Mia Mia Hotel Newman

... the sun was setting.

On the way there Louise also had the pleasure of spotting the first live kangaroos despite having driven over 2000km by this stage - we had seen plenty of roos (as they are known over here) though all of them were lying on the road in bits being scavenged by birds as road kill. Trust us kangaroos must be in the running for being the world's animal with the least amount of road sense. Unfortuately I missed the whole thing as I was catching 40 winks....

ok so we were only in newman for the one night, but between dipping into the odd pub to ask for directions, and stopping to pick up a chinese takeaway, after driving for the whole day, we found out everything we needed to know about this backwater town!

... waterfalls and enticing swimming holes. And just for effect, the mountains were illuminated by rapid forks of lightning in the evening skies as we approached The colours of this park took me totally by surprise: where the Kimberley was a dramatic oil painting, the Pilbara is more a gentle watercolour, the rough red rocks still forming the backdrop but the colours diluted with the pale green of the hummocks of spinifex grass which cover ...

Week 14 - Newman Tuesday 2nd September 2008 We had a nice few days in Karijini. We managed to do a lot of walking even though we only covered half the park. The tracks and gorges in there are really spectacular. The road to the west side of the park was very corrugated and, as we had been there before we decided that we didn't really need to go again. The ...

... Never mind live and learn. Karijini has lots of beautiful gorges, most with water in the bottom, some accessible via rock steps and ladders, we went down to the bottom of one about 100 mtrs deep. We were going to stay about 4 days but after one day we were gorged out and the dust was very bad, affecting Marcia's asthma. So another 60 kms of dusty rough roads to get out, our van is not built for those roads as ...

Lorraine has made friends with a ginger pussy at the CP in Newman and they are chatting while I am typing. Or is it a white cat that has gone orange because of the dust. Yes we have made it to Newman, home of the world's largest open cut iron ore mine. Reckon I could easily get a job here. Will see how much they pay tomorrow. The supermarket is advertising for checkout chicks, so Lorraiune can get a job there. Nice tidy town for a mining town ...

... it. We arrived just before sunset and only got a small glimpse of what the park had to offer. We camped for the night and got up very early the next morning for a trek down into Dales Gorge. The sheer depth and size of the gorge was amazing. The gorge was full of plants, flowers, reptiles, and a few insects. The recent rain had brought everything to life including the beautiful waterfalls. Our first stop was the appropriately named Circular ...

Factoid of the day: Whale sharks are the biggest of the sharks, up to 18 metres (60ft) long! Don't worry they don't eat divers.... Abstract: Left Newman for the glorious Pilbara region, all stocked up with fuel, camped over night at Wirra Munna, a waterhole with Aborigonal Art, arrived at Karijini NP and set up camp at Dales Gorge. Hiked to circular pool, Fortescue Falls and had a swim under a waterfall in Fern pool. Moved on to Joffre and Knox Gorges with more great hikes, waterfalls and ...

Factoid: Corrugations make your car sound as if you've stuck the cutlery tray in a tumble drier & loosen your fillings Abstract: Palm valley with ancient cycads and ferns that exist only there and no other ferns for 1000km; Hermansberg mission for scones and cream; climbed Mount Sonder in the West Macdonald ranges; Roadtrains and eagles feeding on roadkill on the Tanami Track; got soaked letting the tyres down as we turned off the Tanami and onto the Gary Junction Road west of Alice - the ...

... points above the gorges. Quite an impressive view, but we wanted to go exploring! First to Handrail Pool in the Weans Gorge. It started out as a "track" (easy walk, suitable for most), then changed to a level 1 route: for experienced, fit walkers. Trails may be unmarked and go over steep, slippery and unstable surfaces. Few, if any, improvements have been made. We followed the level 1 route (at times quite difficult) down to handrail pool. There ...