Port Hedland

When we stopped for lunch in a dusty, barren roadside stop on the road to Port Hedland, it was 34 deg...a little shade under a small tree. But there was a reward for my preparing lunch - some Sturt Desert Peas!

We had seen lots of plants that we thought were peas or dead flowers, but didn't realise the surprise in store - most were Sturt Desert Peas that had finished flowering and were laden with bronze coloured pea pods. Some plants were upright and up to 60cm tall! There was even one plant that had orange flowers...I've read about them occurring in different colours.

There was also a prostrate Ptilotus - looked like wool

 



 

The view from our campsite in Port Hedland overlooks the mangrove and the port in the distance.

 

 

 

On the way in, we passed an enormous stockpile of salt.....Rio Tinto is the world's largest salt exporter. Everything is on a huge scale in these parts!

 

The salt ponds are situated beside a railway line that transports the iron ore from Newman to the port for export.

Each iron ore train is 3.75 kilometers long, and three of them run day and night.

We saw a big bulk ore carrier being guided into the port

 

 by 5 tug boats

 

 

We went to the car wash and had an easy day.... found Port Hedland interesting.

 

We decided to omit Millstream-Chichester N.P. - apparently the road has unbelievably bad corrugations and deep pot holes...end of season perhaps. So we will go to Pt Samson (near Karratha) for a few days.

 

Rob thinks industrial ports are better birding places than national parks! ... he's seen more birds here in 24hrs without trying, than in 5 days in Karijini!