Big Ships and Red Dust

Heading back up to Port Hedland was an interesting experience. It was probably the first time we had driven a significant distance away from home since we turned the corner.
First stop was the harbour. The magnitude of the shipping operations is one thing – seeing the expansion plans another entirely. Currently almost the same amount of bulk exports are sent out of Port Hedland each week that leave Bunbury in a year and Bunbury is a major exporter of resources!
Other than that Port Hedland gave us the opportunity to catch up with a close lifetime friend who I hadn’t seen for around five years and another set of friends we had made in Bunbury, who had a child almost exactly the same age as Max. Micky and Liz had originally met through Mother’s group and kept in touch ever since. I think Max really appreciated a chance to have a play with someone the same age even if the kids didn’t actually remember each other initially.
We stuck around in Port Hedland until Sunday morning to enable us to ring Liz for her Birthday before heading into the Karajini. This stage of the trip has been much anticipated by me as I visited the Karajini as part of a school trip when I was 16 and my memories of it still captivate me all these years later.