It was Michael’s birthday today. So we let him have a sleep in while myself, Sam, Hannah and Bethany finished off the birthday card making, had breakfast and then went for an early morning walk down to the beach. It was a much lower tide than the previous evening. Eighty Mile Beach is a shell collector’s paradise – there are many pretty and unusual shells. We spent about half an hour looking at the shells and choosing some to take back. Dad and Lauren were awake when we got back and had just finished breakfast and showers. So we gave Dad his cards and presents for his birthday. Then we packed up the van, but didn’t hook up the car yet. We were going to have one more drive along the beach before we left. We had told the kids they could take turns driving the car along the beach. They were looking forward to this. There weren’t many people around, so it was a good opportunity. Lauren went first and didn’t have to move the seat too much ( she has long legs now). Then Michael had Bethany then Hannah on his lap. Then Sam drove on his own, although had to move the seat forward quite a bit. They enjoyed this little ‘treat’. Then we went back to the van, hooked it up and headed off.

We drove the 240km to Port Hedland in the morning. It was a pleasant drive. The landscape was mostly low-lying grassland and scrub, with the occasional hill or rocky outcrop. We saw signs of the mining in the area – large road trains, a railway line running beside the road for some way and then heading out to the coast toward Port Hedland. We even saw some unexpected signs like termite mounds with mining hard hats on them! (the Pilbara sense of humour). As we came closer to Port Hedland, we could see the build up of industry. This really is an industrial town. It has the largest tonnage port in Australia, loading the iron ore from the Pilbara area mines onto ships for export. The ships can carry up to 250,000 tonnes. As well as the BHP Billiton iron ore processing plant, there are some salt pans at Port Hedland. We drove to a viewing area of the port and parked near a playground area to have lunch. We watched a huge ship glide out from the port. Just south of Port Hedland itself is the satellite city of South Hedland, a large residential area built to house the spillover of workers. We needed to drive in there to go to the shops.

Then it was on the road again driving towards Roebourne, another 220km away. We wanted to get to this spot tonight as there were a few things to do around here and we could stay put for 2 or 3 nights. The stopover at Port Hedland had taken a bit longer than we would have liked, so we were a bit later than we would have liked getting in to Roebourne – almost 6pm. Because it was Michael’s birthday, we had planned to do a special dinner with dessert. So we set up as quickly as possible and I got the kids involved in helping me to start dinner. We were going to do lamb chops on the BBQ and have vegies including corn on the cob. Sam cooked the chops on the van park BBQ. We had dinner ready by 7pm and enjoyed it. Then I took the younger girls for a shower while the others washed up the dishes. Then we brought out the dessert – a special pavlova for Dad’s birthday which we had secretly bought at South Hedland. We all enjoyed that.