We said our good-byes to Avon and Mel before hitting the road for the stint into Newman. First stop was the information centre to find out a bit more about our destination for the day.
Karajini National Park is only about an hour and a half drive from Newman. Today it might as well have been 23,000 km away. The lady in the information centre clearly got out of bed the wrong side and repeated the effort till she was in the foulest mood she could muster before deciding work would be a good option.
In between her grunts, dismissive smirks as if G and Sue were vermin from the east coast, and lack of anything remotely connected with a willingness to serve, she was a lovely down to earth employee who promoted Newman brilliantly. We left, not much wiser as to what there was to do at Karajini.
We fuelled up after waiting over 10 minutes for the sister of the information centre lady to not move her car from the petrol bouser whilst she toddled around aimlessly inside the service station enhancing a visitor’s Newman experience. Finally we hit the road.
The scenery west if Newman is in stark contrast to that of the east. It is hilly. Spinifex covers the landscape, with the red cliffs dominating the skyline. It is beautiful but threatening at the same time. Early afternoon we rolled into to the gravel pit recommended by Wikicamps. We were not the only ones. The area was about half full and filling fast with a variety of vans, campers and back packers in worn out Nissan wagons, all finding their spot for the night.
In the late afternoon Peter headed up into the hills behind the pit to grab some images of the setting sun upon the Hamersley Ranges. He climbed about half way up to a spot above the tree line and sat patiently for the right light.
As he sat quietly blending in with the ghost gums and spinifex, he noticed a backpacker Nissan pull up not far below his position. He is not sure whether it was an eastern European mating dance or the young female passenger was hot or indeed what it was. But, as she alighted the vehicle she raised her dress far above its natural resting place revealing the tinniest black G-string and not much else, before dancing a jig around the car for a few minutes.
Peter’s landscape photos were unfortunately out of focus this afternoon. He may have to try again tomorrow.
We relaxed into the evening with no phone or internet to impose upon our thoughts.