4 March 2000
Forgot to mention in yesterday's notes we again crossed the Tropic of Capricorn not long before we reached the Minilya Roadhouse. This put us at the same degree of latitude (but on the other side of the country) as Rockhampton on the eastern seaboard.
Carnarvon is quite a pretty little place situated on the Gascoyne River - a very nice looking body of water. Not too much to see around town (although plenty of bananas growing - even a huge yellow fibreglass one, "The Big Banana" - hadn't realized this was a banana growing area). Went to Mazda dealer to pick up blinker lens (it hadn't arrived, but plane hadn't yet come in with this mornings deliveries). While there tried to make booking for road worthiness inspection for registration of ute. Fortunately inspector was there and was able to do it while we waited (it passed). Which was just as well as Monday is a public holiday in WA (Labour Day), which we didn't know. While ute was being inspected, blinker lens arrived. So everything worked out well and we can be out of here tomorrow.
After finishing with Mazda dealer looked around town and checked out local beaches. Quite nice: small surf, clean whitish sand (a little coarse), clear, blue, warm water. Was amused to see name of beach was "Dog Beach", but a sign adjacent said "No Dogs Allowed".
Afterwards back-tracked 24 kms and headed out 50 kms to the coast to see (among other things) the monument to the crew of HMAS Sydney which was lost with all hands in WW2 in 1941 in a battle with the German raider Kormoran off the coast near here. There always was (and still is) a lot of mystery surrounding the sinking of the Sydney, as there were no survivors (but 80 German sailors from the Kormoran survived and reached shore), as far as I know only two Australian bodies were ever found (these were washed up on Christmas Island some weeks later, I think) and there was no (or very little) wreckage from the Sydney.
The coastline in that area is just magnificent with Point Quobba having a wonderful protected lagoon area which is noted for its swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving and underwater photography potential. The water here is green, not blue. Away from Point Quobba the cliffs are high and drop away steeply to the Indian Ocean pounding its green rollers into white foam at their bases. There is a scenic drive which runs right along the cliff tops, to within a few metres of the edge in places. It is quite rough in parts and again the ute's high clearance and 4WD got us through some deep sandy parts we otherwise would not have got through. There is a large salt operation in the area with a huge white hill of salt stockpiled on Cape Cuvier. Just past the cape at the foot of the cliffs is the wreck of the Korean Star. Unfortunately, signposting in the area leaves a lot to be desired and although we had a map supplied by the local tourist bureau it was still difficult finding some of the sites of interest.
Got back into Carnarvon around 6:00 p.m.
Off to Geraldton tomorrow, 480 kms further south. Not too many places to detour to. Don't think we'll go up to Denham and Monkey Mia - too commercialized. Kalbarri looks more interesting.