No sooner had we hit the highway, after leaving our great camp beside the Robe River, we were pulling into a mining site picnic area, less than ten kilometres down the road. This area is the Mesa A/Warramboo mine, which is Rio Tinto's most westerly iron ore mine in the Pilbara region. Here the highway is built up over the mining road and you can wait and watch the huge mining trucks going about their business. We didn't have to wait anymore than five minutes before the first empty truck went past, followed by another a few minutes after the first. The drivers were very considerate, as they slowed down, so videos and photos could be taken, tooting their horns before upping the gears and moving on and out of site.

Heading south the mountain ranges were certainly a sight to behold, 5k after passing the turn off to Tom Price/ Paraburdoo our lunch stop was Nanutarra Roadhouse, luckily diesel was not needed as the price of $1.85 p/l was more than 25 cents p/l than we had been paying, and each bowser has at least a 3 vehicle cue.

After lunch we had a easy 90 minute drive to Yannarie Rest Area, the weather down south is a lot cooler so the idea of camping at these spots for more than just a day seems practical (28 degrees each day)

This rest area provides travellers with toilet, dump point, tables, bins etc on a large gravel area and also a massive area closer to the dried up river bed. The majority of travellers opted to camp in close proximity to each other on the graveled area, but we like our space and enjoyed our camp closer to the riverbed and had no other travellers camped within cooee of us. There would have been over 50 caravan, motorhomes etc here on both nights. Here we both caught up on computer stuff, blog, photos, work (what did we say…….yes we do work occasionally) and tax stuff.

Upon getting back on the road on Wednesday morning, we started to see some wildflowers. The first being the Sturt Desert Pea, then the landscape started to change, with green grass everywhere. We hadn't seen any lush green grass for a long time, then we began to see seas of white and yellow everlasting daisy's.

By lunchtime we pulled into the Minilya Rest Area and met up with a solo lady traveller, Kerry, who had been on the road full time for eight years. She was handing out information on a farm stay near Margaret River and explaining that when she finally gets down there she'll get some work there. When asked what sort of work she did, well you name it, she did it, from hairdressing, bowen therapist, sheep crutching to cleaner alka Jack of all trades….. master of none. Anyhow Alan was in desperate need of a haircut and asked her how much, well for Alan $10 then I said I wouldn't mind a trim. 'Yeap….. no problems' was her reply, 'wash your hair and I'll be back'. And return she did…… fusing over Alan's head of hair, seemed to take her ages….and boy did she love a chat. When it came to my hair, yep, snip, snip, snip and she is done. 'Ok, how much do we owe you' the reply was '$10 for Alan and $5 for you' We paid her $20, and lets just say…..Alan still looks like he needs a haircut.

The first night at this campsite, by 4pm we were rugged up and chatting to our neighbor, who decided that pulling up just over a metre from our back doors, is an acceptable thing to do…NOT…..it starts spitting, then raining. He explained that when he was here in early June, it was raining and they woke to having inches of water underfoot and the dry riverbed was flowing. He was stating that the water came down the river in a torrent. Still we were cosy under the awning with our fire, cooked dinner and were inside pretty early.

After a 2 night stop we departed on Friday morning, travelling down the highway, there are pools of water everywhere and more fields of beautiful masses of colour, another big day of travel (60k) camped in a wayside stop

beside the highway, noisy and windy, but rather that than being crammed in a caravan park. Hopefully this is the start of some very stunning wildflower displays whilst travelling through Western Australia.

We arrived in Carnarvon, The Food Bowl, of Western Australia, on Saturday morning to enjoy the local market. After our few purchases of local tomatoes, corm and lemons we ventured into the Visitors Information Centre and obtained more info for our travels inland.

We decided to only get a few basics at Woolies before getting water and heading out to Quobba Point, 75k back north of Carnarvon and on the beach.

After our small shop, we went into the local BWS in search for some wine, happily we found what we were after to stock up on the supplies under the bed. As we went to the counter to pay, we sighted a box of stubby holders, Lorelle asked how much…. The reply she heard was 'free'….. she then proceeded to explain how Alan loves a stubby holder with the stitching around the top. 'Can I take another' she asked. 'Sure' was the reply……. Heading back to DABUS Lorelle exclaimed that 'how good was it to get the stubby holders for free' Alan laughed and explained that they were 'three ……dollars' not 'free'. Someones ears weren't tuned in. The slogan on the stubby holders is 'Here's to you BWS'

We arrived at Quobba Point around lunchtime and were lucky to find a camp behind the sand dunes. It was very windy but the dunes gave us some protection. The caretaker came around about 4.00pm and Alan went to greet him and explained that he couldn't find his Seniors Card. 'No dramas' said the caretaker, 'I"ll take your word for it' and charged us for two seniors, as Lorelle was in DABUS doing prepwork for dinner….. as savings of $6 for the two nights.

Here at Quobba Point they have 'King Waves', blowholes and what the locals call 'The Aquarium'. On inspection of our bit of the beach, you certainly wouldn't go down to the water to check out the water temperature, as the current is quite strong. Our walk up to the blowhole, we stopped and were looking over the Aquarium when one couple got hit by a set of waves and they turned back to us and explained that a couple of guys got too close to the edge at the blowholes earlier today and one was left gripping for the rocks and left with a very wet camera. It is a place that you certainly need to be aware of your surroundings. The Aquarium is said to be a stunning inlet to swim and snorkel (in summer) but not at the time we were here. Quobba is a great place to enjoy the quietness of the beach surrounds, which we did for two days. Bathers and the beach towels finally got removed from their hiding places, to relax on the beach but not to swim and unfortunately this will be the last we see of any beaches for a long time as after our return to Carnarvon on Monday we are heading back inland.