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We didn't worry about getting up early to travel to Carnarvon as we only had a short trip of one and a half hours. Sometimes when we have a big drive ahead of us we start packing up the night before but of course we didn't think there was any need for that. I showered and dressed and Robb was up shortly after me and then we had a plan on how to proceed. We were a bit held up with packing up our Weber because Robb had cooked a pork belly the night before and he usually cooks this in water and we had a bit of an overflow so we had some cleaning up on the Weber and the table but it wasn't a big deal. We both proceeded with our normal jobs and it wasn't long until we were in the car with our coffees and ready to move on. Hardly any time at all until we arrived in Carnarvon and we easily found the park we were staying at. I walked to the office and booked in and picked up a bit of local information while I was there and then back in the car driving to our site. The site was easy to find and we were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived, it is a large grassed site beside the camp kitchen and the park cabins which means we are protected on both sides. When I first booked the lady I spoke to said she would need to put us next to the camp kitchen and I was a bit concerned that there might be a problem with that but after seeing the space we will put up with any problems that arise. We set up, had lunch and then drove down to the Visitor Information Centre to plan our agenda for the next four days. Our experience in the Information Centre was the best we have ever had, the lady who helped with our enquiries was upbeat and just a pleasure to work with, we came away with lots of ideas to fill in our time. We drove from here down the road to Woolworths where we needed to replenish our supplies, and from here we drove back to the park. We had a bit of a problem with our tap at the park and the maintenance people were going to work on it while we were away. We tried the water when we arrived back and it was working but shortly after getting back the maintenance man, Matt, turned up and checked everything again. We had a bit of a chat to Matt and it turned out he is from just down the road from us at Corunulla and he had bought two of his blocks from the Estate Agency we partly owned in Grantville, he knew people we did so we had a lovely chat for awhile until he was being called back to the office. I had packed away our shopping and we were having left overs for dinner so there wasn't much more to do than grab a wine and site outside to edit my photos. We have a bit of an idea about what we will do tomorrow and I will plan the next few days after that.
Our first full day in Carnarvon we have decided to visit the Quobba Blowholes and Station. The blowholes are 75kms back the way we came into Carnarvon. It was not a terribly exciting drive but it gave us an opportunity to take another look around the entry to Carnarvon. We drove directly to the blowholes as they were our main target for the day, we parked and then walked over the sharp rocks to the edge of the cliff where we could get a good view around the surrounding area and the blowholes. Just a small hint to anyone coming out this way, I was wearing thongs and they weren't really suitable for walking over these rocks. The blowholes are very impressive, there is the main hole and then three or four small ones below the main one. The water roars into the holes and then bursts out the top, I must say we have seen many blowholes in our travels but these were quite exceptional, we were told by people who have been here before that we were very lucky today that the wind was blowing as strongly as it was, we enjoyed the display we were lucky enough to see. We drove further down the road from here to have a look at the coast and then we drove back to take the road to Quobba Station. This is a popular camping area and we wanted to have a look at it, we wouldn't stay here but it seems to be quite popular with campers. We then turned around to drive back to camp and stopped off at the lighthouse on our way back, as we got closer to town we noticed the Organic Farm shop outlet so we stopped off there and bought some fresh produce, every thing looked so good but we settled for vegetabes and a punnet of strawberries. We had lunch when we returned and then Robb had his friendship call with his camping mates for an hour or so. There was a pizza night over at the entertainment area outside the office, you could take your pizzas and they would cook them for you for a small donation to the RDFS and there was music, we didn't want pizza for dinner but we walked over to listen to the music, we stayed until it became to cold and then walked back to the van. We were having T-bone steaks for dinner and Robb had made up some garlic butter in the afternoon and we were having small whole boiled potatoes, broccoli and pumpkin with it, dinner was good.
Our first stop in the morning was at the Saturday morning market outside the Visitor Information Centre in town. There were lots of fresh produce stalls, Carnarvon is considered the food bowl of WA and there are lots of fresh produce growers in the area. We had visited an organic farm yesterday and purchased a few items so we didn't need much but we did buy corn, tomatoes and a couple of nice looking relishes. From the market we drove to the Carnarvon Space museum and had a look around outside, we didn't go into the museum but we were interested in the outside exhibits. This tracking station hasn't operated since 1975 and the outside exhibits look like they haven't been given much care since then but still it was interesting to see some of the larger pieces of equipment. We climbed the stairs on the large dish and the views from here over Carnarvon were amazing, I couldn't stay long I suffered from vertigo and had to climb down after a short time. We drove from here to Chinaman's Pool but we must have taken the wrong entrance because we really couldn't find the pool and just seemed to end up in the scrub. Our next stop was the 1 Mile Jetty which we did find but the museums around the jetty were not open today and as the jetty is closed because it is in such bad repair we didn't spend much time here. I think they are trying to raise funds to have the jetty restored it seems to have had a huge part to play in the early history of Carnarvon I hope they are successful. We spent the remainder of the morning looking around Carnarvon, there is a lovely waterfront area and from here we followed the water around to the fishing jettys, there are some huge fishing boats stored here but Robb was really looking for somewhere to do a bit of fishing, these jettys didn't look suitable but we saw a few people fishing from a jetty by the boat ramp so we might go back there tomorrow. There was an Asian food truck at the caravan park tonight so we bought our dinner here and we both enjoyed the food.
