Day 73 - Friday 14 September - Continuing South

Day 73

Friday

14 September – 

Coral Bay – Minilya – Carnarvon – Galena Bridge

We were awake just after 7 and Paul was up and out ready to get on with our move. I laid in bed for a further 15min and then had to get up. We ate breakfast, before Paul went for a shower and I began the tidy up inside. When he returned, it was my turn for a shower and when I returned, I had to play find the van. I followed the trail of water dots, eventually finding him around the corner with the car already on the trailer. By 8.30am, we were on the road and heading for Carnarvon. At 9am we crossed the line of the Tropic of Capricorn and by 9.25am we had returned to the North West Coastal Highway, albeit heading in the wrong direction! I am sure we should be heading north. 

We passed the spot where we had our first incident on the trip, the blown tyre and kept on cruising by. Minilya Bridge roadhouse was a further 5km down the road and we pulled in for fuel, which took forever as the pump wasn’t working properly. 

I spent the time between Minilya and Carnarvon catching up on the blog and the photos from the past couple of days. By 11am, we had reached the outskirts of Carnarvon, with the tell-tale food crops lining the road, as opposed to the many wildflowers that we had been passing along the edge of the highway. 

We stopped at the BP and filled up properly this time. We then continued on into Carnarvon; first for a new gas bottle and second, to do a quick grocery stop. We had lunch in the carpark, before moving off. We returned to the Highway ready to make the trip south. We weren’t sure where we were heading to, somewhere free camping before the Kalbarri turn off, with our aim to be in Kalbarri proper, tomorrow. 

The drive was painful, with a strong headwind throwing the van about, but there was nothing to do, but keep on moving. The wildflower show was just incredible. At times, it reminded me of an English Cottage garden. I just hoped that the rest stop had plenty on show for me to wander about. The colours of the small flowers were so vivid and at times there were just hundreds of them; white, pink, yellow and purple all mixed together. It made me want to run through them all. 

We passed over the 26^thParallel, no longer finding ourselves in the North West. The turn off to Denham appeared not long after, along with the Overlander Roadhouse and then it was only a further 150km to our designated stop at Galena Bridge. 

At 3.10pm, entered the Batavia Coast, part of the Northampton Shire. We started our day In the Coral Coast, part of the Carnarvon Shire and had driven through the Shark Bay Shire, a fair journey for a single day. 

We finally reached Galena Bridge, which crosses the Murchison River, at 3.50pm. We wound our way into the free camp and joined a number of other people enjoying the free camp spot on the northern banks. Setting up was minimal, just park. We then had fun with the car, as it had shifted on the trailer and needed to be sorted. After some jigging around, the straps finally came loose and I was able to drive the car off and then back on for repositioning. 

Once the car was sorted, we put on the sneakers and made way for the river edge. We watched a pelican perched on rocks in the middle of the water, a couple of ducks sail by with their brood in tow and a pair of swans with their five cygnets. 

We then ventured back up the road so that I could check out the wildflowers. Unfortunately, there weren’t as many or as great a variety as we had seen on our trip down, but there were still plenty to keep me satisfied.  Large pockets of white everlastings filled the ground, swaying in the breeze and dancing in the sunlight, which gave the scene a dreamlike feel. It was very pretty. 

We crossed the river on the old, low traffic bridge to reach the southern bank, where many other campers were parked and was probably the better area. I found different plants in flower and happily snapped away. 

We made our way back to the van and I was straight into making dinner, both of us were starving. I spent time going through the photos after dinner, before we retired, happy to read.