Caravan Capers

Enjoyed the tour so much thought we should stay at least an extra day and try to see some of the other gorge attractions. Bit achy after yesterday though so thought taking it easy would be the way to go! Drove 45 min back over to Dales Gorge (quite different to the gorges we saw yesterday), hiked down to Fortescue Falls and lazed around in the pool for a while. Then a short trek over to Fern Pool, upstream of Fortescue Falls, for another refreshing dip. Very relaxing in the 39 degree heat and the flying foxes in the surrounding trees were pretty entertaining as well. Given that our big gas bottle had died overnight (leaving the fridge off for some unknown time), we drove the 90 odd km into Tom Price in search of a refill, which took uo most of the rest of the afternoon. Hooked it back up to the fridge (unsure how much gas is left in the small bottle) before driving up to Oxer Lookout to see where we were yesterday. Ran into Annie and Julian, two of our fellow adventurers, up there, on there way back to camp. A perfect end to the day with just us and a spectacular sunset over the gorges. Still pretty hot and dusty though, and despite the camp here having toilets and showers, they are not conducive to happy camping if you like to feel clean (red dust covers everything, including you and the shower) and ant free (ants teeming everywhere at times). Debated staying on vs leaving the next morning and the discomfort of the environment won out. Madras chicken curry tonight, to use up our chicken and some of the vegies, given the dire state of the fridge (still 20 degrees in side despite the new gas bottle!).

If you come to Karajini, I cannot recommend this more highly as a “must do” experience. A combination tour was on offer, which was a combo of the Knox Slides Tour and the Journey to the Centre of the Earth Tour. Not cheap but definitely worth every penny and easily the best day tour either of us has ever done. Although the heat at this time of the year make it uncomfortable, this is the time to get down into the gorges themselves and enjoy the cool of the water (quite cold at other times of the year). All equipment (including hiking / water sandals, wet suits, rubber inner tubes and little paddles) supplied and morning tea and lunch stops catered for (chocolate bar, snake and apple for morning tea and salad, meats and bread for lunch). There is no access to most of the area we were going to without appropriate climbing, etc qualifications and permission from the rangers (Class 6 gorge area).
Ably led by owner/operator Dan and his offsider Pete, we hiked down into Knox Gorge carrying our inner tubes (being careful not to deflate them on the spinifex), had a refreshing dip in the first pool we came to, did a practice 2m jump into the water a bit further along and then slid down a rocky waterslide to drop 5m into a deep pool in the now quite narrow gorge. Then an 8m abseil into the next (pretty shallow) pool, tossing the inner tubes into the next larger pool and scrambling over the rocks to jump in (mine floated away across the pool wothout me) and float (or swim if you’ve lost your tube) across to the little island for morning tea. Spectacular scenery, with the gorge walls rising up precipitously all around, amazing red, white and blue-gray strata  of the different minerals visible, and the clear green water and green of the surrounding trees and bushes. Morning tea was at the junction of three of the gorges (Knox, Red and another one whose name I’ve forgotten) and then we continued to float down Red Gorge in the inner tubes, gently paddling while admiring this inspiring place, with occasional short hikes across to the next stretch of water (all drinkable). For something a bit more active we then got the oppotunity to leap into the water attached to our tubes (either straight in, twisting around or somersaulting while “sitting” on your tube) and jump 8m into the water (you don’t have to do any of this and you could jump in from a lesser height). More hiking and floating then lunch at the Junction Pool – intersection of four gorges (Red, Joffre, Weano and Hancock). Could look up from here and see all the other poor people looking down from Oxer Lookout! Next it was up through the “Centre of the Earth”, a narrow climb up a cascade in Hancock Gorge. You wouldn’t want to be caught in here in a flash flood – a change in the colour of the rock strata (where the overlying softer red rock / dust had been washed clean) indicated flooding in this gorge to at least 5m. On to Regan’s Pool, named in honour of Jim Regan, an SES volunteer who died during a gorge rescue 6 years ago in a flash flood, where we could attempt to climb around the edge of the pool (and fail unfortunately – only one of the 6 of us who tried it made it, although Chris was looking good just before he fell into the pool!), while Dan was setting the ropes for the climb out. Next a climb up and around the rock face above Regan’s Pool, rope assisted and then on to Kermit’s Pool (which is the furthest you can get into Hancock Gorge on your own), the spider walk and wading out to the ladder up out of the gorge.
All in all, the best day ever! Managed to stay awake long enough that evening to get back over to the bar to see the DVD of photos and video put together by Dan for an additional small cost.

More info from the West Oz Active website.

