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Published: April 27th 2007
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Sunrise at the ToPri Campgrounds
The morning after Day 6, we awoke to this gorgeous sight...definitely worth the ToPri detour!! Alright so today was day 6. And for those of us who had mattress set 6 and were in cabin 6, it was a day not to be forgotten.
Athena had been complaining for a couple of days of bad stomach cramps, but she been trying to ignore them. However, they got really bad while at our sheep station, so she told Kim. He was afraid it might be appendicitis, so he suggested we stop in the town of Tom Price to have her checked out at the hospital.
Of course the bad luck must come to both the 666 tentmates, so that morning while getting dressed, something flew into my eye. Something big, and painful. I tried eye drops. I even tried standing in the shower with the water running through my eye. Nothing would get it out, and it HURT.
We all packed up our stuff, some (ie those in room 6) a little slower than others. In all my panic about my eye I missed out on breakfast, but I didn’t even care. Although it was a travel day, I couldn’t sleep because it hurt too much to close my eye.
We pulled
Sunrise on Mount Nameless
ToPri is located at the bottom of the spectacular Mount Nameless, seen here with the morning sun glistening on it. The Aboriginals are quite upset with this name, however, since the mountain is NOT nameless, and if the white people had bothered to ask them they would have been able to tell them its name. into the town of Tom Price (which I call ToPri) in the early afternoon. Both Athena and I were taken to the hospital. The doctor (yes, THE doctor, the only one in on Easter Monday) was just rushing out to handle a site visit about 200kms away. However, Athena and I were taken in and told we could see the nurse.
We both sat down in the waiting room and flipped through the TV channels. Nothing on. So we checked for videos and found ‘Jurassic Park’. A classic. We popped that bad boy in and started watching, finding all the little plot holes that we missed when it first came out.
After a short wait (the dinosaurs were still in their cages), we were taken in to see the nurse. Athena was given pain killers and asked for a urine sample, then stayed in the hospital bed to sleep and wait for her results. I did several eye washes but the thing in my eye wouldn’t come out and I couldn’t sleep so I went back to the movie. Athena later told me she periodically woke up from her nice sleep to the soothing sound of raptors on the prowl for human flesh. I’m sure it was a pleasant sleep.
Kim came by at about 6pm but we still hadn’t seen the doctor. He told us that a tour guide on another trip had hit his head and couldn’t drive, so Greg was going to fly to Perth, then up to Monkey Mia where that trip was, in order to replace him. Because of all these incidents, we were camping in Tom Price that evening instead of at Karijini National Park, where we were supposed to be. Kim said he would come back after he dropped off Greg.
The Doctor finally returned and began to investigate our illnesses. Athena was diagnosed with a UTI and given medication. And I was given some eye antibiotic which had a Vaseline-like texture and was applied like eyeliner. Athena was given a demo from the nurse about how to apply it. That eye gunk application became one of her favourite pass-times...
Kim came and picked us up and we were brought to the Tom Price campgrounds where our fellow students had been in charge of cooking dinner. We both ate up and told everyone about our strange, strange day. That’s when we figured out the bizarre ‘6’ connection.
Someone had kindly set up our tent for us, but it wasn’t our usual tent. Our luck changed from there on…
And now the question on everyone's mind is, of course: what is a Tom Price?? Well, according to my free guidebook, the town of ToPri "is named after Thomas Moore Price, an American engineer, who played a key role in the exploration of the Pilbara's vast iron ore deposits." One thing is for sure: everyone on Northwest trip #3 2007 will NEVER forget this monumental town or its namesake.
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