Day 105 Millstream Chichester National Park

The Millstream Chichester National Park consists actually of two separate areas, Millstream and Chichester which are just put together in one national park. We started at the Chichester Range: the drive from Karratha is on sealed road and with some train crossings, where you can see very long trains carrying the stuff dug out at the mines. Also while walking in the national park you will hear the sound of these trains.

We started our walking with the climb up to Mount Herbert. It is a short but steep walk up and after the last weeks seeing only dry spinifex grass, it was a quite different view with everything green. This lookout more or less shows you everything there is to see in the national park, except in the wildflower season, which is now, you can see lots of wildflowers but other than that, there are no sights or lookouts. We went on from Mount Herbert to the McKenzie Spring and besides some termite mounds on the way, there were many wildflowers making this walk interesting and lots of photos.

After walking back we drove to the car park for the Cameleers Lookout Trail and Python Pool. Well, the steep walk with scramble over rocks to the Cameleers Lookout wasn´t really worth the effort: you have views over the area, but not really different to what you can see from the Mount Herbert Lookout.On this trail there were almost no wildflowers to see, so the McKenzie Spring walk was definitely the better one to do. After walking back, we went on to the Python Pool for a nice swim in the cold water to cool-down - all the walks were in the bright sun, no shade anywhere.

The other part of the national park, the Millstream area is a bit of a drive first on sealed then unsealed road. At this part of the national park you also have to pay entrance fee (or have a park pass as we do). We first drove the Snappy Gum Drive through the park past the other points of interest to get to the lookout. Well, you cross the river with almost no water but shortly afterwards the road is closed because of flood. Not really sure which flood, but online information state it is some flood damage back from beginning of 2021. So no lookout to take photos but at least some blue-winged kookaburras at the river crossing.

We drove back at first to the Millstream Homestead, but the Wetland Walk there was closed as well, before heading on to the Cliff Lookout. From the Lookout you see the Deep Reach Pool, our next stop on the way. The Deep Reach Pool is more like a river where people go with their kayaks or have a picnic rather than a pool to swim like the Python Pool. So with half of the sights closed and almost no wildflowers the Millstream area of the national park was no so interesting to spend more time so we left after a short time for heading back to Karratha.