Day 44 01/08/2013 Barn Hill Station to Port Hedland.
After breakfast we went for a walk along the beach. There were some lovely rock formations and interesting stones. Many of the rocks contained large amounts of iron ore. We saw some terns fishing.......and a few other people and dogs, out walking!
Once back at camp, we packed up and were on our way.
Today we covered over 500km.......and most of the route was uninteresting!
We stopped at the Sandfire Roadhouse to drink our coffee, and at the Pardoo Roadhouse to get fuel and to make and eat our lunch.
Our first choice of caravan park in Port Hedland had no vacancies, so we had to make do with a poor second best. The actual spot that we are camped in is not too bad...we have no very near neighbours.....but the caravan park is in a very noisy location near a main road and also near the railway line which takes the iron ore trains from the port to the mines and back again. I have a feeling they will be going all through the night!!
Port Hedland is one of the largest and busiest iron ore ports in the world. The trains,(which can be kilometres long), trundle in and out of town carrying millions of tonnes of high grade iron ore to the crusher machines, after which it is sent via conveyors to the waiting ships.
Late this afternoon we drove to a park near the harbour entrance and watched one of the ships leave the port under the guidance of the tugs, (just as we have watched the coal ships leave the port of Newcastle).
There is also a salt industry here and it was interesting to see the high mounds of salt, also waiting to be loaded onto ships. If the mining boom is meant to be over, as 'they' say, well 'they' forgot to tell Port Hedland!
Back at camp we cooked dinner and had a quiet evening. Hopefully it won't be too noisy overnight!