After a couple of days in Broome, we left the Kimberley and began our trek southwards along the Western Australian coast.
Our brief stop of at Eighty Mile Beach provided a welcome rest and time spent doing nothing. This beach should really be called "220km beach" because that's how long it is. A long expanse of fine white sand covered with seashells.
We had several lovely walks along the firm sand - it's firm enough to drive on - collecting shells. We can only imagine how big the large cone shell must have been from the size of the pieces we found. At high tide we joined in with the common activity - fishing. No luck (our usual story) although Cherryl did almost land a good sized fish.
In the evening we were treated to more beautiful west coast sunsets.
We stayed at the Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park, a large park with lovely grassy sites. There is a War Memorial which has been dedicated to those who served in all wars, particularly the Vietnam War of the 1960s/1970s.
After our restful stay at the beach we travelled further south to Port Hedland. This is a real surprise packet. Unfortunately we've only got 2 nights here but we'll definitely be back because there's plenty to see.
The central town area has been well developed with plenty of gardens and there are sculptures in many of the town's parks. Several buildings have painted murals on their walls. There is an art exhibition on at the Courthouse Gallery, near the Information Centre, which features local artists.
Port Hedland, population around 30,000, is a busy place with it's main business centred around the Pilbara's iron ore mining industry. The main companies are BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group. Gina Rhinehart's Hancock Prospecting, and Andrew Forrest's FMG are building some of new berths at the port. In a few years the port's capacity will almost double. The unfinished floating wharf will probably still be in the same state with its "naked" pylons for some time to come.
One of THE things to do here is to watch the huge ships coming in and out of the harbour. The shipping movements are kept up to date on a board at the Information Centre.
Many of these enormous ships can carry in excess of 200,000 tonnes of iron ore, which is mostly bound for China.
There are about 40-50 ships in the outer harbour just waiting to be called in for loading which takes 24-36 hours.
It costs $100,000 per day for a ship to be waiting and some ships wait up to 10 days before they are loaded.
The difference between loaded and unloaded/loading ships is obvious by how low the loaded ships sit in the water.
As well as the big miners' iron ore, Rio Tinto have evaporative salt plants and salt is also shipped out of Port Hedland. We saw several mountains of salt as we drove around. General goods, like railway sleepers, are shipped in.
We got up close and personal with the ships in the harbour when we did the launch tour from the Seafarers Mission. This excellent tour gave us an insight into the activities of the Mission and the lives of the seafarers who man these huge vessels. As our launch sailed around the harbour, we picked up seafarers heading for shore from some of the ships. Definitely a recommended tour if you're visiting Port Hedland.
Our time in Port Hedland was made especially pleasant as we met up with some fellow Bushtracker caravan owners who live here in Port Hedland. We spent many very pleasant hours in Richard and Margaret's company and we're looking forward to catching up with them at the Bushtracker Owner Group Annual Muster near Geraldton in a few weeks.
We're back on the move tomorrow, further south towards Dampier.
No comments:
Post a Comment