getting better……………..

Well, we eventually got used to Doolena Gorge and the wind, which has abated a little but is still quite cold.

We had to go back into Marble Bar to stock up on food, fill the water tanks and pick up some diesel. We didn’t get any wine which was a bit foolish as we were getting low on white in particular!

The wind is still with us but we have some protection from the trees and the days are really almost idyllic!There is plenty of firewood so we had a little fire each evening with the intention of satellite spotting but a waxing moon tended to reduce the ability to see but a few each night.

After a week or so of this we felt that we should move on and since we had a bit of washing to do plus a few small jobs on the caravan we decided to go to Pardoo Station for a few nights.

This is a large caravan park (a few ks to the coast), mainly for fishermen but also accommodates miners from the local mine although they are not particularly intrusive.

We had booked and had been allocated a larger site that was easy to get into. Having got established we discovered our neighbours came from Furnisdale!

Went to Pardoo Roadhouse one morning but they had little or nothing in the way of basic food and had even run out of milk!

Went exploring on Saturday out to the coast, as the track approaches the ocean it runs beside a very pretty creek lined with mangroves and fishermen at every available space! The creek runs into the ocean in a huge bay shallow bay which is magnificent. It was nearly high tide so not much beach, if any. The tides are around 6.5 metres and when it’s out you can barely see the water line from dunes. Further round to the north the dunes become red rock outcrops which look magic against the blue sea (difficult to photograph). We travelled about 20ks on the track behind the dunes and everywhere we turned off and went to look at the sea there was somebody fishing!

Difficult to pan photograph but you can see the creek from left to right.

There are some interesting plants here but we haven’t been able to establish what they are yet

There are shells piled up on the beach but we picked up this little sea urchin skeleton.

Had three days at Pardoo culminating in a roast dinner on Sunday night. It was very impressive four roast meats, huge range of vegetables and four flavours of ice cream for pud. You could have a much as you liked!

Next stop Port Headland, mostly for shopping, it has Coles and Woolworths but as usual you have to time it right ‘cos the bottle shop doesn’t open ’til midday! We also found another Tenderspot, a butcher’s shop plus fish and a few other goodies.

We stayed at the Golf Club where there are only four powered sites, not that we need one, and you can’t book so you have to get there early. The caravan two caravans from us ran a generator all day, until around 1800!

Port Headland is really about Iron Ore, thousands of tons arrive each day either by rail trains which are up to 2 kilometers long, or, trucks which comprise haul unit and 4 trailers with an overall length of 60 metres! When we were here last we had a chat over coffee with a couple of the drivers, they were explaining how they and their vehicles are monitored all the time, with video cameras in the cabs, their head positions (in case they fall asleep), their vital signs and, of course, their speed.

We had a break from shopping and went to the Dome for lunch. Our table looks out over the harbour where the ore carriers are loading and the pilot boats are backwards and forwards. Out on the horizon are all the empty carriers waiting to come in to be loaded.

We had two nights here, long enough to do the shopping and see enough of Port Headland. We were looking forward to being somewhere with less hustle and bustle, less noise 24 hours a day and less dust everywhere!