Hansen's around Oz: Days 366-367 – Newman, Mt Magnet, WA (14-15 Sept)

Left Port Hedland to a very pleasant morning and some very ominous back clouds, hoping we leave them behind! The Pilbara has had some very unseasonal cool and wet weather over the last few days. Few puddles around. We are travelling 452kms today to Mt Newman. We travelled through some spectacular scenery with lots of hills with some pretty neat formations, big boulders and the colours are just wonderful. I really do like the Pilbara landscape. We got out of the car to refuel at Auski Roadhouse and it was freezing, damp and grey. Of course we were in our shorts and tshirts having left a balmy Port Hedland morning. When we got to Mt Newman it was so cold only 17 degrees and raining! Only the day before it was 37 at Barn Hill so we have dropped 20 degrees with no time to get acclimatised. So out came the heater from under the bed and our winter woollies and uggies from out of the cupboard. It rained the rest of the day and night, yuk. With the umbrella found buried at the bottom of all our stuff in the back of the car, I braved the rain and took Coco for a walk into town. Not much in town except a Woolworths, PO etc. Oh there was a Subway. Out of the mining town we have seen Mt Newman is probably the nicest (as far as mining towns go) and the mining companies seem to take care of their workers with nice facilities. Next day we left Mt Newman by 7.22am – getting earlier – heading to Cue 545kms today. Certainly raking up the kms. There is not a lot to see really except evidence of lots of mining, mining vehicles and lots of road. The only stops between are roadhouses, there some nice looking free camps but timing not right (don’t want to stop too early) so best to keep going. Coolish when we left Mt Newman but I braved it and hoped it would get warmer and put on my shorts. At least it had stopped raining. Today we have seen quite a few wedgetail eagles particularly on the roadkill. If there are crows on the roadkill then an eagle generally is not far away. They are magnificent birds and too watch them soar is fantastic. Unfortunately we counted five dead wedgetails – because of their bulk they can’t take off too quickly and end up getting hit by trucks which move so fast and are huge. We also saw about six oversize vehicles with escorts moving various pieces of mining equipment. Proves just how much mining is going on. Scary really. We re-fuelled four times today including a stop at Meekatharra – not much there except a few businesses which have burglar bars on the doors and windows. Both Meekatharra and Cue are looking like ghost towns with hardly anyone around. We eventually get to Cue and the park was horrible. It was busier then we anticipated and discovered there were a lot of prospectors staying there. We had wondered what all the diggings were along the side of the road must be the prospectors. So we decided to move on another 80kms to Mt Magnet. So in total we travelled 615kms today. Another big day!