We weren't sure how far we would travel today as we hadn't decided where to stop. We are due for a free camp as our budget is getting blown out big time! If anyone is interested we are spending just over $200 a day. Thanks to the mining boom in this area (and school holidays) we have been paying anywhere between $50 and $70 a night for a site!
We ended up driving 340kms to Barradale Rest Area. It was a very large free camp with plenty of space and the toilets were pretty good too! The grey nomads love these free camps! We have taken the boys dvd players, ds and phone games off them so they entertained themselves in the car with the their books only. And I must admit, they have been very good.
The boys spent the afternoon playing in the dirt with their monster trucks and creating a mine site while Jason and I had a well deserved beverage!
Nat
Friday, 13 July 2012
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Tom Price to Karratha
When 5am rolls around its peak hour at the Tom Price Tourist Park with all the miners leaving for work. We were glad to be moving on.
We drove along the railway road headed for Millstream National Park. You need a permit to drive along this road so yesterday Jason had to sit through a 20 minute safety video in order to get the permit. The road is owned by Rio Tinto and the road follows the train line between the mine at Tom Price and the port at Karratha. The other good thing is it takes 3 hours off your trip to Karratha. We saw 3 empty trains headed for the mine and a couple of trains fully loaded with Iron Ore on their way to Karratha. The boys thought that was pretty cool!
We had planned to stay to Snake Creek Campground but we arrived to find it was closed. We headed to Python Pool to have a look while we decided what we would do. We didn't want to drive the 50kms back to the other camp at Millstream so we decided to push on to Karratha instead.
Karratha is another typical mining town, very busy and much bigger than Port Hedland. Once again we abused the shopping centre and McDonalds while we were there. We are only staying one night, we are keen to keep moving to head to the Coral Coast.
Nat
We drove along the railway road headed for Millstream National Park. You need a permit to drive along this road so yesterday Jason had to sit through a 20 minute safety video in order to get the permit. The road is owned by Rio Tinto and the road follows the train line between the mine at Tom Price and the port at Karratha. The other good thing is it takes 3 hours off your trip to Karratha. We saw 3 empty trains headed for the mine and a couple of trains fully loaded with Iron Ore on their way to Karratha. The boys thought that was pretty cool!
We had planned to stay to Snake Creek Campground but we arrived to find it was closed. We headed to Python Pool to have a look while we decided what we would do. We didn't want to drive the 50kms back to the other camp at Millstream so we decided to push on to Karratha instead.
Karratha is another typical mining town, very busy and much bigger than Port Hedland. Once again we abused the shopping centre and McDonalds while we were there. We are only staying one night, we are keen to keep moving to head to the Coral Coast.
Nat
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Tom Price
Yesterday we set off for Tom Price after a nice couple of
days in Karijini, albeit the boys made us work hard for it.
They must have been thinking “a month in the Kimberley
walking (and some being carried) in the heat to an outrageous amount of gorges,
then to the beach for some R & R in Broome, now we find ourselves having to
walk around the red dirt again!!! I don’t think so, let’s blow up and make life
hell for them………”
We weren’t sure what to expect in Tom Price, I have had a
poo load of failed deliveries to customers in this town so the jury was out.
The Pilbara is certainly very scenic, rich in colour and
very rich in mineral deposit. We made camp and decided to drive up the highest
peak in WA called Mt Nameless. Low range needed, a little hairy but pretty
average hill 4wd’ing. The views were amazing from up there, and we had a great
view of the mine from 1128m in the air. This was pretty high and easy to drive
up, but I couldn’t help think that in the tour de france one stage has 2 x
2000m climbs, so those boys are certainly the best athletes going around, juice
or no juice….
A little warmer here that the National Park , and has all the basics. A
purpose built mining town to serve the employees named after the Yankee dude
that found all of the ore deposits and made it all happen.
We were able to get on to one of the local mine site tours
which the boys loved, and they were exceptionally well behaved. It’s amazing
what big diggers and lots of dirt can do for a young boys imagination. Just
seeing their eyes light up at the trucks and hoppers was worth the entry price
alone.
An interesting stat that resinated with me - they push 6
trains out of there each day, 234 carriages 2.4klm long. The sell price to
China for each train load is $3.5m – they do 6 per day – 365 days per year and
there is apparently 80 years of ore here…..and this is just one mine!! $21m
revenue per day wouldn’t be too bad if you could get it…..This mine alone turns
over $7.7b p/a.
The trucks use 20L of diesel per ONE klm!!!! The tyres are
$80k each!!! Strangely the drivers get $100k p/a, all this talk about drivers
getting squillions might be a myth…Train driving is where the coin is, senior
drivers are on 250k+.
The size of this operation is mind blowing and we were
certainly glad we did it, as you should and will be when you get here.
