27^th July: Port Hedland

I caught this morning, morning's daylight. (Almost a quote from my favourite poet- G M Hopkins) I woke up at 5.45 am and quickly dressed and shuffled through the sand dune to the beach as dawn broke with a magnificent display of reds and oranges. It was truly beautiful! I was alone on the chilly beach, watching the pink tinged wavelets wash up on the flat grey sand. The tide had replenished the supply of shells all over the slope of the beach which seemed to stretch right up to the rising sun and I reflected on the grandeur and the wonderful artistry of our God.

I walked along the beach, revelling in the solitude and picking up the odd shell that took my fancy. I hate walking on the myriad of shells as they crunch sadly under my feet but it is hard to avoid them. A couple of seagulls were squabbling up towards the dunes as the pecking order was asserted. But all else was peaceful and I had the glorious morning to myself!

The caravan park was asleep, all 300 + vans, campas & tents. It is a very large and very busy park and yesterday afternoon, it rang with the sounds of line dancing music as a group of older ladies in fancy harem pants performed the maccaraina, (I never could get the hang of that!) and last night a large group beside Gail kept her awake until midnight.

Eventually, after all ofus walked on the now busy highway of a beach, we packed up and left to travel to Port Hedland. Even my Hema book calls the countryside dull. I remembered that we did this 600 km stretch with the children in one long day. It was mostly red dirt with bulldust holes a mini minor could disappear into. There were no roadhouses on the way and we had to carry enough fuel for 700 kms which was the limit we could push the kids to! But we did stop at the Rest Area at the De Grey River. What a pretty spot with a dozen or so vans camping down beside the river! We dallied for a while just because we could.

Port Hedland is a different place! The entrance is across mud and salt flats, past all sorts of industrial and mining related installations and numerous enormously long trains from the mines (probably iron ore from Newman) on a brand new and very generously designed highway. The town is a strip clinging to the coast and when the sun set glowing red in the west, the lights of the port and industry made a very impressive night sky! But it is busy! Even now the planes are echoing in the sky and the trains are roaring into the unloading facilities. (These trains don't rumble but roar as they run on continuously welded track with three engines in front, two in the middle and sometimes some at the rear. They are so long and so heavy!)

We had fun parking the vans. There is very little room and Gail had to back up the street and into her space. Glen directs her but she does it herself, much to the surprise of a smart alec across the way! We are near a little creek and while I had a snooze, Glen went for walk and Gail went fishing. Caught two fish but threw them back as they were too small!

We will visit the Information Centre first up tomorrow and while I know whatwe can do here, we will find out what else is possible!