Above - Parked at Hamersley Gorge.

21st May 2009

MrsTea, in her 'diary notes'* wrote 'Another day in Paradise' We walked up & around the rim of the gorge, & along the beach. We sat in the dunes watching the sun set whilst dark clouds rolled in. We got approximately 3 drops of rain. By now more astute readers may have started to scratch their heads I expect. Yes I did say previously we were leaving yesterday but last night, after writing up our previous blog entry we changed our minds & stayed for another night at Yardie Creek gorge. It was just too hard to leave & we hadn't packed anything away by the time it got to 'fishing time' (an hour before dusk). The decision was made when our closest 'neighbours' Peter & Sandy suggested we stay longer. Comment was also made by Murray the camp host during a 'parting conversation'. "Wish we had more campers like yourselves, are you sure you don't wanna stay a bit longer?" We have found that out on the road we are not especially outgoing types (Hmmm, just like at home), & most good friendships we have made have resulted, more often than not, from others approaching us in the first instance. At Yardie Creek nobody was 'in your face', there was no daily 'happy hour', yet through some unseen osmotic like process, by the time we left it felt like we were leaving a sort of extended family. Indeed, a couple of people at the camp had met camped there in previous years. It would be a nice fantasy to think that we could rock up back at Yardie at this time a few years hence, & find people we knew & who remembered us.

*MrsTea's diary notes - an essential aid in assisting me to recall where I have been & what I have done. Without these brief notes, I'd probably have trouble remembering where I was yesterday, let alone what I did there.

22nd May 2009

Left 'Yardie' & stopped about 80kms later in Exmouth where we filled up with water at the Visitor Centre, as well as both enjoying a hot shower there. Great showers, shame the attitude of the staff left a bit to be desired, although really this just reflected the 'anti free camping' attitude of the Exmouth community. It is easy to imagine that the town has felt used & abused by backpackers & other travellers in the past, if the multiple "Don't" posters/signs are any indication. Their wording often seemed to suggest a sense of ingratitude & intolerance though. A shame really, as without backpackers I believe the wonders of Ningaloo would most likely still be relatively unknown. As I understand it, it was an entry in one of the early Lonely Planet backpacker guidebooks that first got the ball rolling for the area. Of course these days backpackers & free campers don't bring in the same revenue as the more upmarket sectors. Exmouth has huge developments going on, all new, man made 'canals' have been built which look like they will become waterside housing developments & holiday apartments, like up on the Gold Coast. Someone is getting greedy, but I suspect that these economic times might see them get a kick in the pants - it's hard to imagine projects like this succeeding in these times despite all the money that has already been thrown at it.

We shopped for provisions took the opportunity to upload the previous blog entry whilst we had a signal, & to catch up with emails, banking etc.

On a spur of the moment, whilst taking a break from the computer & mosey'ing around the camping & fishing shop,  I decided to dump our two steel jerry cans, carried in swing out racks off the rear bumper bar.  I was fed up with their failure to seal properly, or, more precisely, fed up with getting mucky any time I do anything at the rear of the bus. A little diesel leakage goes a long way & combined with road dust creates surfaces that have invisible hands that reach out & grab you especially when wearing nice clean clothing. The shop had a pair of plastic jerries that fit our carriers (many don't - they get wider at the bottom, so won't fit a standard jerry can holder), so we now have a pair of bright yellow jerries on the back & no smelly diesel grime everywhere. Yay!

