29/09/18 Tom Price

29/09/18 To Tom Price

We got away from Potshot at 8.05, with a long run ahead of us.
My Garmin GPS was totally stupid about how to get to Tom Price, and it was the same for John's BMW GPS (also made by Garmin).  -Showed a much longer route than we needed to take.  (John reckons it doesn't know that the roads are sealed.)
Google Maps once again got it right.
Very disappointed with the GPS.  Goes to show that a) one should carry paper maps, and b) one should plan the route so as to have an idea of where one is going, independent of what the GPS says.
The petrol stations shown by the GPS were bullshit as well, -a critical thing for motorbike travellers.  What was spot on, was the Fuel Map Australia app on my phone, which I use to log fills.  I recommend it.
I reckon Google should make GPS's.  They'd be reliable and make a killing.  At the very least they'd make Garmin improve their game.

We stopped at Nanutarra roadhouse for fuel and lunch.  Some outside eateries have birds which walk around cleaning up the scraps.  They have this guy:

They did also have some of these:

It was a long ride to Tom Price, getting up to only 32C, but it felt a bit warm.  I employed my wet-scarfe for the first time this trip,  It may be in constant use from now on.  Scenery started out with low bushes and grass, with a few short trees, changing to occasional bread-loaf hills, to some serious red coloured rock formations and hills the closer we got to Tom Price.  There were some purple fluffy flowers (as per a previous photo), occasional patches of prostrate white flowers (looked fluffy),  bushes of white flowers, and some red & yellow flower bushes.  I didn't stop to take any photos because I was now travelling with someone.  We rode near or at the speed limit, with a nice tail breeze, (which wasn't so nice when side on).  Very little traffic.

A real frustration toward Tom Price was the automatic stop lights around bridge works.  Must have been 4 or 5 of them, and we seemed to get all reds.  Nothing worse than having a nice run interrupted by unscheduled stops.  Each one is a chance to fumble and drop the bike.

Filled up at the servo, where the Eagles' football win had some patrons in a frenzy.  I thought we'd stumbled into Deliverance country. 

Checked in to the motel at the pub bar (office closed).  Couldn't believe the volume of the music in there.  No way could we stop for a drink.  (Has to be an OH&S issue for the staff.)  Got into our room, John bought a slab of Furphy, and we downed a couple before wandering down the street and finding what looked like a hamburger van.  Sort of.  Anything so long as it was chicken, with chips.  Filled us up.

30/09/18 Mine tour

We rocked up at the info office to see if we could do a Karijini National park tour tomorrow (everyone says we have to see the park).  Next tour is Tuesday, which would mean two extra nights here instead of one.  Expensive, and not particularly appealing.  Instead, we ended up with brochures, and agreement to hire a 4WD tomorrow.  Even cheaper than if we'd done the tour tomorrow.

So we collected our hard hat and safety glasses for the mine tour.
See how sexy they make me look.

We all bundle on to a big bus, and it takes us out to the mine, after getting a lecture about do's and dont's.
The Tom Price Rio Tinto mine (and others nearby) mines iron ore, crushes it and sends it mostly to China.
We drive into the mine area, and stop at one of the pits (not being worked today).  Again, we are told where we can't go.
Caged tourists:

This is what they are looking at.  One bloody big hole in the ground.

 Equipment for measuring ground water, and movement of soil.

One side of the hill which has been cut out where we are standing.  So not only is the pit deep, a lot of the hill has already been excavated.

The pit again.

Behind our tour bus, a small work vehicle trundles past.  -We didn't get to see a really big dump truck.  (The big ones are diesel electric.)

 Poster in the 'cage'.

Ken and MMBear relaxing.

Ken and MMBear in front of one of the small diggers left for tourists to look at.

This water sprayer trundled past, spraying the road to keep dust down.  What a fun job!

 Conveyer belts move the ore around for processing.

 

 The conveyer belts are long.  Kilometres.

 A digger you wouldn't want to tangle with.

Belts and more belts.

 Here the waste drops off the end of the belt, to be carted away in trucks.

The size of the machinery is astounding.

We saw an ore train which was filling by tunnel method.  It drives continuously through a tunnel, inside which ore is dropped into its carriages.

The other method is filling them one at a time, which is slower.

Unfortunately the windows on the bus were coated with reflective film, which didn't allow decent photographs, and we only had the one stop.

Despite the dire warnings about big fines for individuals, bus driver, company, up for big fines for not wearing seatbelts, the Scandanavian guy in front of us not only couldn't be bothered on the way out, but couldn't shut up either.  The driver threatened to turn off his mike.  The driver/guide was a mine of information, but the steady stream of info and statistics was far too much to take in.

We got back to our room, grabbed some lunch snacks and ate under a shelter outside.  A few beers were consumed.  The cool breeze was pleasant.  We "shot it".

Outside our room, this photo illustrates the ambience of the place fairly well.

Tea was an uninspiring meal at the local Thai restaurant.