Point Samson, Port Hedland and Pardoo Station (By Simon)

After travelling the long days from Tom Price we were looking forward to a couple of quiet days and Point Samson was certainly quiet.

Being early in the season the camp ground was virtually empty and we enjoyed the quiet and sunshine. We met another family from Newman with two young boys so the kids had a ball at the play ground and on the blow up water slides.

We did make an effort to explore the rest of Point Samson but there is really nothing to it... a small sandy beach (at which we were attacked by sand flies), a general store, small boat harbour and 2 caravan parks.

Leaving Point Samson we called past Port Lambert. This is the final stop for the Rio Tinto iron ore trains and where the ore is loaded onto ships.

We then travelled toward Port Hedland and stopped early in the afternoon at a free camp on the Yule River. After setting up the camper we all took a walk down to the river for a refreshing swim and the kids worked their hardest to get the road trains to blow their horns!

The day ended with our little camp site bathed in orange... another glorious sunset!

We were up early the next morning heading for Port Hedland were we had a zipper fixed on the front of the camper (it had failed in the dust on the road from Tom Price). We had lunch overlooking the port which was very busy loading ships with iron ore (from the BHP mines) and saw three fully laden ships being escorted out of the port by 3 or 4 tugs.

After lunch we headed out of town to our next stop at Pardoo Station. Pardoo station is a working cattle station covering 2023 square kilometres and running about 7000 head of Santa Gertudis and Brahman cattle (we even had one greet us on the road in).

After setting up camp we went for a drive through the paddocks past a lot of cows (and a couple of huge bulls) and onto the river and then the beach. Apparently there is great fishing in the Pardoo River but none of us felt game to fish in the fading light after a large Crocodile had been spotted just days prior.

The next day was Mother's Day! The kids had a great time presenting the cards they had made, the girls sang a mother's day song they had written and played "hot & cold" with Mum trying to find her present hidden in the camper. We then cooked Mum breakfast (smoked salmon and a poached egg on toast).

By mid day we had packed up and were on our way to our next stop, 80 Mile Beach.


Travel Log:
Point Samson to 80 Mile Beach: 580 km
Total Trip: 8458 km