Week 13 hard work in the Pilbara

hard work

After three months, life on the road seems easier. I no longer wake in the middle of the night with a start, wondering where I am, staring out into darkness trying to place myself, trying to work out my orientation in terms of the car, other campers or the bathroom, if indeed there is one. It has taken us this time to settle into the swing of it.

The hot daytime temperatures of around 37 or 38 degrees every day have started to cool down, to 28 or so. And evening temperatures are also lower now, around 18 degrees. We’ve even had a couple of sub-ten degrees at night. Quite the treat. 

But sometimes it feels like hard work. 

Before you roll your eyes or tell me to ‘Wait, I’ll get my violin!’ (thanks Eme) extended travel is hard work. We’re in the sun and wind all day every day. We have to work for everything.  Showers, a cup of tea, a little lie down. Until now, with the hot weather, we have been having cold showers reducing the steps for the shower set-up, which will change with cooling evening temperatures. 

Every time we arrive at a new place we have to open the tent, pull out camping chairs, connect the gas to the cooker. There may be water or wood collection. We have to give the trailer and car the once over and clean or maintain the gear. It's taxing. 

There are no comfy couches or hot running water or creature comforts. 

This style of camping has been a process of letting go. Letting going of clean hands and clean shoes, washing hair or clothes as often, washing dishes in piping hot water. My brother, Mark, who has also done this trip in a trailer camper a few years back, might disagree being a bit of a clean bean.

But realistically, when water is at a premium, you use a lot less to wash hands, to wash dishes, to wash clothes, particularly when you are away from towns for extended periods. We have systems and hacks for cleaning, which is another post coming soon for anyone interested in this style of adventure camping. 

As I said, hard work.

So after Ningaloo, we hit Bullara Station for a two-night stay, making the most of this very well equipped station stay, their cafe, bar and food, the showers, laundry and camp kitchen, their potable water and power. There are a number of accommodation options here, too, so you could fly into Exmouth, hire a vehicle and make it a destination for this region, do the whale shark swim and snorkel the reefs at Ningaloo. It is an hour south of Exmouth, with road access to the gulf and walking trails. 

It is also renowned in the region for burger nights. While we missed out on this we savoured a sit-down dinner of slow braised pork collar, smoked mash, broccolini with garlic and jus that takes the chef, Toby, two days to make. This was followed by his wife, Marie’s, Basque cheesecake and Carnarvon mango & roasted pineapple. A melt-in-the-mouth dessert. Worth every cent and we didn’t have to cook it!

It was a very comfortable stay and a very well fit out place to spend a couple of days before the red dirt of the Pilbara.

Regarding my comments about friendly people and travellers, while I have said that most we meet are warm, there are some exceptions. I haven’t really known how to write about this but here it is. At Temple Gorge, Jo and Sean chatted with another camper who complained about WA, saying that it’s only good for “flies, Abos and wind” (deep apologies to any First Nations people). Needless to say, we didn’t hang out. And not all travellers are interested in having a conversation with us, hard to believe, I know. 

However, I am grateful for the lovely, warm people we have met over the past few months. 

The Pilbara — road trains, rocks and resources

WA, what are you doing to me? Just when I thought you had finished smashing us with beauty and wonder, we arrive in termite mound country, in the Pilbara and Karijini National Park. I wondered when the majestic xanthorrhoea would disappear and it has been a few weeks since we have seen any. Instead, we are marvelling at the variety of shapes, sizes and colours of the termite mounds across the landscape. 

And everyday we experience sensory overload. There is too much to wonder about. Too much stimulation. Everyday, we look around with gratitude, knowing that it’s a total gift to be here, travelling, seeing these incredible landscapes.

This is country that is surprising. The deep ochre coloured rock and Pilbara dirt sticks to everything. Everywhere. As soon as you wake up, your hands are dirty. Shoes, mud-flaps, every surface on the trailer.

The up side is the grandeur. We arrived here from Bullara Station, the drive taking us back onto National Route 1 connecting us to the beginning of our trip and the Nullabor. We found a free camp for our first night at Tiger Eye Pool, arriving after dark. The drive became more and more interesting with changes in soil and landscape, including triangular rocky outcrops several hundred metres high covered in large boulders.

I was pleased to be in the Pilbara, a place I’ve always wanted to visit. My interest was piqued in the Fremantle Maritime Museum when I saw that photography exhibition including images of the Super Pit, the Pilbrara and other mining landscapes in WA. It’s different to Cape Range and the southern landscapes, and Kennedy Range although similar in colour. The gorges here are sudden and startling, dropping down from the wide plains of spinifex and white-trunked eucalyptus. 

