Karijini National Park and Tom Price WA (Aug - 3 days)

The last 50 kms of our journey from Port Hedland to Karijini were quite picturesque as were climbed up through the rolling ranges dotted with colourful wildflowers. We spent a night in Karijini and two days exploring where we could access. Walks here are graded from 2-6 in level of difficulty. A six requires abseiling qualifications and we did spot hikers on these routes! We braved two level three walks which were somewhat hair raising, trying to keep our little brood safely on the steep, narrow cliff-edged track. The first day we visited the spectacular Dales Gorge with Fortesque Falls and Fern pool. Day two was spent peering over the rails of some incredibly vast and deep gorges and pools below. We also walked along a very narrow peninsula type track which led us to an awesome intersection of four massive gorges. Our camp here was truly in the outback…..very red powdery dirt, dingoes, a freezing night …the full bit! (Thank goodness for our porta potti!). Georgia was completely covered in red dirt, tripping over the uneven ground quite frequently. The children completed several educational activities within the park over the two days and achieved their ‘junior ranger’ badges as we left. (An initiative of the National Park). They were thrilled and discussed sewing their fabric badges onto their school uniforms when they return home! All in all Karajini was well worth the drive in and were very pleased that we diverted from our coastal route to see this treasure of W.A.

We then headed for Tom Price where we spent two days. The mining town of Tom Price is nestled in a very scenic part of northwest W.A. and is the state’s highest township. Here we dusted ourselves off and rested after some big travel legs. The highlight of our time here was our tour of the Rio Tinto iron ore mine (via coach tour). All donned in our hard hats and safety glasses (even Georgie) we were the last to pile onto the bus full of quiet ‘older’ travellers. We made a bee line for the unoccupied back row and tried to be as inconspicuous as we could. But oh no, that was not number four’s plan!! Georgie was very grizzly for the first half of the two hour trip and was certainly not going to sit quietly in her ‘mandatory’ seatbelt. Tim and I did look at each other half way and say “What were we thinking?!” Finally she did fall asleep and we got to enjoy some of the fascinating commentary about the mine’s history, production etc. Tim was in his element! The big kids did seem to enjoy it and learnt quite a bit.