Oz Circumnavigation: Down to Northampton or Down Wildflower Alley

There are two secondary reasons why we are travelling south at this time, to avoid the wet season in the top end of Australia and to sample the famous wild flower regions of Western Australia.

Well this episode of the Blog concentrates on the flora and landscape of the Gascoyne and Mid West coastal strip.

Unfortunately our photography does not seem to capture the depth and colour contrast evident when you are on the spot. So in addition to enlarging the images you will have to use your imagination.

Firstly though we must give praise to the West Australian roads authorities for providing so excellent free parking areas with none better than Galena Bridge on the North West Coastal Highway.

This is the sign that highlights the service.

The site had toilets, provision for BBQ's and the RV's delight a toilet dump point.

Congratulations to all the authorities listed on the sign.

Then we have another delight at this site - the wild flowers a field of white on the banks of the Gascoyne river.

But not all white!!

A different white, again the camera does not do the scale or visual impact justice.

Whites, reds and then Mauve's

This is a different site but the colour impact is still stunning.

Then we have fields of colour.

From the sky you can see it was not the best of days but the colours still stands out.

While back amongst the flowers is another gem.

Then we encountered the Kalbari gorges, it may seem a little repetitive but that is Australia - stunning one minute and unbelievable the next.

Trees can grow anywhere we have come to understand, from the side of rocks, bottom of rocky canyons and empty river beds. We have seen them all.

This image explains the reason, the stains reveals that this rock ( millions of years ago was soil, compressed by land movement which left minute gaps for water and tree roots to penetrate) provides the life support systems for flora.