Pilbara –

THE BURRUP PENINSULAR, PILBARA

Glenda Larke — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 02:44:00 +0000

Our Pilbara trip to the north of my state, June-July 2014, continued…

The first glimpse of the Burrup Peninsular, out of Karratha, is not all that prepossessing. There is, after all, a huge industrial complex there, see above. This is Woodside, the North West Shelf Project (which is natural gas). If you ever go there; do have a look at their public exhibition hall — it is superb.

The centre includes replicas of some of the oldest art in the world — nearby there are a mere 1 million or so examples spread over 88 sq kms! Forget European paleolithic art…it pales in comparison to what Burrup has to offer.

These are etchings (petroglyphs) on rock, out in the open on the Peninsular and the 42 islands of the Dampier Archipelago. Because they are done on rock, it is hard to be precise about the age.

Best guess, perhaps 40,000 years.

Above: Everywhere you look there are red rocks, many of them etched.
With matching flowers…

Sturt’s Desert Pea in fiery blazes of colour…

In the centre of the group above you can see etched bird tracks.

Below a marsupial of some kind.

The beaches of the Burrup — in spite of the industrial complex — still manage to be stunning!

The “sand” you see below is actually shells, not sand at all. Nothing but shells.

Below: a local walking his dog across glistening sands when the tide is out…

Note the clear water above.

On the road in the Pilbara

Glenda Larke — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 19:17:00 +0000

After a last look at the Cape Range National Park at Exmouth, we took a look at Pebble Beach, which was exactly as described, and left behind the peninsular behind (if you want to see emus and kangaroos in the wild, by the way, this whole area is the place to go! They were everywhere.)

Another long drive.

More blue skies.
More red soil.
More straight roads.
More lack of traffic.

Until just before the next town of Karratha.

Where we met a train. A couple of kilometres — or maybe miles of it — crossing the road.

The train carries iron ore. Nothing else.

And so the road train and us had to wait.

And wait.

A long time.

Road trains — all three huge pieces of them — can be carrying anything
from tires the size of a room to … well, the rooms big enough to
contain tires that size. This guy was stopped by the train. The cab with
its driver is a long way in front of us.

One Way to Do a Copyedit

Glenda Larke — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 01:07:00 +0000

Some of you probably know already that I was away for about 3 weeks travelling up north in the Pilbara region. We covered over 3,000 kms. It’s a BIG country.

I will be posting photos of the journey over the next couple of weeks, before I leave for London and the Worldcon.

We started down in the south (we live south of Perth). Our first stop was at a caravan park along the highway north, just an overnighter. Because it was a dark night the Milky Way was spectacular — brilliant in a way citydwellers never see the night sky.

The following 2 nights were spent in Carnarvon, followed by Coral Bay (Ningaloo), then Exmouth (Cape Range National Park), Karratha, Millstream-Chichester National Park, Tom Price and Karijini National Park.

Is that a truck ahead? Wow, some traffic!

On the way back, we stopped at Cue. After all, it’s a loooong way home…

As we travelled north, I worked in the car — completing the copyedit alterations of Book Two of The Forsaken Lands. Easy enough on those long stretches of country where the road is very, very straight (i.e. most of the journey, in fact) and often not all that much to see! (Note the blue sky. We didn’t see a cloud for two weeks…)

It’s a red country. Really, really RED…

Oo-er… Look, some hills!

Copyediting and Termite mounds on a rest stop…

I’ve always said I can write anywhere, and that ability is a real asset when there’s a deadline.