After we left Coral bay and the Cape range National Park area we headed straight to Carnarvon bypassing Quobba as we needed food and water before we could free camp.
We stayed four nights in Carnarvon and drove around the area for a short sight see, but mainly spent a lot of time catching up with cleaning the caravan and car of dirt and salt spray, shopping and washing and some repairs to van and the much needed appointment with the hairdresser. A busy four days with not a lot of sightseeing. Below is John fixing the TV aerial.
Below are scenes from Carnarvon, including Babbage island, the one mile jetty and above John attempting to fix the loose TV aerial but this job needed a special tube spanner so will have to wait for Geraldton as we couldn’t buy the appropriate tool here in Carnarvon.
The space museum at Carnarvon was worth a visit and gave the history of the Apollo missions to the moon, the shuttle was an amazing small space where four astronauts laid for four days in space. Carnarvon was one of the communication sights for these missions.
Next we back tracked to Quobba , a seaside free camp. We stayed here for three nights, the last two with Gayle and Rob who caught up to us after leaving Broome two weeks after us. It was good to see them again. At Quobba we drove along the beach front , got oysters from the rock pools, visited the red capped lighthouse and went snorkeling in the bay. However the high tide was too low and swimming over the coral there the water wasn’t enough depth for comfortable snorkeling and we saw stingrays and shovel-nose rays just inches under us, one shooting straight underneath John so we cut our snorkeling short feeling a little intimidated and remembering what happened to Steve Irwin.
The best feature of Quobba is its blowholes. The holes in the rock cliffs just a 12 inches round and as the waves come in the water is pushed up these holes as spray. Quite a sight and with the rough seas very impressive. The wind is constantly blowing now , it’s the time of the year and WA is know for a Windy Always.
Next was Shark Marine Bay , after a free stop overnight on the way. We stayed in Denham for three nights and visited
Eagle bluff
Amazing cliffs along the Indian Ocean and extremely windy.
The beautiful waterfront of Denham had been recently up dated and was very pretty with the history of the area on plagues as we walked the waterfront in the howling wind.
Part of the history here is the making of shell bricks that come from this area, these were seen in an old building now a restaurant in the Main Street.
The information centre at Denham has a great history of the area and a 3D movie of the sunken HMS Sydney sunk here by a German ship in WW2 and we also visited the local aquarium, nice collection of fish and sharks but not really worth the money.
Little lagoon is below, a small lake with wind surfers enjoying the heavy wind. The blue in the lake quiet spectacular.
The area of shark bay was pretty with the reef back from the beaches and huge areas of sea grass grow, the perfect area for sharks, gugongs etc. One beach we went to had a thong shack, something different.
Monkey Mia, here we watched the dolphins being fed. This is a very pretty area but small and the dolphins not that exciting, guess we are to use to seeing them on a regular basis at home.
Then we visited Perron National Park and the homestead where sheep farming and shearing were the main feature.
One interesting sight in town was the emus and their chicks just wandering along the main roads in town.
On leaving Denham we visited
Shell beach,
the shells here are used to make bricks and the shells cement together with calcium carbonate excreted with salty water. The shells can be up to 10 metres deep here.
Then on to
Hamlin pool were the stromalities grow in the very salty water. The salt content of the water is twice that of normal levels and these growths are micro bacterial columns that are the first sign of life on earth and millions of years old.
Back on the highway and off to Kalbarri with a free overnight stop by the Murchison river overnight. Very unusual to finally see a river with water in it , although not flowing much. It was also from this point on the hwy that the constant mulga on the roadside has now turned to farm land, a much welcome site after 1000 of miles and months of mulga scenery.
Kalbarri, was a two night stay in the caravan park and lots of driving and walking to all the lookouts.
Kalbarri has the Murchison river running into the ocean and has small water areas through its gorges which also have amazing rock formations, We walked to most of the lookouts here viewing the many gorges , the first
Hawks head
Ross Graham lookout
The lookout of the town and where the Murchison river enters the Indian Ocean.
Natures window
And
Z Bend lookout with some rocks showing early life forms.
The drive through the Park still showing some of the wildflowers and banksia’s still in bloom.
The coastline is rough and rugged and with the strongs winds making the seas very rough.
Photo below was how we spent one afternoon after lots of walking in the morning, I think John beat me but often the games after very close often down to to Black ball which I just miss and leave set up for him. Damm!
On the south side of Kalbarri we stopped at many headlands pics below showing the wild cliffs, red bluff and the natural bridge to name just a few.
Driving further south we stopped at Port Gregory and it’s famous pink lake.
The pretty seaside town of Horrocks for lunch
Then onto a free stop at the local golf club at North Hampton, a historic town with many old building, no pics were taken.
Next is Geraldton a four night stop with fridge repairs needed , the wiring to the 240 volt connection needing replacement, we have had to drive on gas for the last week to keep the fridge cold, the caravan tyres need rotation and the car is due for a service.
Sight seeing in Geraldton included fisherman’s wharf and the foreshores around Geraldton.
It surprised us how nice Geraldton was and the town had lots of shops like Bunnings and repco where we were able to buy things we had needed for some time and hadn’t been able to source.
beaches and lighthouse
we visited the famous ST Francias Cathedral which had just had new bells installed , we heard them playing Waltzing Matilda and Silent night , the inside was African Spanish style and was quiet unique.
the local museum and model ship
the HMS Sydney memorial
In Geraldton we again caught up with Gayle and Rob for the last two days and enjoyed our stay here except for the winds, the tree below showing the extent of how the winds bend the trees here. Our caravan and car also was covered in sand , salt and dirt what a mess.
