Carnarvon. Wold class in spelling mistakes.
First settled in 1883, the town has had a colourful history and was the first port in Australia, and probably the world, where livestock was transported regularly on a commercial basis by sea.
We have been very much looking forward to reaching this town as fresh fruit and vegies straight from the plantations is so very exciting, but we are also interested to see why so many of our fellow travellers did not enjoy their time here. Many drove in, filled up and continued on their way. On our first day we discovered how incredibly sweet a banana can taste when allowed to fully ripen on the tree, and how yummy fresh strawberries and tomatoes really are. We have eaten really well on our trip and have learned to appreciate the difficulties remote towns have in receiving fresh produce. On first glance Carnarvon is making us very happy. It is a much bigger town then we were expecting and the supermarket shopping is the cheapest we have encountered since leaving Melbourne. Even more special was bumping into a new/old friend as we entered the supermarket.
With bellies full we wake the next morning and make our way to the Visitors centre, of course! We leave a little confused as our excitement for exploring this town was not quite reciprocated by the staff. But despite their lack of enthusiasm, we started on our way.
The first stop was to be the One mile Jetty. Unfortunately, about 3 weeks ago there was a fire on the jetty at pier number 142. This meant that the coffe pot train could not travel and you could only walk as far as that pier...but it still proved to be a wonderful walk.
Looking back to the shore from pier 142.
The jetty also housed the railway museum and the wold famous Shearing Hall of Fame.
It is actually a very interesting collection of historical relics and curios and we stayed for an enjoyable hour or so.
We didn't quite recognise any of the names in this Hall Of Fame however!!!
We then climbed the water tower outside and, wow, what a view looking back down over the Jetty. Back in December, Carnarvon suffered a major flooding event and the after effects are still visible in the colour of the ocean. Normally crystal clear blue, now a brown muddy tinge is still apparent from all the silt deposited by the Gascoyne river. 
This is the drive out of Bumbak's farm where we sampled some locally made choc coated fruit ice treats and Linda had an amazing banana smoothie. All these farms were only 2 klms approx from our caravan park but the local inhabitants, we were told, think it is too far to drive and they shop for their fruit and vegies at the supermarket!! Shmucks!!
Humpty Dumpty keeping watch across the road from the entrance to the Emerald egg farm.
Sign at local carwash.
This is the OTC Dish established by NASA in 1966 as a satellite communications and tracking station. The station was involved in the Gemini and Apollo space missions, Australia's first TV satellite program and also played a role intercepting Halley's Comet prior to ceasing operation in 1987.
Dodging the traffic on the way to a beach 15klms north.
Luckily we found a spot on the crowded beach.
Whilst here we also did our best in following the 101 things to do whilst in Carnarvon. After giggling at all the spelling mistakes and then at all the things that were subtly repeated, off we went. First we visited the Carnarvon Aboriginal Cultural Centre, unfortunately, we have been very spoilt with all the centres we have visited thus far, and this one did not really enthrall. It is housed in a beautiful building, but there is not very much inside. We did enjoy a yummy morning tea with our old/ new friend having our first sushi in a very long time. The kids were so excited as their teacher from Coral Bay was having coffee at the same place! We also visited the Small Boat Harbour and bought a kilo of some very delicious prawns which we shared with a very interesting army guy back at the caravan park. We kept having to remind ourselves that this is not their busy period so everything is a bit slow, but it has started to become apparent that Carnarvon is a tired town with huge potential. Maybe it is different during the peak season and I guess we will have to come back in order to make that judgement.
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