MARBLE BAR

28^th July, 2012

We’re retracing our steps north out of the Hammersley Ranges towards Port Hedland.  One hundred and thirty kms up the

Great Northern Highway

we turn onto a dirt road that will take us to the town of Marble Bar.  We stop to let some air out of the tyres to make the ride softer for the van.

Wok lets the tyres down on the road to Marble Bar

We are always a bit wary about travelling on dirt roads as they can get awfully rough with corrugations and washed out creek beds.  We have 150 kms to travel along the dirt road until we get to Marble Bar.  If we go via the tarred road the distance is 350 kms.  It doesn’t take a maths genius to work out that the dirt road option is 200 kms shorter than the tarred road.  We are pleasantly surprised to find that the dirt road isn’t all that bad and we can average about 80 kms per hour and it’s just as well that there isn’t much traffic because we are putting out quite a dust storm behind us.  The landscape is hilly and very scenic and as we round a bend we come face to face with a ‘bustard’ sedately strolling across the road.  Now we have seen bustards before along the way (two in Cape Range National Park and two in Karijini National Park) and on both those occasions the birds were too quick for us and we had no chance of getting a photo.  This ‘bustard’ took one look at us screaming to a dusty stop and made a beeline for the bush.  In desperation we managed to get a photo of his/her rear end as the ‘bustard’ disappeared into the scrub.

Can you spot the 'bustard'?  It's that black stick looking thing in the middle of the photo.

These birds do inhabit the plains and arid bushland areas as well as coastal areas of the tropical north and you would think that they would be easy to spot as they stand about 1.2 metres tall and can weigh up to 14kgs.  Their colouring however lets them blend into the landscape and are very difficult to detect unless they are out in the open.  As we near the town of Marble Bar we pass the Comet Gold Mine.

Comet Gold Mine

In 1890 gold was discovered in the area and one year later 5,000 people had arrived to seek their fortune.  The town of Marble Bar was established and today 194 people call it home.  We had intended to just fill up with fuel and continue on our way but it was Saturday afternoon and the roadhouse was closed and wouldn’t reopen until the morning.  With the next fuel stop 250 kms away it was a ‘no brainer’.  We checked into the local caravan park and decided to also spend the Sunday as well.  This would give us time to catch up on some much needed laundry and take in the sights of Marble Bar.  The town has the dubious honour of being the hottest place in Australia.  For 160 days in 1923/1924 the temperature never fell below 100 degrees Fahrenheit and summer days can often be 113 degrees Fahrenheit or above.  Thankfully we are here in winter and the days are mild and the nights cool.  Sunday morning and the roadhouse was open (until 1pm that is) so we filled up Mitzi’s tank and went exploring.  Our first stop was at the lookout which gave us an excellent view of the town.

Marble Bar - Caravan Park in the foreground

Then we stopped to have a look at the Old Courthouse which was built with local stone.

The old courthouse

Today one end of the building is used as the police station.  The oldest building in town is the Irconclad Hotel erected in 1890 during the gold rush.

The Ironclad Hotel

The hotel is built of corrugated iron and the American gold miners named the hotel.  They said it reminded them of the old American ironclad ships.  Americans also played a big role in the area during World War II when US Army Air Force and RAAF heavy bombers were stationed at a secret air base at Corunna Downs 25 kms south of the town.  From this base the planes bombed Japanese targets as far away as Borneo.  A few kilometres out of town is Marble Bar Pool and it is here that we can see why the town was named Marble Bar.

Jasper deposit

The early prospectors to the area thought that the deposits of Jasper were Marble – hence the name.  When we splash the rocks with water the colours of the Jasper come to life.

Jasper stripes

This rock in the pool had wonderful swirls of red, white, grey and black.

Loved this large Jasper rock in the middle of the pool

We climbed around the outcrops of jasper for quite a while before finally heading back to Mitzi and then back to the caravan park.  Well … for a place that we were only going to stop at to get fuel Marble Bar has been a pleasant surprise.  We now take back all those bad things we said about the roadhouse not being open on Saturday afternoon …..

TOM PRICE

27^th July, 2012

We’re off exploring today.  We are still camped in Karijini National Park for one more night but the mining town of Tom Price is ninety kms away and we have booked onto a tour of Rio Tinto’s open cut iron ore mine.  So we are on the road early as we want to go to the town’s lookout before meeting up with the tour bus at the Tom Price Information Centre.  The landscape is quite surprising.  Rocky escarpments and pyramid shaped hills roll into view.

