3 March 2000
An emu casually crossing the main street and stopping the traffic? Now there's something you don't see every day! But we saw it this morning in Exmouth. Actually, Exmouth is not a bad little town. It's a lot newer than the other coastal towns we've seen lately (although just as drab - just in a more modern way). It's not a mining town, but was established in 1967 as a support town for a US naval communications installation. It does, however, have some natural and man-made attractions around it that set it apart from some of the other towns we've seen lately. Not the least of these are the wonderful surf beaches on the Indian Ocean. White sand (although a little coarse), dark blue ocean, large waves (well, medium size) rolling over and crashing white on the shore. Warm water and warm wind. Lovely! Also a lighthouse high on a hill. A coat of white paint to make it sparkle in the sun rather than letting it just be the grey concrete colour it is would be nice. We were told it was going to be restored, but a coat of paint in the meantime would really show it off (and it wouldn't cost very much). The view from the lighthouse hill up and down the coast is splendid. Also on the hill is a WW2 observation post or gun emplacement (at least that's what it appears to be - I don't know what else it could have been). The sand bags that make it up have been there so long they have been turned to concrete by the weather. A little further south along the coast and only 100 metres off shore is the wreck of the SS Mildura. It can be clearly seen, and its old rusty boilers plainly discerned.
When we returned from the point, the town had received very heavy rain (although we didn't have any out on the coast) and as we drove back up the highway to the turnoff to Shothole Canyon all the floodways had water flowing in them (some quite deep). The road out to Shothole Canyon was as a result quite boggy and slippery, but the 20 km drive was well worth it in terms of the grandeur of the gorge we drove along. Unfortunately we couldn't get into Charles Knife Gorge, but we were able to drive out along the road of the same name to Thomas Carter lookout and look down into a number of other gorges along the way. Rugged and spectacular, all of them.
Before we rejoined the main highway to Carnarvon we saw a turnoff to a place called Coral Bay. As it was only 14 kms out of our way we went out to have a look. What a take! Although the place itself is quite pretty, all that's there is a resort and tourist activities but the thing that really got up my nose is that they were charging $1.13 a litre for petrol!. Bloody robbers!. Although we were short on fuel and one of the reasons we went out there was to top up I refused to pay $1.13 and so took it easy to the Minilya Roadhouse on the highway and got it for $1.06 a litre, which is about the going rate at the roadhouses. So if they are charging $1.13 for petrol at coral Bay, imagine how much they are ripping off their guests in other areas. But then I suppose they are just as much at fault for paying it.
The rest of the drive from Exmouth to Carnarvon was eneventful except for the number of storms we counted as they built up around us on the drive from the Coral Bay turnoff to the Minilya Roadhouse. At one stage we counted thirteen separate thunderheads in a ninety degree angle from over our left shoulders to straight ahead. Lightning was coming from all of these and a number of them merged to form two huge storm fronts on either side of us. We were fortunate that the road went between them rather than through them so that we escaped the worst of their effects.
Got into Carnarvon around 6:15 p.m. and will look around tomorrow. Will probably remain here into the early part of next week, then on to Geraldton.
By the way, 2 February 2000 (2/2/2000) is the first day since 28 August 888 (28/8/888) to be written with all even digits. The last all-odd-digit day was 19 November 1999 (19/11/1999); the next one will be 1 January 3111 (1/1/3111). Interesting, huh?