Half Lap of Australia - Part 2 - Free camp Perth to Kununurra

Hi everyone, welcome back to my half lap of Australia. 

A couple of weeks ago I brought you the first installment - a brief overview of our recent trip through Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia - a half lap of our Australian continent.  

This week I am taking you up the coast from our home 2 hours south of Perth to Kununurra - a distance of approx 3,513 kilometres (2,183 miles) - the green line following the North West Coastal and the Great Northern Highway on the map opposite, and our camps marked with a red line.

It's a long way and you need to allow about 6 days to do this distance comfortably. And incredibly you can free camp all the way! 


Here is a sample of a great downloadable map from Main Roads Western Australia to help you plan your trip, outlining the designated 24 hour camp sites, and rest areas and what facilities they have ie toilets 

Not all road side rest areas are equal - so it pays to do your research and work out how far you want to travel each day and where you want to stop.  

Please note: If you pull into a designated "truck bay" you need to ensure you have left room for road trains, some of which have 3 trailers and are over 54 metres long. Long haulage truck drivers rely on these truck bays and don't take kindly to caravaners taking over their overnight stops. 

 

Kennedy Ranges, Western Australia

This week I am very happy to be guest posting over on Jo Castro's (Lifestyle Fifty) partner blog Zig-a-Zag. Jo's Zig-a-Zag blog specialises in Western Australian travel, and Jo invited me to do a guest post for her. 

I have travelled over a lot of Western Australia, so I chose to blog about a place I only visited for the first time a couple of years ago - the spectacular, and relatively easy to get to, Kennedy Ranges - located in Western Australia's Pilbara region. 

Finding the Green Birdflower

For those who are regular readers of my blog you will probably know that I love photographing wildflowers. I had a wonderful time photographing wildflowers, especially species I hadn't photographed before, during our recent six week trip up through the Western Australian Kimberley region.  I blogged about some of the Kimberley's amazing wildflowers here - The wildflowers are blooming

 Wildflower season starts in July in Western Australia's north (the time of our visit), and as we moved south through August the wildflowers were starting bloom through the Pilbara and Mid-West regions.  The heathlands of Lesueur National Park near Jurien in the Mid-West were ablaze with colour (but they will have to wait for another post). 

Today I want to tell you about an exciting find for me on our way south - the Green Birdflower - Crotalaria cunninghamii - listed as "uncommon" in my wildflower identification book, but as "not threatened" by the WA Department of Parks and Wildlife Flora Base website. 

Mount Augustus walk trails, Pilbara, Western Australia

Have you ever been to Mount Augustus in Western Australia’s Pilbara region?  We hadn’t before this last July. I wondered why we had never been there before! If you missed my first blog post about it you can catch up by clicking here – Wildflowers that bloom in the red rock of Mt Augustus

Mount Augustus, or Burringurrah, as it is known by the local Wajarri indigenous people, is the largest rock in the world. 430 kilometres from Carnarvon via Gascoyne Junction or 360 kilometres from Meekatharra, via gravel roads either way, it is easy to explore Mount Augustus from the Mount Augustus Outback Tourist Park, located only a short drive from Mt Augustus National Park. If you stay a few days you can enjoy the numerous walk trails through Mt Augustus.

Please click on "read more" to keeping reading and seeing more!

Flowers that bloom in the red rock of Mount Augustus, Western Australia

Regular readers of my blog will know that life has changed for me over the last couple of months in a way that was totally unexpected, and my blogging has been a little erratic.

In July we set off on a camping holiday into the Pilbara region of Western Australia. If you missed the last post back in August you can catch up by clicking here - Pilbara-camping-part-3

For those of you who have been waiting patiently out there in blogland for me to continue writing about our trip, thank you so much for being patient. As promised I'm back!

Please click on read more to keeping reading and seeing more!

Pilbara camping - Part 3 - Karijini to Mt Augustus - Western Australia

Hi everyone, I hope you have enjoyed my last two posts about camping in Karijini National Park in Western Australia's Pilbara region. If you ever come to Western Australia, and have time, you should visit, particularly if you are here around July-August.
If you missed the posts you can catch up here -  Karijini Camping - Part 1
 and here - Karijini camping - Part 2


Today we are back on the road again, heading out of Karijini and heading towards Mount Augustus - the world's largest monocline.
But first the town of Tom Price - 108km from the Karijini's Dales Gorge campground.
We need to fuel up and buy some fresh supplies for the next leg of our trip, plus a quick email catch up and mail some post cards.

Situated on the edge of the Hamersley Ranges, Tom Price is Western Australia's highest town, 747metres above sea level. Tom Price's economy is dependent on the iron ore industry. The area was only appraised for mining in the early 1960's, so Tom Price is a very young town.  

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

Pilbara camping in Karijini National Park, Western Australia

Getting ready for a camping holiday always involves a bit (or a lot) of planning. 

