Day 123 - Geraldton - Lynton Station, WA 30 May, 2024
Back into the shorter driving days, we weren't in a hurry to break camp.
There were a couple of things we hadn't done in Geraldton the day before, so our first stop was one of these, the memorial for the HMAS Sydney 2 that was sunk during WW2.
In November of 1941, the HMAS Sydney 2 engaged with the German armed raider Kormoran off the WA coast, leading to the sinking of both ships, and the loss of 645 lives from the Sydney. The exact location of the two wrecks wasn't known until 2008, which was 112 nautical miles west of Steep Point, WA. There was a lot of information around the memorial that we started reading, but unfortunately the weather gods weren't happy for some reason and started raining on us, which cut our visit short.
To ride out what turned out to be a small amount of rain we did a big grocery shop to carry us over the next part of our journey.
On the way out of Geraldton we made our last stop at the Horizon sculpture, which is better known as the Big Marble, and is a 1.5 metre sphere of clear acrylic and filled with 1,800 litres of water. The possibilities for amazing photos through it were almost endless.
Continuing north for 40 km we stopped off in Northampton to look at our last John Hawes church, the Church of St Mary Ara Coeli, another impressive building.
Also in Northampton we looked briefly at the historical railway precinct, admired their many animal sculptures littered around the town, and had lunch.
It was only a short drive to our campsite for the night, but first we drove past it to check out nearby Hutt Lagoon, a 70 square kilometre marine salt lake, which is better known as the Pink Lake. The lake certainly is very pink, which is caused by the presence of carotenoid-producing algae.
We drove the short distance into Port Gregory, but apart from some wild coastline, there wasn't much doing.
The last short drive of the day took us to Lynton Station, our campsite for the night.
Lynton has an interesting history from being a convict depot in the 1850s.
The governor of the convict depot, Henry Sanford, had an elegant 2-storey house built for himself in 1853, that has commanding views out to the coast and over to Hutt Lagoon.
After setting up we took a walk, first to the old stables building that is now a museum of sorts, then up the steep hill to Sanford House.
The house would have been grand back in 1853, but the upstairs was quite small, and the whole downstairs was inhabited by the staff.
Later in the afternoon everybody who was staying in the camp drifted into a common area opposite our campsite for drinks and chatter. It's always interesting hearing about other peoples' experiences, and sharing your own stories. One guy there metal detected for a hobby and he'd found an 1851 penny near the convict depot site.
After dark and another beautiful sunset we retired to our place for the night.
Day 123 - Lynton Station - Kalbarri, WA 31 May, 2024
With only about 60 km to drive for the day, to Kalbarri, we were in no hurry to break camp.
On our way out of camp we stopped at the Port Gregory Convict Depot site, that operated between 1853 and 1856, and brought in much-needed convict labour for all the local industries. Because the building that housed the convicts wasn't actually finished until1856 when the facility closed, the convicts had to live under canvas until then in harsh conditions. Apart from the building where the convicts slept, there were buildings for a hospital, lime kiln, blacksmith, bakehouse/cookhouse, Commissariat store, lockup and several others.
One interesting aside to this place is that the "I" lady depicted in the movie The King and I, Anna Leonowen (the actual lady, not the actress), was the wife of the Commissariat storekeeper and lived in Lynton for some time. When the convict depot closed in 1856, they moved to Malaysia. When her husband died in 1859, she moved to Singapore to teach, and in 1862 became the governess for the King of Siam's 82 children!
We then hit the highway travelling at a sedate 70 km/h on the 110 km/h road, turning off short of Kalbarri and into the national park that runs along the coast.
Starting off at Natural Bridge, we walked along to the next lookout at Island Rock, then back to the carpark.
A short drive back along the road were The Grandstand and Shell House lookouts.
After skipping Eagle Gorge we stopped off at Pot Alley for some more spectacular views.
While I could roll out the superlatives for this section of coastline, it would be better to look at all the photos, check out the links above, or even better, go there yourself!
In Kalbarri we called into the visitor information centre for some maps and pamphlets, then parked up across the road on the waterfront for lunch.
After lunch we drove a short distance back along the road to the Zuytdorp Memorial, perched on top of Chinaman's Hill, that commemorates the shipwreck of the Dutch ship Zuytdorp in June 1712.
Heading for another lookout over Kalbarri, we checked out some caravan parks along the way, noticing that they all looked very busy. Although we hadn't initially planned to stay in Kalbarri, our first option at the Murchison House Homestead didn't have any vacancies, so we decided to get into a campground while it was still early.
