Mon 5th Jul '21 - Day 24
Northampton to Karda
Disappointing that there’s no pancakes today as they
were so good yesterday, and worse, rain. Dodging the morning showers to use the
… showers and wash up and prep for departure. The kids and I walk to the North
end of the town (where Kate will meet us in the van to use the dump site) to
have them stretch their legs before our drive, though as an upside we do find
three more sheep previously hidden within the closed but now open smattering of
shops. We also pop into the Tourist Information Centre to get as a souvenir a sheep
of course. It was perhaps in hindsight a mistake to get one that makes a noise,
especially when we try it for the first time in the van and declare it more of
a moo, barely a baa.
Onwards Southwards
for a three-hour journey to our penultimate stop at Karde Campground on the
edge of Lesur National Park. Halfway we stop at Dongara (dong-ra, not Dongaara
as we told in Northampton), to pick up fuel – important – and wine & beer –
as important. The left turn off to our destination is just before Jurien Bay –
all down the southbound drive it had been very windy; two hands on the steering
wheel at all times, with the wind sometimes seemingly switching sides. It even
activated the side-wind-assist function of the van when passing in between a
gap in the hedgerow, which seemed to just be automatic application of the brake
much to my surprise and to the car behind me.
We pull off to a
small side road to pop up to Grigson Lookout which does have impressive views
of the coast to the Eats, salt lakes to the North, rolling sand dunes to the
South, but the wind means its lunch in the van rather than next to the cairn
atop the lookout. We opt to try and see the National Park as there are bursts
of sunshine in between the clouds and forecast for tomorrow is persistent rain.
There is an 18km loop drive in the park with lookout spots, parking bays,
walks. There is however also, an 8km unsealed road to approach this loop. We
trundle up this wet dirt track seeing only one other car coming the other way,
our van, when we get out, is filthy orange.
As soon as we
enter the park, known for its breadth of flora, a mob of kangaroos hop across
the road in front of us. The vegetation is … better with splashes of white,
purple and orange flowers but its not kid-level impressive. And at the moment
we stop at the start of the walking tracks it begins to rain so we sack it all
in and head back down the dirt road to our campsite which is a few kilometres
further down the road and then 2km up another slightly less slushy dirt track.
There are no
facilities here other than a drop toilet (read: a pit under the toilet) and
whilst we have a specific site we move to a hard ground spot so we don’t get
accidentally bogged down overnight.
There’s only a handful of other campers at
this 30-spot site and the only noise is birdsong; a constant chatter between
galahs, kookaburras and other unknown birds. Dinner in the van after a hot
chocolate and a walkaround then predictably early to bed at 8:15pm.
