Looking around Oz: 20. BARN HILL TO KARIJINI NATIONAL PARK

Heading South from Broome we called in to a farm stay called Barn Hill. It was a lovely beach but the station stay left a bit to be desired. There are people who spend months there every year supporting the owners but the owners don't seem to put anything back into the park for the people who support them. Enough of my opinions - as I said the beach was lovely though and made one person smile.

We spent quite a few hours walking on the sand here and there were some really fascinating rock formations in the dunes nearby.

This area they called 'The Pinnacles'

The camps we enjoy the most are the 'free camps' for obvious reasons. But not just because of the cost. Often times they are random with camp sites, nothing structured, but people tend to respect each others space and everyone seems more friendly and considerate. This was a great spot at De Grey River that we found.

I think I have mentioned before that Dave manages most of the cooking while we are travelling, at least all the outdoor stuff. I won't say he's anal, but he does like an organised cooking area. And his 'choofer' is worth its weight in gold. "note the bicycle chain on the ground - that's to chain it up at night - just in case!

We stayed here for 4 or 5 days in the end and one day we went for a walk and found this little item left by a happy customer.

In case you can't read it the note says "welcome to Pete and Cathy's best camp spot"

The wild life was pretty good here as well. I tried to make friends..

And Dave capture this little guy just above where he was sitting.

It's a Blue Winged Kookaburra, slightly smaller than the laughing Kookaburra and with a different call, but they are just as cheeky.

From here we were making our way generally South and then East towards Karijini National Park. With more Station stays and free camps, we didn't have much chance to shop so had to resort to making our own morning teas.

Another successful camp oven cake! Every one is an experiment and we just keep our fingers crossed re hot coals, wind factor, cooking time etc etc.....when it smells like a cake its generally the sign that its cooked.

While at one free camp Dave literally stumbled over this while collecting wood for the fire.

Its a PEBBLE MOUSE nest. The little hole you can see above the spiky leaves is the entrance to their den and all the pebbles are what they have carted out from their nest. The whole hillside that we are camped on is rocky terrain and some of their pebble piles are quite large. We didn't see the mouse at this one but did at another spot...must admit we thought it was just a tall story until we saw the mouse as well.

Another interesting thing we hadn't heard of before was the Aboriginal etchings, On the rocks but etched rather than painted. These were some we came across on Indee Station.

As well as baking cakes, our diet is not lacking with having to cook outside and just thought I'd give you a sample of a meal cooked on the choofer...