Left town & headed east, back to the North West Highway. Jeez! How some sections of that road can be referred to as a 'highway' I don't know. The original single lane road has been widened to two lane, resulting in our driver side wheels constantly running along the 'edge' of the original road, giving rise to a lot of road noise & vibration. On occasional sections that had been repaired' it was relief when the noise & vibration stopped, albeit briefly, it did at least tell us that it was the road, & not a problem with our vehicle. Although the road has been made into a two lane road, it is still a very narrow two lane road with 'undulating' cambers. Having roadtrains with 4 trailers barrelling past us within inches, in either direction was a daunting experience. Just hang on tight & hope the last trailer doesn't whip into the side of us & that we don't go of the edge of the road, (where there is an uneven step before hitting gravel!) I think maximum allowable length of roadtrains here is greater than in other parts of the country. Previously up around Queensland & down through the Centre I believe the max length was 52.5 metres, but around here I believe they can go to an extraordinary 72 metres ..... or something close to that! We stopped for the night at the Barradale Rest Area, a large area set on the northern side of the Yannaire River. Fairly ordinary camp spot with a long drop dunny, shared with perhaps another 15 or so rigs. Room for many times that, so all had reasonable privacy. Just as well as this was the first place we have stopped in where someone, thankfully some distance away, ran their generator right through the night. It was running when we set up camp, & still going strong when we left!

23rd May 2009

The country changed quite dramatically sometime after leaving Barradale rest area. We began to see mesas' & hills, rocks started to look shiny, the ground got redder & darker, the spinifex on the hillsides looked blurry, birdlife increased, plants began to get greener. Strong rich colours covered with huge pastel expanses. After turning east at Nanutarra we stopped a few kms on at the 'House Creek Bridge' rest area for morning tea. It was a delightful little camp spot in the shade of a stand of redgum. If it hadn't been so early in the day, we may have stopped there. Much nicer than most. (But not when House creek is in flood or you could find yourself in several feet of water). Continuing eastward toward Tom Price, we found ourselves looking at each other now & again, jaws almost on the deck, trying to get a grip on reality. A bit like pinching ourselves to see if we were dreaming. The country unfolding before us was unfolding on a huge scale.  This vision of grandiose beauty just kept getting bigger & better. This is the Pilbara. The spectacle continued right through to Paraburdoo where we stopped for fuel. Only the broader nozzled high flow diesel pump was working, bugger, doesn't fit the neck of our new, leak free, jerry cans. Result spilled diesel & more bloody mess than our previous leak!

Stopped for the night at what appeared to be an 'ex' picnic site, next to a creek, called 'Halfway Bridge', appropriately about half way between Paraburdoo & Tom Price. There were a few remains of a rusted picnic table, but nothing else.

24th May 2009

Drove into Tom Price, where after visiting the Visitor Centre, we decided to stop the night in the caravan park, at the foot of Mt Nameless.  This allowed us to leave the trailer at the park, whilst we drove to Hamersley Gorge, a slow trip due to the corrugated road conditions. The country continued to be stunningly beautiful. We enjoyed walking & scrambling over rocks at the gorge, a taste of things to come. Especially the bit when we lost the path & had to do some fairly serious rock climbing!

Back at the CP for the night.

In the morning I checked the engine coolant overflow bottle. It is unfortunately clear that we still have a coolant system over pressurising problem. The good news is that it is nowhere near as bad as it had become previously.  Over the course of the journey from Yardie Creek to Tom Price (approx 700kms including the Hamersley Gorge side trip) the coolant level in the expansion bottle had increased daily, & I had to return about 1.25 litres to the radiator. Providing it continues like this all will be rosy, as we don't actually lose any coolant, & the temp gauge shows that all is well.

25th May 2009

After a bit of a squiz around Tom Price, we drove out to the Dales Gorge campground at Karijini National Park, around 90kms. A large camp ground with about 100 individual camping bays, set on a number of road loops in the scrub. No rubbish collection (take it all out yourself), no water, long drop toilets. Not a bad site actually for the standard National Park camp fee of $6.50 per person per night. It seems to us that places that specifically provide no rubbish receptacles or collection, are invariably cleaner than those that do! After setting up home, we did very little for the rest of the day. At night we had dingoes howling all around us.

