The night camping at Gascoyne River was more restful than we thought…. initially the generators from the wide load camp were going full bore and we thought they may go all night… but they didn’t and we got a good night’s sleep…

We decided to have our Sunday service before we left the campsite so we gathered together and listened to the next instalment of Exodus – chapters 19 and 20 on the 10 Commandments… a great reminder that God rescued His people first – then gave them the commandments for living a life that would be a blessing to them…. We often get it wrong thinking that the commandments are what we should “do” to make ourselves right with God – but this is completely the wrong way around. God has rescued and forgiven us by His grace through His Son Jesus paying the penalty for our sin and thus making us His children…. We can do nothing to earn this… then living according to God’s standards is the guideline for us to be able to live rich and fruitful lives…

Back on the road, we continued south towards Mt Magnet…Gordie still taking care not to use his brake to keep the Titan happy… he had done some internet research overnight and discovered that this was a fairly common issue with the Nissan switch – and he had watched a You-Tube video that showed how to pull the switch out completely and clean the contacts – so the plan was to attempt that while we were staying in Mt Magnet.

The trip again was a day of pulling over for wide loads…

Some road works held us up for a short time….

The landscape was ever-changing – and some early wildflowers were starting to appear as splashes of colour in amongst the red dirt…

We arrived in Meekatharra where everything was pretty much closed except for the service station so we re-fuelled and made some lunch in the vans…

Gordie accidentally put the Titan in park and so Trev had to help him restart the ute – the sooner the switch is sorted the better!! Poor Gordie – very frustrating….

Continuing on we saw a large flock of emus – first we had seen for ages!!

Mines appeared at various intervals – some old and abandoned, and others very active – warning signs everywhere to stop people trespassing… Gold mining certainly attracts all types and can be very cutthroat and ruthless…

There are also large cattle and sheep stations in the area….

There continued to be huge wide loads coming towards us on their way to the mines…

We approached the town of Cue, and it reminded us somewhat of driving into Coober Pedy – all the mullock heaps spread across the landscape creating a moonscape…. This time though the prize was gold not opal!

The town was quiet as it was a Sunday… there were a few quaint old buildings and some more modern iron sculptures….

We continued on passing though more very arid areas with clay pans, rocky outcrops and mining activities…. And a rare patch of very green grass which stood out amongst the rest of the vista!!

As we approached Mt Magnet the Ramelius owned Mt Magnet Gold Mine dominated the horizon to the right of the town. The area all around is a maze of open cut pits with many gold mines in the wider Mt Magnet-Sandstone precinct…

Mt Magnet had a somewhat imposing town entry… as we drove in however the town was quite run down and many shops permanently closed….

The caravan park owner was very friendly, and she showed us to our sites… we all got organised and set up – it was quite cold so Trev put up some screens around our awning so we could all sit together for a coffee and work out what we were going to do the following day…

Our next planned stop was a free camp at the Gascoyne Rover South Branch just over 3 hours drive away so we did not rush to get away this morning. Dave took the opportunity to spit and polish the Pearl interior…

The day dawned a beautiful one – sunny with not a cloud in the sky as we drove out of Newman…

However, just 100m down the highway Klaus came over the radio to let Gordie know he had no lights at all on the van….

We all pulled over and found Branch on the taillight of the Lotus – not a good look!!

Gordie and MacGyver started troubleshooting trying to work out exactly where the issue was…. The Titan’s lights were OK and so they assumed it was potentially a fuse in the Lotus after checking the connection between the Titan and the van which looked ok.

The decision was made to continue on sandwiching the Hunters between us and the Weiss’s so that the lack of lights would not pose a risk to others….

We started again and within about 5 mins Gordie came on the radio alerting us to the fact that the Titan was now playing up as well – over revving – and would not drop back to under 2000 revs… clearly the issue was more serious than first thought… Gordie had been having issues starting the van over the last week or so due to the contact switch ( he had the autosparky at Newman check it out the day before and it seemed to be working)…. All the issues seemed to link to this part, so we decided to turn around and go back to Newman to see if there was someone available to look at it again… Kerry rang ahead and fortunately found someone who was going to meet us at the visitor centre carpark to take a look…

We drove back into Newman via the south entrance which had some great metal sculptures of Aussie wildlife…

Trev and Gordie had another look at the part while waiting and managed to get the Titan running OK after a bit of a clean…

A friendly tradie stopped for a chat through his window – always someone happy to offer advice 😊

As the Titan now seemed OK and we knew what the issue was, Gordie rang back the tradie who had said he would come – he was still an hour away from coming and when Gordie told him what they’d done he advised him to buy some auto electrical lubricant and use it to spray the switch to hopefully prevent the contacts from sticking….

