Our next destination is Mt Augustus to view our "big rock." We had originally planned to camp one day on the road on the way but decided to push through and we set up camp before dark at the Mt Augustus Resort. Nothing luxurious about the "resort" but nice grass and a fabulous view of Mt Augustus.
Next morning Torb and Brit set off for the walk to the top. You need to leave early before the heat of the day sets in. And it has been hot with mid to high thirties everywhere. The walk is quite arduous, very steep in parts and is advertised as a 5 to 8 hour walk. Simon and I opted for looking after children in camp and laundry duties. Torb and Brit completed the walk in a creditable 4 and 1/2 hours. They were pretty weary and had sore legs for the next few days.
Brit and I took the kids to see the rock art in the afternoon and completed the road around the rock, dropping into Cattle Pool on the way back to camp. Pretty for photos. In the evening we joined a few campers, some of the road maintenance crew and station hands in the bar to watch the Eagles thrash Richmond. The bar is only opened on rare occasions. It is lined with odd bits of corrugated iron, quite rustic looking and overall pretty charming. We kind of expected to see some station stockmen( or women) with their akubras, boots and spurs. The bar rule was prominently displayed- "No Dickheads."
We hit the road again as early as seems possible when camping with 2 small children- about 8.15. We headed down the rather less travelled roads of the Dooley Downs Road and the Ashburton Downs Meekatharra Road to Tom Price and then Karijini National Park. The Dooley Downs Road was in quite good condition but slow going as it skirted along and through creeks and watercourses. Dip, Crest, Dip, Crest, Dip, Crest was the theme of the road signs. How many dips and crests we negotiated I don't know, but we averaged 50 kms an hour for the first 250 kilometres. Really pretty scenery if you had time to look though.
We topped up our supplies at Tom Price and then moved on to Karijini for camp set up before dark. Torb and I hadn't driven this way before and found the views of the rounded red Pilbara mountains and ranges viewed across the dry cream and green grasses very striking.
Lots of changes to Karijini since we last visited. There are many more sealed roads, an eco resort, and the " Karijini Experience" with a range of free and paid events in the park. We could have attended opera, films, boomerang and spear throwing classes and lots more. We opted for a free craft class for Zoey while Simon and Brit took Felix to his work site at Area C, a puppet show for the kids and I did a 3 hour landscape photography class at Fortescue Falls.
We took the kids to Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool for a swim as they were probably the most accessible for little legs. It is still quite a walk though and both children handled it very well. In fact Zoey was able to make it almost all the way down and up the stairs, over rocks and down the rock terraces with just her hand held.
At Fern Pool there was a colony of flying foxes in a couple of trees near the water. On a high branch close by was a large olive Python trying for a meal. He was rather round in the middle in a couple of places so he had certainly been successful previously.
The photography class with Dan Avila was really interesting and helpful. Part of the entertainment came when he explained that he had done a wedding shoot the day before for a couple who had chartered a plane from Perth just to be photographed in Karijini. Our first site for our shoot was at a gmagnificent old ficus tree near Fern Pool, the same location we had seen Dan doing the wedding shoot the day before. He said the wedding couple were certainly not outdoor types and when the groom suggested there was a snake Dan was sceptical, until he had a closer look and found a King Brown just a metre from the posed couple. Luckily the snake was calmer than them and headed off into the vegetation. So he suggested we keep on the alert. I was taking some close ups of the ficus and mentioned I could hear rustling. Sure enough, a few minutes later we spied the snake crossing the path into the thicker shrubbery. These snakes are seriously dangerous, not because their venom is so toxic but because they produce large quantities of it.
Next stop was Pardoo station campsite for a couple of nights. We stopped at South Hedland on the way for provisioning- 41 degrees!
Pardoo is a well set up camp with shop, restaurant and importantly for us, a swimming pool. The coast is subject to 6 metre tides so at places beach fishing at low tide involves a walk of up to 2 kilometres to wet a line. Simon and I attempted a bit of half hearted fishing at the beach and then Pardoo creek. We were not very successful but both locations offered what every 4 year old boy loves- lots of oozy mud. Felix was slimy mud to his waist after the creek fishing. I didn't feel so bad that we didn't catch anything as the only other fishers were the local indigenous people and they didn't do very well either. Nice to hear that they hadn't lost their local language.
