Next up on our Western Australia coastal adventures was a stop in Carnarvon. This was initially going to be a stopover, but given it was school holidays and Exmouth was mostly booked out, we added a few extra days on.
Carnarvon is famous for the huge satellites that were involved in the Apollo 11 man on the moon mission.
Friday, JUN 23rd – (DAY 78)
We awoke early this morning to see the dolphins for the last time, while Adam spent the morning listening to the NBA Draft. By about 10am it was time to set off to Carnavon.
The drive this morning was roughly 3.5 hours, but it was a looooooong boring drive, similar to the Nullarbor drive with nothing to see and no phone reception.
About half way we stopped at a random service station, filling up and getting ourselves some healthy snacks. Then it was back on the road. We arrived about 2:30pm or so.
It didn’t take us long to realise Carnavon is a bit of a rough town, and the caravan park was a little bit on the westy side. Fortunately we had a nice green area down the back without too many people around.
After setting up, we headed into town for an explore and then grabbed some stuff for tea at the IGA. Then we headed back and lounged around at the park for the rest of the night. We even played a game of Catan again with Jamie and Rach, which seems to becoming a regular thing now.
Saturday, JUN 24th – (DAY 79)
This morning we woke up around 9ish and had some breakfast, before heading in to town to check out the farmers market.
As far as farmers markets go, it actually wasn’t too bad and this time we even bought a few supplies for tea tonight. Then we spent an hour or so walking around exploring the pier area and checking out the town some more.
On the way back to the park we stopped at Woolworths to get some more stuff for tea then we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the weather at the park.
Adam listened to the Swans vs Eagles massacre on radio, which ended 205-34 and that’s about all that happened today. Pretty easy going really!
We also made friends with a group of chickens. Once you feed them once, they spend the rest of your stay coming back for more.
Some new friends 
The lovely streets of Carnarvon
Sunday, JUN 25TH – (DAY 80)
Adam was back with a piano lesson today after a fortnight hiatus. In fact, there was two lessons, which took up the hours between 10am to 1pm. It was a lesson on learning music by ear, then transcribing it to sheet music using computer software. Pretty interesting!
We made ourselves some lunch and then decided to go for a walk to the Carnarvon Space & Technology Museum. It was about a 15 minute walk and going by the looks of the outside of it, we didn’t have too high hopes.
Turns out it was awesome! Carnarvon played a pretty large part in the Apollo 11 mission that sent Neil Armstrong to the moon. There was huge satellites which was used for communication during the mission.
On the inside there was memorabilia and info about NASA space programs and we could even do a simulation of launching in a replica rocket.
The rest of it was of it was interactive space stuff. But we enjoyed playing the old 1970s/80s Atari games. Things like Space Invaders, etc. After playing for a good half hour, we got our names on the high score list. We’d have stayed longer, but the place was unfortunately closing at 4pm.
After that, we walked back home, grabbing a couple of blocks of marvelous creations chocolate on special at Apco, then spent the rest of the afternoon at the park.
Monday, JUN 26TH – (DAY 81)
Today was to be our last day in Carnarvon, so we thought why not spend it exploring the area a bit. Our plan was to do a coast drive out to the Quobba Blowholes.
Before heading off, we stopped at a local cafe to buy some lunch for a little picnic and got ourselves some quiches and a smoothie, then it was time to hit the road. It was roughly a 50 minute drive.
The scenery was pretty desolate with not much to see, but the area at the blowholes was pretty nice.
We actually got more than we bargained for though. Linnie saw from a distance what looked to be a shark fin of sorts, but wasn’t sure. So we went to explore, and found about 3 whales splashing about in the water. It was the first whales we’d ever spotted on our travels after years of trying!
For the next hour or so we chased them up the coach watching them, it was pretty magical and we were lucky to see it. Before heading home, we checked out yet another memorial for that HMAS Sydney II ship. These coastal towns seem to have a love affair with this ship.
The rest of the evening was spent back at the caravan with Adam doing some more practicing of sheet music transcribing and Linnie playing the Zelda game.