So, we all went across to Dome for a coffee and Gordie grabbed the appropriate lubricant and we were finally back on the road…. 2 hrs since we had first set off… it was not an issue though as we were heading for a free camp so no problems with arriving before office closing time ….

We were not that far down the road when the Titan started over-revving again and Gordie figured out that it was when he applied the brakes that the switch was sticking…. So, we had to be strategic in the drive and Gordie had to use the handbrake – and not turn the car off or into park …. And that seemed to work… the final solution is to ring ahead to Kalgoorlie and get the switch part ordered in to be replaced….

We drove over the Fortesque River which actually had some water in it…albeit not flowing….

It was a fairly straight journey with barely any traffic heading in our direction which was helpful for Gordie, however there were multiple wide loads that we had to pull to the side too, off the road and slow down which made it quite challenging for the Titan…

We had not seen so many huge pieces of machinery being transported…. Incredible the money and equipment that goes into mining!!

We stopped at Kumarina Roadhouse to get fuel…

and a huge truck carrying 2 pink buckets for the haul trucks in the mine came in…. they were pink in support of breast cancer – and dwarfed the Titan!!!

The countryside changed repeatedly between arid red desert and green tufts of spinifex and trees…

We passed a pink lake – which was not very pink….

There was some road kill which made for great food for the wedge tailed eagles in the area – we passed a few along the road – very majestic birds!!

Klaus let us know of a cow taking a nap on the side of the road…. (??)

Arriving at the free camp on the Gascoyne river we were able to set up in a wagon train as the areas were large… there were toilets and a dump point there much to Rose’s delight!!

We set up and got the fire started as it was quite cool – the weather was turning increasingly wintery as we headed south ☹

Trev and Gordie gave the Titan switch a squirt with the auto electrical lubricant…

While we were setting up a huge wide load and it’s pilot vehicles pulled in for the night… a large bulldozer heading for the Fortescue Mine at Newman…

Everyone bar Klaus sat around for happy hour – he had mysteriously disappeared…. With his metal detector….

And as the light faded we got concerned that he had not returned so Trev went looking for him…

He finally returned – not gold in hand but again having found plenty of “scrap metal”….

Klaus then gave Rosie a demo with his metal detector….

Happy hour was enjoyable – until in the heat of the moment red wine was spilt ….??Branch??? and left Dave with a wet seat… and a mess for Rose to sort…. The backup beach chair came into use, and all was well…

We awoke to a wet and windy day…. Very disappointing as we were booked on the Mt Whaleback mine tour and the person at the Visitor Centre yesterday indicated the tour would be cancelled if there was rain….

However, we did not receive any cancellation advice, so we drove down to the visitor centre… to find the bus waiting…. And were informed that the tour would go ahead in a modified version – we would be unable to go up to the pit lookout as the road would be too slippery and the tour would be entirely on the bus – not getting off…

We were glad that it was going ahead as we would not have had another opportunity to do it… and apologies for some of the pics – not easy to take quality images through a bus window in the rain!!!

The tour group was given the mandatory safety glasses and hi-vis vests and then loaded onto the bus for the short drive to Mt Whaleback Mine.

Our tour guide was a very talkative ex-clinical psychologist who was on a motorbike trip around Australia with her husband some years ago… when they reached Newman they loved it and so stayed….

Mt Whaleback is run by BHP and is the largest single open cut iron ore mine in Australia… the pit is 5 x 2.5 km in size and produced its first load of iron ore in 1969. The ore is mostly high grade at 68.8% – the main ore produced is Brockman Haematite. 70 million tonnes of iron ore are produced at Mt Whaleback per year.

There are approx. 800 employees on the mine site at any one time – many of them FIFOs… and the mine truck drivers are made up of 80% females. There is a resident emergency service on site with a doctor, nurse and also firemen…

We drove past the crusher plants where the ore is crushed into increasingly smaller size depending on what grade and product is on order… either Newman blended lump or Newman blended fines.

The crusher spindles were huge!!!

The mine is a mass of conveyor belts moving ore to the crushers, then on to beneficiation plants, sorting areas,

storage stockpiles……

or then loaded onto the lengthy trains that carry the final product to Port Hedland for shipping. The trains from Mt Whaleback are 2.7 km long – each carriage contains between 100-130 tonnes of ore. A trainload of ore is approx. 42 000 tonnes, and 9 trains go to Port Hedland each day. It takes 3 hours to load each train.

