Day 48 (7 Jun) Exmouth to Carnarvon

Last night we couldn’t find a restaurant that wasn’t booked out or closed anywhere in Exmouth.  Really cannot fathom why this tourist town shuts down for a long weekend in the middle of the tourist season. 

We left Exmouth at 7.30am and drove two hours to Coral Bay for breakfast.  I expected to find a nice town with cafés and eateries for us to have breakfast.   NOT SO!!  This is a caravan park town with a small Backpackers Hotel.  It’s ALL caravan park.  People obviously come here for the fishing and touring the reef.  There’s nothing else.  Only one road in too.  So we had our own breakfast in the caravan.

We arrived at Carnarvon about 12.30pm and went looking for a café or restaurant for lunch.  Guess what!!  Nothing open.  It’s a Monday public holiday and only the fuel stations and pubs are open.  So we went to a pub.  It’s a 45 minute wait for food.  Off to another.  The line for ordering had 6 people in front of us.  So back to the caravan for sandwiches.  We just can’t believe that these towns that are screaming out for the tourist dollar, shut down when everyone travelling is looking to eat out!!!

After we had a delicious sandwich, we went to the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum which, back in the 1960s, used to be the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (now Telstra).  OTC was heavily involved in the Apollo Space Program as well as international telecommunications.  The museum is set up in the original OTC buildings and is very well done.  Helen sat in a mock-up of the Gemini capsule.

And “Nigel No Friends” finally found a friend.

Lots of displays showing the original equipment.

They also had a green screen where you can pretend to be standing on the moon.

The antennas outside are massive but no longer in use.

Next door there are a couple of satellite dishes that are fenced in behind razor wire fencing.  It must be some kind of secure communications facility to have that.

The only plus about Carnarvon is that the harbour is very well planned with nice beaches and green grass with palm trees.

Tomorrow it’s off to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins and Francois Peron National Park.

Helen’s Highlights / Minnie’s Musings

Carnarvon was really nice and neat with a lovely beach area. There used to be a ‘1 mile’ jetty out into the ocean but it is closed as it has been badly damaged. This area is right in the cyclone area of WA. There also was a train that went from the jetty into the main beach area 2.5 km away. That is also closed down but the foot bridge close to town is still there so at least I was able to do a bit of the trip by foot.

I; like Michael; am astounded that both here and in Exmouth the eateries are very scarce on a Sunday or public holiday when both towns are high tourist places.  I had hoped to have a time off cooking but that will have to wait.

Day 49 (8 Jun) Carnarvon to Monkey Mia

Woke up to a not so nice day.  Forecast is for wind and showers.  The drive was fine most of the way but with a side wind that made me hang on tight to the steering wheel.  Once we turned west on the road to Denham (Monkey Mia road), the wind was behind us which made driving a bit easier except the caravan was still driving the car.  The road was straight with some areas where the sea was visible on the narrow part of the peninsula.

We checked into the Shark Bay Caravan Park in Denham which is about 25km from Monkey Mia.  There is a caravan park at Monkey Mia but reports I had was that it was run down and expensive.  The advantage was it’s close to the dolphin feeding experience but is a long way from any town conveniences.  This park is ok though and a hop step and jump from town, restaurants and pubs.  We went to the Shark Bay Discovery Centre which is also the Visitor Centre to buy tickets to the Dolphin Experience at Monkey Mia.  No such luck.  Their sign on the window says they sell tickets, but there is another sign inside that says they don’t!!  So we asked and “no” they don’t.  They can just tell you the price!!!!! You have to get them at Monkey Mia.

So off we went to see what the situation is for the feeding tomorrow.  This place was completely renovated in 2014 and is really nice.  Like Denham where we are staying, the grounds are sand and shells.  But the building is fairly new and there is nice café inside.

The dolphin feeding is only in the morning, and you need to be here at 7.00am.  I walked out to the viewing area and there was a dolphin swimming in the shallows.  The picture didn’t come out too well, but his fin is just visible.

On the way back to the caravan, we stopped at a church made of shells.  Interesting.  It looked like a block wall church but on closer inspection, the blocks are shells.  Apparently, there is a beach nearby; aptly named Shell beach; where they mine the blocks.

As I write this the wind is about 60Km per hour, so we are now inside. Also, it is about 19 degrees. A bit chilly but with the wind it is feeling less than that. Just checked and there is a gale warning currently for here. Joy!

 Just then the wind gusted and blew the top hatch right open. Around midnight it is going to be about 70Kmph and then easing off for 60kmph and 15 degrees in the morning when we are at Monkey Mia along with thunderstorms and rain. Welcome to winter!!

 As Bette Davis said “hang onto your hats. You’re in for a bumpy ride!”

Up early in the morning.  We have to leave here by 6.30am to be in Monkey Mia.

 

Day 50 (9 Jun) – Monkey Mia

Last night was atrocious.  There was a gale wind warning and we had it all.  Wind was blowing so hard the caravan was being severely buffeted.  We had thunder and rain throughout the night too.  This morning we had an early start for the 7.45 dolphin experience show at Monkey Mia which was a 30 minute drive from where we are staying.  It was a bit concerning driving on these roads before dawn with kangaroos and emus around, but we were lucky and didn’t see any.

We got to the dolphin experience at 6.45.  We were told to be there by 7.00am but no one turned up until well after 7.00am.  It was a miserable morning, really strong biting wind.  The water was really rough too.  By the time the dolphins show was to begin, there were no dolphins visible.  You couldn’t see through the water it was so murky and I was sceptical the dolphins would show up in these rough seas.  We hung around for about an hour after the appointed time but nothing.

On the way back to the caravan we dropped into Little Lagoon.  A nice place with picnic tables but not for us today in this weather. 

We drove along the road to Francois Peron National Park, but the sandy track was wet after last night’s rain.  Although the road was open to Cape Peron (42km) we didn’t want to risk the bad roads.  So we went into Denham and stopped at the jetty for a view.  This side of the peninsula was a bit calmer being sheltered.

Back to the caravan after that as the wind just made it unbearable.

Off to Kalbarri tomorrow for two nights.  Getting closer to Perth now and the weather is forecast to be miserable for the next 4 or 5 days.  Bummer.

Helen’s Highlights / Minnie’s Musings

A cold and miserable day today. I went for a walk into the town centre which is very pleasant. It was so windy it was difficult keeping my footing as I was walking. Very disappointed not to be able to see the dolphins up close. We could see the occasional dolphin fin, but they didn’t want to come up into the wild wind and I can’t blame them.

Day 51 (10 Jun) – Denham to Kalbarri

After we left Denham, we stopped about 60km down the road at Shell Beach.  The beach is all shells and further along from where we were, was the remains of the shell block cutting factory that used to produce blocks for houses and the old church we saw yesterday.  The sign at the beach said there is about 4,000 cockle shells per square metre and the shell depth is about 9 metres.  Fascinating.

The drive to Kalbarri was about 4 hours and when we got there it was bucketing down as we set up our camp.  Seems the rain and wind are following us down the coast.  Kalbarri was clobbered by a cyclone a couple of months back and signs of the damage are still visible.  Kalbarri is on the banks of the Murchison River and would be stunning on a nice sunny day without the mud flowing down the river.

We went to the visitors’ centre for some info on Kalbarri National Park which we will visit tomorrow.