Day 115 - Carnarvon

We had intended today to head out to Kennedy Range National Park but it is 210km away to the east and we are not prepared to head east just yet.  A large portion of the road was gravel and then there would be the gravel roads to get from place to place within the Park, so wisdom overtook desire and we stayed around Carnarvon.

What we did see around Carnarvon were:

• one mile jetty - rebuilt in 1998 and still looking a little worse for wear.  It is actually 1495 metres long.  There was a marine museum there too

300714 One Mile Jetty

300714 A lifeboat from the German cruiser Kormarund at the museum

• Pelican Point from where we could see Carnarvon from across the water

300714 Carnarvon from Pelican Point

• Chinaman Pool, permanent water in the Gascoyne River.  This was very poorly presented, probably because it is outside Carnarvon's protective levee and subject to regular flooding

300714 Chinaman's Pool with pelican

• Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum, which celebrates Carnarvon's role in manned space programs and in the Australian communications industry.  Key features are on The Carnarvon Tracking Station for NASA's Apollo, Gemini and Skylab programs and the OTC Satellite Earth 

300714 The 30m antenna for relaying NASA communications
via the Pacific Ocean

300714 The Gnome at home in the Space & Technology Museum
with a working 60's B&W television

300714 Other support equipment for the Carnarvon Tracking Station

• The technology site was atop the Brown Range about 6km from Carnarvon and there were some good views of crops growing nearby.

300714 Protective material over crops at Carnarvon

300714 Banana plantations at Carnarvon

Later in the day we bought custard apple ice creams and another serving of prawns, the later for an entree this evening to go with freshly caught snapper.  Well, one should not be surprised.  We are in a fruit growing area by the sea.