In addition, there are trains coming into Mt Whaleback from outlying mines with raw ore from processing in the crushers… altogether there are 23 trains loaded and unloaded each day at Mt Whaleback.

We saw the huge mine trucks – there are 40 in use at the mine to move the raw ore from the pit to the crushers or stockpiles – each truck weighs 165 tonnes empty and has a 240-tonne payload. They travel at speeds of 15 km per hour up the hill to the top of the pit – taking 30 minutes to get from top to bottom – max speed possible 60km per hour.

Tyres for these trucks cost $40 000 each…

There are quite a few autonomous trucks at the site – driverless and controlled by the big operations centre in Perth – there is a move to make more of the machinery autonomous as the concept is it is cheaper and safer… (?? Who knows – technology can be a real issue as we all know firsthand with the Wells BMPro issue😊)

There are onsite workshops to repair the mine vehicles….

The ore is obtained from the pit by blasting – they do 9 blasts per month using ammonium nitrate mixed with diesel as the explosive device.

It would have been amazing to actually go up to the top of the pit lookout – below are some pics from Matt and Sharon who did the tour a couple of weeks ago – you can see just how enormous the pit is…. And how big the mining operations are here at Mt Whaleback…

There is an estimated 20-30 years left of productive mining at Mt Whaleback. The company has been investing in regeneration of the site – first strategy was planning local natives in pockets on the slopes of waste (product with less than 50% iron content is considered waste and used as fill) but this has met with average success as erosion is still an issue.

It has now been discovered that a slope of 19 degrees graded then planted out is ideal – plants are growing well with minimal erosion….

We arrived back at the Visitor Centre and Gordie could not resist a further chat with our very friendly tour guide who also loved a chat (being a clinical psychologist 😊) …

The Dome Café was nearby so we walked over and had some morning tea….

The weather was very unpredictable that day with sunshine starting to break through at times during the afternoon… everyone had some chores to do… washing….

Filling tanks with water…

The caravan park here was actually great – they had been planning some gardens which will look fantastic when established… It had a lot of features that indicated it had been used to accommodate itinerant mine workers – and the washing machines were really cheap per load… and the dryer was free!!!

The amenities were good with a recreation room adjacent to the kitchen – we took advantage of this, and Gordie set up his coffee machine, so we did afternoon tea and played some Monopoly Millionaire while the weather outside was bad….

Dinner that night was at a local restaurant “Mia Mia” which had been recommended by one of the shop owners in the mall…

Rose, Kerry and Dave were ahead of the game and had raced in first….

Gordie looking for Kerry thought he’d found her… and yes, we could see the resemblance, but the woman raced off – we think Gordie scared her when he approached her with “honey can we go inside now??”

Anyway, much to his relief Kerry appeared at the door…

We enjoyed the meals – the lamb curry was delicious – then went back to camp to prepare for our departure the following day….

It was time to leave Karijini National Park and head to Newman… a couple of last-minute pics of the rustic amenities and grounds to remind us of our stay….

We got on the road at 0900 and drove out….

Mount Bruce made an imposing sight as it came closer – storm clouds gathering as the forecast rain seemed imminent…

The hills along Karijini Drive were a beautiful picture of your typical outback mountains – red rock ridges jutting out in layered intervals with the tufts of green spinifex dotting the hillside… and the white trunked gums standing out in the otherwise darker coloured landscape…. Everything was looking greener than usual due to the rain they had had…. And more was expected!

We reached the highway and drove south towards Newman stopping for a quick stretch and drink at Mt Robinson rest area.

We passed many entrance sites to mines – the whole area is full of mining – and as we approached Newman, Mt Whaleback Mine came in to view – the largest open cut iron ore mine in the world….

The Yurlu Caravan Park was our accommodation for the next 2 days – we arrived and set up as the rain started to come down.

We went into town and grabbed some lunch and a coffee at “Chill Cafe”….. not related to the Chill Cafe in Engadine 🙂

A visit to the Newman Visitor Centre was interesting – the huge mine haul truck outside made Trev look like a dwarf no matter what angle the pic was taken!!

There was a rock weighing 35 tonnes outside the centre that was an exhibit of the high-grade ore that comes from Mt Whaleback Mine here in Newman.

