Cervantes to Carnamah to Kalbarri to Overlander

We're loosing track of the days a bit, as we should, because we are on vacation. Since our last post, we traveled from Cervantes to Carnamah, from Carnamah to Kalbarri and from Kalbarri to Overlander.

Carnamah (poppulation est. 490) turned out to be surprisingly nice. We didn't think it would be much, as the caravan park looked like a parking lot and except for toilet/shower, there were no facilities. But, on the other side of the cricket field, a 500 meter walk from the caravan park, was the public swimming pool, just right for the four of us. Next to it was the local bowling club, where we had a chicken schnitzel dinner (prepared by members of the bowling club) and a good feel for the real Australian country life.

Next leg of the trip was to Kalbarri, where we wanted to visit the Kalbarri National Park. In Kalbarri, we had dinner at the (again local) fishing and angling club. We pride ourselves in being almost real Australians by now :-) The Kalbarri National Park was our first test at 'off-road' driving. We had to drive almost 60 km on unpaved, sandy roads to get to the picknick areas and view points of the park. The landscape in this part of Australia is very Australian and very special. It's practically dessert, and thus VERY HOT, very dry and very windy. (Although locals informed us that the wind is mainly due to the tropical cyclone that's approaching Broome.) It is amazing to see how many colours the dessert has here. Colours of the stone and sand ranges from white to bright yellow, from bright red to dark brown/red.
That same day, we started driving north. This was real dessert country, with not much there but an occasional wild goat or roadhouse. The roadhouses are of various quality and the one at Billabong is probably one of the worst ... Needless to say we ended up driving further north then we orriginally planned, all the way to Overlander. Not much there either, but at least there was some (pretend) grass at the camp site and a decent cafe to have coffee at. Today, we plan to drive only about 150 km, to Monkey Mia, where we hope to see the sea again and maybe even some dolphins and camels.
If we missed a day, we apologize. As said, we're loosing track of the days a bit out here. But we thoroughly enjoy this very special experience, great country and friendly people :-)

As you can see, still no pics attached. As the owner of the Billabong Roadhouse would say: 'this is the dessert, love, no fancy, fast internet access here' ...