Sick of FIFO in the Pilbara

Day 22 Pardoo to Robe River

The next morning we were fighting the cross wind again but at least we had made it into the Pilbara where the scenery had kicked in again. I hadn't driven this stretch in a while and instantly noticed the new mine sites and gas plants springing up everywhere. We came across the dressed up termite mounds pretty early and they seem to be breeding!

Ha ha

We only stopped in Port Headland to fuel and grab a coffee milk but while I was there I rang my wife and found out about the Christchurch earthquake. While I have no family there I do have a few friends so I was bit worried. We cruised onto the Whim Creek pub which has now been fully rebuilt after being flattened during a cyclone in 2000. Unfortunately it now also doubles up as a fly in/fly out mining camp so a lot of the soul has gone out of the place.

Cheers Rod

We made it to Karratha for lunch and I demanded Macca's. I managed to ring my Mum for her 65th birthday which was cool as I thought I'd be out of phone range that day. Unfortunately for Rod his rear wheel kept moving in on it's mount causing the chain to go slack. He tried buying an adjustable spanner to tighten the wheel up but to no avail. We then continued south hoping to make the Fortescue River roadhouse. We made it ok but the caravan park had been converted to, you guessed it, a FIFO camp, so there was no place to stay. Instead we rode another 40km south to a free campsite we knew of beside the Robe River. We just found a space for the tents in amongst all the caravans and settled down for the night. We meet a mad bugger Ross (in his late 60's/early 70's) riding a push bike from Darwin to Perth. He had some mad stories to tell us around the camp fire that night. Hats off to him though, we couldn't do it!

Camping at Robe River