Day 21 – 9th June

Today’s adventure was a  tour of the Rio Tinto mine…   It started at the tourist centre where we had to gear up, helmets and safety glasses all round… 

Even Spidey needed some PPE…

Dave thought it was pretty funny he was decked out in the opposition’s gear… 

The tour was pretty good.  The guide had a head full of facts, figures and interesting information.  He reckons we were a bit ripped with activity, meaning there wasn’t much going on today.  However, we saw some dump trucks and some equipment operating so the kids were impressed.  Here is a selection of photos from the tour: 

This place was conveyor city... all those structures you see out the bus windows are conveyors...

Today is our last day in Tom Price.  I really like this town… as far as a mining town goes, I could live here…

Tomorrow we finally head into Karijini National Park… can’t wait!

Day 20 – 8th June

Happy 10^th Birthday to my niece Kiran ;)

Our last night at Cheela Plains was fun… we were treated to some ‘Bush Poetry’ around the camp fire as well as the opportunity to learn how to crack a whip.  Surprisingly, none of us were bleeding after that… I was sure Aiden at least would spill some claret ;) 

Today we cracked the 3000km mark driving to Paraburdoo then on to Tom Price.  There is a grand total of one caravan park in town so our choices were somewhat limited.  Luckily, the park is quite nice with lots of shady trees and a pretty cool view.  This is our camp site:  

Once the camp was set up it was time for some exploration.  Today’s agenda was Mt Nameless, a decent peak that dominates the skyline of Tom Price… 

The track to the top was pretty steep… 

Yes, this is coming back down not going up… Dave reckons it felt steeper than this photo looks…

From the top the views were pretty special.  The first photo overlooks the Rio Tinto mine 

You can see the Tom Price town behind the kids 

Finally, a photo showing my favourite view from the top.  No distinguishing features or buildings, just a valley that I really liked the look of…

Day 19 – 7th June

We opted for two nights here at Cheela Plains so we could spend a day exploring some pools on their property.  The station is much like the others we have been to but with a lack of livestock… not sure if there is any here at all.  Anyhow, the highlight has definitely been the pools nestled among the ranges.

First up was Woongara Pool.  In the first photo you can see some trees just over the water.  These trees were chock full of wild budgies… you could hear them from a mile away. 

Following the track around we had a few wet crossings.  This was the longest and deepest… 

The bounty at the end of the track… this awesome spot called Mussel Pool.

My rainbow coloured rocks found in the creek beds

Another family was camping by Mussel Pool and they kindly let us have a go on their kayak

There's always a rope swing...

Can you see the blue tinge... she was freezing!

Coming home Dave stopped in the middle of one of the river crossings to give the car a bit of a wash…  

Day 18 – 6th June

“We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto”…  That’s how I feel.  We have turned east heading toward Tom Price and there has been a distinct change in environment.  We have reached the countryside with a distinct red tinge…  

Today was a big travel day, about 400km to Cheela Plains Station.  We are clearly now in cattle country… 

Day 17 – 5th June

Just a short hop up the road we came to Bullara Station.  We love the idea of camping on these working stations.  So far the facilities have been good… all have a kitchen and bathroom facilities that are spotlessly clean and you get the bonus of camping in awesome environments away from the crowds in caravan parks. 

Bullara is a working cattle station and our camp site overlooked the paddocks with a herd of cattle right on our door step… and there were SO MANY birds…. 

To keep up with our obvious delight with ‘open air’ bathrooms check these out… the first bathrooms were open air and were built around trees.  

Then we spotted this bathroom under the water tank… luxury on a farm! 

Spidey going about his business… 

After exploring the farm Spidey and I had a little rest in the hammock set up in the camp kitchen 

To end the day, this guy makes damper every evening.  The whole camp then gathers around the campfire for a chat and a taste of damper.  With a fair smattering of butter and a squirt of golden syrup it was pretty awesome damper… 

Day 16 – 4th June

The magic continues at Warroora… Today was a rest day… which means we weren’t rushing off with some sort of agenda for site-seeing.  The day started slowly with Dave heading down to the beach for a spot of fishing.  He hadn’t been down there long when he called out for us to come down as there was a turtle bobbing up and down just offshore.  We checked him out then headed back to camp.  A mere 10 minutes later there was another shout from Dave.  This time a pod of dolphins had come inshore chasing some fish.  We watched for about 10 minutes as they chased fish up and down the shallows.  Who needs Monkey Mia when you get dolphin action like that right in front of your camp?

After the fishing it was time to head up to ‘Telstra Hill’, the only spot within miles with any phone coverage, to call Dave’s Dad, Hank, and wish him a happy birthday

Here’s the view from Telstra Hill overlooking our camp.  Our camper is second from the right. 

Me and my girl… 

Oh no! The kids are getting into the selfie action… 

Later in the day the tide was at its lowest so we headed back down to the beach right in front of us to check out the rock pools created with such a low tide.  There were actually quite a few other people there specially looking for octopus in the rocks.  We ended up spending an hour and half gazing into these rock pools.  There were so many sea creatures of all descriptions!  Megan and I were a little less brave with our adventures, but the boys trekked out onto the rock shelf and actually managed to spot 3 or 4 octopus.  Aiden was stoked.  Our tally of cool animals included sea slugs with wings, teeny tiny (less than 1cm) sea slugs with more wings than body, loads of cowrie shells (actually alive), loads of different crabs, hermit crabs, big fat hairy crabs, etc and also a couple of Puffer Fish that had been caught in the pools.  It was so totally amazing!  We were completely blown away by the adventures we had today and we didn’t even leave our camp… Warroora Wilderness Camp totally gets our tick of approval…

Octopus

 Puffer Fish

 Slug

 Cowrie

 Sea Slug??

Sadly, tomorrow we leave this little piece of paradise and head to Bullara Station as we start to head in an easterly direction toward Karijini…

Introducing Spidey

Before we left home we welcomed a new member to the family… meet Spidey.  It was our intention that Spidey come traveling with us to keep the kids interested in where we are going by taking photos of him in the locations we visit.  So far Spidey has seen the inside of a shoe box… but today he made his debut…

So, by following my blog you will inadvertently be following the adventures of Spidey…