A day trip into this national park uncovered more breathtaking scenery enhanced by wild flowers covering the escarpments & bordering the road edge. The narrow winding road across the the ranges was a mass of flowers.
The colours of the Pilbara vary from these soft pastels to the vibrant rocks in the ore bearing country.
Some interesting shapes remain after the weathering of the land breaking into the horizon of the vast plains.
As the photo shows there is more spinifex grass spread across the otherwise barren land. This is all that grows in this hard ground.
These piles of rocks look for the world like someone has piled & stored them for future use. This type of landscape is common & often the mountains are nothing more than stacks of rocks like this.
More red dust & it is like talcum powder, gets into ever nook & cranny. Tone has spent some time trying to remove it from the car just so he can collect more on the next trip!
Python pool was a little oasis with clear clean water accessible from a sandy beach.
Looking back towards the area where the above photos were taken. The "booby" mountain is in the back ground.
The colours over here change all the time as you travel towards or away from the ranges.
Some of the wild flowers that seem to love this harsh ground. It's amazing that there is such a variety of colours & flower form, although mauves & pinks predominate.
While we came across Sturts Desert Pea over much of the Pilbara nowhere was it more prolific than in this park.
The park takes its name from a property that operated here, part of the settlement by Europeans for over 100 yrs in the area. Men & women trying to eke out a living in this hostile environment with cattle & sheep, so removed from any familiar way of life.
The unusual shaped kitchen building is separate from the homestead in case of fire from the wood stoves. You can see the lovely wide verandas sheltering the thick walls of the house from the extreme temperatures of summer.
A big old wood stove dominates the end wall of the kitchen, big enough to feed the family & stockman. Much of the original eqipment, pots, pans etc, has been left here from when the kitchen would have been a hive of activity cooking up the stores of flour, sugar, meat & their home grown produce.
While this area looks barren & dry there is a huge underground aquifer & the homestead had the advantage of plenty of water for their use. In its hey day the property boasted large gardens & lawns, fruit trees, a swimming spot & tennis court. The lily lagoon is behind the home & small pools of spring water chain together to form a tropical oasis.
Fan palms were planted around the ponds & still thrive today. This homestead would have been a popular respite for travellers from the dusty inhospitable plains.
The property is situated on the escarpment with the Fortescue River carving its way through in the gorges below. The river is actually only about 20 mts to my right but 50 mts below the sheer edge. Large sections of the cliff are crumbling & falling, evidence of nature still at work carving the landscape in a never ending process.
The road home produced yet another vehicle roll over . Speed or avoiding wildlife at night the usual cause. Other vehicles ( & there are many) are simply abandoned after running out of fuel or ditched because of mechanical failure.
Both WA & NT are home to many of these unloved cars, sitting rusting in the bush or on the side of the road.
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