The Pilbara

After driving up the desolate coast from Shark Bay to Exmouth I wasn't expecting the rugged beauty of The Pilbara. Horizontally to diagonally bedded, iron red mountains rising out of the golden plain, dotted with flowering spinifex grass and green mallee gums, against the blue sky. The earth is so red, it's no wonder its dotted with iron ore mines. And the fine red dust gets into everything. The kids have a Pilbara dust tan.
There are several hundred kilometres between Exmouth and Tom Price, however, even though there is no town on the road there are turn offs to mines and stations along the way so you don't feel totally isolated.
We spent the night at a road side rest area and drove into Tom Price on the morning.
The 60 km short cut, dirt road was great. After a quick stop in town we drove up the 4wd track to the summit of Mt Nameless, what a view at 1016m!! Looking down to tiny Tom Price below and onto Karijini NP and an open cut mine on the other side of the mountain. The countryside is spectacular!