Our Pilbara Adventure - Part 1

The Pilbara region of WA was an area that we didn't spend much time exploring on our way south last year and actually were quite disappointed with after our Kimberley experience. We were on a tight schedule to get to Perth to meet the new van and many of the places we wanted to visit were going to be easier with the new van in tow so we bypassed many places and vowed to come back. As Dave's work schedule was released we found there was a block of 3 weeks with no work which coincidentally timed with the September school holidays so we decided this would be our opportunity to tick off this missing piece of our WA trip. The original plan was to take 2 weeks, head out to Meekatharra, up to Newman, a couple of days in Karijini, over to Mt Augustus, Kennedy Range NP and then down to Shark Bay before heading home. We were also hopeful that Covid would allow for Dave's Mum and some friends of theirs to come to WA and join us on this trip. As always happens, things don't work out the way we originally plan. Covid in Vic meant that we were doing this trip alone, all good. Then Dave's work decided that they did need to work during that period so instead of him missing out on work we decided that the timing worked for him to duck off to work for a few days in the middle of the trip if we extended the trip by a few days and altered the itinerary.

The timing of this trip was also perfectly timed with the end of my uni semester and, in fact, my entire masters degree. In the weeks leading up to the end of term Dave spent some extended time away and I pushed to complete final placement hours and submit assignments before we were due to leave so that I could really enjoy the time away without having to worry about study. With that completed the girls and I spent our time packing the van ready to go as Dave would return from work on Monday evening and we were heading out on Tuesday. We didn't end up leaving until Tuesday afternoon by the time Dave did everything he wanted to do but we started out on our first piece of the journey, making our way towards Mt Augustus first. We took a more direct route north which found us on the beginning of a few days of lots of dirt road. We were excited when a family of emus walked across the road in front of us and from then we also encountered lots of cows and goannas and 1 camel. Our first campsite was on the side of the road just north of Murchison roadhouse where people have been arranging pieces of quartz rock to create artworks all over the place. We arrived in enough time to get a small campfire going and enjoy the sunset with a drink in hand. Before we headed out in the morning Elly made sure that we had contributed to the rock art near our campsite.

While the distance to travel wasn't too far on day 2 we weren't sure how long it would take as we had no idea of the road conditions but ass it turned out we arrived at Mt Augustus by lunchtime, setting up camp in the caravan park and filling up the fuel tank as we arrived with little to spare. Mt Augustus is actually the largest rock formation in the world and is twice the size of Uluru so we could see it coming a long way off. We headed out in the afternoon to drive the 49km loop road that circled the rock and had a few stop ins to do little walks around the base. We finished the loop by popping out to the Eagle's Nest lookout where we got a fantastic view of Mt Augustus as the sun set and the girls had a lovely time doing a photoshoot of each other.

The next morning we got ready to head out again with our destination planned for a campsite just out of Tom Price. We had to wait until the office opened so we could again top up with gold plated diesel as our distance to the next fuel stop was going to be very tight based on what we were getting from our tank. This was quite frustrating as we have the second fuel tank on the car and there's about 120L of diesel sitting in it but we can't get it right now as the pump died a while ago and the new one didn't manage to arrive before we left. As a backup we sacrificed the jerry can on the front of the van that is for grey water collection and filled it with diesel just in case the tank didn't make it far enough. The first section of road we hit we had heard was not a great road so we went in prepared to be really slow however we were pleasantly surprised. It was not as bad as we had expected, we travelled a little slower than usual but the scenery was fantastic. There were so many areas that looked like there was a purple carpet with all the wildflowers. What should have been the better part of our road started out brilliantly as it had been just graded and was like a hwy but the last 50km were dreadful and we were so excited to hit bitumen at the other end. The final stint of this drive did take us on another section of dirt road but it wasn't bad and we finished up at our next campsite Tiger Eye Well just out of Tom Price without running out of fuel. We did top the tank up with the jerry can before heading into town the next day just to be sure. We enjoyed more great scenery and another campfire at this site, with an open air shower as nobody was around to look.

Friday morning we headed to Tom Price to fill up with fuel, stock up on a few more food items and drop Jezy off at a pet sitters house before heading into Karijini National Park for 2 nights. Our campsite at Dales Gorge was nothing exciting and we were constantly fighting the red dirt but we needed to make the most of our time so we weighed up the available trails and decided to walk a loop that left our campsite, headed down into Dales Gorge and all the way along to Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool. All of the information indicated walking the gorge in the other direction but in the end we got it right I think. There was a steep rocky descent into the gorge but once at the bottom we enjoyed the meander along the rocks and pathways especially when we began meeting the stream running through the gorge. Before getting to Fortescue Falls we ducked off the track into the stream area and found some smaller falls, it was lovely and quiet and the perfect spot for a rest, a drink and some food. Not much further up we found the falls which were lovely but covered with people so we found we didn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked. The girls had a swim and then we walked a bit further to Fern Pool. I have to say I find some people really disappointing when this area was labelled as a very sacred space for the local indigenous community and to be quiet and respectful here, no jumping in, only enter via the ladder etc and there was so much noise and people jumping in all over the place, it made me quite sad. We returned for another quick swim at Fortescue before hitting the stairs to climb back out of the gorge.

