2016 Tour – Part 6 – Marble Bar to Tom Price via Newman and Karajini

Leaving Marble Bar on Sunday the 7^th of July we headed for Newman via Nullagine. This route takes you past the new huge Roy Hill mine of Gina Rinehart’s and also Fortesque Mining Group’s new mine in the same area. These developments are huge with huge FIFO living quarters, paved streets, wide bitumen roads. Driving through the area requires a continual dodging of mine vehicles.

Headed South to Newman from Marble Bar

Yours Truly – the Dingo Whisperer

Two prime movers pulling and one pushing this mining giant along the road.

There is only one caravan park/camp ground in Neweman, so on arrival we checked in and had a late lunch then headed for the Information Office. We were keen to do a mine tour of BHP Billiton’s Mount Whaleback mine, the largest open cut iron ore mine in world. The area, like most of the country we had been through had heavy recent rains and the mine tour had not been operating for some time but all indications were that there would be a tour the next morning. We put our names down for the tour then headed for the shopping centre to pick up some much needed supplies (beer!!!).

The next day after our mine tour, we set about getting some repairs done to our rigs. In Harold’s case he needed some work done on the window latches of the canopy on the Hilux and he also had some issues with the water tank in his camper that he spent some time repairing. I needed to have some new bolts put in the bull-bar of the Cruiser. I had sheered off two bolts and a third one had gone missing. Very frustrating as I continue to have problems with the mounts on my ARB bull bar dating back to our 2014 trip. The young engineer who I found to do the repairs had a very difficult job removing the bolt studs as the previous mechanic had obviously used loctite on the mounting bolts. Indeed we ended up having to tap new larger threads in the chassis member. Hopefully it is now fixed for good. The cruiser now has some imperial bolts in an otherwise metric vehicle. Oh well!!

BHP Billiton Mount Whaleback Mine – largest Iron Ore Mine in the world.

Our crew in standard issue hi vis and hard hats at Mount Whaleback

The mine tour was very good but we were a little disappointed that we didn’t get a little closer to the action. That evening we went to The Seasons restaurant for dinner. Finding the actual restaurant proved to be somewhat of a IQ test, however we got there in the end.

The next morning we packed up at a leisurely pace and headed for Albert Tongalini rest area. A much praised rest area that is close to the entry into Karajini. That way we figured that we would be close to the Dales Gorge Camping ground the following day to increase our chances of getting a camp spot. We had heard reports that the camp ground was full each night and you were often relegated to an overflow area. You are unable to make bookings for Dales Gorge camp ground, and was a matter of “first in, first served”.

We had heard and now we can confirm that the Albert Tongalini rest area is sensational. We found a fabulous spot a long way away from the madding crowd. Perfect, in fact it was almost enticing enough to stay two nights.

Aboriginal Rock Carvings – Wonmunna, On our way to Karajini

Our Camp at Albert Tongolini

Our view at Albert Tongalini

Albert Tongalini Rest Area view

None the less the next morning we set off for what we were hoping was to be one of the highlights of our 4 month tour; Karajini NP.

We were most fortunate, arriving at around 10:30 am and being allocated two sites along side one another that we could set up to look like a single shared camp-spot.

We spent the next 4 days touring and walking all that Karajini has to offer. I will let the photos speak for themselves, but to put it mildly, Chris and I had spent a considerable time in the park in 2014, but visiting it again 2 years later was sensational. I think we enjoyed it more the second time. Perhaps because we were sharing the experience with good friends.

So amongst others, we walked Dales Gorge, Kalamina Gorge, Waeno Gorge, Hancock Gorge plus various other lookouts.

Hopefully the photos below try and do the park justice.

After leaving Karajini after the fifth night we headed for Tom Price, once again in need of supplies.

An interesting observation from both Newman and Tom Price is that the plethora of Little Correlas that are around both towns are all a reddish brown colour instead of the normal pristine white.

A two night stay at Tom Price with some health matters to be attended to and a visit to Mount Nameless, and we were soon headed for Hamersley Gorge and other points north.

Dusk on Mount Nameless – Tom Price

Till next post.