We ended up at the Kalbarri Tudor Holiday Park for the night.
Day 124 - Kalbarri - Murchison House Station, WA 01 June, 2024
The day started quite cool, with a strong wind blowing.
On the way out of Kalbarri we called in to the waterfront park where we'd had lunch the day before to watch the daily Pelican feeding. Seven pelicans and what seemed like hundreds of people turned up for the feeding of the birds, some of which were quite aggressive.
Driving further out of Kalbarri, our next stop was the Meanarra Hill Lookout, that gave us views west over Kalbarri to the Indian Ocean, and north to the Murchison River and the Murchison House Station, that would be our final destination for the day.
The big ticket items on the day's bucket list were the Murchison River gorge walks and lookouts.
We chose to do the Nature's Window walk first. The 1 km return walk was all downhill, which is great until the return journey! The track was mostly very well constructed and paved, until the last 100 metres or so, where you have to climb over rocks, without any guard rails to stop you ending up in the bottom of the gorge if you happened to slip.
Because it was a long weekend, and there was a triathlon-type event taking place around Kalbarri, the place was heaving. We had to wait in line for several other people before we could get our iconic shots of Nature's Window, which was amazing, and would have been even better if we'd had more time to appreciate it.
Next up was a short drive to the Skywalk, an impressive structure that opened in 2020, which juts out over the gorge and provides great views of the currently mostly dry river.
Our last tourist spot for the day was the Z-Bend Lookout, a few kilometres from the Skywalk. The lookout is reached by walking downhill, on a fairly rough 600 metre track that forces you to watch every step you take. The effort was well worth it though for the magnificent view of a sharp bend in the Murchison River. After the hordes of people at the previous tourist spot, we had the added bonus of being there by ourselves for a short time, which made it even more special.
Back up at the car park we had lunch in Mata, then drove to the Murchison House Station Campground. While checking in the lady asked if we'd seen the weather report for the next couple of days, which we had. Strong winds and storms were predicted for later in the day, and rain for much of the following day. Great news as we booked in for two nights!
We got setup on a sandy, uneven site beside the Murchison River and, while we did set up outside, it was hot and sunny with no shade, and there was a very strong wind blowing, so we stayed inside.
Eventually it became bearable enough to sit outside later in the afternoon, if you didn't mind the swarms of flies. This was the first place that we could've had a fire for months, so I was looking forward to getting a fire blazing later in the afternoon. Unfortunately Mother Nature had the last laugh, blowing a gale late into the day and into the night that prevented us from having a fire.
Day 125 - Murchison House Station, WA 02 June, 2024
We were woken by heavy rain just after midnight, and the rain persisted for most of the night, keeping us awake for long periods.
Just as well this was going to be pretty much a down day anyway, and we couldn't do anything outside anyway because the rain continued to fall sporadically during the morning, and gale-force winds battered us during the afternoon.
Being camped right beside the Murchison River, I had hoped to do a spot of fishing, but the weather and rampant flies put paid to that idea too.
Day 126 - Murchison House Station - Kalbarri, WA 03 June, 2024
Thankfully the weather was a bit more settled this morning, because we were booked on a quad bike tour of the station from 10:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M.
Once packed up we drove up to a shed near the campground entrance to await the start of the tour. There was one other couple, and a mother and two daughters booked on the tour also.
After issuing us with helmets and giving us a short briefing, our tour leader, Martin, led us off onto the station proper. We were both on the one bike and would share driving duties. The roads were extremely rough in places, and many areas were just rock, and very steep rocks at that.
While driving you had to be very vigilant of the terrain, and didn't really get to look around too much, so it was good to swap drivers and have the opportunity to admire the scenery.
We had several stops where Martin would tell us a bit about the station and environment we were travelling through. On one such stop Martin told us that a whitish hill we were looking at was the second largest chalk deposit in the world, behind Dover, England.
At the highest point of the tour we stopped, climbed up some rocks and had amazing 360 degree views of the station.
A couple of stops were beside what was left of the Murchison River, which was almost non-existent in most places due to lack of significant rainfall for years.
In one valley beside the river where we stopped, Martin pointed out that during the last flood the river level was up to the top of gum trees we were standing under!
After the tour we drove back into Kalbarri, had a pie for lunch, stocked up on a few supplies, then checked into the Tasman Holiday Park campground for the night.
