Day 48 05/08/2013 Mt Robinson to Karijini NP, and also to Tom Price.
It was very quiet in the night, (I know because I was awake a lot!), but around 5 am, the road trains were on the move again. We were up by 6am and enjoyed the sunrise and also some butcher birds, both adult and juveniles, who came to beg some breakfast!!! I took some photos of the sun as it lit up the surrounding cliffs and then we packed up and were on our way by 7.30am. We only had an hour's drive to reach the NP, but arriving late yesterday afternoon would not have been the best plan in terms of securing a good campsite. We knew that there were showers at the visitor centre, so we headed straight there. Unfortunately it did not open until 9 am so we drove to the campground instead. Because this NP is very popular, the campground is run quite efficiently, (or do I really want to say officiously???!!!), in that you are assigned a particular site based on the type of camping....caravan/camper trailer/ motorhome/ tent etc. and also whether or not you are using a generator. So of course we asked for the 'no generator' area. We have a very nice spot at the end of a loop, so it is quite private. It's first in best dressed when it comes to site allocation, so we were glad we had arrived early.
After setting up camp we decided to head back to the visitors centre to have a shower, (no showers in the campground), and then drive, (I was doing the driving today), to some of the gorges and waterfalls. After three days in the bush, a shower was very welcome!
Now I have to digress a little. Yesterday Dave had noticed a strange smell in the car and thought it might be some fruit going off, or the onions he had bought. I couldn't detect the smell as well as he could, and we didn't do anything about it. He was still mentioning it this morning however, and when we parked the car at the first gorge, he again urged me to help him try to find the source of the odour.....a bit like rotten eggs, he said. There was no odour coming from the fruit, nor was it the onions! He then turned his attention to the engine of the vehicle........lo and behold the battery which runs the fridge was in the process of blowing up.....literally. Gas was sizzling out of it......most likely hydrogen sulphide.....hence the rotten egg smell! Thank goodness for Dave's good sense of smell! We quickly disconnected the battery and taped up the terminal so that it couldn't contact anything and cause a spark!!! The Park Ranger happened to be nearby and we spoke to him about it. We also asked if it was likely we could get a replacement battery in Tom Price...about an hour or so away. He recommended a place. So....after taking a quick look at Kalamina Gorge (very pretty) we headed to town!

We were fortunate that we didn't have to wait while the problem got sorted.....a new battery was put in....we got separated from a few hundred dollars....and we were on our way!! After taking a few photos, eating a late lunch, we headed back to the NP. About halfway back we came across a vehicle parked on the brow of a hill, on our side of the road, with a guy on the road motioning for us to stop. He directed us into a nearby parking bay and said that we would have to wait because two very wide loads were coming through. We listened to the UHF chatter and learned that the loads were 7m wide.....two mining rigs....travelling to Tom Price. The reason we had to wait, (there were several vehicles waiting in the end), was that each of these wide loads was so heavy that they they had to be towed up a steep hill with no hard shoulder to allow other traffic to pass! The first rig came through, (I took photos.........for the grandsons, of course!), and then it formed a road block while the escort vehicle went back for the second. The towing vehicle was called 'The Pilbara Brute'! All in all it took about 20 minutes and then we were on our way.
Just opposite the western entry to the NP we took a 3km detour to the foot of Mt Bruce, the second highest peak in WA (1235m). We took a 500m walk to where, (in the distance), we could view the Marrandoo mine site. Then we headed back to camp and relaxed until dinner time. We cooked our steaks on the communal gas BBQ. (No campfires are allowed). The temperature dropped very quickly and it was quite a cold night. The stars were amazingly beautiful and the Milky Way was very prominent.

Footnote: when we are travelling on outback roads, we often have our UHF radio on. The road train drivers give out useful information, and they use the channel responsibly,(unlike drivers in the city where foul language seems to be the norm). We have been amused in the past to hear ourselves, (and other cars), referred to in truckie parlance as a 'little one', or 'LV' .......we assume for light vehicle. Camper-van rentals are called 'Hurtling Hertz', and today we learned a new 'handle'.....the mining 4WD vehicles with their sand flags, are known as 'Wobblies'.....we assume most likely because of how the flags wobble about on the top of the vehicles!