Break done , ute packed , off we go at 8am - heading to Kennedy Range NP , about 60 klms to our north .
We headed out and across the river again , crossed the cattle grid and straight onto dirt road . There were some minor corrugations , and soft bulldust in spots , but the worst would have to have been the floodways - some had signposts , but the few that didn't meant you had to slow up in a hurry .
The land is predominately flat , with lots of clay pans and mulga scrub .
The Kennedy Ranges are actually a mesa , a flat topped remnant of the old sea floor , that goes for 75 klms from north to south and 25 klms east to west at it's widest . It is approximately 100m high . We were getting glimpses of it on the way up yesterday and again this morning .
We seemed to go away from it and then come back to it again , the road turning to red clay as we approached the National Park .
We headed to the northern most lookout first and worked our way back down , the temperature being the biggest problem today - it was 9am and already 32 degrees . That's something we have noticed here - the temperature climbs really quickly early , but peaks and doesn't seem to get any hotter after about 11am .
We wandered up Sunrise View lookout - we missed sunrise by about 4 hrs , but the views were great.
The ground is covered in rocks , scrub and the remains of millions of wildflowers - it would have been breathtaking a month ago !! There are still some flowering , but past their best .
The ute seems dwarfed by the vast horizon behind it . Back to the ute and another swig of water , we have 2 1/2 litres each today .
Back down the track to Honeycomb Gorge - most of the walks are short here fortunately , if they were longer , they'd still be waiting for us to do them !! Having said that , there are a couple that we won't be attempting - too far and too damn hot !!!
Back to Honeycomb Gorge , we parked and headed off with a bottle of water each , there isn't much shade here , but when we found it , we stopped for a few minutes . The gorge is named for it's weathered features , the walk stops at the dry waterfall and the walls to the sides of the dry pool are honeycombed . One side looks like the old letter boxes / pigeon holes from long ago , but instead of letters in the holes , there are rocks - 5m above the ground !! Another section looks like it has been cut out by a laser cutter .
The gorge is also home to hundreds of zebra finches , and some budgerigars , amongst others we haven't seen before !!
Back to the ute and crank up the air con to cool down , the temperature now 35 degrees , but the heat coming from all the rock makes it feel a lot hotter .
Next we headed to Temple Gorge , there are 2 sections to this one , first one is a grade 3 walk , the second is a grade 4 . We decided to do the first section and see how we go . The gorges have a lot of different coloured rock , from white to orange , red & brown and black . The walk took us up the creek bed in the bottom of the gorge , with occasional respite from the heat under the shade of a tree ,
we used every bit we could find . The heat radiating from the rocks around us was stifling in places , fortunately a breeze picked up and started moving some air around , it was still hot but a little more bearable !! Wildflowers are amazing things , they sprout in the most hostile places , come out in blossom - softening a harsh landscape , go to seed , then wither up and die .
There is a feature as you climb this creek bed , it is a natural window , and has a lovely little area behind it in shade - it was about 5 degrees cooler there - guess where we stopped !! The track only went another 20 m to another dry waterfall .
After resting for a while , we attempted the return trip , with several stops along the way . We made it , slow and sure is the best way today .
Getting back to the ute , the air con was cranked right up , we jumped in and grabbed another bottle of water - we'd already finished 1 and were well on the way to finish the 2nd !! and it was only 11:30 .
We drove through he campground where there was a caravan and and camper van set up - hope they like it hot !!
We drove down to Drapers Gorge to have a look - all this section is within about 5klms of the entry , there doesn't appear to be anywhere else to access the ranges .
The time was only 11:45 , we had seen what we came to look at , so we headed back to the Junction , the thought of lunch beside the river seemed like a good idea !!
There are orange sand dunes , that at the moment have some small plants with creamy white flowers and flowering shrubs , and the occasional bit of grass - it doesn't photograph as well as it actually looked .
On the way back , there were some remnant mesa's on the eastern side of the road .
Note the lack of ground cover , mainly rocks .
We arrived back at the picnic area beside the river and had lunch . There were several young indigenous boys having a ball , jumping from a tree , 8m down into the water . This is what kids did before computers and game machines came along !!
Lunch done , we headed back to the park , to have a swim - problem , the pool isn't in use , as it is a council owned park and rules state there has to be a pool attendant and the manager needs to have the appropriate tickets for supervision etc . It's been a white elephant for the last 2 years apparently , a perfectly good pool that nobody has used !!
Time for a shower and sit in the air conditioned RV for a while .
That was the end of the days activities , till we had some salsa and a nice cold beer sitting on the cool grass - it had been watered this morning .
A dust devil / willy willy came through and upended our table and one of the chairs , nearly wrecked the guy next doors awning - it certainly had some oomf behind it !!
A windy change came through and started to cool things down , thankfully - we couldn't live in air conditioning all the time .
Todays map :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kW9eE0XS-lnE&usp=sharing
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