Unusual shapes hills on road to Tom Price

Up until now we haven’t commented on the massive road trains that we continually pass.  We thought that the semis pulling three trailers were pretty big but obviously three isn’t big enough for the mining companies in the Pilbara so they just added another trailer to make it next to impossible to overtake one of these guys on the road.

Move over - I'm coming through ....

Needless to say – Wok does his very best to keep Mitzi and the van out of harms way as they pass by.  Sitting at the base of Mount Nameless (and we couldn’t find anyone who could tell us why the mountain has no name) Tom Price is the highest town in West Australia.  At least the aborigines gave the mountain a name – Jarndrunmunhna (place of rock wallabies).  Mount Nameless is 1128 metres high and is accessible by 4

Wheel Drive

so after about 20 minutes of climbing up a rocky track we found ourselves on top of the mountain with a panoramic view of the town

View of Tom Price from Mount Nameless

and the Tom Price mine site.

View of Tom Price Mine from Mount Nameless

After taking in the spectacular view we headed back down and joined the tour bus to see the Tom Price mine.  Our bus driver ‘Baz’ tried to cram our poor little brains with more facts and figures as we joggled our way into the mine site.  We pass by those 2.2km long ore trains that we had seen at Dampier dumping their precious cargo ready for loading onto the waiting ships.  And precious is the word!  Baz happily informed us that each train load of ore is worth three million dollars and five to six trains a day are despatched from the Tom Price mine alone.  There are approx. twenty smaller mines in the area all gouging away at hills and mountains and loading iron ore onto the trains.  And you thought we were joking when we said ‘There’s gold in them thar hills!’   We stop at the viewing platform to allow everyone a look down in the massive open cut pit.

Tom Price open cut

Once this had been a mountain as high as the surrounding landscape and there are more untouched areas of iron ore yet to be mined.  We watch as one of the humongous dump trucks rumbles past.

My that is one big dump truck!

This double cab work truck is dwarfed by the dump truck.

You call that a truck!!!  Now this is a TRUCK ...

Baz then takes us on a drive around the ore processing facility where the ore is crushed before being loaded onto the trains.

Iron ore processing facility - everything coated in a nice shade of red dust

Then suitably filled with mindless statistics Baz whisks us back to the information centre.  We have now followed the iron ore journey from its origin in the Pilbara to the waiting ships at Dampier and Cape Lambert.  We have been blown away by the size of the mines, trains and loading facilities let alone the towns built by the mining companies for their workforce.  On our way back to camp some more wildflowers beside the road caught our eye.

Red wildflowers in the Pilbara

Again we have no idea what they are but they sure are pretty.  Mount Bruce is pretty hard to miss as we pass by.

Mount Bruce

At 1235 metres it is the second highest mountain in West Australia.  In the morning a glorious sunrise greets us as we pack up and continue our journey.  

Sunrise at Karijini

We’ve enjoyed our stay out here in the Pilbara but it is time to move on.  Now all we need to do is find some way of getting rid of all this red dust that has accumulated over everything.

KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

23^rd July 2012

It’s to be a day of travelling today and as we pass through Roebourne we fill up with fresh drinking water at the information centre.  Where we are headed there will be bore water but drinking water will be non-existent.  As we turn south away from the coast at Port Hedland we stop at a supermarket to replenish our supplies.  Our camp for the night is in a rest area (along with twenty or more like minded travellers).  At seven thirty the next morning we continue our journey travelling up the Hammersley Range and arriving at Karijini National Park two hours later.

Some of the scenery inside Karijini National Park

We check in at Dales Campground in the park and set up on a site before making our way to the nearby Dales Gorge.  The track takes us along the rim of the gorge and the scenery is beautiful.

The rim walk at Dales Gorge

The gorge widens out where two gorges converge into one.

Looking down into Dales Gorge

Up one gorge is Circular Pool

Circular Pool - The little dots on the rocks bottom right corner are people

and up the other gorge is Fortescue Falls.

Fortescue Falls

The water is freezing cold but some people are actually swimming and climbing up where the water is tumbling down the rocks.  In the middle of summer this would be a great place to frolic in the water but it is winter and the temperature of the water has got to be one degree above freezing.  Flirting with hypothermia is not our idea of fun.  The next morning we hop into Mitzi and drive 42 kms along dusty dirt roads to the more inaccessible gorges in the park.  