We'd decided to have a lazy day cooking-wise, and wandered along to the nearest chippy for a great fish and chip dinner, while watching the amazing sunset.
Reading the Explorer Motorhome Facebook group posts after dinner, we noticed that another Explorer couple, Jacinta and Ian Whiting (#418ISX), were in the area, so we contacted them to see if they were staying in Kalbarri. Turns out they were in the same caravan park as us, and they came over for a chat a little while later.
Day 127 - Kalbarri - Galena, WA 04 June, 2024
We had another nice, easy day planned today, with only a short drive to our final destination.
There were a couple of river gorges we didn’t do before going into Murchison House Station, so they were first up today.
About 35 km north of Kalbarri, we turned off the Ajana-Kalbarri Road and into the national park, stopping first at Hawk’s Head Lookout. After the previous river gorges experience, it was refreshing that there was only us and one other young couple at the lookout. This was another spectacular view of the Murchison River gorges, and would be so much more spectacular if there was more water in the river. I put the drone up briefly to get a photo and short video, before the wind picked up suddenly and I had to return to base. We were lucky enough to spot a pair of Black-Flanked Rock Wallabies sheltering under a rock overhang down beside the river.
The second and last of the river gorges we visited was a short drive away for Hawk’s Head, and is called the Graham Ross Lookout, after the first teacher at Kalbarri who was a conservationist and passionate about the environment. Sadly, he passed away in the 1960s at only 31 years of age.
There was a short walk down to the lookout, which was pretty average really after the others we’d seen, then another 150 metre walk down a rough, rocky goat track to the river, such as it is with very little moving water. The views down at the river were quite nice with some running water, but we chose not to walk any further along the rocky riverbank.
That was all we had on the agenda for the day, apart from a short drive to the free camp on the banks of the Murchison River at Galena. For a free camp, this one is very well appointed with toilets, rubbish bins and a dump point on both sides of the river.
We were early enough to get a reasonable spot, away from the muddy riverbank sites. There was some internet, but only enough for the basics.
I had a crack at fishing in the shallow, weedy river after lunch with no luck.
The day was reasonable enough to sit outside, despite the flies being quite bad.
There was a bit of a cold breeze blowing, so we thought we should keep warm by getting a fire going, one of the first times we've been able to do this for months, because of fire restrictions.
Day 128 - Galena - Denham, WA 05 June, 2024
Today was going to be mostly a driving day, a bit over 300 km, with some scenic stops along the way.
After a cool start of 9 degrees the day had warmed up quickly by the time we stopped for a leg stretch and morning tea at the Billabong Roadhouse.
Not long after the morning tea stop we turned off National Highway 1 onto Shark Bay Road that turned out to have many very long stretches of straight road.
Our first lookout for the day was Shell Bay, about 45 km from Denham, a pretty sheltered bay where the beach is composed only of seashells.
A few kilometres along the road our next stop was at Whalebone Point lookout, with views of another beautiful bay.
We had a brief stop at the 26th Parallel sign along Shark Bay Road, before continuing on into Denham, where we stopped on the outskirts of town to have lunch in Mata.
In Denham we visited the bakery and the visitor information centre, where we got some ideas of how to spend the next few days.
We were originally going to spend the night at Monkey Mia, but changed our minds and booked into the Shark Bay Caravan Park for one night.
After checking in we then drove the 25 km out to Monkey Mia and spent an hour or so there having a look around. We'd hoped to see some Dolphins, as they have daily feeding sessions in the mornings, but were out of luck. We did, however, see a turtle that looked to us like a Leatherback, swimming around the wharf.
After a walk along the beach to check out the water temperature (BRRR!) and an ice cream, we drove back to Denham and setup for the night. It was a pleasant 28 degrees still, so we sat outside and tried to ignore the annoying flies.
Day 129 - Denham - Big Lagoon, Francois Peron NP, WA 06 June, 2024
While researching what we could do around the Denham area, Meg came up with the idea of spending a night at the Big Lagoon campground in the Francois Peron NP, not far from Denham.
All the reviews we read and photos we saw were positive, with most reviews coming with glowing references. The only downside we were aware of was that to get to the campground there’s 15 km of unsealed road, some of it with deep sand that would require reducing tyre pressures radically.
We hadn’t had the opportunity to do much off-road driving on this trip, so this seemed like an excellent opportunity to get our wheels dirty. Of course, there was the inevitable bad night’s sleep worrying about whether we would get bogged and need towing out.
