Ahhhh........Big trucks, bigger ships and even bigger trains. Hunter's territory!

Hi again.

With our legal limit of sea shells on baord (had to tell the boys that, or they would still be collecting), we said goodbye to Eighty Mile Beach and headed down the road to civilization (there's a debate waiting to happen there) and spend a few nights at Port Hedland (essentially as we were out of supplies and urgent need to restock).

Port Hedland is essentially a working town, with it's main purpose being to support the miniing industry in the export of iron ore (mined and trucked up from Newman just down the road) to countries such as China and Japan.

Other than spending a small fortune on restocking the caravan, the main highlight of our visit was the opportunity to get super close to some of the massive cargo ships as they docked to load. It's hard to appreciate just how big these ships are when they are kilometres out to sea, but at Port Hedland, as the ships need to negotiate a small channel to get into dock, it allows you to get within a few metres as they pass by.

For the 'un-educated' they are a few metres short of 300, or (for the benefit of some of our readers, won't mention who?), they are equal to 2000 stubbies (or simply a few weeks supplies) when stacked longways.

Not much else to report from Port Hedland, other than;

- the popular form of transport around town seems to be either massive road train or Hilux ute. (making it easy to spot local v tourist!)

- the must have fashion accessory is the flouro yellow or orange shirt. (apparently they sell like hot cakes up here!)

- Port Hedland is also famous for producing salt, and a massive man made hill (which makes the bulldozers which drive up and over look small) can be found just out side of town. One can only hope they clean the salt prior to packaging !

That's all from Port Hedland, or as the locals say, speak soon!