Carnarvon

CARNARVON 5^TH – 7^TH MAY

Carnarvon is the town of the banana plantations and tropical fruits. This is because of the Gascoyne River which flows underneath it!! Yes the river itself is an underground river and only comes above ground in the wet season. They are apparently always monitoring the water level underground and they have had times when the plantations have been on watering restrictions.  The C.P. we stayed at was surrounded by banana plantations. We got into the C.P. around lunch time so before setting up we pulled out the picnic rug and had some lunch. As we were sitting there Pete had a feeling we were being watched, yes we were.



A Tawny Frog Mouth which blends in very well!



Lovely colours!



Very nice of him to sit still while we took his photo! 




I love this shot! What do you think he is thinking?
I though these guys were supposed to sleep during the day!!!!



Carnarvon has its own long jetty, which is called The One Mile Jetty. It is in need of much repair which they are trying to raise the funds for by charging you $10 a family just to walk on it and extra to ride on the train. No we did not go out on it for there really wasn’t anything to see but more ocean and the view from the water tank was just as good.  Just near the jetty is a little museum telling the history of Carnarvon and the life of the Jetty. It was only small but it was very clean and well presented.




Info on the jetty, it has had a very busy life.




The water tower, a great lookout from the top.




                                                   Info on the tower.

View from the tower looking out at One Mile Jetty.
The mouth to the Gascoyne River is to the right.




The old steam train used on the jetty.



Pete giving Tom a shave with the shearers. It was a great
display of how the shearing was done.



Charlie on the "man powered" cart that the workers used
to use on the train tracks to get from one end to the other.
( yes it is a bit blurry)




Tom and Charlie




From Carnarvon we did a day drive out to Point Quobba which is roughly 80kms north of town and right on the ocean. Before we turned down to Point Quobba we stopped to find the blow holes. We couldn’t see them but the waves crashing up on this rough looking coast line looked amazing.



This is just the waves hitting the cliffs.




This is what we could see of the rock shelf near the blow holes.
We thought they were amazing but when we came back at low tide they
looked even better. ( photo down lower of them in low tide).



We were told by people that this was a very popular spot with the grey nomads to sit for months and wait for the right time to go on to Broome. The grey’s like it because it is cheap to stay and they can fish all day long but you must be fully self-contained because the only facilities you get is a couple of old toilets. Even after been told that we really didn’t think there would be that many there because the C.P’s haven’t been that full and we were told we are at least 2-3 weeks ahead of the nomads, how wrong we were! The place was packed! There were vans, camper trailers, buses, trucks; every sort of camping vehicle you could think of and all packed in like sardines, and you would want to get along with your neighbours. There is no shade, it is all open and bare and you are just up off the beach.  People were well set up with the generators, solar, shower/ toilet tents and shading but what they do all day apart from fish and swim is beyond me. We drove down along the camping area which stretched along the beach for about 2km and even at the end where the sign said “no camping beyond this point” there was three caravans set up!



A sample of some of the fish huts. All made out of corrugated iron with a
good old out house made out of the same. Quite a few toilet blocks
had chains over them to stop them from being blown away!!




This gives you an idea of what the camping is like. This is at the very start of the camping so things aren't
too squashy here but there is no privacy, shade or protection from the elements or neighbours!



We went back to the start where there are little fishing shacks scattered everywhere and went and had a look at the water. There was a lovely looking lagoon with a reef in it so we decided to stay and have a swim and it was unbelievable.  It was like a mini Coral Bay or Barrier Reef with coloured fish of different sizes everywhere. We were so excited; the boys were yelling and pointing at all the fish and a turtle with the biggest “wow” look on their faces, awesome. So needless to say we stayed there for lunch and did lots of snorkeling. We actually realised if you just went and stood in the water and put your finger tips in the water and twitched them the fish would come up and have a nibble at them, cool. I so wish I had an underwater camera!! Our timing was just right because the tide was going out and slowly the reef started becoming exposed and you couldn’t snorkel over it.

Looking to the right of the little lagoon we snorkeled in.  This is when we got there and the tide was up, you can just make out the dark patches of the reef.



Looking to the left out to sea as we left ,now you can see the reef clearly through the water.



Again at low tide. That is an Island in front and is home to 100's of seagulls which you can kind of make out around the water line. It was funny to watch them when the sea eagles flew in and interrupted them; there were gulls flying everywhere!




After our wonderful day we left and headed back out past the blowholes to go back to Carnarvon and we got a great surprise to see them blowing, low tide is when you see them! “Wow” was a very used word as we watched the huge amount of water being shot up into the air. So after many photos (you’ve just gotta love digital camera’s) and getting wet we headed back to camp. We didn’t get up to the Quobba homestead but I am sure it would have been just as busy. I would definitely come back here again to snorkel. It wouldn’t surprise us if soon there is a proper C.P. or resort here  charging you just to enjoy this beautiful place. You can only hope the owners of the fishing shacks hold their ground and don’t allow anything to change it.



Here it comes........




Getting higher.....




Time to get you wet.......





This was the source of the blow holes one big hole and two smaller yet powerful holes.





This is the rock shelf from earlier now at low tide,WOW!





Down the road from the C.P. was a fruit shop which sells fresh fruit, dried fruit leather and frozen chocolate coated bananas, yum!  We treated the boys as we left town.



Chocolate coated frozen bananas, yum!



Yes they are still yellow inside, I would like to know how they do it and why they dont turn brown!