On the way to Gascoyne Junction (GJ) we retraced part of the route we took to get to Mt Augustus before diverting down what is called Dairy Creek Rd. This took us all the way down to a T junction where we went right to GJ, on a sealed road.

The scenery continued to be the gibber like plains with hardy shrubs. Trees lined the currently dry water courses. This country used to be sheep stations before WWII. Pastoralists had pushed too far north and in so doing ended up extensively over grazing the land, basically destroying it. After the war sheep eventually gave way to the more land friendly cattle industry which continues to this day as the pastures are slowly rejuvenated by the land owners.

GJ was our base for a few nights to ‘recover’ from the dust and a bit of touring around, including a visit to the Kennedy Ranges to the north. An interior van clean up was the order of the day for Homealone as well.

GJ is a small town of 150 or so people that serves as the administrative centre for the Upper Gascoyne Council. The town sits beside the Gascoyne River, it is called ‘Junction’ because the Lyons River joins the Gascoyne downstream from the town. The town actually looks ‘brand new’. It has a sparkling appearance.

In actual fact it is a ‘new’ town. The old GJ was destroyed in a flood in 2010 and has been rebuilt on slightly higher ground further back from the river. The van park is excellent and has the advantage of a tavern being adjacent.

From GJ we did a day trip up to the Kennedy Ranges NP. The road up there was again pretty good gravel, no dramas. It was about 150km there and back. The Range sits up above the surrounding plain like a big Mesa.

The water run off has cut deep gorges along the escarpments. These are the sort of gorges you walk into and look up. Not the ones you walk down into and then look up. Much more benign!

Allthego had a couple of short walks, one into Temple Gorge and the other Honeycomb Gorge. Both involved a bit of rock hopping along dry creek beds. Very pretty.

We had a minor drama as we left GJ to return to the coast. On the morning of departure a rear tyre on the truck was displaying a rather flat appearance. It was the old spare we had put on back in Karratha. It had a slow leak somewhere.

So, a change was required before we left. A young chap, looked about 55, gave us a hand and the job was done quite quickly. We later got a new tyre fitted as we passed through Carnarvon on the coast.

We did a loop and headed back north to Exmouth and Coral Bay on the Ningaloo coast. Hoping to swim with a whale shark. Have had to do this back tracking because of the WA school holiday camp ground book outs. We just couldn’t get a booking on the way south from Karratha and had to go out to Mt Augustus/GJ to fill in time.

But we are now on our way and have stopped at a free camp for an overnighter about half way up the yellow line on the map.