Nomading - 80 Mile Beach Pardoo Roadhouse Port Hedland Tom Price Port Hedland - 7 - 17 August 2021

We were up early for our long drive to 80 Mile Beach; we were hoping to be there early enough to get a powered site for two nights. We were worried about fuel on the way as the distance here was just outside what our tank can manage, we carry a 20-litre fuel container with us so we thought we would make it but we prefer to find a servo on the way. We were very happy when we arrived at Sandfire Roadhouse where we could fill up, 80 Mile Beach was only another 45kms or so on from here, so we had enough fuel now to get there and onto Port Hedland in a couple of days. We arrived at the turn off for 80 Mile beach, we hadn’t researched this road and it was all sand for about 9kms until we arrived at the park. The road must be regularly graded as it was in really good condition. This is a beautiful park that has been well set up, it is right on the beach and apparently it is excellent for fishing and shell hunting, all the sites have grass around them and we love a grassed site. When we called into the office all the powered sites had gone, I suspect there are a lot of long termers here and you wouldn’t find many powered sites coming up each day. We took an unpowered site for the night and we were told if we turn up at the office at 8.00am we will be given a number and as each person leaves a powered site they will be allocated with the numbers. We decided that night not to stay any longer, not only did we not have power but we also didn’t have internet. We thought we would move onto Pardoo Roadhouse where we could at least get a powered site and we weren’t sure about the internet. On the way out of the park at 80 Mile we called into the reception area for a coffee because we hadn’t been able to make one ourselves. While I was waiting in line for the coffee, I heard a girl beside me say it is 8.40 and there still aren’t any powered sites available, we are so glad we made the decision to move on, the problem is if you wait too long you miss out on the next stop.

We arrived at Pardoo and filled up with fuel and booked a powered site. This park isn’t anything special but there are lots of large, powered sites available. We drove around and found somewhere that suited us with the sun behind our van and set up, we haven’t unhooked because we will be moving on tomorrow to Port Hedland where we have one night booked. We had a quick chat to a couple of people around us and then we both had a few jobs to get on with, we had a bit of a problem with our lights on the van which Robb fixed before having lunch. After lunch we walked over to the tavern to see whether the internet might be a bit better, we found a table and sat down and I went up to order a couple of beers. When I returned to the table Robb said the internet is slightly better but not great, I wanted to download my emails because I had a couple I had to respond to quickly. I managed to download the emails and send off the ones I needed to but we couldn’t really do much more. We finished our beers and walked back to our van. Robb had a nap in the afternoon, his knee is still giving him problems and today is a bad day. I sat outside and caught up with my blog. I am cooking a lamb shoulder for dinner so I want to give it plenty of time to cook, the oven in the van is very handy but it is not very powerful. I put the shoulder on before the vegetables to give it a bit extra time. I went in later to add the vegies and while I was there, I had a quick shower. Tonight is a bit cooler again so it should be a good night for sleeping but if not, at least we can use the air conditioner again because we have power. We don’t have any signal here for the TV so it is lucky I have my blog to catch up on or other than that I have a good book I am reading.

We drove from Pardoo Roadhouse to Port Hedland, it was a short trip, just over one hour. We had a booking at Blackrock Tourist Park in South Hedland for one night. We weren't sure if we would want to stay longer but after having a quick look around we decided that the one night would be enough. We drove directly to the tourist park and arrived a bit early, they explained they had not had enough time to go around the park to see if the people who were leaving that day had actually left. That was ok with us we thought we would wait out the front. I asked the receptionist if they knew of an auto electrician in town we could contact for minor repairs on the connection between the van and the car. There was a gentleman in the office waiting for service and he commented there was a mobile caravan repair man in the park at the moment. He showed me where he was so I walked round to see if he could help us. He had a very busy day but was good enough to offer to stop and have a quick look at the connections on his way out. I walked back to the car and waited for him to leave the park. He fixed the biggest problem for us but couldn't help with the issues we had with our Safety Dave, that's ok it is the least of our problems. We noticed a few vans going into the park so I walked back to the office to see if we could now go to our site and they said we could, we were shown which site we were on and how to access it so we drove directly there and set up. Once we were set up I did a bit of washing and then we drove into Port Hedland to try to find someone to help with computer issues we had but we didn't have any luck i will have to wait until we move on further. We then went to the supermarket to purchase the few items we needed. . We had a bit of a look around the area, we had trouble finding a main town centre and are thinking that the shopping centre we went to was maybe the town centre. There seems to be a bit of work going on around the town to maybe make it more acceptable as a tourist destination but I think they still have a lot of work to do. The few people we spoke to before coming here had told us there wasn't anything to see here and it only warranted a one night stay. I agree with them but I was a tiny bit interested in this strange mining town. The one thing we did notice was that everything in this town was bigger than normal and that would have everything to do with the mining in the area. Driving around we often had to move off the road to let oversize trucks pass that were carrying huge pieces of mining equipment. The other thing we noticed that stood out was that there was a huge salt mill just outside of town and we had noticed huge salt pans around the area, we stopped and watched the salt pouring out of the chute for a while, it was fascinating.

