Day 61 - Port Hedland

Kate:  Now I remember why I loved Broome so much and not sleeping in a caravan park.  We were all woken at 6.00am to the lovely LOUD sounds of the grey nomads next door banging, zipping, unzipping, banging as they packed up.  It's times like these when I curse and wish I'd let the kids scream and have tantrums the night before .... but that would be bad karma......  So I got up and walked about 70 miles of the 80 mile beach and came back feeling much better.

Back onto the road and into the Pilbara region (the size of Victoria) known for its rugged coast, deep gorges and massive mining projects.  We hit Port Hedland with Steve on a high.  I think either the R&R in Broome had gone to his head or he just really gets off on big, dusty, industrial towns!!  BHP's Iron Ore facility is right in the middle of town.  Huge piles of red dirt.  As a result,everything you see in town is covered in a layer of red dust  (and heaps of iron statues dot the town - I assume BHPs attempt to help "beautify" the town).

A trip to Port Hedland is not complete until you sit on a bridge and wait to see one of the iron ore trains drive past - kilometres in length.  And then you drive to the port and watch the huge ships being directed out of the Port by multitudes of pilot boats.  It was actually all pretty interesting.

Tomorrow a tour of BHP then onto Karajini NP for a couple of days of no power/no water camping. 

BHP Iron Ore Processing facility

Watching the ships leave port

Our lunch venue - the 1920's Silver Star train