Quobba Point

Today we ventured on a mini adventure north of Carnarvon to Quobba Point to check out the blowholes and the amazing Indian Ocean coast. The rugged coast just north of Quobba Point has produced a spectacular set of blowholes where the action of the waves produce a water spout some 30 metres or more high.

Indian Ocean rugged coast

Quobba Blowholes

After taking a gazillion photos of the water shooting into the air, while making sure I kept my camera dry we headed down along the road a bit and came to a little shack village at the Blowholes campsite. I would say these very basic shacks are where the locals come on their holidays, but today it looked like a ghost town.

Then we headed north to Quobba Station. It is a working pastoral station with some 80 kms of coastline and runs about 10000 damaras, which are a South African breed of sheep. The coastline along this west coast was nothing short of spectacular. It is one of the only places in Australia where you can do deep sea fishing from the coastline. Although it's on an extremely rugged cliff top and in my opinion a bit dangerous!! I did take myself on a little walk over the rocks to a tiny little beach. To my enjoyment it was covered on lots of shells and heaps of coral. I just couldn't resist and pick up some, but I did limit myself to two.

A Day in Carnarvon

Carnarvon is known for its Banana Plantations, Tropical Fruits, Fine Seafood and Warm Climate. It is situated in the Gascoyne Region and lies at the mouth of the Gascoyne River on the Indian Ocean. So today we headed out to check out some of what Carnarvon has to offer. First point of call was the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum. The museum has two parts - the Carnarvon Tracking Station and the OTC Satellite Earth Station, each station playing separate roles in the early space industry. The Carnarvon Tracking Station was built to support NASA's Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs. It was commissioned in 1964 and operated for 11 years. It was the last station to communicate with the space capsule leaving the earths orbit, and the last to make contact before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Scoop Antenna

The OTC Satellite Earth Station was opened in 1966. On 21 July 1969, the day Apollo 11 moon landing, the Casshorn Antenna relayed Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon from NASA's Honey Suckle Creek Tracking Station to Perth TV audience - the first live telecast into Western Australia. 

Our was dwarfed by the huge dish



OTC Satellite Dish

Next we headed off to check out some of the produce farm shops. After filling up our bags with fresh bananas, corn, cucumber, tomatoes, eggs and enjoying a passionfruit ice-cream we sat down at River Gum Cafe to share a Ham Cheese Toastie and scone, jam and cream. All in all it was a pretty yummy day.

 

 

 

Ningaloo Marine Park

As I have mentioned Coral Bay is situated on the edge of a Coral Reef, known as Ningaloo Marine Park. To protect this unique resource, the Ningaloo Marine Park was declared in 1987 and encompasses about 224,000 hectares of State controlled waters and about 700km squared of Commonwealth waters. This reef is unique because it is one of only two coral reefs in the world that have formed on the western side of a continental land mass. This marine park is home to 200 species of hard coral, 50 soft coral and over 500 species of fish. The reef is also home to Manta rays, Turtles, Humpback Whales and is only one of two places in the world where the Whaleshark regularly visit.
In June 2011 Ningaloo Marine Park was listed as a World Heritage Area. World Heritage listing recognises the outstanding universal value of the area's diverse and abundant marine life, it's amazing cave fauna and the spectacular contrast between the colourful underwater scenery and the arid and rugged land of the Cape Range.
This morning Shane and I went out on a glass bottomed boat to check out this amazing reef up close. Most people have heard of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, on Australia's East Coast. I have also experienced the reef there and they are very different. Great Barrier Reef is very colourful and is mostly soft coral due to the large amount of water flowing over it. With Ningaloo Reef most of the reef is sheltered so it doesn't have the bright colours, but the coral formations are huge with some beautiful coloured fish.


Raccoon Fish swim amongst the coral

Purple Haze




Sweet Lip / Snapper - oh if only you could fish here!!

 

Looking at one of the huge corals from above the water.

This one is known as Ayers Rock.