26th May 2009

Dales Gorge. Today we walked the gorge rim walk, giving us views down into & along the gorge. Later we went down to the waterfall & pool at one end of the Gorge, Fortescue Falls & Fern Pool. Very pretty, & surprisingly we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Rather than trying to describe this or any of the other gorges we visited over the next few days, & running out of superlatives, I'm hoping that our photographs will capture something of their splendour. Like all gorges in the midst of the outback, these huge cracks in the ground are green oases & 'secret gardens', each with it's own individual character. Lazing on a small boardwalk next to Fern Pool, we watched large numbers of small fish in the crystal clear blue water. Overhead a small colony of bats were hanging around. The path took us through rocks entangled in the multiple roots fig trees, redgums & paperbarks. Like walking through a tunnel into a fairy land.

Around dusk we went out looking for dingos around the campground. Didn't see any. Later during the night we heard them howling again. Sounded like there must be a couple of dozen at least. Some sounded like young pups.

27th May 2009

Walked the length of Dales Gorge from Fortescue Falls to Circular Pool & back again. 'Walk' is this instance is a loose term. In gorge country going for a bushwalk is no different to going for a bush scramble or a bush climb. We didn't need ropes & Willans harnesses, but a few sections certainly required climbing & lots of care. The trail is marked with occasional markers, indicating the way & the level of difficulty. Up to grade 5 we can manage, Grade 6 is restricted to those with accredited abseiling & climbing certificates.  Dales gorge was all grade 3 & 4, possibly with the exception of our unplanned foray into an adjoining gorge after we 'lost' the route markers. Our scrambling over loose cliff edges entering the second gorge would have been grade 5 I reckon. We turned back & found the trail again when we reached a point of feeling unsafe.

28th May 2009

Saw a very large & healthy looking Dingo scouring a recently departed (minutes) camp bay this morning, it took off as soon as it saw me though.

Took the bikes out & rode, over really crappy road, (badly corrugated & lots of patches of deep gravel - horrible on two wheels) to Kalamina , Knox & Joffre Gorges.

We walked both Kalamina & Knox but were too buggered to do any more than visit the lookout at Joffre Falls. Kalamina was an easily accessed gorge, with a pretty little tree line waterfall & pool. Knox was completely different. Deep, & long, spectacularly narrowing at one end. The climb (literally in places) down into the gorge took us over a 'shale field' which looked like a demolition site. We were amazed at how we could cross this without causing a major rockslide! We went as far as we could, to the end of the grade 5 section, where hanging onto a fallen tree trunk, we could get glimpses of a turquoise pool in the adjoining Red Gorge. A sign stuck onto the rock gave dire warnings about attempting to go any further. My knees were trembling after I had inched my way back across the fallen tree trunk that spanned the gorge, the water running steeply away down below it, (into Red Gorge). Adventure tour groups take people down here, but with full abseiling & safety gear. Returning to the carpark after our Knox adventure (I was humming the theme tune from Indiana Jones - 'dun ta dun dun, dun ta dun, dun ta dun dun, dun ta dun dun dun' I found with dismay that my bike would not start. In fact nothing electrical was working at all. Not good in what is a pretty remote spot. Having determined that the battery fuse was still intact, things were not looking good. Rather pessimistically I tried to start the bike with it's kickstarter, & was surprised when it fired up relatively easily. It fired up ok again after we had stopped off to have a gander at Joffre Falls too. Later back at camp I was able to suss out that the problem was a poor battery. It appears that one of it's cells suddenly gave up the ghost. Taking a jumper lead of MrsTea's bike had everything working properly. Will have to get a new battery when we reach Port Hedland.

29th May 2009

As we packed up this morning we were visited by another large dingo. This one was far less shy, walking to within just a couple of metres in front of us, & hung around for several minutes. Our neighbours, a group of 3 young European girls in a hired campervan, freaked, running terrified into the 'safety' of their vehicle. As soon as they went inside, the dingo strolled through the middle of their camp, sniffing around, totally unpeturbed by their girlie screams.

