Riding around Australia on my solo motorcycle camping adventure in Karijini NP S2 Episode 17

After spending the morning exploring and swimming in Hammersley Gorge, I got back on the road to get to the camping spot in Karrachini National Park. A water truck was coming towards me with its water on. I mean, I could probably do with a shower after traveling on these dusty roads, but I might skip this one. Luckily the truck driver turned the water off so I could pass without getting wet. Back through the roadworks. To my left I could see that amazing ridge I spotted on the way to Hammersley Gorge, so I took a side track to find somewhere I could get a better look. I couldn't find a name for the ridge. I like the thought that it's nameless, just another formation in this vast landscape. It's probably been here for hundreds of thousands of years and will be here for hundreds of thousands more. I'm guessing it's probably part of the Hammersley Range. I'm not sure you can get different degradation on each side of a dirt road, but it seems so much rougher heading back, so I pulled over and let some air out of the tyres to try and reduce the constant battering. While I was off the bike I checked the gear to see if it had loosened up, but all was good even on this rough road. So I got on and continued along the dirt road hoping it would be a little smoother with the tyre pressure down. It had been so rough even my mirrors had been rattled out of place. I made the turn off into the National Park. You know you're about to hit a dirt road when you see the other lane going in the other direction turn the colour of the red dirt. Well this is the campground. It is as hard as rock. It's gonna be fun to put the tent up but there's no real weather so a few rocks and we'll solve that problem. I was told there's some amazing gorges and pools about 40km away on a dirt track so that's probably an hour and there's some really nice ones just here. So I'll race over there now and do those and then come back to these in this afternoon or evening and then the morning. I'll just do these and don't worry about them. Decisions. I'll set up camp first I think. Find some big rocks. You should see my pants. There are. There's a lot of red bulldust all over them. The joys of riding in the dirt. The back of the bike's got a bit of it. That stuff's going to be everywhere for weeks. She's warm too. It's probably 28, 30. I mean warm for winter. It's not warm. It was back out with a solar panel and battery again to charge up. I've had to go for a wander. I can't find any big rocks. Oh and by the way dingoes are an issue here. They said if you leave anything that smells like food I'll take it. You leave out boots especially nice leather ones. I'll take one. You'll never see it again. So as always my boots go in the tent because of that reason and yeah no food outside the tent. There were a few quite large termite mounds near the campsite. This one's probably twice as tall so 11 and 12 foot range. So I did find some rocks for the tent. Yeah probably won't help if there's a breath of wind. With the camp set up I walked over to check out the gorge. Now this is what you call a gorge. This is Dales Gorge in the Karragini National Park which is in Australia's Pilbara region. So I thought I might as well do the short walk around the rim. Well go around the rim on the you just send 250 stairs or something like that through the bottom of the gorge and back to the pool. If I'm hot and sweaty enough I might get in but apparently it's like ice. I'm not a fan of cold water. How bizarre is that? Slab of rock cracked into just about perfect squares like tiles. Wild. I must have missed a turn. It's a stunning view though. Back on track I think. Lots and lots of steps and all unique. Their own shape and size. They just gave up there and put some stairs in. Made it to the bottom. Another reason I went this way besides if I'm hot I'll more likely get a swim in on the other end is water runs downhill so those stairs should be higher or longer than the ones at the other end. That's my theory. The sound to me hopefully it's true. So further back there's actually closed. The reason is they had some boulders fall off the top and by the size of the boulders around here I'd want to close too especially when they're this big. The temperature change is drastic. It's quite cool down here. There are forested pockets of fig trees, eucalyptus and snappy gums. You can see bands of iron formation in the rocks. Dry feet still. I wonder if I'm gonna have to get my feet wet eventually. Breathe in. I'm gonna have to take shoes off. Can you describe the color of that water? Wow. It's green and deep. I'd reached Fortescue Falls. It is the only spring-fed waterfall in Karijini National Park. Seeing there's no one here I'm gonna get in. Two swims in one day. That was definitely refreshing after the hike. Back to camp. I made it back to camp right on sunset. Well another epic day. I was only expecting an hour ride but went down the dirt track and got two swims in. Pretty shattered now so it's gonna be an early one. I'm not sure tomorrow if I'm gonna make a decent ride or a very long ride. I'll see how I feel. I was up before the first rays of light. With the potential of a big riding day I decided to go with it and get on the I took it slow. Keeping my eyes peeled and enjoying the progression of the sun casting its light across the landscape as it rose. I made my way down through a stunning canyon. I pulled into the only fuel station along this 400 kilometer stretch. I fueled up. Well I went to fuel up but no result. I went inside and well maybe I should have read the massive writing on the fuel pump. They need to hold your driver's license before they'll let the pumps work. Well I've made a decent start this morning. Getting some mileage done. Just had a leg and bacon sandwich. It was good. Toasted. Hours coming down that valley. That was pretty cool. It has been really cold on my hands but it should warm up now that the sun's out and yeah I made it. I'm not sure where I'm going to get to. I'm just going to keep going and but I made a good start. Worked that out on the way. Another absolutely massive truck coming in. They're like caterpillars. You wouldn't want to have to try and overtake one. I may have to but yeah you want a good clear run at it. All right back on the road. It seems I've come across those missing tyres from those mining trucks I saw in the south. There is two ways they get the raw materials out of this region. One is by train. The other is by road train. These trucks are consistently passing every couple of minutes on their return journey so they're empty. So that means I soon will probably come across a fully loaded truck in my lane. Well this is the first one I've come across. Now judging a pass on a 60 meter long vehicle is a little tricky. Luckily there are a lot of straight sections of road out here. You have to be able to see way into the distance and even then it's hard to pick up a normal sized car approaching. To help when passing there is something to look out for and there it is. Kindly most of the truck drivers will give you a signal when it's clear to pass as they are nearly a hundred meters up the road and at a higher vantage point so they can see way into the distance. But just make sure there's not a right hand turn coming up ahead. The iron ore is mostly coming from the Maridoo mine which is located within a unique parcel of land situated in the The mine contains 80% of all identified iron ore reserves in Australia and is one of the world's major iron ore providers. Someone out for their morning run out here? That's keen. After the corrugated dirt roads from yesterday and now going faster on the highway today, the rear vision mirror that had come loose was now swinging back. So for now I changed the angle of the mirror so there was less wind resistance to stop it from swinging back until I stopped and could get tools out and tighten it up properly. Well there's a sensible place to put an overtaking lane by the Western Australian Department of Roads right after a truck stop as it makes everybody's life a lot easier. I love seeing a no-brainer solution in action. Another wide load approaching. Okay I wasn't expecting it to be a boat out here. The vegetation was getting a tinge greener so it seemed I was close to the coast. I made the turn onto the National Highway again, Highway 1. It's amazing how long these trains are. I mean I can't even see the end of it. This was the town of Port Hedland. It is the major port for the mining operations up here. I was just going to skim the edge as I continued north but first I needed to fill up.