Lobster Pot Pull Cruise

So before we arrived in Kalbarri the Seagulls had sussed out Kalbarri Rock Lobster Tours & Charters, which happened to have their boat moored about 150m from our caravan sites. They asked if we were interested in the Lobster Pot Pull cruise and of course we said yes.

This turned out to be the highlight of our stay in Kalbarri. The lobster pot pull cruise was $75 per head (with Senior’s discount) and they take you out along the bluffs and coastline where they have a asmall string of crayfish pots.

Then they start pulling the pots up and extracting the lobsters (crayfish) in them. They measure them and throw back any undersize crays and females with eggs. Then, legally, they have to snip a ‘V’ in the tails of the keepers because they are operating a ‘recreational license’, which means they cannot sell any of the lobsters that they keep (massive penalties apply). They then re-bait the pots to be dropped back in for the next day’s cruise.

At the end of the cruise they keep some of the lobsters for cruise snacks and the rest they divide up amoungst us passengers. We ended up with a dozen crayfish between us, three each!!! Best value cruise EVER!!!

We’re using the words lobster and crayfish interchangably here because they’re generically referred to as Western Australian Lobsters but they are ,in fact, actually crayfish (see the difference between crayfish and lobsters).

The cruise itself was magnificent travelling south past Red Bluff, Pot Alley, Mushroom Rock, Island Rock and Eagle Gorge. The coast is magnificent and the Indian Ocean crashes in on it relentlessly with magnificent plumes of sea spray.

We also got to learn an after-story from the wreck of the Batavia on the Abrolhos Islands, west of Kalbarri, and all the ensuing murder and debauchery that occurred there. It seems that two of the mutineers (Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrgom De Bye) who confessed were not executed but were instead marooned on the beach at Wittecarra Creek. They unwittingly became the first known European inhabitants of Australia. Their fate is unknown.

Kalbarri has the most amazing river mouth channel. Where the Murchison River meets the ocean there are two opposing rock ledges on either side that form a channel. To get into the Murchison River you need to approach the channel from the northern end and then turn into the channel which is transverse to the waves. You then need to run the channel in a southerly direction until you reach then end and then do a full 180° U-turn around the opposite rock ledge to turn into the river.

We did this channel entry twice with the Kalbarri Rock Lobster Pot Pull and Sunset Cruise and it’s a truly amazing piece of boating. The Lobster boat has a really gutsy turn of speed and the skipper completely floors it through the channel as the waves are a bit crazy due to the shape and direction of the channel.

The video below shows us going through the channel and also includes a pleasure boat coming through the channel from a land view perspective. It’s quite a thrilling and unique natural harbour entry.

Sunset Cruise

We enjoyed the lobster pot pull cruise so much that we decided to go back the next evening for a sunset cruise. Kalbarri Rock Lobster do an evening cruise along the coast (no pot pull) that takes in the magnificent coastline as the sun goes down and the light changes over the red rocky cliffs and bluffs.

Kalbarri Rock Lobster do a fantastic job of this even down to the music playlist, which was upbeat but chill and the perfect to our BYO beers and bubbles and took it all in. The operators are full of good stories and interesting facts and after having done two trips with them we felt like they were old friends. They have an enviable lifestyle…

There’s a spot just south of Kalbarri called Jakes Point (Jakes Corner) where a rock ledge juts out into the ocean. This ledge causes the incoming waves to bend around the corner creating a very attractive break that attracts surfers. They can leap in of the ledge and barely have to paddle out to meet the oncoming waves (about the 1½ minute mark in the video below).

We absolutely loved our cruises with Kalbarri Rock Lobster Tours & Charters. At $125 for two cruises with 3 lobsters each from the pot pull how could you be disappointed…

So… with Christmas approaching and being away from home and family, Jo agreed to celebrate a NOT-Christmas with Rob. THe Seagulls, having no religious inclinations, were also happy to celebrate Yuletide instead of Christmas.

It was actually very relaxing and stress-free preparing a Yuletide feast away from the trappings and customs of Christmas. Rob and Gary had previously cooked the lobsters from the pot pull cruise, to be flash BBQ’d for lunch and served with wedges and salad. Gary even went to the effort of making trifle for dessert.

The evening meal was a small BBQ’d ham with broccolini and roasted vege’s from the air fryer. Of course, most of the time before during and after meals was taken up with drinking as well as a well contested games of Finska (also known as Möllky). A close-fought battle amongst all contestants with Gary taking honours on the day…

As enjoyable as family Christmases are… it was truly wonderful to do a NOT-Christmas and celebrate Yuletide with our good friends, the Seagulls (Sandy and Gary), on the road.