Eveything is turning red. Even the soles of our feet are ingrained with the deep red dust. Washing leaves them red. Having a mat on the ground outside helps to keep some of the staining dust out of the bus, but it's probably a good thing that most of our furnishings are red in colour.

Drove back along the bitumen road toward Tom Price, before turning northward back onto dirt road into Karajini NP, to go to the Karajini Eco Resort, a campground similar to Dales, but with flush dunnies & solar showers, & double the price. This is the closest camp ground to the Weano & Hancock gorges, owned by the Gumala Aboriginal corporation, but run by a 'hospitality management company'. It also has a small bar & restaurant & 'luxury eco tent accommodation' for a couple of hundred bucks per night. Generally we found the Dales campground better, but the Eco Resort was more convenient for Weano & Hancock gorges. With a 4wd visiting those gorges from Dales would have been quite easy, but for us it would have meant a longish (110km round trip), hard ride on the bikes, either side of several hours gorge walking. The turn off the bitumen was opposite an impressive mountain called Mount Bruce. Not too far away, on the other side of Tom Price is Mount Sheila. How Aussie is that eh? Monty Python eat your heart out!

30th May 2009

Rode the bikes (my Suzuki still starts ok with a dead battery) to Weano & Hancock Gorges. Having checked out the magnificent views fom the Oxer Lookout, where you can look down into the turquoise Junction Pool where 4 gorges meet, we decided to walk Weano first. Again we went as far as it was possible to go without specialist gear & swimming in icy water, reaching a pool known as 'Handrail pool', presumably named after a metal railing attached to the rock here. Without it (& the knotted rope tied to it), descending down into the pool would be impossibly dangerous. Walked back up the length of the gorge, but the rest of it seemed pretty tame after Handrail Pool.

After getting our puff back, having climbed up out of Weano, we set off to walk Hancock. After a series of rock steps & scrambles we reached a metal ladder going down that last 20 metres to the floor of the gorge. As I was stepping down to the top of the ladder I heard an exclamation from MrsTea & saw our camera bouncing past me over the rocks. It seemed like it as in slow motion. It looked, just for a moment like it might come to rest on a rock ledge near to me, & seemed, from where I stood, amazingly undamaged. However momentum tippled it over the edge of the ledge, falling a further 10 metres or so to it's final resting place. As it hit the rocks, it burst open, releasing it's battery & memory card. When I reached it it was immediately clear that the fall had done it no good, the screen was now cracked & not functioning. Amazingly it will still take pictures, but with no screen it is not possible to alter any settings or view what is being photographed. Bollocks & double bollocks!! We will have to replace it when we reach somewhere with a camera shop.  Thankfully the several hundred photos already taken in Karijini were still transferable onto the computer.

Hancock Gorge was probably the most exciting gorge with it's narrow openings, hidden pools & rushing water, but it was hard to enjoy when in a grump about the broken camera. I was not a happy chappie!

31st May 2009

Drove eastward, out of the National Park, but still within the extensive Hamersley Ranges. We stopped early for a restful day & some 'blogging' at a lovely rest area called the Albert Togonlini Rest area. This one is not listed in any of our camp/rest area books, being relatively new (2007), but is a great spot, well away from the road, with great views.

Overall, the Hamersley Ranges, & the Karijini gorges have been magnificent, & we reckon they should be on any Aussie travellers 'must see' list. Our favourite gorges were Knox & Hancock, but as mentioned previously, all have their own 'identity'.

1st June 2009

Another month begins. We have decided to stay another day at the Albert Tognolini Rest Area, & have discovered that this is the rest area listed in books as the Munjina East Gorge lookout, so has in fact been here longer than we thought. It was renamed in 2007 after a 'Main Roads' engineer who was instrumental in estabishing the sealed road between Port Hedland & Newman. I expect that we will upload this entry in the next day or two, when we reach Port Hedland.

Please click HERE for more photos (may take a while to load - 130+ pics)