From Exmouth we moved down to Carnarvon for a few nights to get ready to move from van to tent once again. This time we were going east to Gascoyne Junction, Kennedy Range NP and Mt Augustus NP.
Having a few days to look around Carnarvon was great. We went to the one mile jetty, the old railway museum, pelican point, small boat harbour and the men went fishing.
We had a great visit to the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum, where we rode the space capsule, listen to the trackers explain their roles back in 1969 and read old newspaper clippings.
We put the vans in storage at the caravan park and headed off. Through Gascoyne Junction then into Kennedy Range NP by mid-afternoon, giving us a chance to setup camp and do a little exploring. The camp host briefed us on the environment in the park. He explained that this area is one of only three places in Western Australia that has the Dawson Burrowing Bee. “A burrowing bee, never heard of such a thing”. It just shows you are never too old to learn!
That afternoon we headed for Honeycomb Gorge and stumbled on the bees, incredible!!! A large bee that does not produce honey, their sole purpose in life is to pollinate flowers and reproduce. Once the male has mated he dies, and the females keep laying larvae.
Please take the time to look this one up on the www. Dawson Burrowing Bee “fascinating”.
We explored:
Our couple of nights at Kennedy Range NP went fast, the days were warm, nights cool, saw some interesting rock formations, great displays of wildflowers and meet some interesting people at the communal campfires.
This area is where the fringe of the magic floral carpet starts.
On the road to Mt Augustus, mustering was going on. There was a helicopter in the air, stockmen and women with big hats on tin horses,” it just didn’t seemed right”. Then further down the road, a yard of over 200 cattle waiting to board road train transport.
There were flocks of green budgies in the air and white, pink and yellow patches of colour on the ground. Down the road we got a glimpse of the largest rock in the world, Mt Augustus.
We had only planned to stay a couple of nights, so it was setup camp and hit the trails.It is a 49km drive around the rock, with trails, tracks and gorges along the way, so a strategy was put in place, as we wanted to do a 6km walk the next day to the top of Edney’s Lookout.
We visited Cattle Pool, Petroglyph Trail, The Pound, Saddle Trail and Flintstone Rock.
Up for sunrise 6.30am, the colour of the rock was spectacular, just like Uluru, purple, orange, pink and then settles into its daytime colour, sandstone.
We had great fun walking that day, it wasn’t a hard walk, just a constant incline. Wildflowers, birdlife, different rock formations, twisted gidgee timber and the 360 panoramic view were all worth the walk.
We past some Dawson Burrowing Bees, on the way back to camp, this time in the middle of the main road.
Another great campfire and colour changing rock sunset.
