2012, August 11 - Cape Keraudren to Karijini National Park (via Port Hedland)

Salt mining in Port Hedland, WA

Trip Meter Reading Start – 602

Trip Meter Reading Finish –  1056

Total Km Travelled –  454 km

Filled up Port Headland

$158.5 per litre; 56.78 litres; $90

$1.29 per litre; 64.4 litres; $83.17

Filled up Auski Roadhouse

$1.69 per litre; 36.65 litres; $62.01

Accommodation

Free camp at Albert Tognolini Rest Area 17km south of the Auski Roadhouse; approx 40kmto Karajini National Park; $6 for showers at Auski Roadhouse

Comments – Luke Baker

Today we went to Port Hedland and as we were entering we could see a massive pile of somthing white.  When we got closer to it we found out that it was salt.  The minding trains were at least a kilometre or more long;  we did a bit of shopping and had lunch.  We also stopped at a roadhouse to have a shower and fill up with petrol.  After that we stayed at a free camp.

Comments - Mum and Dad

We ventured into Port Hedland to stock up on food before we heading down the Great Northern Highway toward Karajini National Park.

The place is mining central and most cars on the road are driven by employees of BHP Billiton.  Close to town were large salt pans which are processed and exported. 

There was a big port where the trains loaded with Iron Ore are transferred onto containers; the beach was very brown and muddy, however the town area was green and tidy, but very mining orientated.  We bumped into Tin and John from Newcastle at the local Woolies; mum and dad also popped in around the corner to do some shopping (small world hey?); we stocked up so that we had enough supplies for the next 3 days of unpowered camping on our way to Karijini.    

The drive through the Pilbara toward Karajini was a beautiful landscape of hills with bright red dirt poking through the yellow spinifex with a contrasting brillant blue sky in the background.  It was a very pleasant drive.  There were numerous road trains keen to overtake our van sitting on 95 km / hour.  We decided to take advantage of a cheap shower at the Auski Roadhouse that had accommodation for vans out the back, but we were keen to save where we could and after a nice long hot shower for $3 we foraged on another 17km up the road to a beautiful free camp with a magic view from the top.

View from our free camp 40km from Karijini National Park