Week 31: 80 Mile Beach WA - Karijini National Park WA

 Stats Overview

Km's Travelled: 994

Km's Hiked: 22

No. of Camps: 4

The Adventures

We have made it to the Pilbara and are also absolutely loving it! We weren't sure what to expect as the only thing we really knew about the Pilbara was that a lot of mining happens here. However, this part of WA is far from the barren and desolate lands we had envisaged! Although, the temperature is definitely a lot cooler than the Kimberley which is taking us a bit to get used too. Having said that, we shouldn't whinge too much as for August the weather is still pretty good!

We started the week by visiting Port Hedland, which is actually home to the world's largest bulk exporting port, mainly handling iron ore and salt. We spent a lot of time watching the huge ships being brought into the harbour and being loaded before being taken out to sea. I'm not sure if I was lucky,  or incredibly unlucky, to have my own private tour guide in Will, who explained every process we could see at the port in painstaking detail, while also taking care to ensure I was informed on the differences between what I was seeing and the bulk handling he works with in coal...if you can't already tell it was a very long afternoon! However, Will was definitely in his element, with the only thing more exciting than being at the port, was being able to see the huge trains bringing the iron ore into town from the mines. The trains in the Pilbara can be up to 2.4kms in length and are honestly mind-blowing to see - they certainly make the coal trains we are used to seeing in Queensland miniscule by comparison! As the only real activities to do in town are mining related we decided to "treat" ourselves to a tour of the nearby salt mine. It was actually quite interesting to learn how they turn the sea water into a thick salt crust and then harvest it before sending it to the port for exporting. 

 After our stop in Port Hedland, we headed south-east to the jewel in the Pilbara's crown which is Karijini National Park. We had heard from a lot of travellers that Karijini is one of the best National Parks in the country, so we were very excited to finally be able to check it out for ourselves! We started our adventure with a hike up Mount Bruce, which is the WA's second highest mountain. After our two week hiatus from hiking, we were very excited to finally get out and hit the trails again. However, while our minds were willing, our bodies were not quite as enthusiastic. It probably didn't help that Mount Bruce was one of the more challenging trails we have conquered so our poor, far-too rested bodies, didn't know what had hit them! However, our sore muscles were rewarded with the stunning views from the top which made our effort worth-while. Although only in WA do you hike a mountain to get a good view over a mine! 

While Mount Bruce was an unexpected highlight, our real drawcard to Karijini is to explore the many gorges that make up the National Park. So far we have only spent time exploring Dales Gorge which is right near our campground. Apparently the temperature of the water in it is the warmest of the whole park and, based off our experience today, we are a little nervous about what we might be getting ourselves in to! However, we are very excited to see what adventures the next few days in Karijini have in store.

Kodak Moments

Will living the dream! - Port Hedland

This ship is full of iron ore. It had 4 tugs to get it to move from the port and was actually pretty cool to watch.  (Don't tell Will I said that!) - Port Hedland

Watching the salt being harvested. The process is actually very similar to how crops are harvested. - Port Hedland

After the salt is harvested it gets cleaned and stockpiled before being loaded into trucks and taken to the port. - Port Hedland

We definitely missed the beaches of Broome, however, we did manage to find a nice-ish patch of beach for sunset. - Port Hedland

You can see the summit right at the back of the photo. The smile had well and truly disappeared by the time I had made it up the triangle shaped peak in the middle! - Mount Bruce

We had to do some rock climbing...as you can see we had a long way to fall. Of course I made the mistake of looking down...what a rookie! - Mount Bruce

There was plenty of complaining but we eventually made it to the summit! - Mount Bruce

Not a bad view to eat your lunch to - Mount Bruce

The other side of the mountain had the iron ore mine. We could hear all the alarms etc from the summit so it definitely wasn't serene! - Mount Bruce

How impressive are these views! - Mount Bruce

We have found a new favourite free camp. How good are those views from the van! - Albert Tognolini Lookout

We hiked to the top of the mountain where we were camped and were rewarded with this stunning view! - Albert Tognolini

Back to gorge country - Karijini

Enjoyed a "refreshing" swim at Fern Pool - Karijini