Weeks 14-15 – Coral Bay – Carnarvon – Quobba – The Bluff

On the way to Coral Bay we stopped off at the Krait – Potshot memorial just outside of Exmouth. This memorial celebrates the point where the Krait left Australian waters in her successful raid on Singapore Harbour in World War 2. The Potshot celebrates the U.S. involvement in Exmouth as they built a huge naval listening station which still exists. The U.S. forces actually built the town of Exmouth and the airport which is still operating today. They chose this area to fortify the north of Australia against invasion during WW2.

What is the most numerous animal in Australia?  I don’t know but it has to possibly be termites as there are thousands of them, some with many millions of termites in each.

Coral Bay was beautiful. A protected beach with a fringing reef. Actually the southern part of the Ningaloo Reef. The weather was very windy for our whole stay of 3 days with big swells out on the reef. Coral Bay is basically one huge caravan park. The shops and restaurant/pub are all part of the same park. The water here is very salty though so we didn’t hook up the van to the tap, just used our tank water for drinking. The showers in the park were like having a shower in salt water.

We went for some drives up and down the coast on very rough 4WD tracks. The track to 5 finger reef was very sandy with deep wheel tracks. The Pathy was great though and cruised through the tracks with her tyre pressures low. It’s a bit of a worry though as the tracks are so isolated. There may be no-one on them all day to help if you get in trouble.

The reef is very pretty with deep aqua colours on the inside. The marine life is awesome with lots of fish, shells, clams and turtles.

The weather was windy so we went north the next day to Bruboodjoo. This track was about 40km and we visited some isolated beaches along the way. One beach where Nanna was finding lots of shells, there was a whale carcass. It must have been very big as the ribs were huge.

 Pa flew the drone out to the reef as the tide was too low for diving.

Pa had a snorkel along the reef at Coral Bay in the afternoon and took lots of photos on the GoPro.

Later that day we lined up to feed the fish. This happens every three days and the blue spangled emperor fish are huge. They swim right up to your feet and brush against your legs. It was amazing! Sure beats the fish feeding in Darwin.

We headed to Carnarvon as the weather turned a bit nasty. It actually rained for the first time since we left home on May 2^nd. The rain didn’t last long though, about 5 minutes, just enough to show that our new windscreen had a leak! The wildflowers are just starting to appear beside the road with colourful sprays of purple, white, yellow and red blooms.

The van park at Carnarvon was very nice with green grass! Something we haven’t seen for a long time. The water here is very clean and pure. It is fed into the town from the Gascoyne River. Not the actual water in the river but water from below the ground under the river. We filled our tanks up as we are headed for Quobba next and there will be no water.

Carnarvon has a really good memorial for the sailors who lost their lives in the sinking of the HMAS Sydney II in World War 1. 80km offshore from Carnarvon, the Sydney came across a ship and, when they approached to check it out, the ship fired on the Sydney. The ship was a German ship, the Kormoran. Both ships were sunk but the only survivors were Germans who came ashore north of Carnarvon in life boats before being arrested by local police. 645 sailors lost their lives on the Sydney and they have their own plaques along the seawall in Carnarvon.

Carnarvon is where the Gascoyne River reaches the sea and was a major export centre in the past century for sheep and cattle. A huge jetty was built in the early 1900s to allow ships to take these to markets south in Perth and beyond. Unfortunately the jetty is currently closed as it is dangerous. It would make an excellent tourist attraction if it was restored, which the locals are trying to convince the govt to do.

We visited the Carnarvon Space and Technology Centre. This centre played a huge role in the Apollo missions as the telemetry was routed through this centre. Carnarvon was in the exact location to confirm a “go – no-go” for the lunar module separation on Apollo 11. This centre was also a major part of Australia’s early satellite communications network. The very first international live TV broadcast from Australia to England happened here. It was a great visit and we got to fly in the Apollo simulator as well as try our hands at landing the space shuttle!

Carnarvon is a major agriculture centre with farms all around the river. We took a drive around the farms and bought lots of fresh veggies. We even bought frozen chocolate bananas and strawberries.  Nanna also found a horse – of course!

We left Carnarvon and headed for Quobba Station. Quobba is north of Carnarvon but we will have no power or water for the next four days so we had to visit Carnarvon first to fill up with water. On the way to Quobba we visited the blowholes.

There is another memorial to the Sydney II here at Quobba as this is where the Germans landed in their boats.

The coast around Quobba is wild and rocky. It is a fisherman’s paradise with big fish (pelagic) able to be caught from the rocks. We drove down lots of 4WD tracks to visit beaches.

Nanna found lots of corals and shells. The clam shells are everywhere.

The next day we headed 50km up the 4WD track to Red Bluff. Here there is a fantastic surf break on the headland. Unfortunately when we got there there was no swell so Pa was unhappy. The headland is awesome though. It is made up of sandstone and limestone which is made entirely from coral reefs millions of years ago. The fossils in the rocks are everywhere.

 We went for a walk along the bluff. The water is so aqua and it is a brilliant dive spot.

When we got back Nanna went for another fossick along the beach and made some shell pictures. She also added to her shell collection.

We left Quobba as the forecast was for no swell for the next week or two – figures!

We stayed at a free camp at Wooramel Station on the Wooramel River. It rained heavily as we got there and the Pathy and caravan were covered in thick gooey mud. The rain didn’t last long but it cooled down. This was definitely the coldest day since we left in May.

The stay was quite nice though and we lit a fire to cook some marshmallows.

The next day we headed for Denham on Shark Bay. Along the way we saw lots of wildflowers growing at the sides of the road. We stopped a few times so Nanna could take some photos.