Port Hedland

Monday 29th – Tuesday 30 September

We arrived this afternoon at Port Hedland. We went to have a look at the beach it is not a very nice beach.

Port Hedland is the BHP Billiton Iron Ore shipping facility.
The port handles the largest tonnage of any port in Australia and it is here that the iron-ore is unloaded, screened, crushed, stockpiled and conveyed out onto the pier for export. Huge iron-ore carriers frequent the port, exporting the iron-ore to Japan, Europe, China and South Korea.

We are leaving here tomorrow morning. We are heading towards Karijini National Park.

Port Hedland







On Tuesday we went for a drive to Marble Bar. Marble Bar is the hottest place in Australia. There was nothing to look at so we drove all the way there stopped for an icypole and drove back to Port Hedland.

Marble Bar

Eighty Mile Beach

Sunday 28th September

We arrived this afternoon at Eighty Mile Beach. We are only staying here the one night as there is nothing to do but fish. You are unable to swim in the beach as it is not safe. They have stingrays and sharks in these waters and the caravan park does not have a pool.


The more of NT/WA we see the more we appreciate Melbourne. We have not seen a beach yet that is as nice as we have along the Great Ocean Road. They have the weather up here but you can't swim anyway. Melbourne might not have the weather but we can swim in our beaches all year round.

Derby

Friday 19th September – Sunday 28th September

Today we arrived in Broome. We are staying at Cable Beach Caravan Park. This is a really nice caravan park. We have a great spot here that is opposite the playground and the pool. It has a great salt water pool. It is only a short walk to the beach.

After we had a swim in the pool we decided to go to the beach for a swim. It was just heaven to finally be able to swim in a beach. The beach here is beautiful and it is warm which is great.

On Saturday we took the boogie boards to the beach with us. Jesse and Emily were having so much fun catching the waves in.

On Monday we were going to go to Cape Leveque which was a few hour drive. It is supposed to be beautiful there. We started driving and were driving for about 20 minutes when we decided to turn around. It was a dirt road and quite bumpy. We were driving at a low speed and it would have taken us a while to get there so we decided against it.

We went to the Port in Broome to have a look and walk along the pier. We also drove around the coast.

We have been in Broome for a almost a week now, we are ready to leave. When we first arrived we just loved it. I think because it had been a while since we have been able to swim in the beach.

There is not a real lot to do here in Broome besides the beach and the pool at the caravan park. It is getting very hot here now. In the next few weeks you will not be able to swim in the beach because of the stingers.

The kids are really enjoying here as they have made many friends.

We are leaving on Sunday.

The caravan park pool.
Our caravan site
Cable Beach

Derby

Thursday 18th September

We were supposed to leave today but we decided to stay one more day. We will do some more school work today.

Today we went out for lunch at the Wharf to have some fresh salt water barrumundi and chips and to watch the tide come. Once the tides starts to come in, it is very fast. We could not believe how fast it comes in. We stayed there and watch the sunset.

You can see by the photos the before and after tide shots.
It is amazing to watch the difference.

Derby

Wednesday 17th September

This morning we went down to the wharf but the tide was out. The tides here in Derby are Australia’s highest, they can be as much as 11 metres.

Afterwards we went to see the Boab Tree. They have lots of these types of trees in WA. The one we went to see is believed to be about 1500 years old. It was called the Boab Prison Tree as it was used to keep prisoners in.

The kids are a little bored as they do not have a pool which gives a good chance to do lots of school work.

These are the photos at the wharf. You can see how far out the tide is. I have some photos on the next day to show it when the tide is in.








This is a cattle trough, it is 12o metres long and built around 1917.

Boab Tree