Driving south along the coast from Kalbarri provided us with a land-side view of the rugged coastline that we had previously seen from our sunset cruise…

Natural Bridge & Island Rock

Our first stop for the day was Natural Bridge and Island Rock. The sandstone cliffs are comprised of a type of sandstone called ‘tumblagooda‘ that features red and white striped layers. These layers weather away to create stunningly beautiful cliffs with numerous inlets and features not disimilar to the apostles on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.

The two major features here are the Natural Bridge and Island Rock. Natural Bridge is a magnificent rock arch similar that we could see from the lookout above jutting into the ocean. It’s sad to think that the roof will one day collapse into the sea but that will of course end up in creating a new sea stack as we were to soon see at Island Rock near by.

Island Rock is a massive sea stack that would once have been a natural arch. It is now a flat top column separated from the cliffs beside it. The layered rock is very apparent giving the column the appearance of a stack of pancakes or a round tower stacking puzzle.

Eagle Gorge & Pot Alley

Driving back towards Kalbarri is Eagle Gorge, which towers above Pot Alley, a small beach inlet in the cliffs. The cliffs at Eagle Gorge are over 100m high and provide and are a good place for whale watching during the migration season. We were content to watch a few pods of dolphins hunting along the rock shelfs below. Occasionally one or two would leap above the water and you could tell that they were chasing fish.

Tucked in from Eagle Gorge is Pot Alley, so named by the local cray fisherman by the number of lost cray pots that end up being washed up on the small beach there. We learnt this from the skipper of our Kalbarri Rock Lobster Pot Pull Cruise. No doubt they’ve lost a few to there as well.

Mushroom Rock & Red Bluff

Closer to Kalbarri is Mushroom Rock and Red Bluff. Mushroom Rock is, as you would expect, a large flat balancing rock situated on ledge a few metres above the water. It’s really impressive in terms of it’s size and how much area the roof covers compared to the base.

The walk down to Mushroom Rock was quite long and steep with a few rock scrambles and a tricky ledge above the water. Once again we we lucky to have it to ourselves. A few others had made the trek and were doing handstands on the top for instagram posts… However they were kind enough to move on after we arrived and let us do our own exploring and snapping.

After Mushroom Rock we headed on to Red Bluff, which towers out of the sea before Wittecarra Creek, where the two Batavia mutineers were exiled and marooned. Red Bluff was the site of yet another Dutch shipwreck, the ‘Zuytdorp‘. Almost a century after the murderous Batavia shipwreck, also en route to Batavia (Jakarta), the Zuytdorp ran aground off Red Bluff in 1711. It is unknown what happened to the survivors but artefacts were found atop Red Bluff suggesting that some made it ashore and climbed the cliffs.

There are theories that some must have survived and joined with local indigenous people based on blonde haired aboriginal people and some genetic record of specific European diseases in some indigenous people. It is not conclusively proved though.

None the less, Red Bluff is a beautiful place to look out on the ocean and imagine the tall masted Dutch East India Company (VOC) ships plying their routes to Batavia for the highly lucrative spice trade. Australia (New Holland) was well known to Europe long before Cook’s voyage and it is quite amazing that the Dutch largely ignored Australia thinking that it was a barren and useless place.

Z Bend

Kalbarri National Park is home to some pretty spectacular scenery. Lesser known that the Kalbarri Skywalk and Natures Window is the Z Bend, a beautiful part of the Murchison Gorge that takes its name from a sharp turn in the river and gorge. This was our first stop for the day.

Given the heat that day and the need to conserve time and energy for the other sights we elected to do the 600m walk down to the lookout instead of the 6km return trip all the way down to the river. The short hike wasn’t overly strenuous but well worth the effort to take in the glorious scenery beneath the deep blue sky. Having taken in a few eyefulls from the Z Bend lookout we trapsed back to the car and drove on to the…

Kalbarri Skywalk

The Kalbarri Skywalk is one of the major spots to visit near Kalbrri. The massive twin U-shaped steel platforms jut straight out from the cliffs edge over the Murchison Gorge providing spectacular views of the Kalbarri Skywalk.

With both of us being terrified of heights it was only natural that we both forced ourselves out onto both platforms to take in the sweeping and majestic panoramas. In truth, the platforms weren’t as scary as we thought they would be but they still brouhgt back memories of a similar glass floored walkway that we did on the Icefields Parkway in Canada back in 2016.

We were also lucky enough, after a tip-off from a ranger to see a juvenile perentie sunning itself on the rocks close to the edge of one of the platforms. He was a stunningly handsome fellow who just sat there posing for us while he did nothing in particular, as monitor lizards do…

One of the quirkier features at the Kalbarri Skywalk are their loos with a view. The Men’s urinals are built on the edge of the cliff and look out over the gorge so that you can still enjoy a viewing experience whilst emptying your bladder. A very unique and satisfying experience in more ways than one.

