Back again , sorry for the delay , we've been a bit occupied with other stuff .
We left Exmouth and headed south into a headwind - just for a change haha . Stopped for the night at Minilya Rest area , then carried on to Carnarvon where we stayed for 5 nights . It was an opportunity to wash the ute & van , and restock .
When we weren't working on the ute & van , we went for a drive around the Fruit Loop - about 20klms around , it takes you through all the fruit & vegetable growing areas on the north and south of the Gascoyne River . There's a massive amount of fresh produce grown here , chilli's , grapes , melons , banana's , asparagus , mango's , tomatoes and lot's more !
We crossed the river and went up the north side , crossed the river again and back down the south side , before stopping and taking some aerial shots .
This is the Gascoyne River - it looks a bit dry you're thinking - you'd be right , it's all dry on top , but under that cover of stones & sand is a flowing river . All the growers have bore pumps out in the river bed pumping water up from below . This is a typical West Australian river in the northwest of the state , it flows underground . We have been fortunate enough to see it flowing on the surface in 2016 , after a lot of rainfall . The road on the right is South River Rd and there's more crops growing to the right of the photo and you can see the green areas on the left hand side of the river , where there's also plenty growing .
These rows starting on the left are banana's , and the rows on the right are asparagus , the road behind is the North West Coastal Hwy .
More of South River Rd .
The weather hadn't really changed much , the wind continued to blow from the southwest . The park we stayed at was quiet for a couple of days , but got busier as people got sick of the wind out at the coastal camps and came back into town . I chatted to one of the park workers who commented that this had been the busiest season they'd had - so much for Covid slowing things down - travelling tourists are going nuts .
Continuing on our way south , we had another free camp at Nerren Nerren Rest Area . We chatted to a young couple with 3 boys , from Queensland , who were working at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park . They had got to Exmouth by the time the regional lock down happened and had been there ever since , Apparently when Covid hit , anyone who was holidaying in Exmouth that had a home to go to , were told to leave , only those travellers who didn't have somewhere to go could stay . They stayed and are now working at Yardie Homestead CP . They also commented on how busy the season had been and next season was getting close to being booked out as well .
Driving further down to Galena Bridge , we stopped and had another free camp there , before heading in toward Kalbarri the next day - we were spurred on by the wildflowers we had seen prior to getting to the turnoff .
Our drive in to Kalbarri was a stop start affair with us stopping to look at the flowers we found - seems the inland national park does flower for a lot longer than the coastal park . Here's some of the variety we saw , from tiny everlastings , yellows , pinks & creams , purple and also lot's of smoke bush .
We were going to stop in Kalbarri for a day or 2 , but as we entered town we found there were lots of people , vans , boats , camper trailers & motorhomes , so we kept going further down to Lynton Station . We stayed here when we first came down the coast back in 2015 . We found the caretakers , who we knew and set up for the night in between some of the leaning trees - the wind has a lot to do with these trees growing the way they do - horizontally !!
The governor of the convict hiring station had a homestead on the side of the hill about 500m from the convict hiring station buildings . It's a 2 storey house with the kitchen below and the bedrooms & dining upstairs , there's a verandah that goes around 3 sides of the house The house is being gradually restored , as money permits .
The ceilings are just about non existent at the moment - this is about all that remains of them .
We left Lynton and headed to Northampton , then we headed away from the highway and went through the Chapman Valley for a change . Geraldton wasn't really needed for us except for fuel , so we came around the east side of town and came in past the airport and into the port area , fuelled up and went back out to the airport and headed south to Ellendale Pool . That was our stop for the night , there's a great little campground with room for quite a few vans - it's a paid site , but in a very nice location by the Greenough River . This is part of the campground .
And our tiny site 😁
We had a few tiny visitors , a few of these Superb Blue Wrens and their female companions .
Here's the river , sign posts around the riverbank tell you not to swim or fish due to the risk of Amoebic Meningitis when the water temperature goes above 24 degrees , but there's no thermometer on site ???
The cliff on the other side is full of layered colour .
And finally an aerial view .
Would have been quite easy to stay here for a couple of days , but we needed to be further south , so headed off to Cliff Head South free camp for 3 nights . The wind was still with us unfortunately and usually didn't back off until the sun had disappeared for the night . Water was crystal clear on the first day , but was very stirred up on the 2nd - swimming wasn't an option unfortunately , so we had a few beach walks before the wind set in each day and did some reading the rest of the time . We did manage to get a couple of really good sunsets out of it though .
Leaving Cliff Head , the weather had improved , wind had dropped , making the drive much more pleasant . Refuelled at Jurien Bay and decided to keep going down to Ledge Point - hadn't been there before , so another first . Ledge Point is a small town that is slowly growing , toehold holiday shacks being replaced by flash new holiday homes and a few retirees as well . Here's a few aerial pics .
After a night at Ledge Point ( friday night ) - note to self - don't go here for the weekend if you want a quiet place , it fills up on friday afternoon , being so close to Perth it's very popular !! weekdays would be a better option . We headed back down to Baldivis for the next little while to help Emma move house .
We do a bit of walking around the lakes here , and discovered this little spider - and there's lot's of them here . It's no bigger than a 10 cent piece , and has great colouring and these little horns over it's abdomen .
Here we are , and that's it for a bit , we'll be off the road for a while , so have a happy and merry christmas , stay safe & well , hopefully 2021 will be an improvement on this year .
