Tues, 11th Oct, 2022 Bush camp by Rocky Pool in Gascoyne River, east of Carnarvon to Bush camp by Gascoyne River crossing, Landor Station, WA

The wind blew all night with a few really strong gusts but not quite as bad as on the beach. A blanket of cloud is over us but the sun is trying to peek through.

Headed out then eastward on the bitumen which the cattle are hogging! Wandering along like ‘Browns cows’, which they are, brown cows!

Travelling through low sand ridges, red dirt, low trees and scrub - dodging the cattle on the side of the road.

Stopped for a cuppa at an information bay and read about the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline and transport in the old days.

A few drops of rain fell on us but the clouds don’t look threatening.

Continued on with a bit more blue sky but the wind is still blowing.

Over a rise and we can see Kennedy Range to the north. It is a lovely area and we enjoyed exploring it.

Past the old Gascoyne Junction roadhouse - we read about it previously.

I don’t think this was here last time - not sure why they have the plane. There is a new parking area behind it with picnic tables and lots of green grass but it isn’t open yet.

Beside that a drilling rig is working - maybe putting in a bore?

We topped up with diesel - $2.508/L - ouch. Back to the main road - left goes across the Gascoyne River and up to Kennedy Range National Park then around to Mt Augustus which we have explored and climbed all over in August 2019. We continued eastward - we travelled this way after doing the hikes to get back to Meekatharra.

Open country with a few hills appearing. Had a nice run on the bitumen but now back onto gravel road. We are still running parallel to the Gascoyne River. Lots of little yellow and purple wildflowers along the roadside.

Stopped for lunch at the site of sea shell fossils - we had read about them and found some when we camped here previously. Steve let some air out of the tyres as we will be on dirt from here on.

We continued on passing another turn off to Mt Augustus and Cobra Station.

Turned off onto Dalgety Downs - Glenburgh Road which is between two stations. That way you know where you are but not exactly where you will finally end up, which will be north of Meekatharra. We are heading to some pending leases to detect on. Another new road to mark off on the map as we had taken another one previously that went south.

Rolling through low hills and a few higher ones where you can see a long way from the crest of them. We pass Dalgety Downs homestead turn off and now the road name changes to the next station, DD to Landor Road.

Six large emus were on the road but quickly darted into the bush, but not too far so got some more photos of them. Dad must be ready to kick them out of his day-care soon.

Back onto bitumen for 9km of floodways. Had to swerve around a large goanna who was meandering across the road.

We have only seen a few vehicles near Gascoyne Junction and only a couple on this section. Turned onto the gravel road then Landor Station homestead. Nice and green as we pass some cattle at a water trough then we spotted water across the road and realised it is the Gascoyne River. We pulled off to read the info board.

A chap came across the river in his Polaris and stopped for a chat. He has been the owner of Landor Station for 22 years and was just checking on the cattle trough etc. The property was taken up in the 1890s. He was a lovely chap and we chatted away for a hour about all kinds of things. The recent rain than came across Newman and south dropped a heap of water upstream and the causeway was a meter under just before the start of the yearly Landor Races. We missed them the last time we came through too. He said he doesn’t go any more as it is a commercial thing now with southern horses etc rather than the country stations getting together. He spoke of the how much cattle brought and problems of staff at his nursery in Bullsbrook etc. He told us about the native title claim meeting over his and other station which was quite funny. He is having problems with dingoes and wild dogs as there is a community 60km north and they have too many dogs there. Also the problems of cattle theft! Very interesting.

We checked that it was ok to stop here for the night then he headed off to finish his jobs. I found the old steel rope used to ferry the mail across the flooded river - the tree has grown over it.

Would have been interesting to see it flooded but that would mean you wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere for a while as there are big fines for driving on wet dirt roads in WA. We wonder how far this water flows down to as the river bed dry at Rocky Pool. We didn’t check the river at the Junction.

We found a spot to park by the river. Looking around there are plenty of spots to camp, obviously a lot of people camp here for the races too.

Found a bit for firewood - not much about due to the recent campers! Got out the chairs and had our drinks enjoying the view and the fireplace. At last there is only a light breeze so it is very pleasant. Lots of birds to listening too as well.

The cattle wandered down the road then crossed the causeway and disappeared. A few vehicles came through but no one stopped.

A few stronger gusts of wind in the night but otherwise it was lovely.