Date:
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29 – 30/06/2017
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Location:
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Carnarvon (Western Australia)
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Distance Travelled:
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238 km
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Temperature:
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Min:
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3.7
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Max:
|
21.6
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Space capsules launched
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1
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With our departure from Coral Bay, it felt like we had finally begun
wending our way home. Sadly, this also marked the point that we began to once
again turn our minds to “the calendar”.
Oh, the calendar, that malevolent
overlord which enslaves those living in the ‘real world’. Yes, that most morbid
of inventions – designed, I believe (in my caravan induced bohemian state), to
be the ruler of the oppressed masses; having no other purpose than to mark the
days of relentless toil before the wretched hoards are finally permitted take a
few meagre weeks of freedom from work, school or other such drudgery. But alas,
with the weather turning colder, a harsh slap of reality began to occasionally
hit us, unexpectedly, in the face.
[BLAM!
– you’re heading southwards]
Morning dew
on the grass…
[BLAM!
– must be near to home]
Winds picking
up at night…
[BLAM!
– Don’t you have somewhere to be?]
Sure, we hadn’t quite hit the depressing sight of continual grey
skies and stormy weather (actually, most days were still quite lovely), but
signs of our return to the south were slowly beginning to show.
With a sense of urgency starting to creep in, we began to look at
the rest of our itinerary and realised there would have to be a few tweaks here
and there to get us back to Melbourne before time ran out… What am I saying?
Time running out? Huh... That sounds like regular folks… Surely, after all this
time on the road, we weren’t tied to the same constraints as REGULAR FOLKS?
But, indeed, with the school term beckoning (Oh my, won’t that be
a particularly horrendous slap in the face for the boys – four months without
much more than an few times tables and the occasional handful of spelling words….
Ho ho, my sons, remember the joys of homework?), funds dwindling short, and a
new job waiting for me to help us pay for this extraordinary experience we’d
been on; the steady tick tock of our freedom started to make its presence
known.
However, we weren’t done for yet – Oh no! All that was needed were
a few small tweaks to the itinerary, and we would be laughing all the way home.
Our original plan had been to meander our way down to Kalbarri National Park – but hearing tales from fellow travellers and making the most of free WiFi to peruse the Kalbarri website, it had become abundantly clear to us that this was currently not worth the effort. Unfortunately, Kalbarri was closed to the public, as it was undergoing a serious cosmetic overhaul. Board walks were being built and access by road had been cut off. So, while this was unfortunate, it was also a somewhat easy snip to make from the plan.
Over a few nights of research (Thanks Nat!), we settled on heading
a little further down the coast, then turning our wheels inland to check out the
massive mining operation in Kalgoorlie, before hitting the southern coast just
in time for whale Season… but we’ll get to that part of the story soon enough.
… Leaving Coral Bay bright and early, we hugged the coast for as
long as the road would allow us; before veering inland a little to meet up
again with State Highway One. Fortunately, however, our route took us past a
magnificent stop – just off the beaten track – 70km or so north of Carnarvon,
where we could pull off the highway and gawp at the majesty of “The Blowholes”.
These spectacular natural wonders had been eroded into the sides of
the cliff, under the watchful eye of nearby Beagle Hill.
Jumping out of the car, there was a slight nip in the air. But,
with trusty camera in hand we clambered over rocks and all manner of boulders,
to feast our eyes upon the awesome power of the ocean – being forced upwards (at
times more than 20 meters) through narrow gaps and funnels gouged out of the
hard rock.
As we picked our way through the gauntlet of jagged, razor sharp
rock towards the cliff edge, we spied another unexpected and curious treat. The
spray from these blow holes, which had been cast onto the craggy face of the
rocky cliff top, had evaporated time and time again, leaving a thick salty
residue behind. Over many months, the salty residue had formed a shiny, ice-like
crust. Giving many of the craggy rocks the appearance of being taken straight
from a winter wonderland.
Salt
encrusted 'ice pools' at the Blow Holes
Over the course of an hour or so, we all watched the rhythm of the sea pound the cliff face and force its way with immense power through the small fissures that compressed the great weight of the ocean into gushing torrents of water that shot high up into the air.
Water jets
at The Blowhole – 70km north of Carnarvon
Interspersed with cascading salty fountains, we were also
fortunate to spy a number of mother whales and their calves on the horizon.
These great beauties were heading down the coast to a watery creche at the
southern coast of this vast continent.
Whales of
The Blowhole
So many
wonderous sights and such little time…
At this point, dear reader, I feel I should address you directly
about a very important matter. You see, I have no doubt many of you, like me,
will have already pronounced the name of this fair township completely wrong!
With nearly four and a half thousand people making Carnarvon their home, not to
mention the historical significance that this patch of earth played at the
height of the space race (more on that later…), I feel it is only right that I
set you straight now – and give you a lesson in the pronunciation of this town’s
moniker.
