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Published: August 14th 2008
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What a difference a couple of days makes! I have just spent my first night in Karijini National Park after driving down from Broome via Port Hedland on Tuesday. Being south of Broome, and further inland, it is bloody cold - particularly at night. The drive from Broome was fairly uneventful, and rather unexciting, except for the colony of termite mounds which the local miners had duly decorated with miners hard hats on the way into Port Hedland. I always knew Port Hedland as the location of the immigration detention centre up in the north west - apparently there is more to Port Hedland than just that. I read somewhere that 34% of the worlds sea based iron ore passes through the region. That is pretty impressive - but not surprising when you see the dark red rocks around which are clearly iron based. Many of the locals wear fluorescent yellow and orange vests around - highlighting their employment by either BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto or one of the multitude of contracting companies employed by the mines. I also read something suggesting that your car may have had its origins in the Pilbara region - so I am thinking of this
stage of my trip as bringing the JGG back home again!
I will remember my one night in Port Hedland as that night during which my air mattress sprung a leak. Even though the ground was fairly soft, this still makes for an extremely restless night. Thank God I managed to pick up a new mattress in Port Hedland before departing for Karijini as the ground in the National Park is not as forgiving as that in the van park I stayed in in Port Hedland!
The drive to Karijini takes in the Great Sandy Desert, so besides lots of Spinifex, a few cattle, the odd termite mound or thousand, and the occasional tree, there is not much to see. Except for the wildflowers! These are great! Along the roadside, in what appears to be stretches of painted colour, there are wildflowers of yellow, maroon, violet, blue, red and many other colours. I could not resist pulling over to take some pics of these on numerous occasions which turned the 3 hour drive to Karijini to a drive of about 4 hours. I was in no hurry however.
Karijini National Park, being in the Pilbara, is set
in a desert scene. There is lots of rocks, red dust (the annoying kind which gets into everything - unlike the stuff I so much enjoyed in the Red Centre), and Spinifex grass. But what makes this place special are the gorges which consist of sheer cliffs of layered iron ore based rock, some of which are over 100metres in depth. But .... those who know me well will realise that heights are not my thing ... oh well! There are also numerous picturesque waterfalls and creeks and waterholes. Unfortunately the roads in Karijini are atrocious! Red dust and jagged rocks cover the road, in between all of the corrugations of course. To top that off, the distances between attractions is 10 - 20 kilometres - the poor JGG is copping a bit of a beating at the moment! Not only is she getting a rough ride, but she is also coated in that red dust. I am just hoping to get away tomorrow without another puncture.
I am staying in the Karijini Eco Retreat - which basically means I am camping in the bush amongst some of that rock, dust and Spinifex - with not much in the
way of amenities, and having cold showers in the morning before the solar hot water heaters have kicked in. As eluded to earlier, the Thunderbox is set up on what can only be described as roadside grade material - jagged rocks which I somehow managed to bash 4 tent pegs into to secure the tent! I have managed to “hook into” the resorts wireless network however and therefore have access to internet and email. Sure beats paying the $5 per 15 minutes they want to charge you for using their office based computer! Life is good!!
Having seen all of the gorges and waterfalls I wanted to see, I took the opportunity to visit the town of Tom Price today, some 70kms from the Karijini Eco Retreat. One of my aims was to fill the JGG up with LPG, however the one service station in Tom Price had a gas bowser labelled “Out of Order” - so am running on Unleaded at the moment - ouch!
Tomorrow morning I will be up early for my cold shower, before packing up and heading south west towards Exmouth. I want to investigate the Whale Sharks there - although I have
heard that the tours are pretty expensive. Should that fail, its onto Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay.
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Diana
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Wild flower
What's the name of this flower? I recently took a photo of one and I'd love to know what it's calledl! thank you xx