The Pilbara

Thursday 11th June
Last night was very wet, the whole of the Pilbara received a good drenching (40mm) and a lot of campers at Cape Range National Park got flooded out during the night. Most unusual for this place as the average rainfall is only 200mm (8 inches) per year. The temperature stayed at around 25°C for most of the night and we had the humidity to go with it. They tell me that the Sandflies will be out in force a couple of days after this rain.
After a delayed start in the morning (got chatting to some other travellers) we got on the road by 8:30. The track took us south until we got onto the "Wool Pack Track" heading east towards the North Coastal Highway which took us north into new country. We left the Gascoyne region and entered the Pilbara. It's not just a change in name, as one enters the Pilbara the landscape not only changed from arid into greener and more vegetation but also into those red hills which are so typical of this iron rich soil.
The temperature rose as high as 29°C inland during the day. We stopped at Nanutarra Road House for lunch and fuel and also met up with Ron and Vicki.
After some 600km of travel we finally arrived at Karratha, got the caravan set up and headed into town to check out local scene. It doesn't take long to figure out that this is prime mining country - almost every car on the road is a 4WD more or less covered in red dirt. On the street and in the shops most people wear their work overalls, so it's easy to see who's in mining (and associated industries). Up here non-mining workers are the exception. As a result of the large mining population in Karratha, the caravan park is the most expensive on our trip so far.