Broome to Port Hedland via Eighty Mile Beach

Day 75—Saturday, 7th September (Broome to Stanley Rest Area 211kms)

Today being election day and hopefully, change of government day we again made an unhurried departure. We’d decided that instead of driving all the way to Eighty Mile Beach, we’d stop for a free camp at the Stanley Rest Area. So, quite a short drive and uneventful, arriving about noon. We found a very large area with a sealed circular drive, shelters with table and benches dotted around the centre and a couple of toilet blocks. The area may have originally been part of Nita Downs Station, which is now only a ruin, because we found large concrete slabs, one in the centre, big enough for several sheds. We had arrived early and had the pick of the area and chose another smaller concrete slab with a nice shady tree in one corner, which the Patrol fitted under. In the end, it didn’t get much busier, with a couple of tenters arriving just before sundown, followed by a motorhome and finally another caravan.

Soon we were very comfortable and sitting in the shade under the awning, enjoying lunch, followed by a lazy afternoon of peace and quiet. We had been surprised to find the rest area so quiet, with only two other sets of campers. Maybe, being election day, campers wanted to be in touch and there was zero mobile reception here, ditto television. We did have radio reception and enjoyed listening to Freemantle overcome the odds down at Geelong. After that match, ABC switched to the tally room and we couldn’t follow the other elimination final, between Port Adelaide and Collingwood. It was quite strange, listening to the election results and knowing the outcome, before the polls had even closed here in WA!

On Our Concrete Pad at Stanley Rest Area

Soon though it was time for dinner and out came the Baby Q and the boerevors. Helen made up a fresh salad and we enjoyed it all under the awning. Just a lazy day and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I should explain the boerevors. This is a South African sausage which, over there, is made from game, mostly Sprinbok. As Perth has a large South African population, local smallgoods makers have met a demand and although made ith beef, all the spices are there and it does taste good. We’ve seen this WA brand at home, in Coles at Pakenham but not regularly, whereas in WA we’ve seen it in Coles each visit. Problem is, the lack of Coles stores, I think I’ve mentioned this previously.

Day 76—Sunday, 8th September (Stanley to Eighty Mile Beach 163kms)

Because of our early stop yesterday, there remained only another short drive today, to the beach. We stopped for fuel at Sandfire Roadhouse and a stroll around. They had a comprhensive display on the effects of the 2009 cyclone that centred on the area, causing huge damages. The cyclone also affected Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park with much damage there too.

Sandfire Roadhouse

So we were soon settled on a nice site at Eighty Mile Beach, after a relatively smooth 10kms of gravel. We were given a site near the beachfront, for a three night stay and got set up with awning and shade walls and the mat which we’d not used since the bush fire at Kununurra. All very comfortable. It was noticable how short the side shade wall was, first time used since the chassis was raised. But it gave us shade from the hot afternoon sun. This park was as busy as any since Katherine! Lots of Westies come up here for the fishing, staying weeks. As long as you come prepared, theirs not much to spend money on. The shop bakes bread daily and pies too and stocks the usual goods for it's type and also a good range of fishing gear!

Our First Green Grass for a while

Day 77—Monday, 9th September (Eighty Mile Beach)

There’s not a lot to do here but vege out, unless you’re a fisherman. The parade down to the beach commenced each morning around 10.30am, lasting until high tide approached and fish were caught!

Fishing Frenzy on Eighty Mile Beach

Well, there is one other activity, shell collecting. We have never seen a beach anywhere with so much shell, miles and miles and at low tide, close to a mile out as well. So we veged out. A bit of reading, a bit of walking on the beach a bit of snoozing, all good stuff. I think yours truly did most of the snoozing.

A Shell Fossicker at Sundown

Another Ocean Sunset, Something you Could Never get Tired of Watching

It’s interesting to note that, we have covered just on 10,000kms so far and we’re still about 1600kms north of Perth plus the breadth of the continent from home. It’s beginning to dawn on us just the same, that we’re more or less on the way home. When we leave this great spot on Wednesday morning, heading for Port Hedland, we’ll then move inland through Newman and on down through “wildflower country” and eventually through Kalgoorlie and on to the Nullarbor. This will leave plenty of WA for visiting on a future trip.

