Tom Price RIP Camp 15 October 2006

Left Karijini National Park and enjoyed looking at the Hamersley Mountains and the colours of the rocks. Climbed up part of Mt Bruce to afford a spectacular view of the soft green countryside and across to one of the Rio Tinto iron ore mines. Watched a very long ore train pull its enormous load across to Dampier – some of the trains are over 3km long. The different ore companies nearby do not share ports or train lines and there is a current court case running for a new mining group that is trying to forcer BHP to share the line. Enjoyed lots of interesting mauve flowers again and played photographer for awhile! Moved on to find a rest area labelled RIP Lookout in our Camps book. We were not sure if it was a good omen. It turned out to be a particularly beautiful spot with 360 deg views with cairns made up of hundreds of memorial rocks painted with simple, personal messages. There was a sign inviting anyone to do the same and two paint pens available. Peter found a few rocks and we
added our own tribute to friends and family. Peter found one rock in the shape of a fish that he wrote his Dads name on. Other people came in the soft evening light and added their own messages and hung about telling us mining tales whilst drinking beer. They wrote their message on a miner’s hat. It turned out to be a special place.