INTO THE PILBARA – KARIJINI, TOM PRICE, MILLSTREAM, KARRATHA

INCLUDING KIDS BLOG UPDATE
Day 74 (Thursday 29/7) Left Broome, long day travelling to a great bush camp at Doolena Gorge “By CHRIS”  – Press here for map link
After getting the trailer fixed we finally headed south from Broome. First stop was Barn Hill Station for a quick look as we had planned to spend a couple nights there (next time now), then the famous 80 mile beach and a couple roadhouses made for a long days travel. We then turned off the main road to another dirt track heading for Karijini (passing a large aboriginal town that wasn’t on any of our maps) before stopping at Doolena Gorge, near Marble Bar. This was a beautiful bush camp (that we love) including a nice fire to sit around. Some of the local even cattle “sang” to us as they passed through our camp in the night, a bit spooky!

Stunning contrast of red cliffs, white sand, and blue ocean at Barn Hill

80 Mile beach

Setting up camp at Doolena Gorge

Day 75 (Friday 30/7) Marble bar then Karijini National park with cool weather “By RYAN”
– Press here for map link
We packed up the campsite at Doolena Gorge and drove to Marble Bar, which is the hottest town in Australia, and part of the largest shire (council) in the world. We had a quick look in the visitor centre before going to a spot with heaps of marble (jasper rock). We also looked at all of the solar panels (over 1,000) that supply the town with power. Then we headed off. We drove to Karijini National Park and setup the camper trailer at Dales campground. There was a cold breeze but we thought it was freezing because anything below 25 degrees is cold for us. We had a yummy dinner before watching a dvd on our TV before bed.

The Marble Bar (made of jasper)

The sign says it all, still has the record for most days over 38Deg C

Marble Bars amazing new solar power station

First night camp in Karijini

Day 76 (Saturday 31/7) Karijini National park, more gorges and walks “By AMY”
– Press here for map link
On Saturday when we got up it was really cold. We had breakfast then got ready for a walk. When we were ready for a walk we got in the car and leffed the camp ground to go to the walking spot. We did the Dales Gorge walk to the Circular pool and Fortesque falls. At the first spot the waterfall wasn’t running much the others were running more. We kept on goin, we came to the second last waterfall and then found a path to another water fall , there was a lot of people swimming in that one (Fern pool). After that we went back and up the steps, and to the car. After lunch we rested, done some journals and went to the visiter center. We learnt that aboriginal people greet the water, spinifex birds are mostly found in long tall unburnt spinifex. We had koos koos for tea that Mikayla thought tasted like cardbord, played Monopoly deal and watch a movie called the Borrowers because it was so cold (only our 5th movie in 3 months). Then went to bed. Bye

Think we might be a little "Gorge" crazy by now ?

The new hobby of rock stacking

Fortesque Falls

Day 77 (Sunday 1/8) Finishing Karijini and onto a mining town “By TRUDY” – Press here for map link
It was hard to get out of bed after another cold night but we were greeted with a beautiful clear blue sky day (again). We left the Dales campground and drove along to the Weano area in Karijini. Here we did more fantastic Gorge walks. The first was down to the Handrail pool, then in the Hancock gorge we enjoyed the splendour of the rock formations, the amphitheatre, and Kermit’s pool. Our favourite spot was the spider walk where we all had to climb down a narrow corridor of rocks with our hands and feet stretched out like a star above the waterfall. The kids did very well and no-one fell! All of the gorges were spectacular and the view from the top of the junction where 3 of the gorges meet was awesome with a 100 meter drop. Looking out over the rugged land covered with spinifex, snappy gums with their white trunks, and red rocks, it was hard to imagine that these gorges even exist as they suddenly sink down into the earth. From Karijini we drove to the mining town of Tom Price where we checked into the caravan park. For tea we went to the lodge where the miners eat to have a smorgesboard meal. It was a big selection of food and the kids thought it was fantastic to eat as much jelly and icecream as they liked! And not to have to do the dishes!

Handrail pool

Hancock gorge

The spider walk (great fun !)

