just about right now……………………

From the industrial area of Port Headland we have first driven out of town to fill up the water tanks at an excellent facility, by the airport, provided by the Shire.

From here we have to retrace our steps and head back down the highway for a couple of hundred ks before turning off onto the back road to Marble Bar and another eighty or so ks to a campsite called Tambina Creek. It’s not a large site but we appear to have it ourselves at this stage.

Sadly there is no water in the creek but the creek bed is very interesting as there is a substantial rock barrier downstream of the campsites, which when the water is running would create a fairly deep pool for the camping area.

Pat went exploring and met a large bull contemplating life in the shade!  Roger explored about 500ks upstream but found only a few puddles in the  creek which is a pity ‘cos it would be a very nice spot when full.

This looks like a small tomato but apparently they are poisonous.

… and a pair of White winged Trillers.

One afternoon a couple of mine-site utes went past and we wondered where they were thinking of going as we’d walked up there and hadn’t noticed any tracks.   Then we heard the sound of metal on rock and several periods of high revs.    Eventually they went past us again rather more slowly!

We’ve had a couple of very quiet days here but are now moving on to a place we’ve been several times before.

The Albert Tognolini Rest Area is at the top of Munjina Gorge and, unusually, has a large number of pretty level free campsites, many with wonderful views down the gorge to the highway.   As luck would have it, we can have the same site as we had last time. 

The wind can be quite strong up here so getting the caravan door facing in the right direction is important.

The following day a caravan managed to park unnecessarily close, (roughly where this photo was taken from), then unbelievably the driver asked if he could squeeze his mate from South Australia in between us! This would have prevented me from getting out of our site!   I pointed out that there were plenty of other sites available, one within 6 metres on the opposite side to me! Then he was complaining that the site wasn’t level and he’d had to use a wedge which had made his doorstep too high!!!

The road through Munjina Gorge has a steep incline impacting on the heavy vehicles, in particular the 60 meter long iron ore trucks, which have go very slowly going down when they are full and if they don’t get a run at it, very slowly on the way even when they’re empty!

We’re planning the trip home. We need to shop and top up with water, we can do this in Tom Price, then we can take a few days to get to Mt Augustus and see what the temperatures are like.

The main concern is the weather, particularly in terms of the nighttime temperatures, it was cold enough on the way up but by the end of August / September they should be creeping up a bit!    We want to go, what we call, down the middle, which takes us into wildflower country at this time of year.

We do all the things that need doing and look for somewhere to stay for the night. Pat finds a place out of Tom Price and past the caravan park on Nameless Valley Drive, named Tiger Eye Creek. It is down on a dry creek bed but we stop at the top so that Roger can decide if we can get the caravan down the track (or more to the point back up again), the last bit of which is quite steep. but it is rocky rather than sandy so we should be OK.

We have a look round when we get to the bottom and pick a spot to park. There are quite few options but we are happy where we are.

Some of the parking spots are on the top of the ridge but we are happy to walk up rather than drive!

The scenery surrounding Tiger Eye Creek videod from one of the ridge top parking spots and you can see a Landcruiser camped on another one further round.

In the creek beds the rocks and soil gets scoured away from the tree roots some are twisted into interesting shapes, this one’s for you Ron!

We’re back to trip planning but the bad news is that there’s rain on the way which may prevent us from travelling the route that we planned as the Shires close the dirt roads when they are likely to get wet. This is mainly to prevent people from getting into trouble from flooded creek crossings to soft wet red dirt.

Ironically, we are now in the same position as last year year, stuck at Tom Price waiting for the roads to open. This time we have 3 days of rain at least to sit out so we book a site at Tom Price caravan park to ensure power when the solar panels aren’t charging.

We had finished some shopping in Tom Price and looking for a coffee shop when we bumped into our friends (fellow travellers) Gary and Vikki. They were doing the same as us, weather watching. It turns out that our intentions were to use the same route for the first part of the trip south and so perhaps we could travel together. We had lunch together and decided to catch up later after we’d looked at the weather prospects. We have time to wait and see what the weather is going to do but they are on a tighter schedule. So they left that afternoon hoping to get ahead of the next rain.

We talk early the next day and they have opted to go down the coast road.

We will give it a couple of days and then make a decision.