An interesting effect was apparent on some of the fly screen mesh in the morning by way of drops of water caught in the mesh that were salty. The amount of salt spray being carried in the air obviously quite significant with the other symptoms being that all walls, floor and exterior of the van and Beast having a sticky feel to them due to the salt. No worries though as eventually we must come across one of those “scattered showers and thunderstorms” the weather forecast is forever talking about.
The drive to Carnarvon was only 72km and in no time at all we were crossing the mighty Gascoyne River. It is actually a dry sand river with all the water below ground and extracted from bores to supply the produce growing industry (lots of Banana palms) that exists near the town although during heavy rain it does actually flow. On arriving we stopped at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and filled with water as roadside signage advised of the severe water shortages south of town and that people should source water in Carnarvon.
We found Carnarvon quite a nice town with a modern and well kemp central shopping area. This leads down to the well setup waterfront with some new and quite fancy residential development going on around some man made canals running off the harbour. Of interest to us was the “One Mile Jetty” out on the coast so after shopping and lunch off we went only to find there was a $4 per head fee to walk the jetty or we could take the little train out for $7 each. Well like other people that were there we were very surprised to have to pay to walk on a public jetty so instead just looked at the jetty, took a picture (no charge), and had a gander at the little museum that was there.
A walk around town complete we filled with fuel and headed south into some significant head winds. Now we know we go on a bit about the flies but we could not resist taking a photo of the road works sign guy as his back and hat were simply covered. He was wearing a fly net over his head which we expect is a health and safety requirement when controlling the “STOP/SLOW” sign as without it he would surely not be able to manage holding it yet alone having the correct side facing. The rest area for the night was once again pretty basic with no significant shade trees but appeared well maintained.