“The Newman Hub” sculpture created by locals was there as a representative of the stockpiles of iron ore at the mine site…

Inside we grabbed some info, checked on the mine tour we were booked into the next day and had a look around.

They had the old truck on exhibit that belonged to Stan Hilditch, the prospector who in 1957 explored the area looking for manganese and discovered the seam of iron ore that was 68.8% iron in an unnamed hill – today known as Mt Whaleback due to the fact it looks like a humpback whale from the air.

So far more than 760 million tonnes of iron ore have been mined from it by BHP so far contributing significantly to the Australian economy.

On the advice of the helpful visitor centre volunteer, we drove up to the Radio Hill Lookout at sundown to watch the mine lights come on all around Newman.

There was no sunset per se due to the cloud cover, and the wind was blowing a gale, however it was a great view over the town of Newman…. And the number of mine lights out in the distant hills gave a good perspective of just how many mine sites were close by…

Mt Whaleback Mine was lit up like a Christmas Tree….

We drove back and had dinner in the vans… hoping it would not rain too much overnight as the mine tour can be cancelled due to rain….

The day started slowly… it had rained a little overnight… dingoes howling had woken some of us….and we did not have any firm plans…. Then Trev noticed a flat spot on the Titan’s rear tyre….

Branch woke from a deep sleep to see a hive of activity over the road so went to check it out… things had been a bit slow lately so the discovery of a large screw in the tyre provided a bit of “Branch Action”….

MacGyver got on the case with his tyre repair kit and the problem was soon solved… the tyre now holding pressure again!!

We had contemplated a return journey to Hancock Gorge and a swim in Kermit’s Pool as we were sure everyone could make it there as the hardest part was the first bit going down into the gorge but unfortunately the Weano Recreation Area and associated gorges had been closed by the park rangers due to the rain…. So we decided to do the rim walk around Joffre gorge – we had only done the first part down into the gorge on the first day….

We walked from the campsite along to the partial descent and then back up to walk around the rim of the end of the gorge… Klaus’ back was playing up so he stayed behind to rest it…

Along the red dirt track, tufty spinifex and white trunked gums contrasted beautifully with the deep red walls of the gorge as they came in to view…

To our amazement Joffre Gorge was more spectacular that we realised with rock platforms and a really long waterfall down to 2 large swimming holes….

We realised that when we had gone down into the gorge on the first day, we had not gone far enough up the gorge through a narrow rocky area that opened up to the pool and waterfall area… we would have had a great time there … it looked good for a swim….

Anyway, we walked around to the lookout….

The waterfall was an impressive height with a small amount of water running down it – you could imagine how impressive it would have been after heavy rainfall…

The steps we had climbed down on the first day were clearly visible…

Looking across from the gorge, the landscape was green with billabongs in view and mountains in the distance – very picturesque!

Trees perched precariously along the edge of the gorge….

We turned around and walked back to camp – Trev as always helpful to ensure no one has an untoward event walking over the rocky and uneven track…

Back at camp, we grabbed some lunch and started getting organised for our departure the following morning…

Gordie cooked some awesome scones so we got together for afternoon tea….

Karijini had been a truly beautiful place to visit and explore – the exquisiteness of God’s creation was certainly on display for all to see!

We had booked a tour of the Rio Tinto Mount Tom Price mine and so had to be up early to reach the town of Tom Price by 830….

At the visitor centre we checked in and were given our hard hats and safety glasses before boarding the bus to take us out to the mine.

Our bus driver and tour guide had laryngitis and so it was really an effort for her to give us the running commentary as we drove along, however she did a great job – the tour was very interesting and informative.

The first stop was at a decommissioned digger for a photo op – the newer diggers are twice the size of this one – which is incredible to think of as this one was huge….

We drove along the dirt road past the original mine area which is not now being actively mined.

The town of Tom Price was established in the early 1960’s when high grade iron ore was discovered, and the team who discovered it brought a geologist, Tom Price, out from America to convince the Australian Government that an iron ore mine in the area was a worthwhile venture.

Tom Price described the amount of iron ore in the Pilbara as “the same amount as there is air” i.e. pretty much endless… and so the mining venture begun by Rio Tinto went ahead. Originally the town was a closed town – only employees of the mine lived there – until the 1980’s when the Shire of Ashburton was founded, and the town was opened up.  The town was named in honour of Tom Price who sadly died of a heart attack 2 weeks before the official approval to mine the area was granted.

