Exmouth to Port Headland (805 km)

This morning we woke up pretty early to get out on the road for the longest drive of the trip. We packed all our stuff in Bessie and were on the road by 7. We drove for a couple of hundred kilometers before stopping at the Nanutarra Roadhouse to fill up and have some breakfast.

Back on the road, Elyse took the wheel for a couple of hundred kms. The drive was pretty mundane to start with but soon we were driving through an area with beautiful ranges. Elyse took us to the next roadhouse where we swapped drivers again. Ross drove and we ended up in Cossack, just outside of Roebourne where we stopped for lunch by a mangrove estuary. It was a nice spot to stop and take a break.

As we had been traveling through the Karratha area, we passed a lot of Aboriginal settlements – Elyse’s first time seeing true Aboriginals. The drive from Cossack to Port Headland was pretty dull but as we came into Headland, we had to stop at train crossing for an ore train that went on forever. We waited about 15 minutes for the train to pass. We were pretty excited to almost be at our destination.

Our first stop was Woolworths to pick up some supplies for dinner before heading to the Cooke Point Caravan Park. We hit our first snag of the trip when we tried to check in. They had our booking for the night before and the park was completely booked out for tonight. I had stuffed up the dates!!! They were incredibly nice about it though and managed to find us a spot in the car washing bay which they no longer use due to water restrictions. They even supplied us with a power cable that would reach to the power source so we could charge Bessie.

After all the negotiations to get us a bay, it was after dark by the time we finally got set up. We enjoyed a beer just as the sun set then showered, donned PJ’s and got busy making dinner. Prawns and salad for dinner followed by numerous cocktails and obviously many rounds of Shithead was how we spent the night. Good times!!