Monday 18th June. Dales Gorge to Newman

Headed off to Newman today.  Quite a lot of big machinery being moved along the main road.

Met up with Richard and Jennie and Margaret and Arthur and had coffee at Dome - part of a new shopping centre which was not here when we visited a few years ago.

Booked into the Oasis Caravan Park a little out of town.  It's also new and it will be quite a while before it can confidently be called an 'Oasis' - lots of red dirt.  BUT the washing machines and dryers are free.  That's a bonus seeing we are due to do some major clothes washing.

Went for a drive with Margaret and Arthur out to Kalgan Pool.  Well, at least towards Kalgan Pool.  We got part of the way and found the road flooded so did not actually get to the pool itself.  Some lovely River Red gums and red rock along the way.

Then met up with Jennie and Richard again at the lookout in Newman.  Pretty spectacular.  You could see the lights of about 6-7 mines around Newman.  Also saw some cute rock wallabies.

Headed off to the Capricorn Roadhouse with M&A for dinner (R&J had gone to meet a relative), however we found it very noisy, quite expensive and a limited menu so decided to come back to the Oasis which had a very adequate buffet dinner - they obviously cater for a lot of mine workers who use their onsite accommodation.

Tuesday 19th June. Newman

Whaleback Mine

Most of us are booked on a tour of the Whaleback Mine today.  Was not Jill's thing so she chose to stay behind and do the washing.  She says she had a lovely morning - 4 loads of washing and even changed the sheets on the bed.

The rest of us fronted up at the visitor's centre at 9:15 and headed off on the tour bus to Whaleback mine.

The Mount Whaleback mine, 6 kilometres west of Newman is majority-owned (85%) and operated by BHP, and is one of five iron ore mines the company operates in the Pilbara, in addition to operating two port facilities at Port Hedland and over 1,000 kilometres of rail.  The Mount Whaleback deposit was discovered in 1957 but was not mined until 1968. When it was opened it was the biggest single-pit Open-pit iron ore mine in the world (developed originally by United States company Bechtel Pacific). The mine is 1.5 kilometres wide, more than five kilometres long and is scheduled to eventually reach a depth of 0.5 kilometres. The town of Newman was constructed just to service the mine as was the 426-kilometre railway line to Port Headland.  

 

The Mount Newman railway is one of Australia’s longest private railways with much of its operation monitored and controlled from Perth.  The rail journey from Newman to Port Hedland typically takes about eight hours. The 268 car trains are 2.89 kilometres long with each car carrying up to 138 tonnes of ore.  On 21 June 2001, the line broke the world record for the heaviest train as well as the longest train when a train weighing 99,734 tons and formed of 682 wagons ran for 275 kilometres between Yandi and Port Hedland. The train was 7.3 kilometres long, carried 82,000 tons of iron ore and was hauled by eight GE AC6000CW locomotives.

The tour was fascinating.  Initially, we drove up to the lookout with views over the mine pit.  We then drove through the mine infrastructure before heading back to the Visitor Centre.

A big shop in the afternoon as it would be about two weeks before the next opportunity in Alice Springs over 3,000 km away.

Wednesday 20th June. Newman to Marble Bar

After filling up with fuel (+ two jerry cans - not too many fuel stations where we're going) we headed north with Margaret and Arthur (after they had taken their vehicle into the tyre place for a repair - they had a screw in the tyre).  The plan is to meet Richard and Jennie in Karlamilyi National Park in a couple of days.  They will travel in through the southern entrance while we will travel in through the northern entrance after Arthur and Margaret leave their van in Marble Bar.

Our lunch stop was at Nullagine - a sweet little town where we stopped in a "Welcome Rest Area".  Passed lots of mining along the way.

Checked into the Caravan Park at Marble Bar (the hottest town in Australia) and then headed for Marble Bar Pool to investigate the amazing coloured jasper rocks that look like marble - hence the name of the town.  We took a bucket to throw water over the rocks which really brings out the colour.

 

 

 

We also visited the Jasper Deposit public fossicking area a few kilometres further out of town to find a few samples to take home - nothing like the jasper in the river.  Called back into town.  Some lovely old buildings (1895) built when Marble Bar was an important gold mining area.  In 1891 the town had a population in excess of 5,000.  These days it's less than 200.

Then headed to the Water Tank Lookout for a most incredible sunset.

 

Thursday 21st June. Marble Bar to Karlamilyi

Last night we met a couple at the water tower who had been into Karlamilyi.  They were staying in the caravan park so visited them this morning to get some advice.   Before heading off spotted some finches on the fence.  Found out later that they were Painted Finches.  Would have taken a better photo if we'd known.

