Pilbara

The Pilbara, large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its ancient landscapes, the red earth, and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. The Pilbara includes some of Earth's oldest rock formations (over 2 billion years old).

The Rio Tinto Tom Price Iron Ore Mine - Fleur and Ellie discussing the merits of the 300T shovel. It was agreed by all that if you really want to move iron ore there was no point getting out of bed to operate anything less than the 800T shovel which is probably why this 300T'er was parked up in the viewing area.

On top of 'Mount Nameless' over looking Tom Price town and the Mine. At 747m the town is the highest town in WA hence the nickname 'WA's Top Town'. At 1115m the Mountain is the highest point in WA that you can drive to albeit an extremely steep and rough road to the top, low range 4 wheel drive and first gear nearly all of the way. 

Karijini National Park, the second largest National park in WA with stunning views in to the deep gorges and cascading waterfalls. At Fortescue Falls, a waterfall that falls all year round, we all had a swim in Fern Pool. The water was lovely and warm which was refreshing after the climb down into the gorge on a typically hot and humid day. The other great thing is that the flies don't seem to be able to muster the strength to make it down into the gorges so we could swim in peace.  

Port Headland the final Australian stage of the iron ore mining process. Iron ore is loaded on to ships to send to China or Japan at the rate of 6-8 ships per day. Very much like Newcastle in NSW except red iron ore in place of black coal and Port Headland is a bit rougher than Newcastle. 

Torres Strait Islander Memorial Statue. This monument recognises the record breaking Pilbara track layers who laid seven kilometres of track in 11 hours and 40 minutes whilst constructing the line to Newman in the 1960s. Not sure what happened, 50 years later the best we could achieved was 800m in a day.

Eighty Mile Beach at sunset. The beach lies along the north-west coast of WA between Port Headland and Broome and at 220 kilometres (140m) in length, is the longest uninterrupted beach in WA. Can't tell you why its not called 140 Mile Beach. This coastline is where the Great Sandy Desert meets the Indian Ocean.

Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park, surreal in that it is 250km from anywhere yet it has acres of manicured lawns and box hedges and is positioned right behind the sand dunes on the beach. This must be the largest expanse of lawn in the entire outback and is the most grass we have seen since leaving NSW, you could be in England, almost, if it wasn't so hot.