The Road Trip II: Karijini National Park to Port Hedland.

Tom Price is a mining town and most of the folk there are there for that reason, hence the lack of accommodation for the spontaneous traveller. It is also one of the closest places to the Karijini National Park, which is famous there and thereabouts for snaking gorges cut in to the red ground with waterfalls and waterholes at their bases. I hadn't heard of the park until I got to Exmouth, but having heard about it I wanted to go and it was the main destination on the road trip.

Once I got there I realised that alot of the roads into and around the park were unsealed so I decided, for the sake of Hertz and my hire car, to stick mostly to the sealed roads even though it would limit how much of the national park I could see. Given the short time that I had and the distances I was going to cover I had already realised that I was only going to have scattered glimpses of the Pilbara rather than seeing anything in great detail.

Karijini is red and dusty as far as the eye can see, with more of the rocky outcrops and ridges but no sign of all the action that happens down at the bottom of the gorges. It is only once you have followed the signs to the landmarks, gotten out of the car in the middle of dust and dirt and heat and followed the path to the lookouts that you are surprised by the deep red gorges running through the park. Not until you are standing at the top of a gorge looking down would you know that it was there.



I went to Dales Gorge first, it runs from circular pool to Fortescue Falls, a distance of over a kilometre and a depth of nearly 600metres. From a vertiginous lookout at the top of the gorge you can hold on to the metal barriers and look down in to the dark circular pool surrounded by greenery below. I walked along the top of the gorge to where you had to take a deep breath and clamber down an even dizzier making path.



Before I took the plunge I walked on a bit to gather my courage whilst pretending to myself I wasn't going to bother to go down. I did though, keeping my centre of gravity very close to the ground as I went (upside down crab) whilst giving myself a stern talking to for attempting it at all in thongs (flip flops!).



After the steep descent the path at the bottom of the gorge was easy and led past a shallow stream, tall grasses, layers and layers of red flat rock and over a stream to the circular pool where unexpectedly there were a bunch of other sight see-ers already having a dip. The water was cool silky smooth. And oddly not salty after days at the beach.



The climb out was much easier than the climb down since I had my back to the drop. Back on the top of the world I jumped in the car and drove a few kilometres to the other end of the gorge and in appropriate footwear this time I climbed down to the Fortescue Falls for a second swim in the pool there.



I got some good advice from one of the locals at the pool - check yourself for leeches after a swim (I was happily leech free) - and some useful advice too - the unsealed roads are perfectly passable at any sensible speed in a car and I should give it a go (he was driving quite successfully at un-sensible speeds in a 4 by 4). Emboldened by this advice I decided to cut back across the bottom of the park and drive to the Hammersley Gorge along the unsealed roads and then take a short cut round the west and north of the park to the Millstream Chichester National Park before finishing up in Karratha.

So off I headed on the unsealed roads for Hammersley Gorge and climbed back down in to the ground for the third time. Once at the bottom you have to scramble up the side of the waterfall picking out a path as best you can and occasionally having to take a leap to the other side to find your way. I didn't know what I was heading to, only that it was where I was supposed to be going by the whoops and laughter coming from that direction.



At the top there was a flat pool surrounded by slippy algae covered rocks, which made getting in to the pool clumsy. At the other end of the pool I had to climb out backwards, so I could get some purchase on the steep slippy rocks and then it was only a couple of metres to a deep, dark and perfectly round pool that was colder than any of the others being shaded by a rocky overhang. I have no idea how deep it was (it probably came out in Scotland on the old drovers path where the lochan is claimed to be bottomless) and I had no desire to find out . I did manage a quick dip in the shadows to the crystal clear waterfall that fell a metre or two from the sunshine above the rocks bringing all of the heat of the sun with it. As hot as any shower.



And then I was back on to the red dusty unsealed road and heading north. It was later in the day than I thought after my three swims and I still had a ways to go. The unsealed roads didn't make for easy driving with the constant rattling of the car and the need to beware the occasional roller coaster dip in to the floodways. I rather missed the ease, the pace and the peace of the highways. When I realised I'd be lucky to get to Karratha in daylight and with a whim to pass through the deserted town of Wittenoom I turned east across the top of the national park to sealed roads, highways and Port Hedland.

There used to be a blue asbestos mine in Wittenoom - before the blue asbestos fibres worked their way in to lining of the lungs of the residents and miners causing cancer it was the biggest town in the Pilbara. After a thousand deaths the government cleared the town of all except the most stubborn residents, declared it unsafe and removed its status as a township. Wittenoom appears deserted. There are buildings gathered at the base of a hill, houses in pale pink and yellow and directions to the visitors centre, but there are no people and they have even taken down the signs bearing the name of the town. Therefore, it no longer exists. An ABC article from 2006 says that in fact eight people still live in the town including one man who shoots kangaroos for a living and the love of his life; they met on the empty main street but I didn't see anyone as I drove by.

After Wittenoom it was 45 kilometres and I was back on to sealed roads, hurrah, and after Auski Roadhouse back on to the familiar highway heading for Port Hedland, another industrial town. Somewhere east of Marble Bar (Australia's hottest place) I passed miles and miles of red dirt and gravel, as if the earth was freshly tilled and turned. No trees, no scrub, no spinnifex clumps, nothing green - only red dirt dust and rocks as far as I could see. I would have taken a picture but i had just overtaken a road train and I wasn't going to let him catch me.

I got in to Port Hedland at dark and had another search for somewhere to stay on my hands. This time it was more than I spent in Tom Price, but the woman in charge was lovely, the room didn't smell of gravy and I had had a good day.