We set off from Cue for the Murchison Settlement along another back road heading north by north-west, it’s about 220km of good gravel. The scenery though is becoming a little repetitive. Red dirt roads, red dirt road verges, red dirt dust, red dirt covering car and van and  red dirt getting in the van. But there are lots of wildflowers to be seen. Homealone has just about had the red dirt but not the wildflowers.

On the road to Murchison

Carpet of wildflowers along the way

Along the way we crossed the Murchison River. This point is roughly about half way along its length. It has its source in the lands to the north of Meekatharra and flows south-west into the sea at Kalbarri, through the gorges in the Kalbarri National Park. We will be having a few days at Kalbarri later in the trip.

Murchison River

Gathering storm at the Murchison River

A storm was gathering and we needed to hurry along to keep ahead of it. We managed to do this and arrived in Murchison Settlement late in the afternoon. This is a small little ‘settlement’ of 20 or so people. But a great caravan park, plenty of green grass  surrounded by red dirt. The red dirt in this case are polo fields. It seems that people regularly converge here for the sport. All in all there are about 120 people in the whole Shire of Murchison (49,500 sq km) and the Settlement is its hub. The rest of the people are out on the surrounding properties.

Camp site at Murcheson, polo field at left

BBQ in the rotunda

A tree with yellow flowers

We had a day of R & R here in the shady grounds apart from a short 15 km trip out to Errabiddy Bluff which is the major nearby attraction.

Errabiddy Bluff

A small error has been noted in the last blog, many of my readers will have also picked it up but are to kind to correct me. It was not Jimmy Stewart who starred in Hitchcock’s North by North-West but Cary Grant. As always this blog is E & O E!

Flannel bush

We now head west, to Shark Bay. But we have decided on another shortcut along the Butchers Track route. One can only speculate on why it’s called the Butchers Track. We will see!