Monday, 16 August
We had a fairly long drive today (365 kms) to Carnarvon. As we left Exmouth, we followed a sea eagle for a short distance along the road near the RAAF base. The road was flat, well surfaced, the first 120 kms were a bit narrow (no fog lines) although once we rejoined the main highway the road widened out again.
The countryside was the usual coastal scrub and red sand virtually the complete distance. However, we did come across our first “proper” wild flower display of creamy everlasting daisies. These small flowers were in swathes across the red dirt and it took a while before we could find somewhere to pull off the road where the daisies were actually flowering. (We have never been so lucky with the Sturt’s desert pea!) It didn’t take long to realise that photos would need to be taken at a very swift speed – I’m sure that ALL the flies in Western Australia suddenly converged on the spot we had stopped!!!
Carnarvon is a small town (approximately 5000) that probably doubles its population during the winter months – we have never seen so many caravan parks in such a small town. Carnarvon is a horticultural area with irrigation water being drawn from the sand of the Gascoyne River. It was really weird to drive along with desert on one side of the road and bananas growing on the other. Tomatoes, avocadoes, melons, paw paws, beans and corn are some of the other plants being grown around here.
We are staying at the Plantation Caravan Park, which is perfectly okay – good, clean amenities, adequate sized grass/gravel site and a banana plantation over the nearby fence. The site we were allocated had an overpowering stench of sewerage from the pump next to the site, so it didn’t take long to ask for an alternative!
This afternoon we collected our mail and cast our votes (we did discover last week that we could have voted at a number of different regional centres but had already arranged for a postal vote). We then visited the One Mile Jetty, which was built in 1897 and extends out into the Indian Ocean for a mile – surprise, surprise! We decided to take the train to the end and return (no rails on the jetty) and saw a big sting ray and a shark (no crocodiles this far south).
We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn this morning and the change in the weather is quite noticeable – only about 24 today and rain is actually forecast for tomorrow. Better than snow though.
We had a fairly long drive today (365 kms) to Carnarvon. As we left Exmouth, we followed a sea eagle for a short distance along the road near the RAAF base. The road was flat, well surfaced, the first 120 kms were a bit narrow (no fog lines) although once we rejoined the main highway the road widened out again.
The countryside was the usual coastal scrub and red sand virtually the complete distance. However, we did come across our first “proper” wild flower display of creamy everlasting daisies. These small flowers were in swathes across the red dirt and it took a while before we could find somewhere to pull off the road where the daisies were actually flowering. (We have never been so lucky with the Sturt’s desert pea!) It didn’t take long to realise that photos would need to be taken at a very swift speed – I’m sure that ALL the flies in Western Australia suddenly converged on the spot we had stopped!!!
Carnarvon is a small town (approximately 5000) that probably doubles its population during the winter months – we have never seen so many caravan parks in such a small town. Carnarvon is a horticultural area with irrigation water being drawn from the sand of the Gascoyne River. It was really weird to drive along with desert on one side of the road and bananas growing on the other. Tomatoes, avocadoes, melons, paw paws, beans and corn are some of the other plants being grown around here.
We are staying at the Plantation Caravan Park, which is perfectly okay – good, clean amenities, adequate sized grass/gravel site and a banana plantation over the nearby fence. The site we were allocated had an overpowering stench of sewerage from the pump next to the site, so it didn’t take long to ask for an alternative!
This afternoon we collected our mail and cast our votes (we did discover last week that we could have voted at a number of different regional centres but had already arranged for a postal vote). We then visited the One Mile Jetty, which was built in 1897 and extends out into the Indian Ocean for a mile – surprise, surprise! We decided to take the train to the end and return (no rails on the jetty) and saw a big sting ray and a shark (no crocodiles this far south).
We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn this morning and the change in the weather is quite noticeable – only about 24 today and rain is actually forecast for tomorrow. Better than snow though.
2 comments:
We are on the Tropic of Capricorn at Emerald
Love the wildflowers, beautiful!
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