Point Sampson

17 August 2013

Point Sampson

I am currently camped at the Sampson Caravan Park some 19km from my boyhood town of Roebourne. I arrived here yesterday after heading south for the past several days. My last post was after I had departed Middle Lagoon on the Dampier Archipelago and was passing through Broome. This was the only place I could get an Internet connection. I enjoyed my time at Middle Lagoon but again did not catch any fish of significant size. Yes I did land two small flatheads but given that these fish can be caught in the Swan River, it is nothing to write home about. They came in handy for bait but nothing was biting. I did not stay in Broome on my return other than to refuel the vehicle, contact home and post the blog.

I headed south on the Broome – Port Hedland road and after 150km I stopped off at a 24 hour rest stop and set up camp. The next morning I headed off with the intention of stopping off at Pardoo Station about 300km down the road. Anyway I had a change in plan while still driving and decided to push on past Port Hedland and camp somewhere between Hedland and Roebourne. I settled on the Sherlock River which is about 60km from Roebourne. I remember as a kid coming out to Shirlock Station with dad and the family to watch a corroboree and then driving back home all in darkness and on a dirt road. Dad had a state of the art Holden EK station wagon in those days and it seemed to handle the conditions pretty well other than filling up with red dust. Anyway, the Shirlock River always seems to have water in it and it was nice to be on my own without other campers around. Mind you they were around but on the other side of the river. The only distraction was the large number of semi trailers passing over the bridge at speed at all hours of the night and I mean big trucks most with either 3 or 4 trailers attached. Of course another fantastic sunset over the river so could not help myself taking more photos.

Shirlock River

Camped on the banks

Shirlock sunset

Anyway next morning I decided to drive into Port Sampson and see if I could obtain a campsite at the old caravan park. I was aware of this site as it is the location where Dad used to bring us kids to go swimming when we lived in Roebourne. Port Sampson has the only safe swimming beach in location given that it has a reef offshore (offers some protection from sharks) and is free of mangroves. The water is blue as opposed to murky brown. Anyway I was lucky as they had one vacancy – the park itself is very small with only 20 bays and at this time of year is booked out by Perth people for several weeks to 3 months at a time. Some book their site 12 months in advance. Anyway, this park now has competition as there is a new caravan park called the Cove Caravan Park. This was my fallback if the old park was full. It does not quite have the ambience of the Sampson caravan park but it is still very close to the swimming beach.

Location opposite Sampson beach

Delux annex site with terracotta tiling

Once in I set up camp pretty quickly – it was nice to have a site that had terracotta tiles for my annex. I can walk around without getting my feet dirty - a somewhat novel experience after the Kimberley experience. Not sure why it is tiled as it is the only spot in the park to have tiles. All the other sites and common areas are brick paved so no dust – another bonus. Yesterday afternoon I set off for Karratha to have a coffee with a female work colleague from the WA Regional Education Office. Later on I met up with her and her husband at the Karratha Golf Club for a few beerss. What a far cry that place is now from when I played golf there as a young teacher in the 70s. The fairways were all mown spinifex in those days with the putting greens being oiled sand. The course is now all grassed and with the Pilbara Golf Championships being on this weekend the place was absolutely buzzing. One of the WA Senators was there to announce a $400 000 grant to the club for lawn fairways. I think her name was Pratt – bit unusual for a Senator to be announcing these things during an election but anyway it was very interesting to be there to witness.

Today is the local Sampson chilli mussel festival in the park directly opposite to where I am camped so it will be good to go over and try some of the local seafood. I could not resist dropping into the local restaurant yesterday for lunch and buying a $16 feed of two pieces of local fish and a good helping of chips, lemon and tartar sauce. Washed down with a cold beer it was just heaven after my cooking of the past few days.

Beach view from near camper site

Sampson Beach looking toward Jarman Island

Sunrise at 6.30am this morning

 Tomorrow I intend to visit the old ghost town of Cossack (about 12km away) and doing some exploration. I am particularly keen to find evidence of the old tram track (horse pulling a carriage on rail) that existed between Cossack and Roebourne in the late 1890s to turn of the century so will do a bit of walking. In those days, Cossack was the port for Roebourne. The walk is something I have wanted to do for a long time! It is nice to come back to this location – whilst I did time in Karratha as a young school teacher in the 1970s and enjoyed this time immensely, it was my time in Roebourne in the 1960s as a 9 to 11 year old boy that really shaped who I am today. My memories are all very positive of this time and my experiences in all things outdoor at this time are simply endless. I guess it still continues today. Cheers for now.