Karratha - 4-5 September

With the car and van washed - yet again to get the Pilbara red dust removed - we caught up with Stephanie and Simon - how wonderful it is to see family, especially when you've been on the road for nearly 11 weeks.

We spent our day in Karratha looking for rock art, in the form of petroglyphs at Murujuga National Park on the Burrup Peninsula near Dampier.  They are the most stunning and visible evidence of past human activity in the Dampier Archipelago.  The density of motifs and the diversity of the subject matter make this a significant body of art on both a national and international scale, however, they are really difficult to find - there aren't any signs pointing visitors in the right direction, other than the "Deep Gorge" sign at the entrance to the Gorge and the "Stories from the Stones" signs. A text message from Meg and Geoff today said they felt the authorities didn't want us to find them!  They looked and looked but weren't very successful.

 It is estimated there are between 500,000 to 1,000,000 petroglyphs in the Burrup Peninsula area, with approximately 1,000 at the Deep Gorge site.

Murujuga in the local Aboriginal language is thought to mean, "hip bone sticking out", referring to the peninsula's alignment on the Pilbara coast.



"Stories from the Stones"




The area is considered to host the largest concentration of ancient rock art in the world, possibly dating back more than 30,000 years.  The rock art images are petroglyphs, not paintings, and are made by removing the outer surface of the rock by one of several different techniques - including pounding, abrading and scoring.  The more recent petroglyphs in the Dampier Archipelago include a wide range of subjects including fish and other marine animals, human figures and representations of economic activities such as hunting.

 In the afternoon we continued to explore the Dampier Peninsula and headed up a mountain to get some pictures of the surrounding area.  By chance we met the Harbour Master for the Port of Karratha who took us to a little-known spot where we could view the harbour and many of the port facilities.  He told us about his life and how he had come to be the Harbour Master of Karratha from working his way up through the ranks of a sea captain in India to a sea captain in New Zealand to a sea captain in Australia and progressing to his current position.  We chatted for over an hour together with him offering to give us a tour of the facility tomorrow, however, we'll be on the road heading south.

Stephanie and Simon put together a picnic and we headed for Hearson's Cove for a BBQ roast lamb dinner - delicious and in such a beautiful part of the Peninsula with the sun setting, it gave us a spectacular finish to our magnificent time in Karratha.



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