Carnarvon, WA, Australia

Day 72 – Victoria’s Great Ocean Road is a fantastic spectacle but it pales by comparison to the rugged and angry coastline here around Carnarvon. The Indian Ocean pounds the coast with tremendous ferocity and we were lucky enough to see it on another great day out.

From Carnarvon, where we arrived after a days drive from Coral Bay, we ventured a further 70 km to Quobba Point to look at the blowholes. What an amazing sight, we tried to get there right on high tide as we’d been told this was the best time and on arriving were pleased to see the blowhole and the surrounding cliffs shooting up some pretty special jets of water. Typically, we took about a million photos and in the process managed to get everything we owned wet and covered in salt but we were happy all the same.

Not far from the blowholes is a small camping area, similar to those we saw at Cape Range National Park and after a short walk on the beach where the water was surprisingly well sheltered from the raging ocean by a reef, we ate lunch on the tailgates of the utes. Merryn decided that she would venture into the water, for perhaps the last snorkel of the trip and after donning wetsuit and flippers, found her way into the protection of a small cliff where she and Lyn had spotted “thousands of fish”.

I must have missed the signal. I was waiting for Merryn to indicate whether it was worth going in or not and although she tells me she waved to us, none of us noticed. Three-quarters of an hour later, after we’d watched her swim back and forth and back and forth, out she came raving about how good it was! Never mind, I had a nice cup of coffee…

After the “best snorkelling”, we headed back to the blowhole. Now with the tide lower and still going out, the water jets were huge and the breaking waves enormous. Another zillion photos later and we’re all covered in salt again. Lyn and I even have wet shoes and feet after being caught by a particularly large wave that washed up well past our feet. We had no choice but to stand still and hope we weren’t knocked over.

There were some monster waves amongst what we saw today and every time we looked away from the water and up the coast a little, there was another huge wave at some other point. Acting a little like storm chasers, we drove up and down the coast looking for the biggest wave to photograph and I can tell you there were some doozies.

Carnarvon hasn’t been too interesting yet but Quobba Point has made up for it, there’s no doubt about it.

Day 73 – Leaving Carnarvon today and we’ll squeeze in a look at the jetty before we go. Carnarvon’s jetty is 1 mile long, the longest jetty in Western Australia and interestingly, the first place in the world that loaded livestock! That’s a fact that I didn’t previously know.

We walked the full length of the jetty as it was prior to 1912 at which point they extended the jetty with an angled section. This section is currently under repair so we couldn’t get onto it. Carnarvon had over a hundred ships a year coming into the jetty at one point, being loaded with cattle, sheep and wool from the highly productive Gascoyne region. I can tell you that once you’re out to the end, all you can see is water and the shore. There’s nothing special about the jetty now, just it’s history.

Carnarvon has had an interesting past. It was the place where the survivors of the German raider HSK Kormoran were picked up after the sinking of HMAS Sydney II in 1941 and its claim to fame is that it produces 70% of Western Australia’s winter produce.

After leaving the jetty we drove down Memorial Drive where 645 Palm trees have been planted to commemorate the loss of life on HMAS Sydney II in 1941. The light cruiser was sunk with the loss of all hands after a battle off the coast of WA and wasn’t discovered until 2008. A Cunnington was a sailor on board and we found and photographed his plaque before moving on. Ken, you should look into the family tree to see if he’s related?

Along the way we visited the Stromatolites, something that Patrick has raved about since their last trip. Merryn wasn’t so complimentary about them but we needed to see them all the same. Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding and cementation of sedimentary grains by biofilms of microorganisms. Stromatolites provide ancient records of life on Earth by fossil remains which might date from more than 3.5 billion years ago.

Imagine uninteresting black rocks in the water that if you watch carefully, might blow a bubble!

A more interesting visit was to the Shell Block quarry where large blocks of the compressed shell are cut for building purposes. I didn’t do the walk but Lyn’s photos look good. Take a look for yourself.

I’ve got an earache. I’ve been to the chemist and bought some new special gunk, let’s see how I feel tomorrow.