DAYS 21-22 - EXMOUTH - TOM PRICE

21-22 March 2008

DAYS 22-23 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

EXMOUTH – TOM PRICE

After a hot humid night we set out to explore a little more around Exmouth. First of all we headed off to see the wreck of SS Mildura. The wreck of the cattle ship that sank in 1907 is visible from the shore.


We then headed to the Shothole Canyon. It was a very impressive drive into the gorges and an awesome sight was to be seen when we climbed the stairs to the viewing point. I haven’t seen anything like it. It was on the eastern side of Cape Range. The range is actually about 100km long, 20 km wide and up to 330m above sea level. We saw a part of it yesterday when we went up Yardie Gorge. Now we were seeing it from another viewpoint. It would be a beautiful place for a picnic but not in summer.


After descending back to the main road we headed south to Charles Knife Gorge. The drive is along the ridges of the gorge. The drive was steep in places and somewhat windy. We went as far as the lookout that provided views of Charles Knife Gorge and the Exmouth Gulf.

From here we started to make our way to Tom Price along what is known as the Wool Wagon Pathway which eventually turned off towards Mt Augustus (which we had visited via a different route) whilst we now continued on to our destination. Again it was hot. At about 3.30pm it hit the magic 40 degrees. We were not impressed.

We travelled via Nanutarra Roadhouse. As it was so hot we stopped for an iceblock and a cold drink. The most expensive place so far! As we travelled east the scenery started to become more interesting, more dramatic.


There were no termite mounds here. The sky was spectacular – it often dominated the landscape.
The colours were sharp and strong – bright blue sky, white clouds some with some dark patches, oranges, purples and vast range of greens. A few striking coolabah trees added to the contrast. A beautiful palette of colours. The camera just did not capture the intensity of the colours.



We spent the night at House Creek Rest Area. Another van joined us. We had an interesting evening sharing stories with three young French Basque people as thunder and lightning circled us and provided a fabulous night spectacle.


During the night it rained a little and the bark owls kept up a cacophony of sounds. It was very humid. The storm that we saw in the distance brought about 22ml of rain in 20 minutes at Tom Price.


As we continued on we enjoyed an ever changing spectacular environment with the most interesting plateaus, gorges, mesas, razor backed ridges and hills, narrow steep sided valleys, low hills, plains.


Spinifex did appear to be very dominant in the area. Whilst travelling I read out aloud the information provided by CALM on “Geology and Landforms of the Pilbara”. It provided an interesting context whilst absorbing the fascinating landscape.



We finally arrived in Tom Price and fell instantly in love with the place. Whilst small it just has character. We saw the Pilbara Iron train within minutes of arriving. They are extremely long and go very frequently.



Now we are going to enjoy just being here. We set up our dining tent and soon we were painting eggs in preparation for Easter.