West Coast 2021

 After leaving Carnarvon we spent a day and a half, mostly on dirt roads, driving to Mt Augustus.  The campground was very good, the weather a little warmer and the scenery spectacular. We spent 3 nights camped there while we walked and drove around the area.  Mount Augustus is a monocline: a type of rock formation that leans, or 'dips' in a single direction. At 1700 million years old, it is three times older than Uluru and twice its size, making it the largest rock in the world. On the way back to Carnarvon we visited the Kennedy Ranges to see Honeycomb Gorge and Temple Gorge. Wildflowers along the Cobra-Dairy Creek Road on the way to Mt Augustus There are thousands of budgerigars in this area.  We saw these at our lunch stop Nearing Mt Augustus.  Some of the outback roads are really good. One of our many walks Camped at Mt Augustus campground Aboriginal carvings under a rock in one of the gorges More aboriginal carvings in one of the gorges On another walk ...

  This is probably going to be the best part of the trip - a week camped at Yardie Homestead alongside the Ningaloo Reef.  The beaches are stunning and the weather perfect.   A fair bit of time was spent snorkeling at Turquoise Bay and Lakeside Beach.  I had lots of fun with my little underwater camera.   We also had an outing to Yardie Creek where we used our recovery gear to get a bogged car out of the middle of the creek and another out of deep sand.  Then Willie and I enjoyed a walk up the creek gorge. Walking up along Yardie Creek gorge More of the gorge Black flanked wallabies inhabit the gorge area Meanwhile, back at the creek crossing - two bogged vehicles we extracted with sand tracks These fish swim around your legs while standing a few metres from the beach     A happy snorkeler  

  We hit the coast at Karratha, a port for iron ore exports and now also becoming a tourist town.  This is where we ran into lots and lots of tourists with a stream of caravans, camper trailers, motor home, etc going up and down the coast.   Near Karratha is the Burrup Peninsula with the highest concentration of rock art in the world. The carvings, called petroglyphs, include depictions of human-like figures, human faces and animals that no longer inhabited the region, including the Tasmanian tiger.    South of Karratha we camped beside the Fortescue River for a couple of nights. The swimming was great and there's plenty of red claw .  One or two of the 500,000 petroglyphs on the Burrup Peninsula The rocks on the peninsula look like they've been dumped there Tourists..... Sunset at our Fortescue River campsite Fortescue River - Our view when waking up in the morning Exiting our morning tea stop at Cane River . 

  After Leona the traffic on the Goldfields Highway seems to be nearly all ore trucks and other mine vehicles.    Hardly any tourists.     The gold mines are gradually giving way to nickel  mines.  As we came over a crest we saw what we thought was a small mountain range.  It was just another overburden dump but this time incredibly big.   We stopped at Wiluna to visit the old hospital which is now a museum and art gallery.  We were the only tourists there and received a huge welcome.  They boiled the kettle, told us about the free WiFi and said to put the tables and chairs anywhere we wanted to sit in the sun or shade.     After a coffee we looked through the art gallery, were impressed by the quality of the work and spoke to a couple of artists.  Each couple came away with a local painting in hand.   Next destination was Meekatharra. We had been warned a couple of times about the road condition and ...