with amusement the following morning while the Buckskin terrorised them and their food once more. If only they had secured their belongings and particularly the food and rubbish they wouldn’t have had a problem but with two adults and four kids crammed into their tiny Jayco camper it didn’t really allow for any order in their mayhem. It was still an interesting morning's entertainment for us.

Maddi talking to her new friend

Lucky we had finished dinner before the horse came to the table 

We travelled our final kilometers into Exmouth and stopped off just outside Learmonth at MG Kailis Prawn Fishery for some prawns. It was so funny to watch Ella get so excited and the smile stretch across her face when she realized we were stopping at a prawn shop. After our prawns and bread lunch, we hopped back into the car for our final stretch into Exmouth where we first popped into the Visitor's Centre and worked out our caravan park for the night. Once the van was sorted we headed into town for a final food and birthday dinner shop before back to the park for a well-deserved swim.

Ella and Kai with the Prawn Truck

Prawns for lunch 

Next time read about Maddi’s 7^th Birthday and our wonderful experiences of Cape Range National Park.

Till then…

Tig and Thea