An early wake up but felt OK and after reading all the info of what there is to see on the way south, I realised there was nothing there. It was all reef, diving, snorkelling, fishing activities etc but with the wind up still around the 30 knots, there seemed little point in stopping. I had thought about going up to Exmouth, but it was a naval station and some dirt tracks to camping areas. Same with Onslow and Coral Bay, all charter and reef stuff, but in this wind I did not think it was worthwhile to head off track. One of the major sight seeing things in those places are to see the largest fish in the world, the Whale Sharks, but they stopped in July, so that can be done another day as well.
Anyway, it was going to be a long day so off I went, after Lesley took my photo 🙂

The road started off hilly and windy but soon turned flat.

And the sides of the road were ablaze with Desert Peas and these other purple looking flowers, they could be weeds for all I know 🙂

Due to all the running around I did between Dampier and Karratha, I had already clocked up 100km on the fresh tank, so my first stop was Fortescue River roadhouse, only about 120km away where I had breakfast and fuelled up. Not long after that I saw this emergency airstrip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service on a straight section of road, but still in the middle of nowhere.

The flat landscape was broken up by these long sand dunes that went from horizon to horizon, the road was just cut through them, but they looked old and had not moved for a while as they were covered in vegetation.

I stopped at Nanutarra for some more fuel and a rest. The weather was turning cooler as I went south, the wind was still up, but the sun was not so hot, which was a relief. It was around this area a bit further on that I saw my first emus since Queensland, the land was covered in low scrub and saltbush mostley

Then I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn again. Now, I live exactly east of here on the other side of the continent in Rockhampton, as the jet flies(crows could not go that far ), that is around 4000km away. But, I dialled in “Home” on my TomTom and the result in the shortest way is nearly 7200km, It has taken me nearly 10,000km to get to this point around the top end.

Next stop about 50km south of here is the Minilya Roadhouse where I planned on having lunch. After buying fuel I noticed this Yamaha with some massive panniers parked up. The owner was Ralph who had been travelling slowly since April and was heading south as well. He made the panniers himself. The chances are we would meet up again in Carnarvon.

Then after a break and a chat with Ralph it was off for the last leg. I wanted to go see these blowholes, but the tides were wrong, so I could do that tomorrow, it was 70km north of Carnarvon. I was nearly into Carnarvon when I saw this Blue Tongue Lizard, a big fat one slowly wandering across the road. I turned around and took some photos and tried to get him off the road before he got run over, but he did not really appreciate it and hissed at me quite aggressively:)

After visiting the information centre I picked a caravan park near to town, the Coral Coast CP and then checked out where I could watch footy tonight and tomorrow. The only place seemed to be the Carnarvon Hotel and it was a delayed telecast on Fox2 at 8.30pm. I chatted and read a book for a while, before Ralph turned up and set up camp. At this stage, around 7pm, one of the other campers got a text message and they relayed the score of Warriors 24-Roosters 8 with 10 minutes to go. That spoiled it for me, so I did not bother spending the cab fare to town and just had a few beers and a chat with Ralph until quite late.

Day – 665km
Trip – 9962km
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