Day 78—Tuesday, 10th September (Eighty Mile Beach)

More of the same, just enjoying the rest. we have radio and TV reception and very irritating Telstra, which seems to get better in the evening but even then is very flakey. We’ve learned that better reception is to be found, back towards the park entrance in a bit of a hill, so might check that out later.

A Farewell, Backward Look at Eighty Mile Beach

Day 79—Wednesday, 11th September (80 Mile Beach to Port Hedland 252kms)

All good things come to an end, so they say and we have to move on. The only thing missing here, is mobile phone reception. Mobile reception equals internet connection, equals contact with loved ones and although during our current travel, we've had periods of "blackout", it's only been for a couple of days. Here, we've met folks who were here for five to seven weeks. Couldn't do that!

Anyway, we were off by 9.00am, taking it slowly over the 10kms of gravel road to the highway.

We stopped for morning tea at Pardoo Roadhouse, noticing as we progressed a gradual change in the country, still very dry as always at this time but there seemed to be more greenery. Not what you'd call feed if you come from South Gippsland but greener. Even so, I can't remember seeing any stock.

We passed another of those large rest areas which are designated 24hrs stops, this one on the De Grey River, there was even water in the river! we would love to have stopped here, we'd have had plenty of company as already at midday, there were half a dozen or more rigs. I'm not sure why we didn't stop!

Shortly, we had arrived and booked in to the Black Rock Caravan Park in South Hedland. South Hedland grew as a result of lack of space in Port Hedland to house the growing population. We discovered that Port Hedland has a Big4 park but only after the fact. This park really is not a caravan park in the sense of travelling caravaners but in fact a township for workers, catering for the fly-in, fly-out section of the workforce. It seems that the whole Pilbara area is populated by workers in fluoro shirts, driving utes with orange  lights on the roof! Many of them living in cabins or permanent vans or even in their own caravans in the park.

Anyway, here we are and after lunch, we went for a drive into South Hedland and did some grocery shopping at Coles. After that and a short drive around, we returned to the van and dinner. Tomorrow we will explore the port.

Our $44.00 Patch of Red Dirt at Black Rock

Day 80—Thursaday, 12th September (Port Hedland)

Did I mention, it's getting cooler? Today's top temp forecast is 29, compared to 39 where we've come from in Broome and Kununurra. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Soon we were heading into Port Hedland. No kidding, this place is like one gigantic construction site. Road works and site preparation work going on all around. So much for the decline in mining.

First call, down to Marapikurrinya Park, otherwise known as Finucane lookout. The lookout, overlooks the BHP ore loading berths and we were able to watch as one ship was being loaded, while another, obviously loaded, waited for the tide. We were soon to learn how important tides were in the history of the port.
We also counted a dozen or more carriers waiting for port entry.

Cape Odyssey Being Loaded

A Fully Loaded London Courage Waits For High Tide

This part of what might be called a twin township, Port Hedland, looked and felt very commercial. All the big banks were represented here on Wedge Street. So we kept compartmentalising the two into Port the commercial centre and South, the retail centre.

Next we visited the museum, volunteer run by the local Historical Society. Here we enjoyed a good browse through the exhibits and some very interesting information from Julie, who just happened to be the VP of the Historical Society. Julie also shot holes in our twin city theory. Port Headland has all the retail outlets you'd expect and existed before South Hedland came into existence in the late sixties. Just like the other small museums, visited in our travels, this one was full of interesting facts about the town and it's history.

There as also an open air museum on transport, with exhibits of old machinery used in the town's early days. Of interest, were bulldozers made out of WWII surplus tanks and other equipment bought from the Snowy Authority when they'd outlived their usefulness on that project.

Next we visited a couple of lookouts and Point Cooke. It was at Point Cooke that we discovered the Big4 park and took a drive through to check it out. Yep, wrong park again. Meanwhile the lookouts gave us a great view of the sea lane into the port and we watched as a couple of tugs shepherded a great, low in the water, fully loaded ore carrier, out of the harbour, on its way to who knows where.

An Ore Carrier on the Way Out

While Many Wait Port Entry

On the way back to the van, we found a huge retail shopping centre, this one complete with Woolworths and Harvey Norman stores. we took advantage of the Woolworth/Caltex servo outside to fill up for next stage of the journey southwards. Then it was back to Black Rock for dinner, some telly and then bed.