The skywalk is brilliant piece of engineering and a perfect way to view the gorge, which has that very typical arid scrub landscape cut through by the stunningly blue Kalbarri Skywalk. It’s probably the jewel in Kalbarri’s crown… and then you drive on to Natures Window…

Natures Window

Only a short drive from the Kalbarri Skywalk is Natures Window. It’s an amazing ‘hole in a rock’ that has been eroded by wind over a long time. The surrounding is a beautifully stratified red-brown colour that contrasts nicely with the very blue Murchison River and green scrub down below.

The hole itself looks quite precarious but provides a magnificent frame to look out over the Murchison Gorge and also provide the ‘happy snap’ that everyone wants to take. This was one of the few places thus far that we had a reasonable crowd of people with us but everybody seemed pretty considerate of each other and waited their turn to photos.

The walk out to Natures Window wasn’t overly strenuous but did require a short scramble around one side on a narrow track that was easily negotiated but could still have catastrophic results if you weren’t careful.

On the way you pass a magnificent overhang that is actually as beautiful as the window itself. The banded ochre-red colour is simply beautiful and a little bit awsome with the steeply raked wall looming over the top of you.

Natures Window is one of the natural features that proves once again that nature is a powerful and potent force capable of the most amazing artwork…

So… after a successful night of free-camping at Hamelin Pool we enjoyed a good breakfast of roadhouse bacon and eggs from the the Overlander Roadhouse before setting off to Denham for seven nights. We chose to stay at Denham instead of Monkey Mia after hearing numerous opinions that Monkey Mia was over priced and underwhelming…

The Seagulls had arrived in Denham a few days before us so we caught up with them once again and we pleased to find that our site was beside theirs, which makes it much easier for happy hour and socialising in general. The site itself was quite spacious consisting of hard packed shell grit. The park was arranged in big open tier levels and so very easy to manoeuver and setup.

Denham itself came as a surprise paket to all of us. Although not a large place it had everything you need with a long main street of shops and cafes on one side with park area and beach on the other. The Shark Bay Hotel, located centrally on the main street has the distinction of being the most westerly pub in Australia and we enjoyed a meal and drinks there with the Seagulls as you must.

The bay side of the main street was a picture postcard with grassy park areas fronting onto the shallow beach. The water was once again that stunning aquamarine colour that seems to be all down the W.A. coastline. An old pearl lugger sits calmly anchored about 50m offshore as a point of interest and there are boats moored all around the bay area. It looks like a fishermans paradise but also has a whole lot of other interesting places to explore as well.

We did want to try and tke a trip to Dirk Hartog Island, a large island off the coast where the Dutch trader, Dirk Hartog, landed in 1616 and famously nailed an inscribed pewter plate to a post declaring his visit. Rob was hoping to visit the landing site… alas it is not a simple process to get there. You can take your own car over on a short ferry trip that is notoriously unreliable and costly that also involves a 100km dodgy 4WD road to Useless Loop or you can take a much longer boat ride across (sans car), which we were also told is notoriously unreliable. In the end we decided it was probably not worth the cost or effort and chose no to…

Denham on the whole was an absolutely beaut place to stay and did leave a very lasting impression on us being one of our favourite spots so far, especially given that we weren’t expecting much from it to begin with. We thought the Monkey Mia was the attraction for this region when in fact Denham was the star location.

Monkey Mia is only 25km from Denham and is an obvious place to visit even though it is receiving much negative review in recent times. We were told that the famous ‘wild dolphin’ feeding still occurs everyday but has been reduced to a paid experience where everyone is roped off away from the dolphins. One or two ‘authorised handlers’ take two (only) fish to the dolphins and give one each to two of the ‘matriarch’ dolphins and that is all you get for the price of admission. There is no more swimming with the dolphins, etc. This may be the right thing for the dolphins but… if so… then we would think that it should be cancelled altogether or left to the dolphins to decides if they want to be fed… It all smells of tourist trap rip-off to us and just about everybody else we spoke to so we decided not to waste our money on it.

That said… Shark Bay is also home to one of the largest populations of dugongs. The Seagulls had sussed out a half-day cruise of Shark Bay that included dolphin and dugong watching. We booked a couple of spots with them and took one of the most memorable sailing cruises we have ever done.

Seeing dugongs in the wild is a bucket list item for us and whilst the cruise did not guarantee a dugong sighting that were pretty confident that we would. They delivered in spades… We saw over a dozen dugongs, some with calves, throughout the cruise and marvelled at these beautiful, very chill, sea mammals, of which not very much is still known.

Our cruise guide told us that there have been thousands of marine biologists studying dolphins in the area over the years but only a dozen or so studying the dugongs. This is a travesty of science because much is known about dolphins and they’re not threatened as a species. Dugongs on the other hand are a threatened species and rely solely on the diminishing, fragile sea grass meadows in a few places around the Australian coast line.

