Welcome to Cindy and David's 2013 Adventures
Note 22 - The Pilbara
Barn Hill Station,
Sandfire Roadhouse Eighty Mile Beach,
Cape Keraudren,
Port Headland,
Auski Roadhouse
Sandfire Roadhouse Eighty Mile Beach,
Cape Keraudren,
Port Headland,
Auski Roadhouse
Port Headland
On to Port Headland. The salt mine and BHP Iron Ore Rail Head are shown below. We explored a bit and found the beach (also below) and were impressed by the port facilities. This is where Australian Iron Ore is loaded on to a never ending procession of boats from our Asian neighbours.
Cape Keraudren
Cape Keraudren
That above is an ablution block. Can you believe it? Thank goodness it was water borne sewerage but you would think with the amazing amount of money they must make every winter with all these caravanners that some improvements could be made. On the right is the bowling green. Admittedly it was used for fun only games but used it was but cared for it wasn't! The area however is stunning and we stayed an extra night to enjoy it.
Left is taken from the beach to try to capture the large amount of vans all nestled in trees as far as you could see.
Left is taken from the beach to try to capture the large amount of vans all nestled in trees as far as you could see.
Barn Hill Station
Dirt and dust road on the way to the bird observatory in Broome
Left the comparative civilisation of the town of Broome to head off across the coast towards Port Hedland where we needed to turn left for the mining town of Newman to visit David's brother Mike and his wife Laura, not to mention their dogs Max and Minnie. Our first stop was not far from Broome but on a station's property called Barn Hill. Rough and ready place but packed out so obviously very popular with West Australians up here for winter and one or two people from further south as in Tasmania!
Below left and right BarnHill beach. Met up with old friends from Mataranka.
Right is a group of residents at Barn Hill who held a Murder Mystery evening on one of the few vacant sites. They dressed up beautifully and generally had a good fun time.. (they clubbed together to pay for the site for the night!)
After some debate we decided not to spend the next night at the roadhouse (sandfire) but had heard about free camping on the cliffs in the turn off opposite so off we went. It was not a free camp as such but a national park (somewhere around $9 a night) and the view from the van site was magnificent (see below). It is actually at the end of Eighty Mile Beach where we have stayed before but it was good to view it from this angle. (Cape Keraudren) As you can see we had lots of beach to walk on! David fished as well and he and our neighbour caught a couple between them so we had a bit of a bbq that evening with drinks.