holiday valley: Karijine to Karratha

The boys have voted Karijini the number one place to visit so far. The gorges, particularly Weano and Hancock where very challenging and the most difficult to get into but a great experience. We were lucky also to meet up again with the Scheffer family who we first met on the road months back on the way to Kalumburu and then again at 80 mile. We arrange to meet at Karijini and had a great time together, 5 kids and 4 adults walking and swimming all the gorges. Had a very cold night there, 3deg! Not prepared for this.

Susan enjoyed the shower tent we purchased in Broome, probably should have bought one earlier!!

Susan in the new shower tent

late afternoon swim in fern pool

always read the signs

our camp on a cold morning

From Karijini we left early for Tom Price as we had booked a mine tour. A massive operation, and certainly still plenty of growth in this area of the Pilbara. Quite a nice town with green parks, new skate park and a massive new sport complex (thanks to the royalties for regions and Rio Tinto) many workers live in town with their families plus a few fifo(fly in fly out) camps. Scheffers, Harveys (camped next to us) and ourselves all headed up to Mt Nameless for sunset and a few drinks, of course the SsangYong led the way up the 4x4 track….just in case it needed a push. The next morning we all headed for Millstream NP via Hamersley Gorge. Another great gorge but not as thrilling as Weano. I stopped later in the day about 40km from camp to collect wood for 2-3 nights and used a 12v recipro saw. It worked brilliantly and we had a huge load of wood loaded on the trailer, problem was no fires were allowed in the National Park! Had a very relaxing day at Millstream doing the sights with the other families, the kids all got on great together which was mentioned by other campers in the park. Had a great couple of nights around the camp kitchen here which was one of the best we have seen.

view from mount nameless at Tom Price

On the way into Karratha we all stopped into Python pool for a swim. The drive in gave us great views of the changing Pilbara landscape with masses of emerging wildflowers after the late rains in May. We said goodbye to the others hoping to see them later in Cape Range NP (we actually saw each other very soon in Karratha). In Karratha we were lucky enough to be able to stay with good friends Janyce and John Crawford who had moved there from Kapunda. Susan got stuck into some washing, the boys did quite a bit of school work and I went for a bike ride. Actually, Janyce got me up early for a spin on the local single track which there is plenty of. Really enjoyed it. We topped up the stores and did the sights of the area including Cossack, Cape Lambert and Point Samson (where we caught up with Tony Neal, friend from Adelaide working up there at the moment) and Dampier. Of course we took a look at the Red Dog Statue. While Karratha is a nice modern town with lots of facilities for families it’s not catering to travelers at $84/night for a powered site