Sunday 21- 22nd September, 2014 – 35.9c shade – clear fine sunny

How I spent my day.  Today’s my birthday, thank you to everyone for your wishes.  We spent the entire day taking it easy in our lovely camp.  It was a beautiful day in our shady grassed campsite with a breeze to keep it comfortable and cool.  It was great to stop and smell the roses, or in our case listen to nothing but the wind and birds and read our books. Days like this are good for your soul. The bower bird gave me a serenade of his mimicking a whistling kite and various other birds, a good rendition.  He had me fooled yesterday, when I actually thought that it was a whistling kite overhead. We had a cold sparkling red to celebrate.

 

Monday 22nd September 2014 -  Yule River to Albert Tognolini Rest Area. – Fine Clear Skies Warm.

What a great day!  We had the most scenic drive.  We packed our camp and headed back to the highway towards Pt Hedland for the turn off to the Great Northern Road to take us south to this campsite.

The drive was the way driving should be, the open road – not a hundred cars in front and behind and beside you.  It was a pleasurable drive with lots to look at and nobody to worry about. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again the scenery was changing to open plains and lots of boulders. Some of the rocks were marred by graffiti which is a little sad.  There were mining road trains and utilities everywhere.  Its a reminder that they are changing the landscape and mountains are disappearing with open cut mining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at Bea Bea Creek Rest Area for lunch. It was my choice for our overnight stop originally, but Glen convinced me for us to drive further so that we had less travel the following day to Karijini.

It would have been a noisy camp being close to the highway, there was a spot down the back, but I was happy with Glen’s idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were fields of these wildflowers and they looked a treat.  What a palette nature can conjure up.

The road had a few turns and we wondered how the road got through the hills, easy just cut a piece out.

We stopped and refuelled at Auski Road House.  It is the main fuel stop and is on the dirt.  Absolutely everything is covered in dust.  They have a motel, restaurant and caravan park.  You think it would be worth their while to bitumen their area as the road outside is bitumen.  We bought a photographers book on Karijini with great photos and mud maps of where to go. 

We reached the turn off to the rest area.  It was in quite a way from the highway which is good.  We decided we would drive the camp ground and find a good spot.  We passed a bus and trailer and then further on we found our neighbours from De Grey River who almost camped on top of us there.  We said Hi to them in Port Hedland and here they are again.  We were thinking of camping right next to them (only kidding).  The road travelled on and was now only for single vehicles or with camper trailers or the brave.  We have taken the last camp spot.

 

View of the highway from the Albert Tognolini look out.  The rest area was dedicated to him in 2007 (he was 80) he basically rose through the ranks with main roads and had a hand in developing the northern infrastructure. 

 

This is Munjina East Gorge 

 

 

Heading up the mountain to the “scenic” view camp spot.  We are about 2 kms from the rest and about 300 metres higher.

 

 

 

 

At the top, thank goodness it is flat with room to put up the trailer.  When we stopped and got out of the car, we could hardly contain ourselves – what a spot, what a view :)  The ground is rocky but they split in layers and are flat.  We put down a double layer of shade cloth to pad the soft floor.  This area has enough for a vehicle turn around and a flat area to camp. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are on a small ridge with a drop either side above (L) view to the right and above (R) view to wake up with (from inside the trailer).  We walked further up the mountain this afternoon and you could easily take a 4wd right to the top (without the trailer).  There is a link between gorges which is a road wide.  It doesn’t seem like anyone has tried it, but it seems like no problems.

Yes, that’s our car and campervan parked on the top. We are protected from the wind that is hitting the campers below and coming up the side of the gorge. A 5 Star view.  There is a gorge coming in either side behind this rocky outcrop in the front of the photo, leaving a road width wedge to walk to the higher portion of the mountain.  It looks like a lot of space at the top, but there isn’t as it is all sloping away from the top.  Our little spot is one of the very few flat spots.

 

 

 

 

 

The other vans are down below half down from the top of the photo and a 1/4 the way in from the left on the flat. 

It was an easy walk to the very top with 360 degree views all round.  All the ridges run on to one and another, it would be fun to see where you could go, but it would be expensive if you ooopsy’d.

We came across the most beautiful goanna that I have ever seen at the top.  His face was basically cream with intricate patterns all over.  He would have been about just under a metre.  Unfortunately, he made himself scarce quite casually, but quickly, and was facing the wrong way leaving for a photo.

It will be a cool night tonight, I think, extra blankets at this height. (872 metres)  :)