We stopped at an area to look over current mining operations…. The pit was deep, and we could see bands of black shale which are very unstable and can combust spontaneously – these deposits are monitored closely to ensure safety on the mine site…

The large new area that is just about to be mined was clearly evident – it will take 6 years to dig off the top area to reach the high-grade iron ore – of which there is a massive amount under this particular mountain – and should be at least 30 years’ worth of mining in that 1 area alone.

There are 5 grades of iron ore – the darkest black is the highest grade – pic below.

We saw large water trucks which are used to constantly wet down the unsealed roads to minimise dust and keep the roads cool to protect the tyres of the mining vehicles – the largest tyres on some of the vehicles cost $250 000 EACH!!!

The next area we drove through was the crusher area where the rocks were crushed into finer particles depending on the grade of iron ore being produced.

The ore is then screened and concentrated to improve the fines quality…

… then loaded onto the rail trucks to be hauled by the locomotives to Cape Lambert or Dampier for loading onto the ships and exporting to customers around the globe.

The railway system that is privately owned by Rio Tinto is 1900km in length in total and is the largest privately owned railway in the world. The trains are autonomous except for the last couple of kms as they enter the mine area, and they are 2.5 kilometres in length!

The “graveyard” contained more decommissioned trucks and drillers….

We passed the maintenance shed where the vehicles were brought in for routine servicing and repairs…

All in all it was an impressive operation and really interesting to get some perspective on the size of mining ventures in the Pilbara.

On our return to Tom Price, we had some lunch and picked up some supplies. Klaus and Beryl caught up with a friend of Alison’s and then we all met at the Visitor Centre to drive out to Hamersley Gorge for the afternoon.

The road out to Hamersley Gorge was unsealed but in reasonable condition as it was used by the mines and there was a fair amount of road train traffic…

Hamersley Gorge is a short grade 4-5 walk up to the “Spa Pool” which is apparently a good place for a swim.

From the lookout at the top of the gorge you gained a perspective of the size of the gorge itself…

We walked along the rough pathway and down some steep rocky steps leading to the bottom of the gorge and a beautiful pool and waterfall area.

The walls of the gorge were impressive with a distinctive feature of sedimentary Banded Iron Formation (BIF) – spectacular wavy rock made up of minerals.

The rock has been uplifted and pushed together due to movements in the Earth’s crust. Seasonal rainfall caused rivers to carve out the gorge that we see today.

Continuing on we scrambled over large rock shelfs and steep platforms to go up to the next pool at the top of the waterfall… it was quite challenging for some and so not everyone came up to the next level.

The pool looked great for a swim and to reach the famous “Spa Pool” you had to swim the length of this pool and then clamber up a waterfall slope to then enter the spa pool…

Trev and I swam to the spa pool….

and climbed in (not very gracefully as the rocks were slippery and you basically had to slide up like a seal) …

The pool was very deep, but the water was clear and refreshing – and the water coming in from the waterfall above was warm – it was like having a shower!!

We enjoyed the swim while Klaus who also made it up chose not to swim but to chat to some other travellers… and take embarrassing long-range pics….

After enjoying the spa, we slid out the way we had come in and swam back across the pool…

It was then that we noticed Klaus had dropped something…. Not sure how it happened but a plate for dentures was left behind…. Klaus later reassured us that they were not his – he has his full set of natural teeth… or so he says!

Rose and Dave got into the walk as well … spending time inspecting the rock formations…

relaxing on the rocks themselves…. Dave assisting Rose to relax…. Or was it to prevent her from sliding down the rock face after losing her footing… no further comment needed… the spectacle provided some humorous comments from the watchers… and no Rosies were injured in the making….

We all finally exited the gorge the way we came in and made the long journey home to the Eco Lodge after a full day’s activities…..

Today was spent walking some of the incredible gorges in Karijini – we drove out to Weano Recreation area where there were several lookouts and gorges to explore.

From the carpark it was a short walk to Junction Pool lookout which overlooked Hancock Gorge…

The walk continued on until about 15 minutes from the carpark we reached Oxer Lookout and the breathtaking view of the meeting of 4 mighty gorges – Hancock, Joffre, Red and Weano Gorges

The awesome scene of sheer chasms lined with iron laden rock in layers upon layers… with crystal clear pools over 100m below us made us seem very small in comparison….

To our right was Hancock Gorge…

Next along Joffre gorge we had walked down into yesterday…

Then Red Gorge…

And to our left Weano Gorge where we were headed next to descend and do the walk through it….

