On Monday morning we bid a teary farewell to our Grey Nomad neighbours at Neds camp and set off back into Exmouth to stock up on food and water for our trip inland.
As we left Exmouth we drove up through Shothole Canyon and Charles Knife Gorge – both very lovely and quite different. At Shothole Canyon you drive through the bottom of the canyon, all very wild west.
Shothole Canyon (and Priscilla being Gorge-ous)
At Charles Knife you drive up along the ridge and have a spectacular view of Exmouth and the Exmouth Gulf.
Charles Knife Gorge
We were persuaded by a Neds Nomad that we HAD to call in at the Prawn Factory on our way out of town and buy some fresh tiger prawns from Kailis Fisheries. Of course we did as we were told, except we opted for the cheaper and only very slightly smaller Endeavour prawns... Priscilla was attacked as we visited the shop, but we made it out alive!
Pushing on we had hoped to get to Tom Price in a day but spent too long lingering around the canyons so we settled for a free camp at Barradale River. It was very much like Galena Bridge – one ok toilet (with resident Redback spider) and a vast number of fellow travellers strewn across a floodplain next to an almost dry river bed.
We also had some very cheeky Miner Birds after our breakfast in the morning.
Tuesday was spent getting to Tom Price, a town that exists mainly to service the Rio Tinto iron ore mining operations in the area - Wiki says that "Due to the recent resources boom in Western Australia Tom Price is currently the most affluent non-metropolitan region in Australia, with the average Rio Tinto employee's wage being significantly higher than the Australian average". As we later discovered in Port Headland, WA has a number of towns which are effectively sponsored by the local mining company - Port Headland is BHP Billiton, Karatha is Rio Tinto like Tom Price. Even the tourist information centres seem to be adverts for these huge companies.
We stayed at Mount Nameless Caravan Park. It's a shame us stupid Europeans chose to name it such a stupid name, the Aboriginals already named this mountain (Jarndunmunha)...... , why didn't we just ask them the name of it?!
It was a pleasant campground where we managed to catch up on internet and skype home. It was also time for me to peel and de-vain the prawns we had bought – oh what a messy job!! Well worth the effort though, they were very tasty.
When we parked up in Tom Price we found a group of Short Billed Corellas taking a bath in the sprinklers...cute!
Wednesday we filled up the fuel tanks and headed into the Karajini National Park. We went straight to Dales campgound to make sure we could get a site, thankfully they weren't too busy but this is another campground that they recommend you get there early as we found later in the day people had to camp in the overflow field a little further away. After getting to our site in the Dingo loop we left our table and chairs to go out exploring for the day, driving to see Knox Gorge, Kalamina Gorge and Weano Gorge.
Gorges....
The drive around the park itself was lovely as well, great contrast between the red dirt road (which stains the green grasses at the end), the green of the grass and trees and the blue skies.
When we got back to camp we bumped into a couple we had met previously at Trephina Gorge in the MacDonald Ranges at the beginning of April! Alan and Wendy were with another couple back then, but had recently parted company so invited us over to their camp for a chat. It was great to catch up and find out their tips and plans... they had both recently retired and had planned to be on the road for 5 years, yes 5 years, how lucky are they!!!!!!
Thursday we decided to do the hike down through Dales Gorge starting with a very steep decent into Fortescue Falls and then across to Fern Pool, before walking all the way to the other end of Dales Gorge to Circular Pool then back up a craggy hill to the top and another kilometre back to camp.
Jennie happy at the start of the Dales Walk (I didn't look quite so relaxed at the end!)
Fortescue Falls from above
Of course Claire had to go swimming in both the waterholes (even though she forgot her cozzie and had to go in in her shorts and Jennie's rashie!!!) Jennie did not have the urge so enjoyed watching from the side!
Fern Pool Falls
Claire in Fern Pool
Claire in the Fern Pool waterfall
Claire out of the the water at last!
View of the gorge walk
Claire in the water at Circular Pool at the far end of the gorge
Claire jumping into Circular Pool
A ladder I had to climb up to get out of the damn gorge!
Phew, finally its over, Circular Pool from above
I did enjoy the 4 hour walk even if my feet did not. After removing my shoes and socks when we got back to camp I had a layer of skin on the inside of my sock, yuck! No photo, I don't want to put you all off your breakfasts!
Friday morning we set off out of the Karajini and headed north to Port Headland. Port Hedland is a very strange place that seems to exist only as a port for the big mining companies to export their salt and iron ore! Huge structures tower over the town all with big BHP Billiton and (for the salt factory) Rio Tinto logos. We stayed at a strange but cheap campground, another slightly weird one where we think a lot of the transient workers lived.
Onwards on Saturday following the coast road east towards Broome. We realised it was too big a jump so stopped at Barn Hill station, which was recommended by Alan and Wendy back in Karijini. We drove about 10km's off the main road down a sandy, and a bit corrugated track to find an oasis waiting for us! As we parked up to head into reception the Gnomads were out playing lawn bowls, barefoot on the beautifully coiffured grass lawn! All very strange but a welcomed surprise!
We found our spot on the headland looking out over the sea, very lovely but sadly another windy flappy morning! The beach was lovely here and we were almost persuaded to spend another night as Sunday night was Roast night with a band!!! But on Sunday we decided to head into Broome and not bother with the Roast :-(
We didn't have the best of starts with Broome, after a bit of a mix up at our campground at Roebuck Bay. Eventually we sorted ourselves with a nice (if very windy) spot overlooking the sea.
As we settled in for the night, almost Cyclone like winds set in... We were in for another flappy night!!
More soon!
Love to all,
Jen, of Jen and Claire Fame
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