We always thought today would be boring to the highest level of boring on the boring level scale. Ironically, it was anything but.
We hit the Great Northern Highway towards Port Hedland, soon coming across some mighty ranges near the Albert Toglinini lookout. There are no words to describe the stunning beauty of this gorge. The road climbs a long climb with only a ‘Trucks Use Low Gear’ sign to provide a hint of what is to follow. Within in metres of the top the road plunges down into the gorge seemingly enveloped by towering red cliffs. But there is nowhere to pull over to take a picture! We consoled ourselves with the fact that sometimes you just have to look and be satisfied. We won’t forget Albert’s acre of amazing in the middle of nowhere for a long time to come.
Trevor and Sue entertained themselves by figuring out to the nearest second or so, the time interval between quad trailer road trains coming toward them to any number of mines to fill with iron ore and return west. The average for the whole 294 km trip was one ever two minutes! That’s a whole lot of red dirt in anyone’s language. No wonder the WA Premier wants to create his own country with that amount of profit in his back pocket.
Finding a caravan park in Port Hedland it next to impossible. All the official parks were full to bursting. The two semi-official overflow parks, being at the Golf Course and at the Race Course, were threatening to apply for Regional City status as the number of vans occupying them was ridiculous. We added to the number in the Race Course, jagging a spot beside Trevor and Sue in the middle of the lot. It was not a time to be shy as the whole world was looking at as. Peter figured they were in fact looking at Puma in admiration wondering just how much they would have to pay for such mechanical genius.
In the late afternoon we headed off to the port to watch the sun set over the iron ore loading dock. Whilst this was spectacular, we were also gifted watching a massive ship leave port under tug as darkness fell.
Port Hedland may have begun as a ‘never coming back here’ destination, however it ended up being a ‘well if we were passing through, we might have another look’ one.
