Carnarvon

 

Wednesday 7 July 2021 – Carnarvon

It was really dark when Larry got up to go for the planned walk and Jenny, being a bit achey all over, couldn’t face leaping out of bed and hiking up a mountain and rolled over and went to sleep.  About half an hour after the others had gone it got lighter and I got up and had some breakfast and it was so pretty looking out the window at the sun hitting the faces of the rock that I felt that I really should make an effort and walk at least as far as the Temple and meet the others on their return journey.

So about an hour after the others left I strolled at my own pace along the Temple Gorge walk and did indeed meet the others just before the path got to the Temple.  H&M headed back to camp to finish packing up their van but, as I had already pretty much packed up ours, Larry headed back up the path with me a short way to the big flat rock area where you get good views of the big rock formation called the Temple.  Even between the time L had been there earlier and now the colours of the rocks had changed with the angle of the rising sun and it was very picturesque and very quiet as we had the whole gorge to ourselves.

Back to the vans and we were soon hitched up and then driving out of there by about 9am.  Already cars and trailers were heading in, presumably from the other carparks they had been sent to by the caretakers when they had arrived late yesterday afternoon.

We drove south towards Gascoyne Junction and noted with dismay big dark clouds of the south and west and wondered whether our sunny holiday was finally coming to an end.  By the time we reached GJ, however, they seemed to have blown away and it was sunny but with a freezing wind when we got out to refuel and enquire about the availability of bays at the Gascoyne Junction caravan park.  They only had unpowered sites available and it was only 10.30am so the idea of staying wasn’t that appealing.  I thought I would give the Wintersun Caravan Park in Carnarvon a ring and see if they had any availability but was pretty pessimistic given it’s school holidays and knowing how many caravans there are on the road.   Surprisingly thought, instead of the “Sorry, we’re fully booked” I was expecting, the nice lady said yes and, even better, that they had two sites left!  When we gave our names we were both in the database already (we stayed there in 2015, the Overmeire’s a few years before that!) so we were quickly booked in over the phone and it all ended up being easy and like it was meant to be!

So we headed west of out GJ at a leisurely pace knowing that we had somewhere to stay tonight.  It was a very direct road straight west through monotonous countryside.  There was a lot of water lying in shallow lakes and claypans all along the road so they have obviously had a reasonable amount of rain here.  The highlight of the trip was five large wedge tailed eagles on the road feasting on road kill and no amount of tooting the horn could entice them all to leave the road.  Hendrik, travelling behind us, was able to get a good photo of them surrounding our van with one in the foreground looking like a pterodactyl about to devour us!

We got to the Wintersun CP in Carnarvon about 1pm and were given a very nice shady site and not the one jammed in the back next to the shed that we had last time we arrived without a booking and they squeezed us in.  H&M  were about 10 sites further down from us so although we weren’t together we weren’t that far apart and within walking distance for carrying chairs and dinner plates.

After we set up we decided to go into town to get late lunch and to see a bit of Carnarvon.  H&M had had lunch at their van and wanted to go to the Space museum but we did that last time so we went our separate ways for the afternoon. 

We went down to the harbour and had yummy steak sandwiches at the same place we frequented in 2015.  The burgers and shakes were just as nice as remembered.  We then drove out to see how badly the jetty had been damaged in one of the cyclones earlier this year – fairly badly it turns out and drove around the headland enjoying the smell of salty air which we haven’t had much of this holiday.

Stops at the hardware store and camping store where we bought a big thermos as we have become converts to H&M’s routine of a morning tea stop after driving for a couple of hours.  Now we can make our own without relying in Miranda’s thermos to do 4 cups!  A double jaffle iron was also purchased but I doubt it will get used this holiday.  I’m pretty sure last holiday we bought the pizza stone in Carnarvon and didn’t use it that holiday (although it has had plenty of use since).  It seems to be becoming a tradition to buy something for future holidays in Carnarvon!

One last stop at Morel’s fruit shop to stock up on chocolate coated banana and mango icecreams before heading back to the van.  It was then time for some internet catch up until we got the text from Miranda declaring it to be pre-dinner drink time so we headed down to their van with chairs, glasses and plates.

Lamb chops, rice and salad for dinner and a truly decadent chocolate mousse cake for dessert so that we had to waddle back to the van.  It was then time for a lovely hot shower in the ablution block before snuggling up in bed to watch the Tour go up Mont Ventoux a couple of times but fell asleep while Durbo was still in the main pack (found out later he got dropped the second time up the climb and also that poor Ben O’Connor ‘blew up’ also and has dropped a few places in the GC).