5 October - School Day, Macrophotography

5 October 2016 – 189 976

School Day, Macrophotography

Today was a shortened school day for Hayden.  I started the day by wandering around the campground taking photographs of some of the wildflowers – delightful!
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/karijini  I also spent some time photographing the shells we had collected at Eighty Mile Beach.  After Hayden finished his school work for the day, we went to Dales Gorge.  We walked from Fortescue Falls to Circular Pool, and then climbed up to Three Ways Lookout and back along the gorge rim.  Circular Pool was cold but beautiful – very refreshing.  I think we will all have an early night tonight. https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/dales-gorge  https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Attraction/Dales_Gorge_and_Circular_Pool/56b266a42cbcbe7073ae0508#/  https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/downloads/parks/Dales%20Gorge%20Aerial%20photo%20of%20walktrails.pdf

4 October - BHP Billiton Iron Ore Mt Whaleback Mine Tour, Newman and Happy Birthday Hayden!!

4 October 2016 – 189 557

BHP Billiton Iron Ore Mt Whaleback Mine Tour, Newman and Happy Birthday Hayden!!

This morning we got up early to head to Newman (2 hour drive). 
https://newman.org.au/ https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/newman 
On the way we had to stop for a train at a level crossing, thankfully it was more than half way through when we got there, as it still took another 5 minutes to pass (on the tour we found out these normally have 264 cars per train). Drew dropped off our ruined tyre and then we went to the Newman Visitor Centre where we did the BHP Billiton Iron Ore Mt Whaleback Mine Tour.  https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/business/tour/bhp-billiton-mt-whaleback-mine-tours https://newman.org.au/discover-newman/bhp-billiton-mt-whaleback-mine-tours/ 
Our tour guide was Tara, she was terrific!  This mine is huge – 5.5km long and 2km wide – that is one giant hole in the ground!  Watching from the lookout, those giant trucks look tiny and normal vehicles are just a white dot.  We could see the trains being loaded, the ore crushing plant, areas laid for a blasting, excavators and trucks working, as well as the sheer size of the mine. After the tour we went to the supermarket to buy Hayden a birthday cake, unfortunately there was no bakery in Newman.  Hayden got most of his birthday phone calls while we were driving each way from Newman.

When we got back to Karijini we headed for Fern Pool to have a swim – this is quite a pretty little waterfall and swimming area, very popular. On the way back I also took some photos of Dales Gorge and Fortescue Falls.  The gorges in this national park are amazingly deep and red!  After a special birthday dinner for Hayden, Drew and Hayden went to an Astronomy night which they really enjoyed.
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/karijini https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Attraction/Fortescue_Falls/56b266ef7b935fbe730e6250#/  https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/dales-gorge  http://www.wildswimmingaustralia.com/locations/fern-pool-karijini-national-park/  https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Attraction/Fern_Pool/579825f84689edaf278d3045#/  