Bloody dolphins get all the funding and attention… We also learnt that despite the friendly, happy nature of dolphins that we all see and are shown that dolphins can also pretty nasty, vicious critters amongst themselves. The Shark Bay dolphins hang around in small pods, they call gangs, and regularly fight amongst themselves for superiority in turf wars. This was evident from the numberof dolphins that we saw half-missing dorsal fins and wounds that were inflicted by other dolphins, not sharks.

Our cruise guide also classed the Shark Bay dolphins as the laziest in the world; too lazy to do more than about 10 seconds of bow-riding at the front of the catamaran. To be fair… the dugongs don’t do anything other than come up for air and dive back down again but you sort of expect more from dolphins than this lot seem prepared to give.

The cruise itself was excellent. All the more so because it was fully under sail and such was the skill of our guide that he was able to steer a big cat under sail over to where a dugong was spotted in the distance without spooking it and getting us close enough to see these beautiful, shy creatures up close. Fun fact… the dugong is vulnerable to predators on it’s underbelly so if attacked it will dive to the sea floor and lay on it’s belly presenting the super tough skin on it’s back to the predator. The skin is so tough that sharks cannot penetrate it. In fact it is so tough that settlers would use the dugong skin as brake-liners on carts back when they were hunted.

We had such a pleasant day cruise that we booked again for a sunset cruise the following evening and enjoyed floating happy hour with the Seagulls watching the sun set over the ocean under sail. This was a very happy time for Sandy and Gary who previously owned a motor cruiser back home and spent many happy hours on their own boat…

So… all in all, we took two trips to Monkey Mia. It is a very pretty place but it has become a highly regulated tourist trap, which spoils it in many respects. We were very glad that we chose to camp in Denham and just visit Monkey Mia. The cruise(s) were terrific value for money and seeing wild dugongs is a lifetime memory…

Eagle Bluff Lookout

Before visiting Ocean Park Aquarium, about 10km south of Denham, we drove further down to Eagle Bluff Lookout. This is a curved, steeply angled cliff about 100m in height. In contrast to the red earth cliffs along a lost of the coast, Eagle Bluff is a sandy off-white colour.

The lookout provides a magnificent panoramic vista down to the water and out over the ocean. The face of the bluff is steeply raked at an angle that would not be impossible to scale down but would be an extremely difficult climb back up if you were silly enough to do it.

From the vantage point of the bluff you can peer down into the clear shallow water and see a number of sharks cruising around the shallows. It was very hard to determine their size but we would guess that they could have been in the range of 2m in length. It really is something to see sharks in the wild from on high like that. You can see how they just cruise effortlessly around their territory doing the rounds and conducting their business.

Ocean Park Aquarium

The Seagulls had already been to Ocean Park Aquarium and suggested we should make a visit. It was a complete surprise. Built on the edge of the water is has a cafe and gift shop but is home to a number of tanks and ocean ponds containing a vast array of marine species.

We opted for a guided tour, which was well worth it, to learn some very interesting facts about fish behaviour and how much more intelligent we are than we give dredit to.

The first stage of the tour is inside a large shed structure housing a few vertical glass tanks as well as a number of circular concrete tanks, each housing a variety of fish species. The round concrete tanks were about waist high so you could walk up to the edge and look onto the fish as opposed to through a sheet of glass. The boxfish and the lionfish were absolute characters… They knew they were being observed and had developed a number of behaviours that were quite comical and entertaining.

The round tanks also contained a highly venomous sea snake, which we were told would escape occasionally, as well as sizable eel that would play hide and seek in the various nooks and crannies inside the tank.

The ocean pond area was a large lagoon area containing an array of sizable fish and stingrays as well as a number of quite large sharks of various species. The lagoon was round in shape with a central rotunda area accessed by a small bridge. Crossing the bridge you got to see the sharks up close and personal as they glided under the bridge. It was a bit like the set of a ‘James Bond villian site’.

The tour included a feeding session where the guide would lower a fish carcass to the water from the bridge and bounce it around on the surface to get the sharks interested. About six or seven sharks would circle around it for a minute or so until one them decided to take it. It was a very impressive display and very cool to be standind right above it.

The other main exhibit was a large round metal tank containing various species of reef fish. The guide would feed the fish and one of the fish had taught itself to squirt the guide with a mouthful of water, like archer fish, to get the guide’s attention. A couple of the other fish were also learning how to do this, which again was a highly unexpected behaviour these fish were teaching themselves.

