A Mini Getaway
Back in early August, Dave and I were able to have a short getaway for 3 nights.
It has been a VERY long time since we were able to go camping and exploring, the last real adventure being in June 2018! So, it was well overdue.
I also have not gotten to get out my camera very often and take some scenic photos of God's great country, so I was itching to fire it up again.
Not having much time, we decided to do a quick trip over the border into WA. We had never been to Wyndham, so we loaded the car (Maddie so kindly lent us her cruiser) with our swag and off we went.
We headed to Kununurra for the first night as we weren't able to leave Katherine til the afternoon.
Because of the abundance of photos in this post, they are in no particular order.
So, please enjoy the scenery. We did!
I absolutely love Boab trees, so I took a lot of photos of them. They are so very unique.
We stopped to look at this particular gorge called The Grotto, but decided against climbing down the 140+ steps to the bottom, knowing we would have to climb back up again, and it was a holiday, not a hiking adventure!
The highlight of Wyndham is heading up to the 5 Rivers lookout. What amazing, epic views!
After leaving Wyndham we headed off down King River Road and visited the prison tree. It has a really interesting history. Needless to say, I wouldn't want to have had to spend the night with up to 30 prisoners cramped into its hollowed centre, with only a small opening into the outside world.
On the way to the tree, we drove through some fires by the side of the road. I don't think we melted too much paint off Maddie's car!
One of my favourite things to do on these outback jaunts, is to look for any signs of wildflowers, weeds or pretty flowering plants and take photos of each of them. I managed to find a few along the way.
We camped a night at Diggers Rest Station, where we had our own little private campsite beside a river with a known resident crocodile that had been causing havoc, but thankfully stayed away from our little patch. We did have our own loo with a view, which was the cleanest one I'd seen in a while.
My favourite part of camping is sitting by the fire at night. Just soaking in the sights, the sounds, the feels, the smoke, everything!
I didn't bring along all my camera gear and tripod, so I was unable to capture the milky way in all its glory, but I didn't do too bad by balancing the camera against a tree.
On our way back to the main road, we found an alternate route, much nicer than the corrugated track. It was a very large salt pan that stretched for miles. It was so much smoother and more of an adventure, getting to go back a different way than we came, running parallel with the road we came in on.
Over 10 years ago, on our family trip around Australia, we were able to travel the Gibb River Road. It was one of the highlights of our trip, so of course, we wanted to drive down it just a little, as time didn't allow us to go any further. But it was nice to stop at Emma Gorge (another hike we didn't feel up to), where we enjoyed a nice coffee and muffin at their little cafe.
The views in this part of the country are so awesome. It's hard to find words for them, except that we have an amazing God, a creative God who formed them by his hand for our pleasure.
At this time of year, the yellow Kapok were out in abundance.
Another thing we wanted to do again, was to cross the beautiful Pentecost River. So, we crossed it, walked around a bit and then crossed back, giving the cruiser a little wash along the way.
All I can say about these photos is WOW! WOW! WOW!
On our way back, we crossed back over the NT border and headed down the Duncan Hwy to go and do some fossicking along some dusty tracks that Dave has recently carted cattle on. We found some beautiful Amethyst Crystals and some Smokey quartz, some agates and other pretty little rocks etc.
Of course, the other flower that was in abundance was the Hairy Mulla Mulla. I love to photograph these, and as Dave was off looking for a track to a mine, I was content to frolic amongst the flowers.
Being dry season, fires were in abundance too.
It was a beautiful time away for Dave and I, I just wish it was 12 months longer!
I will never tire of the beauty of God's creation and the uniqueness of every mountain, hill, flower, rock, road, tree, cloud and everything in between.
John 1:3
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Climbing a little hill, we were able to see Lake Argyle, WA, from the NT side, glistening in the sunset.
