Karajini

From Geraldton we continued our journey north via the West Australian outback. Partly because one of us forgot that WA's school kids were on holidays and there wasn't a campsite to be had in the entire 1900 kilometres between Geraldton and Broome.

The bad weather that's followed us all the way from Victoria continued, with rain turning the red dust of the outback into red mud. It was cold, windy and miserable. We encountered a few more challenges on the seemingly endless list of things that can go wrong. And we had a few wobbly moments, experiencing a bit of travel fatigue, missing family and friends, and feeling a very long way from home. Which, of course, we are. But we pushed on and after a few days the sun came out and everything seemed a bit better.

In response to my moaning about the dust and the flies, one of our dear friends declared that she absolutely loves the outback, dust and flies included. Initially we didn't share the enthusiasm. Everything here is covered in red dust. The tree trunks, the cows, the footpaths, the door handles, the Labs' paws, the magpies, the corellas. There's red dust in the fridge. And for about 900 kilometres we saw nothing but endless flat, red, scrubby landscape, with the occasional dusty red mining town breaking the monotony. It's very red out here.

Then we turned left and the landscape changed dramatically. We'd made it to the heart of the Pilbara: Karajini (Hamersley Ranges) which are the traditional lands of the Banyjima, Kurrama and Innawonga peoples. It's a stunning landscape, and it's quintessentially Australian. With ancient rocky (red) mountains, deep gorges and tranquil water holes, there's a Tom Roberts painting around every bend in the road.

We've met some really kind and helpful folk on this journey, and none kinder than the couple who offered to look after the Labs while I spent a few hours exploring a small part of the Karajini National Park. So Juddy and Stanley spent the afternoon hanging out with a young Chocolate Lab named Kobi while I checked out a small bit of this truly magical part of the Pilbara.

The evolution of the landscape around here dates back over 2500 million years. It's hard to get your head around how ancient it is. We'll let the photos tell the story of the past 10 days, from Mount Magnet, Meekatharra, Newman, to Tom Price and Karajini.

And lastly, good news for our followers who have trouble making comments on our posts: while tinkering at the back-end (as you do) I found a button that might resolve the problem. So if you read this far, please take a few seconds to leave a comment to see if it works. We live in hope.