12 August 2013 – Albert Tognolini Rest Stop

This morning we posted the school work from Port Hedland, checked out the old Silver Star train café, and picked up a coffee for the road.  Josh drove all around town both Port and South Hedland trying to pick up some LPG from a garage that 1) stocked gas and 2) didn’t have their bowser out of order.  We ended up finding one and pulling in with the van but it wasn’t fantastic as Josh had to reverse out of it due to some concreting that was underway.  Due to the BHP Biliton trains traversing the roads we took a slightly longer way out of town to avoid the wait of the trains and started on our way towards Karijini National Park.  It was about a 300km trip to where we decided to stop for the night, around the winding mountain roads and just past the Auski Roadhouse at the Albert Tognolini Rest Area.  The views were stunning and there were a lot of purple Mulla Mulla flowers scattered everywhere.  It was a large spread out rest area with plenty of little spots to choose between for the night.  The ground here consisted of lots of very hard scattered smallish red rocks.  After setting up and opening up all our windows we sat and relaxed enjoyed the view whilst the kids did a bit of schoolwork. The night was quiet and for a while all four of us sat outside under the bright starts keeping an eye out for any falling star to make a wish upon.  That was before it grew so cool that us girls decided to head inside.