Day 82 13/06/2011 Eighty Mile Beach – Port Hedland

Day 82 13/06/2011 Eighty Mile Beach – Port Hedland

It was with a level of delight, I must confess, that we left Eighty Mile Beach.  Zac again went down to the beach this morning joining about thirty other people trying to catch what appears to be the rather elusive Threadfin Salmon…..because from all reports there were not any fish caught this morning.

We hit the road early and headed to Port Hedland, we had decided not to stop in at Pardoo Station for the night as the wind was not due to drop for another few days so we thought it best not to park ourselves on the coast for a while. 

The drive to Port Hedland was uneventful, and could be described as slightly boring, the highlights being the occasional cow on the side of the road and some sand dunes we could see in the distance. We had planned only to stop at Port Hedland to get groceries and maybe check out some of the world’s longest trains and the port. We headed to the information centre and got the times for a ship leaving port, sailing to Taiwan, the kids were full of questions about the ship, it’s cargo, where was Taiwan and what was the role of the tug boats.  Pete and I answered the questions as best we could and the bits we didn’t know we just made up!!  The kids are certainly getting a chequered education at the moment. It was good though for them to see the ship and the role of the little tug boats.

Port Hedland is a pretty uninteresting town and not really set up for tourists, it is clearly apparent that the mining resource boom negates the need to cater to the grey nomads and other holiday makers around the town.  After getting supplies we headed out of town stopping to have a look at the salt mines, these were located just on the edge of town. 

We decided that we would camp just out of Port Hedland in a free roadside camp.  Tomorrow we head to Karijini National Park for a few days.