The ride out from
Karijini via Paraburdoo is great. A totally amazing landscape.
Ancient eroded mountain ranges that run from horizon to horizon. A
landscape that has been stripped to it's very bones. Clearly
saturated in iron ore and no doubt other valuable minerals. The only
signs of human activity are the mine camps, the railways and the road
trains hauling heavy mining equipment. All of these human signs are
lost in the immensity of the Pilbara.
Athough we had been
told that the supermarket in Paraburdoo would be open on a Sunday, we
arrive to find it closed. We have to make do with the limited
supplies we find at the petrol station. We pause only for morning
coffee before pressing on. Our goal is a free camp site / rest area
some 60 km short of Nanutarra Roadhouse on the North West Coastal
highway. This is a distance of over 300km, and as we start to loose
altitude, the temperature increases. We stop for a brief lunch and
press on into the hot afternoon.
The rest area is in a
dry creek bed. Plenty of shade, but no water and very dusty. The talc
like red dust of the Pilbara that gets into everything. Still –
lots of bird life and a three legged goanna keep us amused until the
sun sets.
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