On the June long weekend, Glen and I joined a Rotary-organised charter flight and tour up to Karratha to explore the Pilbara Coast. Like most West Australians, neither Glen nor I had ever visited this part of the State, and as we’d had such a good time on the Broome trip with some of the same people and the same organisers, we were keen to give it a shot. My sister and her boyfriend also came too.

About 100 of us packed onto an airplane on Friday afternoon for the 1.5 hour-flight north, after which we were taken by bus to Dampier for a sunset cruise in the harbour. The boat had only arrived in Dampier two weeks before from Sydney and we were the first paying group to go out on it.

We bought drinks, ate the finger food (the poor waitress had to force her way through hungry people on the lower levels to get to the top to feed more hungry people, but in the end most of us had eaten enough), made new friends and chatted to some old ones, then sailed back into port to drive back to Karratha and check in to the hotel.

Accommodation was good, clean, and comfortable. We put our luggage in our rooms and then went in search of food. We first opted to eat at the hotel restaurant but seeing as it was busy (with our group) and there were only one or two staff, we high-tailed it for a Chinese restaurant nearby.

Google said it was open until 9pm and we arrived at 8pm, the six of us (me, Glen, Donna, Callum, Damon and Justin) the only people there. The owners looked like they wanted to leave, but relented and let us stay. We ordered food, it was as expected for where we were. I don’t think I ate much. We left, sated enough, and went off to bed for an early night.

Millstream Chichester National Park

Saturday we packed into one of two buses and set off for Millstream Chichester National Park, definitely the highlight destination of our trip to the Pilbara. First stop was a lookout at Mount Herbert which gave us a good view of a land that was surprisingly green. There were also a lot of Desert Peas in bloom, their redness attracting a lot of us.

From Mount Herbert we went to Python Pool, a breathtakingly beautiful underground-spring-fed pool surrounded by red rock cliffs. The water was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING but it was a real high point for me.

We had morning tea, then got back into the bus for a drive to the Homestead, which wasn’t all that exciting, before going to Deep Reach, another watering hole, for a swim and some lunch.

Deep Reach had a metal staircase to help you get in and out of the water, but a lot of – me included – slipped on the bottom slimy sleep to plunge into the deep water below. This water wasn’t as cold as Python Pool.

We had lunch provided, chowed down, then went off to another lookout for a spectacular view, again over surprisingly green countryside, before getting back in the bus and driving back to Karratha, our day done.