Day 141-144 Tom Price (via Barradale Rest Area)

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  Tom Price, Western Australia, Australia
Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Day 141-144 Tom Price (via Barradale Rest Area)               Mon 20th- Weds 23rd April 2009
Leaving Lakeside on Monday morning at 8.15am, we were overwhelmed by the numbers of campers waiting at the campground to take up position in the three spots that were up for grabs. It was like Bourke Street mall and we felt forced to pack up in a hurry. Marni and Jaime were in the group waiting patiently for the vacancies.
We stopped in Exmouth to do some more washing and grab a few groceries to get us through til we arrived at Tom Price. We planned to stay overnight at Barradale Rest Area beside the Yannarie River (a free camp), to break up the journey.
The pool in Exmouth opened at 11.30am and the kids were keen for a swim before we left. We had met the manager of the pool and his family when they stayed one night at Lakeside during Easter. Greg finalises a few jobs for the car and Engel after we did laps as the kids and I continued to swim

Barradale Rest Area

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Barradale is only 165km from Exmouth taking the Burkett Road past Giralia Station to the main highway. We stop for lunch on the Exmouth Gulf 50km out of town at a memorial site for a ship launched from that spot for World War II duty. There is no point rushing to the free camps as generally there isn't much to do at them. Ideally you arrive in time to set up and cook dinner before it gets dark.
Greg is driving more cautiously than we have the entire trip, we haven't been on the road towing for a fortnight, and he argues that he needs to ease back into our routines. Several times we stop to check the van in the first 80kms. We were also travelling slowly to ensure we didn't get to Barradale too early. The drive is uneventful except for us passing an old Mitsubishi van with a German flag flying from it, even though we are doing 80kmph max. We see them several times on this road waving each time becomes a bit of fun because of the number of times we stop! They also pull into Barradale for the night not long after we arrive.
There are sites down near the river and under decent shade and we set up here for the night. We get a fire going soon afterwards to cook our dinner on. We notice our neighbour is a bloke on his own and invite him to join us for a drink post dinner. There is nothing like an open fire, sitting around one collecting thoughts, talking of your journey to come and listening to others tell of theirs - you can't beat it

Just out of Tom Price

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Our neighbour is Steve from Emerald, VIC and is part way through a 5 month trip of several 4wd stock routes across the West including the Canning, Gibb River Rd and one up to Cooktown in QLD. Talking to Steve around the camp fire about the 5mth trips he takes every second year inspired and cemented the idea for us to complete some of these off-road adventures in the future.
Next day we enjoyed breakfast on the fire (the kids think cooking toast on an open flame is the best thing ever) and left soon after for Tom Price. We were warned of the outrageous costs at the Nanutarra Roadhouse where you are forced to get petrol on the way through, still we couldn't believe they charged $161.9 p/l, (we were paying $1.35 in Exmouth) and worse still they charged $5 for drinks no matter how small!
We stopped at House Creek Bridge for morning tea and a loo break, this stop and our lunch stop at Beasley River Rest area were also viable options for overnight stays. They were beside small rivers and have a few sites beneath tall shady trees. In hindsight we could have indeed taken our time to arrive in Tom Price but we were so low on groceries and had had enough of the exorbitant prices in "Expensivemouth" we were looking forward to shopping at a large Coles with lots of variety and reasonable prices.

Walking down to Hamersley Gorge

The lunch stop at Beasley was where we ran into the Germans again, they were cooking their lunch on the bonnet in middle of the road that led into the actual rest spot. We had to manoeuvre between their car and their friend's to enter. Greg wound down his window for some friendly banter and the bloke responded really loudly in a heavy accent with "f..k  yes!" Not exactly what we wanted the kids to hear!
Paraburdoo is the last town we pass through before Tom Price, we stop to get ice-creams and check out the town, it is a typical mining town with a population entirely linked to that industry. When we arrived at the only Caravan Park which is 5km out of Tom Price we were annoyed to find the overnight rate for our family was $44 per night, with only basic facilities and a pool. We were in need of showers, a laundry and power so we begrudgingly accepted the costs.
Tom Price is marketed as the "Oasis of the Pilbara" and the town is quite pretty with lots of grass and trees. Given the transient population, like Paraburdoo all entirely focused on mining, there were plenty of sporting clubs and extra curricula activities on offer which contributed to the great feel of the place.
Dinner was to be a treat out on the town on the first night. We asked for a recommendation from the manager of the park, drove to the pub first but found it to be not very family friendly

Swingin off rope into Hamersley Gorge

. We tried the Lodge on the hill overlooking town where every night they put on a smorgasbord mainly for the residents (all Rio Tinto employees), it's open to the public at $24 per adult head and $5 for the kids - we had found a goldmine! The kids went nuts eating and trying everything including three serves of dessert and I was even catered for as a coeliac.
Hamersley Gorge was next on our list of visits and we took off there around lunchtime the following day after doing the full grocery shop. Monique and Damien had spent time here with PJ pre-kids and Neaka rated Hamersley as a favourite. We were all looking forward to seeing our first taste of Karajini National Park. No-one was let down, we thought this place was sensational, we found a rope we were able to swing from and mucked around at the base of the waterfall for ages. We then walked further upstream to the Grotto about 500m up the gorge, it was beautiful. Knowing there were more gorges to see we couldn't imagine they would get much better than the afternoon we spent here.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the park completing chores and getting ready to move into Karajini the next morning. Greg drove the kids into town to get some coloured paper from the newsagency so they could complete a project on snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef. This focused them while I finished the blog and took the much needed time to tag photos from about 3 weeks ago

Hamersley Gorge

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Max and Greg discovered a fantastic BMX track not far from the caravan park on their morning walk/ride. Max was so impressed he made me ride with him there the final morning of our time at Tom Price. Greg stayed behind to make some phone calls, Maegan joined us even though it was a 1.5km ride just to reach it and once there the kids were racing around the challenging track for an hour! Maegan started cautiously completing sections the course slowly before putting it all together and riding confidently. The sense of achievement was clearly shown by her wide grin and fist raising "YES" when she crossed the finish line! I didn't bring my camera along and was so disappointed I didn't capture any footage of this remarkable morning activity. Greg arrived in the car to see Maegs and Max having races.
With only 1hr to spare to finish packing up and showering we are under the pump to leave on time. We are heading to Dales campground in Karajini National Park.

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Maegs with Lucy at Tom Price tourist park

Max with a massive dump truck on display

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