Home Our Trip WA - Central 18-Carnarvon
18-Carnarvon

8th July 2008.
Didn't know what to expect in Carnarvon as hadn't heard of much to do or see here, so presumed it was just a stopover on the way north.
Wroooong....................

We needed to get the Patrol serviced and the soonest we could get in was Tuesday 15th, over a week away. Phoned the next town and they were 6 weeks, further north and it was 10 weeks. As it's a major service (80,000 ks) didn't want to go any further without it, so decided to stay here for a while and just chill out and so glad we did.

Carnarvon is the hub of The Gascoyne Region and besides the huge seafood industry, it supplies 70% of WA's winter vegetables from it's 176 plantations.
It's a very layed back and relaxing place with not a single traffic light in town. The town is situated at the only point on the Australian coastline where the Central dessert reaches the sea.

Being school holidays every caravan park in town was full to capacity. Lucky we arrived in time to get in.
So wadda we gonna do for the next week, other than chill out and relax? Soon discovered that it's well placed to explore the outlying areas.

The historical One Mile Jetty was built in 1897 and is worth the trip out to cross the river mouth and mangroves. Either walk or catch the Coffee Pot train for $3.00. There is also the Lighthouse Keepers Cottage Museum, Railway Station Museum and some nice walk trails.

The OTC communications satellite dish was also interesting to see. By now you know how I feel about heights and although the climb up to the platform is not very high, the wind was so strong the day we went up I didn't stay up for long. But good views over the town and plantations.  

Quobba:

So this is where it is, 75ks north of Carnarvon. Often heard people talking about the fishing at Quobba and how dangerous it is. To this day, it still claims a few lives a year with people being washed off the cliffs by the huge king waves. 

Once again we're in awe of the stunning coastline, the cliffs and the humungis waves. Walking over the rocky cliffs toward the sea, it's an eerie feeling and the landscape is how I imagine the moon craters to look. Quobba is renowned as the best land based game fishing spot in the world (alongside Steep Point). At the good spots, steel anchors have been sunk into the rocks for fishermen to tie themselves to so they don't fall or get washed off by the king waves. It is by far the most rugged and dangerous coastline we've seen so far and the power of those waves is really frightening. I didn't throw a line in coz you need the right gear and rope gaffs etc to pull the fish up the cliffs.

The Blowholes were blowing and are certainly an awesome sight.
2 minutes drive down the road and around a curve and WOW. The cliffs just disappear and there's this beautiful bay with white sandy beaches, crystal clear water and the small gentle waves are hundreds of metres out. It's just unbelievable that the landscape can change so dramatically from the rugged cliffs to this so quickly. Drove into the bay and there's caravans everywhere, an awesome bush camp. Had to pinch myself to make sure I hadn't just imagined all this. You need to be self sufficient here as there are no facilities.

Mt Augustus:

460ks inland via Gascoyne Junction, is Mt Augustus, the World's largest monocline. It is twice the size of Uluru (Ayers Rock).
As it is mostly dirt roads with some rough sections, decided not to take the caravan so this would be our first tent camp.  After nearly 5 hours of rattling through the dusty outback, we caught our first glimpse of Mt Augustus in the distance about 75 ks away. We got a little closer and the road just kept going and we went straight past it and as it disappeared behind us, I'm thinking we must have missed the turning or we're on the wrong road, but decided to carry on as the turn off must still be up ahead somewhere. Then we see the turn off to Mt Augustus and we're still going away from it. Then suddenly in the distance we see this huge thing appearing out of nowhere and realise that this is the real thing. Felt a bit of an idiot after stopping to take some photos and video of the previous rock, it was big though and looked the part, just not humungus like this one. It took us 6 hours of solid driving (half hour for lunch) to get there and although the drive is quite interesting with the varying landscapes etc. it's a long haul in those dry, dusty conditions dodging the kangaroos and cattle that insist on crossing the road as we're flying along.