Unfortunately Lower Weano Gorge and Handrail Pool was closed due to a millipede infestation and so we descended into Weano Gorge to go left and do the Upper Weano Gorge walk listed as a grade 4 walk.

After the steep descent over rocky steps and shale we reached the bottom where the stream and waterfall were running into the tranquil set of pools ideal for swimming – we had heard that at the end of the gorge there was a large swimming hole so we did not hop in here – we decided to wait til the end for the swim…which turned out to be a rookie error…. the way the walk was described on the internet the pool we were looking at where we had just started was actually where “the end” was (supposedly…)

As we walked along the rocky creek bed past small clear pools surrounded by sheer rock walls, gums and spinifex growing out of cracks along the way we marvelled at the majestic nature of the gorge…

Coming to the “end” there was no pool – and we realised that the description on the internet labelled the walk the opposite direction from the map in the carpark…. Not to worry – we decided not to walk back the way we came but complete the loop by exiting the gorge up the marked path and walking back to the carpark along the rim walk…

The walk had not been as difficult or taken as long as was described and so we had plenty of time to do Hancock Gorge and attempt to get to Kermit’s Pool at the end for a swim… it was listed as a grade 5 walk and so we were unsure who would be able to make it the entire way… but we decided to give it a go…

At the beginning of the walk, you had to descend multiple long steel ladders to make your way to the bottom of the gorge… everyone traversed the ladders with no issue… although the though of the long climb back up was one we pushed to the back of our minds….

Once at the bottom it was not too hard a walk initially – care had to be taken as you walked over the rocky outcrops not to trip… those taking pics had to be careful not to do a “Klaus” …

The gorge began to narrow, and there were only narrow ledges to walk along beside the running creek so as most did not want to get their feet wet they stopped at this point while Trev and I followed by Gordie kept going – the water in the first narrow section was not too deep so I walked through it – much quicker and I had reef shoes on which worked really well – great grip and light….

The second narrow area saw Gordie stop as he did not want to get his shoes wet and did not want to barefoot it… I walked in and through the water – it did get quite deep – up to my chest at one point… Trev took his shoes off and did it barefoot with no issues… the water was clear and not cold at all…

Once through the second narrow crack, you reached what was called the Amphitheatre – a large open circular section with sunlight streaming in and small waterfalls trickling over between the cracks of the rock platforms… great places to take a break and sun yourself if you were feeling cold after the walk through the water…

We continued onto the last extremely narrow section where the water was gushing though a narrow chain of waterfalls – the description on the internet said this section had to be “by using your arms and legs to crawl along the wall above the water – having seen that I was unsure if I would have been able to hold myself up with my repaired shoulder for that length… however when we looked at it, there was no need to “spider walk” if you were ok with getting your feet wet as it was shallow and not slippery – you just had to take care walking the length…

Once at the end the rock walls opened up into another circular chasm that contained Kermit’s Pool – an amazingly deep water hole that you could swim in… so of course we jumped in…

It was not cold just very refreshing and we swam over to the other side and climbed out to take a look beyond… the rest of the gorge flows on but is chained off and not accessible to the public as it is too treacherous – we could see a couple more deep pools similar to Kermit’s Pool ahead and then the gorge took a turn and we could see no further…

It was certainly worth the effort to get to Kermit’s Pool – not an easy walk by any means but certainly achievable by most if you take care and don’t mind getting wet…. Reef shoes are definitely the best footwear to use for this walk….

We walked back through the gorge the same way enjoying every minute of it… finally reaching the long climb up the ladders… which really gave a good perspective of just how deep the gorge is….

Once out we met up with the others and went back to the Eco Retreat for coffee….

That night we were booked in at the resort restaurant for dinner – which was delicious and used some indigenous garnishes and bush tucker in some of the meals… the pavlova with native fruits was a real treat!!!

The drive from Marble Bar to Karijini involved an approximately 80km section of unsealed road along the Marble Bar-Hillsdale, and Hillsdale-Woodstock roads. We had tried to investigate the condition of the roads but could not get any definitive answers…. And anyway, everyone’s perspective on what a good road is always differs… We were certainly not going to go the extremely long way back to Port Hedland then down the highway…

so we ventured out along the road out of Marble Bar… past the Police Station…

and onto the road to Comet Mine…

It was not very long past Comet mine that we hit the dirt….

The road was actually pretty good – rough in some spots where sections had washed away after recent rain but not bad at all…

The area was pretty barren… the only roadkill were cattle… and there were some interesting sights along the way…. wrecked cars…

an RUOK blue monument….