Upon returning to our campsite we found our first casualty of this trip. We had, probably not sensibly knowing how flimsy our awning was, left the awning on the van and the car out while we went for our walk. We returned to find the awning on the roof of the van, poles bent and broken. The car awning was also damaged but is not completely destroyed. Secretly Dave was actually very excited that the awning had broken, he has always hated it and has been wanting to replace it however we couldn't justify it while it was still ok. So he was smiling excitedly as he removed the busted pieces, piling them up to dump them when he could and saving any pieces that survived that someone else might be able to use as spare part. I guess we will talk to the insurance company when we get home and try to get something better put on.

Feeling very dirty we tried to have a shower that night but the wind made this quite difficult and I'm not sure we were much cleaner after our shower than before we got in!

On Saturday we drove off to the other end of the NP to explore some of the other gorges, our first stop being Kalamina Gorge. It was not a huge climb down into the gorge and then we headed to the right to look at the waterfall before turning back the other way and walking down the gorge to rock arch pool. When we began we weren't sure whether we would do the whole walk but we were enjoying it so much that we did and it ended up being our favourite in Karijini. As we walked back we stumbled across a lizard on a rock which reminded us of our favouorite Tata lizards from the Kimberley. While this guy didn't wave at us like the tatas do, he did nod at us after we asked a question so the kids have named him an OK lizard (and we believe they are related to the tata lizards).

After a quick look at the Joffre Gorge lookout, our next stop was Weano/Hancock gorges, home to handrail pool and Kermits pool. These were class 5 walks so we weren't sure how we would go but we were blitzing the class 4s so why not. We started with handrail pool and the trickiest part of that is climbing down the handrail at the end. Dave and the girls did this while I opted to stay at the top of the rail. As we came out we could have gone back up out of the gorge or walk to the other end of Weano gorge and out, we decided to walk the gorge but were actually really disappointed, compared to what we had seen it wasn't all that exciting, was quite long and Charli was getting hangry!

After some BBQ'd dimmies back at the car and Charli in a better state of mind it was time to tackle Kermits pool. The way down into the gorge was a bit rough and I was not looking forward to climbing back out but down we went. We had lots of climbing along the sides of walls to avoid walking through water that look worse than they are but we got into Kermits and the girls and Dave enjoyed a swim before heading back out again, very grateful when I got to the top of that climb.

On our way back to camp we had to stop in at the visitor centre before it closed. We had been there on our first morning and the girls had been given a booklet to work on that would earn them a badge at the end. They had worked hard on these books so we went to hand them in, thinking they would get a crappy pin on badge. They were super excited when they were handed a cloth badge for their efforts which will now go on their camp blankets as they had been disappointed that there wasn't one available to buy. Absolutely made Charli's day particularly.

On Sunday morning we got up and moving to start heading out of Karijini for the coast. We stopped back in at Tom Price to pick up Jezy who had had a lovely time with the pet sitter. We had another dirt road drive and part of us wished we had picked up a permit to drive the Rio Tinto access road which would have been quicker and easier but we opted to drive via Hammersley gorge. We only got to admire from the lookout as we had Jez with us again and we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't go down and explore but we can't do everything and we kept going. This claimed our second casualty of the trip when one of the spotlights on the ute snapped off and smashed. We drove out of Hammersley and then had a lovely drive through some of the gorge before hitting some of the worst dirt road so far. We stopped for some lunch as Dave really needed a break and then started counting down the Kms to bitumen and were very excited to see that the road had had an upgrade recently and we dropped 50kms of dirt road off, phew!

This road took us through Millstream Chichester NP and out towards Karratha. We were planning on a free campsite for the night but after all the dirt at Karijini we really wanted a proper shower. We had a booking at a park in Karratha the next day but unfortunately they were unable to take us a day early so we stopped at another park in the industrial area which is clearly set up more for the FIFO workers but we got showers, free washing machines and there was a brewery within walking distance. Once we were clean we headed down to the brewery, Dave tasted some beers, I tried a pineapple cider and we decided to buy our dinner so we all shared some chip, some calamari and a gluten free pizza, delish. After commenting to Dave when we visited the wildflowers further south that I would have loved to see some Sturt Desert Peas and thinking I would have missed them, I was very excited to find some on the side of the road as we walked.

Monday was spent preparing for Dave to leave us and go to work. We hit the shops to make sure we had enough food, washed the van and the car at the caravan park (they were disgusting!!) and get ourselves all set up. Dave headed off for Port Hedland at about 4pm and the girls and I were settling in to relax for 4 days until we had our next casualty. An our after he left I discovered our big fridge had stopped working, I couldn't get it to start no matter what I did. Then it randomly turned back on for a bit before dying again. I moved all our fridge items to the camp kitchen at the opposite end of the park and moved all the frozen food into our other little fridge thinking all would be ok, not ideal but ok. Well next day the little fridge wasn't cooling either, so much for my relaxing 4 days. After several phone calls back and forth we ended up biting the bullet and buying a new fridge. We will get the other one dealt with through warranty but I just needed something that worked as we head out off grid again in a few days time. With the new fridge delivered I could finally relax and enjoy our few days of chill time.....