Margaret and Arthur organised their camping gear in the ute (they're leaving their van here and camping for the next few days).  Their van is wider than the Quantum and we are aware that in places the track will be quite overgrown hence lots of scratches on the van.  As the Quantum is no wider than the Prado we're hoping we won't suffer too much.

We have a long day in front of us so headed off around 8:30.  To get to Karlamilia we drove initially on the Ripon Hills Road (sealed) and then the Telfa Mine Road which passes through Telfa Gold Mine Lands.  The road was pretty good and watered in places to keep the dust down.  Near the mine, we came to a boom gate.  Had to check in, give our details and then were escorted past the mine.  No fossicking here.

Once past the mine and on the Telfer-Talwana Track, (also know as the Kintyre track), the road deteriorated drastically - long deep washouts in some places, quite sandy patches in others, rough rocky bits and lots of corrugations.  We were travelling between 7kph and 57kph so going was slow.  In places, the washouts were so bad that there were detours in place - many with washouts themselves. 

 

Arrived at the National Park boundary about 4:30pm and set off for the river after checking out the northern pump (our last water for a while) but decided it would be too dark when we arrived.  Camped beside the road instead of pushing on.

No sooner had we set up when we noticed a heard of 20+ camels heading towards us.  As soon as they saw us they stampeded off in the other direction.

Time to top up fuel and watch the sunset.

The 1.3 million hectares of Karlamilyi National Park (WA's largest and most remote) straddles the Rudall River, embracing desert dunes, spinifex grasslands, salt lakes and weathered plateaux and escarpments of sandstone and quartzite. Past ice age glaciers have abraded bedrock, striated and polished pavements and carved out valleys that remain today as features of the landscape.  The Little Sandy Desert is to the south-west and the Great Sandy Desert to the north-east. There is a central belt of stony hills and undulating plains.

Friday 22nd June. Karlamilyi National Park

Drove to Rudall River Crossing after a slow breakfast and a few salutes to the sun!  No water here.  We had expected that we would have connected with Richard and Jennie by now.  No phone reception here! Perhaps they had come through already and were out at Desert Queen Baths.  On the recommendation of the people in Marbel Bar we had decided the prteferred camp spot was Tjingkalajatjarra Pool.  We decided to push on and set up camp at Tjingkalajatjarra, then head off and investigate Desert Queen.  We put up a cardboard sign at the junction just in case they had not come through as yet.

Headed into Tjingkalajatjarra, past Number II campsite at 5km then another 2km.  Track is pretty rough with bushes close to the sides of the track.

Tjingkalajatjarra is an absolute delight.  Three little grebes on the water and lots of Zebra Finch constantly flying from tree to water's edge and back - so cute.  Beautiful white (and greenish brown on the upper side of branches) eucalypts all around the waterhole.  Even though it is not flowing the water is clear and not at all stagnant.

After a quick lunch, we all bundled into Athur and Margaret's vehicle and headed off to Desert Queen Baths.  The road into Desert Queen is very narrow with lots of overhanging bush (for about 10kms) and quite rough all the way (18km) in from the main north/south road.  Lots of interesting rock formations including Compton Pinnacle

Found Richard and Jennie set up in their swags at Desert Queen.  They had arrived yesterday.  They were also camping, having left their van in Newman so had made pretty good time.  Desert Queen is a lovely spot.  Lots of water but also lots of other campers.  Not the camp to ourselves as we have at Tjingkalajatjarra.  Chatted a while.  J&R will stay here tonight and join us tomorrow.

On the way back to camp the colours of the hills/red cliffs were just amazing as the sun set.

We were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back to camp and Jill's back was giving her some grief.  Two hours each way on very rough tracks was not an experience we need to repeat every day.

Beef stew/curry with apples, sultanas and vegetables for dinner - yum!

Saturday 23rd June. Tjingkalajatjara Camp (Karlamilyi National Park)

Spent today at the lovely Tjingkalajatjara waterhole.  The three little grebes who call it home are very cute.  We think they may be a mother and two young ones (the slightly smaller ones are together all the time).

We went for a walk up the creek.  Saw Rainbow Bee Eaters, Kookaburras (the lighter Western Australia version), Black Fronted Dotterels, Diamond Doves, Mudlarks, Port Lincoln Parrots, millions of Zebra Finches and a Brown Goshawk keeping an eye on then all - an incredible amount of birdlife considering how remote we are.

 

Back at camp, we had a lazy day.  Two vehicles (containing 4 New Zealanders) called looking for a camp.  They kept going looking elsewhere.  

Richard and Jennie turned up in the afternoon and it was all preparation for our "Special Black and White Occasion in the Desert".  Roast chicken and vegetables in the camp ovens and black and white entire obtained from Op Shops during the trip.

