DAYS 24-25 - TOM PRICE

23-24 March 2008

DAYS 24-25 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip


TOM PRICE

It is Easter Sunday and we spent it chilling out at the caravan park at the base of Mt Jundunmunnah, referred to on maps as Mt Nameless – a stunning mountain.


Yesterday evening we painted eggs, I made black bread and got everything ready for beetroot salad, potato salad, herring salad and roasted the meats. No cooking today.


We joined the local community at the Easter Vigil on Saturday. So this morning we slept in and had a very relaxing day. Took time out to wash all the bedding. Most of the day was spent swimming, reading or working on my journal – finally. We observed that all local cars are covered in an ochre colour. Only the tourists have cleanish looking cars. There are lots of birds here and many of them check out the camp kitchen in the morning.

As we had phone reception we caught up with our children. Our youngest rang us from the top of Mt Kosciusko. He had gone up for the day with his wife pushing his little 5½ month old son up in the stroller from Charlottes Pass. We had taken him up to Mt Kosciusko when he was about the same age in a child back pack carrier. It brought back lots of memories.

In the evening we decided to spend another day here exploring Mt Jundunmunnah and Mt Bruce.

After breakfast hubby did the usual checks and decided that the back tyre needed changing as the thread was lifting. What a saga. He had trouble undoing the nuts. In the process he sheared off an extension rod. A few minutes later he sheared off another extension rod. Then he had a go with a breaker bar and snapped that – sheared the end off. Then he got serious and got out the heavy equipment and with a two metre extension rod finally undid the bolts. And finally . . . the tyre was changed.

By this time it was lunchtime so we went into town and restocked on fresh fruit and vegetables and indulged on icecream and mangos. Tom Price is actually the highest town in WA. We went for a drive to see Mt Bruce. It is the second highest mountain in WA. It was too big and too hot to climb.

We then came back and went on to Mt Jundunmunnah. The drive again was interesting from the other direction.


It was a steep and windy four wheel drive track to the top. The going was slow but well worth the effort. We went up in 2nd low. The track was gravely with sharp stones. The 360 degree views were absolutely spectacular.

It is the highest mountain in WA that you can access by vehicle. My camera finger did not stop and I got into trouble when I asked hubby to stop up a sharp incline. Needless to say I got a funny look and he continued on.

Finally we returned to the campsite for a cold drink and to chill out again. Lots of quilt ideas are spinning in my head.

At the campsite today we ran into a Canadian couple that we had met earlier at Exmouth. We believe a comment she made really hit the nail on the head. She described the landscape here as being tired and having given up trying to fight the elements – wind, rain and heat. Yet at the same time it is grand, majestic and colourful.

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.