To the North: Peawah River Rest Area and on to Karratha

We had an easy drive to the rest area yesterday once we left the Great Northern Highway. We are now travelling on the North West Coastal Highway. The scenery has changed gradually with lots of wildflowers, mostly white and yellow so far, though increasing mauve as well.

The Peawah River was completely dry and after resting through the hot afternoon we found the evening cool enough for a walk along the river bed. We had friendly chats with neighbours and only the noise of trucks on the Highway was a distraction from the very pleasant surroundings.

We set up camp with the awning facing the sun, which gave us shade on both sides of the van. The awning supports a washing line and all of our washing was dry by late afternoon.

We also set up our portable solar panel and by shifting it around we were able to almost fully charge the batteries by the time we left today.

There was a crew setting up at the rest area, this morning starting around 10.00 am. We think it may have been a film crew, but they wouldn’t say. It was very elaborate with chairs set out, about 15 cars and utes and a generator. They said they would only be there for two hours.

We enjoyed our drive this morning and had lunch at Roebourne. We found a shady spot to park, but it still got hot in the afternoon. We decided to go to see Cossack at about 3:00 pm and realised when we got there that we had made the fundamental tourist mistake of arriving after everything was closed. We didn’t stay long and drove in the late afternoon to Karratha. We arrived here very tired and took the easy option of staying at the country club overflow parking. It’s $10 per night and fairly central and convenient.