Thursday 5th May 2016

We say farewell this morning to Red Dog, Dampier & Karratha. A short drive sees us in Port Sampson. Port Sampson has a marine sanctuary along one part of its coast line, it then wraps around the rocks into a small man made marina. 400 meters of shore, just off the entrance to the marina is a ship wreck. Beside the marina there are mangroves where the boys put out their crab nets, we are hoping for mud crabs. There is also a large eagle that has built his/her nest on top of a light pole.

The boy's try fishing at the marina; their catches are not keepers today. However, their hunter gather skills (or their charms!) still prevail, with local fishermen giving them some fish, two black snappers and two big pieces of grey mackerel. (The mackerel was voted number 1 in taste by all).

Friday 6th May 2016

The crab nets caught a sting ray, of approx. 40 cm in diameter, we released it. Today we drive onto Port Hedland. Unfortunately for us the skies open up as we travel, only light rains. The locals are rapt as they have not had rain for ages (6 plus months).

We explore a bit around the waterfront of Port Hedland. The mining ships are again in close to shore, they are enormous! There are also massive mountains of salt ready for export. The visitor centre has a chart that records the ships currently being loading in dock, 10 are headed to China, the other one is off to Japan. Their loads vary from 157,000 Tonne to 250,000 Tonne.

We want to get a few more kms completed today so we push on. We spend the night at the Pardoo Roadhouse Caravan Park. We are glad to have stopped as the rain has really set in heavy and it rains solid for a good couple of hours.

Saturday 7th May 2016

The rain has stopped, yea! We are on the road by 7am. By mid-morning we are driving into a massive black sky. We pull over to sit out most of the rain, as it so heavy.

By 12pm we pull into Barn Station, a Cattle station come Caravan Park. Some of the regulars have been coming here for 4 to 5 months a year for the past 13 years. It's right on the coast line where the eroded red clay cliffs meet the sea, yet the beach is mainly yellow sand. Soon after we set up camp, the rain opens up again, it rains for approx. 1.5 hours. We put some buckets to catch the rain off the shade awnings, they fill within minutes. It's very hot and sticky. Cam and I decide it's time to play in the rain and have a good time cooling off. We were too uncool for Lach to come and join us!

After the rain we explored down on the beach. We could see channels where the blue sea had turned rusty red with the run off from the cliffs.

Sunday 8th May 2016.

It rained a little over night last night. The overcast sky keeps the sun away, and keeps the heat down, however it's still hot and muggy.

Brad is a successful fisherman today, catching a Queen Fish off the beach front. The fish has already captured a hook in its mouth and is very skinny.

We have a lazy day around camp and the beach. In the afternoon the boys and I explore along the beach. They are very keen to check in on all the fishermen fishing from the beach. Some cat fish and a black tip reef shark had been caught. The boys were there to see another fishermen land a gummy shark. This fisherman was not as knowledgeable as the boys, they taught him how to bleed the shark, clean and fillet it. In return they were offered some fish (their hunter gather charms prevail again!).

Tonight, it is the most awesome sun set we have seen to date! It set into a deep red, just like the dirt leading to it.

Monday 9th May 2016

Today we drive 140kms into Broome. We are keen to check in with the visitors centre and find out the condition of Gibb River Road after the rains. We learn that Gibb River Road is currently closed and some people are stranded along the road. There are big fines for those that drive on the roads., so they have to stay where they are. Mount Barnett Roadhouse is cut off and evidently one side of the water are out of food. Hopefully the rains have passed and the roads are drying out and people have not been out chewing up the roads. Promisingly, there is no rain today, despite the sky's showing potential of rain.

This afternoon we explore around Broome and Cable Beach. From the beach of Cable Beach we see what looks like to be a large shark or two thrashing around for a good 10 minutes. Some idiot fisherman wades out chest height into the water and starts throwing his line (the fisherman is not Brad!).

Tomorrow we plan to be up early tomorrow to find the dinosaur footprints that are fossilised off the coastline at low tide. We will then continue north up towards Cape Leveque.