SUNDAY 12 NOVEMBER NORTH POINT CAMP
Our day off. We slept in – a most welcome change. On those days of 5am rises, being “just retired” again looked very attractive.
Very hot – into the 40’s. I did the washing.
John, in the course of his work, and just socializing around camp, had got talking to one of the drillers, who was working on rail bridge foundations. John had arranged with him for us to go where they were currently working, in the Turner River bed. It was supposed to be a really scenic spot. Driller said he would put out some drums by the access tracks to guide us in there.
We had to drive across to the BHP rail access road, then head towards Port Hedland. John had occasionally taken that route into Hedland, for something different, but I had not been on it, in this northern section.
BHP Rail Access road
It was lovely to get out for a drive, and cool enough in Truck, but there was not much motivation to get out into the heat and go wandering about.
The diversity of the Pilbara
We couldn’t find the marked track and turned back, thinking the driller had forgotten about the marker drums. However, turned out we had not gone far enough. So that was a missed opportunity.
BHP railroad bridge. Even in the heat of November there were a few pools of water about. Bushfire in background.
We were not quick enough to identify this large bird…..
Took some effort to get that up there!
For the rest of the day, just read in the cool of the van.
We didn’t go over to tea – some of the concreters were back, doing some final work about the Village. I did not feel like mixing with them if I could avoid it. I scrounged some salad makings from the guys in the kitchen and we ate in the van.
Apparently there were all sorts of problems at the Village today. I was so pleased I had not been there. To the Spotless people, I was the visible face of the company, so all their complaints and issues were directed at me!
There were still issues with the electrical system. And apparently the pump out pit for the sewerage system was full and R was having to pump it out once an hour! Yuk. And that was at a time when only a handful of the Spotless people on the site were using the facilities. Now I knew what a pump-out pit was – but think I would have preferred not to know.
This Adventurous Age 