Tom Price

Since our last report to the blog we have covered a fair bit of territory.  We headed out of Karratha and about 160 km later arrived in Millstream Chichester National Park.  We found a great campsite that actually did not have anyone else staying there.  Just bliss.  No power or water and just a bush pit loo and at night the most beautiful array of stars.

We did a couple of walks in the park, but unfortunately it is a little mismanaged.  The walking trails are not clearly defined so most of the time you are just not sure where you are going.  In fact we found a couple of walks that did not appear anywhere on their maps!! 

After 2 nights away from civilisation we took off along the Hamersley Iron rail access track (or these days Rio Tinto) and saved about 100 km getting into Tom Price, which is where we are now based.

Tom Price was previously known as Mount Tom Price, but the mount has gone and all that is now here is a huge hole in the ground.  From this hole in the ground Rio Tinto work 24/7 extracting iron ore which is then graded and refined then loaded onto huge trains.  The trains are classed as long or very long, and can be up to almost 4 km long.  Most of the trains have at least 260 carriages and are pulled by 3 engines the 250 km to Dampier where it is loaded onto the huge bulk carriers and shipped to China and other places. We did a really interesting tour of the mine yesterday which enabled us to look into the pit and the bus then look us through the processing plant and stock piles.

We also took a drive up Mt Nameless, which is the huge mountain that overlooks the town.  It is a very rugged ride, 4WD access only.  It took about half an hour to get to the top and the track is only about 3 km long.  But the view when you get to the top is well worth it with views down over the rail distribution centre and the town itself.  Tom Price is actually a great little town, a real green oasis in an otherwise very red landscape.

We did try to get to Hamersley Gorge yesterday, but luck was against us.  First of all we took a wrong turn which took us about 30 km totally the wrong way.  Then when we actually got to the entrance of the gorge, we got ANOTHER FLAT TYRE.  This time a dirty great nail somehow or other rammed itself into the tyre and that was the end of that.  There was a little bit of yelling, cursing, and swearing  from us.  That is the 4^th tyre we have done this trip, two of which have been totally destroyed.  After changing the tyre we limped back about 60 km to town and bought a second hand tyre in very good condition.  That will be $180 thank you.  So we didn’t see the gorge, bummer.

Today though we took off into Karijini National Park, which is one of the jewels of Western Australia.  We did the western gorges today.  First up Weano Gorge, which is an absolute delight.  When you get to the bottom of the gorge via some very steep steps there is a beautiful little pool of water that is fed by a small creek.  We walked the gorge, then up the other side and back to the car park along the gorge rim.  A great walk, not too far, about 3 km.  We went to a couple of other gorges too but only viewed them from the lookouts as entry to some of them is for really experienced hikers only.

So now the sun is setting over Tom Price.  The days here are very pleasant, about 25, but the moment the sun goes down it gets cold.  Last night I had a hot water bottle, tonight the electric blanket goes on.  Take me back to the top end.

So tomorrow we are going to do the other half of Karijini, then on Monday we hit the road again and will be heading to Newman and places south, but no more dirt roads.

Till then…