You guessed it, that word again, awesome. Mt Augustus rises abruptly 715 metres out of the dramatically stark red sand and is a real eye opener.

As it was getting late, decided to find the camp site and get setup before it gets dark. Seeing it's the first time we've taken the tent out the bag, it setup pretty quickly. Once out the bag, it was up in 30 seconds as advertised. The extra awning panels and extension took around another 10 minutes so was pretty pleased with myself on the first attempt. Just our luck, temperatures plummeted to one of the coldest nights they'd had there for some time and we didn't have a camping heater. We huddled around the gas cooker and light to try and keep warm. The night sky was spectacular, the stars were so bright and filled the sky from horizon to horizon.

Up early next morning coz I want to film the sun rising and the changing colours as the sun lights up the rock, so I'm out there and all setup by 6am, absolutely freezing and waiting for the sun to rise..... It was well worth the effort and the footage I've reviewed so far is great. Managed to capture the changing colours as the sun rose. My fingers and feet were now going numb, so back into the tent to try and thaw out with the gas light and cooker. After breakfast, it was time to pack up and get up close and personal with Mt Augustus. Packing up and folding everything up so that it fits back into the various bags was a lot harder than unpacking it, but hopefully I'll know a bit more for next time.

We did all the recommended drives and sites plus the 49km drive around the base. The Summit Walk is 12km long and takes 6 hours return plus viewing time and is classed as a "difficult walk" for experienced walkers only, so we skipped it. 

A must see, but once you've seen it, you've seen it. Speaking to a few people in the park last night, they told us that it's much better than Ayers Rock coz it's still an original outback experience in the raw. They all tell us that we're going to be disappointed with Ayers Rock after this coz it's half the size and has been totally over commercialised.

Time to head back to Carnarvon taking a different route so we can stop off at the Kennedy Ranges on the way.

Kennedy Ranges:

Before I go any further and you read this article, I have to admit to being a total idiot here and have learned a very valuable lesson.
So here goes, time to head off, so go to fill up with diesel. The sign says closed but when I ask other campers, they all tell me it's open 7 days a week, that's their house over there so just go and knock on the door. Knocked, called out, walked around but no-one home. Walked back and waited at the pump. Noticed the price was $2.30 per litre which was around what we were expecting out here. Went back to their house and after an hour or so, decided to head off to the next station up the road which advertised 7 days a week supplies.

Bugger, it's $2.70 a litre here but now I've got no option, gotta pay the price, so go to the office for some service. Wait around, cough, call out, blow my nose and do everything I can to try and get someones attention, but nothing. Look around for any other signs of life, but nothing. The office is open but no-ones home or they are otherwise occupied. Anyway, I'm looking at all the photos and guided tours available whilst we're waiting and notice a detailed map of the area showing all the farms, stations, homesteads and more importantly, fuel sites. "Lets get outta here and try the next fuel site, they're scattered here and there all the way to Gascoyne Junction" I tell Marlene and off we go.

No signs or turn offs for the first few stops on the map and after around 100ks, I'm starting to get a bit worried. Let me re-phrase that, I'm getting extremely worried. The fuel guage is half way between quarter and empty. Stopped for lunch and Marlene's asking why I'm not talking much, "just thinking and planning my luv". Then she hits me with the big one, "how are we going for diesel?" What can I say other than we're in trouble unless we can find a homestead or flag down someone who's got some spare diesel.

She takes it quite calmly and assures me that "Tinkerbell" (her pet name for the Patrol) will get us there okay. "You're living in cuckoo land girl, this is getting serious. Unless we can get some diesel, we're camping in the middle of no-where tonight and goodness knows when the next vehicle will pass by" We count back and remind ourselves that we have only seen 3 vehicles on the road in the past 2 days, scary stuff. Reckon we're now down to around 50 ks of fuel left, so continue on at 60 ks an hour, barely touching the throttle and doing everything I know to drive as economically as possible. Now down to the 2nd last fuel stop on that map and the place is deserted, so it's now getting really serious. One last hope, but that's over 60 ks away and there's no way we're going to make it there, but trying to be positive, we press on regardless.

