Travelling the Pilbara, Western Australia. May 2021

Leaving Broome we headed south on the Great Northern Highway. We had two overnight stops before turning off the highway heading for Marble Bar. The first camp was $30 per night - power and water - at Sandfire Roadhouse. Not a bad camp. It was fairly full when we got there. Peacocks and chickens were walking around everywhere and late afternoon there were camels in the paddocks we could see from our window. 

The next morning we headed to nearby 80 Mile Beach, the longest uninterrupted beach in Western Australia. It is actually 220km, or almost 137 miles. I don't know why it is called 80 Mile Beach, but it use to be called 90 Mile Beach. It was renamed in 1946 to avoid confusion with a Victorian beach of the same name. The beach is the western edge of the Great Sandy Dessert.

Such a beautiful beach and so many shells. The sand was soft and white and the water freezing cold.

Back on the bitumen again, we were heading to Cape Keraudren Coastal Park to camp for a night or two. The end of the Rabbit Proof fence is located there. The dirt road in was pretty bad and once we got half way there was a sign saying it wasn't part of the WA National Parks. We had travelled about half way - 7 kms of crap road and to camp for one night would have coast a total of $42 - for some sand, hopefully, so we decided to keep going.

We drove another 80 km to De Grey River rest area. A very large area with shade, toilets info boards and river views. The walks down to the river were closed due to some weed infestation, but a good overnight camp anyway.

Next morning the plan was to head to Marble Bar for a few days and then back track to Port Hedland. Best made plans!! We turned onto the Marble Bar Road and about 20 seconds down the road an oncoming truck swerved onto the gravel and a stone flew up and hit our windscreen. Peter recons he was on his phone. A cracked appeared and continued to grow until we were about 20 km down the road and we decided to turn around and head to Port Hedland. Our thinking was better to get it fixed in a major town rather than a smaller one. So began our Port Hedland adventure.