Carnarvon and Gascoyne Junction

Campground 1: Edaggee Rest Area
Facilities: Toilet, Picnic benches, Rubbish bins.
Good stuff: Rest stop divided into individual sections and spacious.
Not so good stuff: You get a lot of trucks and can get busy at times.
Price: Free
 Campground 2: Tom Price Tourist Park
Facilities: Toilet, Camp kitchen, Showers, Potable water, Laundry, Kids Playground, Basic groceries.
Good stuff: Reasonably priced for where it is and what you get, Camp kitchen was ok.
Not so good stuff: A bit out-dated, if you are facing the amenities block then you have a light shining into your tent all night.
Price: $16 per adult per night.

Whilst planning our trip there were a few things that we needed to consider, the main aim was to avoid areas affected by cyclones during the wet season. Not what were we going to do if there was a cyclone. Coming into May we thought that we were safe… It turned out Mother Nature had other ideas! 

This was before the weather started going downhill in Carnarvon.

This was one of those times when no matter what plan we came up with it failed. The impending cyclone was predicted to hit Exmouth with Carnarvon in the potential firing line. Our thoughts were… GET INLAND. We brought our plan forward and set off with the aim of getting to Kennedy Ranges NP with the cunning plan of saving money by camping in a national park and shortening the next days drive to Mt Augustus…

Day One: Attempt to get to Kennedy Ranges. 

Kennedy Ranges NP is north of Gascoyne Junction that is around a 2 hour drive from Carnarvon. To then find out that Kennedy Range NP access roads were CLOSED was a downer to say the least (we had checked the park info on our phone before leaving but it wasn’t readily visible…). It was going to take over 5 hours to get to Mt Augustus from Gascoyne Junction, being 3pm that idea was now out of the question… Back to the rest stop south of Carnarvon we went.

We did get to see the drinking water catchment for the area at Rock Pools. Rather pretty.

Day Two, Stage One: Attempt to get to Mt Augustus. 

Now checking the shire road closures information, we found out that there was only the one route out of Mt Augustus via Gascoyne Junction (due to the damage from the previous cyclone). Cyclone Quang was meant to hit Exmouth this evening. The thought of walking up Mt Augustus in the pouring rain/ thunderstorms, the bad weather likely to hit the area and the potential of getting stuck there, we decided to can the idea. We were both bummed out to say the least, as it was one of the big-ticket items that we wanted to do on the trip. Which geologist doesn’t want to see the largest rock on earth?!

Day Two: Stage Two: Head north and try to get as close to Tom Price as possible… 

This was one of those times where we had been a bit over ambitious with our idea. We travelled 810km, in strong head winds and heavy rain for around 600km of those. We made it Paraburdoo but there wasn’t anywhere to camp. Halfway Bridge, a further 40km up the road, was packed. So Tom Price Tourist Park was our last option.  Yes, we avoided the worst of the weather but it was our second very long day. Putting our tent up at 7pm in the evening on rock hard ground was not enjoyable. WA is not made for tent! In hindsight we probably should have stayed in Carnarvon, live and learn! Also we discovered that if you drive through storm winds for 6 hours the windscreen leaks.