Day 12 Pilbara Region to Pardoo Station

 A boab tree nut, about the size of a kids fist. Aboriginals carve patterns into the shells for tourists.

 The new truck. Intrepid, Kimberly Wild, Western Etreme....

Sandfire Roundhouse.

The road to the beach.

 Eighty Mile Beach

Pardoo Station.

Corelas waiting to feed off the cattle's feed.

The working area of Pardoo Station.

Local beverage.

Wednesday, September 21^st

This morning was departure day. We got up by 6 and Gudrun and I shared some bananas, mandarins, yogurt and granola bars that we bought yesterday. Damien arrived by 8 with 10 new people and the new truck. We have exchanged vehicles with the trip that came north from Perth because we don't require all the swags and tents and the big truck is needed for the Gibb River Road. The new people are:

Victoria 52 and John 56 from Sydney

Elizabeth 67 from Australia

Sandra 65 from Brisbane

Sue 64 from Brisbane

Kathleen 24 from Sydney

Chelsea 23 from New York

Nina 34 from Germany

Sheena 33 from Edmonton

Kelly 22 from Manchester

and Amber 23 from London, who just completed a work stint with Kimberley Wild as an assistant tour guide and was in fact the young lady who sang so beautifully at Cathedral Gorge.

We drove across town to a coffee shop where everyone had their cup of java and then we left town. We only got about 100k before people needed a pit stop. The bush was the only option. The scenery out here is pretty boring and consists of miles of flat land covered with scrub and bush. About a half hour further down the road we stopped at a proper rest station which had toilets. We drove another couple of hours to the Sandfire Roadhouse where we had our usual sandwich picnic lunch. With this trip there is less work to do with setting up camp, so Damien divided us up into three groups, each of which will take care of a meal. 

While lunch was being organized at one of the roadhouses, there were three Harley road bikes, three riders and one woman. I got talking to them. It was hot and they were wearing big heavy black clothes and leathers. I couldn't believe the gear they were wearing in the heat. I talked to them about the heat and they said it was okay once you got going. They were riding from south of Perth up to Darwin and back! I was somewhat envious but when I thought about it I wouldn't want to do that because the distances between things are huge, the roads are very long and dead straight and there is not much to see. So much of what I want to see is off road, on dirt, corrugated roads and you couldn't do that with their bikes. Plus if you had a breakdown or flat you were hours away from any help. We talked about riding and they said they were hoping to do a ride like I did through the States, then they saddled up and rode off.

We continued our drive into the Pilbara region of WA. We drove another hour south before turning off onto a dirt road for 10 km which took us to Eighty Mile Beach. It was a beautiful white sandy beach but, unfortunately we were advised not to swim there as there was the potential for sharks and stingers. There was a campground there but everyone was fishing. I would be so disappointed to camp beside this beautiful beach and not to be able to get in the water. We stayed a half hour and then drove back to the highway and continued for an hour until we got to Pardoo Station. We arrived around 4 pm after about 8 hours of driving. This is a 500 000 acre cattle station with 7000 cattle destined for export. We have little rooms with twin beds and because I am the odd man out I get my own room again!

I wandered around the station taking photos of the buildings, cattle and birds before buying a six pack of beer from the canteen and having one.

My team was on dinner duty and we cooked up a stirfry. At dinner Damien informed us that we are getting a new truck tomorrow morning as the air con is malfunctioning on our truck. We sat around talking after dinner getting to know the new members of the group.