Visiting the Ocean Park Aquarium was a very pleasant and enjoyable activity made all the more so by an excellent lunch of, yep, fish’n’chips sitting on the cafe’s deck overlooking the beach and ocean. A place well worth the cost of admission…

Denham is adjacent to Francois Peron National Park. You head towards Monkey Mia, past Little Lagoon and turn off onto an unsealed road that takes you to Peron Station and Big Lagoon. We took a day trip there to see the historic station and also to visit Big Lagoon and pristine waterways.

Francois Peron National Park

Francois Peron National Park was named after François Péron, a French naturalist and explorer

Between Dirk Hartog Island and Francois Peron National Park you begin to see the much broader visitation to Australia by Europeans other than the British colonial invasion. The Dutch frequently visited the W.A. coast in the 1600’s as part of the spice route to the East Indies. François Péron was a later visitor in 1801-1803 and made a huge contribution to the cataloguing of Australian fauna.

The national park was created from an earlier pearling camp and sheep station. Peron Station, now the Peron Heritage Precinct, is the site of the sheep station and is kept as a historical site complete with buildings, some old equipment and an outdoor artesian hot tub, You can still take a dip in the hot tub if you wish but in 40° heat with the water temperature being at ‘hot bath level’ we opted to stay dry. The water colour was a little off-putting as well.

You wander around the station precinct at your leisure. Their is a small discovery building at the entrance that houses indigenous information and displays including an indigenous brush shelter and a number of stuffed animal displays including a feral cat and fox.

From their you can visit the artesian hot tub, the shearing shed and yarding pens, the shearer’s quarters, the stables and a number of antique farming implements. The station itself is very scrubby land, as you would expect, set on sandy red earth. You do get a very firsthand look at the hardships and privations of life in the 1800’s in a such a remote place as it would have been back then. It’s good to know that these places are kept and maintained and still open to visitors.

Big Lagoon

The drive to Big Lagoon from Peron Station is definitely 4WD along a rutted sandy track and you are highly advised to drop your tires air pressure before you start. They even provide a couple of compressor stations at the start of the track so you can re-inflate your tires on return.

Unlike Little Lagoon, which is an enclosed circular tidal lagoon outside the national park, Big Lagoon is a coastal waterway with a bush style campground and a number of shade structures for visitors.

The lagoon waterway is quite large and broad with stunning variations of blue water based on the various currents and depths. The Seagulls had visited on a different day to us and were lucky to spot another dugong in the water while they were there. Alas we were not so lucky.

We did take the opportunity though to put the drone up and get some aerial photos of this very beautiful and natural place. Fishing in the lagoon is prohibited north of the campground so as to create a valuable fish nursery in there but is allowed at the south end and we did see one or two tinnies making their way back to the campground.

It would be a lovely spot to camp (in a tent or camper trailer) but it was one of the few places we have come across that was thick with flies, of the sticky variety, that are just plain annoying. Flying the drone was made a little more difficult by having to constantly wave them away from your face whilst trying to guide the drone, which we have finally named ‘Dexter’ around the shoreline.

Big Lagoon was well worth the lumpy drive to get their and the annoyance of deflating and re-inflating tires in the hot sun. It’s one of those unexpected places that we had never heard about and you delight in discovering when it presents you with the opportunity.

The Carnarvon Space Museum is an absolute gem of a reason to visit Carnarvon. We visited with the Seagulls and had an excellent time wandering through the display and exhibits both inside and out. Situated on the site of the NASA Tracking Station it is easily visible atop a small hill with its tracking dish and standing proud amongst the scrub.

Also standing proud at the entrance is a scale replica rocket that sets the scene for what is an interesting, informative, historical and somewhat nerdy space themed museum. The museum is staffed by semi-volunteers who are travellers, like us. They sign on for three months and get to park their van on site for free and receive $100 a week to open the museum between 10:00am and 2:00pm each day. The current volunteers were in their last few days and were looking forward to the new volunteers taking over but despite this were quite cheerful and obliging.

In it’s heyday the site was crucial to the NASA space program and later included an OTC Satellite Communications Centre that was ground-breaking. The first live broadcast from Australia to Great Britain was achieved here and involved a number of ABC broadcast vans piling into Carnarvon to do a highly stage-managed series of interviews with Carnarvon townsfolk including a very young Wilson ‘Ironbar’ Tuckey the mayor at that time.

Inside the museum there is an eclectic collection of exhibits mostly relating to the glory days of the space program and the space race of the 60’s/70’s. The museum is rightly proud of the fact this it was visited by Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, and Andy Thomas, the first Australian astronaut.

Perhaps the most interesting exhibit, at least from Rob’s perspective, is a full scale replica of the Eagle Lunar Exploration Module (LEM). When standing up close to it it looks nothing like the usual photos of it and it boggles the mind to figure out how they fit everything they did into it. Especially when you take into account that it also held the Lunar Rover in the later Moon landings… The tiny LEM is truly like Dr Who’s Tardis when it comes to internal space. It carried two men, their bulky space suits and equipment, supplies, instrumentation, landing engines and fuel, return engine and fuel, water, and so on… All in less space than we have in our caravan…Go figure!

