28/7/20 The road is calling 80 Mile , land of sunsets

       It was nice to be moving again , leaving Port Hedland into a headwind that would stay with us for days to come . We arrived at De Grey River Rest Area and decided to stop for lunch , and the rest of the afternoon and night as well . 

  After lunch we wandered down to the bridge for a look . The treed area beside the river was very sort after several years ago , as it had shade and was closer to the water . That was before it got infested by Noogoora Burr - a noxious weed that closed it down last year . Now the treed area is fenced off with no vehicle access . 

       You can see the rest area on the top left of the photo .

      

       This flower is from the Indian Rubber Tree - somewhat of a new pest here as well .

       Mulla Mulla is starting to appear as well 

      This thistle is spreading rapidly as well - probably due to the flooding from the cyclone earlier this year - water was flowing just below the deck of the bridge , and over the rail bridge further up the river .

   

      Here's sunset over the river and rest area 

   

       After a quiet night with about 28 other vans etc , we headed back onto the highway and into the wind again . We continued past Pardoo and Cape Keraudren , and went on to 80 Mile Beach - After an 11klm red sand track in , you drive over a sand dune to see this - quite a sight to see after all the rugged outback we've been driving through .

     

      Here's the beach from the updated sunset viewing platform .

       This is looking east up 80 Mile Beach . The park is separated from the beach by a sand dune .

       Unlike the above photo , the tide goes out a long way here - about 2klms at the moment , makes for some great sunset photo's as well .

   

       Time for a different angle .

       The sun just melts into the horizon .

       The show continues for another 45mins after the sun disappears .

       Next day we went for a walk along the beach , tide was in and it was more like normal - cars & fishing rods everywhere . Still plenty of shells on the beach

       Yes another sunset and all the different colours for you to enjoy .

        Our visit is tinged with sadness , people we had met at Corrigin in 2015 and again here in 2016 , had both died as a result of a car accident in March 2017 . We had looked forward to seeing them again , but was not meant to be be , our 2 days were left feeling a little hollow . RIP Ray & Wendy .

        Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Xbw8HTsgcPGq4mom307YjCHSRarzoKuQ&usp=sharing

27/7/20 To the Port

     Hi folks , back again - finally back into some phone service to keep you up to date . We've spent nearly 2 weeks at Port Hedland and checked out some new spots and an old one or two .

     We stay at the Golf Club whenever we're here , and this was about 30m from us - the 18th sand green and fairway . The course is in excellent condition , a little oasis in the red dirt & sand .

    This is also the 18th sand green from another angle - from the 10th tee as I was playing .

     I hope you don't get bored with sunsets , because we've seen some great ones while here , and here they are .

       We headed out to Finucane Island - the other side of the harbour from Port Hedlands shops . This is the view from the new (12month old ) BHP Tug Pen , looking back into the harbour .

       Here's one of the new BHP Tugs - exhaust pipes are over 300mm round !!

      After watching things for a while we headed round to the untouched part of the island . You can see the ute parked up on top of the ridge and Lyn is navigating her way down to where I am - still 5m above the waterline .The way all this rock has eroded is quite amazing - but you don't see it until you go down and look back up .

       This is an aerial view , the oysters on the rocks are on the bottom 2m of the cliff , yes the tide was going out .

    

       Down further toward the boat ramp we found our way down to the beach , finding this trident shell and others .

       This is looking back toward the port - all the white blocks are actually the control towers of the ships in port . The bat ramp is around to the right of the photo at the end of the road .

   

       This is the estuary where you can see the different rock shelves in & out of the water .

   

       Yep , here's some more sunsets .

    One sunday we went over to visit our friends Garry & Linda and went out for a drive . The weather was interesting , it rained last night and right up to 8am this morning , but was clearing - made for a good photo though .

 

     We headed south on Pippingarra Rd , it runs parallel to the BHP railway line to Newman . The scenery out here is beautiful , red rocks bursting out of the desert , spinifex and stunted trees & shrubs , wildflowers were also starting to come out to soften the landscape a little .

