We were up at 6am and on the road at 7:30am. The brumbies were awaiting our return and this time we had apples for them. For wild horses they’re pretty tame. A short stop at the wreck of the SS Mildura soon had us at Exmouth. A chance drop in at the local bottle shop saw us replenish our stock at prices equivalent to home. A slab was about $43 compared to the $56 that I’d paid in Coral Bay. Needless to say we now have more beer than available storage … not that that problem will last long out here. It’s warmer than the 30 degrees the thermometer suggests.
Another short stop to grab a few items at the supermarket and yet another stop at the Big Prawn saw us leave the Exmouth area at about 10:30. With a total of 700km to go today we weren’t off to a real good start. It’s not possible to ignore prawns at $14 a kilo though and we grabbed 3 kilos. They’re now taking up precious beer room in the Engel, so their days are seriously numbered.
Tucking into the meat of the days drive saw us make good progress on good roads. It wasn’t long before the scenery changed to indicate our entry into the Pilbara region. Instead of flat scrub land, we now had flat scrub land with lots and lots of little mountains of boulders to pique our interest. There was also a hint of what the Simpson desert crossing must be like with oodles of big red sand dunes to contend with. It was bitumen all the way for us though, with the ruggedness whizzing by off to the side.
The little mountains gradually turned into bigger ones and ultimately huge ones as we climbed our way into Tom Price. At Nanutarra Roadhouse, the halfway mark, I topped up with fuel … for $1.90 a litre. Bargain!
There’s two ways into Tom Price. The hard, short way and the long, easy way. The short way was my plan. It involved about 60km of unsealed road but was about 80km shorter than the alternative. Decisions, decisions! The choice was made much easier when a bus pulled into Nanutarra that had just done the hard way and had to repair 7 out of 8 tyres along the way. We took the long way…
Good road all the way that took us via Paraburdoo. There we got to check out a giant Terex mining truck up close. Mighty impressive and I’m sure they’ve only got bigger and badder since this one finished its duties in the 80’s.
We pulled into Tom Price Tourist Park just on sundown. A 700km trek. A bit of a hike at 90km/h but we’re getting used to it now. Kel did a stint behind the wheel and put in 3hrs. She even managed to pass a few other vans going our way without causing any damage, nor even a heart flutter, for anyone concerned. The kids were fantastic on this arduous leg too. Blake had a good sleep and Hannah amused herself the whole way. We barely knew that they were there, apart from the smell. We hadn’t had a proper shower for a few days after all.
Dinner was Tortellini, Kel style … which meant it was Yum!
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