Because there are a limited number of campsites at Big Lagoon, and the only means of knowing if any are any available is to go there and see, we set out early, stopping only to buy some bait for fishing on the way out of Denham.
Turning off Monkey Mia Road onto Peron Road, the unsealed road was immediately badly corrugated. We knew about the “air down” parking area about 5 km along the road, where you stop to reduce pressures, but we started to think maybe we should’ve reduced tyre pressures at the start of the road.
We pottered along slowly for 5 km before stopping at the “air down” park, got the gear out and reduced pressures to 30 PSI rear, and 20 PSI front. We talked to a man who had come out of Big Lagoon about conditions and tyre pressures, and whether we would need to use 4WD low range. He assured us we would be fine, that were only half a dozen soft sand sections, and that we would be ok to use 4WD high range.
Suitably assured, and still a little unsure about our crazy plan, we set out for Big Lagoon, which is located in the Francois Peron NP. The road was badly corrugated, so we had to drive very slowly for the next 11 km, but it was early enough that we would still make it there by 10:00 A.M. The road condition was as described, a few soft and deep sandy bits, but nowhere near as bad as other roads we’d travelled in the past. We passed about eight vehicles heading out of the camp, which gave us hope that we would get a good campsite. No other vehicles passed us going in the same direction.
At Big Lagoon, the procedure is to find a site that you like, park up, then go and find the campground hosts to pay. We found a really great spot close to the water, just as the hosts were walking past, so we paid the very reasonable cost of $20 per night, and while doing that decided that because it was such a beautiful place that we’d stay two nights.
Each campsite is a generous size, big enough for a caravan and car to park in, there were a number of toilets scattered around, and most waterfront sites had a platform looking out over the water, perfect for watching sunsets, and a ramp down to the water to launch small boats, kayaks or stand-up paddle boards. A bargain!
After setting up we had morning tea, then went for a walk a sand dune that is the highest point around to check out the view. The spectacular 360-degree view encompassed the inlet from the ocean into the lagoon, some amazingly-coloured orange/red cliffs on the other side of the lagoon, sparkling, crystal-clear water and a view right up to the top of the lagoon to the north.
The northern part of the lagoon is a protected area, so no fishing is allowed there, because there are fish breeding programmes around that part of the lagoon.
This was the first place we’d stayed on this trip where we could easily launch our inflatable kayak, so we got it all setup before lunch.
After lunch we jumped in the kayak and paddled out to the sea grass area, hoping to catch a glimpse of a Dugong, but with no luck. I also used the outing to determine if there were any good fishing spots close to us, but came to the conclusion that the water was too shallow close to the shore.
Apart from a wander to put the drone up to capture some of the spectacular scenery, we mostly chilled for the rest of the day, waiting until we could sit out on our waterfront platform and watch the sunset.
About an hour before sunset we set up camp on our private platform and spent the next hour watching the absolutely spectacular setting sun, enhanced by some fluffy cloud cover that made it even more amazing.
Day 130 - Big Lagoon, Francois Peron NP, WA 07 June, 2024
After a leisurely start to the day we felt the need for some exercise, and a hill behind the campground was beckoning us.
We didn't have any idea where the track went, or what condition it was in, so we played safe and put shoes on just in case. The walk was reasonably easy part from very soft sand and being slightly up hill, and eventually took us to the top where we had a view of the northern end of the lagoon. It was quite nice but we thought not as nice as where we were camped.
Because we didn't have any other plans for the remainder of the day, we took the opportunity to do some much-needed cleaning around Mata, and made the most of our beautiful campsite by relaxing and waiting for another sunset.
The sunset was almost as spectacular as the previous night, capping off our wonderful two-day stay at Big Lagoon.
Day 131 - Big Lagoon - Eagle Bluff, WA 08 June, 2024
Leaving Big Lagoon we made it back down the rough road without incident to the "air down" parking area, where we stopped to make use of their tyre pumping equipment to reinflate our tyres.
Just around the corner from there is the Peron Heritage Precinct, which was our next stop. The precinct used to be Peron Station from the early 1900s until 1990, when it was sold to the state government.
We wandered around looking at the old buildings and reading the information boards that detailed what it was like to live there during the life of the station. There is also an artesian 'hot tub' there that we put our legs into to check out the 38 degree water.
