Day 69, Port Hedland, WA

Eighty Mile Beach to Port Hedland is 255 kilometres, and that is todays destination.  The scenery was a little different to what we have been used to seeing.  Certainly we still have the red soil, but to our left are  sand dunes that have replaced the rocky outcrops that we have seen for most of our journey through the Kimberleys.  The scenery changed back to rocky outcrops after we passed through Pardoo and there was a sign saying "Welcome to the Pilbara".  This is mining country and if we didn't know that already, we would have been alerted quite quickly by the dozens of mining trucks, towing four trailers, that are heading in both directions, once we have passed the turnoff to Marble Bar.

Surprisingly there is also a lot of irrigation schemes underway between Broome and Port Hedland and I have read that it is the largest area of pivot irrigation in Australia.  The pivot irrigation can be seen in the distance along with bales of Rhodes Grass already waiting to be trucked out.  The scheme has been set up to "drought proof" the northern cattle industry and because of the plentiful supply of artesian water it is almost a guaranteed scheme.

We stopped at De Grey River "free camp" for a morning tea break and already at 10.00am there were caravans pulling up at the 24hr stopover.  Just over the De Grey River to our right we can see the De Grey Gold Mine.  It is a large scale, high value, near surface, gold mine.  We continued our journey along the Great Northern Highway and eventually we could see Port Hedland in the distance.

Port Hedland is an industrial town and they do not make any other claim.  It is the worlds largest bulk export port, exporting iron ore, lithium and salt. It also has the largest deep water port in the world.  One of the first things we see as we make our way to our caravan park is the huge mountains of pure white salt that apparently turn pink as the sun sets.  This afternoon we drove to Koombana Lookout and then on to Cemetery Beach Park to watch the sun set over the port.  We counted twenty three ships off shore, all waiting for their turn to be loaded and we watched a massive cargo ship make its way into port with three tugs guiding it through the channel.  

We have a couple of tours booked for our stay here, all involving the port area.  Philip is in seventh heaven.  He loves industrial ports.  Over the years we have done quite a few cruises and whenever we are docking at a port, you will always find Philip right at the very front of the ship watching the action.