Exmouth to Karratha

Saturday 10^th May 2008

A big drive today – approx 600km – all in one go – well, there didn’t seem anywhere worth stopping and getting everything unpacked for in between.

We packed up in superfast time and were off with only a short stop in Exmouth for morning tea while I uploaded more blog stuff.

We were right about there being nothing to stop for - when looking for a lunch stop place there was a river/water way marked on the map, supposedly with a picnic area. Well, it obviously isn’t much used – we were looking carefully but saw no way of getting down to the river, much less any picnic table or such like nearby. So we stopped in a layby, stuffed down the sandwiches and got on with the driving!

We found it bizarre that a place that is big enough to be signposted and even having the 10km interval signs (Nanutarra, in case you’re interested) was actually only a roadhouse, and not a big one, at that!

The road was pretty good – hardly any traffic, the girls were no trouble – we’d set them up with the laptop (and inverter) and they watched two movies and listened to a story on the Ipod, and it really didn’t seem like 6.5 hours of truckin’.

The caravan park in Karratha was SO expensive – there were quite a few people who would have been employed by the mines/gas industry etc who seemed to be living in the park so I suppose they can afford those sorts of rates. I was just happy to have a shower and wash some clothes and the girls were happy cos there was a pool to cool off in.

We chose a local watering hole for dinner – massive tv screens everywhere showing Victoria vs The Rest (except for one small screen where two guys were very loudly watching a rugby game!) and lots of single guys getting their feed for the night.