Boys and their Tonka Toys (this bit written by Bob!)

During the course of this blog I shall try and use examples for the Aussie readers, the Jersey Beans and the English readers in order to help you to get to grips with the latter part of our trip. Oh, and as for Ferris, my old Jersey/Canadian school buddy, you will just have to work it out for yourself!!!!

For some unknown reason I have always been hooked on that 'boys and their toys' analogy, so when the opportunity arose for Sally and I to visit the Tom Price iron ore producing mine I grabbed the opportunity. Well, who wouldn't want to, with tipper trucks the size of houses and bulldozer tyres bigger than our tour bus?! We donned our hard hats and safety glasses and boarded the bus for the drive into the mine.

The Tom Price mine operation is located in the north west of Western Australia near the Karijini National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty (located near St Ouens Manor in Jersey terms!).

"Ore-some" does not really begin to describe the scale of operations at this mine. The Rio Tinto owned mine started production back in the mid 60s and, with the foresight and endeavour of Thomas Moore Price who convinced the WA Government to realise the potential of iron ore production, it has become an incredible tribute to the man whose town bears his name.

Everything is big! As a Jersey boy, living on an island that is 14 x 8 kms, to visit a mine that is 15 x 8 kms takes a bit of getting used to (Jersey is 9 x 5 miles in English money)! Visiting the mine is highly regulated and tour buses take you around the working mine. When you stand at the viewing gallery and look into one huge hole in the ground it is simply difficult to get your head around the scale of operations to produce and export iron ore. 'Ore struck' (sorry!) but there are few words to describe the scene in front of you.

We were thrown statistics all the way around this very informative tour, all of which are difficult to get to grips with. Big Boys trucks that take up to 20 litres of fuel to travel one kilometre are just the start. Big dumper trucks costing $4.5m (£3 million approx) each, with tyres the size of buses and costing $7000 (£4500) each, shovels the size of buildings and holding over 10000 litres of fuel, it goes on and on! The Tom Price mine is only the third biggest mine in WA. Then there are the people, the housing, the shops, roads and the infrastructure to be thought about. The staff ratios at the mine are 60/40 male/female covering the General Manager all the way through to the mine staff. There are huge wide 'roads' built for the massive trucks that go around the site all day (I want to call it 'island'!) and as some of the trucks are driven by women many of the roads have been widened especially- only kidding!

And then there were the trains…….Well the trains…..

3 Diesel engines pull 256 trucks full of ron ore, which stretch 2.5 kms (1.6 miles long or West Park to just beyond Millbrook!). That is a big boys train set if ever there was one. It takes 25 hours from filling the trucks to taking them from Tom Price to the seaport and returning empty to start all over again. On average 5 trains a day leave Tom Price and, for good measure, a train drivers salary is $240,000/yr (£142,000). However, this will change as the trains are going to be fully automated by the end of this year. It will be very interesting to see how this will work.

These huge beasts of trains are then moved off around the clock to Port Hedland, 400kms away, which in turn has to handle these enormous trains. Iron ore deposits are left in mountainous piles at the port. Trains return empty back to the mine and meanwhile a procession of 'vessels' are guided in and out of the huge seaport all day and night. One of the longest vessels we saw was a mere 300m long which is three times longer than the Albert Pier berth in St Helier (still mind blowing) and about 100m longer than most cruise liners…..

Sadly for the two writers, we actually enjoyed spending time watching the boats coming in and out of the port and to be stopped at a railway crossing for over 3 minutes to watch a train trundle past you, well, try closing your eyes for 3 minutes and counting the trucks go by - it's a long time and a lot of trucks!!!!! The vessels (I can't call them boats!) take up to 4 days to load and all this from a stockpile at the docks which in turn is filled up daily from a bigger and bigger hole in the ground in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Hmmm.

But meanwhile sandwiched in between our visits to the Tom Price mining community and the industrial port of Port Hedland (not the most exciting of places!!) we managed to visit the Karijini National Park en route.

The contrasting beauty of Karijini (this bit written by Sally!)

