17-Aug-2005
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Since leaving Warroora, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn again but southbound this time. It was a bit tighter getting it through this time; the van must have put on some weight! Tropic of Capricorn - southbound |
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We crossed over the Gascoyne River and into Canarvon where we stopped for a couple of nights to stock up with food. The Gascoyne River looked like it had dried up and what you can see in the picture is sand but there is a river flowing under the sand we were told. Gascoyne River |
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From Canarvon we continued south to Coronation Beach. This was an excellent camping area with clean toilets right next to a very nice beach and all for $5/night. It was starting to get much cooler as we headed south and our next stop was another bush camp at Ellendale Pool. This was another excellent site located alongside the Greenough River. As we drove in we met a couple we first met canoeing up Katherine Gorge 3 months ago. Ellendale Pool |
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The temperature here dropped to 3 deg overnight and without power it got quite cool inside the van. We left the van and drove inland to a place called Pindar to the east of Mullewa where we heard the Wreath Flower was in bloom. These plants are only found in this area and they look like wreaths. The inside area is green foliage with the flowers around the outside. We found these growing alongside the road. Most of them were a round shape but I especially went out of my way to find this heart shaped one for Ali (A round trip of 226kms out of my way to be precise!). Wreath Flower |
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We had seen quite a lot of wildflowers as we drove down from Canarvon and this area is famous for them. There were carpets of everlastings everywhere colouring the roadsides. Everlastings |
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Our next move was a bit further south to Port Denison where we had arranged to meet up with Richard, Pat and Missy who we had first met in Exmouth almost a year ago. They were on their way back up to Exmouth. We managed to get a pitch alongside them in the Denison Tourist Park where we spent a couple of nights. Port Denison is a nice sleepy little town with a small harbour and lovely white sandy beaches. Unfortunately the weather turned nasty here and the weather bureau was issuing severe weather warnings. It rained and blew quite hard for most of the time we were there. I put long trousers on for the first time since Mallacoota in March. A hurricane hit the town just along the coast and damaged roofs and pulled up trees. South Beach, Port Denison |
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| It was good to meet Pat and Richard again but we had to press on down to Perth to get the car and van tidied up ready to sell. Oh, it rained all the way down to Perth so perhaps it's preparing us for the weather back home! We are camped in a caravan park in the Swan Valley so if the weather clears up perhaps we can visit a vineyard or two. | ||