Carnarvon 19th to 21st August

At the Tropic of Capricorn

Road side stop between Karijini and Carnarvon

At the start of walking the One Mile Jetty

Beach view from the One Mile Jetty

We made it to as far as we could go. The end of it was fenced off as it had been burnt.

Trying to balance along the rail tracks of the One Mile Jetty

BIG Humpty Dumpty

View along the cliff line from the Blow holes

One of the many whale shots of them having a play in front of us

Louise and the blowhole

Jacob and the blow hole

Hannah and the blow hole

Another of the cliff line near blow holes

Emu we found going further up the coastal blow hole road.

We left Karijini and headed for Carnarvon via a road side stay. We were looking forward to arriving at Carnarvon and setting up camp so that we could have a well deserved shower (it had been 6 days since our last shower) and catch up on some washing. Before setting up camp we visited an Upholster who was able to replace our zip ($5). This meant we would now be able to zip up our tent at night and secure the door with it being a little warmer with the door closed. We were all down to our last set of underwear and clothes. Once freshened up we headed down to visit the Visitor Centre and have a look around the town. The day we arrived was spent just catching up on everything. I was still doing washing at 9.30 that night.
Tea that night we joined other park patrons at a Park Mystery Dinner. You of course didn't know what the dinner was going to be (that is why it is called Mystery). There was also some entertainment with a guy (from Moe) singing Australian ballads and country music. This was a great time to chat to a number of the other park patrons, with us sitting next to a couple from Germany. They told us that the parents aren't allowed to take kids out of school at all, not even the last day of a term to go on holidays early. It is a good thing that we are not in Germany then!! There was also a door raffle prize with both Louise and Hannah winning one each (so we donated one back into the raffle). The bag of goodies was full with a hat, stubby holder, lanyards, lollies and stickers all in a recycled shopping bag from the area. So this was pretty good to come away with this.
Our first full day in Carnarvon we took the kids around the Gascoyne Food Trail, which involved visiting the local farms to see some of their produce and purchase some goodies. The food was FRESH and tasted YUMMY. The kids tried some star fruit (not all that keen) and some fresh banana's (they do have so much more flavour). We saw an unexpected BIG Humpty Dumpty to Hannah's excitement. The kids then spent time guessing what the different crops were. We visited a farm where they purchased some frozen mango and a chocolate dipped banana and mango's on sticks. Strick then took us off track, where we found some Emu's who decided it was fun to run up the track in front of the car (I think the kids thought it was funnier).
The afternoon saw us walking out on the One Mile Jetty (much to Hannah's disgust as she wanted to take the train). We walked out today and promised the kids we would bring them out to have a go on the train the next day. To walk or take the train on the Jetty wasn't free. To walk cost Strick and I $5 each and to take the train was $10 adult's and $5 for kids. We saw a large number of people fishing, but again today they didn't seem to be having much luck.
Our second day at Carnarvon saw us drive about 60km north to the Blowholes. This was magnificent as when we got there we got 2 different spectacular sightings. One being the blowholes, but two we saw whales that were quite close to the cliffs and were jumping out of the water and splashing their fins. The whales for a while took away from the blowholes. We then drove further up the coast along the cliff line to see if we could see anymore. We saw a large number of them for the few hours we were there.
Heading back into Carnarvon we stopped off at one of the farms and got the kids a long awaited fruit smoothie. Jacob and Louise of course a Mango and Hannah a Banana smoothie (and of course I had to try the banana too). They were YUMMO with the fresh fruit. The kids also purchased some Mango jam and Banana jam. This then filled the kids enough that we didn't need to find them any lunch for awhile.
The afternoon saw us try and take the kids on the train on the One Mile Jetty, only it wasn't operating because of the RAIN and it was really windy on the jetty. So we decided we would try again in the morning before we left Carnarvon for Exmouth. So instead of riding the train we went to stock up on groceries and the girls and I had a look through a few shops while Jacob and Strick went and bought themselves a fishing rod (hoping to catch us some fresh fish).
Before we left Carnarvon we went via the One Mile Jetty again to try for a train ride. This time the driver was held up because his wife was sick so it wasn't starting til 11am. So as a pacifier the kids and I had a drink and wrote on postcards, while Strick did a few jobs. We also promised Hannah that we would try again on our way back through Carnarvon on our way back down South. We eventually got out of Carnarvon and headed for Exmouth.