3rd August to 9th August

We have been travelling along the Great Northern Highway. It is a terrific highway with many passing lanes. It is actually the same highway all the way to the Northern Territory border. It just changes its name every now and again for some reason or other. It is the wildflower season and no other state in Australia has such vast displays of wildflowers as WA. Today, Wednesday 8th August, has been especially beautiful with literally carpets of flowers in pinks, purples, yellow, mauve and white as far as the eye can see in many places along the highway. What is so extraodinary is that this countryside is usually mostly red dirt with tufts of grass and low growing leggy bushes here and there. The beauty of these flowers appears from July through to September and then the countryside returns to normal for another nine months. Check the album titled Carnarvon, but photos don't do the spectacles justice.

We stayed at Carnarvon for three days. We visited the Space Museum which is attached to the huge satellite dish which played a major role in the moon landing. It is great museum with lots of interactive activities for yound and old as well as the young at heart. We drove out to see the little tea pot train which ran along the pier the last time we were here, but unfortunately all that is left is a rather run down railway museum and the pier is closed due to a bad state of repair. We aslo found a fabulous fish and chip shop. The best we have ever had, but when Ross went back on Tuesday night it was closed. Darn! Chicken Treat did not compare in the slightest.

We also visited the Blowholes after we left Carnarvon. it appears that the major spectacle may be when it is high tide, but our visit was when the tide was low, but what we still saw nature and the ocean at its most powerful.

We are free camping till we reach Port Sampson in two days, then Port Hedland.