The landscape has dried somewhat from when we were here at the start of October last year . Parched trees & hardy shrubbery are about the only vegetation surviving at the moment , there is some very dead grass in spots around the clay pans . We did manage to see a few cattle , but apart from that it was just a few small birds .
Arriving at the turnoff , we had seen only 2 cars and 2 trucks , we made our way down toward the river driving through sand and hard packed clay until we reached the rocks - a large area of red rock . Past the rocks is a little oasis for all the local wildlife - a pool of clear water 400m long and about 50m wide . Small fish were swimming around , a few cormorants were drying off , there were kangaroo trails in the sand - this place would be a hive of activity in the early mornings and late afternoons .
The rocks went from red near the waters edge to orange 30m away .
There are stands of tea trees beside some of the waterhole - most show some signs of flood damage , in various stages of leaning over , some of which are horizontal .
The highest flood level they had was in the 1960's at 7.5m , but was surpassed in 2000 by a level of 7.62m after cyclone Steve dumped a lot of rain . It would have been a site to see , there would have been water everywhere - apart from the rocky edges here , it is very flat country .
The end of the waterhole has a steep bank of sand & small rocks - it is a bit hard to fathom why this waterhole doesn't fill up with sand & gravel when it floods !!
We didn't bother getting the kayak off the roof racks , a 400m paddle didn't enthuse us a great deal - I suppose we could have gone up & down a few times .
With the flies getting friendlier by the second , we jumped back in the ute and headed back to Carnarvon .
Back to the highway and we turned north and went over the river again - it was dry - last year it did have a pool of water underneath it .
We drove down North River Rd - part of the Fruit Loop , and checked out what they are growing at the moment - tomatoes ( they grow year round here ), sweetcorn , beans , eggplant , chilli , capsicums watermelons ( just finished ) , rockmelons and zucchini . We stopped and bought some chilli's , and will stop on the way north next week to get some capsicum .
Heading down toward the old pier , we stopped off at the beach to have lunch , then went for a walk on the beach .
We were quite surprised to see the quantity and variety of shells washed up on the beach - the biggest of which was a nautilus shell !! it was broken up and only half of the main shell was left . There were plenty of sea urchin shells , crab shells , and many other shells . It was very windy and was playing havoc with our head and ears aching , so we headed for home .
Here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ySFC_UaxDxnGfrUSFCDp8fHlojU&usp=sharing
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