Our next stop was back in Denham, where we visited the visitor information centre to book a campsite at Eagle Bluff for the night, get some supplies from the bottle-o, fill up with fresh water and diesel, and to visit the dump point.
All set for the next couple of days, we left Denham behind and drove to the Ocean Park Aquarium a few kilometres out of town, where we were surprised to see another Explorer in the car park. We guessed it must Jacinta and Ian who we'd met in the Kalbarri caravan park a few days earlier. We signed up for the guided tour and had a coffee while waiting for the tour to start. An enthusiastic and knowledgeable young lady took us on a tour of their different holding tanks, that contain a wide variety of fish including blue-spotted manta rays, sea snakes, sharks and many other varieties of sea life. Turns out that Jacinta and Ian were on the same tour.
That took us up to lunchtime, and their cafe had been recommended to us, so we ordered lunch and chatted with Jacinta and Ian while waiting for our meals, before they took off to continue their travels.
It was another short drive out to Eagle Bluff, our stop for the night, where we first went up to the Eagle Bluff Lookout to survey the area. While up the top a lady beside us had seen a Dugong out past Eagle Island, and she offered her binoculars for Meg to take a look, although I could just make it out with the naked eye.
At the campground there was strong wind blowing, and rain was forecast overnight, so we didn't bother setting up outside.
It was only a short walk down to the beach from our campsite, and the water looked reasonably deep, so I took the fishing rod down there to try and catch a fish for dinner.
Fortunately, we'd had a good lunch, so it didn't matter too much that I came home empty-handed for the fishing expedition.
Day 132 - Eagle Bluff - Carnarvon, WA 09 June, 2024
Parked on an exposed bluff overnight with wild weather forecast. What could possibly go wrong?
We were woken a few times by the very strong wind rocking us around, and later in the night there was intermittent rain.
By the time we left camp, the rain was persistent and getting heavier by the minute. We'd decided that because the weather was so bad, and there wasn't much to see along the way, that we may as well drive the 320 km to Carnarvon.
We did have a short stop though (because of the rain), at Shell Beach, which wasn't far from Eagle Bluff. The trillions of shells on the beach are from the Fragum cockle, and the deposits are ten metres deep in places.
The rain continued throughout the morning, slowing us down as we came up behind convoys of slow-moving caravans that wouldn't pull over to let other traffic pass.
Our only other stop before Carnarvon was in a large rest area for lunch, and to make use of the toilet and dump point.
On the outskirts of Carnarvon we turned off the highway to go the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum. Carnarvon was a big player in communications during the manned space programs, most particularly the Apollo program that first put men on the moon.
The museum was a pleasant surprise, with hundreds of exhibits and screeds of information on all things space. We did an Apollo 11 take-off experience, where we were in a capsule, lying on our backs, while watching and listening to what the Apollo astronauts would have seen and heard during the take-off and the early part of the space flight.
There were other simulators as well, like one that simulated a space docking, which seemed easy, but we both failed miserably at it. Video games aren't my forte!
I was impressed by all the electronic equipment on display, although I had absolutely no idea what any of it was used for.
After our museum visit we drove to one of the thousand or so (slight exaggeration, but there's at least 12) campgrounds in Carnarvon and hid away inside, away from the rain for what was left of the day, venturing out only to do some laundry and to have showers.
Day 133 - Carnarvon - Quobba Blow Holes, WA 10 June, 2024
Before heading out to Quobba Blowholes this morning, we had a couple of things in Carnarvon to check out.
Our first stop was the Carnarvon Heritage Precinct, which incorporates the now-closed One Mile Jetty, lighthouse keeper's museum, mangrove boardwalk, railway museum and a memorial to the Lock Hospital tragedy.
Unfortunately, the jetty, that was 1450 metres long at its longest, was closed in 2017 from being in a poor state of repair, and then further damaged by Cyclone Seroja later that year.
The mangrove boardwalk was quite short, but showcased that the mangroves appear to be very healthy.
The story of Lock Hospital is very tragic. Aboriginal people were taken away from their families, from 1908 to 1918, the men to nearby Bernier Island and the women to Dorre Island.
After a drive around the Carnarvon waterfront, we drove out of town heading for Quobba.
On the outskirts of the town we stopped at the Cactus Garden to admire their amazing cactus plants, some over 5 metres high. The plants were all shapes and sizes and some had amazingly colourful flowers. Although they also sold fruit and vegetables, there was nothing on offer that we needed.