Up early again (seems to be impossible to sleep in with the rising rapidly of a morning) and ready to go by 9am with a quick trip in to town to replenish a few grocery items. Temperatures climbed up to the mid-high 30s by mid-morning (thank god for air con!). Stopped at the only roadhouse (or other sign of civilization for that matter) on the way north for an early burger lunch (outrageously expensive but got to eat them in air conditioned comfort while catching up on the TV news so all good). Arrived Karajini early afternoon and first stopped in at the visitor centre. Great building and lots of interesting information about the history and natural features of the park. Next section to the Eco Retreat campground at the other end of the park was the 33 km or so of dirt road, which turned out to be teeth shattering corrugations that brought us to a juddering halt pretty rapidly. Gritted the said shattered teeth and started off again, accelerating with eyes shut to try to get enough speed up to hopefully beat the effect of the juddering. Actually worked! Worked even better once we reduced the tyre pressures a bit further down the road (Chris out in blazing sun, me in A/C car). 60 km / hr seemed to be the ticket, although bit difficult to maintain through dips and bends.
Arrived Karajini Eco Retreat ~ 2 pm. Quite desolate looking – shrubby trees and bushes, burnt looking (from a fairly recent controlled burn), dusty and hot. Not an attractive place to camp on the face of it, but they did have access to slowish internet (no mobile coverage of course) at $5 per half hour (Chris was ecstatic) and the cold beer at the bar went down pretty well. Got ourselves set up at camp site 92 then sat down to contemplate life, the universe and everything (including how long we could cope with the conditions and what we might do while in the park). Some tours still running (none after 1st November and restaurant closes as well) so eventually decided this might be the way to go, on the basis that a tour would take us to gorges not open to the average tourist and we would get to see a selection of things all in the one day if we decided to move on, rather than stay longer. Had dinner in the restaurant that night as blurb had sounded good, although the experience of ordering your barramundi and then cooking it yourself on a hot barbie was an interesting one!

Tour of largest open cut iron ore mine in the world – BHP Billiton Mt Whaleback operation. Fortunately most of the time we were in an air conditioned bus. Just as well, as temperatures are hitting mid-30s plus now. The scale of this thing is unbelievable. It covers an area of approx 5.5 by more than 1 km and they are currently down to 28 “benches” (the different stepped levels in an open cut mine), with a plan to get down to 42. The ore trains are over 300 carriages long and have a dedicated rail link to Port Hedland. The water that is pumped out of the mine provides all the mine’s needs as well as irrigation for the towns parks, etc. Some of the haulage trucks are enormous!
Decided to do a little “easy” 4WDing after that and had also been told that we might be able to windsurf on Ophthalmia Dam, so took the bikes out and added the sails and other gear to the car before setting off in search of “Three Pools”, north of Newman first up. Unfortunately didn’t really pay enough attention to the distances and times involved in getting to Three Pools and there was very little signage so of course we got slightly lost! The road wasn’t actually that bad – at least if you stayed on the right track. We sort of finished up on a very narrow, rough, rocky, steep track that led us down to a boulder strewn river bed. Figured this wasn’t likely to be the correct route to Three Pools and managed to extricate ourselves and try again. Actually found the place in the end and it was worth the trip. Deep looking calm pools of water in a narrow red rock gorge. Couldn’t see an obvious way into the pool for a quick dip apart from plunging straight down off the sheer-sided rock – never a good idea when you don’t know what’s down there! And then there would be the matter of getting back out again! Late lunch by the pools then back the way we came in hopes we could find the correct route back.
Needless to say by the time we reached the main highway back into town again it was 5.30 and a bit too late to be trekking off in search of possible windsurfing opportunities! Will have to wait until we hit the coast.
Off to Karajini NP tomorrow. Hope it cools down a bit tonight. Still 29 degrees at 9.45 pm!

Horrible night in Meekatharra with road trains thundering past, fumes, noisy locals! Very little sleep and woke up at just before 6 am to the bright sunshine through the window. Very pleased to pull out of there at 8am and head on up the highway.
Not really much to say about the trip today. Lots more red earth, blue sky and green bushes, although surprisingly came across quite a few areas with standing water along the sides of the road and just off. Saw lots of whistling kites and wedge tailed eagles. At one point there was one eagle standing on a carcass at the side of the road and at least 4 others in a neighbouring tree! Crossed the Topic of Capricorn just short of Newman and pulled into Newman around 2 pm. Much more pleasant caravan park, with a pool. Have booked ourselves onto a tour of the open cut ore mine here for tomorrow morning and will probably stay a second night just to see some of the other sights, before heading for Karajini NP.

Onwards to Mt Magnet for the mobile hit and a bit of off roading on their Tourist Trail. Takes you round the mining areas, up to a lookout over the town, then on to vthe remnants of various little abandoned gold mining towns of the past. Also red rock formations and the Granites – a number of granite rock formations of special significance to the local indigenous people. Colin endured it all very stoically, although starting to look a bit dusty. Back into town for lunch at the bakery (great home made pies) and fuelling up, then on towards Meekatharra, via Cue. Arrived Meekatharra around 4 pm. Another caravan Park. Right on the main highway with the road trains roaring past. Really do prefer camping in a national park or somewhere a bit more off the beaten track. Have to say we still haven’t exactly roughed it yet! Plan for tomorrow is to forge ahead to Newman (bit over 400 km north so will be a bit of a long day) but hopefully when then make it into Karajini NP, which is supposed to be pretty spectacular, the next day. Hopefully the heat wil be bearable (quite dry) and flies won’t be a problem (seem OK here in Meekatharra).