I'm deliberately not mentioning names of stations or homesteads coz I don't want to drop anyone in it.
Unbelievably, we manage to reach our final hope (xx homestead) and we see some kids playing at the front of the house, what a relief, someones home.
Where's your mum and dad?
Who are you and what do you want?
Just want to talk to your mum and dad!
Total silence, then a very young lad comes running over and holds my hand and says "daddy is sleeping"
Then Mum walks out of the house, "whatya want?"
"We had a fuel leak and lost the main tank of fuel before we realised we had a problem. Fixed the leak and have struggled here on the sub tank, please can you sell us enough diesel to get to Gascoyne Junction which is around 100 ks away"   Now I'm not going to tell her what an idiot I've been relying on a map I saw and assumed it was up to date and current.
Hold on, gotta ask my old man.
Yeah, we can spare 20 litres, but it's gonna cost ya $1.95 a litre.
Sure thing so I poured the 20lt jerry can into Tinkerbelle.
That's $39.00. Lucky for you we're here. We pulled in here 2 months ago and the place was abandoned so we decided to stay for a while. We're moving on in a couple of months, wanna cup of coffee? We handed over $50.00 and had to insist that they keep the change.

It was a very strange and eerie experience. Reminded me of "Chainsaw Massacres". What you expect is not always what you find.
We arrived there expecting to meet the owners, but we come across some squatters in the middle of nowhere. They ended up being very nice and friendly people and certainly got us out of the poo. A big learning experience and wake up call for me. Off to the Kennedy Ranges......

The Kennedy Ranges are 163 km east of Carnarvon after turning north at Gascoyne Junction or in our case, part of the return trip. Absolutely breathtaking and we found them more of a highlight than Mt Augustus. It's a huge mesa 75km long and up to 75km wide. Every twist and turn offers a breath taking view of the 100 metre high cliffs. We could have spent days here exploring and unraveling all the hidden treasures. Words cannot describe the views and the colours

Anyway, it was getting late and had to get back to Carnarvon that night. Arrived at Gascoyne Junction @ 5:30pm just in time before they closed @ 6pm. Diesel was $1.95 at the pump but that was empty and had to settle for diesel pumped out of drums @ $2.30 per litre, I suspect they say that to all the tourists and keep the $1.95 in the pump for the locals who know better. On top of that, they emptied the drum and only had 74 litres which was at least enough to get us back to Carnarvon..  Don't like driving at sunset or night time in the best of conditions, never mind the dirt road ahead, but we had to get home and had a few close encounters with roos and cows on the way. Thank goodness I had the long range spot lights fitted coz without them, we wouldn't have seen them in time. A total of just over 1,000 ks for the two day trip, 850ks of dirt and 164ks on sealed roads.
 

Life On The Road:

As I've already admitted, I learned a valuable lesson on this trip. The outback is an isolated place and can catch out the inexperienced and unwary, so I'll never leave an established site again without ample supplies which includes more than enough diesel to get to our destination. I also won't trust any maps I see out there unless I know how old or up to date they are.

One problem I never anticipated was getting cash, you know, the real folding stuff. Not everyone up here accepts credit cards and insists on the folding stuff. I tried to cash a cheque in Denham, no 'my bank' branch, then again in Carnarvon and the same problem.  Fortunately, the bank Marlene uses had a branch in Carnarvon so transferred funds into that and then had to wait 3 days for special clearance and eventually got some of the folding stuff.

Finally got the 80,000ks service done, but wow, $715.92 was a bit of a shock. They also informed us we had a nail in the left rear tyre and had a slow leak. Got it fixed first thing next morning before heading onto Coral Bay.
 
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