Day 20

Whalebone Bay - Canarvon - Quobba Blowholes - Point Quobba

" Cause I remember every sunset, I remember every word you said...."

The day today was mostly uneventful driving and a necessary food shop & fuel in Carnarvon. The afternoon though was something totally different!

Carnarvon is a town that is going through a lot of change and so I dont want to entirely rubbish it because it would be nice to come back in 6 months time and see what all the roadwork and construction mess had achieved. Its obviously growing and thus the change. Skirting the town there are bananas everywhere - they supply 70% of WA's bananas.

We left Carnarvon to drive 70ks out to Quobba Station. It's off the main highway but we'd read a bit about the nursery that Point Quobba offered and it was too tempting. Quobba is a large sheep station and the only one in WA where the desert meets the sea. It has large salt mines and gypsum mines run by Rio Tinto carved out of it in the Lake Macleod area as well.

The sea was pretty rough today too - the Blowholes looked over by the Lighthouse were going off! The waves were pounding the shoreline relentlessly .

A kilometre from the blowholes is Point Quobba. On a calm day this would be magnificent! On a windy day, it's still pretty awesome too!! The white sandy beach is a couple of hops from the campsite and there is a reef nestled between the mainland and a little island about 500m from shore.

The water temperature was bath like - must have been 23 or 24 degrees and so it didn't take much for all of us to grab a mask & snorkel and jump straight in.

Wow - the marine life here is better than Blue Holes @ Kalbarri! Within 10 Metres of the shore it's a whole tropical world full of lots of different corals, clams, fish of all sorts and sizes, eels and even big octopuses.

Cayla managed to tread on an octopus - don't know who was more frightened either - Cobes or the Octopus? Cayla didn't even flinch!

It costs $5 to camp the night here - there are no facilities (dont need them anyway) but the marine park at our front door is better than any aquarium that I've been in. Just standing in waist deep water and putting your head under with a mask is like looking into a whole new world!

Going back for another snorkel session after breakfast in the morning before heading to the Coral Coast - and more snorkeling adventures. That is if the kids don't beg us to stay another day here - at $5 for the night why wouldn't we ! Just hope the wind dies down overnight.