October 21st, 2011- Port Hedland- Point Cooke Big 4

Friday, we were up bright and early and the four of us were on the road by 7:30 towards Port Hedland. Said our sad goodbyes to Di and Terry who we will see in a week or so. They are going to Port Hedland tomorrow and then through to Point Sampson. Carol, Stephen, Sandra, and I are detouring from Port Hedland down to Karijini National Park before continuing on to Point Sampson.

We arrived in Port Hedland about 11am. Sandra and I both felt the drive was similar to Highway 63 going into Fort McMurray back in Canada. Once we got into town the resemblance was even stronger with 75% of the vehicles being mine company vehicles. We had been warned in advance that Port Hedland was a mining town and unless you worked for BHP or Rio Tinto you shouldn't expect to get any work done. We ran into local people at Eighty Mile Beach that had actually flown to Queensland picked up a Toyota Prado and drove back to Karratha as they couldn't get one through the local Toyota dealer. The tow truck driver who picked up Terry and Di's caravan said he had been told at the Toyota dealer not to bring any Toyota's in for service for at least 3 months as they wouldn't have time to work on them. Oh how familiar this all sounds from our days in Fort McMurray. Luckily we only required groceries, booze, and diesel from our stay in Port Hedland and none of those were a problem.

We first went to the Visitor's Centre to get information on the caravan parks and our planned trip down to Karijini National Park. Parking with a caravan is impossible at Visitor Centre and difficult in general in the down town. We found a park area where we took up a number of spots before walking back to the Visitor Centre. Got the information we needed but the lady advised that they would be closed until Monday so we should get all our information now. Obviously Tourism isn't what makes Port Hedland tick.

We took some pictures of the Port which is impressive and then followed the water line back to Point Cooke where the Big 4 is located. The caravan park is nice but very expensive. $50/night before our Big 4 discount. Sites are quite crowded as well, especially for large caravans like ours. Nice and clean though which is the main thing. Most of the park is booked out to permanents who live there.

We got setup and had some lunch before journeying back into town to do our shopping. Got all our supplies and returned to the caravan park. Had a relaxing evening with Carol and Stephen and a nice meal together. Got a good view from our campsite of town, mines, and roads of Port Hedland, which are all lit up like a Christmas Tree. Had an early night as we are making an early start for Karijini.

Port Hedland is definitely only a one night stay for any travellers unless you are planning to work there. Costs would be very high so would need to be an extremely high paying job to make it worthwhile.