We even put up "fairy lights" around the camp - pretty cute.

Sunday 24th June. Tjingkalajatjarra Camp to Marble Bar

Packed up and left ASAP to drive to Marble Bar.  Arthur and Margaret to pick up their van before we travel east along the Gary Junction Road to Alice Springs.  Richard & Jennie to travel on to Port Headland to pick up a new jockey wheel replacement before travelling back to Newman and then north to the Kimberley.

It's a very long way and the corrugations are still there - as are the camels and the security through the Telfer Mine site.

 

 

 

Set up in the Marble Bar Caravan Park and then off to the Marble Bar Pub for dinner.  It's "The State of Origin" night and the pub is very crowded.  Fortunately "everyone" wants to watch the game so we did find somewhere to sit in the beer garden.  Fish and Chips for dinner.  A very thick batter which was not really cooked :-(  Much better than having to cook our own meal after a really long day's drive though.

Monday 25th June. Marble Bar to Carawine Gorge

A bit of a palaver this morning!  There's a "baby sitter" at the Caravan Park at the moment, the regular operators being away.  Even had a bit of trouble last night.  When Margaret rang up to book us in we were told no one would be there and to just put our money in an envelope and set up.  The park was "chockers" and the only spot we could find was up the back behind the cabins and dongers.  At least it was flat.  Anyhow, after filling up with water this morning we went to get our gas bottle filled.  The "baby sitter"didn't have a clue.  Suggested we ask at the Service Station (owned by the same people) when we filled up with fuel, which we did.  They did a ring around and in the end the Post Master (Post Office also owned by the same people) came back to the Caravan Park and filled our bottle.  Eventually, we were on the road again.

Our camp for the night was at Carawine Gorge.  The third time we had been on much of the 174 km road in the last few days.  Fortunately, it's pretty well sealed all the way (except for the last 14 km) and in good condition.  It is the road to the Telfer Mine after all.

There were quite a lot of people at Carawine but we did find a nice spot to set up camp on the bank of the Oakover River overlooking Carawine Pool - lots of water.  Also, lots of very loose gravel which we have read has caused quite a few people some grief.  The Gorge is actually on Warrawagine Station so there are cattle about but they did not cause us any concern.

After setting up camp we went for a walk along the river and collected some firewood.  There have obviously been floods through here in the wet season so there no shortage of that.  It's a pretty spot and you can see why it's a popular destination for many travellers.  Lots of water birds and a huge flock of Corellas. 

 

We had some lovely colours with sunset. 

Tuesday 26th June. Carawine Gorge

Glorious clours again this morning on the Gorge walls.  Went for a bit of a walk before setting off.

 

We had heard that Eel Pool was a pleasant spot so today decided to do a circuit.  Back out to the Woodie Woddie, take a right before the Woodie Woodie mine onto the Skull Springs Road and then back via the Upper Carawine Gorge on a 4WD track.

First Stop, however, was just down the road at the Polished Glacier Rocks.  Glacial polish is a characteristic of rock surfaces where glaciers have passed over bedrock, typically granite or other hard igneous or metamorphic rock. Moving ice will carry pebbles and sand grains removed from upper levels which in turn grind a smooth or grooved surface upon the underlying rock.  The presence of such polish indicates that the glaciation was relatively recent (in geologic time scale) or was subsequently protected by deposition, as such polish will be subsequently lost due to weathering processes (such as exfoliation).  That hasn't happened here with the rocks very polished.  Most interesting.

Onto the Woodie Woodie Road and past the two sisters (rocks).  At various spots along this road, sculptures have been installed.  We're not sure how many but we did see a kangaroo sculpture just prior to the turn off down to Eel Pool.  

Also known as “Running Waters”, Eel pool is a deep long pool, one of the many channels that make up the Oakover River. The pristine waters are shaded by ancient paperbark trees. A very rocky track in but well worth the effort. The pool is an amazing green colour, very clear and well populated with fish up to about 15cm long.  The water was also warm being fed by a stream that was also warm.

Further down Skull Creek Road, we turned north on a 4WD track to Upper Carawine Gorge.  No cliffs here (not sure why it is called a gorge).  Had to check the depth before crossing the river (only a little over knee hight) and a very rough exit.  Then it was back into open country for the eight kilometres back to the Woodie Woddie Road.  Quite a few flat-topped mountains (guess they're Mesas).  A rough track, rather washed out in places,  but spectacular scenery.  Lots of wildflowers (not sure they were all native though), including Sturts Desert Pea.  A really interesting drive - definitely 4WD.  We even spotted a dingo on the road on the way home.

 

 

 

 A lovely fire again tonight and more amazing colours.