Friday 8th March 2012 Day 9 Carnarvon to Karratha WA

Stay there please

We got an early start 6am and headed for Karratha some 650kms away. doesn't sound very far but in the Kombi it certainly is.

The trip started well no headwinds and relatively cool air as the temp was only 30c so there were no complaints for once. Soon after leaving Minilya there were plenty of animals around, cattle on the side of the road, goats crossing the road and Emus running alongside us in the paddock it was a bit of a worry.

Covered in flies

It wasn't long before we crossed the tropic of Capricorn and it was starting to get very sticky and humid. The paddocks were filled with hundreds of sizeable termite mounds and then the red sand hills started to pop up as the terrain changed. 

Termite mounds took this next to a sizeable bush to compare its size

Along the way there are several rivers which had a fair bit of water in them and the surrounds were so green and pretty. There are also many hills/mountains which are very rocky and not necessarily in a range.

Approaching the 50km to Fortescue Roadhouse we passed this massive construction going on for a substantial mining site. As we came to the Roadhouse there was hundreds of Huts placed around the Roadhouse creating a mini city. From the huts buses were being loaded with mining staff to be transported back to Karratha some 100kms away.

We needed to find somewhere to spend the night as the 3 Caravan Parks in Karratha were either full or were closed by the time we expected to arrive so it was check the Camp 6 book. Great the Karratha Shell Roadhouse has free overnight camping showers and toilets a log with several road trains. We made it throughout the night although it was sticky and hot.

Another stop to cool off

One of the many creeks/rivers

These mountains just randomly crop up and below one of the muddy rivers

Morning at the Karratha Roadhouse free campsite (The car/truck park)