Geraldton to the Pilbara via Highway #95

GERALDTON TO THE PILBARA VIA THE GREAT NORTHERN HIGHWAY #95

Last year’s annual holiday was a cracker!
We decided to avoid the coastal Covid crowds and huge amount of state bound grey nomads that were swarming on areas from Kalbarri to Broome. So as an alternate option we headed inland to Wildflower country and the Granite Belt to view a less crowded part of the state.
It paid off and we had a fantastic time…..

This year was no different – huge crowds again up north and the coastal areas packed with tourists and those that had broken free of (or were staying away from) their own states Covid lockdown.
Once again we were faced with the dilemma of where to go.
We chose to go to the popular Karajini National Park but decided on an alternate route to get there by going inland and exploring the towns of Cue, Meekatharra, Mount Magnet and Newman on the way.
We had twice as long as last year to explore, but also twice the distance to cover.

This year however was going to be a lot better/easier with our new accommodation option.
Last year we simply camped in our tent and packed everything into the back of the 4WD.
This year we decided to do it with a trailer. We looked at buying a fast set-up forward-fold camper trailer but the price had skyrocketed since covid and we simply couldn’t justify the prices. We did however already have a tradie trailer that we brought new only 3 years ago as a way to transport our gear from Lorelei across to the west coast when we moved over here.
It was sitting idle in the shed gathering dust so we decided to modify it into our own version of a camper trailer with a roof top tent and bike rack. It turned out a treat and made life on the road so much better than last year.

This year’s wildflower season in the Mid West was another awesome event and in particular everyone was talking about the incredible array of Wreath Flowers at Pindar. It is only 2 hours from home so that become our first stop on the journey.

Normally there is a scattering of them along the roadside in the dirt. This year it was a thick carpet of them starting 100’s of meters along both sides of the road.

We went onto the small town of Yalgoo to look at a historical church. It would make an awesome star trail photo location but it was overcast with a full moon so we decided to leave it for another time.

As we cruised north in the late arvo, we saw a raised rocky area and a small dirt road that went around behind it. We pulled of and investigated the area and found a great place to free-camp for our first night. As we set up we had small flocks of Budgerigars flying around us. We also found a trap-door spider.

Then it was onto Mount Magnet and to explore The Granites which are a little further north past the town.

Further north is a 37km tourist drive that takes in the wildflowers, gold prospecting sites, the granite formations, a cave and the natural amphitheatre.

The town of Cue was in fabulous condition! It was clean and tidy, all the old building were mostly restored and there is a great off-road parking/lunch area for the tourists.

In the back streets is the old Masonic Building which is built almost entirely out of corrugated iron in 1899.

The Cue tourist drive took in some wildflower areas, an old hospital from the 1890's - 1940's and some more recent camel sculptures.

We decided on an impromptu stop at Lake Nallen. It didn't have a lot of water but there was enough to bring in the birds and there was some nice camping areas right on the edge of the lake. 

Additionally there were heaps of wildflowers around the camp areas.

So we decided to stop for the night.

We took a walk around the lake just before sunset and were rewarded with some great bird photo opportunities.

Sunset over the lake was fantastic.

At 6am it was bird central as the birds flocked to the water and into the trees all around our campsite.
We sat up high in the camper (which acted like a bird hide) with our binoculars and Paul's 600mm lens peeking out though the unzipped gapes in the windows.
It was awesome and we took nearly 1000 photos in 40 minutes!

We moved west to Walga Rock to view the rock art in the area. We were blown away by how much there was and the detail. It is the largest gallery in WA.
 It was very different in styles from what Paul is used to taking guests to in the Kimberley.

There were also a lot of birds in the area.

We decided to do a walk to the top of the rock. It is a huge monolith and at five km in diameter and 1.5 km in length, it is the second largest monolith in Australia - apparently....

We drove around the base and saw a lot more birds and some terrific rock structures.

We travelled north to the old Ghost Town of Big Bell.

The town of Big Bell was established in 1936 with the opening of the Big Bell Gold Mine. The town and mine thrived for almost 20 years before finally closing its doors in 1955.

The highlight is the magnificent ruins of the Big Bell Hotel which still looks impressive.

On the way to Meekatharra we found a fresh road kill on the road side and Paul tried to sneak up on the 3 Wedge Tail Eagles that were feasting on the carcass. In the end the Wedgies were wary and stayed in the nearby trees while a smaller kite came down for a feed.

Further north there were a stack of very large oversized trucks carrying mining equipment that kept forcing us to pull over as they came though with their escorts.

We got to Meekatharra pretty late in the afternoon and had only just enough time to get into Peace Gorge, find a site and set up before the sun had set.

The next morning we did an extended walk around Peace Gorge. 

The place is full of secluded little camping areas amongst the acres of rock piles that make up the landscape. The rock piles are not very tall but it is very scenic.

Towards the end of the walk Lisa found a tree with Christmas decorations on it (in September...???) and a group of 8 small gyrocopters flew over head at a very low altitude.

Before heading into town we stopped at the Meeka Lookout which overlooks the town. It has views 360 degrees.

For the rest of the day we pushed on to Newman to top up and wash up as it was the last town before heading north to Wonmunna Gorge, Mount Robertson and Karajini.

We stayed in the local caravan park for the night.
(and the only night we stayed in a caravan park for the entire trip...)

Newman's claim to fame is that it has the worlds largest iron ore mine. 
It has tours that run to the mine but they weren't running the day we were there.

The nice ladies at the Newman tourist info centre told us about an Indigenous petroglyph site that was on the way north. She said it was not often visited by tourists as its a rough 2km track into the site.

We were blown away by how many petroglyphs were in the gorge and how much detail there was. Additionally the gorge was stunning and a little oasis in the middle of a barren area.

We ended up spending hours there which delayed the day a bit. 

We didn't arrive to Mount Robertson until mid afternoon so we decided to stop there for the night.

It took us a while to find a decent camping area that was flat and had minimal ants. 

Paul did a climb up the amazing hillside that overshadowed our camp. 

The view was amazing and there was so much pure iron ore jutting out from the rocky cliff face.

 

As the temperature cooled we went for a walk up into the gorge walk.

The gorge is narrow with high sided walls and is very scenic.

We saw 2 snakes along the path.

The sunset that night was great.

The landscape on the way north to Karajini was excellent. 

The tourist info ladies also recommended another stop which was further north past the Karajini turnoff. 

It was only early in the day so we decided to push on and check it out.

The lookout is called the Albert Tognolini Lookout and was named after the guy who oversaw the construction of the road through the area.

The view down the gorge and onto the road was amazing. 

We drove further along the track past the lookout and found sa series of incredible camp spots right on the ridge overlooking the valley and down to the gorge. 

It was only early but we decided to stop for the day and explore the area and enjoy the stunning view.

We explored even further up the track with Lisa having to use low-range 4WD to negotiate the steep areas.

Late into the afternoon and evening, the colours of the valley changed.

A little further north is a roadhouse that has the closest fuel to Karajini so we took a short drive to there to make sure we were 100% full before going into the park.

The view along the 15km stretch from the lookout to the roadhouse is insanely good and Paul ended up sitting in the passenger seat on the return trip taking photos out of the window in the places we couldn't stop on the roadside.

From there we headed into the Karajini National Park.

For that section go to the Karajini Page.