Port Hedland

There are often birds on the side of the road when we travel and a few short toots of the horn usually moves them on. Whether these galahs were particularly dull, or whether the stiff breeze impeded their hearing, is unclear, but the short toots didn't shift them. As we got closer a few started to fly across the road so Dazz gave a longer honk of the horn and suddenly there were what seemed like hundreds of birds fly up out of the grass and straight across the road. There were quite a few thuds and my mirror was folded in with enough force to pop the glass out. We pulled over and walked back up the road looking for the mirror backing plate and it still had most of the glass in it, although it was all cracked. We didn't see any dead birds, but I'm sure that a few of them would have had decent headaches.

We popped the plate back in the frame and taped it in so it didn't fall out and continued on our way. We managed to get a rather unsatisfactory slightly wavy temporary plastic replacement. We made enquiries about getting a proper replacement but it was going to be three to four weeks, so we'll have to sort it out when we get closer to Perth. At least the bottom convex mirror is still good.

We hadn't planned on staying at Port Hedland - just making a detour for fuel and groceries, but I had a lump come up on my hand I didn't like the look of and wanted to get it looked at. I managed to get an appointment for a week after I called with a doctor who would take it out during the appointment if necessary. He confirmed my suspicions and took it out. While we were waiting for the appointment we had a wander around the Port and watched a ship being guided out through the channel.