Right in the middle of the museum they have simplified mockup of a launch capsule that you get closed into and lie on your back in the same position as an astronaut waiting for launch. You then experience a simulated launch with the attendant mission control countdown and rumbling and vibration of the engines. It’s not a true simulator but a good way understand the lift off process from the astronaut perspective.

Another curio is a piece of space junk… a battered propellant tank from Skylab after it crashed in W.A. back in 1979 (can you believe it was that long ago?). The tank had some pieces cut out of it for analysis but aside from that it is as it was found after the crash.

We weren’t expecting too much from a remote space museum but it certainly did punch well above it’s weight in terms of the quality and scope of the exhibits. Very well worth the visit.

Gwoowardu Mia is an indigenous cultural centre and was just a short walk down the road from the caravan park. We met the Seagulls there and were disappointed to find it closed so we trapsed off into town for a coffee.

The Information Centre tolad us that it should have been open and kindly rang them for us. It seems they were a bit late getting started that day so we set off again to find it open. And we were glad it was.

We were greeted by a charming young indigenous women who could not have done more to brighten our day. She told us a great deal about the centre and about the local burrowing bees in particular. It seems that her mother-in-law is a local artist and collects all the dead bees during the season and turns them into jewellry and such. She also explained how they were a staple food for elders during the season and that they still go and dig some of the burrows up each year as a delicacy.

The bees build mud burrows in the clay soil and deposit one larvae in each cell with a small amount of honey to feed them. Indigenous people carefully dig up the cells, like little clay pots and roast the larvae. Our indigenous host says they taste like buttery honey and are delicious. She was especially proud of a burrowing bee display that her six year old had made, which really was very good, and had pride of place in the reception area of the centre.

After learning all about burrowing bees we went through the display area of the centre, which told a full and comprehensive story of the indegenous people of the Carnarvon and Gascoyne region. It was told warts and all, which included stories of great misery and suffering and the hands of colonial setllement but also told of some who actually benefitted from the British invasion.

Unfortunately photos were not permitted but the displays were very well presented and quite innovative. One such was a large back-lit table that had dozens and dozens of small circular pictures floating randomly around the table. When you touched a circle it would stop and all of the related circles would come in and stick close to the circle you touched. You could then read about that circle and/or choose one of the related circles to explore further. After time the related circles would start drifting apart again and re-start their randon journeys. Fascinating…

The Centre also had a garden area at the back, which was used for local indigenous ceremonies and also operated as a wedding venue. Hats off to Gwoowardu Mia cultural centre. One of the best indigenous initiatives that we’ve come across… fascinating, innovative, honest and welcoming…

The Seagulls suggested we do a day trip out to Gascoyne Junction, a small town 175km inland from Carnarvon. It was named for its location at the junction of the Gascoyne and Lyons Rivers. The drive out was long but the road was excellent and the Seagulls were excellent company as usual.

We were a little intrigued when we arrived to discover a very clean, tidy town that looked like it had just been built, which in fact was not far from the truth. The town was evacuated after massive flooding in 2010 that destroyed the pub. Much of the town was rebuilt following that event. It was hard to imagine how it could have been so flooded given the flatness of the town and the width of the dry river bed and the arid red soil.

The pub/fuel station/store was immaculate despite feeling a bit empty and quiet and had a quirky wooden sculpture of a buffalo head mounted above a door. The town itself was almost like a ghost town with nobody on the street other than our group of four. We wandered over to the Shire Office, which was also home to the Information Centre and a small museum only to discover that the offices were closed because all the staff were ‘on training’ that week. After that we returned to the pub and settled in for a very good pub lunch.

With full tummies and a couple of drinks we headed back over to the small museum at the Shire Offices, which is always open. It was a well done display of implements and artefacts from the early days of the town. There were also a number of old farming implements outside the museum including a very interesting old grader that looked as though it may have been horse-drawn.

After taking in every thing we could at Gascoyne Junction we returned to the cruiser for the drive back to Carnarvon. Before arriving back we stopped in at Rocky Pool, 55km from Carnarvon. Rocky Pool is a semi-permanent water hole that is actually part of the river that is deeper and takes much longer to evaporate.

It still had a lot of water and appeared quite deep in places. The striking feature of the area were the rocky banks and plateau area that were a magnificent burgundy red/brown in colour. We all agreed that it was an exceptionally beautiful place and well worth the visit, which also served to break up the long return drive home.

