Alan & Lyn's Huge Adventure: 26/7/19 Doo to doo doo

After an excellent time in Karijini , we leave to go to Tom Price to get some fuel before continuing on to Paraburdoo . Now Paraburdoo is a mining town , as is Tom Price , but has beautiful green grass parks & footpaths , an IGA supermarket and a few other shops and lots of fly in fly out accomodation. There's also a drive in movie next door to where we ares staying - we got to listen to a movie !!

We decided to stay here for 3 nights , because we could , and check things out . There's some beautiful mountains around the place and one that has an antenna & assorted aerials on it , that would provide some excellent views .

Next day we caught up with washing & getting rid of some of the dust & dirt from the van before going for a drive around . A gravel road took us west beside a ridge line and past some of the mine - we will be seeing a bit of the mine today . The mine is mostly hidden from view on the other side of the ridge , except for these tippers parked out on the flats .

The spoil piles are interesting , with a range of different colours .

Further up the road was a recreation area - a dam with water in it , but not much - continuing on we came across a river crossing - a dry one - but we also had another track going off into the river bed . We took it and soon we were in 4wd and going slowly over rocks and tree roots . Next we found a tree across the track - damb ! but there's always a way around , someone else had driven around the tree and continued on , so did we . It took some walking along the track to see whether we could keep going or not , we edged closer to somewhere , not sure what yet ?
After walking another section I decided we'd turn around and take another track off to the side - it lead us to a gate - Hmmmm - time to get the drone out to see where it goes . Surprise , surprise , about 20 m from the gate was the gravel road again hahaha , ah well just have to fly the drone for a bit and get some aerial shots of this beautiful area .

This is looking back toward town on the left and mine .

This was the river bed we were driving in amongst , the track we would have come out on is on the right of the trees .

Heading back into Paraburdoo , this was the view .

Now all of you people that put a cross on your maps , please stop , we found it - X marks the spot !!

The iron ore is trained out to Wickham - Cape Lambert loader . One empty on the left and one being filled on the right .

We found another track that would take us up to the towers and a great view . It took us out & about , past the rifle club and headed up into a gorge - things were looking up - down a hill , around a corner and we started to climb , only to find a bloody gate with a couple of huge padlocks and a sign saying no access - BUGGER - access is for mine employees or tower people only !!

Ah well , back for a nice sunset and a quiet beer , another good day .

This is Paraburdoo Golf Course , not a blade of grass in sight - you tee off on artificial grass , and the greens are sand , fairways are dirt !!

On the eastern side of town is a statue , called Resilience , it was made by the local mens shed and an explosives expert . They actually formed the curved steel by explosion , at the top is a piece of the local Hematite rock and the chain sections are pieces of tyre protecting chains used on some machinery in the mines . It has all been welded together and it resembles a tyre on one of the loaders and it is the same height as the tyres about 4m high , and very impressive !!

We went for a drive out to the airport - Rio Tinto owns it - there were 4 flights in and out today and there would have been at least 200 cars & trucks - all mining specs , parked ready for the workers , and that doesn't include the ones that get to Tom Price via coach - very busy spot around plane times !!
Leaving Paraburdoo the next day was an interesting drive - it's pretty much down hill all the way to the coast - which is about 300 kms away .
The mountains on the way out proved interesting , with zigzag patterns in the rock & spinifex .

We stopped for lunch on part of a flood plain , so I thought perfect opportunity for a drone shot or 2 .

White quartz gravel and red & orange dirt made for an interesting combination .

Whilst flying I found there was one of the local wedge tail eagles circling up , so a tactical retreat was called for , the eagle decided the drone might have been a nice meal and flew off chasing it . I stopped the drone and as the eagle approached , I flew it straight up vertically , straight past the eagles beak - it just about broke it's neck looking at the drone going upwards , then decided not to waste any more time chasing it - thankfully !!
Colours are amazing .