Back into the Bush

Spent the morning in Carnarvon doing some chores, blogging, posting and shopping. The plan was then to head towards the Kennedy Range, about 200km inland. Carnarvon lays claim to the fact that it exists in the only place where the inland desert extends to the sea, and soon after turning off the north coast highway, we were back into red sand dune country. A little different this time because between the sand dunes are clay pans which is something we have not had before.

The fascinating fact for the day came completely from left field. In 1924 Charles Kingsford-Smith resigned from a job as a pilot with the first commercial airline in Australia, no doubt deciding that it would never allow him to achieve his dream of flying across the pacific. Instead, with a mate he started a trucking company in the Gascoyne, figuring that with his knowledge of machinery he should be able to knock off the carting trade currently being carried by camel and bullock teams. As well as the general haulage, he obtained the contract for a regular mail delivery between Carnarvon and Meekatharra. At the time there were no roads suited for trucking, and so the trip was arduous to say the least. In addition, the cameleers and bullockies were not in any way supportive, seeing the threat of the new ways. The road seen above was cobbled during the depression to improve roads in the area.

After a setup period of a few years, the business was sold as a going concern, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, the mail run is used as a themed drive through the country between Carnarvon and Meekatharra. We covered some of that today.

We pulled into the Kennedy Range campground late in the afternoon, and finally we have found a campground not full to overflowing. In fact apart from our volunteer campground hosts there are only 4 other sites full. Apparently it can hold 40, but I’m not sure whether that is sites or people. It was kind of nice to sit around a campfire with everybody there, more or less, sharing stories while our roast cooked. We were entertained by a 10 month baby, Lucy, who has been on the road with her parents for a good proportion of her life, and I suspect will probably be for some time.