Down, downs and ups

At Karratha we watched a safety video to enable us to be issued with a permit for the private mines road to Tom Price which ran alongside the railway that runs for several hundred miles in to the Pilbara iron ore deposits. The ore trains are several km long and carry 23,000 tonnes at a time to the huge ships waiting at Karratha and Port Headland. Having enjoyed the peace and quiet of Millstream Chichester NP with good bush camping at Snake Creek and a Park's site at the old homestead, we stayed in Tom Price to give us time to do a tour of the world's largest iron ore open cut mine site - an awe inspiring operation that is driving the local economy at a break-neck speed.

The walk to the summit of Mt Bruce gave us a good view down in to another mining operation before we headed in to Karijini NP to explore the numerous impressive deep and red gorges that cut deep in to the landscape. The convoluted geology of Hammersley Gorge was remarkable after which we stayed at basic and rather over rated 'eco' camp site. This then gave us the chance to explore via ladders, handrails and scrambling the various other gorges that characterise the area. Some wading and swimming was required in the cold waters rendering the experience very similar to caving especially as in places the sky was totally obscured by the towering cliff sides. In the past fatalities have occurred and recue efforts have been prolonged due to the isloation and inaccessibility- the volunteer rescue services come from the mining sites and the roads are rough and slow with very poor communications. However it was all an amazing experience after which we moved on to the Dales camp ground near the Weano Gorge. This provided good walks as well including a sighting of large bats roosting in the trees, some lovely swimming pools and a chance to enjoy the hot sunshine.

After leaving Karijini we drove a fair way to stay at Indee Station en route to Port Hedland where we had ordered new brake pads for the van and spent the night on their workaday yard amidst 400,000 acres of outback running only 2000 cattle due to the drought.

In PH we picked up the pads but discovered whilst fitting them that we had a seized caliper cradle ( the cause of the premature wear) on one side, the same on the other plus a seized caliper itself. Working in a supermarket car park was less than ideal and a sheared bolt added to the fun. A small engineering company managed to remove the trapped shaft and I sourced a suitable bolt to effect a repair but the seized caliper was beyond our roadside ability. With replacements apparently only available from VW in Germany and taking 3 weeks, or from a motor factors in the UK which would need sending by air we were faced with a situation so returned to Indee for a rethink. Today we were able to use their workshop area to dismantle things again and in better conditions than a car park were in fact able to unseize the cradle, caliper and a handbrake cable putting us back on the road again against all expectations. I think the caustic substance used to disinfect the van at Sydney and applied by a powerful jet washer was the cause of the problem as I had overhauled all the brakes prior to the start of this trip.

Anyway we are now good to go so will head to Broome and then Darwin (still 1500 miles away) and see how the access to the Kimberley is following the late summer rains.


Piccies here and locations here.


Slides this month from the Oz Alps.