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Published: June 11th 2006
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Karijini Nat Park
View from Oxer lookout Sunday May 28th and we leave Coral Bay with Bruno, Irene, Liz and David, all from Coffs Harbour, waving farewell. Our next destination is Tom Price and we drive through magnificent country during the day. Scenery changed from semi arid to beautiful green and red dirt and hills and big rocky outcrops. Just what we were waiting to see in the Pilbara. Came across plenty of cattle today including a few rather large bulls. John’s diary says they would each feed an army! The wildflowers are starting to appear and with the blue sky and the red dirt and rocks it was a lovely drive. Had to stop overnight so had our first night free camping at Beasley River. Tom and Val from Singleton were already there and shortly after our arrival Wayne and Jill from Adelaide, followed very quickly by Canadian John in his “Wicked” campervan. (Nice bit of eye candy girls and charming to boot!) We have been seeing these “Wicked” campervans everywhere. They are mainly used by backpackers and are notable for their wild and sometimes risqué, paint jobs. We proceeded to have a few drinks and laughs as we watched the sunset with our new very best
Karijini Nat Park
View from Oxer lookout friends. Wayne and Jill have just sold their business in Adelaide and are the same age as us so we had lots in common including a great sense of humour. This campsite is really just a roadside rest spot and had a long drop toilet and nothing else. Made me ever so grateful we had our own ‘loo’ and shower. It was so peaceful though - makes you understand why so many people free camp so often. Happily headed off next morning for the second leg of the trip to Tom Price via Paraburdoo. Tom Price was originally a company town so in most respects looks much like so many others. It is 747 metres above sea level making it the highest town in WA. The Caravan Park is at the base of Mt. Nameless. (The indigenous people called this mountain Jarndrunmunhna meaning ‘place of rock wallabies’, but the white man chose to call it Mt Nameless probably because they couldn’t say Jarndrunmunhna let alone spell it!) and not long after we arrived, Wayne and Jill rolled in. They had taken the gravel short cut to Tom Price as they have a much smaller Avan and better equipped for off
Karijini Nat Park
Swimming in Fern Pool. The water here even tasted good. road travel. Had a small problem with a flat tyre which meant it became the long way to Tom Price so once we had all set up we had to relax with a couple of sunset drinks ending at about 8.30. As sunset was all over at about 6 pm, I could tell that these people were trouble and should in future be avoided at all costs.
John and I had booked a tour of Karijini National Park the next day and were picked up at 8 am for a full day in the park. What a day. The gorges and waterholes were just beautiful and quite awe inspiring or “awesome” in the literal sense of the word. Has anyone noticed that I haven’t used the “a-----“ word in this journal yet? Can’t stand the way it is used to describe anything and everything these days so that when you do see something awesome the word loses its punch. I digress!!! Our first stop in the park was Weano Gorge where the Oxer lookout overlooks the junction of 5 gorges - Weano, Hancock, Red, Joffre and Knox. The colours of the rocks were deep red and the vegetation was a
Karijini Nat Park
Can't begin to tell you how beautiful it was here. John is standing on an outcrop of high grade iron ore beautiful soft green. The softness was deceptive as the spinifex looks good but packs a punch if you grab it. After so much rain all the gorges had plenty of water and this water curtailed our walks. Will put quite a few pictures in but once again, I don’t think a photo could do this place justice. Stopped at the visitor’s centre for lunch and a perusal of the indigenous displays inside. The park is managed by the traditional landowners in partnership with Dept of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) and is a credit to all concerned. Drove on through the park to Fortescue Falls and walked on to Fern Pool where we had a swim in the beautiful clear(ish) waters. Tried not to think of the dreamtime tale of the serpent who lived there whilst swimming around! From Fortescue Falls there is another walk to Circular Pool that we decided to do before leaving Tom Price. On our way back to the bus ran into Jill and Wayne who had spent the morning getting their tyre fixed and promised to catch up for drinks later on. Oh dear! We had also come across Canadian John at our morning tea
Karijini Nat Park
Circular Pool. This is where we wanted to walk to but decided against it after a night of rain. stop. He was all set up for a long, wet walk with a bit of absieling along the way. It was a bit like old home week for a while there. An absolutely terrific day where we saw so much as well as acquiring all the info that a local guide can give. Spent the evening having more drinks and laughs with Wayne and Jill and decided to all do the mine tour the following day.
Mine tour was full so decided to climb Mt Nameless. It is only 1128 metres above sea level and an easy climb they tell us. Yeah right!! We did all make it to the top after an hour and a half and found spectacular views of the Hammersley ranges, Tom Price township and one of the biggest iron ore open cut mines in the world. The ore is shipped out in trains 230 carriages long pulled by two locos and we were able to see one in its full length from up there on top of the world!! We spent an hour recovering, looking, watching and taking it all in. The contrasts were amazing. The colours once again and the wildlife and wildflowers. Only
Mt Nameless
From the bottom took us 50 minutes to climb down and then back to the park for rest and recreation which meant more drinks with Wayne and Jill and arrangements for the mine tour the next day before heading off to Karijini for the Circular Pool walk and overnight in the Park. It rained all night, which put the mine tour in doubt again but eventually boarded the bus and headed into Tom Price mine. I could bore you for hours with the info but basically it is owned by Hammersley Iron a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto. The ore is mined from open pits and after being blasted out of the ground is loaded onto and hauled by the big trucks you hear about capable of carrying 200 tonnes of ore in a single trip. After crushing and screening the ore is loaded on to one of the huge trains mentioned before, the 230 wagons being the average and the length of the train is approx. 2.5 kilometres. The trains haul the ore to Dampier and are loaded on to bulk carriers for export to China, Japan and so on. The figures are endless and enormous as are the wages earned
Climbing Mt Nameless
Battling to the top. in these places. There is work available from heavy vehicle drivers to cleaners. Fact - cleaners are so hard to get that the normal wage is about $80,000 pa. The tour was well worth the wait and we finally left Tom Price about 1.30 pm. The plan was to go into Karijini with Wayne and Jill and do the Circular Pool walk that afternoon. Because of the overnight rain we decided to leave the walk and continue on our way to Broome. Waved goodbye to our new best friends and spent the next night in the Auski Roadhouse caravan park. Only thing you could say about this place was that their generator sounded like a747 coming in to land so we were very pleased to stay just the one night. Next stop Port Hedland where iron ore from Newman is delivered. It seemed everything here is red. A real working town and we used it just as an overnight stop and for a bit of stocking up. We were again told that they are crying out for tradesmen here. The mining boom is certainly creating an almost unreal economy. You wonder what will happen to all these places when the
Climbing Mt Nameless
Made it to the top. Township of Tom Price in the background. minerals run out! Next stop is 80 mile beach Caravan Park .
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Little Lee
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So Jealous!!
Hey Guys..... well well well aren't you two just having the best time EVER!!! The blogs are great and the pics are amazing! Not that you need to be told... but keep having a fantabulous time!!! Miss you heaps... Lee and Toby xoxox