North to Darwin

We caught up with Pip and Courtney which was great. Had a tour of the RFDS base as that is where they both work. We checked out the beaches ⛱️ but still no swimming but saw lots of big turtles. The harbour tour was pretty spectacular as this is the worlds largest port measured in tonnages of bulk materials 🚢. There are about 20 berths where the newer big ships can load at a rate of 18,500 tonnes per hour. The new terminals tied up a ship in 40 seconds whereas the older ones had ropes and took an hour and half. There were 23 ships close enough to see waiting to come in and many more over the horizon in 2 more parking lots in international waters pumping out bilge water. There were about 12 separate train lines continuously delivering ore to the port most of which are automatically driven by people in Perth 1800 kms away. Our guides daughter in-law drove 7 dump trucks at a time from an office in Perth.
The worlds biggest solar salt mine is also here in Pt Hedland.Read more