We were out of Bullara early this morning to allow time for an almost 400km relocation to Cheela Plains Station, as well as some explore time in gorges at the station. The day started well, with really interesting geological formations as we headed further into the Pilbara region.

We were checked in and parked up by 1pm and left after a quick lunch to explore the adventure trail. I was given control of the wheel as I think Bob was sick of driving all morning. The trail varied between well graded gravel and very corrugated tracks. The Allen’s jumped in with the Scott’s as we have an extra 100L of water stored in the footwell in the back of the car so can’t take passengers at the moment. The first really lucky thing for the day happened when I took a turn in the lead. We had some space between us to allow the dust to settle behind me, which was also lucky. Just as we were about to turn off to our first gorge, Karen called on the radio and said our hitch was on the road! This hitch weighs a lot. It can tow up to 4.5 tonne and has the stone stomper protection system connected to it which spans the width of the car. Somehow the locking pin had come out of the hitch lock, which had then come out, which had then allowed the entire hitch to bounce out of the hitch receiver of the vehicle!

We had literally no idea this had happened! Had we been in the rear we would not have discovered it was gone until at least tonight and we certainly wouldn’t have been leaving here tomorrow with 70km of exploring to retrace (and then hope that no passing traffic had taken it). Thankfully, it appeared relatively undamaged, so the 3 boys all ended up under the car and the spare hitch lock Bob carries for an emergency was deployed. We felt exceptionally lucky something worse hadn’t happened while towing….Unfortunately, we can’t find any scenario that would allow this to have occurred other than someone removing the locking pin. We did find we were missing a shackle bolt on Monday morning, so it is possible they both went at the same time and it just took a few hundred kms for everything to work lose.

With normal proceedings up and running, we headed to ‘The Wall’, an impressive rock formation which is made of vertical slate-like layers (see feature photo as well).

We then drove further and ended up on a short hike along Mussel Pool, where we scaled the rock wall of the pool to get to the Perentie Fall.

The Perentie Fall was quite impressive – the pool at the base was empty but still worth the trek.

Anther half an hour of gravel/sandy/corrugated roads and we decided to start the trek back to camp. The cars really do look at home out in the this part of the world now, with red dust everywhere.

Back at camp I went and checked out the mine truck graveyard just adjacent to the campground. I have seen these trucks lots from a distance in the Hunter Valley, and more recently Kalgoorlie, but up close was really something else! I don’t think I even came half way up the wheel.

Finally, we all walked to the sunset lookout for sunset on the other side of camp, giving great 360 degree views around the property.

Unfortunately, we discovered this evening that the hitch mechanism had been bent in the incident this afternoon and we couldn’t reconnect the van properly. Kieran and Bob have fixed it while I have been blogging with two big shifters and some muscles.

Wednesday night is burger night at Cheela Station so we signed up for that and enjoyed not cooking for the second night in a row. Tomorrow we have some time for some additional exploring before heading through to Tom Price to get final supplies before our week in Karijini.