Millewa and north to Carnarvon

March 30 Monday.

With all phone calls and emails in from where we want to go , weather forecast telling us rain for next 3-4 days, our travels have to change directions a little. The river is not going down anytime soon so we head west to North West Coastal Hwy.
Before leaving Millewa we find an engineer to weld our caravan step bracket that is tearing at the bolt holes, things don't come in singles with us our microwave stopped working too. Not that we use much as we generally do not have power to run it, but I was preparing meals for a few days while we did have 240 volt power ,not just 12 volt from our solar and batteries, using it for thawing and making sauces quickly. This will not be replaced until we get back to places that have more than a dozen shops.
We head to Geraldton, stopping there only for fuel, bread and milk. With a lot of panicking, at the tight turns in for fuel, having to go around the block twice ,as some pumps closed because they are running out of fuel. We ended up coming in from wrong direction to get to diesel pump. Yes it was me panicking, Larry getting snappy with all, but we did get our fuel 8cents a litre off.
 
 
We head north past Kalbarri [ we have been there before] and stop beside the river in a 24hour rest stop. This is the Murchison river and it is very full and flowing, we would have had to cross this upstream on a dirt road if we were still going the other way. This way we have a big road bridge that crosses it. 

 
 
Tuesday 31 march
Up early no walking as the flies are so bad we are wearing head nets, the flies have all hatched because of cyclone. Travelling towards Shark Bay stopping at another 24 hour rest stop Narren Narren rest area and playing with our sp;ar tele dish. Larry getting good at lining this up.
Up early again going to Overlander Roadhouse with their phone reception ,as we have to ring for a permit to camp in the Shark bay conservation area on the day you wish to camp. Because they have some space as the Easter and school holiday lot don’t arrive for a couple days, we are allowed a permit for a couple of days. 24 hours a permit is the norm. School holidays here starts the day before Easter.
We are to camp at Eagle Bluff on the area below the bluff and beside ocean and a little inlet.
We are the only caravan in here but do get camper-vans with backpackers in with us, and some men catching these little fish for bait. A fishery and wildlife man arrives and checks their permits to catch these fish and checks us for fish, as if i'm going to catch baby fish to catch bigger fish.
 
 
On the way into our camp spot we stop at Shell beach and Hamelin pool with the Stromatolites, we saw these 11 years ago, things have changed a little.
Stromatolites of the Hamelin pool marine & nature reserve are the oldest living fossils on earth. They are colonies of micro-organisms that look exactly like fossils found that are 3.5 billion years old, but these are alive. They grow here because of the extra salty water and the calcium bicarbonate in it and the limited circulation of water.
Shell beach is made of shells of the Hamelin cockle. In the past large amounts of shells settled on the shoreline ,many metres deep, rain washing through the shells caused them to cement together. Early settlers cut blocks from the cemented shells and used them as building blocks. The quarry is still here as are some of the buildings of shell blocks in Hamelin station, Nanga Bay and Denham.
We did not go into Monkey Mia and only passed through Denham.
Denham population 800 and is Australian western most town and grew out of the pearling settlement. Found by Captain Dirk Hartog of a Dutch trading ship, the area was charted in 1858 by Captain h H Denham. 1860 brought the pastoralists. 1870 the pearling started and now it is manly tourism and fishing.


We drive up to Eagle bluff lookout and walk along the walkway . Looking down onto the indian ocean we find sharks from 2- 4 metres we think are lemon sharks, eagle rays, cow tail rays , bull rays and loggerhead turtles. The second time up here the next day we see a tiger shark about 5 metres long with another shark , not known what , swimming beside him .All the rays we were watching left when this shark arrived.



 
We also visited Whalebone bay and Goulet bluff but no sign of marine life only from Eagle bluff.


Shark Bay is a world heritage area and in 1990 the state government of WA purchased Peron station at the tip making the Peron Peninsula National park. A fence was put across the narrowest point of the peninsula and all feral animals removed such as foxes, wild cats , goats, rabbits. Project Eden started to put back native animals like the Shark bay mouse, Banded hare wallaby, rufus hare wallaby, western barred bandicoot, some birds like the white winged fairy wren, sandhilll frog. Only a few survive on peninsula now with some still living on 2 islands off shore.


We did not find the thorny devil lizard that is here, and to the north, but we did find a couple of other lizards. A lozenge marked dragoon and another member of the ctenophorus dragons.


It is time to leave here and head towards Carnarvon, with a stop for lunch at Gladstone Lookout , good scenery and wild goats. We stop for the night at another 24 rest area before arriving in Carnarvon for 4 days. 


We are here to get fuel, restock food and water, check both the van and car as we are heading first to Ningaloo station for a few days then into Cape Range national park on the same peninsular as Exmouth. All surrounded by the Ningaloo marine park. We will be here for a couple of weeks to try and see the coral spawning.

Carnarvon was hit by a cyclone 3 weeks ago and lost all its bananas with the plants all broken . This area produces most of the bananas for WA and is a large mango, bean, tomato, melon grapes and citrus growing area. There is also prawn and scallop fishing .
 
 
We go for a walk along the one mile jetty, but first walk 2.5 km along old rail track out to the jetty, which is now a nature walk. The jetty built 1897 is one of the southern hemispheres longest jetty. A steam train used to run from town out to the jetty and then along jetty to off load and load from ships. It crosses the Gascoyne river mouth and mangrove mud flats. There are signs of the cyclone like the very muddy ocean close to shore, some of the side rail is missing and the very last bit is closed on the jetty. The jetty looks like it was in a very run down state before the cyclone as the wooden beams and planks we are walking on are very rotted and unsafe. We did find some mangrove crabs amongst the mud.



Some of the trees in town and the row of palms along the beach have all suffered damage. The Gascoyne river that gives the fruit and veg growers of the area water via bores under it. It is in flood this is unusual as it is usually a dry river bed with underground water protected from evaporation by the sand. It is 830kms long and is the other river stopping us going to MT. Augustus.


Today we went out to the blow holes and point Quobba as there is a beach which is sheltered by the coral reef. As long as you watch what you are doing you can snorkel in the bay , but high tide would be a problem as there can be king waves around here. We went snorkelling and found more fish and coral alive than we thought would be here after the cyclone. Tomorrow is shopping , and washing day before we leave. 


We tried the banana bread the growers association is making from damaged bananas . They are freezing bananas , making bread and freezing it then sending to supermarkets. They say they have enough fruit for 10 months bread making , which is the time it will take to get the next crop. They had to get money some how to get new plants going. Bread very nice if alittle sweet, $6.99 loaf.