Camping at Mary Pool

Causeway into Mary Pool, WA

After staying at Fitzroy Pool just one day we hitched up again and continued heading eastward a couple of hundred kilometres.  We had been told about a free camp area at Mary Pool which was very popular.  The signage on the road confirmed that twenty four hour stopping was allowed (some rest areas are day areas only) so we pulled in even though it was early for us and only just lunch time.

The short gravel road led down to the river and there was a concrete causeway crossing it – the causeway obviously has a rough hammering during the wet season and was very broken up with holes and rough edges.  It was just great for the caravan but we took it slowly as we could see a large number of caravans parked up under the trees.  It was just lunch time yet there would have been forty caravans set up and it was a bit difficult to find a position.  We shouldn’t have worried as during the afternoon the line of caravans and camper trailers just continued rumbling across the causeway and they were parked everywhere.  Peter and I took a walk just on dark (around 5.30 pm) and we counted nearly one hundred camping groups and all staying for free.  The only facilities were three new environmental toilets, fire surrounds and a toilet dump facility.  Campers don’t expect much to make them happy.

There were lots of trees and the river was flowing with some water so the area was so typical of camping in outback Australia.  We just loved it!

There was no swimming in the river as the signage at the causeway stated that crocodiles were likely.  We didn’t see any but other campers said that they saw one freshwater crocodile.

Our Campsite Mary Pool