We drove from Port Hedland to Tom Price a trip of four and three quarter hours, a long trip for us but we didn't have many options for breaking the trip up on the way. We stopped on the way at Auski Roadhouse to fill up with fuel and then continued on our way. Part of the trip passes close to to Karijini National Park so the views on the way were exceptional. I am in awe of this beautiful country of ours, the changing landscapes always keep you guessing about what you are going to see next and I particularly love this area of red earth. We arrived at Tom Price in the early afternoon, found our spot and set up for our four night stay. The park is very busy and I don't think there are any vacant spots. When we were set up we drove into Tom Price to visit the Visitor Information Centre to pick up brochures so that we could plan out next few days, we asked about the roads around Karijini and were told even though they weren't sealed they were ok to drive on, we asked that they marked on the map the best roads for us to take. We took this information home and planned our next day. While we were at the Information Centre I noticed how dirty Robb's clothes were, they were covered in this red earth that gets into everything, I commented to Robb at the time and the lady looking after us laughed and said 'Wear them with pride, you will have to wait until you are out of the Pilbara before getting rid of this dust'.

Our second day in Tom Price we decided to take a trip out to Karijini National Park to have a look at a couple of the gorges in the park. We had checked at the Visitor Information Centre to see which roads were suitable for us to drive on so today we chose to drive firstly to Hammersley Gorge and then we would see how much time we had after that to visit further along the park. The road to the gorge was unsealed but we thought it was going to be ok for us which the first part was but then we hit a kilometre stretch of rocks and we were about to turn around when Robb realised one of our tyres had blown. We hopped out to take a look and this tyre wasn't only blown it was completely shredded, bugger. We had no choice but to change it which also meant we had to empty the back of the car to access the spare. Unfortunately the back of our car is where we keep our fridge and battery box, anyway we managed to empty the back and lower the spare. This is not something we do often so Robb had to read the directions on where to put the jack, we finally managed to change the tyre and load it into the back of the car. We were grateful to the 10 or so cars that stopped to see if we were ok, and we were feeling quite proud of ourselves to have taken care of this problem but we were kicking ourselves that we attempted the road instead of turning back earlier. One of the workmen who stopped to see if we were ok said this was the only bad stretch of the road but we didn't feel like going on when we no longer had a spare tyre for back up. We made a pact not to go on anymore unsealed roads and didn't want to return home without seeing anything in the park so we drove to the next closest gorge on a sealed road which was Joffre Gorge. Robb's knee was playing up after all the excursion of changing the tyre so he had a quick look from the top of the gorge and I walked down to the lookout, it was a spctacular gorge and I took a few photos and walked back to the car. It was getting a bit late so we decided not to go on anywhere else and to drive back to Tom Price to see if we can have a replacement fitted. We called into the Information Centre and they directed us to Tyrepower where we left the wheel for the replacement tyre. So $450 later we were back on the road the silly thing is the day before we decided not to book a tour out to the park because it would have cost $370 and why would we do that when we could drive there ourselves, there must be a moral to this story but we weren't in any mood to hear it.

We did a bit of investigating and found sealed roads around to the visitors centre and a few of the gorges and decided this was the best way for us to proceed. The road signs along the way don't give any indication of the state of the roads so the best thing is if you are like us and not properly prepared for the off road experience call into the Visitor Centre and pick up a map of Karijini which clearly shows the sealed and unsealed roads and follow that rather than the signs. We found our way to the Karijini Visitor Information Centre and walked in to ask for their advice of the easiest places for us to access on sealed roads. We were given four options to take that all seemed viable in giving us an example of the gorges in Karijini, we had already visited one, Joffre Gorge, and the other three were close by to each other. Our first stop was at Dale Gorge where there is a large campground

that is popular with hikers who base themselves here to take the walks to the various gorges. The walk to Dale Gorge from the car park is quite easy and there is a purpose built lookout here that, once again, juts out into the gorge, so that you can get a great view all around. I suffer from vertigo but I wanted the photos so I gingerly walked up to the edge of the lookout to get a good point to take them from. You can walk a bit further around from here to circular pool, the access to the pool as been closed because of rock falls 12 months ago, they haven't had anything since but don't want to take any chances. Regardless of all the warnings not to walk down here I noticed two people negotiating the track down and there were also other people we could see walking around the bottom of the gorge, it's ok until something goes wrong. The walk to Fortesque Falls from here was one and a half kms, too far for Robb so we drove around and then walked down to the lookout. From the lookout you can take the 280 steps down to the falls and water hole. The steps have been man made in steel and look very sturdy, there are breaks in between with landing and seating, we thought about it for 5 seconds and then discounted the idea, everybody who arrived at the top took many moments to gather their breathing. The falls are gorgeous and there were people swimming in the waterhole, it looked very inviting but there will be other and easier opportunities. We drove home from here, we had been trying to get accommodation in Karratha and I wanted to follow this up but unfortunately we didn't have much luck.

