Carnarvon WA
After leaving North Mandu we were all in need of some replenishment of stocks on reaching Exmouth: fuel, water, gas and food. Oh and a visit to the dump point too. We achieved all this, and then set off for Bullara Station again. We'd all enjoyed our stay there recently and we knew it was hamburger night and that they had good washing machines (had a lot of that to do too!). It was all just as good as we remembered and we enjoyed our burgers and chatting around the fire.
We headed off to Coral Bay the next morning. The others hadn't been there yet and it was certainly worth a look. We got there fairly early in the morning, and Steve, Karen, Kath and Barb walked around to Maud's Point to have a snorkel on the reef. It was superb! Very different coral formations from those we'd seen further north at Turquoise Bay, and not as many fish or the variety of colour. Afterwards we decided to check out the famous bakery pies, and oh boy they lived up to expectations and the apple strudel was delicious too!
We had originally intended to stay near the Minilya Roadhouse that night, but someone Steve had met advised him against this as there were bad mosquitos there and some people had contracted Ross River virus. They suggested another rest stop further on, but it turned out to be very exposed to the prevailing wind (and it was a very windy day!), and the loos weren't clean. We decided to push on to another rest stop at Lake Macleod. This would've been okay but it had been recently renovated and re-named, so we didn't recognise the stop and we drove past it. By the time we reached the turn-off to Point Quobba it was starting to get quite late in the afternoon. Steve & Karen, Ian & Kathy chose to press on to Point Quobba as they wanted to see the blow holes near there. Barb was not keen to drive in the dark, especially as one of our new van tyres was losing pressure with a slow leak. She called Capricorn Tourist Park at Carnarvon, which was only fourteen kilometres away on the main highway, and Barb & John stayed there the night.
This turned out to be the right decision for everyone. The others got to Point Quobba safely that evening and were able to see the blow holes the next morning, and also the saltpans of Lake Macleod. Barb and John spent the morning exploring Carnarvon, before the others joined them at the Capricorn Tourist Park just after lunch.
Carnarvon is quite a nice sleepy town. It's a long weekend here this weekend and it's not very busy in the town centre, although there are tourists out and about at the local tourist attractions. This place is more geared towards its fishing industry, food produce growing (especially the local sweeter bananas) and it also has the OTC space centre. We were interested to see that there were quite a few painted murals decorating the buildings in town which helped to pretty up some tired facades.
The main harbour side precinct on the Fascine has a memorial to HMAS Sydney and the German ship Kormoran which sank each other during a battle off-shore during WW2. Over 600 crew were lost on the Sydney but 319 of the 400 on the Kormoran were rescued. Nearby is a rather lovely kids playground and we walked along here to go across the old tram bridge that crosses the Gascoyne river and used to connect to One Mile Jetty.
Nowadays the trams no longer run and the bridge is in a state of disrepair. It does have good views of the harbourside mansions though. Out at One Mile Jetty we discovered it was also in a bad state of repair, so bad that the jetty is closed off with a big gate to prevent access. There is a nice café on the point nearby, and there is an old lighthouse, the lighthousekeeper's house museum and a railway museum to keep the tourists entertained. We wandered around having a look at all the old machinery and engines. It only cost $5 / person to see everything, which was a bit of a bargain.
The next day we all trooped out to the nearby Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC)precinct which includes the museum of the old Carnarvon Space communications satellite dish. This museum was really interesting too, with a couple of hands on interactive displays and several theatres showing the history of the site and its relationship with NASA and the moon landings. We even got to sit in a replica space shuttle and pretend to be blasted into space like an astronaut.
Back at camp in the late afternoon we felt the need to try out the bowling green that is attached to the caravan park and do some barefoot bowling. There was much laughing and hilarity as none of us really knew how to play, and the noise of our laughter drew a fellow camper, Peter who came along to watch. He was thrilled when we invited him to join us in a game. His greater experience soon became apparent, but we still had fun bowling badly.
The next morning we were all packed up and almost ready to hitch up when Steve appeared at our door to say that Karen was experiencing a racing and irregular heartbeat. We urged them to go straight up to emergency at Carnarvon Hospital to get it checked out. They ended up spending seven hours there while Karen had multiple ECGs and blood tests. They think it is SVT not an MI and she was released but will have to have another triponin level done tomorrow morning before we're allowed to leave town.
While Karen and Steve were busy at the hospital, we went to TyrePower to get our van tyre checked. They couldn't find a problem with the tyre, but changed the valve and re-fitted the tyre. Hopefully that will solve the slow leak problem. Barb also got a doctor's appointment to get a new script and also get her two monthly blood test done. We also tried out the fruit ice-creams at the Morell's fruit farm, which came highly recommended by the girl in the visitor centre. Ian and Kath went to see some of the sights around town they hadn't seen yet, so we all kept busy and enjoyed our extra day at this lovely park.
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