Day 106 Dampier

Time for a day-trip to Dampier and the peninsula. At first Stuart wanted to meet the in Dampier well-known Red Dog. After saying 'Hello' they liked each other immediately, so the Red Dog allowed Stuart to jump up. So we could go on to the William Dampier Lookout, where Stuart met with the red dog again. The coastline looked very nice from the lookout, so we decided to have a look, whether there is a good beach in Dampier. There is a beach, also changing rooms, car park and everything you could possibly need for a day at the beach, but there are only people who are on their way to a boat for a good reason: it is very windy...

So we went on to the Dampier Murujunga National Park. At first, we wanted to drive to a lookout and a beach nearby, but it wasn´t possible: there is big industry, mainly gas on the peninsula (which is strange given it is a national park), so all roads were closed from some point on the peninsula, so you cannot reach the lookouts and beaches pointed out on maps (even official maps from visitor information centre).

There was only one side street open which lead us to the Open Art Gallery: from far it looks like rocks put there after the oil industry has finished building their stuff, but the rocks are located there since millions of years. If you are really good in looking for aboriginal art, you can identify animals but also aboriginal tribal signs, etc. Some is better to spot, other you have to look for more closely. Was a fun time looking for animals or signs and deciding what it is you spotted...

The street then goes on to Hearson Cove, a beach with at that time of the day low tide. So went over the mud flats left by the tide out to the water, watching snails, small crabs and other animals. On the way back with the wind in the face, we realized how fast the water was flowing out and a big crab with its scissors up almost hit us, but luckily could jump out of its way fast enough...

After this relaxing day in Dampier, Stuart insisted on spending the next days with reading & planning on the next parts of the trip, because he still hasn´t seen a single koala on his way, so he wants to make sure, we know where we are going and also find a nice, dry & cool place for every night to stay even with the Australian summer school holidays coming up. So to appease Stuart, we made him some fresh pancakes and and promised to spent the next days reading & planning our ongoing trip to Perth & onwards....