Day 56

Friday 1st May 2015, overcast and cool

Carnarvon

We had a light shower overnight but nothing more.

Double or Nuthin’ puts the Mazda in for a service and we continue on to tour the OTC Satellite Earth Station.

From 1964 to 1986 this facility aided in the tracking and communications for NASA projects Gemini, Apollo and Skylab as well as the launch of satellites for the European Space Agency. A far cry from Mrs O’Donohue’s morse code at Hamelin Pools. We climb into a replica Command Module and lying on our backs with our legs in the air we ride a simulation of a rocket launch. Whoa. It is a fine museum with so much old equipment that an old geek like me is in seventh heaven.

In 1897 they built a jetty in Carnarvon for the shipping of supplies and live cattle from the inland. The town has an unusual situation on a blind bight beside the river and well behind the dunes and mudflats. Thus, to reach deep water the jetty is one mile long and a small train now runs the length of it. The jetty is well worn and rusted but a great walk. When we reach the end we chat with a woman who is fishing for tailor. She tells us that the water which is quite brown is still murky from the last cyclone and that aggressive bull sharks abound in the ocean and river. When we offer to carry her tackle she chuckles and tells us that the train will pick her up as she is the driver. And so it does.

We batten the hatches for the predicted heavy rains and 120kph winds and nothing happens. Cyclone Quan crosses the coast north of us at Coral Bay and fizzles out, thankfully. But the park is full of vans that have left Coral Bay during the night to seek shelter at Carnarvon.

Accom: $35.10

Travelling Kms: 0