The port of Port Hedland had our berth today, amongst the most giganormous ore carriers.  Before the pilot arrived to take us in I counted 15 of them anchored out at sea awaiting their escorts into the harbour. Our guiding tug boats appeared and accompanied us into the harbour and our minute portion of harbour space. This wasn’t a ‘walk off’ port, so shuttle buses had been arranged to ferry those who wanted to go into town. We had breakfast right up front of the restaurant so we had a great view of the harbour, its occupants and the goings on. Only did one tour of the top deck, as even though it only was 7.30 it was quite warm! Very nicely our room faced into the harbour and we had a good view of 3 ore carriers docked on the other side. 2 were obviously full as they were down to their Plimsoll line. The third was being filled and over the day watched it getting lower. It was fascinating watching the 4 tugs pulling and pushing the carriers, slowly cajoling them away from the dock and out into deeper water. We then had these huge ships being pulled past us to either get out to sea or to take their place at the wharf they were allocated. They are generally black at the top and red below and the joining line is it. So the red slowly disappears as the ship fills up and only the black remains in sight. It takes a long time to fill these carriers. One that had been moved into place about 9.30 was still showing most of its red when we left at 5. We had to migrate into our room in the afternoon as the sun was way to hot to sit in. Another nice dinner and then blog writing for me and reading time for Mum.