After Tom Price there’s a whole lot of driving, a whole lot of road trains, and a setting sun to look into as you drive. Oh, and there’s a road house – Nannaturra – where the diesel was expensive. Nothing unusual there. We clicked up 350km by close to sun down, and passed up the opportunity to hang out with the Nomads at the road side rest stop. We headed down a side road for a few kilometres and found a patch of space between the spinifex to camp. The silence was like a big blanket over us, and the moon is close to full. There was no need for a torch tonight.

I have a growing collection of wildflower and general flora we have seen on our trip. Western Australia has a famous display of wildflowers – usually seen in the spring. Even though it’s only August, there’s been heaps to see in Karijini.

Tom Price is another Top Town. Not the most northern, but Western Australia’s highest town at 747m above sea level. It began life as a company town, owned by Hamersley Iron, to house the people mining the vast deposits of nearby iron ore.

In the early days, the population was mainly single men, living in small rooms, with a central cafeteria in the middle of the town where meals were served. Nowadays, it’s a town managed by the shire and Rio Tinto has bought out Hamersley Iron. The residents now bring their families to live here, and there is also a large FIFO (fly in fly out) contingent of workers.
We took a tour of the mine to see it close up.

It’s one whopping big hole – so a bit hard to get close up! There’s actually one of those mega trucks right down at the bottom of the big hole in the picture above.
We stopped by the workshop, which is big, and saw some of the big trucks getting serviced. These trucks cost over $4 million each (even the bills are big) and they need another special truck just to lift the tyres on.
They’re big on safety – even the bus driver was breath tested as we entered the mine. The boys looked good in their hard hats and safety glasses.

Harry wanted to stay till 1pm because they would be blasting. He big on explosives. We weren’t allowed to get very close to the big trucks, but it was very impressive to see them working, even from a distance.

They’re building a new conveyor belt that will mean they don’t have to use these big trucks to move the ore around. It costs $100,000 a day to hire the crane they are using to build it. I reckon there’s a market for a Coates Hire franchise here.
We saw the crushing plant (big) and the stockpiles of iron ore (also big). Then there’s the trains that take the ore to Dampier. Rio Tinto owns the largest private rail network in Australia with 1500km of tracks. They mine iron ore at 14 different sites in the Pilbara region of WA. These trains are big – and long! They usually have 236 carriages, making them almost 3km long. The mine works non-stop around the clock, and anyone who says the industry is in decline should come and visit. I won’t be selling my Rio shares this week.
Next to the mine is Mount Nameless (wins the prize for least imaginative name of a mountain) which is the highest mountain accessible by vehicle in WA – 1128m. Four wheel drive only (they’re not kidding about that) and no trailers or vans allowed (also fair dinkum), it’s a short, rocky and steep 3km straight up to the top. Wow – what a view!

Big John and Little John look out over the Tom Price Township (above). You can also see over the mine and the surrounding ranges.

There are some excursions that are only for the boys in our family, and this is one of them. I found John filling the dry bag with rope, flippers and wetsuits. I wondered if this was just a contrived way to make sure he uses every single thing we have brought with us. Alas, it was all part of the “I’m taking the boys down the gorge in their winter wetsuits and if you want to swim in ice cold water you can come too” kind if trip. So I said, “Fine, I’m good with an hour or two round camp, and a trip down Joffre Gorge, no swimming involved. Go for it.”

He said they’d be back before dark. At 1.40pm, this gives them four hours. We agreed they would turn around at 3.30pm, which I understand Fergus strictly inforced. Thanks Ferg.

Here is Ferg’s own Blog of the adventure:

As we set off, I thought that we would be swimming the entire way (we weren’t!).

Our first obstacle was a big terraced waterfall. We climbed down most of the way, except at the end where it dropped straight down for about two metres. If we jumped down we wouldn’t be able to get back up so we pulled out the rope and tied it up for on the way back and then jumped down.

Apart from a few long portages there weren’t any other big obstacles. The cliffs on each side were spectacular when you lay on your back. At one spot there was actually a big vertical rock pillar connected to the main rock face both at the bottom and the top. Every bit of cliff was different.

Finally at the end when we had come all the way back to the start and up the gorge the other way for about 50 metres we were at Joffre Falls. It was awesome. The water ran straight down the middle of a natural rock amphitheatre you could also climb up.

After that was the end.

P.S

We were disappointed we didn’t see a mulga (western brown) snake because apparently they do inhabit the area. They are also extremely venomous.

By Fergus

Thanks Ferg. I should add that they were back 5 minutes early – just like they promised. So reliable.

And here’s a video John took during the trip.

Working our way through the gorges, we moved on to Knox Gorge which was good, but not great. And then to Hancock Gorge. This was great fun. You descend a set of ladders to get to the bottom, and then follow the water course which is sometimes very slippery.

It’s hard to take a good photo in a gorge. Sometimes the bright sun overexposes the red rocky interior.

We continued through the water (lucky we all brought two pairs of shoes on the trip) until we popped out through the gap in the photo below, and sidled around the rock ledges of Kermits Pool.

I don’t know why it’s called Kermits Pool. Maybe there’s frogs hiding in the blue- green water.

Behind the boys is the no-go zone. Some gorges have a point past which you’re not allowed unless you have ropes and qualifications and guides and a risk assessment specialist in your party……. Well that’s enough to make John go there. You don’t own an Adventure Event Management company and not qualify for all that! So learn more in the Boys’ Adventure Post!

Whilst at Kermits Pool, Harry offered us some more entertainment, with a pin drop into the freezing water – for no apparent reason. But it did give us a laugh watching him gasp at the cold water.

After lunch (yes, everything above was all before lunch), John retrieved the winter wet suits and diving flippers for the boy’s trip. I had my “five minutes of peace”, and walked to Joffre Gorge, which is just next to our camping ground. It’s a fast descent down a stack of rock slabs till you reach the floor of the gorge – and the reward is an amazing panorama of the Joffre Falls.

This really was a great reward for the effort of the descent – and the ascent yet to be achieved!