Arrived in Port Headland this morning early as we camped about 40k's out last night.
The town reminded me of Mt Isa 30 odd years ago, everything covered in red dust and the town was dirty, the Port is the largest bulk handling facility in Australia, mainly iron ore but other stuff as well, there is a small park at the end of the Main Street which overlooks the channel feeding the facility which was a pleasant place to have an early lunch and watch a couple of bulk carriers being loaded and a new one being brought in with tug boats. We did the town/facility tour at mid day- what a disappointment that was! The Guide was also the person who ran the Info Centre and is a BHP person to the core, derogatory comments about other companies and the spiel was pure publicity driven, drove around the town part of the terminal in a Bus, tinted windows and really little chance of photo opportunities.
Saw the solar salt mine with a D9 Cat pushing salt on top of the heap, the ore trains are phenomenal, 60,000Hp each ( 4 per train) 18000lts of diesel and they each use around 6,000lts each way from the mine, the trains are around 1.4klm long. Mind boggling figures there however all in all it was a waste of money.
We left that afternoon and headed for Marble Bar, camping at Doolena Gorge free camp, very pleasant little spot and we had the place to ourselves so I slow cooked lamb shanks, potatoes and veg in the Bedourie oven for dinner, gave Kath a break from cooking. The camp is on a wide river bank with a huge red rock cliff which lit up and glowed in the evening light.
Just needed the dingoes to start to complete the evening but unfortunately they didn't co-operate.
May be next time.
red bluff behind the camp
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