Moving day again , we’ve enjoyed having a week to relax and not drive quite as much .
Today we’re off to the junction , petticoat junction - ( now there’s a throw back for those that remember ) - no it’s Gascoyne Junction , about 170 klms east of Carnarvon . A very small village & aboriginal community , perched above the Gascoyne River , not far above the river !!! In fact the caravan park and tavern are nearly brand new , as they pretty much got washed away in the last floods in April , with the help of the cyclone !!
The drive out was one of little contrast , flat mulga scrub , orange clay pans , then the wildflowers started again - the mulla mulla was out in flower again , with a lot of different flowers going to seed from previous blooms - there was a lot of cream colour interspersed with the mauve mulla mulla .
We were climbing slowly from sea level up to about 160m asl , nothing too remarkable in that . There are lots of cattle grids to be crossed on the way , and we saw quite a few cattle as well .
We crested a rise in the road and the Kennedy Ranges appeared to the north of us - quite exciting when all we’ve been seeing is nothing remarkable across the horizon from one side to another - it certainly beats the low coastal scrub !!
Arriving at the junction , we set up and had some lunch before going for a drive around town . There is a large council depot , with a lot of road maintenance equipment - graders , rollers , mobile accomodation vans and more - they have plenty of dirt roads up here to maintain . There is the local council office , public school , footy oval / cricket pitch , community hall and the caravan park , tavern & fuel station ( all in one ) .
We drove to the east for about 10 klms before turning and coming back - not a lot to look out - next we turned toward the Kennedy Ranges - where we’re heading tomorrow - and crossed over the Gascoyne River , the crossing has been reopened after being closed by the flooding earlier in the year . Well ,what a surprise !!! there was water , and quite a lot of it , the river looked great , and quite inviting , the temperature was 31at 10am and got up to 35 degrees by noon !! Continuing on , we spotted a small timber row boat on top of someones verandah - it had 1980 Flood Level written on it - that would have been about 10m above the current water level - pretty impressive !!
Up to a picnic area where the locals do a bit of swinging off a rope and dropping into the river , we had a look and then headed back . The crossing over the river is about 100m long and parts of the northern side had been washed away , we were taken to the side by a small detour . There were several little backwaters on the southern side of the causeway that we took photos of .
We relented and turned the aircon on in the RV , and sat and vegged out for an hour or so .
It was AFL Grand Final Day , and there was a crowd at the tavern - about 50 people , possibly more , there were quite a few disappointed supporters at the end of the day .
We decided to go for a swim , got to the pool gate , only to find it wasn’t able to be opened - bugger - back to the RV again .
Decision was made for us , cheese & bickies & a cold drink !!!!
A couple from Perth watched us come in and were quite impressed that Lyn got the RV into position in 2 attempts - apparently he cant reverse for love or money !!! so he wasn’t impressed !!
We chatted to them for a while , before getting some tea organised as the sun set on another day .
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