Day 68: De Grey River Rest Area to Karijini Free Camp

This morning we drove the last 80km into Port Hedland to pick up some groceries and have a look around town. It was very interesting to see all of the mining transport infrastructure. There were large hills of salt bring loaded onto road trains, and iron ore being moved by very long trains (over 250 carriages per train) and ships.

Once we had our fill of the sites of Port Hedland we drove inland once again towards Karijini National Park. Soon after leaving the coastal highway we started gaining elevation and found ourselves back in the red rock hills covered in spinifex and gum trees. We also passed more road trains today than we have in the whole trip, the majority of which were filled with iron ore.

Just before getting into camp we stopped at the Albert Tognolini Lookout for a view over Karijini Range and down onto the road cut that we drove through. From the lookout we could watch the road trains coming and going.

A bit before sunset we found the Karijini Free Camp site just outside the national park. Here we drove up the hill and found a great spot for the night under some gum trees in amongst the spinifex. It was the first cool evening we had had in ages. In fact we think today was the first day that it did not get to 30 degrees since we left Mataranka. We all enjoyed the cooler evening around the campfire.