There is the camper trailer to check over and make sure everything is in it that needs to be. There are lists to be made and ticked off, a rough plan of where we are going drawn up, meals to plan and cooking, dehydrating and food shopping to to be done, our vehicle to be checked over and the extra spare tyre to be hauled onto the roof, washing done and clothes packed, organise someone to collect the mail and put out the rubbish bins.

 Ooooo....there seems to be a lot of chocolate in there! Oh well you have to have some little luxuries when you are camping in the bush.

But finally we are on our way and as the sun comes up over the road ahead we sigh a sigh of contentment. 

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

Everlasting magic - midwest Western Australia

We have been away for the last 2 weeks travelling and camping in our Pilbara and Mid-West region through Karijini National Park, Mt Augustus, Kennedy Ranges and Coalseam. The wildflowers particularly on our way south between Murchison and Mullewa in the Mid-West region were starting to come into bloom. The everlasting wildflowers were opening their white, pink and yellow faces, and spreading across the red dust like a carpet through the trees as far as you could see. It is hard to show you how magnificent there were.

 Those of you who have stopped by my blog from time to time will have seen my white everlastings images that have gone through several transformations the last couple of years.  Everlastings have papery petals and if you pick them and dry them upside down they can last for years.

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

Red Rock & Spinifex, Karijini, Western Australia

KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK, PILBARA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The only thing that breaks the silence of the piccaninny dawn at Karijini is an orchestra of birdsong and the effect is simply stunning.

By 6.30am we had walked to the rim of the gorge to watch the sun rise. The birdsong was an overture for what we were about to witness on central stage.

Before us we watched the sky turn from pinks and mauves to orange and yellow, and then as the sun’s rays shot over the eastern horizon I turned to see the mountain behind me come alive and light up an incredibly rich, vibrant red. Whilst at my feet the Spinifex heads turned to gold.

We were at Dales Gorge in the heart of Karijini National Park in the Hamersley Ranges in Western Australia’s central Pilbara district.

Western Australia's second biggest national park, Karijini covers 627,445 hectares. Much of the southern half of the park is inaccessible, so visitors concentrate on the spectacular and rugged gorges in the north that plunge hundreds of metres from the Spinifex plains.

It is a wonderful place for walking, sightseeing, photography, camping, swimming and observing nature.

There are a number of gorges and walk trails to explore at Karijini. These range from short, easy walks for people of all ages and fitness levels, tracks for those with moderate fitness, to trails which should only be attempted by fit, experienced, well-equipped bushwalkers.

Fortescue Falls in Dale's Gorge is spring-fed and is the Park’s only permanent waterfall. The Falls tumble over layers of iron-stone rock from the tree lined Fern Pool. A wooden walkway takes you right to the waters edge and the pool is a perfect place to sit in the shade or have a swim to cool off.

The trail following the creek from Fortescue Falls to Circular Pool is not difficult and visitors should allow a day to fully experience the Gorge. Built up over millions of years, the layers of multi-coloured rock of the cliff faces tower over clear rock pools and shady meandering pathways, which are a refreshing retreat from the arid Spinifex plains above you. There are plenty of places to sit and enjoy the beautiful landscape and to marvel at the Snappy Gums whose roots cling to the cliff walls, their white trunks in stark contrast to the red rocks.

The walk finishes at Circular Pool, a deep fern lined pool surrounded by sheer cliffs. Shaded most of the day by the gorge walls, the water is enticing, but icy cold.

To read this complete story, see "Australian Coast and Country" magazine, Autumn 2005

Fishing Outback - Pilbara Style, Western Australia

PILBARA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA - July 2006 

They say a true fisherman is always ready to have a go at some fishing anywhere anytime, and so it was that I found myself sitting hard up against a rock wall in a thin sliver of shade trying to get out of the blazing midday sun while the intrepid fishermen, my husband Rod and son Mark, went fishing in Glen Herring Gorge near Marble Bar in Western Australia’s Pilbara.

There was so much radiated heat bouncing off the rock walls of that Gorge that it must have been at least 38 degrees in the waterbag, because my face was a red as the rock, my head ached, the sweat poured out of every pore, the water in my water bottle was warm, and all I wanted to do was find a cool place to sit.

How could they possibly stand out in that heat fishing? Eventually I started to cool down a bit and the ache in my head subsided enough that I began to enjoy the view from my crevice and the light breeze that cooled the sweat running down my face. It was so peaceful that I began to enjoy the solitude while the fishermen fished.

I didn’t know what they thought they were going to catch and Father seemed to be having problems with Son hooking the weed growth in the bottom of the river, so I left them to it and wandered off further up the Gorge with my camera. 

 It was mid July and we had travelled for two days up the Great Northern Highway via Newman and Nullagine to Marble Bar from our home in the south to escape the winter for a few weeks.

To read the rest of the article see Western Angler, February- March 2008