It was a nicer drive out to the highway than when we came in - there wasn't any rain today - Yahoo!!!
There are lots of termite mounds on Onslow Rd , they are a dark colour and looked good against the green shrubbery .
There's a lot of contrasting vegetation here , some looking very sparse after being burnt in recent fires , red rocky ground , other covered in spinifex grass and small trees , then you come across a10m high gum tree beside the road !
We went from coastal plains to ridges & mountains , then back into flat plains that stretch to the horizon .
It almost looks like someone has run a grader over the ground - it is flat and stoney with very little soil , just spinifex in clumps .
The biggest thing about todays drive is the amount of water around the place , creeks have water in them - which is amazing in itself - they are usually dry , stoney and dusty !!
The Pilbara seems to be one big iron ore deposit wherever you look . The highway goes over a bridge so that big tip trucks can have their own road to transport the ore around - wonder how much that cost to build ???
With the rain of late , the spinifex has gone to seed and has a soft look to it ( looks can be deceiving though )
White gum trees stood out against the dark red iron ore .
Before long , we started to notice some water on the sides of the road , gradually that increased to large puddles , then on the floodways , water was encroaching onto the roadway - in some places you had to wait for the oncoming traffic to pass before you could go on the wrong side of the road to dodge the water .
We found out later that the road to Paraburdoo and Tom Price had been closed by flooding !! That would have caused some chaos with travel plans for some people I'm sure !!!
With all the rain we decided to be very choosy as to where and when we would pull off the road , the sides of the road looked to be rather wet & muddy judging by some car & truck wheel ruts left in the mud !!
Approaching Fortescue River , we came towards a set of ridges with rocky outcrops of dark red rock, iron ore obviously !! We went past the roadhouse and the huge mining camp behind it , pulling over near the start of the bridge , before walking down to the river itself . It wasn't flowing , just a large pool of water about 400m long and 40m wide . There were fish feeding in the shallows - probably carp - they all scooted to deeper water as I got closer .
You can see what some rain does to the country , with new grass shooting all over the place .
After leaving the river , the rain had found us again as we got closer to the coast again . On the way we passed 2 gas plants - that's one of the big industries up here ( that and iron ore ) , and there's a pipeline that runs all the way down to Bunbury !!
Before we knew it we were at the turnoff to Karratha , so said goodbye to the highway for a while , and headed in to town and found our park for the next few days - not sure how long we will be here for , as there appears to be lots of things to do & see !! We will see how it goes and also what the weather does - it seems to be following us at the moment !!!
That's it for today , here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LunqUzsQszj40POtn177CxjCHFs&usp=sharing
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