October 30th & 31st, 2011- Onslow-Oceanview Caravan Park

Sunday October 30th we were up early to travel the 300+ KM to Onslow. Unfortunately, the Ransleys woke up to find the rear tyre on their car flat. Well it was quite an experience to change it as the spare tyre on their Teracan turned out to be one of the most idiotic designs to release the spare tyre. Also the jacking point is well underneath the vehicle which is kind of funny because the owners manual tells you not to be under the car while changing a tyre. The only way to place the jack and operate it is if you are under the car. Genius! I joked at one point about how many Grey Nomads does it take to change a tyre on a Teracan. Quite a few especially if as mechanically minded as Stephen, Terry, and myself. Eventually we got the job done and reinflated and tested the flat tyre. Appeared to be OK so decided to use as a spare until we get to somewhere to repair/replace.

As a result we didn't get away till almost 10am which is very late by our standards. Road to Onslow along the Western Highway is very boring; as is the 80Km road off the highway to Onslow. Saw a couple of good size Willy Willys on the way which looked pretty cool with the red dust. We reckon the dirt in Northwestern Australia is even redder than the Red Centre. We checked into the Oceanview Caravan Park in Onslow at about 3:30. The caravan park is not too flash but the lady was nice and the view from our site was quite good. We setup and had an early night as we were all tired (or is that tyred) out.

Monday morning saw the 3 boys pack up and head out to 4 mile creek for some fishing. We had some luck and caught a couple of smallish Trevally and 2 Bream. Also got some catfish which we threw back and had a couple of decent fish on that broke our lines. We were able to use Terry's throw net to catch some live bait which got some good results. Quite a good spot that has some potential.

The girls went for a long walk while we were gone down the beach to the wharf and then back along a beautiful boardwalk. They have a beautiful Anzac Memorial facing the sea which the sun will shine through on Anzac morning.

The afternoon saw all of us but Terry take a drive out to Old Onslow. Not our best investment in time as we travelled some 90 KM return (half of which was unsealed) to see not very much. Only the old police/gaol left. Lots of white signs showing where such and such building was located. All overgrown with weed and lots of garbage. Waste of time. There was a number of nice looking free camps along the river on the way there. We had a good laugh on the way back about what a waste of a trip it was. Lots of construction for gas pipelines etc in the area.

Onslow itself is not much of a town and not that well kept. It is becoming another mining/gas town very quickly so both caravans are full of workers. Wouldn't be a bad place to own some rental property as it is growing quickly because of the new gas project; but probably won't be a very nice place to live unless you work for the mines. We can say we have seen it but don't plan on coming back anytime soon. We probably wouldn't have stopped but was too long a trip for our group from Point Smith to Exmouth in one day (600Km). We did find a nice free camp some 70KM past the Onslow turnoff which we would recommend for future travellers.

Sandra and Carol were up early Tuesday morning to get a couple of beautiful sunrise pictures over the beach where we camped.