We had a lovely morning.
At 10 am (time for check out) we took Homie to the beach parking. We spend the first half day on the beach and snorkeling around on the reef.
After being in the salty water, in the sun and full of sunscreen we needed a shower and agreed to go back to the campsite and "borrow" their shower. It turned out to be easy. So fresh and clean we left Coral Bay in the afternoon heading for the Minilya Roadhouse and some really huge burgers as well as more fuel for Homie. We tried the fuel in Coral Bay, but it was so expensive.
After the late lunch (almost dinner) and cheaper fuel we drove to a free campsite on our route to the north.
Friday - May 2.
We drove to the mining town Tom Price. The gateway to the Karijini National Park and the highest town of Western Australia, situated 747 meters above sea level.
The town was named after Thomas Moore Price, who worked for the American company Kaiser Steel. He arrived in the area in the early 1960's to appraise deposits of ore and was instrumental in convincing the mining companies that it was worth mining in the area.
I September 1962, at the age of 71 Thomas Moore returned to America. Sadly, he died from a heart attack whilst at his desk, only two hours after being advised of the very rich ore deposit discovered on the mountain in the area of now the town of Tom Price.
We wanted to stay in the town overnight, but that was so expensive due to the town being a mining town and by that a very rich town, so instead we went to the information center, got fuel, shopped a bit and then drove to a free campsite just outside of town and a bit closer to the National Park.
On the free campsite Markus cooked us an excellent vegetable-veal curry. On this nice picturesque park area, where we had a beautiful sunset in the evening and sunrise in the morning. It was quite secluded, the area. In the beginning we were the only ones there. But then other cars came and we felt ok, but the worst free campsite we have used. It had nothing, not even toilets, but it was free and a beautiful spot of nature. We met some French people who made a big fire. Nice ending for the evening.
Saturday - May 3.
In the morning we had breakfast, packed Homie and drove to Western Australia's second largest National Park - Karijini National Park.
Here we used our Park Pass for free entry for the 12'th time. We went straight to the toilets in the information center, where we also asked for road conditions as many of the roads inside the park are unsealed and last, but very important we asked for a place to get drinking water. In the center-building we visited a museum providing us with information on the natural and cultural history of the park.
We bought a 15 liter water tank in Perth before we hit the road. The water is in Homie, but still we get about 5 liter of extra water everywhere we can. We found out, that we use a lot of water and water is the thing we don't want to run out of. It turned out that the only place to get drinking water inside the National Park, was at a tap inside the lady's toilet in the visitor center.
Set in the Hamersley Range in the heart of the Pilbara, the expansive Karijini National Park offers spectacular rugged scenery, ancient geological formations, beautiful waterfalls and breathtaking views.
Massive mountains and escarpments rise out of the flat valleys.
The high plateau is dissected by breathtaking gorges and stony tree-lined watercourses wind their way over the dusty plain.
This is an ancient part of the Earth. The slow process of erosion has carved the shape of the land out of rocks, that are 2000 million years old, to form this intriguing landscape.
The Banyjima, Yinhawangka and the Kurrama Aboriginal people, the traditional owners, call the Hamersley Range Karijini. The name of the park recognizes the historic and continuing significance of the area to these people and their involvement in the park management. For example was the man in the visitor center an aboriginal. We were both surprised about that, but also pleased.
We experienced the tranquility of the different spectacular gorges. We swam in the refreshing rock pools and played and relaxed beneath the cascading waterfalls.
In the visitor center the nice man told us that we could get to all the gorges and lookouts in our car except one. But we saw all the gorges and lookouts behind the dirt roads, which got the whole car, us self and our food covered in red dust, inside and outside. We seriously have red powder everywhere. We did not walk all the walks, that would have taken more than one week, but we did some walks.
The first stop was the lookout over Veano Gorge, where we encountered our first spectacular view of a gorge inside the park.
Next stop was a the lookout over Knox Gorge
and to see the Joffre Falls which were a big disappointment because due to very little rain for a very long time. But the walk there was nice.
We also went to the Kalamina Gorge even, that the man from the visitor center said we could not do that with Homie. But now we know that Homie is strong and good.
In the end of the day, we went to Dale's gorge and had a lovely afternoon swim at the Fortescue Falls.
When the light got dimmer and we were really tired, we went to the only campsite in the park. Here we were met buy a sign telling us to go and pay the day after due to late arriving.
Sunday - May 4.
We did not go and pay, so we had one more free night. Hihi.
Instead we left early to walk the rim of Dales gorge and swim in Fern Pool.
We wanted to walk the rim of the gorge, then descend to circular pool, walk the bottom of the gorge until we reached the Fortescue Falls, walk and swim in the Fern Pool and then climb the gorge wall until we reached Homie at lunchtime.
But that did not happen. :)
We could not find the way. We did everything, but in another order and it took longer, but in the end we came back to Homie and had a big lunch in the park's day use area.
It is a hard rocky way to get to Circular pool. The pool is a more or less circular pool with maybe the coldest water ever. The water is cold because the pool is very deep and is in shade most of the day. It is a beautiful spot though with a lot of ferns surrounding the pool. We were both really hot and sweaty, when we came to the pool, so we had a swim.
The Fortescue Falls is a fall that is not hard to reach. We climbed down many steps, but it is totally worth it when you swim in the lovely clear water. The pool is in sun all day and the water was refreshing anyways, but we had a lovely swim there.
Fern pool was our favorite spot. We could easily have spend more time there. The pool is a detour from Fortescue Falls and not a lot of people knows it is there so we had all to us self. It is really pretty. It felt like we were in a "cave" because there were many trees and plants and then a couple of waterfalls in the sun. It was like paradise.
After lunch we left towards Port Hedland. We ended up driving nearly all the way to Port Hedland and slept on a road side P-area. Very long and very noisy trucks driving by all the time. Also during the night or at least it felt so.
Monday - May 5
We woke up on the road side and drove to Port Hedland. Bought some breakfast from Woolworths and filled the gas tank, that was almost empty. Went to the tourist information and realised that there's not much in Port Hedland - Except the port. We now know it is a very expensive place with very expensive accommodation. We did some internet stuff in a small library, where they wouldn't let us charge our computers because they were afraid, that our computers might cause an electric malfunction and burn down the whole house! We never heard anything so stupid. But later we would find other libraries with the same policy. In the library toilet they even had a plug and a sign saying that nobody is aloud to use it.
We drove half way to Broome and slept on a free camp spot. Fifth free night in a row. Also fifth night without showers, if you don't count the swimming.
Tuesday - May 6.
We arrived in Broome at noon.
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