The distance between stops from Broome down to Dampier on the highway were long, hot and tedious, however our first stop was off the highway at 80 mile beach , a beautiful spot 10 miles in on a good gravel road.
The scenery was fantastic and the beach with its huge tides interesting. The sand turned to a clay silt at low tide on the waters edge.We took some amazing beach pictures coming into sunset, found lots of shells and watched the shells with live animals inside move around in the sand and make some unusual patterns. Later at night the crabs came out and run around the sand pretending to be dead when approached. The sunset was amazing as shown in the photos below.
80 mile beach
We had spent two nights at 80 mile beach, with the next stop a free camp at de grey river. The generator came out to combat the heat and run the air conditioning.
Our next stop was Port Hedland but on the way we stopped at Pardoo and Cape Kerandren, where we saw turtles swimming by and even though we would have liked to stayed here the midges in the mangroves made us move on.
Port Hedland is the biggest export port in Australia, where 3000 ships use the port each year. We stayed at the caravan space at the local golf club , dusty and a bit noisy but much cheaper than all the other parks which were quite expensive for a mining town. the town was very divided with the town , beachside areas and sth hedland being long distances apart.
We went on the Seafarers tour , which gave us info about the Port and the role of the seafarers club that looks after the seaman on the ships. A tour around the Port allowed us to view the huge ships up close while the ships crew were picked up and taken ashore, the seaman mostly from china.The ships transfer iron ore from Australia to other countries , mostly China.
The area where most of the iron ore is transferred is from Finucane island, so Finucane being Johns name the area was explored.
We visited Cemetery beach were the turtle hatch their young from Oct to April and viewed the town from the lookouts and beach areas around town.
We looked at the free outdoor Don Rhodes Mining Museum Park, with many old mining equipment on show.
Iron ore is the main export but also salt is an export and salt is mined here in the salt flats.
Marble Bar
Next we did an overnight trip to Marble Bar, a detour from Port Hedland into the Pilbara region, the hottest town in Australia. We left the van in Port Hedland and opting to stay at the local pub, play pool and relax with a few drinks.
At Marble Bar we also visited the local swimming holes that have an amazing rock formations of the rock Jasper, which looks like Marble hence the towns name.
A air conditioning company was shooting there ads here and we were extremely interested in their low wattage units for our canal boat. Another story for a later date.
The scenery into the heart of the Pilbara area.
Next stop Point Samson, a pretty beach town, where we spent 2 nights, played pool at the tavern , visited the beach areas and lookouts, and had a swim at honeymooners cove which was ideal.
We visited a nearby ghost town of Cossack, it had some old building and was originally a mining town that exported the mother of pearl shells.
Next town we explored was the Iron ore town of Wickham, a mining town and it is close to here that more trains bring in the iron ore from further out in the pilbara. The trains are 236 carriages , 2:5 kms long.
Another fact noted is that the trucks used in the mines are 400 tonnes when laden.
Then on to Dampier, the home of ‘red dog ‘and another iron ore Port. Here we met a couple travelling with their children, Julia and David which we ran into a few more time after this.
We have noticed that the travellers on the road with us now are no longer grey nomads but couples with young children and europeans in wizz bangers, a name give to small hirer vehicles.
We went to Hearsons cove a great bay for swimming and a short walk into aborginal art region on the Burrup Peninsula, thought to be the Oldest art in Australia.
the gas works at Dampier Port
On our way to south after Dampier, we stop at a river side area and watched the WA black swans before ending up at 40 mile beach for a free camp night, the ocean breeze meant we didnt need the air con but the flies were terrible.
Onslow was a 80 km detour of the Hwy and was our next stop and with the 15 kms of roadworks is just not worth the visit. The only interest was the salt mines and flats and sighting the gas platforms off shore and a work platform under tug power .
This ends this blog Oct 31 , next travelling further south on the WA coastline.