We took our time with the short drive out to the Quobba Blowholes, arriving there late morning. We were hoping to camp at the nearby Quobba Blowholes camping area, and had read that the camp can fill up early, so we wanted to get there as early as possible.
The section of coast where the blowholes are located is really wild, and the blowholes themselves are very impressive, reminding us of the power of mother nature. After taking dozens of obligatory photos, we drove to the campground and started searching for a site.
Driving through the campsite for what seemed like a kilometre, we were starting to become concerned that we'd left it too late to get a half-decent site. Right out near the end of the track we found a good, level site and got setup.
The beach was only a few metres away so we wandered down there to check it out. While not quite as wild as the blowholes, it was still a beach that I would never consider swimming at.
By the time we'd had lunch, the temperature had cooled down somewhat, forcing us to spend the afternoon inside.
Day 134 - Quobba Blow Holes - Gascoyne Junction, WA 11 June, 2024
Leaving Quobba Blowholes campground this morning, we drove back into Carnarvon. Just outside Carnarvon we took a photo of the completely dry Gascoyne River, which apparently only fills up a couple of times a year.
We needed to stock up on supplies before going into the Kennedy Ranges NP, fill up with fresh water and visit the dump point. I also popped into a camping shop to get some fishing lures, in an attempt to improve my chances of catching a fish.
Not completely sure of where we would stop for the night, we set an initial destination of Gascoyne Junction, about 170 km east of Carnarvon.
While the road was in very good condition, the drive was through fairly boring country, mostly stations on either side of the road, with the only interesting wildlife on offer being some flocks of Wedge-Tailed Eagles.
The only other thing to break the monotony of the long stretches of straight road were hundreds of flowering Flannel Bush plants, which seemed to grow best in the gravel on the very edge of the road.
Before arriving at Gascoyne Junction we'd decided to stop there for lunch, and to stay the night in their caravan park.
Lunch was great, and it was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 20s and very little breeze, but unfortunately there were swarms of hundreds of flies every time we set foot outside. This forced us indoors for the afternoon, suffering a bit from the heat and lack of cooling breeze.
Day 135 - Gascoyne Junction - Kennedy Ranges NP, WA 12 June, 2024
We woke to light rain this morning, that got heavier as we readied ourselves for the day’s expedition.
Getting ready to leave we discovered that the water pump had stopped working overnight. Because we were going into national parks for the next few days, with no sources of water, we needed to fix it before leaving Gascoyne Junction. After checking the fuse, which was good, we didn’t have any other ideas so we called the Explorer factory for advice.
Luckily, I got to speak to Ben, who advised climbing under the motorhome, checking the wires to the pump, cleaning the filter and, if all else failed, giving the solenoid a bash with a stick! It was a bit unpleasant having to climb under Mata in the light rain, on wet ground and with swarms of flies hovering on and around us. I did what Ben suggested, in that order and while the first two fixes didn’t work, the third, bashing the solenoid with a wooden spoon brought the pump back to life – a bit like a defibrillator for mechanical devices, I suppose.
With that done, we departed Gascoyne Junction and headed out onto the Kennedy Ranges NP road, which was unsealed and in very bad condition. That prompted a roadside stop to reduce our tyre pressures, whilst battling the ever-present rabid flies.
It was very slow going for most of the 75 km journey, which ended up taking us all morning to cover. We passed a few vehicles travelling in the opposite direction, but no other traffic going in our direction. After being deprived of seeing native wildlife for a long time when driving on busier roads, we were happy to see a flock of Emus close to the road, one of which ran along with us for some time.
Apart from our stop to reduce tyre pressures, the only other stop we made to take a look at the cobbled road that was part of the Wool Wagon Pathway that was used to transport wool from stations in the area, west to the ports. The pathway was a government initiative to employ people during the great depression.
A little further along the road we spotted two Australian Bustards, or Plains Turkeys, that didn’t seem bothered by us stopping to take photos.
After a hard slog, we arrived at our first destination, Sunrise View Trail, in the Kennedy Ranges NP.
It was lunchtime by then, so we had lunch before getting our walking gear on to tackle the Sunrise View Trail, a short but steep and rocky trail that, at the top, gave us great views of the battlement-like face of the range. By the time we got back down to the carpark the rain, that had temporarily stopped, started falling again, which prompted us to break out the rain jackets.
A short drive away, we arrived at the Honeycomb Gorge carpark. The walk to the gorge was a rough, rocky track, but flat and only 300 metres long. At the gorge we were blown away by the intricate patterns and cavities on and in the rock faces surrounding the gorge. It was almost impossible to believe that these had been created by nature.
