Wanderings in East Pilbara and the Skull Springs Road

Back in the Pilbara this year, we took the short cut to Marble Bar on the Boreline Road from the Great Northern Highway and travelled through beautiful rugged scenery.

We camped by the Oakover River on the way to Telfer.

East Pilbara is an addictive region: rough, red, remote. We ditch the blacktop and a steady stream of 60m long, road trains with quad trailers of ore, to dive onto the heaving, serpentine track of Skull Springs Road where we see one ute all day. Dotted across the plains are rolling ranges, giant outcrops and honeycombed boulders, dry creekbeds, white trees, and wary cattle.

A camel skull, supported by a rusty ute spring on a metal pole, provides the clue for onward travel.

We stopped for lunch by an eroded rock wall.

We don't want the road to end, so camp early at 20 Mile Sandy Creek beside the remains of the State Battery (1904) where the old boiler is filled with empty beer bottles, all quiet now after the gold fever dwindled.

Sunset is a beauty, the giant orb dwarfing the horizon. The perfect close to a day on the road is a view of the Milky Way and the stars that put us to bed.

At sunrise, in the still air, the clear notes of a butcherbird greet the sun over the creek. From a solid bank of orange-tinged cloud over the distant hills, the light rises for a fiery sun to break out higher and higher, pushing, pushing the day ahead.

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Skull Springs Road, Pilbara, East Pilbara, Western Australia