Port Hedland,
Western Australia,
Australia
Saturday, October 11, 2008
We sadly left Broome but we were conscious of the need to push on, so we hit the road in search of further tropical delights. We were planning on stopping at Eighty Mile Beach, where palm trees line an endless white beach, it sounded idyllic only, when we got to the turn off, the access road was some 10 km of highly corrugated gravel road, damn those 4x4 drivers who drive far too fast on gravel roads and cause the corrugation. We took the turnoff before we realised that it was gravel and had to turn around after only a few meters as we were being shook around so much. So we made the decision to continue on and see where we got to. The drive was much the same of desert, brush and largely nothing with only a roadhouse or two to break up the journey with a Mrs. Mac pie and a fag. As the sun was beginning to drop in the sky, we came to Port Hedland where BHP, the mining company, had pretty much built the whole town for its workers. We found the only campsite that wasn't right next to the airport which happened to be a Big4, and were nearly knocked off our feet when they said that they didn't have any unpowered sites and a powered one (that we couldn't use) would cost us $42 a night - an absolute rip off, I expected gold plated taps and someone to wipe our backsides for that but no, the facilities were no better than any other we had stopped in. The sunset however, was a real treat and looked ethereal as rays of light beamed through the cloud in a arc.
The next day we stopped in the town center to get some further information on the 2 choices we had for our onward journey, one being to follow the coast and the other to head due south to Karijini National Park. The lady at tourist info said there really was no contest, we ought to head south. Before leaving we looked into the tours of the local mine, but thought BHP probably got enough money, so decided to leave this overpriced town and head on our way.
