FRIDAY 30 JULY   SOUTH HEDLAND TO NANUTARRA ROADHOUSE   490kms

Today’s was a long day of driving south.

The country was not particularly interesting, and we’d driven it before.

Refuelled at the roadhouse at the turn off to Karratha – $1.08cpl. Topped up the fuel again at the Fortescue River Roadhouse – $1.20 cpl.

For several weeks now, we had spent time in the very large catchment area of the Fortescue River. Now, we were not far from its mouth, about a hundred kms SW of Dampier. There was water in part of the wide bed. We had to detour through a section of the river bed, around the bridge repairs that were happening after the cyclone damage of earlier in the year. Clearly, this river could be ferocious at times.

Overnighted again back at Nanutarra Roadhouse. The ground was dry, this time, but the place was still noisy. $20 a night.

Whilst we were here, John took the jerry can to be refilled – $1.36cpl.

He then retreated to the van for a rest. I went for a walk along to the Ashburton River and had a look at the works going on there on a new road bridge. It would be a big improvement on the old, one lane only bridge.