Saturday, Mar 10, 2007 at 08:08
I lived in the
Pilbara for nine years. Some observations:
. The
Pilbara is very unforgiving of vehicles and especially tyres. Have everything checked thoroughly. Make sure you have two spare tyres. Make sure you have "mission critical" spares such as hoses, belts and filters with you. And don't drive too fast. The tracks up there are more often than not stony, rutted, corrugated and isolated. If you do get into trouble it might be a day or two before someone happens upon you.
. It gets extremely hot up there,so to avoid that, the best times are between May and August where, perversely, it can get very cold at night - be prepared for that.
. During the months above, it can get very windy in the mornings - I mean very windy - it will easily blow over a poorly erected tent. A cold, very dry easterly. Pick your camping spots with this in mind.
. Speaking of tents, take a decent quality cordless drill and a masonry bit that is the same diameter as your tent pegs. The ground is hard up there and the drill lets you make convenient holes for the tent pegs.
.In your list of items you didn't mention electricity. If you are going to
camp in the bush, don't forget to take a decent generator or solar set-up. Don't get one of those $99.00 jobbies from Bunnings. It will let you down.
. It's a long way from anywhere up there. Take either a satellite phone (not Globalstar with the issues they are currently having) or a
HF radio. The last time I was up there neither
Nullagine nor
Marble Bar had mobile phone coverage.
.Here's a tip we picked up. Even in the dry there are a lot of permanent
waterholes up that way. We spent $250 to buy a Reverse Osmosis plant that is small enough to fit into a fishing tackle box. We can pump water from any available source (other than seawater) and get pure, clean, safe water. It saves a long drive to town if you are getting low.
.Get a hand held GPS if you plan to do any walking. Most of Australia looks like the rest of Australia out there and the inexperienced could get lost very easily. The GPS would also be handy for navigating in the vehicle.
Make sure you have a really good first-aid kit with you. Make sure you know how to contact the RFDS by whatever means of communications equipment you take with you.
. Get a book about snakes and have a read. Too many pythons get killed by mistake. Not that you should kill any snake, but some people just don't like them around.
That's all the serious stuff. Do enjoy the scenery. Do go to
Carawine Gorge if you get the chance. Even though cyclones have unfortunately torn out a lot of the trees, it is still worth a look. In that country, there are camping spots everywhere. Just respect it and leave it as you found it. Kick any rocks that look shiny. You never know! Enjoy the fuel prices .... lol.
AnswerID:
226510