Geraldton - Carnarvon

We awoke to the sqwaks of cockatoos and galahs in the trees on day two.  I'd planned the trip specifically as a dash north to Exmouth and a leisurely trip back so we had 480km to get through.   Basically 300 miles, which really doesn't seem like much...unless you're driving a giant camper in strong cross winds on narrow roads filled with warning signs about animals in the road (including feral goats - I imagined them with dripping fangs and bloodshot goat eyes).  Rather than the zippy 110km/70mph that is the legal speed limit we quickly realized we averaged more like 80km/50mph.   And any speed over 100kph seemed to border on the verge of foolhardy.

North of Geraldton/Northhampton the landscape starts to change from mostly farm and pasture land to the scrub land that seems to be the theme of much of Western Australia.  We noticed the trees got smaller and smaller...and smaller the further north we went.  And the landscape opened up so you could see just how shockingly huge it is.  We're from Texas so used to vast expanses of unfriendly land but we were both impressed.

This photo above is at a scenic overlook.  See that tiny white spec on top of the mesa to the left?  That's a camper the same size as ours lost in the landscape.

Once past Northhampton the map shows 3 named spots before Carnarvon - Billabong Roadhouse, Overlander Roadhouse, and Wooramel Roadhouse.  And the map meant it.  There isn't anything else out there on the main road.





We took the advisories on taking plenty of water and keeping the gas tank full seriously.  I'm sure we'd have been fine as there were plenty of cars of the road, but something about the landscape made you want to be careful.

The Wooramel Roadhouse - last stop for gas before Carnarvon.






So we're driving in to Carnarvon and pondering what we'd heard.  The town is famous for it's banana plantations.  But how?  Seriously, there is no water to be seen anywhere around here. Turns out that even though the Gascoyne river is a long red dust ribbon when you're looking at it they can  still pump water out of it  - the water flows underground.

In Carnarvon we found this guy - a dusky frogmouth - perched snoozing in the tree next to us. He was slightly pissed off - probably because of that loud back up beeper on the camper but managed to ignore us and go back to sleep.

We toddled off into town to find restorative beverages and dinner.  It was Mother's Day so the one somewhat swanky establishment on the waterfront was booked solid but they cheerfully sold us a couple of drinks.  We were bemused by the live entertainment - a guy with a drum set and a sound track playing songs like "Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys".  Interesting selection.  A nice long stroll along the esplanade at sunset and we headed back to sack out so we could get up early and head to Exmouth.

Downtown Carnarvon.   

Carnarvon foreshore