Carnarvon

We arrived in Carnarvon yesterday and as we drove into the caravan park …. There were two familiar faces as we made our way to our spot. Allan and Karen are now accusing us of being stalkers!

We set off to stock up on fresh fruit and veg. which from here on it is quite plentiful. A kilo of bananas for $5.00 is quite good and a bag of tomatoes for $4.00 is good too! So we are stocked up and looking forward to seeing more fresh fruit which will be lovely. Not too many food miles for fruit around here. We have picked up a “Gascoyne Food Trail” brochure which is a great guide to finding the best retail and food stops along the way.

This park comes well recommended according to the book and its star attraction seems to be the bowling green only twenty metres from our door.  Today there was an announcement over the loud speakers (never had them in a park before, this is a trip of firsts!) to tell everyone to put their names down for the afternoon game commencing at 1pm. You could borrow bowls if you didn’t have your own and from the noise emanating from the Bowling Green now (4.10pm) the competition is fairly fierce!

Also a reoccurring theme here is the arrival of the film crew we met at our last stop who were here filming another episode and spent another day crouching on the bowling green espousing the virtues of lawn bowls and how fantastic caravan parks are! By the way this park isn’t even the designated “retirees” park. Yes there is a park in town which specialises in retirees. Old as we are we bypassed that one.

Whilst out and about today we explored the Lighthouse Keepers Cottage Museum which was interesting and never fails to show something original which an ingenious person has thought out to meet a need. In this case it was a petrol motor powered water pump which originated in Norwich, England, and uses a chain to bring water to the surface from any bore or well. These were often carried by drovers, and early settlers.

We also went to Gwoonwardu Mia which is the Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre where we were lucky enough to see an exhibition of local indigenous artwork and weaving which we really enjoyed.

Tonight we are having a BBQ with Karen and Allan and leaving tomorrow for Warroora Station at 14 mile Beach which is 155km south of Exmouth. Notably we’re being forced to book a bit ahead now and have booked right up to Kununurra.