An easy day today as there isn't a lot more for us to do around Carnarvon. When we were at the 1 Mile Jetty we noticed a sign there advertising helicopter flights for $60, we thought we would follow this up and then take a drive out to Rocky Pool before returning to the Harbour Road in Carnarvon where we planned to have lunch at Mar E Sol Cafe/Restaurant on the water. We called into the One Mile Cafe where they were advertising the flights and we were told the flight lasts for 5 minutes and they would have to wait until they had five people before they would take off. They flew over the 1 Mile Jetty and around the city harbour, it sounded ok particularly because I had never been in a helicopter and I was sure to be able to take some excellent photos of the coastline, the only reason we decided not to go ahead was because we didn't feel like waiting around to see if they had five people wanting to take the same trip. We drove from here to Rocky Pool which is 55kms East of Carnarvon. The land was quite flat along most of the drive and the only interesting features were the few areas covered in water, we think they were part of the Gascoyne River which is the longest river in WA and where we were headed to visit Rocky Pool. The water we saw looked pink and we think this was because of the rocks sitting just underneath the surface giving it this colour, I took a few photos but I don't think I captured the true brightness of the pink. We turned off the sealed road we were on and then had 4kms along an unsealed road before we arrived at Rocky Pool, it was pretty easy going mainly on hard packed sand until we arrived at the pool and the last 100mts was the beautiful red rock in and around the pool, fairly flat but we still needed to drive slowly. We parked and made our way over to the river, it is not difficult at all to see why this area has been named Rocky Pool. There is a large flat sandy space with red rocks jutting out of the sand between the road and the water, the rocks are mainly flat so it was easy enough to get a foothold on them but the going was a bit slower than normal. Walking closer to the water it looked like it was close to the top of the cliffs but as you crept closer you could see there was about a 5mt drop down to the water and from reading the information I knew the river was quite deep here. Looking up to the right we could see a few sand bars extending out from the side of the cliffs and a couple nearly go right over to the other side, there was a car parked down there but we didn't see the track down until we were leaving. There was a man out in a kayak who told us we could walk down to the sandbars from where we were but it was a bit of a hike so we didn't bother. Up to the left there was a family sitting under the trees and the children were swimming from here, I walked over to take a look and there is an rock walkway down to the water that would be easy enough to access but once again the water would be quite deep here. I noticed that in some places the rocks extend out into and underneath the water, I am not sure but I think maybe there is quite a bit of rock underneath. It is a very pretty spot and apparently a great place for bird watching, Robb took his binoculars down and in the short time we were there he spotted an eagle, a kite, ducks, ibis and a large number of smaller birds, there we two ladies just up from us and they were there for the bird watching. We drove back to Carnarvon and down to the Harbour Road and parked out front of the restaurant, we signed in and grabbed a couple of menus before trying to find a table, the one empty table we found was covered in dirty dishes and we were thinking about packing them up when the gentleman next to us invited us to join him and his wife at their double table, this seemed like a really good option so we took them up on their offer. We both love meeting people like this and having that casual conversation about where you are from, what you do for a living, where are you going and where have you come from, it is the same every time it is almost like we all have a set of questions we have to go through when we meet new people. We found out he was a Reverend doing support work in a very long community from Port Hedland to Perth and his wife was a medical worker. They travel frequently with his work and because of the pressures he had been under this past nearly two years he was taking an extended break to recoup his strength. We had a very enjoyable lunch both with the conversation and the food, Robb and I had ordered seafood baskets, the food, especially the fish, which was red emperor was excellent, I couldn't finish all of mine so I brought it home in a doggy bag. We are moving on tomorrow to Denham for four nights and I am really looking forward to this stop because we are only 20 minutes away from Monkey Mia and I have wanted to visit here for many years now.
