Carnarvon - Day 23

Fletcher : Today we drove to a farm that grows mangos and grapes they also make ice creams.  Mum had mango choc coated, Mackenzie had banana choc chip, dad had half chocolate and half mango and I had a mango fruit pop.  We also got bananas freshly picked off the tree.  Later on in the day we went to the beach, me and Mackenzie went snorkelling. After we had a walk Mackenzie and I played in the park.  We also went to the museum where we went on a train, we also went to a space dish and climbed it.

Mackenzie: Today we went to different fruit farms.  We went to a Banana farm and we got a ice cream and got a bunch of bananas straight off the tree.  Then we went to a satellite dish and climbed it.  We went to the one mile jetty and went on the coffee pot train.  We went to a museum and we saw a lot of shells.  After that we went back to the caravan park and had lunch, for lunch I had hash browns, yummy, then we had a rest.  After that we went to the beach and had a play at a park.  We went on a giant swing and a flying fox.  And for dinner we had crumbed chicken and noodles and took photos of the sunset and did the blog.

                                                  the incredible Gascoyne River

                                               Me and Mackenzie at the massive satellite dish

                                              coffee pot train on the one mile jetty

                                     the jetty how it was - part of this section had the fire

                                                  Me with the shell collection and star fish

                                                     Mackenzie and I on the swing at the park

                                                                   sunset from the beach

                                                   just after sunset- beautiful colors

                       me at the beach in the dark, mum had to use a flash to take photos



We jammed so much into today.  We started the day with crazy boy about 4 years old a couple of vans away screaming, hmmm was about 7am, not sure what you can be angry about that early - unless you were us being woken by screaming kids!!  We headed to the information centre as we had heard there was a Gascoyne food trail and you got a map and you followed it around - well the powers had to be in on that!  We actually only did about 3 out of the list as we had such a great time at each.  We first stopped at Bumbaks which is a mango & grape market gardens with a great shop attached.  They make preserves, jams & tasty ice creams.  We spent along time talking to the lovely shop assistant who was originally from Victoria, was travelling Australia and got here, liked it and been here 5 years, she's even getting married here next month rather than Victoria and all the family are coming here.  They have the most space age sprayer for their crops, absolutely amazing.  We spent a fortune but could have spent more, they do mail order so I think we will add ourselves to their customer list.  We kept going to the next stop which was a banana plantation and brought bananas direct from the growers, they tasted fantastic.  We ate a bunch before we had left the property so had to grab another lot, there were even fully loaded trucks on their way to Perth pulling up and getting arm fulls of supplies.  We went to the Gascoyne River which is incredible, it is an upside down river so the water is under the ground. Weird but amazing, all the growers have direct access via water lines, they sink a bore under the river and have an endless supply.  The river flooded in 2010 from a cyclone further up north so the river couldn't cope underground, so filled up like a normal river, broke its banks and separated the farm area and the town.  The park we are staying in was completely under water, petrol stations washed away, the photos are devastating.  They have rebuilt most of the major things from what we can tell, increasing everything in size- the petrol station is now an enormous truck stop, sadly many businesses including the shell-coles service station is still behind cyclone fences 3 years on waiting for its future to be determined.  The river is dusty and dry now and extremely wide so its just hard to fathom that it is capable of causing such devastation.  We got out to take some photos on the bridge with Dan driving along beside us slowly, his highlight of the day was seeing a road train - triple in his rear vision mirror.  My job- get a photo of the big thing as Dan sped off and it barrelled towards us- epic fail again on my behalf, got the whole thing this time but you cant even tell its a long vehicle- this may lead to divorce if I cant secure a good photo for him!  He was actually happy with it but I was so disappointed to have missed another opportunity.  We then headed to the satellite dish that played a role in the man on the moon landing in 1969, although the one at Parkes gets more publicity probably because of the movie The Dish, this one at Carnarvon was also involved, it was commissioned by NASA and was also involved with Gemini, Apollo & Skylab programs to communicate with them.  In its day it had a staff of 220 people and was the last contact with earth the astronauts had before leaving the earths orbit and the first contact on re-entry.  It was closed for official use after it tracked Haileys Comet and was officially opened as a museum in 2012 by Buzz Aldrin, who was with Neil Armstrong as the 1st men on the moon.  Sorry if we begin to sound like travel brochures but Daniel and I have been blown away the last week or so with the information and statistics this area has and how interesting our country is.  Information like this town alone has 176 growers that supply 70% of Western Australia's fruit & vegies, boring fact but when you are here and see it, it is incredible that it is just an ordinary town with such huge ability, it helped man land on the moon, its river is an upside down river!  Had I heard of Carnarvon before?? No.  I saw it on a banana sticker that I got from my fruit and vegie lady after Dan started planning the trip but prior to that I was oblivious to its awesomeness (another Fletcher word!!)  Dan and I are learning heaps of new words from the kids but I will save that for tomorrow or another day to explain their take on words.  We then went to the One Mile Jetty, self explanatory again.  It is in the heritage precinct and is amazing.  We went on the coffee pot train which runs the distance of the jetty and you are allowed to take dogs on it, Bentley had the wind blowing in his fur but he was very unsure of his transport.  It was only $20 for all of us and well worth the money for the experience.  The office had to check the wind as anything up around 30knots the driver won't take you and as it was very windy they had to check, it was only 20knots so off we went.  It is a little petrol powered engine all painted in sea creature pictures, the seats were really comfy and the wind was a welcome relief from the heat.  We neared the end of the jetty and she stops for you to get out and look around, no time limit just as long as we wanted, some locals who had been fishing jumped aboard and just waited for us to look & take photos.  The end of the jetty had been closed due to some gooses setting fire to it many years ago and although the section didn't look very big its cost was enormous, $360 thousand and the fire bugs got a $150 fine and no record :(  The train no longer could turn around but our train driver reversed us back just fine.  We jumped back on board to our lovely driver sharing out her box of lollies with us.  The history of the jetty is amazing too with wagons & then trains loading ships from the end of the jetty.  We spent another hour or so in the museum looking at old photos and relics and I felt ashamed for complaining about the heat on my amazing holiday when you see the conditions that they worked under in the past.  We headed back for lunch but you could have called it tea considering the time it was and then went to the beach.  The kids had a swim and Dan and I had a paddle up to our knees and it was surprisingly warm in the water, no dogs on the beach so Bentley was tucked under Daniels arm as usual like a handbag.  We had a long walk along the fascine and the kids played in the park, they had equipment we had never seen and I think the kids will dream about that park for many years.  We watched another beautiful sunset, still after that elusive perfect sunset photo.  And back to the van for tea, Fletcher's choice tonight so crumbed chicken and vegies, too embarrassed to say what time we eventually ate but we had a fun and jam packed day so it was worth it.  To top it off Mack and I made banana cup cakes with cream cheese icing so it was topped off by a yummy dessert.