Near Kermit pool (part of the Hancock gorge)

Day 78 (Monday 2/8) Tom price town and mine tour, trains then Milstream “By CHRIS” – Press here for map link
It was an early packup to get to the visitor centre just after 8am to start our Tom Price Mine Tour. We donned our fashionable hardhats and safety glasses before they would let us on the bus. The Rio Tinto Iron Ore mine is big and everything about it is big. A couple bits of info we found interesting is:
- The iron ore is transported roughly 300km from Tom Price to Dampier in the 2.5km long trains and each train load is worth approximately $5million.
- The truck tyres are ~3metre in diameter and higher than our tour bus
- It takes 4 ½hours or 2 hours to load a train in Tom Price (depending on ore type) and only takes about 1 and ½ hours to unload a train in Dampier.
I then studied for my permit to travel on the private Rio Tino Railway road (shorter way to Karratha) while Trudy got a free chiropractic treatment from a visiting Murdoch University student group outside the visitor centre. With permit in hand we headed to Millstream Chichester along the Railway road. This was lots of fun and made more exiting with the very long iron ore trains we came across along the way. Before leaving the Karijini area we did a walk into the Hamersley gorge which had spectacular colours and rock formations. Trudy was delighted and took a squillion photo’s! Just before we got to our next camp site in the Millstream Chichester National Park we got our first flat tyre to date- not bad we think for almost 16,000km and a lot of that on rough dirt roads. The camp had us in pole position right next to yet another beautiful river where we relaxed watching the birds and playing Monopoly. Once the sun set the hundreds of white cockatoos flew off from the trees above us (to wherever they go at night) and we could then have dinner without any additions to our meal.

PS (Ask Ryan about his Tom Price joke)

One of what they call a "smaller digger" on the Tom Price tour

Our last gorge - Hamersley Gorge

Our first flat tyre

Day 79 (Tuesday 3/8) Leaving Millstream, more trains then to Karratha “By RYAN” – Press here for map link
We packed up at Millstream before all of the birds came back at 10am so they wouldn’t poop on us! Then we went to an old homestead which had been turned into a visitor centre and learnt more about what it was like to live in that area ages ago. We drove along the Tom Price railway road to Karratha passing some empty Rio Tinto trains along the way. We looked around Karratha and did some shopping then went to the airport to look at a new hanger that is being built for Dad’s CHC work. We ended up just staying at the overflow because the caravan parks were full. I rang some friends to have a chat before having tea and going to bed.

Another game of Monopoly Deal

Old equipment and flowers at the Milstream Homestead

Waving to another Rio Tinto Iron Ore train

Day 80 (Wednesday 4/8) Back to school in Karratha for the North West Resources information at Dampier, then heading south to the beach “By MIKY” – Press here for map link
We packed away the camper trailer then went to chemist to get some tablets for Amy’s eye.
We went to the Gas Visitors Centre (North West Shelf Resources Centre). At the centre the lady gave us kids a sheet to fill in questions about the gas and oil production. We had to watch two DVDs and look all around to answer the questions. It was just like a school excursion, because schools also go there.
Some things that I recorded and learnt:
- The 3 North West drilling platforms are North Rankin A, Goodyn A and Angel
- The four main products in the North West Shelf are Natural Gas, Oil, Condensate, LPG
- The temperature at what Gas gets cooled to become liquid is minus 138 degrees and they store the liquid gas at -161 degrees
- There are 4 domes (where they keep the gas as a liquid) on the LNG ships
The nice lady gave us a pencil case, pencils and a Frisbee when we handed in our answers.
We left and drove to the salt farm, then to the iron ore ship loading area and looked thru the big binoculars at the ships. We left Karratha and drived for 5 hours heading to Exmouth. We stopped at Bullara station to stay for the night. There was sheep with baby lambs which would follow us a lot. We had showers heated by a wood fire. We are now off to Cape Range National Park (near Exmouth) and Coral bay for a week before we start our trip home.

The new CHC hangar underway in Karratha

One of the huge cooled LNG storage tanks

Some of the iron ore ships being loaded at Dampier

Take care and stay warm XXxxx  - Chris Trudy Ryan Miky Amy

A taste of Cape Range National Park (where we are now) – Press here for map link

(We are due back arround 21 AUG)