Iron,salt and carvings

Pit stop
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We braved the elements in the morning, packed up in the rain and continued on our way. Amazing to see so many termite mounts around here. The do not even seem to be affected by fire. Some fields that were burned had only termite mounts left standing. We saw more emus, they seem to be quite regulars up here and also an increasing number of cattle on the road. The roads just are not fenced off, I am sure the farmers must have done the math!! This area must stand under water in the wet season (which was supposed to have ended) There are numerous warning signs for flooding with flood indicators up to 2 m high.

The rocks were covered in rust.
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So with the Great Sandy Desert on one side and Eighty mile beach on the other we continued up into the Pilbara region.

As we drove up the rocks were getting darker, the inside was black and the outside red. The percentage of iron in these rocks is as much as 80% so we knew we were heading into mining country.

Dampier was a surprisingly large town. The iron mining is huge here as is the natural gas production and the solar salt extraction. So lots of things happening here if you need a job!!

It was the only magnet we had and yes it did stick.
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It was incredibly hot  here and no chance of cooling off over night,sleeping was a little tough.

In the morning, while the laundry was drying we explored some aboriginal rock carvings and almost drove over a 3 ft long lizard.

Got back to take the laundry in just as the rains caught up with us.