Port Hedland to Point Samson to Onslow to Exmouth

We have determined that, while caravanning around Australia, one sees the best of Australia and the worst of it.  Both in terms of the geography and the demographics.  The last week or so has demonstrated this proposition well. 

However, first we have to mention to a special little aspect of our WA adventure that we have not mentioned to date.  The wind.  It was present a little in Broome but once we left there it has been blowing a gale.  In 80 Mile Beach and everywhere since.  So as I tell the stories below of having some of the greatest experiences of our lives (you can skip to the bit on Exmouth if you want to just read about that), remember that it was quite windy.  So feel sorry for us please.  But while I am mentioning weather, I should mention that we have had one rainy day - Coolum - and have not seen a drop of rain for 10 weeks.  They do not call it the dry season for nothing.

For a boy who want to drive diggers
when he grows up, Wickham was
the surprising choice of his best place
so far.

Anyway,Mum did well to find to even find Point Samson.  It a bit of a gem near a whole lot of dud places -  Karratha, Dampier - which are great places if you want to dig stuff up and ship it off to another country but not, shall we say, "tourist focused" .  At Point Samson there was a lovely little beach  near our immaculate caravan park but when you call yourself Honeymoon Cove you are ensuring that no-one will come there for their honeymoon.  Which is a good thing (who wants to see all those PDA's?) so perhaps the good burghers of Point Samson knew that they were on to.

While on Honeymoon Cove, Dad and Anouk shared a special moment.  They were walking along the beach and looking at the some of the pink (and other coloured - but pink was out favourite) rocks.
Dad: "Anouk, isn't this amazing to be here and seeing these things."
Anouk : "Mmm.  Yes Dad."
Dad: "I mean, its just so fantastic"
Anouk; "Dad?"
Dad: "Yes Nouky" (Its fair to say that Dad was expecting something quite profound - or at least affectionate - at that point).
Anouk "Dad, I need to do a poo.  And I am busting."

And that, in a nutshell, is what its like travelling wtih kids.  (We got there, just in time, in case you are wondering).

The team - minus the ugly bloke - at
Honeymoon Cove at Point Samson.

While in Point Samson we went to Church at the big smoke - Wickham.  I was sitting there thinking how depressing it would to be the member of a parish where my family made up about a fifth of the congregation.  However, at the end of mass, they all went in for coffee and to catch up.  I made up excuses on the basis that the kids had been very well behaved for an hour but I could not really expect more from them.  As I was buckling them into their car seats, one of the ladies came up laden with cake to give to us!  Its clearly not the size of a parish that gives it life - its the people in it.

Contast that with the conversation Mum and Dad overheard on our last night in Point Samson.  A couple of grey nomads were on the site behind us and were talking very loudly.  The conversation started, as all such conversations do, along the following lines:

Doreen:  I live in Melbourne and its very multicultural and I do not consider myself racist  (editors' note - using this reasoning, you cannot be from Melbourne and be a racist.  Doreen, let me tell you you - you can and you are) but what is it with the Aborigines around here?

Well, that was the floodgates wasn't it?  Out they spewed wtih their ignorant, small minded crap.   One of them was even mouting a passionate defence of Andrew Bolt who, apparently, was "convicted" ( she used the word about 10 times) of racism.  Actually, no he wasn't and the problem was not the he had a racist point of view - his problem was that his racist point of view was based on a number of factual inaccuraries that even he admits he made.   Dad wound down the window in the caravan and let fly wtih, "Shut your stupid racist pie-holes because we are trying to sleep and you are making me angry." Well, actually, he did not.  Mum would not let him unless he came up wtih something more witty and amusing but he was so angry he could not.

The least used pin board in WA. 

We moved on from Point Samson and went to Onslow, not really knowing what to expect.  Its about 80 kms off the main highway but its a long way to go from Point Samson all the way to Exmouth.  We had to stop somewhere and this looked like it might be okay.  It was not.  It was about the most dire place we have been to.  The caravan park was a mine site.  It was disgusting and dirty - and VERY windy.  We got out of there earlier than we have got out of anywhere.   Let us not speak of it again.

Turquoise Bay - the water really is that colour and so is the sand.

Anyway, its always darkest before the dawn and after we went to - that place about which we will not speak - we arrived in Exmouth.  Its hard to explain how good Exmouth has been.   First, we went over to Cape Range National Park where we went to Turquoise Bay.  Now, you are setting yourself up for a fall when a beach calls itself "Turquiose" but this bay delivers.  Not only its the sand so white you cannot look at it, the water is tourquoise and there is a reef just off the beach which makes for amazming snorkelling.  Mum originally put it in her top 5 beaches she had ever been to.  Dad challenged here to name ANY beach that was better.  She could not.  Not even the Maldives.  Perhaps, the closest is Whitehaven Beach in the Whisundays but you need a boat to get to that.  Even Nana and Pa would not think of a better beach they had been to than Turquoise Bay.  It was spectacular. 

But I should say that Isaac was being a total t*rd the whole time.  So, again, that is what its like travelling with kids.

On the way back we stopped at the lighthouse lookout and saw whales making their way along the coast.  Isaac refused to get out of the car.  He truly is a t*rd at times.

The best day.

However, just when we thought we had had the best day of holiday so far, a fellow camper (there are some good ones and Marty was a great bloke) told us about a beach wtih hundreds of turtles on it.  We were a little sceptical - all of the tourist brochures claim that turtles nest in their area.  Even at 80 Mile Beach we saw turtle flipper marks but we never saw a turtle.  However, as we made our way down this unmarked track and then walked over the sand dunes (following Marty's directions) we came to the beach and saw literally hundreds of turtles bobbing up and down in the shallows, no more than 20 metres from shore and some on the shore.  You could practically have walked across the water it was that thick wtih them.  It was truly amazing.  We went back later in the day to see if there was more on-shore at low tide  - and there was. 

As we were leaving we then saw an emu taking her eight chicks for a walk. And one of the just had to walk on the road the whole time. Mum and Dad felt a lot of empathy for that mother emu.

It ranked amongst the most amazing experiences any of us had had.  The adults because of the turtles, and the kids because they were allowed to eat a whole packet of chips.

I am not kidding - the water is thick wtih (very randy) turtles. 
The black dots in the water are turtles..