Day 43 Karratha to Tom Price - 11/4/11

Today we are going to Tom Price and using the Pilbara Iron Access Road which is a dirt road that goes along beside the private railway owned by Rio Tinto that goes out to the mines at Tom Price and Paraburdoo.  There are bitumen roads to Tom Price but the access road is the most direct from Karratha.

The Pilbara Iron Access Road

In order to travel on this road you have to go to the Tourist Information Centre and get a permit.  Before they will issue you with the permit (which is free) you have to watch a video on the dangers of using this road.  Some of the conditions of travelling on this road are:

• Maximum speed is 80 kmph
• Headlights must be on
• No overtaking (dangerous because you can't see if anything is coming for the dust:
• Cannot stop on the road, you must pull off
• Must be in 4x4 mode

I think the movie would put some people off especially when they show you several wrecked vehicles during the video.

After getting our permit we set off.  The road was in pretty good condition for a dirt/gravel road althought it was very dusty.  Not far out of Karratha we passed a very creative property sign and then entered the Millstream-Chichester National Park with rolling hills and spectacular escarpments.  There was one hill that Peter took a particular interest in for obvious reasons when you see the photo.  We also passed three iron ore trains.

A creative property name

Some of the flat topped hills 

Peter named this one "the nipple"

The entrance to Millstream-Chichester National Park

One of the trains, all I could fit into the frame

We were going along quite well, stopped for lunch and then the dust turned to mud as a water truck had just watered the road.  About four hours into the trip we then came into Karijini National Park which is WA's second largest national park covering in excess of 600,000 hectares.  The mountains and scenery was spectacular. 

A gorge in the Hamersley Range 

Views from a lookout 

Another View

Eventually we got to Tom Price and booked into the Tom Price Tourist Park which is the only caravan park in town and is at the base of Mt Nameless.  Tom Price was established in 1962 and was originally a closed mining town but is now an open town run by a shire.  Accommodation is very hard to get as the miners take up all the accommodation in the town.

Entry sign for Tom Price 

The dirty van - the spare tyre cover is usually white!

We went to the Tourist Information Centre and booked a mine tour for tomorrow.

cheers
Pete and Roz