Following another vehicle on one of the dirt roads in Karijini National Park

We first walk to Oxer and Junction Pool Lookouts where there is a spectacular view into the convergence of four gorges.

View from Oxer Lookout into Joffre Gorge

In front of us is Joffre Gorge, to the right Hancock Gorge, to the left Red Gorge and coming in from behind us is Weano Gorge.  A sombre reminder of just how dangerous these gorges can be is a memorial to an SES Volunteer who was drowned in a flash flood trying to rescue an injured tourist.  Regans Pool in Hancock Gorge has been named after him.  We decide to take a look at the track leading into Hancock Gorge.

Rocky track leading into Hancock Gorge

It is very rocky and very difficult to traverse.  We manage to get about halfway down before deciding it is way too dangerous for us – and we hadn’t even got to the hard bit.  The scenery even from this point on the track was stark and beautiful.

The towering walls of Hancock Gorge

The red rocks known as banded iron formation date back 2,500 million years when little oxygen filled the atmosphere and the only forms of life were simple bacteria and algae.  We made our way back up to the ridge (after much huffing and puffing) and took the track into Weano Gorge.  There were lots of rock steps down but it was definitely much easier than Hancock Gorge and near to the bottom the track levelled out

Wok stops to take in the view into Weano Gorge

and brought us to a rock ledge overlooking a lovely clear pool

Wok surveys the pool in Weano Gorge from a rock ledge

which reflected the red rocks and white trunks of the Snappy Gums.

Reflections of Snappy Gums

Further down the gorge narrowed and became impassable – that is unless one was willing to wade waist deep through the water to the next bend

The red rock walls close in

where there was another rock ledge leading to another deep area of water which was impassable.  It didn’t take long for us to come to a consensus that this would be as far downstream we would go and were quite happy to watch the mirror reflections in the still water.

Mirror reflections in Weano Gorge

Now that we had covered the downstream area of the gorge we followed the track upstream where the clear water flowed beside the red walls of the gorge.

The crystal clear water reflects the layers of red rock

Apart from a few birds we hadn’t seen much animal life but ‘ever on the look out’ Wok spotted this tiny striped lizard sunning itself on the track.

Just look at this lizard's long tail and long toes

Wok had by this time decided a walking stick would come in handy and after scavenging around this ‘I’ve really hard a hard time of it’ gum tree

Wok searches for a suitable stick in the flood debris under this gum tree

came up with a reasonable facsimile.

Wok with walking stick

We eventually made our way out of the gorge and on our way back to Mitzi found a ‘Nulla Nulla’ bush in flower.

The pretty purple flower of the Nulla Nulla

On the way back to camp we stopped in at the park information centre for some nice long relaxing showers - just the thing for tired aching muscles.  In the morning Wok made friends with some ‘top notch pigeons’

Wok tries to make friends with some Top Notch Pigeons

with a crushed up ice cream cone.

Yum Yum!  Imagine finding ice cream cone way out here.

Then it was off to have a look Kalamina Gorge which is more accessible than the other gorges in the park.  After a short descent down the side of the gorge we come to a glorious waterhole

Waterhole in Kalamina Gorge

with water cascading down the layers of rock at one end into the gorge.

Kalamina Gorge waterfall

From here there is only one way to go and we follow the rock ledge downstream.

Walking downstream in Kalamina Gorge

Wok is intrigued by the different rock layers

Wok checks out the different rock layers

and this red layer striped by blue asbestos certainly stands out.

Red rock layer with blue asbestos stripe

It’s a magic place just strolling along the rock ledge beside the clear stream.

Wok enjoying the serenity

The red rocks and bubbling cascades are a photographer’s delight.

Red Rock photo op

The forces of nature can be seen in the gorge with this curved rock strata showing that tremendous force was once unleashed in this area albeit a long long time ago.

Evidence of enormous forces exerted upon the rock strata

We retrace our steps back up the gorge and are still awestruck with the beauty of the rocks

Another photo op

and tumbling water.

Try real hard and you may hear the sound of the water cascading down the rocks

Our stay in Karijini National Park has come to an end.  We are all gorged out.  Karijini is a fascinating place with stunning red rock gorges, waterfalls and crystal clear pools.  A surprising treat in this stark dry landscape.