Perth to Quobba

The 10th of April saw us start our trek northwards through the Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley. Simon informed us it was 3500 kilometres  to Kununurra, our most northerly destination. 

Our party consists of Brit and Simon with children Felix(4)and Zoey( almost 2) in one vehicle, with Torb and I in the second. We are both towing camper trailers, ours hired as our Kimberley off-road caravan is being repaired. 

The plan for the next few days is to overnight north of Geraldton enroute to Quobba station for a couple of days. We camped at Galena Bridge overnight, along with many others. First week of school holidays! Not a lot of water in the river, although still a few black swans making the pools home. 

Next morning saw us packing up in a shower of rain. Smarter campers than us had left earlier. A little damp, we headed towards Carnarvon for a quick shop for some essentials we had left behind- pillows Simon!

Quobba is less than an hour from Carnarvon so we arrived at the station in plenty of time to set up for our 3 night stay. Typical station, with station house, yards, shearing sheds and farm machinery strewn around. It does have a few cabins for visitors, plenty of camping area and... an ablution block with flushing toilets and hot, solar panel heated, showers! Also, lovely hosts who are friendly and helpful. This has not always been our experience with the station lessees up here.

The beach at the station is a no fishing and no taking oysters zone. The rocky bottom comes right to the shore so the fishing is no issue but there are thousands of large oysters in easy wading distance. Damn!

Our first full day at Quobba we went to 2 mile beach to take the kids for a swim. We didn't end up swimming there but did get a taste of the fresh oysters off the rocks. Very sweet. They are not in too much danger from us as our screw driver technique for levering them off isn't very refined.

Then we headed to 17 mile for a spot of fishing. Simon caught just one silver trevally but the reef scored a few lures. Nice spot for the kids to splash in the waves and make sand castles. 

We also had a look at the blowholes- a low swell day so not so spectacular. Quobba lighthouse offered us a vantage over the surrounding countryside, including the Cuvier salt operation. The salt is shipped from the port at Point Cuvier. The lighthouse was of interest to Torb as he visited it on the Cape Don lighthouse maintenance ship when he worked on it in the 1970s. He remembers catching a lot of fish in these waters.

There is also a cairn nearby erected in remembrance of the sinking of the HMAS Sydney and the Kormoran in WW2. No survivors from the Sydney but a few from Kormoran. Of course the Sydney has been located since this memorial was put up. It would be interesting to know how far her final resting place is from the battle site

We visited  "the caves"  on the second day. Had fond thoughts of underground caverns with stalactites, stalactites and perhaps a few bats. The reality was some shallow depressions under rock overhangs with a lot of animal poo and a few bones. The bonus was the view of the soaring limestone cliffs dominating the seascape to Red Bluff. 
Highlights so fare 

• Exploring the reef with a torch at night on a very low tide. Crystal clear little water holes with sea urchins, clams, tiny fish and crabs and lots of small corals. Not to mention all the oyster covered rocks protruding above the reef. Magical. 
• Zoey locking herself in "daddies car" with both sets of keys and all windows closed. Brit spent an anxious 10 minutes at the window  gently  instructing a not yet 2 year old how to unlock the car. Fortunately Miss Zoey is no slouch and managed it, albeit with setting off the alarm and giving herself a fright. 
• Simon helping a couple of 14 year old surfers out of a bog in their 200 series land cruiser. Well they looked 14 to me.