Carnarvon

Carnarvon

Lookout near Wooramel Roadhouse (between Hamelin and Carnarvon)

blowhole at Point Quobba

We headed off yesterday morning, by this time all well and truly covered in sandfly bites and rubbing and scratching like crazy people, the only downside about Francois Peron NP. I thought I would be ok only putting repellent on the bits of skin that were showing but no, they got in *everywhere*. Aloe vera seems to relieve things a bit and we’re just trying really hard not to itch. It was mainly a driving day to get to Carnarvon, although we stopped briefly at a lookout which had a great view – it was just a small hill basically in this big expanse of flat heath that seems to go forever in all directions. A man there recommended a great little roadhouse at Worramel nearby, which sells homemade danishes and pastries. They made a great morning tea, and we got some homemade sausage rolls and pasties for lunch as well, a big treat. We drove into Carnarvon at the same time as what looked like a huge bunch of posties on postie bikes putt-putting along, and it turned out to be…. A group of posties doing a big tour to raise money. We headed out to the mile long jetty for lunch and then to walk off our morning tea and lunch on the (mile) long jetty which was built in the late 1800’s. After that it was a quick shop and a drive out to where we’d chosen to camp for the night, which was unfortunately absolutely packed (got to arrive early at these cheap places). We still found a spot with the Ralh’s tucked in a bit behind the dunes (there was a bit of a breeze), set up just as the sun was going down and had a nice warm dinner.

This morning we were up just *before* the sun came up because we had to get into town by 8.30am to visit the Carnarvon School of the Air – you can sit in on a lesson on certain days, and after reading about the Catteralls doing it we thought it might be interesting. It kind of was, but unfortunately more interesting for us than for the kids who just couldn’t sit through it. After that we looked around the town for a bit, trying to find a few things on our shopping list (not very successfully), and met the Ralhs again for lunch at a playground. We stopped at a few farms to buy some fresh fruit and veggies which is a nice change after lots of supermarket stuff – fresh herbs! One place even makes their own mushed up fruit icecreams which were just fantastic. Conor even bought a chocolate covered chocolate-pudding fruit icecream, and then regretted it, but Nick was nice enough to swap his chocolate covered custard apple one which went down better. Daniel and I went to town on Mango icecreams. Now it’s back to the campground, Nick reckons for a swim but I’m not so sure as it’s windy. Unfortunately we have to first clean out the fridge as when we put it back in yesterday morning we forgot to turn it on! Thankfully we only had one pack of sausages left in there which we had to throw out, the other stuff is ok to have just been kept cool I think (we’ll find out when we get back). There’s a fair amount of festy smelling water at the bottom though….