Port Hedland, Karratha & Exmouth

PORT HEDLAND

After leaving Broome, we spent two days driving south towards Karratha. Along the way we stopped at a mining town called Port Hedland. It was like stepping into another world! Geoff thought he had died and gone to heaven - so much huge machinery, trucks, cranes etc. the place oozed with all things mining. Geoff excitedly counted the seemingly endless carriages of the BHP iron ore train - 242 carriages. Most people walking the streets of the town were clothed in high vis work wear, ladies included. Incredible amounts of massive 4 carriage road trains were coming and going from the town... No wonder BHP recently posted the highest company profit of any Australian company. A couple of photos... 

KARRATHA

We continued our drive south towards Karratha and found the scenery really stunning, especially the wildflowers...

Karratha is another mining town. Our friends, Mark and Elain from Port Macquarie, were currently living there and working, so we wanted to stop in and catch up with them. When we arrived in Karratha, we discovered all 3 caravan parks were full, (the grey nomads are SO jolly organised!). The only option was the overflow area in the carpark of the golf club. Thinking it would only be for 2 nights, (and super cheap) I sighed, and thought, "OK, I can do this". It was more like staying in a dusty refugee camp but at least a few hundred metres away was hot showers up at the golf club. This was the view from our camp. 

(And of course Geoff thought it was Christmas staying in the carpark of the golf club and made use of the course a couple of times. He played in the golf comp on Saturday and had a PB and also came 7th out of about 50 people! Good one babe!)

The next day after arriving in Karratha, (Thursday) our car decided it just wasn't going to start. We tried jump-starting it, but this time it was no good. We had been having starting issues with it for ages, that no-one had been able to fix (yet were quite happy to charge us for having a go!). We called NRMA (or RAC as its known over here). A young guy named Ben was able to get it going and so we drove it straight to his mechanic shop. Not knowing how long it would be out of action, NRMA organised a free hire car for us. Looks like our 2 nights in the refugee camp was going to be extended!

On Friday in our mental rental, we checked out the sights of Karratha...

 Just out of town are the Salt flats where they harvest salt... takes 2 years for the water in the pools to evaporate so they can harvest the salt.

The nearby mining town of Dampier...

By Friday afternoon, the young mechanic genius Ben, had finally solved our car's starting issue... phew! Such a relief to have it fixed especially as we now have our whole rig for sale online. We learnt while in Karratha that on the weekends, the hot spot for selling is Dreamers Corner. Keen to spend a few more days here, just to make double sure the car was OK, we decided to park it there for the weekend. Great idea but sadly not one whiff of interest. 

We ended up staying in Karratha for 6 nights! Definitely not the plan but it was awesome hanging out with Mark and Elain and such a relief to have the car fixed. We were blessed by a church on Sunday and Geoff excitedly scored chocolates for being a father (well, its on the way). It was also a great experience to be part of a mining town and learn about life there... So many of the houses had massive, flash boats parked outside. House prices start at $850K. EVERYTHING in Karratha is expensive eg. a Doctors appointment was $150. A lot of people here are fly-in, fly-out workers and live in donga's. Whats a donga? Kind of like living in a nice shipping container that has a bedroom and bathroom. All their meals are provided, hence no kitchen.. (Mark gave us a tour of his donga). Everyone living in Karratha is on BIG incomes, that's what lures people to the place. We've heard on the offshore gas rigs workers are on $300k a year on a 3 week on/3 week off roster. The main industries are gas, iron ore, and strangely salt. It also proudly displays stunning sunsets everynight....

One more story from Karratha that happened on Saturday night in our refugee camp. Whilst walking to the shower, Geoff unknowingly dropped our iphone. After he realised it was missing, we looked everywhere for it, but couldn't find it. When we called it, the phone had been switched off which obviously meant someone had found it and turned it off. Not good. It was dark by now, and Geoff decided to walk through all the other camps and ask if anyone had found it. When he got to the french section, a french girl sounded very sus. Whilst I had been in the shower, I had overheard a french girl excitedly talking to another in french about something. We put two and two together and payed her another visit. She said to come back in 10 mins as she had to ask questions!? When we came back to camp (after going to town), a guy named Chuck from the Chinese section of camp came over to us and said the French girls had found our phone. The sus french girl walked over and handed us the phone. What a relief! We offered to pay her money, but she refused. A short time later, we discovered our iphone had no sim card! They had taken it out. Geoff immediately went to find the french girl but she was gone. Chinese Chuck had the phone number of her boyfriend. Geoff rang the police, and asked what he should do. Apparently the French are pretty keen to stay out of trouble so he said to call this guy and see how we go. Geoff called the guy called Alex and basically said if the girls don't return our sim card we are taking his name and number to the police in the morning. Whilst Geoff was talking to him, Alex mentioned where we were camped. The only way he could know that was if he was there too, so Geoff went for a walk to find him. He found him alright, smoking his guts out and completely stressed! He also found the French girl. She was adamant that the sim card had been tucked inside the case of the phone. Meanwhile, being pregnant and perhaps slightly more irrational and emotional than normal, Im inside the camper trailer yelling out the window at the French girl. I mean, why would you take the sim card out of a phone!? As I was madly and wildly getting dressed to go outside and tell her what I thought, Geoff came in and told me to sit down, stay inside and be quiet. Eventually, they found the sim card in the french girls pocket. It had fallen out of the cover when she handed the phone back to Geoff. She admitted that her friend had found the phone and planned on keeping it. Only problem was her sim card didn't fit our phone. They had a fight about giving it back. We believe it is only by the power of prayer that they returned it and even admitted the truth. Praise God, he hears all our prayers and nothing is too small for him.

EXMOUTH

We sadly said goodbye to Mark and Elain, and continued south 550kms to Exmouth. This is where you can swim with whale sharks! Too bad we were late in the season and most tour operators had shut down. Exmouth is also on the northern tip of Ningaloo Reef. This reef is meant to be more spectacular than the Great Barrier Reef and in some places is only metres from shore. We learnt that the reef though is accessed on the other side of the peninsula in the National Park. Tomorrow we will head that way and hopefully have a snorkel. Some photos from our drive around Exmouth this morning...

Some more colourbond houses that we thought looked pretty great...

Just like in Port Hedland and Karratha, there are some massive boats getting around...

Sunscreen anyone? Freely provided at the boat ramp... I don't know about you, but I'd be scared to use this.

New canal housing development in Exmouth. Unbelievable costs have gone into creating the large concrete-walled canals....

A cool footpath over the canals. Clearly money is flowing freely in North Western Australia thanks to all the mining industry. 

From Exmouth, we will check out Coral Bay and Monkey Mia before heading onto Perth. From Perth, we will shoot across the Nullarbor, through SA, bound for home. We're hoping to be home in 3 weeks or earlier now. Yippeeeee