All in all it was a good day out enjoyed by all and gave us all a great appreciation of the remoteness of places like Carnarvon and Gascoyne Junction as well as the sheer immensity of Western Australia. We were really only about halfway down the coastline on our journey towards Perth…

Our last outing in Carnarvon was a day trip north to Quobba Station, which is an operating sheep station that also has a basic caravan and camp ground that is mainly used by hard-core fishermen and campers. The drive in was over a decent stretch of corrugated dirt road. The Seagulls took their Pajero instead of coming with us because they intended to push further on to Red Bluff after we stopped for lunch at the station camp ground.

Our first stop of the trip was the Quobba Blowholes… that’s ‘blowholes’ plural. The Quobba Blowholes are located on a large flat rock ledge facing the full force of the Indian Ocean. They are at their best at mid-tide when the water level is just below the ledge. As the waves roll in they slowly fill the caves below the ledge and build up pressure until they finally burst through the surface vents in a series of small bubblers with a large central blowhole that vents 4 or 5 metres high. The main blowhole is spectacular as the spray pushes upwards with the characteristic ‘choof’ sound as air and water are blasted out together.

After being mesmerised by the blowhole(s) we headed to the Point Quobba for a quick cup of tea and to take in the coastline around one of the free camp areas. It was a beautiful spot with crystal clear water and a small island with hundreds of terns milling around on the island’s beach.

We also stopped by the famous ‘King Waves Kill’ sign for a photo op with our Cruiser and the Seagull’s Pajero. Apart from being a serious warning it is also a magnificent piece of coastline with a large flat rocky ledge meeting the ocean.

One very unusual feature of the rock ledge is a series of small pot holes and fractures in the rock that contain pure white salt. A testament to the salinity of the Indian Ocean, the salt water is trapped in the hole and fractures and then evaporated in the intense sun leaving deposits of pure white salt in stark contrast to the earthy basaltic rock.

As you approach Quobba Station you come to the HMAS Sydney II Memorial Cairn. This is the closest point on land to where the HMAS Sydney II engaged in a ferocious sea battle with the German raider ‘Kormoran’ disguised as a Dutch Trading Ship. Tragically all the sailors on HMAS Sydney II were lost (600+) whilst 200+ German Sailors made it ashore but abruptly surrendered when they learned how relote and desolate was the place that they landed. It was the worst Australian naval tragedy of WWII and is remembered and comemorated greatly in Western Australia.

We drove up the final stretch to Quobba Station to find that it was mostly closed for the season and just operating as a campground and sheep station. The manager told us first-hand of the difficulties of running the station but seemed upbeat about the future. The fishing around Quobba Station seemed phenomenal based on the photos in the office with some magnificent specimens having been landed off the rock ledge.

At Quobba Station the Seagulls continued on their way to Red Bluff whilst we headed back to Carnarvon having had enough of the rough and rutted drive to get there. On the way we stopped to get a closer look at Quobba Lighthouse, which stands by itself atop a high hill with a bright red dome above the light and the white tower below. It’s quite a stark and lonely sight and would have been a very lonely place in it’s day.

It was yet another great day out with the Seagulls in a particularly stark and beautiful part of the Western Australian coast…

Although we had previously done the glass bottom boat snorkelling cruise in Exmouth we decided to do another snorkelling cruise in Coral Bay. Although it wasn’t Whale Shark season to opportunity snorkel again on the Ningaloo Reef was to hard to resist.

The difference on this trip was that it was a half day trip on a sailing catamaran, stopping at three different spots and included a bbq fish lunch. It was a perfect day with a light breeze and it so nice to have the sails up once we left the dock and cruise between the snorkelling spots on wind power alone.

We met a young lass named Jess on our trip who was working for Coral Bay Tours and as such gets to go on the trips for free on the days that she wasn’t working. She had thrown in a real estate job to move down to Coral Bay for a lifestyle change. Jess helped usover the following days get our Quad Bike Tour sorted, which was in danger of being cancelled due to lack of numbers.

The water around Coral Bay was cool without being cold. Probably a bit warmer than the NSW South Coast in the height of summer. We spent about 45 minutes snorkelling at each of the three locations and by the end of each swim we were both starting to feel slightly chilled… a small price to pay for such beautiful snorkelling experience.

We both agreed that the snorkelling at Coral Bay was much better than at Exmouth. This was because the water was calmer on the surface and the diversity of corals and marine life was much greater. Jo got to tick off a bucket list item when we got swim with a Green Turtle for a minute or so as it went about its business.

As with Exmouth, the corals around Coral Bay are mostly dull in colour but the size and variety makes up for that. Some of them were like little alien cities and the variety of tropical fish was quite a visual treat. The Parrotfish in particular came in a variety of colours and patterns. We learned that the Parrotfish, in particular, are known as reef builders. They munch away on the corals feeding on the algae and excreting it as sand thus cleaning and creating the reef.

