Around the West in 90-Odd Days: Days 52-53 (24-25 Aug) Literally in & out of Carnarvon

We hit the lovely town of Carnarvon for two nights, did a day trip northwards, veered inland to visit Kennedy Range for a couple of days, and then returned to Carnarvon to catch up on washing – the clothes, the bedding, the car, the van. We are now shiny as new pennies.

Our day trip northwards took us to Quobba Blowholes, Red Bluff and Three Mile Camp, out on a very picturesque peninsular. The Blowholes were spectacular. We drove through green hills covered in wild flowers with frolicking goats; all very Sound of Music until an emu lopes into view. At Red Bluff, humpback whales with their calves cavorted up and down the coastline, escorted by pods of dolphins. We sat on the white sand, looked at the turquoise waters and ate lashings of prawns with waldorf salad, finished off with choc chip / lemon poppy seed muffins and tumblers of pine coconut juice. It was truly the Enid Blyton-est of days.

Back in Carnarvon we discovered lots of literals. It is literally the food bowl of WA, with plantations galore, producing millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables every year. It is literally out of this world (sort of) – the home of one of Australia’s now defunct tracking stations involved in the NASA space programs; the big dish still dominating the skyline. It has the one-mile jetty which is close to literally a mile long (we believed it after we walked it).

We visited the Space & Technology Museum, dressed as astronauts (though we could be mistaken for prison inmates) and took a ride in the Apollo 11 Command Module simulator for take-off from earth. After the 7 minute take-off, the museum staff opened the Command Module door, causing us to be sucked out; exploding in the vacuum of space. We never got to experience re-entry. Some trivia for you. Trivia 1: On their return from the moon, the Apollo 11 astronauts – Neil, Buzz and some third guy who nobody remembers - had to go into quarantine in case they brought back bacteria from the moon’s surface capable of wiping out life on earth. Granted that’s a worst case scenario; the damage may have been limited to merely mankind (just for the record, It didn’t happen). Trivia 2: In the ’70s, my dad worked in a switching centre which supported the NASA space program, including the Apollo Missions. Trivia 3: We learnt (off the record) from some of the museum staff about the Mars One Mission scheduled for the 2020s. Hmmm….

I have since discovered that: “Mars One is a not for profit foundation with the goal of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars. To prepare for this settlement the first unmanned mission is scheduled to depart in 2020. Crews will depart for their one-way journey to Mars starting in 2026…” We are all researched up, having just watched “Martian” again, but I am a sceptic. I’m certain this is the equivalent of a go-fund-me project on steroids … or maybe asteroids. If you want to be one of the first humans to colonise Mars in something akin to Martian meets Avatar, you’re likely to be disappointed. You can, however, in real life sign up for a Mars colony simulation – if you’re willing to give up a year of your life for it right here on good old planet earth. But really, who would spend a year living in Hawaii – in a pod?? If you think I’m kidding, Google away, my friends.

Coming back down to earth, we enjoyed our time in Carnarvon. Our caravan park is possibly designed with a slightly older demographic in mind. Garden bowls anyone? Bingo? Wednesday afternoon the ice-cream van visits, so we got in the queue for “Real Fruit Ice-cream” (would you like the black sapote?) or flavours from the “Two Fat Cows” company (apparently the Lime & Olive Oil flavour is quite amazing). The ice-cream guy nearly fell over in shock when we came to the front of the queue – “Young people!?!?” It may have been a bit insulting to the rest of his customers.

I’m still thinking about that Lime & Olive Oil ice-cream. Might try it down in Margaret River.