Free Camps & WA Wildflowers En-Route to Kalbarri

Monday 2nd October we left Carnarvon and planned on staying a couple of nights in free camps to help the finances a bit, now that we had to buy a new computer and had already spent so much on our top end part of the trip.

We had planned on staying at the Gladstone Scenic Lookout for the night which was in our Camps book but I checked on Wikicamps (these are camping resources which give great information on cheap and free camps) and found that the sight had been closed to camping due to no toilets being present and so 'some' campers just do their business anywhere and don't bury it and the place became a health hazard. We did stop there and got some photos. It was panoramic but not pretty. Just desert all around and Shark Bay in the distance.

Speaking of Shark Bay, which is an area that incorporates Monkey Mia and Cape Peron, we had decided to give it a miss this time around. The name Monkey Mia is so well known and this is part of the problem. So many people go there and expect to get to feed the dolphins but the Rangers (or whatever organisation runs it) only allow a couple of people to do the feeding, which is fair enough as it is a protection for the dolphins, but they treat people like schoold kids and in a demeaning way apparently. Hundreds of people line up from a distance to watch a couple of people (usually of a certain race and kids) do the feeding. This was school holidays so you can imagine how crowded it would have been. So we might do it next time, and check out Cape Peron then as well.

So we stopped that night at the Nerren Nerren Rest Area as many others did as well. There was alot of natural garden there and a nice sunset.

The next day we were blown away by all the amazing wildflowers visible from the road. Had to stop and get some photos.

That night and the next we stayed at Galena Bridge Rest Area on the Murchison River. We got there early and had been advised by friends, Col and Di, to stay on the north side of the river so we got a particularly pretty spot. We chilled out there for a couple of days and I also washed the van by bucket using the river water. Listened to the AFL grand final on radio.