Day Nine

One disadvantage of travelling vast expanses of the country is driving. We've been stopping at many places along the way, but many areas of WA are just empty stretches of nothing but cattle farms and mines. Sometimes 200km can pass with no services stations or any signs of life except for the occassional emu or dead kangaroo. Day nine was another of the dreaded driving days.

Our only "tourist" stop was the lovely Port Hedland, "Jewel of the Northwest". The city is BHP-Billiton's main depot for Australia's iron mining industry.

Quick digression: BHP-Billiton (Broken Hill Propriety-Billiton) is Australia's largest corporation. As the name implies, it started in Broken Hill as the main mining company and grew over the years to become the main opperators for the mining of Australia among other things. Since Australia's main industry is mining and don't hold me to this, but Australia may be the most productive mining country in the world, don't mess with BHP, they control the country. End Digression.

Port Hedland is one of the largest producers of salt in the world as well. Clark attempted to put some energy in the tour of this dead town with a little bit of Australia's famous sarcasm. "To your left is the Port Hedland cemetary, where lies the graves of such famous people as..." There were trains, ships, and a big ol' pile of sodium chloride. We stopped at cemetary beach. Aussies have a knack for appropriate names for their places. Their outdoor restroom had a toilet, a sink with no soap or hand dryer, and a condom machine. If this wasn't the only town between the two destinations, it probably would have been skipped.

We camped under the stars that night at a nearby cattle farm. This was our last official night together as a group, which was quite sad. Thankfully, many of are holed up in the same hostel in Broome, including Eline, Mirte, Anne, Hilde, Ann-Marie, our guides, Elaine,and Deirdrie. Most of us plan to tour Broome together the next day.