Trip to the Pilbara

Thursday afternoon we set off for one of Glenn's mining leases in the Pilbara region of Western Australia . He needed to collect some samples for analysis. It is about 12 hours drive north of where we live.
Once again, it is going to be a quick trip so we throw the few important things into the Land Cruiser; food, water, dog and get going. Glenn's important things are maps, compass, GPS, satellite phone, book to record findings, geopick, etc. My important thing was my fly net!!

I usually sleep so soundly in my swag and the first night I certainly did just that. The second night, however, I was sharing my swag with some dear little ants who wanted to get cosy with me. By about 2am I'd woken a third or fourth time (lost count) and must have disturbed Glenn as he asked me what was wrong. He passed me the personal insect spray and I said, "What? Spray my whole body??" He replied with the obvious answer which escaped me that time of the morning, "No, just the edge of your swag." tut.
By Friday mid-morning we are almost at our destination and we turn off the highway. Then begins the slow and arduous drive across rough terrain, clonking and bumping over loose rocks at 3kph. Even though the tyres are built for this type of environment we still have to avoid spikes of dead trees. When a bushfire goes through areas like this and trees and shrubs are burnt, after a while all that is left are stakes sticking out of the ground. Drive over one of these at the right angle and ptshhhhhhh!

We had two and a half punctures in all. Glenn said that many a time after crossing some rough country he's woken up in the morning to find a couple of tyres have gone down overnight with slow punctures. Needless to say, he always carries spares and tools.

Here is Glenn in his element.

Lots and lots of nothingness, for miles and miles and miles.

When I was young and used to walk my dog across the fields and through the local woods for hours on end I used to try to find places where I thought no one had ever set foot before. In Surrey? In England? I don't think so. But it was fun to imagine that I had found that very untouched place. Here, however, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I have placed my feet where no man or woman has ever stepped before, ever. You can do that alot in Australia. It's so vast.

These were interesting. Not placed there by man but by nature.



No flies on Helen !!

I have never seen so many flies in all my life.

And just for the record - neither had Glenn and he's been coming to the outback for years!


This is Glenn making a phone call with the satellite phone.


We see some magnificent skies out here.
Wildlife trails
Even though we'd driven a long way towards the lease, we had to do a fair bit of hiking to get to the locations where Glenn wanted to take samples. It was impossible by vehicle. One of the easiest ways to walk in these areas is to follow the wildlife tracks. They are so defined you would think they were manmade for tourists but they're not. The animals, mainly kangaroos here, all stick to the same route and over time the loose rocks get knocked out of the way leaving just a dusty track which is easier for all to use, including us.

A passing kangaroo took this photo for us.

It will always amaze me how anything survives out here - animal or vegetable. It is all so arid and hostile. I came across these lovely lavender-coloured bells.

Bird's nest
We don't see any parrots out here, probably because there isn't anything for them to eat, I suppose. But there are quite a few little insect-eating birds here and I can guarantee there's plenty of that sort of food to keep them going!

At another location we came across an area of Devil's Dice. Above you can see how they can be lodged within rock. Below are some we collected that had broken away.

Miles and miles of nothing. And the sky goes on for ever and ever.

On returning to Perth a weather trough produced a spectacular sky, a storm we could watch in the distance complete with fork lightning and this rainbow.