A few mines are located along the way and so the area is frequented by road trains…

We crossed some dry creeks…. some with a few waterholes….

Eventually we got to the sealed section of Woodstock Road and Branch demanded a stop for van inspections after the corrugated journey…

He had a big cleanup in the Weiss Lotus with the freezer door having come off completely and the contents all over the van floor…

Only a toilet roll had unravelled in the Wells van, so Branch skipped past to the Hunter Lotus where the coffee machine had had a wonderful trip exploring the entire surface area of the floor of the van…. and the never-ending supply of construction shavings had made yet another appearance….

Back on the road and we met an increasing number of road trains….

There were quite a lot of rocky granite outcrops reminiscent of the Devil’s Marbles in the NT…

We were fortunate enough to miss the huge mining train that just finished going over the crossing – it was so long you could not see the end of it…the railway tracks were very neat and looked new…

Finally, we reached the highway and turned left toward Karijini…

The landscape was so changeable – one minute it looked like the surface of Mars – hot, red and stony with little or no vegetation….

The next minute it was grassy, green with wildflowers and trees…. Such opposites within a kilometre of each other!

The next stop was Auski Roadhouse for some much-needed fuel… the place was buzzing – busier than anything we had experienced for some time 😊

Road trains and mining vehicles everywhere – it was packed!

After leaving Auski the scenery became more mountainous with red rocky bluffs, tufts of green spinifex dotted all over them, and gums and mulga trees growing amongst the rocky outcrops…

Truly magnificent – you could see deep gorges carved out of the sides of the hills which would definitely have had waterfalls running if there had been recent rain in the area…

We drove into Karijini National Park, stopping at the visitor centre briefly to get some info… and Rose and Kerry picked up a couple of souvenirs…

As the road between the visitor centre and the west side of the park was closed for roadworks, we drove back to Karijini Drive, past Mt Bruce (second highest mountain in WA) and continued around to Karijini Eco Resort where we were booked in for 4 nights…

On arrival we set up camp and settled in…

We still had some daylight, so we walked from the campground to Joffre Gorge….

The area was really green due to recent rain and as we walked, we could see the edges of the gorge appear like a gash in the earth…

it is hard to describe the magnificence of the gorges in Karijini National Park… and pictures do not ever seem to do them justice…

God truly has created a beautiful planet for us to inhabit…. As you walk along the track it is hard to believe that in just a few metres more you will reach such an enormously deep ravine with water flowing in the bottom…

After taking in the views from the top of the gorge, we climbed down the steep staircases to the bottom…

it was a long descent but worth the effort – we got to the bottom and were the only ones there as it was quite late in the day… the pool was very tranquil – we took it all in then climbed back out and walked home…

Sunset over Karijini was spectacular with the gums silhouetted against glowing red and orange cloud banks….

The caravan park at Marble Bar was old but interesting with some relics lying around….

We had a few things planned for the day… Klaus was stinging to use his metal detector to fossick for the big nugget… but that had to wait til later as we decided to see a few sights first…

Just on the outskirts of Marble Bar in the old (no longer working) Comet Gold Mine – the mine site itself is not accessible as it is too unsafe but is visible from the road…

The museum located near the mine was apparently really interesting, so we went for a look… The man working there was also very interesting to talk to – he gave Trev and Klaus lots of tips on where to fossick and even showed us some gold nuggets he had found that week…

The museum was full of historical artifacts from the town, the mining efforts and WWII memorabilia as the secret Corunna Downs air force base was located not far from here during WWII…

There were some amazing mineral exhibits… and the famous Marble Bar Jasper on display… Marble Bar was so named due to the huge Jasper deposit that was found – which was mistakenly thought to be marble initially….

From the Comet Mine we drove to the Jasper deposit where it was permitted to take samples… and came upon a couple who were searching the area … and using their drone… we had a chat with them – they were from QLD and were travelling for 2 years….

We poked around and found a couple of samples to take… it was obvious from the pile of chipped rock pieces that many people come to do exactly the same… the colours of the rocks were lovely… and there were some wildflowers also coming out….

We drove on to Flying Fox Lookout for a great view over the large (empty) riverbed and the gauge used to measure river height that spanned across the valley like a flying fox…

After taking in the view, we drove down to Chinaman’s Pool – one of the swimming holes – it was quite muddy and did not look that inviting so no one went in….

the area was beautiful though – there was a lot of birdlife around… we saw pelicans…

and a flock of corellas that filled the trees along the bank…

Kerry and Gordie had a photo session to get that great holiday pic – thanks Dave!!

