Roma to Nuga Nuga VIA ARCADIA VALLEY

From Roma we took the road less travelled and had an amazing drive through the aptly-named Arcadia Valley, with a lunch stop at Lake Nuga Nuga...it was well worth the diversion, and a few kilometres of dirt road!

We were so impressed with Roma Bush Garden that we took a turn around the area in the morning before we left town. We were not disappointed: we saw plum-headed finches again, and also double-barred finches (above, another lifer). ​All the usual waterbirds were about too. As we cornered one area of the lake, a raptor took off from a lakeside tree, as did another, and another…well, four in total. They looked like black kites, and all four circled the gardens several times and went to a high altitude just winging around on a bright clear morning. It was glorious to watch.

​After a quick trip to town for provisions, we set out on the Inland Way towards Injune. This road was the best we had been on in recent days – the occasional pothole but nowhere near as worrisome as we had encountered in previous days. Injune was an easy drive away, and what a delightful town with a really impressive Information Centre with café attached right in the town centre on the main highway. On advice received there, we decided to continue north as planned, but to divert to the Arcadia Valley. More on that shortly. We decided to have a bird walk around the Injune Lagoon, a delightful area with a hundred metres of town, with a good walking path around a billabong. Not so many birds present but we did see a lovely kookaburra.

And so to Arcadia
The map from the Information Centre was not to scale but clearly marked re mileage, so the turn to the right to the circuit was clear and well-marked on road signage as well. Roadworks are underway and have been for some time, as most of the drive is now sealed. And what a drive! The Lonesome Lookout was about 16 kms into the circuit and the view across the valley was breathtaking.

​Immediately after the lookout, the road descends in a sweeping arc down into the Valley. Once on the plain, you’re surrounded on both sides by distant escarpments, and the plain is clearly well-loved farmland. Soft grasses lined the roadside, often with pink flowers and healthy cattle were a frequent sight. The bright blue sky just added the magic touch. We continued right along the valley and decided to make the extra trip to Lake Nuga Nuga (recommended to us by a friend, and the tourist literature described it as a birder’s paradise. The road there was 30km, then 4km into the Lake. About 12km was bitumen, but with some significant dangerous patches due to what looked like recent flood damage. Then we hit the gravel which was quite well graded. The 4km into the Lake was a different story with more dirt than gravel and some significant churned patches. We felt that our AWD could handle it all, taken slowly, but a 4WD would have given us greater confidence.

​The lake was brimming with water, and water lilies, and teeming with birdlife. A pelican convention was underway with a significant parade floating in unison out onto the lake. We saw stilts, lapwings, a gazillion cormorants, a kookaburra, and an egret. We spied a kite’s nest and could hear at least one kite whistling in the distance. One of several we saw there soon came wheeling around the point, swooping over the water for a fish snack. ​

There were also several free campers dotted about, perhaps just for lunch, but at least one couple were set up for a stay. They told us they had been on the road for about fifteen years and were loving it – they looked like they might still be doing so in another fifteen.

​We needed to move on to get to Carnarvon Gorge so off we went…we got back to the main curcuit to be on well graded road, and soon met the road works on duty. It would seem that very soon, then, the whole Arcadia Valley circuit that we took will soon be fully sealed. Just a word of warning – we were on this road just after 3pm of a sunny afternoon, and very nearly took out a small wallaby who came bounding across the road in front of us. Luckily he got away unscathed, as did we, but it’s a reminder that roos can be active well before dusk.