Modem is working again. Stupid thing needed a reset.
Had a relaxed morning as the mine tour was not until 10.
Ladies at Tourist looked after my helmet etc for me and it was off to minesite for the 25 of us. Was not a great deal happening today as the crushers and processing are undergoing maintenance. Was interesting anyway as the bus driver had a series of photos how much of the mountain has been removed and replaced with a big pit. Mining is virtually complete and the main focus is shifting to a site 17km away and they are building a convayer to bring the ore to the existing plant. The tonnage a day they ship out most days is amazing. Three to four trains a day of 360 wagons each holding over 100 tonnes of ore with each train loaded in about 3 hours. Interesting stats were that the dump trucks use approx 20 litres of diesel per km and the triple locos spend most of their time braking on the way to the coast and use more fuel towing the train back empty to Tom Price which is the highest town in WA.
After a discussion with a norwegian couple who went to the national park yesterday, I decided to give the park a miss due the difficulty of the walks to any interesting spots which would not be such a good idea for my knees that have been behaving themselves lately. Was still a interesting ride through the national park on the way the Port Headland. Scenery changed to a boulder field after a while and them back to the standard flat stuff with scrubby trees as I neared the coast.
Most common thing you see here is white Toyota Landcruiser and Hilux with Yellow Fluoro stripes and orange flags. And by commom, I mean hundreds of the things on the road, in car parks etc.
First impressions of Port Hedland is I will not be here long. The most expensive camp to date. $40 for a patch of sand covered in a piece of torn shade cloth. Plus it comes with the complementary drunk miners inflicting their musical bad taste on the park. Funny thing the management does not seem to want do anything, maybe because every second vehicle in the park has yellow stripes and an orange flag. They are worse than backpackers. Earplugs again.
May have to turn Kenneth loose with the didgerdoo later. Wuffy and our german neighbours suggested Rammstien but I think they were just stirring me about my Das Huast ringtone. Already been asked twice if I am german because if it.
Anyway its off up the coast tommorow to somewhere below Broome. Broome is aproximately my half way point. My original plan was 9,000 km to Broome and 18,000 km overall and I will have done nearly 11,000 km by Broome so the total may end up being around 22,000 km. To give an example of the scale of this trip, tonight I am still over 2,500 km from Darwin via the most direct route, so there is bit to do yet.