Sunday 10^th July

We were looking forward to seeing the Cockburn Ranges, and they certainly were amazingly spectacular and a sight to remember.

The road was very rough and corrugated, with sharp stones and even though we had travelled very slowly and had reduced the pressure in the tyres, we had a flat tyre on the way! ... not able to be repaired as there was a gash in the side wall of the tyre. 

The spare was put on ok, - I was grteful that Rob S was there too to help, but the two Robs were covered in dust as you can imagine.

see Rob flat out under the car?!

Some cars that passed, stopped to offer help (we didn’t need it) but others raced past, putting up a thick cloud of dust. The mechanic at Home Valley put the second spare onto the rim, and said he had had 10 tyres in that day, of which only 1 could be repaired!

Along that section of the road we passed a bike rider, with no apparent support vehicle!

We also saw a snake cross the road, and crossed the Durack River.

Home Valley is very attractive and well set up, with a grassed camping area (not at the river), good facilities, a big undercover bar etc., and a playground and pool. We enjoyed winding down a bit after the drama of the flat tyre, and had lunch at the restaurant, which was delicious Barra and chips with salad.

We went to camp at the Pentecost River camp, with a beautiful view of the ranges. Some new birds were added to the list, including a Striped Bittern.

We went to the lookout to view the Cockburn Ranges

and up there was a pretty yellow and green Hakea

 At sunset the colours were stunning.  But the ranges cover almost 180 degrees, so photos can’t do the scene justice.

A bonus was the fact that mobile phones had reception at the lookout, but unfortunately not enough for internet, so the blog had to wait again!

We had another great view of Bustards - two birds flew over us when we were going to a waterhole, and we saw another one later. They must be the stand out bird of the trip.