When we left Exmouth we were heading to Millstream Chichester National Park, east of Pannawonica.

Because of the rain that had come down earlier, we were a little concerned about being able to drive on any roads that weren't bitumen.

We headed towards Pannawonica and found a campsite off the road about 20K before town. It was a lovely spot behind a Mesa, dry and quiet.

In the afternoon I decided to see how far it was to Millstream so as to know what time to be on the road in the morning. I was looking on our GPS, but it wanted to send us via Karratha, so I looked on my phone, but it too wanted to send us via Karratha. Fortunately we had phone service, so I Googled if we could drive from Pannawonica to Millstream. Our map showed a road, but that doesn't mean a lot.

The first thing that came up on Google was that the road was closed. So I rang the shire and they confirmed the road was closed. This meant we had no choice other than going via Karratha, some 170Ks further than going direct.

So with an earlier start we stopped in Karratha for fuel and lunch before heading down to Millstream. It was a lovely drive from Karratha, going through some picturesque countryside and bitumen all the way to the short road into the camping areas and old homestead.

On arrival we looked at the lovely old homestead built back in 1919. It was really well preserved and great to look at.

We then went and set up camp in Star Gazers campground. We had a great spot with small trees on either side of us to keep the wind down. Once set up we went and spoke to the campground hosts. Telling them about our detour they told us the road from Pannawonica was most definitely open and that the rangers had been out that way that very morning. That was annoying.

The next day we walked to the cliff top lookout overlooking the Fortescue River. It was lovely with flowing water, green trees set against the red cliffs and the Millstream Palms along the banks. We then continued our walk to the Homestead before walking back to our camp, all up around 8K. By the time we got back Julie was feeling very sore in her hips and lower legs, not good.

So the next day we took a drive to look at Deep Reach, a very large and long water hole in the river, very sacred to the Aboriginals and a beautiful spot. We were not impressed to see a family with a dog in there having lunch. Dogs are not allowed in National Parks.

That night we had showers on and off, fortunately they were off when we packed up. By the time we drove off though we had the wipers on and they didn't go off until we pulled up at Pardoo that afternoon around 5pm.

The rain made travel a bit interesting. We had planned to head out via Python Pool and then cut up to Highway 1 along a dirt road. The drive to Python Pool started off as dirt, but once into the hills it was bitumen all the way to the pool. Due to the rain we were unable to see much, if any of the views through the hills. Python Pool is a water hole at the bottom off a cliff where a stream has washed out the ground to make the pool. It too was lovely, only spoiled by some idiots writing graffiti on the cliff wall!!!

The road north from the pool was pretty good, but the rain had made some parts very soggy and we were glad to see the Highway after some 70K of slow, wet going.

Once on the Highway we were able to maintain cruising speed and a lot off the mud we had picked up was washed off, thankfully.

In Port Headland we again fuelled up and had lunch. It was hard to find somewhere to eat as most places were closed by the time we arrived. We finished up in a place built inside an old railway train, it was great and very well done.

We had planned on getting to Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park, a place we have been before, but as I said earlier we stopped at Pardoo Road House along with many other wet travellers. It rained most of the night, but by morning the sun was out, thankfully.