Rio Tinto own the largest privately owned and operated
railway in the world, 450 odd klms of it between all of the mines in the
Pilbara to the ports of Karratha and Dampier. They allow the public to use the
rail access road that runs alongside it to get from Tom Price to Karratha for
two reasons, it is 3 hours quicker than the normal unsealed road, and it gives
people the opportunity to witness the scale of what happens out here. A 20
minute safety video and a gold coin donation to the Royal Flying Doctors and
you are on board. We do this tomorrow and hopefully we can get beside one of
the big locomotives and get some photos.
Great stuff and worth the visit if you haven’t seen this
sort of thing before.
Karratha – Exmouth – Ningaloo – next ports of call….
Jase.....
Monday, 9 July 2012
Karijini National Park
After spending of an hour or so on the phone booking our next couple of weeks accommodation (thanks to the school holidays) we were finally on the road and heading out of Port Hedland. We travelled 350kms into the heart of the Pilbara. The road was in great condition and was very busy. There were road trains everywhere!
We finally made it to Karijini National Park. We visited the information centre and office to get our campsite. I don't mind staying in national parks, eventhough the facilities are very basic (pit toilets, no showers or water), it's cheap and there is enough space between camps to still feel like you are "away from it all."
We quickly set up camp and headed for Fortescue Falls. It was only an 800m walk but very steep and narrow to a waterfall and swimming area. We didn't swim, it was far too cold (although there were people swimming - I think they must have been Tasmanians). We headed back to camp for an early night.
It was absolutely freezing this morning! It was so cold, Mav woke up at 5am screaming! He is like me, he doesn't like the cold. It took us a while to get out of bed and motivated but once the sun came out, it warmed up quickly.
Jason wasn't feeling very well today so we decided to just visit the lookouts and not do any of the walks. That's the great thing abot this place, if you are unable to do the walks or you don't want to, you can still see the falls and gorges from the lookouts.
Our first stop was at Circular Pool Lookout. It looked down on a small waterfall and swimming area. We drove another 50kms down the road to Weano Gorge. We visited Knox Lookout which gave us a view of the gorge. We saw people climbing across the cliff faces below so some of these walks are not suitable for the kids.
Our next stop was Jeffre Gorge. This was by far my favourite in Karijini. You looked down on this stunning green water and magnificent waterfall. The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. We also stopped at Oxer lookout and Junction Pool lookout. Oxer Lookout is where 4 gorges meet so that was a spectacular site. Junction Pool Lookout was also good, it certainly gives you an appreciation of the shear size of the cliffs.
The boys were once again in fine form and Jason almost left Zander behind (on purpose!) They seemed to settle down a bit this afternoon and we all had some quite time (and a nanna nap!)
If you are ever in this area Karijini is certainly worth a visit, but after spending almost a month in the Kimberley, it doesn't even begin to compare (I think I am beginning to sound like Jason!)
Nat
We finally made it to Karijini National Park. We visited the information centre and office to get our campsite. I don't mind staying in national parks, eventhough the facilities are very basic (pit toilets, no showers or water), it's cheap and there is enough space between camps to still feel like you are "away from it all."
We quickly set up camp and headed for Fortescue Falls. It was only an 800m walk but very steep and narrow to a waterfall and swimming area. We didn't swim, it was far too cold (although there were people swimming - I think they must have been Tasmanians). We headed back to camp for an early night.
It was absolutely freezing this morning! It was so cold, Mav woke up at 5am screaming! He is like me, he doesn't like the cold. It took us a while to get out of bed and motivated but once the sun came out, it warmed up quickly.
Jason wasn't feeling very well today so we decided to just visit the lookouts and not do any of the walks. That's the great thing abot this place, if you are unable to do the walks or you don't want to, you can still see the falls and gorges from the lookouts.
Our first stop was at Circular Pool Lookout. It looked down on a small waterfall and swimming area. We drove another 50kms down the road to Weano Gorge. We visited Knox Lookout which gave us a view of the gorge. We saw people climbing across the cliff faces below so some of these walks are not suitable for the kids.
Our next stop was Jeffre Gorge. This was by far my favourite in Karijini. You looked down on this stunning green water and magnificent waterfall. The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. We also stopped at Oxer lookout and Junction Pool lookout. Oxer Lookout is where 4 gorges meet so that was a spectacular site. Junction Pool Lookout was also good, it certainly gives you an appreciation of the shear size of the cliffs.
The boys were once again in fine form and Jason almost left Zander behind (on purpose!) They seemed to settle down a bit this afternoon and we all had some quite time (and a nanna nap!)
If you are ever in this area Karijini is certainly worth a visit, but after spending almost a month in the Kimberley, it doesn't even begin to compare (I think I am beginning to sound like Jason!)
Nat
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Port Hedland
Off to Port Hedland today about 250kms south. We were
told by some other campers that they couldn't get in at the Big 4 so we called
as we left Eighty Mile Beach and we got the last powered site available. It was
our lucky day.
We arrived in Port Hedland and it is your typical mining
town. Not much to do but the boys were impressed by the road trains and salt
stacks. I'm not too sure why people come
here to be honest, didn't really do much for us. It is just an overnight stop,
a chance to do the washing and power up. Off to Karijini National Park
tomorrow. More dirt roads - fun!
Nat
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)