The day's drive took me to Paraburdoo, a tiny mining town featuring a giant dump truck and the Para Burger Bus, where I stopped to make phone calls & check the stock market before going in to the wilds of Karijini and the Pilbara region. An Indonesian woman about my age emerged from the sinister looking burger bus, desperate for a chat ("we don't see many ladies out here"). She was very sweet and wanted to know if I needed anything; we talked for a while about how long she'd been in Paraburdoo & how the burger bus business was going. I am voting it as The Loneliest Burger Stand in the World. Thank god it was not actually open (too hot during the day) or I would have been forced to order something & possibly eat it.
From "Para" onwards the road was incredibly busy with mining vehicles - white Patrols, service trucks and huge 4-section road trains. Ian's 4WD has a CB radio so I had heaps of fun listening to the "road chat" and getting the hang of radio etiquette. If you're stuck behind one of the monster road trains, the driver will radio you to let you know you're safe to pass; it's all "mate" this and "mate" that - "Yearh green Patrol yer right to go now mate I'll keep er at 80 for yer mate" "Thanks mate" "No worries mate". On one long section the truckies were getting bored and clicking their mics open so you could hear silly things they were playing on their stereos; I got a few blasts of Rolf singing "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Mate".
On past Tom Price, another mining town - a tiny oasis in the desert, surprisingly pretty, and unbelievably busy with mine workers everywhere. Surrounded by ironstone mountains and ranges, the colours are incredible, with the sage greens of spinifex against the deep red earth, blue sky and the stark white of the gum tree trunks. I came across a family broken down at the side of the road and did the traditional WA thing - "You right mate?" "Yeah, wheel bearing mate" - pulling over to see if they wanted to use the CB, get a lift or have a message taken. They were fine & stocked up with water. I am pretty sure that by the end of the day they would have been fed up with the number of people stopping to help, as there was an onslaught of grey nomads heading out of Karijini.
The endless kilometres rolled by as I gunned the Patrol in order to meet the 3:00 pm meeting time with Ian. At this point I should mention that there was only one CD in the car, Kris Kristofferson's Country Hits, which kept getting stuck halfway through Bobby McGee "...me and Bobby McGee me and Bobby McGee me and Bobby McGee Gee Gee Gee Gee Gee") so I was desperately hoping that Ian's directions ("about 50 km past the railway tracks, take the mine road, go to the T-junction") would prove to be accurate & I could stop driving & run screaming into the bush never to hear Kris Kristofferson ever again. I didn't want to be late as the mine crew were dropping Ian off in the middle of godforsaken nowhere in 40 degree heat and I didn't want to find a dessicated corpse with an empty water bottle in its hand.
Now in the thick of the Rio Tinto and BHP iron ore mining region it was satisfying to see them all working hard to boost our stock market shares by digging up entire mountains ready to be shipped to China and Japan. Ian's directions were perfect and his mine boss intercepted me on the track with Ian in the truck, where I made a huge impression by revealing my esky full of ice cold beer. The mine guys agreed that my epitaph will one day say, "SHE BROUGHT COLD BEER!". Ian took over the driving and we headed down the road into the most beautiful place in the world.
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| Ironstone ranges rise up on the approach to Paraburdoo |
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| Paraburdoo tourist attraction |
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| The scary Para Burger Bus |
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| Ian (on the right) and John at the pickup point - everyone you see in the Pilbara is dressed like this |
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| Cheery tourist rest area as you head towards Karijini |
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