Day 38

Day 38 Port Hedland

As we were leaving today, Maureen needed to restock the larder, so after tea we went down to the shops, well we left the park at 8 as they stay open until 9 here. We had worked out that there was supposed to be a ship leaving about 9 :15 so it all sort of tied in. Maureen ended up with her own

Ship leaving port

Right in front of us

personal shopper as she was the only one there and she did not know where things were and just asked the staff there for each item!! Whilst she was in the shop I ssat in the car and spun the radio tuner and picked up Radio National and what were they talking about but a book about Matthew Flinders and his race to be the first to map Australia all the way round. He was racing a Frenchman by the name of Baudin who Napoleon Bonaparte sent down here as they were interested in Australia as well. It is a fascinating story but a

Waiting and waiting for the train

Drive away beer

bit that really astounded me was on the way back his ships were wrecked and he and his crews were rescued by 2 other ships, one took survivors to china before repatriating them, the other ship was about 30 foot long and ended up with 20 men on board! So what did he decide? Go back and get a new ship, oh no, he decided to sail the ship back to England as he thought Baudin was going to beat him (little did he know Baudin was dead)!! Mind you he got as far as Reunion Island which was French controlled as he needed water and even though the war was over, they decided to arrest him as his visa said he was going to be in another ship and not the little one he had! They locked him up for 6 years! Then let him go

Pardoo Caravan Park with 1 van

Pardoo Road house

and off he went to produce the first English map of Australia. Baudin was dead but one of his officers compiled a map from all sort of sources and published it. The English naturally enough ignored it as what would the French know anyway.

We then went down to the port to see if we could see any ships going out and sure enough we saw 2 leaving and 1 being put in to load. It is amazing, the ships are about 200m off shore I kid you not, with a good bow and arrow you could hit it! We watched until

Lunch stop

80 Mile Beach North

about 10 then came home, got the ice out of the Camp Kitchen freezer and had a rum to celebrate!

We got up early to pack up so we could go into town and see if there was a ship leaving. The schedule said that one should be leaving about 9 am so we tried for that one. We got in there at about 9:10 and nothing was moving, we drove to the bigger carpark just off the side of the Town centre one and sure enough, ten minutes later, a ship started coming out, check out the pictures!

80 Mile Beach South

Me on 80 Mile Beach

We left Port Hedland and moved off to South Hedland to get some gas for the car and Maureen a coffee. We just got going when we hit a train and what a beauty 2 engines at the front and 2 in the middle, Maureen says she is just about over trains now.

We hit the road and drove towards Eighty Mile Beach. At Pardoo Road House we pulled in as we had been going about 2 hours by then and I could use a break. There was a great sign on the way in that warned against driving tired, but the Roadhouse offered takeaway cold beer! We stopped down the road and we had lunch before heading to Eighty Mile Beach. The track in was okay, but some

Maureen Wading on 80 Mile Beach

Me wading on 80 Mile Beach

sections were rough, but we persevered and made it through. The caravan park is huge, it would have to be 2 or 3 times bigger than anywhere else we have stayed so far. The park is just a sandhill away from the beach. I was first worried that I could not get to the beach, but there is a car access point next to the park, so down we went. The tide was out or at least mostly out and the beach is just spectacular. I think we will stay here for a while, maybe a week! The beach sand is very fine and full of shells. The Beast

80 Mile Beach

just eats it up, problem comes when I stop in the damp areas and the wheels sink in a bit and the fine sand grabs it, but no problems.

Caravan park

After swanning around for a while we went back to Girt and we decided to go back down and watch the sunset. The view was beautiful and the colours lovely. And the beach looked purple. We moved back to Girt and Maureen cooked tea whilst I am doing this blog. We cannot believe that we have

Girt and Trude all set up

Sunset on 80 Mile

Phone access (well we did until I went to post this, then it failed) and 8 TV Channels. I think the park uses a satellite to stream the free to air stations (except Channel 2) and then broadcasts them!

I hope to get this post up tonight.