Another short drive away, we arrived at the Temple Gorge campground, our final destination for the day. There was another walk here to the gorge but, because the there was still intermittent rain we decided to do that walk the following day.
Once again, the flies were very bad so we didn’t bother to setup outside, and were confined to quarters for the rest of the day.
Day 136 - Kennedy Ranges NP - Mt Augustus Road, WA 13 June, 2024
Although we heard a small amount of rain in the early hours of the morning, the day started sunny, windless and cool.
Once packed up we drove the few hundred metres to the car park for the Temple Gorge trail, a short 2km walk. The trail started off not too bad, but soon turned into a rough, rocky goat track that had us watching every step. At class 3, the difficulty wasn’t too bad, apart from a few sections where there were quite high step-ups.
Partway along the trail we had a great view of The Temple, which we thought was aptly named. We chose a good time of day to do the walk because the early morning sunlight hitting The Temple and the buttresses was spectacular.
The walk in to the gorge is what it’s all about, not the actual gorge itself, with those views of the towering rocks surrounding you making you feel insignificant. At the gorge there were more formations similar to those we’d seen the day before at Honeycomb Gorge. Not as plentiful, but still amazing.
Leaving Temple Gorge, our first driving mission for the day was to return to Gascoyne Junction, on those horrible corrugated roads we’d travelled the previous day. They didn’t seem quite so bad today, perhaps because we knew what was in store for us.
At Gascoyne Junction we filled up with fresh water and diesel, and visited the dump point. After not having any internet the previous day, and knowing we wouldn’t have any the next day, we checked on our socials before commencing the next stage of the day’s drive, aiming for Mt Augustus, over 300 km away.
The drive started really well for the first 15 km on a good sealed road, but then deteriorated into a badly corrugated unsealed road, that saw us struggling to keep our speed above 30 km/h. After an hour we stopped at an area on the side of the road that is known for its seashell fossils, to have lunch and try to spot some fossils. We found a couple of larger rocks that appeared to contain fossilised remains of something we couldn’t identify, but it wasn’t really clear if they were actually fossils.
After lunch we slaved on for another couple of hours on the bad roads, trying to get as close to Mt Augustus as possible to reduce the amount of driving the next day. Not long before stopping we were held up by a 2-3 metre snake that was attempting to cross the road, that we thought may have been a Tiger Snake.
By mid-afternoon we were sick of driving, decided to call it a day, and pulled into a gravel pit on the side of the road, hoping we’d be hidden from passers-by.
As with all this country, the flies were rabid, so we stayed inside to keep away from them.
Day 137 - Mt Augustus Road - Mt Augustus, WA 14 June, 2024
With about another 180 km to travel to get to Mt Augustus, and expecting very bad roads, we were up and away early to try and get there at a reasonable time.
As it turned out, the road conditions were considerably better than the previous day, and we were able to maintain speeds of up 60 - 70 km/h in many places. There were some bad sections where we had to reduce our speed to 20 - 30k km/h, but these were few and far between.
Along the way there were some supposedly interesting rocks, that had been dubbed
Devil's Eggs, but they weren't that spectacular. We stopped to take some photos anyway to have a leg stretch at the same time.
Mid-morning we stopped across from what used to be the Cobra Bangemall Inn for morning tea, and to read the information on the inn's history.
Knocking off the last 50 km to Mt Augusta, we deviated on the way into the campground to visit the Emu Hill Lookout that gave us great views of Mt Augustus and surrounding valleys and ranges.
At the campground we booked in for two nights onto an unpowered site. Their campsites are unusual in that there is a central grassed circle that you park beside, but not on the grass itself. They also have fire pits at some of the sites so we made sure we bagged on of those.
Later in the day the temperature was still in the high 20s, so we decided to forgo the fire, sadly.
Day 138 - Mt Augustus, WA 15 June, 2024
We spent this morning doing the 45 km Mt Augusta loop drive, that goes right around the mountain, and includes a number of interesting activities along the way.
Setting out around 8:00 A.M., our first stop was the Gum Grove trail walk, a short 1 km wander through a shady grove of Red River Gum trees. The gum trees are mostly very mature, have large trunks and branches sticking at odd angles higher up the trees.
Next up on the loop was the Oroomboo Trail, another short walk at only 500 metres return. At the end of the trail there was an interesting rock escarpment containing Aboriginal rock engravings, that are engraved in the rock rather than painted with ochre.
