Along the banks of the Gascoyne River at Carnarvon are a variety of fruit and vegetable farms using water from the dry sandy bed of the Gascoyne. There is a "Fruit Loop" along both banks of the river which takes in a series of on farm stalls. This is how we did our vegie shopping for the week.

North of Carnarvon are the Blow Holes. I thought they were pretty impressive. Perhaps not as keen to get as close as this fellow.

From Carnarvon we headed East (inland) for a couple of days. We had wanted to head straight up to Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Reef but the camps were booked out. Kennedy Range was an unexpected surprise with the camp ground at the bottom of the escarpment.

So you remember Charles Kingsford Smith the aviator? What about Charles Kingsford Smith the truckie ?

To raise the funds to fly, Kingsford Smith had a transport company based in Carnarvon. He was using trucks but because the tracks were so rough the trucks were having problems competing with the existing camel trains. I am not sure who paid for them but cobbled roads were built.

So before he flew across the Pacific, Kingsford Smith drove a truck along this road.

The national park is still pretty much in the desert. The gorges and water falls are dry most of the time with some seasonal rock pools.

Ann was happy to make it over the rocks to the end of the trail in Temple Gorge. Note the special head gear.

This is the honey comb erosion at Honey Comb Gorge. Couldn't get over the gravel in the rock face. Its about 3 or 4 metres above ground level

Lucky to get a shot of this "Dawson's Burrowing Bee" as it emerges from its burrow. They are so quick and unpredictable. There were a lot of them in one small section of the road. Rangers had placed rocks out to protect them.

Ningaloo Reef is a fringing reef that runs down the coast for a couple hundred kilometres. As a consequence there are a couple hundred ks of coral lagoon.

Yes Lachlan there are sections where fishing is allowed and the small dot in the photo is a bloke fishing from his kayak.

While we didn't get into the water we did take a glass bottom boat cruise.

Yardie Creek is at the bottom of the National Park. It is the largest creek system running out to the range and is the only one with water. (not fresh)

We enjoyed a nice walk with some rock hopping up to this point. Quite a bit of wild life including a rare black footed rock wallaby.

This boat was moored in the Tantabiddi Lagoon. No need for a helicoptor pad when you have a personal submarine on board.

We took a Sunset Whale Watching Tour. It was "better" than the one I had done out of Hervey Bay. We saw more whales and didn't have to travel any distance before we saw the first one - a mother and her calf.

Don't let the computer screen fool you these photos are heavily cropped, the whale is very small in the original photo.

The weather must be warming up. This kangaroo spent a couple hours in the afternoon under the front of our car.

Right at the end of North West Cape - the entrance to Exmouth Gulf is the wreck of the Mildura. It was a steam ship carrying cattle to Fremantle.

The sun setting over Nindaloo Reef from the viewing platform at the North Kurrajong Campground. I wonder what all the workers are doing?

We headed inland again heading to  Karijini National Park via Paraburdoo and Tom Price. Both these town seem very much mining towns. The central areas green and well looked after. The houses not so much.

This sculpture "Resilience" is just outside Paraburdoo and well worth a stop and the short walk up the hill from the car park. It was a real collaboration between the artist and the community.

Karijini National Park is a park built around a series of gorges. The gorges are spectacular with large sheer sides.

Climbing down into Dale's Gorge we were rewarded this view at Fortescue Falls. Then onto Fern Pool before we made the walk along the bottom of the gorge to Circular Pool. Then we had the climb out. It was pretty tough.

The park is not far from the infamous Wittenoom Gorge with its blue asbestos mine. As this photo shows there is some blue asbestos in Darcy's Gorge.

Still in the park but about 40 km away are another series of gorges.

Sadly next to this lookout is a memorial to an SES volunteer who was killed while performing a rescue.

As well as numerous lookouts this area has some interesting and challenging walks in the bottom  of the narrow gorges.

This is in Hancock Gorge. The blue dot on the right wall is marking the trail. The preferred option is through the chest deep water. I scrambled along the wall.

There are still a lot of different Mulla Mulla flowers out.