Pilbara Trip - Part One

By Andrew Tyler

Thursday April 13th - Perth to Dalwallinu (3 Hours)

Setting off from home around 3:30pm the intention was to reach Wubin (about 350ks) and camp for the night.
About 70ks before Wubin it was getting a little hard to see anything around, we soon reached the town of Dalwallinu, and decided to head to the Caravan Park for an overnight stop.
The term 'Caravan Park' should be used loosely here. It consisted of a large blue metal carpark, with some surrounding cabins. The toilets/showers were surprisingly clean.
We set up the Camper Trailer in the dark (reasonably successful for the first time setting up other than the front lawn), then drove into town to find the local pub.
Now, im not sure if all country pubs are like this, but this was rough. Considering the place was full of kids, the language was appalling. We sat in the ‘Dining room’ (term used loosely once again) and had a couple of drinks while waiting for our meal. After an hour waiting, I headed to the bar to ask about our meals, and was told that they will be a while as there was a full dining room….there full dining room being about 12 people who had already eaten…
Anyway, after a reasonable meal, a rather large cockroach incident, and a floor that moved every time one of the locals walked by, we decided to head off back to camp for the night.

Friday April 14th – Dalwallinu to Kumarina Roadhouse (10 hours)

We starting packing up the camper about 7:30 in the morning to head off for a long days drive. A quick coffee and we were off, we reached Wubin and stopped to top up on fuel and coffee. It was here I got a bit of a shock when my fuel economy was about 15.5L /100 kms (later this turned out to look ok). Coffee economy was about 2 cups per 100 kms.
A couple of hours later we went through the town of Mount Magnet, then an hour later reached Cue.

On the way to Mt Magnet

Buildings in Cue

We stopped for a quick break, grabbed a drink then hit the road again.
We arrived at Meekatharra around 1:30, so decided to stop for lunch. I filled up with fuel again, this time returning over 18L / 100 kms. There were some people following us from Cue that made mention that I was blowing a bit of black smoke, I changed my air filter, continued on and watched as the Patrol blew smoke on every hill. I eventually figured out that if I just backed off the accelerator a little and slowed down to around 95kmh, the smoke all but disappeared later found that the economy returned to a more respectable sub 15’s. I put the bad economy and smoke down to some bad fuel, and bad driving, and we continued on.

It was here that the scenery really started to change and look amazing. It went from flat shrub areas to rolling mountains, with new elements every half hour or so.

We wanted to make Karijini by night fall, but this turned out impossible. About 5:30, we reached the Kumarina Roadhouse (about 180kms South of Newman), and decided to make use of the facilities there for the night. I had my first encounter here with what I later learnt to be termed ‘Toilet Frogs’. I opened the toilet door to be confronted by an army of about 40 frogs. I checked each dunny, which was covered in these little buggers. One of the toilets had the flush button missing, which I noticed when a frog disappeared down where the button was and I heard a splash.

Kumarina Road House Camp

We fired up some food, got an early night for the drive into Karijini the next morning.

Saturday April 15th –Kumarina Roadhouse to Dales Gorge, Karijini (5 hours)

We left Kumarina around 7:30, and reached Newman by about 10:30. We had a quick look around town, before heading to the shops then onto the fuel station.

Near Newman

We reached the turnoff for Karijini about 2 hours later, and continued on into the park to get to the Dales Gorge camping area. We reached the Dales camping area, paid our fees, set up camp then headed down to Fortescue falls for a swim.

Dale's Gorge Camp

Now, after seeing nothing but dry open areas and mountain ranges for the last 1500 odd kilometres, the sight of a massive water fall and deep swimming pool was not only welcome, but truly amazing. The thought that this dry part of the land could have so much water is not comprehendible. We made the climb down to Fortescue and hit the water for a good swim.

Fortescue Falls

After a swim, we headed back to camp, finished setting up, had a couple of beers, organised some dinner, then caught up with a friend of mine from work. We spent a couple of hours at their camp, had a few more drinks, a good chat about where to go and where not to, then staggered back to camp for the night.