Week Commencing 27.09.10
Monday 27.09.10 – Today is Maureen Potts 60th Birthday, Happy Birthday Maur hope you are having fun on your cruise. John and I visited the Blow Holes & Quobba located just 75km north of Carnarvon , this natural phenomenon is an awe inspiring sight to see. Powerful ocean swells force water through sea caves and up out of narrow holes in the rocks, jets of water erupt into the air, sometimes to a height of 20 metres, creating a spectacular sight. Just 1km south of the Blow Holes is Point Quobba a calm coral filled lagoon with fish and shells in abundance. With a while sandy beach , which is ideal for snorkelling, safe swimming and enjoying a picinic lunch. Although the coast is serene and yet rugged it can be deadly, with a dangerous swell than can turn into King Waves, capable of crashing over the top of the rock ledge. This coastline needs to be treated with caution and care – lives have been lost by unsuspecting souls here.

Tuesday 28.09.10 – Today we do some chores and get ready to move onto Denham. We enjoyed drinks with Bernie & Bev a lovely couple in the camp. A couple of drinks at 5pm turned into getting home at 9.20pm. We still enjoyed our Pink Snapper which we bought earlier in the day. Yummy

Wednesday 29.09.10 – Left camp around 10am and had nearly an uneventful drive to Denham. We came across a herd of cattle on the road and when we got closer we notice a calf had been hit and the cattle were gathering around it trying to help, it was so sad to see. Further along the highway we come across two vans travelling around 80km per hour. We passed the first and as we passed the lead van he gets on the CB to his mater abusing us for passing in danger, their last comment was bloody Queenslanders! Anyway we continue our journey and get settled into camp and yes you guessed it they roll in and camp two down from us. On the Denham road we stopped off at Shell Beach.

Shell Beach - as the name implies, is not your everyday sand beach. Instead it’s a beach made of millions of tiny shells, all from one type of animal. The shell known as the Hamelin Cockle, lives in prolific numbers in the area because of the super salty water. The discarded shells have heaped into massive piles up to 10m thick, it is a sight to behold; tonnes of vleached white shells forming a beach up to 1km wide and many kelometres long! The beautiful shoreline gives way to crystal clear water of the most intense greens and blues.

Denham – has evolved from a thriving pearl town with a street paved with pearl shell, to the hub of the tourist and fishing industry of Shark Bay. Located on the western coastline of Peron Peninsula, with views across the waters of Shark Bay towards Dirk Hartog Island.

We have settled in here and plan on staying for maybe two weeks or until we can get into Kalbarri. We are planning on doing some 4WD driving and of course going to Monkey Mia to watch the dolphins.
Thursday 30.09.10 – Today we have been very lazy, both laying about and reading books, watching television. The weather is overcast and a little glum.
Friday 01.10.10 – Another month gone. Trying to decide what to do today, so John came up with a visit to Ocean Park and then a drive out to Eagle Bluff. Sounds wonderful. We arrive at Ocean Park and it was very interesting and enjoyable. Our guide was from Sweden, a Marine biologist very funny fellow, he made the tour entertaining. We saw lots of fish, turtles and sharks. We then headed off to Eagle Bluff, where we hope to see sharks swimming in the shallows, we were not disappointed, we also saw some dolphins playing with each other. From the cliffs you look out over the world’s largest meadows of seagrass. They say the biggest population of dugongs live in Shark Bay. We spent quite a bit of time here it was so beautiful. We noticed some vehicles on the beach and decided to see how they got down there. Back along the track we couldn’t find any turn offs, so we headed along the highway and found a track. This track headed towards the beach up and down the sand dunes, finally we found the beach and decided not to drive along as we weren’t too sure. As we turned around John noticed a family of Emus, so we started to follow them. Unfortunately we came across some really soft sand and down we went, bogged. We tried digging our way out but had no luck. John decided to walk back to Eagle Bluff along the beach about 10kms. He left me with the car in case someone happened along. It took him about an hour and was lucky enough to find a young family with a 4WD ute, who was happy to help us. So Brad and Mandy drove John back to the car and he pulled us out. We were so grateful for their help, they had three children and they thought it was great fun. Our day out turned into quite an adventure, we really were in the middle of nowhere.


Saturday – 02.10.10 Grand Final Day! Game wasn’t as good as last week but we sat outside, wind blowing at around 38km per hour. We had a visit from Bernie & Bev, they joined us for a drink or two. We spent the early evening tying everything down as it was blowing strongly. A mother and daughter who were camped near us unfortunately lost their tent, John helped out but they ended up staying the night in a cabin.
Sunday 03.10.10 – Wind still blowing, so much the same as yesterday. We are meeting Bernie, Bev and a couple of their friends and heading to the local bowls club to watch the NRL Grand Final.