Carnarvon

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We left Denham and headed towards Carnarvon. This gave us the opportunity to stock up on groceries and a few of the other essentials before venturing further North.

We heard they have a Woollies and an IGA. We also read Carnarvon supplies 70% of Western Australia’s winter veggies. So we were hoping to get some really good fresh veggies direct from the growers outlets to last us a few more days than the general supermarket ‘fresh’ produce.

We had read so much about the great Gascoyne food trail but ended up with “sad faces” when told we were just a few weeks ahead of the season. Many of these plantations are situated along the banks of the Gascoyne River where they get their irrigation water from. Although the river looked very dry irrigation water is extracted from below the sand. The river must look spectacular in flood times.

While exploring the “Fruit Loop” plantations trail we saw a field of watermelons being turned over with a tractor. The melons all looked perfectly fine to us and we wondered why this was happening? Curiosity got the better of us, especially Graeme and he could not leave until he found out WHY? He waited until it was safe to ask the tractor operator about the process and the obvious question of why the melons were being slashed. Graeme was blown away with the simple truth that it was not worth sending the melons to market as the grower would be out of pocket. We know this happens with a variety of fruits and vegetables. It is such a shame to see so much good produce being wasted.

We still managed to get some farm fresh eggs and sweet potato from one of the local growers. Even though we missed the mangoe season we enjoyed a delicious mangoe smoothie from Bumbak’s along with some take home frozen mangoe pieces from Gascoyne Bio-Dynamic Plantation. Carnarvon did not have a local butcher so we went out to Pickles Point Seafood & Boatyard and bought some cooked prawns and fresh fish fillets.

Carnarvon Space and Technology museum celebrates the role NASA Carnarvon Tracking Station played in the manned space program in the 60’s and 70’s. For a small fee you can see plenty of NASA memorabilia and the hand prints of Buzz Aldrin who officially opened the museum in 2012. There is an opportunity to take part in a 7 minute simulation of the ‘Apollo Experience’. You will also see the Overseas Telecommunication Commission (OTC) Dish which was used by NASA for relaying communications and data to Houston for the Apollo 11 moon landing.

While in Carnarvon we went to the One Mile Jetty which unfortunately was closed, the sign indicated it was due to unsafe conditions. So instead we decided to have some lunch at Sunsets Cafe which is situated at the One Mile Jetty. Here we enjoyed some delicious salt and pepper squid and chips while looking out over the mangroves to the ocean. This place also has a great little history museum covering the sinking of the HMAS Sydney II during WWII.

Carnarvon has a few cafes, restaurants and boutiques closer to the waterfront which is in a very pretty area along with some nice walking paths.

We stayed at the Wintersun Caravan Park which had great sites, very clean amenities, good camp kitchen and a sparkling blue pool. The days were very hot and it was all that we needed for a couple of nights.

Below are a list of others places we have visited that may be of interest to you:

Cheers

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Happy Aussie Caravanning Lifestyle

Dixie and Graeme