Boys And Their (Big) Toys

This morning we drove back into Tom Price to do the Rio Tinto Mine Tour. We piled onto the bus with Bazza up front and set off for the mine. The tour itself was quite interesting, learning about the production and exportation of iron ore. We saw one of the seven pits that they are in the process of mining.

But even more impressive than the hole in the ground was the big toys! These were huge and very expensive, to buy and to run. They burn through about 20L of diesel per kilometre! And we thought our fuel economy was bad!! 

We then left Tom Price headed once again for the coast. We drove along the main road that connects Port Hedland and Perth, and it was by far the busiest road we have been on since leaving Melbourne. We saw heaps more big toys on this road.

I have no idea how you would go about driving one of these trucks, let alone reverse it!! Overtaking them was a bit of a nightmare as it seemed to take forever!! We didn't quite make 80 Mile Beach tonight as it was a bit late, so we stopped for the night at De Grey, which is just a free stay on a river. Could be nice, but it was hard to see in the dark!!