 

       We stopped beside what remains of a creek , drying out in the heat .

      The railway was beside us and there was a train stopped waiting to go into Port Hedland with it's 340 carriages full of iron ore .

   

   

      Our destination was a spot called Green Tanks - which we found after a short drive through some scrub . It would be a spectacular site when full of water , and the trees , well they're another bonus .

 

      After enjoying a Bbq lunch we headed back out to a mine access road and went for a walk up a large granite rock . One of the locals greeted us .

       Out in the distance were a few mines - not iron ore for a change - these were Lithium Mines .

Views from on top of the rock were spectacular looking out to the Hammersley Ranges .

       The top of the rock also held some of last nights rainfall for a few extra days .

       What a great day we had , good friends , great company and spectacular scenery . Well that's it for Port Hedland for the time being , we head further north tomorrow . 

        Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1UD4WNArYfMKE54WrDF6yJr85ZGQHAakH&usp=sharing

  

13/7/20 The colours of Onslow

       Leaving Exmouth , we head south , then east , then back north again . The change in scenery from when we were here last year was amazing , the plants and shrubbery looked like they wanted to be there , fresh & green instead of dead & dying .

     The temperature was also increasing to around 33 degrees , causing mirages on the road in the distance.

      Last year we wanted to stop at a free camp about 6klms in on Onslow Rd , it was pouring rain and mud , this year completely different .

    And this is how it looks from above .

 

     The colours out here are stunning .

 

     We clambered past the spinifex and up onto the small quartz outcrop and checked out the many bones in the small caves at the base .

  Then we had a sunset like this .

     We were surprised to see how many cars & caravans coming out of Onslow - we thought great , there should be plenty of available spots . Checking at the 1st caravan park , we found the town was booked out - now that was a problem !! The managers of the park told us that the other park was also booked out , but they could give us a spot in the overflow section - so this is where we ended up for the night , not such a bad view !!

     Onslow has a large Salt Production facility , here's a couple of salt piles waiting to be loaded onto the conveyor that takes it to the ship . 

     The piles don't look large in that view , but from the side , it gives you a better size comparison .

   

 

     Beside Onslow Rd there are hundreds , if not thousands of Spinifex Termite mounds , we drove round and checked them out .

     Not too far away from the termite mounds is the salt farm , with the salt concentration ponds that you drive through .

 

 

     The colours in the salt & round are great , making for some great shots from above .

 

   Somewhere we didn't get to 4 years ago was Old Onslow - due to wet weather again , dirt roads get closed whenever they get much rain up here .

     There's some buildings left of the original township - being the jail and the police residence . This is the jailhouse .

     On top of the walls of the jailhouse are broken glass bottles cemented into the top - they didn't want any escapees !

     This is the police building .

     The bricks were sourced locally from the rock shelves near the ocean , you can still see the shells in the bricks .

     This is the view from above .

 

     Another major industry here is Liquified Natural Gas , this is the Wheatstone Gas Plant - it would be larger than the huge gas plant at Dampier !!

     Old Onslow was located beside the Ashburton River , utilising it as a port facility - unfortunately it kept on filling up with sand & silt , making it unviable to remain as a port . This is the Ashburton River 

     Onslow has one of the best Anzac Memorials in Australia with views out over Beadon Bay - the sun comes up in the middle of the memorial - too early for me to get a photo hahaha .

     After having a night in the overflow area , we had to move again because the grader was coming to flatten the area out , so we moved down to another council owned property where there was room for about 6 vans to fit , then went back up and paid another $10 for another night .

  We drove round to Sunset Beach where the Salt loading jetty is 

      We went to the supermarket to get some things and ran into a couple that we met at Meentheena  this time last year , they are from Bunbury ,  we chatted to them for a while before a relaxing afternoon .

      Sunset was interesting from above us looking out over the Salt Loading Jetty .

     That's it , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1e6GMPMutjujwDZQ5WgkEWvPEFlt0tdKA&usp=sharing