Carnarvon

We have been in Carnarvon for 6 days now and leave on Sunday 1/11, next stop Kalbarri.  We like it here, it is a small town and very friendly. We are staying at the Wintersun caravan park, which is very clean, shady and has some memorable social nights in the camp kitchen. The manager rigged the raffle the other right ( baked spud night ) so I won a bottle of wine. We also met a lovely man Evan and his wife ; Evan provided the entertainment last week at roast beef night, mainly bush ballads, we really enjoyed his music and bought his CD.

 One mile jetty, it really does stretch a mile out to sea.

 Some views of the town

 On the drive down from Coral Bay, the countryside is very scrubby, then as you get to Carnarvon it gives ways to huge plantations of various fruit and vegetables, especially bananas and tomatoes.  There was a cyclone here last April which wiped out the banana crops, but now replanted.There is also a huge levy surrounding the town to prevent a repeat of flooding.

 Today we drove out to the blowholes, about 70 kms north of Carnarvon.

 Memorial cairn for HMAS Sydney, sunk in November 1942 with loss of all lives (645)

Carnarvon Space Museum

Today we visited the Carnarvon Space & Technology Museum, which we really enjoyed. Carnarvon played a big part in tracking the early manned space program ( Gemini, Apollo & Skylab programs). It was the largest manned space flight tracking station outside the US. The original museum, "Phase One" was opened in 2012 by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. Phase 2 was opened in 2014 by Australian born astronaut Andy Thomas. The facility is no longer in use.

 Mock up of the original Gemini space capsule, precursor to the Apollo capsules

 In the Apollo simulator, they shut the door and play a video of the Apollo 11 launch.  This is the position of the astronauts at launch.

 Astronaut Ginny!

 Outside the simulater

 Buz Aldrin's handprints

 Piece of Skylab found in WA

Skylab

Coral Bay

We just spent 3 lovely days at beautiful Coral Bay. It is a very small settlement with only a few shops, 2 pubs and 2 caravan parks.

 Taken from the caravan window

 Grae heading off for a dip

 The water is a stunning mix of blues

 Main street of Coral Bay

 Our little piece of paradise

 Maintenance day

 Coral Bay pub, loved the vertical garden

 Fish feeding time