We moved onto Denham today, I had booked the park as we are still concerned about the number of vans on the road and not being able to get a booking. We had a three and a half hour drive and apart from the many vans we came across it was a fairly uneventful drive. We arrived early afternoon, the park was easy to find and once we were set up I prepared lunch. After lunch we drove into town to get fuel and then we visited the Visitor Information Centre to pick up information on what to do while we are here, we also went to find out where Robb has to go tomorrow to meet up with his fishing charter. We went to the bakery to buy bread to make lunch for Robb for tomorrow but it was closed so we drove down to one of the two supermarkets in town and picked up a loaf there. We had a bit of a look around town before driving back to the van, it is a very pretty little coastal village right on the waters edge, there are a couple of pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, service stations and a large Visitor Information/Discovery Centre. It was getting later in the day and I was doing a roast for dinner and needed to do a bit of prep so we drove back home after being satisfied we had seen the town. We are both a bit excited about tomorrow, Robb about his fishing charter and me about having the day to myself to catch up on housework that was well past needing to be taken care of.
Not a good start to the day, Robb received a text at 6.30am to say the skipper of the charter he was going on was off sick, apparently he had an injury to one of his fingers and it was infected, if he didn't have something done he could lose the finger. Robb was a bit disappointed but he is quite stoic and he understood the need for the skipper to have medical attention. I had planned my day around Robb not being here and thought I would take care of the cleaning that was way past due, I made a quick decision to go ahead with the day as planned and thought maybe Robb might like to catch up on some of the jobs he had wanted to take care of. So that is what we did, the morning was full on with cleaning both the van and the car and then it was lunch time, Robb had his lunch prepared ready for his fishing expedition so he had that and I had leftovers. After lunch we drove into town to replace our empty gas bottle, pick up some items from the chemist which they didn’t have but have ordered in for me and to have a beer at the hotel. When we get back I need to organise the next couple of days here. We haven't had many just hanging around home days while we have been away so we have both quite enjoyed it.
We were up earlier than normal hoping to arrive at Monkey Mia for the first dolphin feeding of the day and we did make this in plenty of time. This is an activity that has been on my tick list now for, I don't know how many years, and it didn't disappoint me. Originally I think people used to come to Monkey Mia and swim with the dolphins but of course word got out and there were so many people visiting here that there were regulations put in place to protect the dolphins. Now we are allowed to stand around the edge of the water, while authorised people give us an insight into the protection and habits of dolphins who seem to know when to swim in to be fed. We had about 6-8 dolphins come in to feed, they are the same ones that usually come in because they could all be named. A few people were chosen from the crowd to hand feed them, they don't like giving them too much fish in case in interferes with their natural feeding practices. It was a good experience and I enjoyed it and took many photos and quite frankly I was just pleased to be spending some time with these beautiful creatures. From here we drove to Francois Peron National Park and onto the Peron Homestead Precinct where we had a look around the old shearing sheds and quarters, I loved taking photos here, these old buildings look like pieces of art to me and photograph beautifully. There were three more quick stops after here, Little Lagoon, Nicholson Lookout and Denham Lookout, we stopped at each spot and had a bit of a look around and took a few photos. We were early back to the van and but I took the opportunity to book our second AZ shots and a hair appointment for the two of us in Geraldton, our next stop, in the week we are there. We were both a bit bored in the afternoon and agreed we should stay out later the next day.
Our last mission for our stay here was to visit Hamelin Pool, the Stromatolites and the Old Telegraph Station. We had a 100km drive down to Hamelin Pond and when we arrived it was easy to find the Stromatolites, however, it would have been easier to see them if the tide was out a bit further. We could see them easily through the binoculars but I don't think they have shown up well in the photos. There had been a boardwalk down to the main area and the view from here would have been quite impressive as it wound it's way through the rocks, however, a cyclone had wiped out the boardwalk and the area had been closed off for safety reasons, the boardwalk is quite a mess so you can understand why it has been closed. From here we drove around to the Old Telegraph Station which is now part of the caravan park, there are a couple of impressive buildings here and after a bit of a look around we walked up the hill to look over the beach and the shell block making areas down below, you can actually see where they have been cutting out the blocks and there are blocks stacked up there for collection. From here we drove to Shell Beach for a bit of a wander, Shell beach is completely made up from cockle shells which are in some places 10 metres deep. The beach area is very wide and there is quite a dip from the beach area down to the water, the 'sand' is very white probably because of being made up of the broken down cockle shells. We drove back to town from here, we had plans to have lunch at the Old Pub in Denham, they advertise that they have the best burgers in town and we thought we should test this out. We both ordered a steak burger and when they were served to us we realised we should have ordered one between us. The steak burger was on a ciabatta roll and it was accompanied by chips coated in chicken salt. The chips were really good as was the burger, we both only ate half of our burger and we took the other half home. We are moving onto Geraldton tomorrow, once again Robb will try to book a fishing charter from there and hopefully he gets a bit closer to achievement this time.
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