Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 67 - Exmouth to Carnarvon

For some reason everyone, everyone is up early this morning except me. I had a poor night on the back of a late-night watching a less than B grade movie and my wife having had a tiring day and subsequently snoring loudly. Although she suggests I should, I never have the heart to wake her, as she obviously needs the sleep. After several attempts, Robyn finally is able to remove me from bed and get moving.

Forbsy has already coupled up as he wants to go and see the outdoor centre and sort out his water problems. Silver Leader is wandering around, about to hitch up as well, so I need to extract the digit, so to speak. By the time Silver Leader has hitched up we are all but ready, just needing to do the final walk around to ensure we haven’t missed anything.

The plan is to head to the visitors centre, fill our empty tanks with water, empty our sanitary pods, fuel up and go to Coral Bay. This all occurs like clockwork, even to the point of being in the right place first, ahead of a pending rush on the watering taps. The dump point is on the showground next door, although back against the way we want to go, but again there is no disruption, and the fuel stop is uneventful, being an unmanned facility.

We are on the road, and the wind of the passed few days is not as strong but is in our faces. Things are going too well. A couple of Busted birds bid us farewell from Exmouth as we pass the town limits. The rolling hills and vast plains make driving easy. Fuel consumption, even though we have a head wind is acceptable.

Into the great nothingness we travel. There is greenery here for a while then it succumbs to the desolation of the drought. Any green there is begins to dissipate amongst the red dirt. There are willy willies from time to time, some significant, but far enough in the distance not to have any effect on the vans. It is a short hop to Coral Bay, only around 150 kilometres and other than picking up another van making us, as well as Forbsy, “Malcolm’s in the Middle”, the trip is uneventful. As the wind abates the fuel consumption decreases.

Coral Bay we were considering staying at tonight, until we drove in. It’s a lovely spot, crystal clear and shallow water in a safe bay surrounded by coral for a long way to the continental shelf. But it is packed, we can’t even get a parking spot, in fact we are almost stuck, unable to turn around. Thankfully Forbsy and I hang back while Silver Leader heads into the settlement proper to look for parking spots. Where we have stopped for now, allows us to get into what looks like a car park and U-turn.

No joy anywhere, and there are vans piling up behind us. We drive out of the town and park with a short walk back to the little arcade. Silver Leader has been ordered by the grandchildren to ensure he purchases a pie from the bakery, or something sickeningly sweet. First, we have to find this business. Forbsy too, has business here, he has friends to catch up with who are presently working the caravan park, we are just interested.

But places like this are not for us. Agoraphobia, the fear of crowds is not an affliction we have, we just do not enjoy places like this. Silver Leader, Forbsy and the Missing link all holiday at Hat Head every year in January, and we have visited them while they have been in residence a number of times. The park is full the entire Christmas/New Year period right up until the end of January, and unless you are into fishing every day, or beach activities, there is very little extra to do, other than sit around, catch up with folk you may not have seen since the same time last year and drink.

We find the shopping arcade and the bakery, and indeed its worth the look, but is it the best bakery we have run into on this trip, or any other, not by a long shot. Having said that the service is brilliant and the fare more than deliciously acceptable, although they cannot make an iced chocolate to save themselves, but do an more than acceptable cup of tea for Robyn, and the entire order, 2 drinks, a pie and an apple turnover was less than $20.

Forbsy has found his friends, or more importantly they have found him, and they are deep in discussion. I head outside and call the Missing Link, not just to see how he is with the impending funeral of his good mate, but to reflect on the similarity to Hat Head, Coral Bay displays. There are quad bike tours and sand buggy tours as well, and a quad bike tour heads off as I am speaking to him.

Back in the arcade there is consternation about the next move. Clearly, we cannot stay here, actually we can, but do we want to, and the answer is no, but what are the options. We have been talking about Quobba Station, a spot from where there is potentially great surfing, an activity we have no interest in.

Silver Leader and Rosalie have had words about their decision, as Rosalie is not enamoured with lots of dirt road driving, which Red Bluff, the surfing spot adjacent to Quobba Station would entail. You can cut the air with a knife, as Silver Leader suggests to us Quobba is off the agenda and we are all going to Carnarvon. We were going to Carnarvon in any event, whether or not anyone else in the group comes with us is immaterial, there are things there we want to see, which may not intrigue the others, and that’s alright by us.

