The Pilbara

Guest Blogger: Mr J Bohemian

We departed the enchanted Kimberley vowing to return.  

Eighty Mile Beach was out first stop. It was blowing a gale (a sign of things to come along the Coral Coast) so we didn’t camp there, but collected shells by the bucketful. All of the kids had driving lessons on the beach in the Landcruiser. James successfully dodged the sand cones of my obstacle course. Tom successful knocked them all down.

The next port of call was Port Hedland. We were there predominantly for supplies and to buy a new camera, but it was interesting for us all to see the mining boom up close and personal. Iron ore trains rumbled in and out all night and ships queued by the dozen to receive their burden. Everything in Hedland was tainted with the rusty orange hue of iron ore.  Wages, real estate prices, rents and even the caravan park are astronomically priced. The camera shop owner argued that the Pilbara should have its own currency. Elsewhere in Australia camera shops seem to be closing down due to the pressure of the internet, but not in the Pilbara, where people can easily afford convenience and service. Perhaps secession (and not just the Pilbara Pound) is looming in Western Australia.

My four wheel drive master, Sensei Vic Widman, described Karijini National Park as a place everyone must visit at least once in their lifetime. Our expectations were onerously high, but we were craving the outback again, and headed east into the Pilbara.

Karijini country is appealing in its palate with its iron ore sand, soft grey foliage, white trunks and blue sky laid across rolling hills. But the surface is not the magic of this place for me. Unlike the gorges of the Kimberley and Kakadu where you walk into a gap in a mountain range and find a water hole or water fall at the end of the gorge like a prize for a long hot hike, the Karijini gorges appear as cracks in the earth, and the challenge of this place is to clamber and climb down into them to discover an almost subterranean and secret world. Vic was right, this place is very special. It is also unique because unlike so much of our modern world, it is not sanitised with safety regulations and restrictions. However, with the freedom of access comes risk. Tragically, accidents and even fatalities have occurred. Sober with this knowledge, we carefully, respectfully (and somewhat nervously) set out to explore these magical, sacred places.

After setting up at Dales Camp, we made the relatively short and moderate trek to Circular Pool. The water was icy cold, but it was a good warm up walk for the following day’s challenges - Hancock Gorge and Weano Gorge. The climb down into Hancock was reasonably straight forward, a blend of steep natural and manmade steps and a couple of ladders. During our descent we passed a gaggle of teenagers climbing out all huffing and puffing as they dragged their way to the top. Ali and I looked at each of other as they passed and telepathically communicated “How the hell are we going to get out children out of here?”





The bottom of Hancock Gorge was exciting and dramatic; a serious of chasms, rock ledges, chilly pools and slippery narrow shutes with rushing water. It was fun and exhilarating exploring this natural commando course. Much to our surprise and delight, all three kids powered though the gorge and climb back out unassisted, pumped to tackle the next challenge.





In the afternoon we tackled Weano Gorge. It was another challenging climb down to a series of pools, chutes and chasms. One section was called the Spider Walk, a narrow section with water rushing underneath where it was necessary to make like a starfish and jam oneself into the crevice to inch along above the rushing water below. I was wondering how we would get Georgie through as she could not reach either side of the crevice with either arms nor legs. However, before  I could point out the logistical and physical constraints we were facing, our little Bear Bear Gryls just pushed herself into the flowing water and swam, slid and climbed her way along the chute below the Spider Walk without hesitation or comment.  For us, Weano ended in a section called Hand Rail Pool, where a metal hand rail has been installed to allow a slippery decent from a chute into the pool. To go further required abseiling gear and a guide.

We made it out of Weano not only unscathed, but feeling exhilarated and alive with the satisfaction of successfully and safely tackling the day’s two gorges. The scenery was also spectacular, but the highlight of the experience for Ali and me was the performance of the kids. With no complaint or whinge gracing their lips, all three little legends climbed in, along and out of both gorges on their own steam. We were so proud of them.

The next day we visited Knox Gorge. With almost no information available about the condition of the gorge, we made a decent in what unexpectedly turned out to be the most challenging decent for us at Karijini. The track in was quite steep and slippery. In sections there were rocks to clamber down which were taller than me (which is not that tall I hear my darling wife say) and required passing children from one ledge to the next. Much to our delight, the environment of the gorge base was varied from the previous day’s conquests. Beautiful, tree lined water holes, crystal clear rock pools one after the other linked by bubbling streams, tall red cliffs, white ghost gums impossibly perched on crags and in crevices like billy goats. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We spent hours swimming in the water holes, jumping off rock ledges into deep clear pools and, like lycra covered lizards, warming ourselves on sundrenched rocks. We met the Stanleys from Perth down there – Lee, Delia, Greg and Genevieve. The delightful ping pong poms that we would get to know at Exmouth. What a joyous day it was, and we powered back out!





Late that afternoon we drove on to Tom Price for a mine tour the following morning. We had seen the iron ore leaving the shore at Port Hedland, but we wanted to see how it was mined and moved all that way to the coast. Big bangs, big pits, big diggers, big dump trucks, big trains, big money. Rio Tinto mines and moves 100,000 tonnes of iron ore on 4 trains that are each 2.5km long every day from Tom Price. BHP does more than that down the road in Newman. There are enough reserves in the Pilbara to keep them all mining at this rate for hundreds of years. It was fascinating to have a look under the hood of the Australian economy.

After a long and desolate drive along Paraburdoo Road, the next stop was Exmouth and Ningaloo Reef.