Wednesday 21st August 2013

Today was spent near our campsite. In the morning we walked to Crossing Pool Camp; in the afternoon we drove to the nearby Cliff Lookout and Deep Reach Pool. You can see our route on the the map below. Today’s route is the red one. The blue route is what we did on Thursday.

Millstream is much more wooded than Karijini as you can see from this photo of our camp.

Our camp at Millstream

and along the river valleys you see lots of trees.

Trees on our walk to Crossing Pool Camp

And you get some rather exotic ones such as the Millstream Palm.

The Millstream Palm (Livistona alfredii)

As you get closer to Crossing Pool Camp you come to remnants of the Fortescue River showing how much higher it is in times of flood.

The Fortescue River with flood debris trapped in the branches well above the current level.

At Crossing Pool the course of the Fortescue forms a large pool.

The pool at Crossing Pool Camp.

We did not swim here as the water was rather turbid and the banks rather steep. We had been spoiled by our stay in Karijini. We did, however chat with the Camp Volunteer, (an unpaid civilian who, in return for free camping, supervises the camp and dispenses advice) and one of the campers. He had booked his pitch several months in advance.

Then we walked back to our camp. On the way we climbed a small hill and looked over the Fortescue valley noticing the flat topped remnants of fossil river terraces.

The Fortescue valley with remnants of a higher river terrace visible.

In the afternoon we drove to Cliff Lookout, just across the Fortescue from Crossing Pool Camp to admire the view.

The Fortescue River from Cliff Lookout.

We continued on to Deep Reach recreational area, which we had virtually to ourselves.

Calm day at Deep Reach – lots of reflections

Here there were facilities for getting into the water easily, and the water was a bit clearer, so it was not long before we were swimming.

Chris swimming at Deep Reach

Our last port of call was the Visitor Centre. It is not so busy as the one at Karijini, but does have lots of Kangaroos round the place!

Kangaroo at the Millstream Visitor Centre.

The application below shows you various .kmz files. If you open them with Google Earth you will get our route and the photographs I took, at the spot I took them, displayed in all their glory! Download the file you want, store it somewhere on your computer, open Google Earth and open the file.

[slickr-flickr tag=”21-08-13″]