Perusing the Pilbara

After the high of swimming with whale sharks, we bid Exmouth a cheery goodbye and headed back on to the north west coastal highway to continue the journey through WA.

It wasn't long before the strikingly red sandy dirt once again dominated the landscape but this time there were also mountain ranges of red rock to welcome us into the Pilbara. It's a really stunning landscape to see up close and made all the more interesting by thinking of the billions of dollars mined out of it each year.

And it's hot, very hot. I've said to the kids that from here to Darwin we pretty much need to accept we're going to be constantly bathed in sweat and covered in flies. Suzy Q is feeling it as well, with her fridge and water tanks not functioning as well as they should be, so it could be an interesting couple of weeks.

The long, hot drives have been testing everyone's patience so we try to find plenty of places to stop and admire scenery or a building or a park or whatever else is around. Thanks to WikiCamps I found a rest area yesterday right next to a mining highway so we stood on the tables and waved at the giant trucks delivering iron ore and received giant honking horn blasts in return.

Evie's special request was to visit the statue of Red Dog in Dampier. He kinda reminded us of our Cooper dog. I'm going to find the movie for the kids to watch so we can embrace the story of the Pilbara Wanderer while in the Pilbara.

Tonight we're in Point Samson with a view of the ocean from our caravan park site and lots of hermit crabs wandering around Suzy Q. Oh, and look what we found in Karratha: