All gorged out? Not yet!

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Here we are then at Karijini National Park, via a free overnight stay north of Port Hedland, a damp overnight at Auski Roadhouse and 2 nights too many in Port Hedland, sorry guys this place is the pits, well to be accurate, mountains. Mountains of iron ore, rock salt and many other minerals are piled high ready for loading at the docks, where at any one time there can be up to 25 container ships awaiting to receive their cargo. BHP Billiton alone ships 100 million tonnes of iron ore per year, with 300 million tonnes being the target in the coming years. At an average of $40 per tonne, not bad!

Anyway, what happened on Saturday 11th as we set off from Port Hedland to Auski Roadhouse? Two things, it rained and rained, and we got caught up with two wide loads heading south (see pics). Moving these babies must have taken some organisation! Funny isn’t it, iron ore dug out of the ground at Newman open cut mine is taken by train over 400km to Port Hedland, loaded into cargo ships bound for China. China make steel, create two little babies which are then shipped back to Port Hedland and transported by road all the way back to the open cut mine at Newman…what’s the saying….what comes around goes around?

Anyway, we digress. The weather clears up and we have 2 great days walking and swimming in the gorges at Karijini. At Dales Gorge camp We have a great site on Kangaroo Loop (just a short stroll to the long drop dunny), no electric or water, so it doesn’t take long to set up, and you can do all the walks without starting the car, so we head off to Fern Pool via Fortescue Falls, then on to the lookouts at Three Ways and Circular Pool before heading back to camp for a very peaceful night.

Day 2 was spent at the west end of the Park at Weano, Hancock, Joffre and Red Gorge. All the gorges has streams which made walking them a little tricky in places, in fact at one point we had to do a little striptease in order to progress. Getting in and out also caused a few problems - especially if you’re not used to climbing ladders. We both confirm that the water is a little chilly! Alas our 2 day stay was over, time to move on to Tom Price and rest our weary legs.

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Comments

[Wendy]

Pt Hedland look really exciting with all that red dust!! Hope you kept a check for crocs in those pools.