Here we are, back in WA for the second part of our Aussie trip. Today we had 34 degrees and ended up covered in red dust.
A week and a half ago we landed in Perth staying in an Airbnb while organising the diverse bionic parts we now rely on, speak hearing aids, glasses (one pair of mine is now laying on the bottom of the Maas river in Belgium) and repair of tooth implant. 
But we had some fun too, e.g. climbing the Bell Tower. This is an amazing structure. Every one of its 6 circular levels houses historic bells e.g. the bells from "St. Martin" in the Fields at Trafalgar Square which you might remember from the nursery rhyme “Oranges and Lemons”.
The bells not only announced the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 but also chimed to welcome home Captain James Cook in 1771. In 1980 they were due to be melted down as they were causing structural problems, but luckily were saved by the Swan Bells Foundation and brought to Perth. As a compensation 13 new bells were cast out of Australian copper and tin and sent to St. Martin in the Fields, London.
All of the bells have their own history and sound, and are played several times during the day.
We also re-visited Kings Park, this time with more sunshine. The Botanical Garden had the most wonderful and comprehensive display of wildflowers, which are now in season in Western Australia.
After a wonderful day with Austin’s mate, Trevor including buffet dinner at the Crown Casinos Atrium, we flew back north to Exmouth, where at the end of May we had left car and caravan. 
We found both in perfect order, Austin having taken great care of wrapping them up and trickle- charging both batteries via a solar panel. So we stocked up with the essentials and were off!
Our first stop was at a rest area called House Creek - lovely spot with drop loo, dump point and picnic tables in midst of the now more mountainous landscape with amazing colours of diverse reds, pinks, soft pastel green and spinifex grey, lots of ant hills and the occasional wildflower. Of course, there was no water in House Creek or in any other river bed here.
On day two we reached Tom Price, a Rio Tinto mining town at the edge of the Karijini National Park. Tom Price, an American geologist working for Kaiser Steel at the time, first pin-pointed the area for its immense richness in iron ore and awoke the interest of a mining company, So in the early 60s mining began and is still going strong.
We visited one of the mines, a huge operation with man made valleys of 90-100 metres depth. The figures of iron ore produced, costs of equipment, sizes of machinery are mind boggling! The mining rail-line runs about 5 trains a day transporting the ore. The trains are 2.5 kms long and are pulled by 3 engines mostly functioning driverless. One train transports 28000t of ore at a time. The ore is of different qualities: below 50% iron content is waste, 50-60% is low grade iron ore and all above 60% valuable Hematite.
I don’t know if I mentioned that when we arrived at Learmonth, the airport for Exmouth, the very decent sized private jet of Gina Rinehart stood on the tarmac. A local told me that she has just built a bungalow in Exmouth.
No wonder, she wants to be close to check on her assets in Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto, by the way, means “Red River” and red is the water draining off the separation plants where the ore is washed, so a very apt name.
The town Tom Price was originally built for and accessible only to miners, but has now 3094 inhabitants. It lays at the foot of Mt. Nameless - what a name! - and has absolutely everything one needs. Even our camping ground has a small swimming pool and some great phone reception. 
We already ventured into the National Parkalong a 60km dirt road to Hamersley Gorge and were covered in red dust clouds on the way. But the dip in one of the terrace pools below the waterfall was cleansing and refreshingly cool. Guess who didn’t make it into the pool?!
Tomorrow we will drive right into the Karijini National Park and stay at the Dales Camping Ground without water, electricity or phone reception, so you won’t hear from us for a while.
Catch you later!
Mount Nameless