Forbsy and his friends have gone on a quick trip and he suggests he will be ready to leave in about 30 minutes, which is OK, Robyn and I will walk to the beach and check it out. At the beach we find Silver Leader and Rosalie and we are uncertain whether to make ourselves known to them, but Rosalie beckons us over. The air is still thick between them, but there appears to have been conciliation about the trip to the famed surfing spot. Confirming there is no dirt road for the caravan to cover, Rosalie is happy to go to Quobba and they will do a trek to Red Bluff tomorrow and meet up with us the day after. As Silver Leader is a really keen surfer, I think that will settle him.

Forbsy is back at the appointed time and we are almost caught off guard as we get the “wagons roll” call as they pass us. I was on the phone to my Uncle Lionel discussing a new version of the Lub da Bus I have seen and that I was sending him pictures.

On the road, the scenery is green, but not uniformly green. There are vast areas of similar vegetation, dotted with termite hills and other types of vegetation. Colours can go from the silver greens of the grevilleas to the harsh almost brown of the spinifex. With every rise, as it has done all trip, the vista changes markedly, as the absence of water, the hand of man or simply the change in the soil type takes over.

Silver Leader is unsure if he can make Quobbo on his present fuel reserves, so he wants to use the next roadhouse to fuel up. My night was such, that I can be happy that Robyn can take over the driving for the last 140 kilometres into Carnarvon, and I will catch a catnap and perhaps look to snap some vistas to check later as they change.

We start at the roadhouse, which is right alongside the Minilya River, which although dry, has an inordinate amount of vegetation close by. The further we get from the river the less dense the vegetation becomes. All of a sudden there are scribbly ghost gums, but as soon as they start appearing, they vanish from the view. The bushy shrubs make way for lesser greenery, fading to leafless, almost dead looking figures in the eyeline. The red dirt continues to increase within the view.

There are places where the runoff from rain has smoothed the ground, and since that time there has been no apparent disruption to the earth. I wondered how dinosaur prints could be fossilised but of a catastrophic event occurred and the landscape was affected in a similar manner ie not traversed, then capturing footprints would not be an issue.

We are close to Carnarvon now, and we pull in to observe a fruit fly disposal of fruit. We have some bananas to dispose of or eat. Robyn decides she will eat one and throw the other away. I take over the driving for the last little bit into Carnarvon. Shortly we see why the disposal of bananas is required as there are banana trees being cultivated on a commercial basis, fed from water from the Gascoyne river. We travel over the bridge and the river is a sea of dirt, so the present irrigation musty be coming from the water table. As well as bananas there are commercial market gardens here.

Into Carnarvon and the Big 4 Caravan Park. We are directed to sites but are told if we have any issues to just park where we can. Our spots when we arrive are already being used as overflow from the sites behind. The residents are there and are ore than willing to move vehicles if we need. I for one won’t be able to get into our assigned spot regardless of whether they move or not, so I suggest to them not to bother and we pick a couple of spots a bit further up.

The residents are into their own happy hour and are more than happy to be in for a chat. Apparently, they have been on the road for in excess of three years, in fact one of the group is coming up on four. I ask how do they deal with Christmas and birthdays etc, the answer, they fly home if they need to. The only downside is the grandchildren time, but for now they have had a whale of a time clocking up over150,000 kilometres to date.

The males in the group could easily be mistaken for the Missing link. I snap a quick photo and send it to him asking “what do you call a group of Missing Links – answer our neighbours”. There is no reply, but I suspect only because they are 3 hours behind, and he has other things on his mind.

Robyn has here arm twisted by Forbsy to eat out tonight, a very simple things, although we did buy some meat at Coral Bay, it does not have to be eaten straight away. We head off to find the Carnarvon Hotel which supposedly has the best views of such an establishment in Carnarvon. It is nestled on the river and the beer garden looks across at the sunset. As the sun sets and we engage in some libations, we order dinner and eat whilst watching a round of the world surfing championships, with Forbsy giving us some insights into what we are watching.

Dinner done, we drive home to the van, the driving lights are depressed again and are useless, tomorrow will be a find the Allen keys and fix them AGAIN, but for now a proper shower, our first in three days. Because of the lack of water and the dangerous slippery state of the amenities in Exmouth we only had rub downs. There might be an edge of the envelope attempt to see just how long our hot water can last tonight.