We first popped into Karijini NP Visitor’s  Centre to get our bearings. They told us that backburning in the park over the weekend would close Hancock Gorge and Kermits Pool until after monday. We changed our plans and headed there that afternoon. At Hancock, the steep ladders descend a couple of hundred metres into the narrow gorge with smaller pools scattered along the gorge floor until Kermits Pool. It was perfect for a refreshing cool-off below the towering walls.

The change made us late to meet Sean and Jo that afternoon, ten kilometres from the base of Mt Meharry. Fortunately, they prepared a delicious paella for us all as we’d be pulling in after dark again.

We’d planned to meet Jo and Sean for a 4WD adventuring, an expedition up WA’s tallest mountain, Mount Meharry. It rises to 1249 metres and the drive up was hectic. Lots of rocks and steps and uneven pitch and camber. 

I was grateful that we had experience on our side as Sean was able to ‘spot’ Jeremy up several of the more technical sections, standing in front of the car, signalling where Jeremy needed to put the wheels for the smoothest, safest journey along the track.

Next day, we then headed to free camp Albert Tognolini camp site just outside the eastern side of the park. I cooked spaghetti bolognese on the fire as we watched the sun set across the redhills around us. On Mother’s Day Jeremy cooked brekkie and we lingered around the fire before saying farewell to Sean and Jo for this trip. 

Karijini National Park continued to surprise us with sudden steep walled gorges, often with glorious deep pools. We moved camp every night here to take in as much as we could, including Dales, Kalamina, Joffre and Knox Gorges, walking in and around each one. All so beautifully incredible. The rock layering, rich reds, cool greens of the melaleucas, reeds and grasses. The gorges feel like grand cathedrals that demand silence, respect and time sitting in awe, marvelling at the magnificence. 

We loved swimming in each gorge, although the Park staff recommended not to as water levels have been lower than usual. Our philosophy was simple: don’t drink the water. 

I couldn’t pick a favourite swimming hole. Every gorge presented some incredible land formation, whether it be the natural arch at Kalamina, the huge slate rocks on the floor of Dales, the teal water contrasting with white melaleuca trunks at Fern Pool, the lone duck at Joffre or rock scrambling to get us to the water skipping down little falls into the narrow final pools at Knox. All amazing.

We also walked up to the Summit of Mount Bruce, the second highest mountain in WA. It was a tough 11 kilometre return trek, including some serious rock scrambling. On the southern side of the mountain is Marandoo Mine Site owned by Rio Tinto. At one stage I watched as two one-kilometre long trains passed each other down in the valley. The sound of industry, of machinery was a bit of a distraction as I wandered along the spine of the climb to the summit, on the fringe of the national park. 

As I reflect on our travels, I write on my computer. I look through the photos on my phone to prompt my memory. I am driving in a car with two deep-cycle batteries and two lithium batteries in the trailer to store the energy we capture from the sun. I am a beneficiary of the mining and resource economy that drives WA. 

The Pilbara region is renowned for its mining. We rely on mines for our devices and transportation, items in our homes, roads and infrastructure. But being here, surrounded by open pit mines and railway lines, passing 60 metre long road-trains, seeing all the high-vis and 4WDs on the road with sand flags in such proximity to precious national parks,, has given me pause for thought. I am a consumer but is there a way to separate yourself from a society that seems to take without much heed for the future? Can I reluctantly  consume?

The town nearest to Karijini, Tom Price, was built in the early 1960s as a housing and service centre for workers for the early mines here. Just outside of Tom Price is another mountain, Mount Nameless. In the local Guruma language it is Jarndunmunha, place of rock wallabies This rich history is a central part of the region, and walking through this place, through the gorges in the quiet and cool beside the water, you can feel the antique history standing in stark contrast with the mining industry. 

There is a lot to think about, to take in. 

Our last morning here we finished with Hamersley Gorge, one final spectacular swim here in layered rocks, the spa pool above the larger swimming holes. 

We are sad to be leaving this glorious place. It is crazy beautiful, the vibrant colours and the force in the rocks’ layers, the waterholes in the desert. Karijini has continued the sensory overload we are suffering, yes suffering, everyday. Everyday we remind ourselves to look around with gratitude. It is a total gift to be here, travelling, seeing these incredible landscapes.