Further around the loop the next attraction was the Petroglyph Trail, another short 300 metre walk. At the end of this trail there was another rock escarpment that contained more extensive Aboriginal rock engravings.
Our next stop on the loop was the 500 metre Flintstone Rock trail, that took us up and over steep rocks to a small natural bridge that had Aboriginal rock engravings under it.
The last stop on the Loop Road was the Saddle Trail, a little longer at 1 km, and uphill all the way that gave great views of The Pound, an area where drovers used to stop overnight on cattle drives, and sweeping views over the Lyons Valley to the north.
Back out on the Mt Augustus Road, our last stop on the loop drive was at Cattle Pool, a permanent waterhole on the Lyons River, that was surrounded by beautiful gum trees.
Back at the campground we had lunch, ordered a meal for dinner at the camp restaurant and relaxed for the afternoon.
Whilst chilling outside we saw another Explorer pull into the campground and disappear around the back of the camp shop. After a little while it reappeared and parked in front of our camping spot. It was Tony and Mary, #410TPX from Tasmania. We chatted a bit while Tony was sorting a tyre replacement after a blown tyre on the way in to Mt Augustus.
Early evening we went up to the restaurant, grabbed some drinks and waited for our meal. Soon after, Tony and Mary came in and joined us at our table. We had a good old chin wag while eating dinner, and really enjoyed their company.
Day 139 - Mt Augustus - Yannerie, WA 16 June, 2024
Today was all about driving back towards the coast, and seeing how far we could get, considering we would be travelling on unsealed roads all the way out to National Route 1, over 300 km away.
The roads turned out to not be as bad as we'd expected, allowing us travel around 70 km/h for a lot of the journey, although there were also many sections of badly corrugated road that slowed us down here and there.
There was nothing to see along the way, and the countryside didn't offer very much either. For the entire journey we saw a total of one Kangaroo and a couple of Wedge-Tailed Eagles, and no other interesting wildlife.
We played tag with another couple towing a caravan for most of the day. They came up behind us mid-morning, and when we pulled over for a snack and leg stretch they passed us. A little while later, they were parked up having their morning tea and we passed them. A couple of hours later, we were stopped having our lunch when they went past us. Some time later we passed them again when they stopped for their lunch. A couple of hours later they passed us for the last time and we didn't see them again.
After about seven hours of driving we made it out onto National Route 1, and a short way along from there we pulled into a roadside rest stop free camp for the night, getting inside as quickly as possible to avoid the rain that had started falling an hour before.
Day 140 - Yannerie - Exmouth, WA 17 June, 2024
Now that we were back to driving sealed roads, the first order of the day was to reinflate our tyres, that we'd lowered way back in Gascoyne Junction.
With that done we headed back out onto the highway, headed for Exmouth, 200 km away.
The drive was boring and uneventful, with by far the majority of vehicles on the road being RVs. We got stuck behind a caravan of four caravans with about 80 km to go, and just had to be content to sit behind them all the way into Exmouth because of the windy roads and large number of RVs travelling in the other direction.
After filling up with diesel on the outskirts of town, it was a short drive into the visitor information centre. After being in the outback for the past week or so, we were horrified to see a large cruise ship anchored offshore as we entered town, and in Exmouth the place was heaving with cruise ship passengers, grey nomads and younger surfie types.
Our usual first stop any town is the visitor information centre, and this town was no exception. The two campgrounds in the town were full, which activated the town's overflow camping area, and this was where we would have to stay. Unfortunately we weren't able to book a site there until 2:00 P.M., so we set off to do some chores to kill some time.
In the central shopping area we grabbed a pie for lunch, stocked up on groceries and visited the bottle shop.
After also filling up with fresh water, we still had an hour to wait to book a campsite, so we drove out to Town Beach for a view of the cruise ship, and the beach which was mostly populated by young scantily-clad European sun worshipping tourists.
During the morning Meg had been trying to arrange some stays at places we wanted to see in the area, like Cape Range NP, but most places were booked out for weeks in advance, an issue we would have from this point north. She eventually succeeded in booking a night in the national park, but not until three days later.
So, back at the visitor information centre, we had to book into the overflow campsite for three nights, at $60 a pop!
The campsite was fairly basic, but did have good toilets and showers. The day was a bit unpleasant when we arrived, so we stayed inside for the rest of the day.
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