Karratha

Well the car got fixed, no more dramas, so early on Friday morning Mike and I hot footed it out of Broome as fast as our little wheels would carry us.

Next stop for us was Port Hedland where we spent two nights. It is quite a long drive, about 650 km from Broome, but the roads are good, wide and very, very straight out here. There are no towns to slow you down and it is also very, very flat – so it is relatively easy to cover the distance.

Not a lot to do in Port Hedland. We wandered around the port and did a bit of shopping. Late in the afternoon we visited the local market, but it was the same old scene – more soaps, tea towels and home made lemonade and stuff from everywhere else but the local area. Still later in the day we did a history tour with a local historian. This was a high point of the visit. For two hours she talked as we drove around the town in a bus. It was good to hear the history of the town. Did you know that Port Hedland, at one stage, had the dubious honour of having the 'most dangerous pub in the world'? The Pier Hotel, which is still there, back yonks ago averaged 1 murder a week, charming place. Mike and I ventured in, not realising at that stage its dark past, although acknowledging between ourselves that it seemed a very dodgy place, so we did not hang about.

After leaving Port Hedland we continued south to where we can now be found – Karratha. Karratha and nearby Dampier may be known to some as where Hamersley iron arrives from Tom Price and is then loaded to bulk carriers and shipped mainly to China. Dampier is also where the North West Shelf Gas is also piped to and then again, on to tankers and off to China. Salt is also farmed a both places, and again shipped overseas for industrial use.

But Dampier is known to everyone as the home of Red Dog. We stopped and said g'day and took a couple of photos of him.

We had hoped to be able to do a tour of the port, to see the trains arrive, unload the iron ore to the conveyors and then on to the ships. I did it a few years ago and knew that Mike would love it – only trouble was we got some bad advice so it was not possible.

So instead today we headed back up the coast to a ghost town called Cossack. Cossack was, in the mid 1800's to the early 1900's a thriving port and commercial centre. But the port entry was bad, better places were found so the place died. There are still quite a few buildings there which have been well preserved and maintained – it was a most interesting place to visit.

The big problem we have been finding all the way along the coast, from Cape Leveque to here – wind. We have avoided all the massive rainfalls over here but have really copped the winds.

Tomorrow we head inland and hopefully we will leave the wind behind. Our first destination will be the Millstream Chichester National Park where we may spend a night or two. Then we will head in further to Tom Price where we plan to stay for 4 nights – this will give us ample time to visit Karijini NP and to do the Tom Price mine tour. We will be travelling in along the Hamersley Rail access road – a permit is required to do this section of road as it is a private road, and most of it is dirt.

There will not be power or communications in Millstream but Tom Price will be OK. So we may be off air for a few days.

Till then...