Next stop was the “protected” famous jasper deposit next to the Marble Bar Pool – another local swimming hole…

This jasper was NOT to be taken and it was easy to see why – it was incredibly beautiful and a huge deposit which was a spectacular example….

The colours were so varied, and the striations and angles of the rock deposits were astounding…

Klaus spotted a couple of very colourful dragonflies and took some great pics!

The Marble Bar Pool was much clearer and looked great for a swim, so Gordie and Trev got in for a quick dip….

The scenery around the pool was serene and very picturesque…

We finished up at the pool and headed back to camp for lunch.On the way we took the opportunity to get some group shots at the Marble Bar town entrance….

Dave and Rose were invited to watch the Swannies game in the caravan of the QLD couple we had met earlier that day….

Klaus, Trev and I decided to head out to “The Commons” – a mysterious area not marked on the map that the guy in the museum earlier that day has said was OK for people to fossick for gold in general without a permit…

The hunt was on… the metal detector was running hot….

Much digging ensued and a bullet casing was located…. More hunting and digging…. 2 pellets of metal (?birdshot?) were at first excitedly thought to be nuggets… but they were too evenly round 😊

More wire and tin cans got the metal detector excited…. And as the sun went down we called it a day… no nuggets but a lot of fun trying….

Happy Birthday Kerry!!! Gordie did well with the new hat he bought Kerry….

We had a big day ahead… Klaus and Beryl had to leave at about 6AM as they had to go to Port Hedland to pick up the new battery to replace the one that got the screw in it (??how – see episode in 80 Mile Beach blog) ….

The rest of us were going to leave at about 7 and make our way to Marble Bar where Klaus and Beryl would meet us….

We drove out of Barn Hill Station along the unsealed road…. More red dust for the Pearl….

And passed a jogger on the way out – even at this early time the day as heating up and we did not envy him the dust and heat….

Exiting the gates, we turned onto the highway and drove on….

– first stop Sandfire Roadhouse for fuel and the legendary roadhouse sausage rolls….

The roadhouse was like pit street – and the lineup for diesel was huge after we had finished there – fortunately for us we pulled straight in…

The 3 guys worked it for the camera beside their rigs….

We drove on and stopped at Pardoo Roadhouse for a coffee and break from the monotony of driving….

Back on the road and as we were nearing the turnoff to Marble Bar, who should come on the radio but Klaus – we were about 2 kms from the turnoff – they were 3kms!!!

As we turned the corner, we could see Klaus approaching…. How unlikely – you could not have planned it to happen that way – so Klaus joined the convoy – politely letting the Pearl go in front…

We still had a fair distance to go to reach Marble Bar…. Road trains became more frequent….

The area was desolate in parts…

dry creek beds with an occasional pool of water…

Hills came into view in the distance, and it seemed an eternity before we reached them…

As we climbed up one hill, we came upon a very wide load going in our direction which really slowed our progress….

A road train just made it past the load at one point…

however the road then narrowed, and so all oncoming traffic had to pull over to allow the wide load carrying a mining tractor through as it took up both lanes….

Fortunately, by this stage we only had about 20kms to go till Marble Bar so we sat back and enjoyed the remaining slow ride into town…

On the outskirts entering Marble Bar were some metal sculptures reflecting elements of the town including the fact that the Pilbara East Shire is the biggest shire in the world… and Marble Bar is the hottest town in Australia….

We arrived at Marble Bar Caravan Park and set up….

It was time to take off the dressing on Gordie’s injury and check the progress… it was looking great so a quick clean and on with the new dressing before Branch could even make an appearance….

The full moon was rising as the sun went down…

As it was Kerry’s birthday we walked to the famous Ironclad Pub for dinner – another iconic bush pub full of interesting paraphernalia…..

After enjoying pizzas and steak sandwiches/ burgers we walked back to the caravan park… and were followed by a ginger kitten who would not stop despite us trying to shoo it home… It made itself at home at our van and so Trev walked it back to the pub hoping that someone might claim it… it was very well kept and friendly, and we did not want it to become lost and turn feral…. Needless to say, it did not seem to have one specific owner – the pub owner said they had to keep chasing it from the pub… who knows – hopefully someone will adopt “Red Cat” the Pilbara kitten 😊….

Back at the vans we celebrated Kerry’s birthday with a pavlova supplied by Beryl and Klaus – something they whipped up in the van… or got at Port Hedland earlier!!