Off to See the Wizard - Carnarvon to Denham

Some days are mainly about the driving and the first part of this day was like that.  

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On our way out of Carnarvon we noticed the dishes of the OTC (Overseas Telecommunication) station that is now a space museum, as a previous dish on this site, together with the one at Parkes were involved in the first moon mission.

We called in at a lookout where you could see for miles.

Our travelling setup in all her glory.

Our destination for the day was Shark Bay.  This is the most westerly part of Australia.

We continued to see more and more wildflowers beside the road.

There is lots to see and much history in Shark Bay.  The first place we visited was “Shell Beach”.  I was really looking forward to this, as Mick had mentioned it from when he was here in the early 1980s.

The beach is made up of billions of tiny cockle shells.  

Shark Bay is divided in two by a peninsula up the middle.  The two lower bays are some of the saltiest water in the world, being more than twice as salty as the open ocean.  It is caused by sea grass.  These tiny cockles can live in that environment, where most animals cannot.  They feed on an algae that lives on their shells.  They live for over a year and after they die their shells wash up on the beach.  The shells have built up over thousands of years to create a layer up to nine metres thick in some places.  Over time, the deeper layers compact into a limestone called Coquina.  Some early buildings in the area have been made from blocks of this stone, which can be cut with a saw.  There used to be a quarry, but the only blocks quarried now are to make repairs to existing buildings.  

I was enjoying sitting there.

We are asked not to remove any shells from the beach, which seemed a bit strange, as just a little further along there is a shell quarry.  The shells are used in aviaries, as calcium supplement on stock farms and for local landscaping.  The last couple of caravan parks we have stayed at have a layer of shells on the entire area, where we would have gravel at home.

There were lots of flowers as we walked from the ute to the beach.  I’ve no idea what they are.  A couple of years ago I bought a book on WA wildflowers at the local book fair.  Did I remember to bring it?  Of course not.  It is with my bird book that I also forgot to bring.  How I am kicking myself about that.  Oh well, if that is the worse that happens…….

We stopped at a lookout on the way, this time on the western side of the peninsula.

I was more interested in the variety of wildflowers in the small area we walked through.  They don’t look all that colourful, but they were pretty in amongst the rocks.

The wind turbines were a feature on the horizon as we drove towards town.  There is also a large solar farm.  I’m guessing this is the main source of electricity for the town, being so remote.

We’ve arrived.  There is no fanfare, but this is the most western town in WA. It is located on the western side of the peninsula in the centre of Shark Bay.

Our camp site was well positioned overlooking the bay.  There wasn’t a great view, but we were very grateful of that tree and those shrubs as a wind break.  Notice the shells on the ground.  They can be quite glarey.

Once we had settled in we went for a walk along the foreshore.  It is a lovely, bright, tidy town.  A pleasure to visit.  The first thing we noticed was a sculpture entitled “Union”.  We guessed it would be by the same artist as “Resillience” at Paraburdoo, and it is.

There is also a memorial to the sailors of HMAS Sydney II here, outside the visitor’s centre.  They have a feature on it inside as well, but we felt we didn’t need to see more at this stage.

There is also an old pearling lugger.  They used to pearl here too, but it was done by dredging.

By then it was beer o’clock, so we found a beer garden overlooking the water.  Rather pleasant.

The sun was setting as we strolled home.  So pretty on the water……but look at those clouds.

It had been quite breezy all day, but it was getting worse.  During the night the direction changed from the north to the south and it was really windy.  We could feel it in the van.  We were very glad we weren’t in a tent.  We did get a bit of rain, but not too much.