Trish Travels: three Pools to Eel Pool

Day 5 - Three Pools to Garden Pool Nullagine

Sunday, 27 May 2012

Morning has broken yet again bringing another lovely day! Moving on I am amazed at the mining tracks. It is as if a large net has been dropped over the whole area and a bulldozer has gone through carving out a grid of roads. When will it stop? Will there be any hills and gorges left in the Pilbara in 50 years time?

Nearly had a heart attack a few minutes down the road after having taken Doug for a walk when I realised I had lost my glasses! Chauffeur dutifully drove me back and we retraced my steps through the spinifex, just about to give up when chauffeur nearly trod on them, phew!

Managed to stay on the 'main track' through to the Marble Bar road, no easy feat with the thousands of exploration tracks! In to Newman for supplies and back track north to Nullagine.

Quite a long stretch of Tarmac, but then we his the gravel and ate the dust of a road train for half an hour. Fond a beaut little spot just outside Nullagine at Garden Pool and settled in for the night, enjoying fives's with a game of boules - chauffeur 10, Michael 9 and she who is chauffeured only 6.

	Pilbara Mine Roads [Map]		Road Train Dust [Map]
	Any one for Boules, Garden Pool Nullagine [Map]

Day 6 - Nullagine to Eel Pool

Monday, 28 May 2012

After a lovely evening at Garden Pool, we packed up and had a quick sticky beak around Nullagine. For such a tiny place it sure has fast Internet service, also a library, police station, footy oval, Conglomorate Pub (not in The Aussie Bush Pubs Book! ). All that and we hardly saw a soul. Did see a sign up at the lookout that said you had to ask where you were allowed to fossick (amythyst). Heading out of the tiny tidy town I was given the task of translating the waypoints. First one Beaton Battery - a 10 stamp. It amazes me thinking about the effort it would have taken to get something this size all the way out here that is in the. Idle of nowhere even today. Mine shafts everywhere. It was a slow going road, lots of washouts. Interesting signpost for the Skull Crossing Spring, complete with Bolle sunnies :) this crossed the Davis River which was incredible. Largest paperbark trees I have ever seen. We crossed over looking for a picnic spot, but it was one of those wide meandering creeks, almost like a plain of water holes. Eventually found Eel Creek later, and decided to stay for the night even though someone else had beaten us to it. Introduced ourselves to a delightful older lady, her daughter Ellen Hickman (botanist and artist) and her friend visiting from Vic. It made a nice change being 'social'. Ellen turns out to be one of a group of 4 botanists in WA, one of the others being Phillipa, who we met on a deserted beach down Cape Arid National Park last New Year, shortly after she had just met the Queen! (Her latest illustrated botany book had been presented to The Royals during their Perth Tour!) What a small world.