Lyndon river, Carnarvon, Denham, Geraldton, Mullewa, Coalseam N.P. August 2004
Our next main stop will be at Carnarvon but overnight we camped at Lyndon river. The river was very dry but the campsite very spacious with very good toilets. If you read this and visit this site I hope they are still clean and unspoiled. We shared this site with a contingent of Soldiers and about 10 other campers and there was room for another 30 vans, or tents.
Arriving at Carnarvon we decided to stay at the Marloo Caravan Park, which is advertised as being for ‘Seniors’, we have to admit it was quite nice not having children running around and having to avoid bikes and scooters. However we were the “youngest couple” in the camp and got a lot of attention from the older more amorous neighbours. Many of the seniors were regulars who move north to avoid the southern winter.
After restocking in Carnarvon we carried on south to the Denham/Monkey Mia turnoff and
decided to try Denham for a few days. We weren’t disappointed. We stopped at the Dolphin
caravan park, and apart from the fact it was a bit of a walk to the ablution block it was a lovely
park. We were on the 2nd level and had a wonderful view of the bay. Whilst in Denham we
revisited the Francois Peron National Park 4 WD vehicles only because of the very sandy track in, with its hot springs and beautiful
lagoons.
The hot springs bathing pool area have been improved a lot since we were there
previously, BBQ’s and shade area added and walkways formalised, but the improvements
haven’t detracted from its beauty. We also visited a few of the campsites around Denham,
all of which had their own unique beauty. The main problem with these sites is that the only
place you can register to camp in them is in Denham and this is for one night max.
Once you have registered you have return to the site to set up camp, and most of the sites
are needless to say on the road leading into Denham. Fishing is the main reason most people
come to Denham, but as you are aware by now, despite having all the gear, we don’t fish
(or have not started yet). Nevertheless there was still plenty to keep us occupied for a few
days.
Next stop Geraldton. As usual we stop at the Sunset Beach caravan park, it is always clean and tidy and we have never had any problems booking in there. Whilst in Geraldton we took a few side trips into the Murchison wildflower area, visiting Mullewa the centre of the wildflower district (which we discovered has what appeared to be an excellent caravan park with new buildings and ablutions). We also visited Coalseam National Park (which has recently re-vamped its campsites and toilets) and here we admired the many species of wildflowers that were out, and marvelled at the never ending carpets of white, yellow and pink everlastings.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and it was time to return to Perth and work.
We had spent five weeks wandering around a relatively small part of our wonderful state and
still say, ‘we should have stayed there’ or ‘why didn’t we go there’, but as the saying goes,
“there’s always next time”!
Until next time
Carol and Clive
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