29th MAY 2013 – PILBARA, NORTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Breaking camp from Cape Range National Park it was straight back to Exmouth where Stu spent time looking for a place with tyres for the Landcruiser. With luck we found some & just as well as two of the four were well down & getting to the stage of being illegal. While he delivered the car I spent time filling the water tanks with the free water at the Visitor Centre then we did some grocery shopping . All achieved by the time the car was ready & because it was then lunchtime we ate & finally left at 2pm, very late for us leaving one place for another. It was a long flat drive which became quite boring by the time we reached our chosen overnighter which was beside a VERY dry riverbed. There were quite a few cattle wandering around near us enticed by some pools of water left by recent rain. On the road at our usual time next morning we had a large flock of Corella cockatoos fly right at the car & unfortunately at least one was hit. It was a lovely drive with pretty mountain ridges which looked quite purplish in the distance, some with tabletops quite typical of the Pilbara region. It seems there are either cloudless blue skies or amazing cloud formations & on this day it is the latter. There doesn’t seem to be any wildlife apart from birds or straying cattle now & again. The landscape is so vast & just seems to go on & on forever. There is also a distinct lack of traffic unless they are all behind us. One thing which surprises us is seeing hoons ‘drifting’ patterns on the road in a couple of places. Seems incomprehensible so far in the outback. We reach the small mining community of Paraburdoo which is very busy with trucks & utes everywhere, all covered with red dust & their neon yellow stripes & flags on top of the vehicles identifying them. This is the airport from which all the mine workers from here & Tom Price town fly home on their days off & holidays & there are 46 flights a week go out by Qantas alone. Stu was not pleased to have to follow a convoy of mine vehicles for 10kms as we left. Tonight we have to pay for a caravan park at Tom Price & were dismayed to be told it was $28 unpowered & $42 powered! You can guess which we took. Because we do so many kms the batteries stay well charged for our needs & of course we have our solar panel as well. Only for the fact that Stu has booked a mine tour at 9am next day, we would have continued onto the Karajini National Park. This was a Rio Tinto mine, one of many in the area. It was much quieter than he expected after having visited the one in Westport where his daughter works. The ore is removed & crushed, then loaded onto trains over 2kms long, the value of the load being worth 3 million dollars per train & there are 3 trains per day which to go to the port of Dampier headed for China. Tom Price was only built in 1963, named after an American who was instrumental in convincing the mining companies that it was worth mining here. He also played a major role in lobbying the State & Federal Governments to allow mining to proceed & for the ore to be exported. In 1962 he returned to the States at age 71 & sadly died of a heart attack only two hours after being advised of the very rich ore deposits discovered on the mountain here. It is a small town & totally mining orientated as you can imagine, but I thought for a young family with no children or starting a family it was a great way to get a start in life. It has all the amenities possible like swimming pool, parks & playgrounds, cinema, recreation centre, gokarts, nice schools, golf club, hospital, doctor, dentist, etc. The houses mostly are quite nice brick homes, with some really lovely ones with gorgeous green lawns & gardens which apparently belong to the doctors, dentists & mine bosses I daresay. The population is 5000. And to get away from it all they have the Karajini National Park only 80kms away & that is we headed too.

On the short drive to the N.P we called in to look at a free overnight area called RIP. Thinking it was a weird name I had told Stu I didn’t know if I would like to stay there as we would either have a very good nights rest or never leave. On arrival we were very surprised to find that it was surrounded by rocks with either written memoriams on the rocks or in some cases professionally made plaques, some with flowers & a few with wreaths placed there this last Anzac Day I would guess. It was quite moving.

Saturday 1st June – can’t believe we have been away so long. Time is flying by indeed & here we are at another destination which we hope will live up to expectations. The usual NP rules, no pets which Stu says cuts out half the nomad population as so many of them have dogs here in Oz. We are given a huge site & as fate would have it only two sites away from our expat kiwi friends who have been here 3 nights & leave next morning.

Dales Gorge

Fortescue Falls

 

Rock face Dales Gorge

 

 

  We take the bull by the horns & hit the first of many walking trails, this one taking us along the rim of the gorge, & next morning we retrace our steps & head down to the bottom of the gorge itself. There are waterfalls (not large at this time) but nevertheless very pretty, & the rock formations are amazing, stacked like layer after layer of red granite. Although the weather is overcast & windy up top, at the bottom it is still & warmer. We are surprised at one of the pools (with proper swimming pool steps,) to find some mining guys on their day off actually swimming. They told us how warm it was which we took with a grain of salt, but it actually was very warm. Unfortunately we didn’t come prepared but I’m sure a lot of the young ones wouldn’t let that stop them. Next day, after much umming & aahing as to whether it would be worth it, we drove 60kms of red dirt road to a group of 4 other gorges. And worth it indeed!

Joffie Falls

  The first call was Joffre Falls which we admired from a lookout high above, a semi-circular ampitheatre which must be totally spectacular during rain. Even so it did have water coming down it. But the second gorge was the most adventurous & most beautiful. We had a very rocky path & several ladders to climb down to start & there were quite a few young people down there. After a short walk we discovered we had to remove our shoes & roll up our trousers as high as possible to walk through a thigh high pool through a fairly narrow opening in the amazing cliffs. One young lady stripped down to her knickers only on the bottom, & another young german girl ended up with very wet jeans too narrow in the leg to roll up far. After sliding down some slippery rocks, she later removed them.

Jan & Stu Hancock Gorge

 

Kermits Pool Hancock Gorge

 

Jan coming out of the Grge

 

   The next part was called the Spider, as it was necessary to place a leg either side on opposing cliff sides & walk along with alternate movements of hands & legs. Of course we were the only silly ‘oldies’ to attempt it, & it got even harder on the next bit edging along little ledges, sometimes on our bottoms. At the end it was just stunning, high cliff faces like polished granite, pools etc. We both enjoyed ourselves immensely & felt so proud we had perservered. Must admit if we hadn’t seen the young ones doing it we wouldn’t have thought it possible. And we even survived to tell the tale! We did visit a couple of other lookouts & thought they would be an anticlimax after our adventure, but the last one was stunning too with four gorges coming together at one point. Again would be spectacular after heavy rain. We both thought it was the highlight of our trip so far.

Oxer lookout (4 gorges converge)