Oz Trip - Day 126

Day 126 – 4/9/2012 – Road trip to Newman

We were up, packed up and pulled out right on 8am. Today was basically just going to be a driving day to Newman. We weren't too sure which way to go. There were a couple of options. Down the dirt via the Rio Tinto Rail access road – the more direct route with pretty much no doubling back, or sticking to the black top which meant back tracking about 200km but we could site on a good speed.

To take the rail access road you also needed a permit to travel the road and you had to watch a 20min induction video. After watching the video, getting the permit and refuelling, it was about 10am. So now due to our later than expected start and still having to complete approximately 600km along with the advice from the Karratha visitors info centre that the road was rough, we decided to give the rail access road a miss and take the sealed option. We felt that we would have been pushing things a little bit too hard to try and make Newman in one day going that route.

The road was full of heavy traffic. Lots of road trains carrying mining equipment. At one point we had to move off the road and stop completely as there was a wide load heading towards us taking up both lanes. It was two prime movers linked together towing a massive platform. The platform was empty and they were moving at pretty good speed so we assumed that they were heading to Port Hedland or Karratha to pick up what ever was going to be transported back on the platform.

Some serious horse power there!

We ended up making it to Newman at about 6pm and had to setup in the dark and cold. At this point we were really glad that we didn't take the rail access road as we were sure we would have been even later to arrive.

Back to the wide open landscapes again

And then through the hills