Gascoyne River (South) Rest Area

 18 - 19 October 2022

We left Karijini with a big drive ahead of us, again unsure about how far we would be able to travel. We stopped in Newman, another mining town, and did some grocery shopping, fuelled up and had lunch in the picnic area adjacent to the Visitor Information Centre. We returned to the Great Northern Highway and continued south.

We don’t often stay at rest areas, but Western Australia has some that are available for 24 hour camping, and have toilets, picnic areas and dump points. The one at Gascoyne River (South) is also nicely situated on the river, with lots of space well back from the road. We arrived around 3:30pm, tired and ready to stop. We found a nice spot close to the river and set up a quick camp for the night – no awning and we left the trailer hitched to the car.

The spot was attractive enough but we soon discovered that the flies and mosquitoes were prolific. We ended up sitting inside to have dinner – but with the back flap rolled up we did have a lovely view.

There was a bit of highway noise through the night but nothing we couldn’t manage. While not the best place to spend the night, this rest area certainly served us well. From there we continued south to Meekatharra.

Along the way we saw lots of wildflowers, especially in the disturbed ground on the edges of the road. We stopped at Lake Nallan for a look – and to photograph some ducks.