A Visit to Jigalong

I visited Jigalong ... at long last!

My very special friend Karen Wilson and her husband Mark taught at Jigalong in the 80's. Karen told me stories about how isolated they were there. They were newly weds and they didn't even have a phone! Any communication with their family and friends in civilisation was done by two-way radio ..... and everyone on the same frequency heard the conversation!

My friend Annette is teaching out there at the moment, and who doesn't love to have take-away for tea on a Friday evening? So, I ducked into my favourite Thai Restaurant (KG's in Newman) and picked up some delicious Pad Thai Noodles, Green Curry and a Chicken and Cashew mixture. I'd already fuelled up the car, and Missy was on her favourite sitting place (the middle console between the two front seats) ready for the 2.5 hour journey.... so off we went!

It was a lovely mild afternoon. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, I began listening to a Ted Radio Hour podcast (about teaching to grow better humans), the traffic was light and it felt like I was going to be in for a pretty easy drive.

As I headed out of Newman past Opthalmia Dam on the right,  I saw a huge long train on the left, with hundreds of carriages loaded up to the hilt with iron ore. It was travelling towards town on one                                                                    side of the tracks. On the other

side of the tracks another long train was travelling away from town with empty carriages.

Luckily I didn't have to stop at a railway crossing to let them pass - that could have added another 5 or 10 minutes to the trip.

The turn off to Jigalong is only 50kms out of town, on the road to Marble Bar and Nullagine. There are lots of spectacular ant hills and the occasional burnt out car!

Not much further down the road I saw the sign I was looking for. 

Another half a kilometre further I chucked a right ... and what did I see?

To drive home the point about the hazardous nature of the road.... a warning sign ... and a smashed up, abandoned car. Over the 107 kms leading to the community of Jigalong there are many cars in a similar state. My friend Geoff reckons he counted 50. I believe him!

The road is one of the most difficult gravel roads I have driven on. It's not badly corrugated like the Ngalapita, Kalumburu or One Arm Points Roads, but it's like driving on ball bearings (as Annette described it). You really have to slow right down for the steep corners or else you find yourself drifting over the surface. And if you're speeding .... well ... say "ta ta"! Even when you're on straight stretches you drift - so I had to be concentrating all the time.  

I'm so grateful to the grader drivers who spend so much time making the roads safer.

I didn't see any cattle - although there was plenty of evidence they crossed the road ... if you know what I mean. I did see a big kangaroo, and before I knew it it was time to cross a creek.

So what image goes though your head when you think of a creek? A narrow waterway with a trickle of water maybe?  

This is a creek bed in the Pilbara

This is a creek that connects to the Fortescue river .. so imagine how wide the river is!

On and on I went, and soon I found the entrance to the community.

Another 30kms passed and I'd arrived at the community ... with mobile reception and internet to boot!

Annette opened her gates and we spent the evening looking at the beautiful patchwork quilts she makes, eating the reheated Thai food, talking about mathematics and drinking tea, until it was time for me to head back home.