the Pilbara

　

　

12th May Saturday.

Very cold night. Packed up and left camp at 8.30. Karijini Drive to the Northern HWay towards Port Headland. Has warmed up nicely now. Lovely hilly landscape, rock formations

 are amazing. Saw our first quadruple road train.

Stopped at Auski Roadhouse(Munjura) for a cuppa and saw several more quads and some escorted rigs come into servo, an amazing amount of red dust

thrown up when air brakes are applied. Now driving through flatlands towards Mungaroona Range Nat Reserve where the scenery changes from barren

to stoney outcrops

 and hills in the distance, also soil not quite as red. No stop for lunch, pressed on for Indee Station, 9kms on dirt road. When we arrived we were given a cup of tea before signing in, only $20pn (no powered sites), camp kitchen, laundry(gold coin donation to RFDS), it also has mobile reception if you really want to climb a great big hill. Happy hour 6-7 and they swop money for drinks as they are not allowed to sell it. Wandered along after 6 and left just about 8 when the workers came in for their dinner, nice pleasant evening chatting. The station used to keep sheep but now has cattle.

13th May Sunday

Warm night, nice breeze first thing, we have been given a map to Red Rock so might drive out later, after domestic duties. Left site to drive along sandy tracks to Red Rock,

 had a walk round it past the rock pools


and up the other side, views are amazing

can see over to the Northern HWay. On the way back found the Aboriginal Rock Engravings, they are very faint. we drove onto the River Pools and saw an eagle/hawk?

stood on a sandbank in the middle of the river. Had toput LRover in 4 wheel drive

and low box at times due to soft sand/rocky bits, it was good to have a drive out, just relaxed and caught up with blog ready to upload when we get to Port Headland. 5 other campers arrived during afternoon, so happy hour was busy. Nice to chat to different people.

14th May Monday

Happy first anniversary Karen and Graig. Up at 6.30 lovely morning. Had breakfast with Rachel and Heath in the camp kitchen. Left at 8.45, back on the Northern HWay. to Port Headland. Indee Station was a great place to stay. First stop in Port Headland was Post Office, parcel not arrived so contacted spares company to get tracking number, back to P.O. and have arranged for parts to be delivered to Derby P.O. Found fuel station and filled up ($1.63) and with water, then over to Woolies for food before finding our way to library. Port Headland is not a place to visit unless you like industrial ports. The landscape as we pass through is featureless with some hills suddenly standing in the middle of nothing. Past the turn off for Marble Bar started getting trees. we pulled into the Grey River Rest Area ti find it has toilets, it has nice grass, trees, river, shade and sun so decided to stay for a few nights, also the breeze is cooler here. Early night.

15th May Tuesday

Warm night, Colin thought he heard something in the night, it was the cattle in the area. Cattle are allowed to wander at will, a lot of stations are not fenced so livestock everywhere which is why you can see dead cattle everywhere on the road. Had a walk down to the De Grey river, which is spanned by a road bridge and rail bridge. A fellow camper was telling us 4years ago there were warning signs up about crocodiles in the river, they had swum up river from the sea. It makes a change to see water in a river bed, can see lots of dragon flies and water is very clear. Breeze has got up this arvo which is very welcome, we keep being told it should be quite a bit cooler now at this time of year. Went out for a walk just before dusk (6pm) and still a few campers coming into the area.

16th May Wednesday

They can keep their blue tailed Kookaburras and cows, both started up when still dark before 6am. It reallyis a lovely spot. Had a chat with another LRover owner and gave them our Email address to give them advice on bringing their LRover to the U.K. Didn't get away till 9am. Message from Al and Dee they are still at Stanley Rest Area for another couple of nights. The road is straight and landscape is quite green with grass bushes. Stopped at Pardoo RHouse for gas bottle refill, only $14 and treated ourselves to a cuppa and shared the best sausage roll in Oz. Stopped at Sandfire RHouse for lunch, they have peacocks wandering through the car park. Landscape now very very flat with no trees or bushes, then it changed again back to trees and bushes. Arrived at Goldwire Rest Area 3ish to find Al and Dee all set up, It is greatto see them again. Had a cuppa then set up tent, nice spot with sun and shade. A lady by the name of Sue followed us in , she had been at De Grey the night before. After chatting and dinner Al set up T.V. outside and we watched a DVD of them on their Whale Shark swimming trip, it looked amazing, showing them snorkling on Ninggaloo Reef, then with the Whale Sharks. Also saw a DVD of th ePilbara and Kimberley regions, the views are amazing. Great evening and mozzies out tonight.

17th May Thursday

Not such a cold night woke to lovely sunny morning. Could hear the roadtrains but nothing after 10pm. Ned(caretaker) at local property came to area this morning with the local zebra rock, some in the raw state and some polished up, it is beatiful, he also showed us some polished stones made from ribbon rock. Rose bought a polished rock

and he gave her a raw state zebra rock.

Sue(hairdresser) decided to stay another night so the 5 of us just sat around talking for the rest of the day. Ned came back for happy hour and gave us some small blocks of local ribbon rock they are also beatiful, it seems you use 1200 grade wet and dry to get the shape and to polish it up then vynil floor polish to give it the shine. Later a couple called John and Sue who we met at Osprey and Exmouth pulled in and joined us, they are also going to Barn Hill Station tomorrow. Dee gave Rose an aerial for the mobile broadband to boost the signal and it works, got internet but still no phone!! She also gave us some homemade tomato and apple chutney-delicious. Great day.

18th May Friday

FRIDAY FACT;- COVERING THE SAME AREA AS FRANCE, THE SHIRE OF EAST PILBARA IS THE LARGEST SHIRE IN THE WORLD.

Forgot to set the alarm, we wanted an early start as we have so far to travel today 38kms:). Last night Colin was talking to Al and Al described Rose as being "petite" what a compliment. 36kms and 45mins later including 10kms dirt road we are at Barn Hill Station. Decided to stay 2 nights with power ($25 pn) and on grass and shade next to Al and Dee. An old bloke stopped to speak with Colin about the LRover. he has a tray back LR from 1972 with over 1.2 million kilometres on the clock. We went and had a look at his vechicle and the changes he had made to make it into a motorhome with a pop-top roof,

he showed us how he had gained extra storage

inside and out. Had a walk down to the beach and then back to have a shower, the toilets and showers are open to the sky, wonderful. The camp is in the middle of a working cattle station, which covers over 430,000 acres and 83 kms of coastline, and is only open from May to October. Rose has some huge insect bits on legs and they are very itchy. Colin and Al went fishing but all they did was get wet, an amazing sunset. Sat chatting till late, after 9pm