Port Hedland 17 June

It was a 3 hour trip to Port Hedland but the Ranger had said that the service would be quicker than at the closer Tom Price Hospital. We just had to find the place first! Rasmus had set the coordinates into the GPS and, being newcomers to the place, we were heavily reliant on its ability to get us around. The only problem was, when we arrived at the destination supplied by our resident GPS there was no hospital!

South Hedland hospital

We had seen a sign for one as we drove into town but that was in South Hedland and we were told, via Gavin Garmin (our GPS) that the hospital was in Port Hedland, not South. So we faithfully travelled on only to be stabbed in the back.

Taking matters into our own hands we returned to South Hedland and followed the sign posts to the hospital there. This annoyed Gavin muchly and he constantly insisted that we do U-turns at the next intersections. Despite his pressure we did not turn around and finally made it to a lovely NEW hospital which Mr Garmin had apparently never heard of!

Rasmus dropped my and Kasper off while he went to find a place to park the Beast.

Arriving at the emergency department, we announced ourselves, filled in the paperwork and was in seeing the doc before 10 mins had gone past! I had never seen such quick service in a hospital in my life. OK, we were the only ones in the waiting room, but they were really friendly too.

Kasper was poked at and prodded and eyeballs were looked at and measured through what seemed like a very thorough examination. Given the all clear it was, luckily, only the white part which had been scratched and this self heals remarkably well. Eye drops were then prescribed and then not only were they given to us on the spot but at no cost! What a lovely town!

My rating for Port Hedland peaked at this stage. However, it dropped significantly and quickly through out the rest of our time here.

Over night rest stop with a bit of traffic noise

Collecting water for the next week

We had gotten into a routine of buying lunch when we entered a town just to give us a little treat. Can you believe that a burger in a take-away place cost $15!! A crappy burger that had been pre-made, wrapped in foil and left to wait in a bay marie until it was sold! No thanks!

We bought the kids a few chips for $12 that they could share but there was not enough for me and Rasmus. In fact there was barely enough for them!

To even things out we did manage to get a new Kindle on special at the local Woolies store so that made up a few bonus points.

As Port Hedland only had salt mining on one side of the road and iron ore on the other we called it a day after the shopping and moved on to greener pastures :o) 

Small road train

Making salt by drying sea water