We awoke to a fine but windy day.
Just after 8:00am we were underway heading to the race course (overflow site) in Port Hedland where early arrivals would get a better choice of sites. Initially the wind proved to be an issue with our fuel consumption rising but part way through the journey we made a slight turn in our direction and we were soon benefiting from a tail wind.
Port Hedland is all about industry and specific to mining. Our arrival was greeted by the view of an ore train that was 2.5klms in length. We also saw an Antonov An-124 aircraft parked at the airport (correction, the aircraft was an Ilyushin Il-76TD-90VD).
Unfortunately our GPS was programmed incorrectly and we missed the turnoff to our destination.
When we eventually arrived, we found a site at our camp that had a little grass. We were adjacent to friends with other friends choosing a site under trees but without grass. As we had no access to power or water, our setup was quick.
After having morning tea we made a quick visit to the airport to photograph the Russian aircraft and then visited the port area where ships were being loaded with either iron ore or salt. We watched a large vessel leave the port.
We returned to our campsite via Woolworths where we purchased food for a planned BBQ in the evening. When we returned our caravan was extremely hot with our refrigerator well above the temperature we are happy with. We need to organise some form of cover over the wall behind the refrigerator to protect it from the sun.
After lunch we went back to a lookout adjacent to rail lines and with a view of the salt processing plant. At this lookout we were afforded a view of the arrival of an ore train. The train was so long that we could not see the end of the train. The ore was being hauled by four locomotives, two at the front of the train with the other two located in the centre of the train. We saw ore trains arriving the entire time we were at Port Hedland.
After happy hour we enjoyed a BBQ and then watched a good fireworks display at a carnival that was operating in the area adjacent to our camp site. We used some of our battery power and watched television for several hours.