The Pilbara

We left Karratha and headed south-east to the Pilbara. It was a relief to see mountains again. This one  has the property named after it –Pyramid.

 

The first National Park we visited is the Millstream/Chichester N.P. which was formally a pastoral lease which expired and the land has now reverted to the government as a National Park.

This area is absolutely beautiful with the Fortescue River running through the area. This river supplies the town water to Karratha.

 

 

The height of the water pipe over the Fortescue River gives you some idea of how high the water can rise.

 

 

Col and Kathy went canoeing at Crossing Pool – too deep for a non-swimmer like me!!

 

 

 

Ah! the beautiful sunsets are starting. This is from our camp at Hamersley Gorge.

 

 

 

Hamersley Gorge is an ideal place to go swimming down the gorge. It was a ‘little’ cool though.  The colours in the rocks were amazing.

 

 

 

 

This is the same pool as above later in the morning. The rocks change colour as the sun moves over the gorge. Yes – there is some climbing involved.

 

After travelling 250 kilometres over some very rough  dirt roads, we arrived at Tom Price which is the highest town in Western Australia at 712 metres.  We based ourselves in town  for three days.

 

Mt. Nameless at 1125 meters is the highest mountain in W.A. that you can drive up. The views from the summit are fantastic.

 

 

This is Mt. Tom Price mine taken from Mt. Nameless at sunrise.

 

 

 

We took a bus tour through the iron ore mine at Tom Price. The down side of the area is that everything ends up ‘Pilbara Pink’ from the iron ore dust.

 

And on the side of the road in town is the flower the area is noted for – the Mulla Mulla which is a very pretty purple against the surrounding red of the hills.