3 October - Weano Recreation Area, Karijini National Park

3 October 2016 - 189 359

Weano Recreation Area, Karijini National Park

The overnight temperature was a bit of a shock to the system!  We have had very few nights under twenty degrees in the last nine weeks and the majority have been around twenty-three degrees or warmer.  Last night was seven degrees – Drew and I got up at various points during the night to find more warm gear.  Tonight we will definitely dress more warmly for bed and use the sleeping bags plus doona.  What a contrast two days makes! 
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/karijini
After breakfast we headed to the Weano Recreation Area.  Our first walk was into Weano Gorge and on into Handrail Pool. https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/weano-gorge https://trailswa.com.au/trails/handrail-pool/print The Gorge was pretty with extremely smooth rocks.  To get into Handrail Pool a narrow section of the gorge needed to be passed through before descending steps while astride a hand rail.  At the bottom was a round pool with high gorge walls almost all the way around – the water was freezing as hardly any sunlight would reach this pool.  We then went to the Junction Pool Lookout – the junction of Weano, Hancock and Redbank Gorges, and Oxer Lookout – 114m above the water below. Awesome! https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/oxer-and-junction-pool-lookouts Next, we went down the ladders into Hancock Gorge, this starts as a hike along the gorge floor, followed by a short wade through hip deep water, then a small rock hop. https://trailswa.com.au/trails/hancock-gorge-with-kermits-pool-karijini-national-park/print https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/hancock-gorge-and-kermits-pool  The next narrow section involved water up to my neck and was easier to swim through than walk through.  There was then a small beach area called the Amphitheatre.  Next up was the Spider Walk, this could be done on your bottom on the way to the end of the gorge, slipping down the slides; however, on the way back it could only be done by spider walking along the gorge walls with one arm and one leg on each gorge wall.  All surfaces in this part were very slippery and required complete concentration. This brought us to Kermits Pool – a lovely, but cool, deep waterhole between towering gorge walls – again beautiful!  On the way back out of the gorge, after we had completed all the tricky parts, Hayden relaxed his concentration and slipped, smashing his right knee very hard on a rock.  His knee is going to be very pretty colours and has swollen nicely!  We had a picnic lunch back at the picnic area.  We went to Joffre Falls Lookout – the walk into this gorge looks amazing, but not for today, we will let Hayden’s knee have a rest for a day or two. https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/joffre-falls-gorge-and-lookout https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/joffre-falls-lookout

We headed back to the caravan to do some school work and elevate Hayden’s knee.

2 October - Port Hedland and on to Karijini National Park

2 October 2016 – 188 925

Port Hedland and on to Karijini National Park

This morning we packed up and headed to Port Hedland, we were there by 8:30am.
https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/port-hedland https://www.visitporthedland.com.au/ 
We headed straight down to the port where we were able to watch ships being loaded with iron ore – there were three scheduled to depart today alone.  They are huge!  https://www.pilbaraports.com.au/We then went to Redbank Bridge to watch the giant BHP Billiton iron ore trains; we arrived just as one was coming.  Hayden counted 272 carriages with 4 engines – it was an impressively long train.  From here we could also see the giant salt pile and salt pans that Rio Tinto have in Port Hedland. http://wikimapia.org/9698726/Redbank-Bridge

We then did the long drive to Karijini, heading along the road that goes toward Newman.  On this road we saw at least ten 4-trailer road trains for every other vehicle, we would have seen about one hundred road trains on this stretch.  Thankfully the visibility was great, as we needed to overtake the road trains regularly and they are 60m long.  When we pulled up at the Visitor Information Centre, Drew noticed that one of the camper trailer tyres was slightly flat.  On walking over to it, the air could be heard hissing out of it and a section on the side of it had disintegrated, it must have only just happened.  Drew had it changed and was ready to go again in 30 minutes.  We set up camp at Dales Gorge Campground – we are in Kangaroo section. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/karijini https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/dales-recreation-area The campground here is very large and very well set out, it is divided into a number of different sections with individual bays and a composting toilet every few bays.  After setting up, we headed to Fortescue Falls and had a swim in the pool.  It was cold, but a lovely way to finish the day. 
https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Attraction/Fortescue_Falls/56b266ef7b935fbe730e6250#/ https://www.australiasnorthwest.com/explore/pilbara/karijini-national-park/dales-gorge

1 October - Broome to Port Hedland (almost)

1 October 2016 – 188 378

Broome to Port Hedland (almost)

This morning we had a slow start and left Broome just before ten am.  It was 30 degrees when we left Broome, 2 hours later it was 21 degrees and raining.  We have not had to use our wipers for rain (just to clean dust off the windscreen) since Emerald in June.  We were all freezing while we had our lunch (thankfully under a picnic shelter). From here we drove to Eighty Mile Beach, where we were considering staying at the caravan park. http://www.eightymilebeach.com.au/ We went down to the beach to collect shells and the number of flies was incredible – this is by far the worst flies we have had anywhere on our trip so far.  Instead of staying, we collected our shells and headed on.  I had to pull off the highway for a pair of giant vehicles to pass with big mining trucks in – I assume we will see more and more of these now that we are in the Pilbara. We have stopped for the night at De Grey Free Camp, about 90km before Port Hedland.