After leaving Broome we headed south to Eighty Mile beach for the night. The weather was hot and when we stopped for a fuel refill we were in the hottest temperature we have encountered so far - 46 degrees.... thank go we were moving on!!!
Eightly Mile Beach was very pretty. No swimming as there are too many sea snakes and reef sharks too close to the shoreline. Zali loved collecting shells as we walked along the beach and we had a great time back at the van polishing them up so they don't lose their shine. This was a tip from Colleen, a grandma from Tasmania, who took a sudden liking to Zali as she was the same age as her own grandchildren back at home.
From Eighty Mile Beach we headed further south to Port Hedland. After being turned away from our first choice of the Big 4, we ended up in a park in South Hedland for the first of our two night stay. Luckily for Zali, we were camped for the night next to Colleen, who shared with Zali many of the thousands of shells she has collected on her travels over the past 20 months and Zali came away with an even bigger stash of shells to store in our van.... great!! It was lovely to see the interaction Zali had with Colleen and the amazement and belief in her eyes in everything she was told about the types of shells she was looking at and where they came from. Who would have thought shells could be so interesting!!! While in Port Hedland, we took a tour of BHP's Iron Ore processing facility. The facility is in the town centre and is massive. After overcoming the shock we had to be completely covered up for the tour in the extreme heat (in case we got left at the plant during the tour, they didn't want us to get sunburnt, but don't worry about heat stroke!!). Everything is on such a grand scale...... trains that range from 3.66km to 7.353km (world record), they fill boats (mainly from Asia) with 200 tonnes of iron ore in less than 12 hours before they send them on their way and they export 178 million tonnes out of the port per year. We all found the tour fascinating!! We also found the cost of housing in the area extreme - $2500 per week for your average 3 bedroom house..... and we thought Sydney was expensive!!
Karratha was the next stop on our tour. After a look around Dampier and Point Samson, we settled for an afternoon of snorkelling and relaxing at Honeymoon Cove before a late lunch and some refreshments at the local tavern. We were disappointed not be to get close enough to the port, as it is a restricted access area.
The next day of our trip saw us head back towards Port Hedland as we joined the road to Newman. To break up the 600km trip we stayed half way at Auski Road House. This saw us arrive in Newman at lunchtime on the Sunday. This inland mining town is home to BHP's Mt Whaleback - the biggest iron ore mine in the world and provides BHP's Port Hedland facility with all the iron ore. We had planned to complete a tour of the mine, but we were told at the Visitor's Centre that Zali was too young to join the tour, so Pete did the tour on his own the next morning. The size of the trucks, the mine, the workforce and the cost of the whole operation really is astronomical. Amongst other amazing facts, the cost of each tyre on the huge trucks (like Pete is sitting in during the slideshow) is $30000 and they only last 9-12 months!!
From Newman we headed to Karijini National Park. We spent two nights in Dales Gorge campground and visited the magnificent and refreshing Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool. Peter also took the more difficult walk down to the spectacular Circular Pool and then the next day we drove the 'smooth' dirt road 100 kilometre round trip into Weano Gorge to view where the gorges converge at the amazing Oxer and Junction Pool lookouts.
After that it was on to Tom Price the 'top town in WA' due to the highest peak - Mount Newman. The mountain is only accessible by 4WD so instead we drove again on a very 'smooth' dirt road to visit the superb winding gorge and swimming area at Hamersley Gorge. We loved Karijini NP and will definitely be back in the future.
From Tom Price we drove 350 km to a roadhouse at Nanutarra for an overnight rest only and then it was off for the final 280 km into Exmouth. This will be home for the next eight to ten nights as we relax and swim in the majestic turquoise waters of the soon to be World Heritage Listed Ningaloo Reef in the Cape Range National Park. If the snorkelling and pristine waters at the close to Exmouth Bundegi Beach are anything to go by it should be very tough to take! We just have to make sure that we evade hitting the native and wild emus that roam the streets of Exmouth and keep our eyes peeled for Western Brown snakes (one of the world's most venomous) that prevail in the area and we should have a great time... a 'whale of a time' so to speak as we have already spotted humpbacks moving along the coast and turtles wading close to the shoreline in our first two days........
We have hit the half way mark of our trip. In this time, we have travelled over 15000km, have stayed under budget (though I am yet to hit the shops in Perth) and have only had one major disagreement. Not a bad effort!!!!
Love to all and hope everyone is well,
Ange, Pete and Zali
xxx
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