(A delay in posting due to 2 long days of driving and no internet at 80 mile beach - see later).
A long hot drive on long straight roads, little traffic and nothing much else! We left Exmouth early in the morning passing RAAF Learmouth on the way out.
We
turned left along the 79km development road to connect once again with the
North West Coastal Highway heading north.
There was next to no traffic. You
realise you are in a remote area when the truckies start waving to you as they
pass. When we stopped to change drivers just before the
junction of the two roads, the driver of a cattle truck tooted at us and his
mate leaned out of the window waving madly.
I guess they get bored too. At
road works to fix one of the many cattle grids across the highway, all of the workers stopped work and waved as we
went by!
As we travelled, I noticed
some sheep in the scrub. Terry argued
that they couldn’t have been sheep – I was wrong – they were wild goats. After disagreeing for some time, I conceded
that they were ‘goats…..... in woolly coats!’
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| Goats in Wooly Coats! |
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| If you look closely you can see the Willy Willy crossing through the scrub (also known in other countries as dust devils) |
We travelled on into the Pilbara region – this is one of the main mining areas for iron ore.
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| Another remote Roadhouse (but this one has accommodation for miners behind it - see next picture) |
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| Opposite the roadhouse - the country is beginning to change - not so flat |
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| In the wet season a vast part of this area gets flooded -this map was at a roadhouse showing which roads are open |
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| Clouds! |
After a very long drive through very dry and
remote country, we finally reached Karratha and its sister town of Dampier which
is the port area for exports. From here
they ship large quantities of iron ore and salt to China & Asia etc. The town’s major employer is Rio Tinto.
Other companies are Rio
Tinto Dampier Salt Co. and Woodside Petroleum (gas). Salt is mined in this area – they started
mining salt in 1972 and they now export 4.2 million tonnes of salt per year.
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| Dampier |
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| The port at Dampier |
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| Loading areas in the port with salt in the background |
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| A Road Train in Karratha |
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| Our caravan was parked right next to the Camp Kitchen -very handy! Haven't I trained him well? |
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