Most people, myself most certainly included, will take a look at
the town’s name and simply say to themselves “Carnarvon” – “Car – na – von”…
But oh, no! Should it be so simple – oh no, indeed! Dear reader, if you want to
fit in with the locals, one must abandon all hope of simply applying normal phonetic
rules to this place name, and wrap your head around this:
Give me a “K” (as in Kid)
Give me a “Nah” (like “Far”, but with a ‘N’)
Give me a “Vun” (Like Kiwi heading down to Raglan with
a few mates in their “campah vun”…)
…Yeah, I still don’t get it. But, if you
watch this video – not only will you learn a bucket load about the
town (and it’s claim to fame), but also the news reporter says the town’s name
a few times…
Arriving at Carnarvon (K’nah-vun),
we were met by some of the friendliest campsite owners we’d met on our trip so
far. The receptionist was ready and waiting for us to arrive, before handing us
over to her roving colleague, who directed us to our site as he rode alongside our
trailer on his pushbike. However, he didn’t leave us there. Oh no, he gave
possibly the clearest instructions on how to back our particular trailer into
that particular site. Seriously, it was as if he was in the car and driving it
himself. “Hard Left” he called, “Now, relax the wheel a little…”, “Left… now
straight… yup, a little right… now straight back.” And before I knew it, we had
pulled up perfectly into our site without any fussing or faffing about. It was
like having a GPS, which actually knew how to give helpful instructions.
During our brief time in Carnarvon, we restocked the van,
filled up with water and chucked a few loads of soiled clothes through the
washing machine. Ben and Daniel made friends with some the other travellers
near our site (including a crazy old Chihuahua, with a growth the size of a
tennis ball on its little leg – man, that thing was gross, but the boys played
with it all the same…).
With the camper trailer set up, we jumped back in our trusty
car and zipped down the road to the real reason we had decided to stay a day in
Carnarvon. The main claim to fame of this sleepy little backwater was the important
role Carnarvon played helping to steer a handful of astronauts on their race to
the moon in 1969. You see, during the 1960’s NASA set up a tracking station in
this little corner of the world, to support the Gemini and Apollo space
missions. A satellite station was established here to meet the need for
reliable communications for NASA’s Apollo Moon project. Having been
decommissioned in April 1987, the satellite station no longer hailed the stars
to guide would be astronauts on their way to extra-terrestrial destinations.
But, for a small town of only a handful of residents, the role Carnarvon played
in the space race has been immortalised in a pretty nifty museum.
Carnarvon - Space and
Technology museum
We spent quite a few hours at the Carnarvon Space and
Technology museum; taking in all the history and marvelling at the ‘primitive
technology’ that helped put the first human beings on the moon. Perhaps we had arrived
during the off season, but we practically had the run of the museum to
ourselves. The attendants who greeted us at the ticket desk were incredibly
enthusiastic and certainly enjoyed getting into the spirit of space
exploration. No sooner had we paid our entry fee, we were whisked away to don
space suits and clamber aboard a rocket simulator to experience what it would
have been like to launch into space with a megaton of explosive rocket fuel
strapped to ours back. As we lay there prostrate in the replica command module,
I think the attendant sold the experience a little too well, as Daniel stayed
just long enough to pose for a photo, before legging it out of the capsule
before the door was able to close.
3… 2… 1… BLAST OFF!!
All in all, the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum presented
a heady mix of sci-fi and sci-fact, crossed with set design and atmosphere that
would be well at home in the Rocky Horror picture show. Seriously, by the end
of our time there, if ‘Riff Raff’ of ‘Dr Frank N. Furter’ had jumped out,
wearing shiny silver suits and began belting out a few numbers from the stage
show, I don’t think I would have batted an eye lid. But, all in all, the whole
family had a great time. There were classic arcade games to play, a planetarium
housed inside an inflatable igloo, all manner of space exploration memorabilia,
and science experiments for the enjoyment of young and old. Even the gift shop
was a pleasure palace of things to try on, play with and explore. Seriously, if
you’re passing Carnarvon, drop in and spend a while here!
Carnarvon – Space and Technology
Museum
Arriving back at the campsite, we found that the campsite
owners were firing up their pizza oven this evening in a large shed out back. So,
just after dusk, we converged with other weary traveller, around a gaggle of long
tables, to buy our dinner and take our fill of pizzas. Sure, they weren’t the
best slabs of dough and cheesy topping I’d ever sampled in my life, but they
were served with a smile and were hot – best of all there was no washing up, so
we were more than happy.
Up bright and early the next morning, we went through our
usual pack down routine before hitching the trailer to the car before heading off
to our next destination. There was, however, one more sight to see before
leaving: the historical One Mile Jetty.
Nat dropped the boys and I at the jetty to scope it out, while she quickly popped
to the shops. From afar, the jetty was a sight to behold; a long misshapen arm
of wood, seeming to claw its way out from the land, before spreading a long
rickety finger into the crashing sea. Having visited the Space and Technology
museum yesterday, it seems that not being content with simply aiding the space
race, Carnarvon also had its sights set on deep sea exploration; or at the very
least providing a welcoming place for Captain Ahab to dock after escaping the
white whale.
Wandering down to the pier, we had a quick look around.
There wasn’t a whole lot there to get the boys exploration juices flowing. On
the way, we had a quick rummage around the sand dunes and boardwalks, before arriving
at the mouth of the jetty itself.
Carnarvon boardwalks
Looking around, we found that there was a $5 fee to walk out
on the somewhat thread-bear wharf. Strangely, no one seemed interested in a 3.218km
round trip, particularly as the sea has receded since the jetty was
first built in 1897; with the majority of it being currently suspended over mud
flats and mangroves. With that settled, I put the $5 back in my pocket, and we
turned around to meet up with Nat and head on our way.
One Mile Jetty -
Carnarvon
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