24/10/22 Galena Bridge to Kalbarri

 

   I hope the wildflowers haven't put you off , because there's more to come as we head in toward Kalbarri . All these are flowers beside the road , I didn't have to walk far to get them all . I won't prattle on about them , here they are .

  The flowers can be seen all the way to the horizon - they don't normally show up this well on the photos .

    All of these photos are from Kalbarri NP , the road passes through it .

   I noticed this strange little beetle ??? chewing away at these flowers - must have been tasty . It; got a great colour scheme - zoom in and have a look .

    We continued on into Kalbarri and got a site for a week - it's a lot quieter than we expected , and also a lot cooler !! Temperatures are up to 25 and down to10-14 overnight , seems when we got to Carnarvon there was a line we crossed and the weather south of that was about 10 degrees cooler during the day and night . We can't complain , we did want it a bit cooler , shame about the south to southwest winds that come with it though - 25 to 40 kms/hr wears you down when it blows all day & half the night . 

22-24/10/22 Carnarvon to Galena

 

   After staying for a couple of extra days still waiting for the parcel , it was time to head off again . This section of road from Carnarvon southward is a tad , well , boring . You are driving through desert and it's totally uninspiring . Hence no photos from this section . We had a look at a few campsites along the way , but kept going to a site we've stayed at a few times - Nerren Nerren Rest Area . It was a busy stop this time , with about 10 others staying as well .

  Next day we headed further south to another free camp at Galena Bridge , we had a couple of stops along the way , the wildflowers were out everywhere . This plant did have some yellow flowers , but it was the thorns that got my attention . When I looked at the photo on the computer I found a tiny seed that had obviously got stuck on the furry leaf . 

    Here's some yellow everlasting daisies .

   There were masses of flowers beside the road , and further into the bush . The late rainfall has made a huge difference to what we've seen before .

    There were lot's of these as well

    Next stop , we went for a walk up a track for about 500m , all the vegetation looked like it wanted to be there and was thriving . there were plenty of different types as well - here they are -

   

  This one looks like it's a spotty flower , but it's white with the dark spots being the stamen of the flowers . 

   Always good to have some variation in colour .

   This is the Smoke Bush .

    All the natives thrive in the cream coloured sand .

    A different type of everlasting daisy .

    And being further south , we have arrived back in the northern wheat belt .

    These little yellow flowers were only about 20-30mm above the ground . They created a carpet of yellow .

   Getting to Galena Bridge , we made our way to a section that is quieter than the main area . This Desert Rose was right beside our van , here's a photo of 3 flowers in different stages closed , nearly open and fully open .

   We even had views down the Murchison River . 

   Our afternoon was spent reading and going for a walk down the river and around to a gravel road and back again . Fortunately for us we didn't get any neighbours - nice and quiet . 

19/10/22 Quobba

 

    Time for a day out , the weather was a bit better today , the wind has dropped a bit . Speaking of weather , as soon as we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn , the temperature dropped down to the mid 20's - and that was on a hot day !! Fortunately Quobba is northwest of  Carnarvon and a bit warmer - it's only 70klms away . 

   On the way out we cross the southern end of Lake McLeod , it's a salt lake a little over 2,000 square kilometres in size . This is the southern end .

    This is the other side of the road , the north side . Dampier Salt produce salt further to the north of here .

    Out to the coast and found some banksia's near the lighthouse .

    We pulled up at the blowholes and went for a walk around the limestone cliffs . The tide was on the way out , exposing more steep drop offs . The water here is very deep , previously we have seen whales swimming only 60 - 80m from the edge . There are a couple of people on the rocks top left of the photo for some size comparison . Such a rugged piece of coastline !

     The tide traps fish as it recedes , they hide in these holes in the rock shelf .

    If you examine this photo , you can see the fish swimming on their sides as the water is shallow .

 

    This bird doesn't mind either , it has a fish in it's beak .

 

   The blowholes were working well - they are different to other blowholes around the country . These blowholes are formed in the limestone shelf by the movement in the tides , gradually eroding sections of the rock shelf , and the water is forced in and then out the holes in the top .

    These seed pods were sitting nicely in the salt water concentrate in a hole in the rocks .

    You can get mesmerised by the movement of the water here , King waves are also possible here , and have caught people out - it can be a very dangerous section of coast . You definitely wouldn't want to get washed into the water here , you would be ripped apart on the rocks .

    We went down through the campground , and kept going a far as we felt comfortable with , which was a fair way down -this end you're not allowed to camp in . All the darker green areas in the water are coral reef .

   Back to the day use area and a spot called The Aquarium , it's a very popular swimming & snorkelling spot .

    And with that I went for a snorkel , probably should have been in earlier , as the tide was on it's way out and there was only about 40 - 50 kms of water above the coral . 

    There were a variety of colours in the coral .

   And many different types .

    There were also plenty of fish of all sizes .

    This is the coastline heading to Quobba Station and up to Coral Bay .

    Time to head back to town , but with one more stop along the way - time for an aerial view or 2 .

    This is a Betacarotene plant - only a small one - love the colours !

   Another good day , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1aBdZIay142kTvizLMtoozhh-DbjubB4&usp=sharing

13-16/10/22 Karratha to Carnarvon

     Time to head off again , move to something a little cooler , these mid 30's days are getting too much . The winds are better today for travelling - we'll get some tailwinds - that'll help the fuel economy a bit . It wasn't long before we started to get wildflowers along the way , being here a month ago would've looked amazing , we got the tail end of the flowers - if you can believe that .

   Mulla Mulla looked amazing as we went along , softening the harsh conditions .

    After a couple of stops at Fortescue River to check out some campsites , we continued on to Robe River  for some lunch . There was plenty of water here which made it much more pleasant .

    There were plenty of these Painted Finches coming down for a drink .

    There were some Desert Roses around , and I'm really happy with this photo - the centre of the flower seems to have little balls of light .

    At another stop there were thousands of flowers , yellow , pink & white .

Here'a an aerial shot of that area .

   We couldn't believe the amount of flowers about .

   Continuing on , we drove further than normal to take advantage of the wind , finally stopping at a free camp at a gravel pit . There was a flat top hill beside us and another ridge going to the south .

 

   Here's our gravel pit and the ridge behind .

   Yep , flowers in the gravel .

    Sunset was pretty good as well .

   Next morning we left the Pilbara vegetation behind , entering the red sand dunes of the Gascoyne area .

   After another night in a rest area we headed into Carnarvon . This is the area where you find the Green Bird Flower .

    A drive around the fruit growing area , to find tomatoes and lots of table grapes .

    Here's the main street of Carnarvon 

   And looking to the west .

   We are here for a week , waiting for the parcel , hopefully it'll arrive while we're here . 

Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1LnybrElKLE8Tu5yBK-jmzadm5W2_PRU&usp=sharing