Parabardoo...Mining Town.
Corellas covered in red dust.
Love meeting the locals, (above and below)
Woke to a beautiful clear day after not a very good night's sleep. The feral goats didn't eat the laundry I'd hung out to dry the evening before, the generator at the homestead stopped before midnight and woke me up with the silence and a car blared its horn for half a kilometre to wake all the people camped at the twenty four hour rest stop. I'm sure he or she will get their comeuppance sooner or later!
The morning was cool. A few of the local bird life joined us for breakfast and we'd set off by eight thirty.
I don't think it got above twenty five degrees today, there were times when I had my jacket on. Clouds soon built up and got worse as the day wore on.
The flat red earth soon gave way to rocky outcrops and before we knew it we were travelling towards the Hamersley Range.
We arrived in Paraburdoo in time for lunch. The corellas entertained us while we ate our takeaway alfresco. Here, not only do the mineworkers go home coated in red dust, but so do the corellas! They were a sight to behold on grassy verges with their dusty feathers on.
Arrived in Tom Price around three thirty, made some quick enquiries at the tourist information centre and deliberated about our next move. Should we spend the night in Tom Price or should we take our chance at the national park which was a further forty kilometres or so? Decided to continue on to Karijini National Park for the night.
The drive into the national park is along a very dusty, corrugated and red road. It's not a four wheel drive road but the car was locked into four wheel dry to make it a quicker ride. Came across one or two roller coasters along the way too and ate the dust of one passing vehicle. A dingo was wandering around the edge of the road as we came around a bend and it was the only wild life spotted on the way in.
My first impressions of the park are the desolation, the aridness of the place. I shouldn't make decisions so quickly but the place is quite the opposite of what I expected. I'll leave my final impressions on what we find tomorrow.
Cold and very cloudy when we arrived at our campsite and did not expect much of a sunset.
Surprise, surprise...we were not let down! Our campsite is directly in front of the range and we watched as the sun coloured the cloudy sky as it set to a most brilliant array of colours.
Tomorrow we hope to do some walks to view some of the gorges in the park.
Only this weekend gone, a couple of walkers were rescued from Hancock Gorge...apparently they attempted a climb that was beyond their capabilities and spent a cold night in the gorge before being rescued.
And yes, it is cold here...after all it's winter here...so the woman at information centre informed us, and we are at about a nine hundred metre altitude.
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