 



 

Cabbage Coral

Blue Skies and Seas at Coral Bay

Today started out as a fairly calm day with the wind only being a slight breeze. I checked the wind app on Shane's phone and noticed it was going to pick up again in the afternoon/evening so thought it best if I go for my venture to Bill's Bay and Paradise Beach early. Hows that for a name of a beach Paradise Beach!! Even though there were quite a lot of people playing on the beach and doing some snorkeling I was still able to find some locations where I was the only one on my little piece of beach. I am still amazed at  the beautiful colour of the water in this part of Australia. It is the brightest, clearest turquoise I have ever seen. It's now 4.00pm and yes the wind has once again picked up so I am sheltering inside Myrtle.

Aptly named Paradise Beach!!

 

Due to it's location, Coral Bay relied on diesel generators for it's electricity, which meant high costs and a reliance on importing fuel into the region. In 2007 these three wind turbines were constructed. They now produce 45% of Coral Bay's electricity requirements which save 440,000 litres of diesel fuel each year. If a cyclone threatens the town, the turbines can be lowered to prevent damage. The power lines to distribute the electricity in town are underground.

 

Three huge wind turbines overlook the ocean



Other than that my day has been fairly quiet but was made much better as I spoke to both my kids Shane and Rachel. Even though I am having the trip of a lifetime and enjoying my lifestyle, I still really miss my kids and beautiful grandchildren Clare, O'Shea and Mikayla. I'm sure I mentioned it but my son Shane and his partner Stacey are due to have my fourth grand baby mid December. I can't quite believe in 2 1/2 years I will have gone from no grandchildren to four. How lucky am I?

 I'll say it again I LOVE my LIFE.

 

Note: Don't forget to leave me a comment to go into the draw for one of my pieces of jewellery.

 

Exmouth to Coral Bay

Another short drive again today, about 180kms. The road between Exmouth and Coral Bay wasn't a major road and a bit narrower than some, but still a good road. We got about 30kms out of Exmouth and saw some vehicles up ahead. At first we thought it may have been a Police Booze Bus. But as we got closer we realized it was a car accident. Not sure how it had happened as there appeared to be only one vehicle towing some sort of trailer. The trailer could have been some sort of camper but it was so smashed up it was hard to tell what it was. The car was on it's roof. Some helpers had set up a shade cover on the side of the road and I saw one woman lying down. I am amazed anyone survived the crash as the roof of the car was totally flattened. Being a fellow traveller it really put us on edge and really took our time for the rest of our journey. it just shows how quickly someones life can change.

The Beach opposite our camp

Coral Bay is a small settlement that lies protected from the Indian Ocean, by the Ningaloo reef. It is Australia's only fringing reef. In contrast to other locations the coral starts right at the waters edge.
The main industries are tourism and fishing.  This small village has a permanent population of only around 200, but during the holiday season it swells to much more. It sort of has the feeling of a surfer town without the surf.

Cape Range National Park

We arrived in Kurrajong Camp Ground in Cape Range National Park early on Tuesday and set up for our four nights there. Our first night we walked to the beach, which was about 80 metres from our camp and watched yet another beautiful sunset.

Sunset at Kurrajong, Cape Range NP

Wednesday morning we woke to gale force winds, clouds and a couple of drops of rain. I haven't felt rain or seen clouds since way back in Alice Springs, which was about 4 months ago. Seeing we couldn't really doing any fishing or snorkeling that we had planned we decided to go for a drive and check out the sights of the national park. I think the only person that was getting good value out of the winds was this wind surfer. He was really great to watch, flying high in the air as the winds lifted him off the water.

 

At least some-one is getting value out of the gale force winds.

At times he actually got very high out of the water

The fury of the ocean!

Wednesday night was not a pleasant night to spend in Myrtle at all. The wind was really wild and noisy and kept us both awake most of the night. On waking on Thursday morning we decided to head back to Exmouth where it was a bit more sheltered. We figured the two things we wanted to do in Cape Range NP was fish and snorkel, and the weather was preventing that, so we may as well leave. Exmouth was a lot better weather and after having an afternoon sleep (from none the previous night) it looked like the wind was mild enough to venture out fishing. So this morning we checked when the tides would be right and headed off to Pebble Beach to do some fishing. There weren't to many fish about although Shane did catch a Garfish. But it was still a beautiful place to spend the afternoon.

Pebble Beach - my question is where did all these pebbles come from?

Tonight we took ourselves out for dinner,

which was extra yummy and tomorrow we head south for Coral Bay.