Another unexpected bonus was seeing a couple of giant clams nestled amongst the corals. The closest we had come to giant clams was a sculpture made from giant clam shells back at the Northern Territory Wildlife Park in Darwin. It was actually quite a thrill to see some living ones and marvel at the size of them.

A couple of people were lucky enough to encounter some small reef sharks and swim with them. We weren’t so lucky but we still saw a great diversity of fish including some very tasty looking Snapper. Luckily we didn’t have catch our own fish for the bbq but we did have a very good fish sandwich on the catamaran and some hot tea and coffee to warm us back up.

Snorkelling on Ningaloo Reef was a real experience and despite not having the opportunity to swim with whale sharks it was still worth every cent. The corals, the fish, the turtles and the turquoise water make for a truly memorable time and when it is combined with knowledgable and experienced operators it becomes an experience…

So we booked the Coral Bay Tours quad bike tour at the same time as we booked the snorkelling cruise, which also gave us a $70 discount. Jo was happy to pillion behind Rob on the same bike, which also reduce the price. The catch was that they needed at least two bikes for the tour to go ahead. They assured us that the quad bike tours were very popular and that someone else would book in the two days before the tour was scheduled.

We kept checking with Jess, who we met on the snorkelling trip only to find that no other takers had booked. They were very surprised but tourist season was waning before the expected post-Christmas upsurge. Jo even went full sales mode in the shop when another couple wandered in to check out what trips were available. Alas they didn’t commit.

When it came down to the wire on the evening before our booking we bit the bullet and paid for the extra quad bike so that Jo would be riding her own. We didn’t want to miss out on this experience based on the Seagulls recommendation and also remembering a quad bike tour we had done years ago in the South Island of New Zealand.

The day dawned bright and sunny (like every other day in Western Australia) and we headed down for our trip. We were met by ‘Etty’ (Ettiene) a young French ex-pat who has settled in Australia and living a very enviable life in Coral Bay. Etty was one of those people that you instantly warm to because they are friendly, interesting and easy to talk to and listen to.

After donning our helmets and doing the obligatory safety and induction briefing we jumped on our quads and followed Etty along the main street before branching off onto the dirt and tracking into the dunes. The quad bikes were quite large but very easy to handle being automatic with thumb throttles. All you really had to do was steer and watch your speed. Etty did ask that we stay below 40kph but that was a guideline and there were a few spots where we nudged it up a bit.

Etty guided us around the tracks of the coastal dunes some of which felt like a slot car track with steep sand banks on either side. Jo was a little hesitant at first but was soon tearing along behind Etty and channeling her ‘inner biker chick’.

We exited the dunes onto a ledge area a few metres above the water from which we could see turtles cruising along the shallows, which thrilled Jo no end. Etty told us a bit of his story as well as explaining the various forms of marine life that inhabited the area.

We once again took the the quads and headed back along the dune tracks emerging at Five Fingers Reef, a broad expanse of white sand merging with the turquoise ocean water. Etty told us a bit more about himself and how one of the best moments of his life was snorkelling with a tiger shark not far from where we were stopped. He had no fear of sharks and put his faith in not behaving like food when you’re near them.

From Five Fingers Reef we headed back into the dunes for a bit more slot car riding until we came back in view of the wind turbines signifying that we were heading back into town at the end of the trip. It really was a an excellent tour and we were glad that we decided to upgrade to a quad bike each and have Etty all to ourselves for a very personalised and attentive experience.

Etty and Jess from Coral Bay Tours told ud about the Shark Nursery area just around from the main beach at Coral Bay. It is signposted but there wasn’t much information about it. On their recommendation we took the walk around to it for a look and it turned out to be well worth the effort.

After a walk over a rocky ledge area, that was interesting in itself, we cam to another sandy spit beach area. Ahead of us we could see a long shallow inlet of the atypical clear turquoise water that is characteristic of the W.A. coast.

As we approached the water we could see a small dark shadow cruising around the shallows, which turned out to be a 1m juvenile reef shark. It was right in the shallows and only a couple of metres from where we stood. It was so shallow that its dorsal fin and tail were out of the water.

We followed the water’s edge for a way until it became beach again and were stunned to see dozens of baby sharks ranging in size from ½m to 1½m cruising around in the wash right on the beach line. We also came across a few sting rays about 1m across that only became noticeable if the waves washed off their sand camouflage.

It was something of an experience to be so close to so many baby sharks and rays. You could walk into the shallows with them but they were quite skittish and quickly moved away to a safe distance if you did so. There’s something weird about a shark nursery area being so close to the main swimming beach but it’s fair to say that the larger parents are all out hunting beyond the reef and it’s only the juveniles that are cruising around in the relative safety of the shallows behind the reef. To be honest, accidentally stepping on a sting ray would be far more dangerous that getting nibbled by a baby shark.