Today we drove up the western side of the park to visit Hamersley Gorge. Not much of it is accessible but the part that is was glorious. We arrived there early morning and the sun was sparkling on the water. The walls were the best examples we have seen of folding in the rocks and the range of colours was extraordinary. Some limestone was present giving a white colour and some of the rocks were pink which had been caused by the organic action of ancient rainforests on the underlying rocks.
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| Hamersley Gorge |
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| Hamersley Gorge |
We also made a quick trip to Mt Bruce though we did not climb to the summit, just up about 200 metres above the plain to get a good view in all directions. One of the sights in view was the Marrandoo open cut mine. Hamersley Iron have been permitted a rail corridor through the park and the mine is at the western end of it. The iron bearing rocks are crushed then taken to Dampier for shipment to China where the smelting takes place. We watched a couple of trains make their way slowly across the plain. The trains are 2 km long and when fully laden weigh 20,000 tonnes. I am glad we didn't have to wait for one to pass on the rail crossing.
Having coated the car with more red dust we decided not wash it, but John had to take it to a mechanic to get the fuel filters replaced. A lot of the diesel available in the outback is contaminated for some reason so the filters clog up really quickly.
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| Cheeky galah at our campsite |
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