Heading to Karijini NP

         

                                 We drove through  Kalgoorlie on the way to Menzies.  In 2011 we spent a couple of days in this mining town

       

       

We said good bye to Elaine and Bob on Saturday. They went off to Perth and to see the coastal road to the north, while John and I headed towards the heart of the mining industry, Tom Price, to spend time in Karijini NP. This entailed a few days solid driving on the Great Northern Road through Menzies, Mt Magnet, Meekatharra and Newman before we turned in the Karijini NP then the 80 klms from there into Tom Price where we will base ourselves. John and I will meet up with Bob and Elaine again next week and continue up to the Kimberly region together.

Saturday's drive to Menzies was a pleasant one but Sunday we struck rain and it got worse as the day went on.

         

                                                                   Sandstone

           

We got into Mt Magnet a little worse for wear, the drive was stressful when we struck torrential rain in one part, so bad that we couldn't see in front of us. Luckily once the rain cleared the clouds lifted and the sun came out. The roads are carefully monitored and drivers are kept up to date of conditions, usually on a large board on the edge of town

          

               

              The Broad Arrow Tavern in the middle of nowhere. They cooked lovely beer battered chips.

       

                         

  

Monday was a good day on the drive to Kumarina Roadhouse. Both days were long ones but we have a couple of extra days by doing the long haul. We were rewarded with seeing eagles on the road and managing a couple of photos. One lone kangaroo on the side of the road soon after seeing the Eagles had us grabbing our cameras again. Today we saw a very skinny dingo on the side of the highway. 

We encountered many mining trucks on the road a lot of them moving heavy mining equipment. A pilot vehicle warns of the approaching trucks with wide loads. Most of the road trains in this area are four bogies.

      

 I helped out by driving each day except Sunday in the rain. We drove an average of 400 klms on each of the three days.  This afternoon we went to Karijini Visitor centre on our way to Tom Price to get info and maps. 

Tom Price will be our base even though it's 80 klms each way into Karijini from Tom Price we should see a lot in two days. 

John and I enjoyed the drive, the landscape is forever changing.