Returning to the dry heat

 The road from Broome to Port Hedland is about as straight and featureless as a highway could be. I used tooth picks to prop my eyelids open on the six hour drive. Everything is the same except the vegetation gradually gets browner and sparser.

We stayed in a very crowded and expensive caravan park in Port Hedland. It seems like a lot of these young miners buy a brand new Toyota Landcruiser and a caravan. They park all this stuff and the wives and kids in the park and head off to work. 

From Port Hedland  we drove to Roebourne and toured the old restored pearling community of Cossack. Ironically it is the aboriginal people that own and run the the place.  

After that we drove to Karratha where they have salt mines, iron ore mines and natural gas plants and the most expensive caravan park yet. 

Near Karratha is some of the oldest aboriginal rock art in Australia. Some of it is dated at 48000 years old. Within spitting distance is a massive natural gas plant.

We made a quick quick stop in Dampier so that Yammy could pay her respects to Red Dog. Red Dog was a stray dog that travelled hundreds of miles in the region and befriended many people. They have made two successful movies about him and are thinking of making a television series, if they can find the right Red dog to play the part.

After Karratha we headed inland to Millstream Chichester Park. The drive was very beautiful as we paralleled  a railroad carrying hundreds of cars of iron ore. When we finally reached the park we were assaulted by the heat and thousands of flies. The only thing that saved us was a very beautiful swimming hole. That night we were in a campground by ourselves. The flies do magically disappear when. It gets dark.