Up early and out before 8am to shop and get someone to hopefully look at air con options. Got new belt that fitted properly (authentic Toyota belt – only $53 compared with $12 for the one we got in Narambeen – must be good!) and reassurance from the Toyota guy that this was most likely the problem. Fingers crossed. Headed up to Mt Matilda to get that walk in before we set off further north. Started at just after 9 am and got round the 7.3 km by 11.20. Getting quite warm by the time we got to the last leg (actually registered 34 degrees when we got back into the car), so more than ready to stop. Nice walk, mostly on an escarpment rising up from the surrounding plain. Apparently laterite rather than granite (as everything else has been). Spotted no wedge tailed eagles, no echidnas and almost nothing else of the fauna variety, except galahs. Minimal wildflowers in evidence but some nice views.
Continued on along the Great Northern Hwy towards Mt Magnet. Lots of red earth and wide blue sky. Rather than go into Mt Magnet we stopped at a place called Kirkalocka Station (~ 50 km or so south). Privately owned sheep station with facilities for camping and caravans, as well as options for homestead stay or rooms in the old shearer’s quarters. Turned out we were the only ones there so had the place to ourselves. Our own outdoor entertainment area with chairs and tables under the stars! Big old camp kitchen  with a gas stove and sinks, as well as old agas. Showers in a tin shed with concrete floors and loos in the old converted caravan behind the shed. Great rustic experience and amazingly relaxing with wine, nibblies, more wine and fried snapper and salad gazing out at the moon and the stars. The moon was so bright that it almost seemed daylight looking out over the fields. Flies buzzing around but none actually trying to attack – bliss! No mobile coverage though – oh well!
The new belt seems to work! So far so good….

Usual late start but eventually got on the bike and rode down to the Visitor Information Centre. Figured if we were going to be there a couple nights it would be worth finding out where the elusive wildflowers were to be found. Mt Matilda said to be one of the 5 top walks in WA, although probably a couple weeks too early for the real show of colour, and should really be aiming to finish the walk by 11 am (and therefore start before 8 am). Now 11.30am and too hot (hitting low 30s). Filled Chris in on the options when I got back (left him at home to work) and we then drove out to Mt O’Brien Lookout and then on to Reynoldson Reserve (also not yet at its flowering peak) to take a warm fly-laden walk through what wildflowers there were (verticordia – pink and yellow fluffy looking flowers). Chris’s fly net (purchased at the info centre) proved useful so resolved to also get one. Late afternoon on our return so I left himself working again and took off on the bike for a ride up airport road (some nice grevilleas and other coloured flowers along the verges (you can’t half tell I’m no horticulturist) and then around town. Checked out the community pool but was only due to open for the season tomorrow! Late walk to Christmas Rock, just up the road from the caravan park. Still no one in the office so paid another night’s fees to our friendly couple in site 64.

On towards Merredin. Stopped in Narambeen for hopefully a replacement belt for the air con (realising at 11.15 that it was Saturday and most places likely to close at midday!). Got something that was a bit longer and Chris fitted it. All good for short time then squealed again! Tightened up belt (? just new belt stretching a bit) but started making noises just when we thought it was settling down. Nothing open in Merredin so planned to continue on to Wongan Hills for the night (possibly two given we needed access to someone with some expertise, only likely to be available Monday) with the option of coming back towards Northam Monday if needed. Took a back route via Wyalcatchem. Interesting Agricultural Museum due to close at 3.30 (we arrived at 3 pm) but the custodian on duty was very happy to stay for as long as we needed and several others arrived not long after us.Brief stop in Dowerin to look at Rusty the Tin Dog then on to Wongan Hills. Wongan Hills Caravan Park had an elusive office (we completely missed it as we drove in) but we were waylaid by a friendly gent in a ute who said the owners had been called away “over east” urgently and their parents (who were supposedly on their way up to look after things) hadn’t yet arrived. He helpfully took our rego and money and off we went! Did spot a Toyota sales and service centre as we drove into town so hopefully won’t have to go all the way back to Northam after all.

Have always wanted to see Wave Rock, ever since it featured as part of the promo for the iconic Leyland Brothers TV series of my childhood, so aimed to stop off in Hyden for this purpose. Got to see Wave Rock (and pretty impressive too), along with several other interesting granite formations in the same area, including Hippo’s Yawn and Mulka’s Cave with some surrounding interesting interpretive  walks among the gnammas (depressions in the rocks that collect water after rain). Very hot (now complaining about the heat!) and the flies were an interesting addition to the day. Eventually moved on to stay in Kondinin for the night. Little shire caravan park with the powered sites set up in a circle around the (now closed) central amenities block. Only one other van there and facilities good. Unfortunately the air con in the car has been emitting disturbed squeals at ever more frequent intervals. Possibly just the belt needing replacing but may require more serious intervention…