Day 40 (30 May) – Port Headland to Tom Price

Seen Port Headland – not going there again.  Half a day here was enough.  We had dinner at the café out front of the caravan park and it was packed with workers in High Visibility (HIVIS) clothes.  Some covered in red dust from the days work and not yet had a shower.

I changed our plans slightly as I thought we could make Tom Price in a day instead of staying at the Auski Roadhouse on the Great Northern Highway near Karajini National Park.  It was another 160km further on from the roadhouse to Tom Price so made for a long drive.  Worse, there was a cold front coming across from the west and the side winds made for tough driving with the caravan being blown around which in turn tugged at the Cruiser.  Hang on for dear life!  This road is just full of road trains, mining trucks, freight trucks and wide loads. In the first 10 minutes after leaving South Hedland 16 iron ore mining trucks went the other way. All with 4 trailers behind.

Then it started to rain.  We only got a light sprinkle but further along the road was wet which made it interesting when we got to Auski Roadhouse about midday.  Red mud – lots of it!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of that.  This was to be our original stop for the night.  So glad we didn’t.  But in the office there was a sign that said the caravan park out back was booked out.  I found out later that they had a water problem and closed the caravan park.   With that rain and the red mud on the road, the car and caravan are now redder than before with this red mud stuck to them.  We came across a couple of wide loads so pulled off the road to let them pass.

We arrived at Tom Price about 1.30pm and couldn’t find the caravan park listed on the Hema Navigator GPS.  This is supposed to have all the camps and caravan parks listed and I updated it before we left home.  So over to the good old Wikicamps on my phone and there it was.  I had pre-booked it a couple of days back.  The caravan park is at the foot of Mount Nameless and is in a spectacular setting amongst the mountains.  Everything here is RED.  The whole landscape is iron ore country.

We went into the town to the Visitor Centre.  It was closed!!  Closes at 12.30 on Sunday.  What??  So we found a Brumby’s Bakery and had a coffee and a fat pill (vanilla slice and a chocolate muffin).  Out the front of the shops were a few statues of Australian animals.  Mikey (Nigel No Friends) found a friend.

Surprise surprise, there is a drive-in / sit-in theatre in town.  Not sure if it’s operational though.

We decided we’d go for a drive up Mount Nameless.  Came across a guy stopped at the bottom of the track and he said it’s definitely 4WD but is easily done.  So off we go.  It’s deceptive at the start as it’s just a dirt road but then we came across a sign that said 4WD only.  Bloody steep, rocky, rough.  I had the Cruiser in high range with the centre differential locked, traction control off, and transmission in first gear.  It climbed over the rocks easily.  Not sure it would have if I hadn’t fitted it with Cooper AT3 all-terrain tyres before we left Yass.

It was just a stunning view at the top.  A full 360 degrees of view.  The town of Tom Price below, the Rio Tinto mine site and valleys and mountains in all other directions.  The scars on the landscape from the mining is horrendous and you wonder how much of these mountains will remain in future years.

The return was interesting as we met a few cars coming up the track.

Back to the caravan park which is really nice.  Better than I expected.

After Helen spoke with the lady in reception, we decided that instead of going back the way we came and staying at the Auski Roadhouse, we go direct to Karratha from Tom Price.  When I looked at doing this, all reports said it was 160km of average dirt road, so I discounted it.  The reception lady said she did it last weekend and it was in excellent condition and is only 80km of dirt.  All the rest is sealed.  We are booked in here for two nights so I’ll extend that another night.  That gives us an extra day to look around Karajini National Park.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s musings

An unexpected delight here today. The trip up Mt Nameless was a bit hairy in spots but so worth the drive; says me who did not actually do the driving. This area is such a big indication that we are in a country so very rich in ore deposits. The town of Tom Price reminds me a bit of Roxbury Downs as this is definitely a purpose-built mining town. Lots of great facilities for the town including multiple sports areas which were being used by kids’ sport today.

Day 41 (31 May) – Tom Price

We did the bus tour of the Rio Tinto mine this morning.  The plant was going in to a major maintenance shutdown so a lot of the plant was idle.  We drove to the pit and stopped at the lookout.  The tour guide told us that this was originally called Mount Tom Price but as most of the “mountain” is now gone it’s just called Tom Price.  Where we were standing used to be 70 metres under the mountain.  The pit itself is 800 metres deep.  The ore trucks carry 240 tons of ore at a time and the water trucks constantly spray the roads to keep the dust down.  The truck maintenance sheds are enormous.  Each service costs a fortune with 800 litres of engine oil, 600 litres of coolant, and tyres worth $40,000 each (there are 6 of them).  The tunnel loader for the ore trains can fill an entire train in 1 ½ hours and it is then taken to Port Headland for loading on ships.  Mammoth operation.

When we got back to the Visitors’ Centre we did the compulsory viewing of the Rio Tinto safety video so we could get a permit to drive the 78km of the dirt Railway Road which takes us back to Karratha.  We didn’t do much else today.  Drove out to a picnic area called Kings Lake which was rather murky.  Grounds were nice but the lake was awful and full of algae and slime.  Tomorrow we do Karijini National Park which will be a whole day as it’s some 85km from Tom Price to the closest entrance.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s musings

Wow! The tour of the Rio Tinto mine was fascinating. Each iron ore train has 240 trucks and each contains 120 tonnes of ore. The tour guide who has been in Tom Price for 16 years had so much information and I can’t remember many of the stats he told us, there were so many , but each was just amazing.

 Complaint of the Day

Michael – At the visitors centre a tourist was literally leaning over Michael to hear what the lady at the centre was telling us. So much so that I could even smell her breath. She needed a breath mint or at least needed to brush her teeth.

As Michael was going out through the door, he was nearly knocked over by a man rushing in and Michael said loudly “Thanks very much for pushing me aside!”  Ah, I had to then stop him going back in.