On Friday in Tom Price we had booked a Rio Tinto site visit, we were interested in the mining sites around town and thought this would give us a good insight. We arrived at the Visitor Information Centre on time at 9.45am and walked inside to have our names checked off and to be given out hard hats and glasses. The health and safety restrictions on site are fairly tough and nobody can enter without the hard hat and glasses and while on the bus seatbelts must be worn. We were happy enough to go along with all of this, it wasn't a big deal. We spent most of our time on the bus and the driver gave commentary along the way which was most informative. We hopped off the bus at the open cut mine where there is a viewing shed and we all took a few photos, we had a digger go past while we were there and he did a lovely dance around for our benefit. We also had one of the drivers stop and talk about her role and to answer questions for us. Back on the bus to drive around the working machinery on site and then we were driven back to town. We thought it was a good tour and we were glad we took part.

We were to move on Saturday but we needed to organise our accommodation for the next couple of weeks because where we were going accommodation was hard to find. We were lucky enough to be able to stay on for one more night and we appreciate the help from the park to do this. I spent 5 hours on Saturday searching places to stay and phoning to see if we could get bookings, thankfully we ended up with accommodation for the next two weeks but we still haven't heard back from the enquiry we made for two nights after Port Hedland, if they can't fit us in we will just find a spot on the side of the road. We thought we could drive from Tom Price to Karratha but on further investigation we found the road was unsealed so we thought we would return to Port Hedland stay two nights and go on from there.

We were lucky enough to get two nights at the Black Rock caravan park where we had stayed last time we were in Port Hedland and we were put back into the same spot which made it easier for us. Thanks to the lady on reception who made our return as easy as possible. We stopped at Auski Roadhouse on the way back for fuel as it is a four and a half hour drive from Tom Price to Port Hedland and we wouldn't have made it without this stop. I am amazed at the amount of traffic on this road, mainly road trains and mining equipment being transported from one place to another, one piece of equipment we followed today covered one side of the road and then half of the other side, it looked like a giant scoop and we were wondering how big the machine it goes on is, traffic had to pull off the road to allow it to pass. Even though we had driven this road before I was still mesmerised by the beautiful landscape we passed through.

The next day we had planned to get up, stop at the Visitor Information Centre to pick up information on attractions we could visit, we had a couple of things in mind but wondered if there was something else we could do. We arrived at the centre and went in to make enquiries, the first thing I mentioned was that we had tried to book the Twilight Industry Tour on line but it was booked out, the lady I was talking to explained that it had been but there had been cancellations for the two days and there were plenty of spaces for the visit that night so we booked in for the tour which took in all the things we were going to look at that day. We decided to still stop at the salt lookout on the way home and we needed to go shopping, we did this and then returned to our camp. We spent the day around camp until we had to return to the Visitor Information Centre at 4.30pm to be checked in and meet up with the bus that would take us on the tour. There were only about 10 of us so not quite a bus full but I gather if they had cancellations they would be happy with as many people as they could get. The tour took us around the port and the various mines around Port Hedland. Phil our guide explained about the ownership of the mines, the percentage of output from each one, where the train lines for each mine ran from and the process from mining to processing and then sending off in the ships to where ever they are going. The part of the story that impressed us the most though was the movement of the ships in and out of the harbour. There is quite a delicate maneuver with keeping the ships moving, they need the ships to be loaded on on there way in 30 min to fit in with the tides, each ship that is held up costs $30million to the mining company. We ended our night on Finucane Island watching the sunset over the water while enjoying a glass of champagne. Both Robb an I enjoyed this tour, it was informative and fun. We were dropped back at the Visitor Information Centre and from here we drove back to our camp. we stopped off at The Rock Cafe that is attached to the caravan park to pick up a couple of pizzas for dinner. The Rock Cafe is a large container at the entrance to the park and looks absolutely nothing from the outside but then when you open the door you see a very large cafe with about 15 tables and when we called in it was nearly full. The meals they were bringing out looked excellent but we felt like getting take away so we ordered our pizzas and sat down to watch TV until they were ready. Robb chose a seafood lovers and I chose the meat lovers, we took them back to the van to eat and we both commented that they were the best pizzas we had ever had. We are moving on tomorrow but we will only be travelling for one and a half hours so there isn't any hurry.