Sandfire Roadhouse to Port Hedland

 Another day of long straight roads as we traverse the Great Sandy Desert. A relatively short day but we still set off early as our accommodation didn’t lend itself to hanging around. 

We covered about 130km to the Pardoo Roadhouse for breakfast. This roadhouse was devastated by the 2023 cyclone and they have been rebuilding it ever since. According to their website they were hoping to open cabins sometime in 2024. But guess what, they have already but haven’t updated their website. Grrrr. A much better room and 25% cheaper than Sandfire. Anyway we had a nice breakfast there and set off for Port Hedland.

 A strong side wind kept me alert for most of the way but nothing much else. On these long straight roads there is the occasional corner and it is uncanny how often I catch up to slow traffic just before them. 

Port Hedland is just that, a Port. 

But on the way in we noticed a huge white pile, salt. BHP run that as well. 

We also saw massive trains with wagons loaded with Iron Ore ready to be offloaded into the multiple ships and headed to China. These trains can be 2.8km long, thank goodness we didn’t have to wait for one at a crossing! 

Another feature of Port Hedland is that it is orange. Everything is covered in iron ore dust. 

We visited the information centre and the lady was super helpful and gave us some tips for our journey into the Pilbara tomorrow

We have a really nice motel overlooking the beach and the sea which is run by a couple of Kiwi girls. We can watch the procession of ships coming and going from this busy port.