Sadly, I also enjoyed watching the 'Big Boys Toys' at Tom Price and Port Hedland, but sandwiched in the middle of these two amazing places is a beautiful National Park. Karijini, and its red sandstone gorges, is split into two distinct areas. Unfortunately for us, at the eastern side, we could only get to a waterfall - the rest of the gorges, and the prettiest by all accounts, were only accessible by 4WD. This area was hit by flooding due to the last cyclone only a month or two ago so all the dirt roads are now really only for 4WD and some are still shut! However, the western side of the Park was available to us as the road was sealed up to the Campground and all the gorge and waterfalls could be accessed from there. The site was well laid out and we had oodles of room so we set up camp and planned our walks! Seeing as we still had a couple of hours of daylight we decided to do the short walk to Circular Pool. We viewed this from the lookout at the top of the gorge. People were swimming in the pool 100m below and we couldn't wait to do the walk through the gorge to get there the next day. Luckily for us, as it turned out, we then decided to do the walk along the top of the gorge and eventually got to another lookout overlooking Fortescue Falls where, again, people were swimming under the waterfall. The evening was spent looking up at the Milky Way and thousands of stars, and we were glad we had booked another night there.

So off to bed we went, looking forward to Fortescue Falls, a short walk to Fern Pool and then the Grade 4 hike along the bottom of the gorge to Circular Pool. Swimming stuff, water and snacks were packed before bed so we could get an early start! And then we woke up to no power - everything had been fine when we went to bed and we hadn't left anything on so we were at a loss to know what had happened. With no powered sites out in the middle of nowhere we knew our solar panels were not up to the task of recharging the battery. What do we do?! We couldn't stay another night with no power and had no phone signal to research the internet. Luckily the kind camp hosts agreed to give us our money back - most sites wouldn't have!! We moved the van from the site to the carpark and decided to do a shortened version of our planned walks. We descended hundreds of steps into the gorge to see Fortescue Falls up close. Apparently this is the only permanent waterfall in the Park! We then did the short walk to Fern Pool. This was my favourite - the water was turquoise in the sun and there was a small waterfall at the far end, very pretty! Rather than swim, which some did and it was rather cold, we stuck our feet in the water and took advantage of a pedicure courtesy of the local fish! We then walked back and ascended the gorge steps before setting off for Port Hedland, a mere 350kms away. We just had to miss the hike along the gorge bottom to Circular Pool, but we had still seen it the night before so not too much was lost.

But, oh my, the drive to Port Hedland was quite intimidating. We had been warned about the huge road-trains but these were HUGE - trucks pulling 4 trailers behind them, which we hadn't encountered before. We had read up on what to do, how to pass them safely and how to let them pass you but it was still VERY scary when they came up behind you, in readiness to overtake, and all you could see in the mirror was their radiator grille! Added to that the 'oversize' load that we managed to pass once, with the help of its escort truck, but then had to pass again after we had stopped for a coffee and our nerves were shot by the time we arrived at Port Hedland. We had two theories, neither of which worked completely. You could either put your foot down and drive at the speed limit, in which case they shouldn't ever catch you up, or drive at a slower than normal speed which meant they could overtake you more easily. Both were stressful and we had to keep a close check on what was coming up behind us! Luckily, the roads being so straight, they were quite easy to spot early.

The site at Port Hedland had space for us a day early, so that was a bonus, and they told us where to take the van the next morning. Another new battery for Winnie, this time the 'house' battery that serves all the electrics when you are stopped. The only theory that seemed credible was that the gas flame running the fridge had blown out overnight (it was windy!) and the fridge had swapped itself over to the house battery which, not being in a very good state according to the garage, had given up the ghost!

We went back to the site, dived in the pool and tried to relax. The rest is history, as they say, because Bob has already told you about Port Hedland, apart from 'The Staircase to the Moon". This phenomenon only happens for a few months of the year and then only for 3 days a month, depending on the tides. Basically the moon rises on a very low tide and reflects across the mudflats, which causes a 'Staircase to the Moon' effect. Our photos are not the best as you need a decent camera but you can get the gist! From there we drove to Broome, which involved an unpowered overnight stay. We woke up and immediately checked the electrics - all fine, phew!

By the way, Waltham is fine and still enjoying the trip from his vantage point in Winnie. He has asked to say a few words: "I'm fed up with waiting for my tucker in the arvo! Bob and Sally are giving 110% and I am 'over the moon' with my journey. Pity I'm 'croc'ked and can't get out to see my mates any more, although was scared of the dingoes, and seen loads of my mates on the roadside as roadkill! Maybe life in Winnie ain't so bad after all! I'm 'hopping' the Socceroos will do well in the World Cup!"

So here we all are in Broome and we are loving it. But that is another story for the next blog!