Point Quobba & Carnarvon

Heading south from Coral Bay, we were about 24km’s out of Carnarvon when we came across signs to Blow Holes and a few names/locations we weren’t familiar with, one of them Point Quobba. We were just within mobile/internet range, so after a quick look on the net we decided to head in the 48km’s to see what it was all about. Turned out to be a good decision…. (hint: check out the snorkeling video further down!)

The blow holes were first, and rather easy/obvious to find (water shooting into the air!)! There was a main blow hole, with some smaller ones next to it, and they were pretty cool.

Point Quobba Blow holes

Point Quobba Blow holes

The swell here was huge at times, so the waves slamming against the rocky coastline made for some impressive viewing.

There are surfing and fishing beaches further north, but access by a long dirt road turned us against exploring in that direction. However very close by and to the south of the blow holes is Point Quobba, and there is camping there on the edge of a nice sandy beach.

Point Quobba is a bit of an interesting place with some history – it was once (not that long ago!) a shanty town, till the council acted to clean the place up and remove the non-rate paying hippy type residents! There are still a heap of the beach shacks standing, but the area is now open for camping. It is a very casual roll up and find a spot type arrangement (and there is quite a long/large area to choose from), and hope the caretaker doesn’t happen to visit to collect the fees when you are there!

the shanty town

Looking down onto our camping area

Looking down (south) onto our camping area

It is at Point Quobba that the coastline transitions from rock to a sandy beach, and the shape of it all means there is a beautiful protected lagoon. It is full of coral and fish, so guess what that means – more snorkeling!!! It was great too, especially up in the rocky area where there were natural aquariums/holes in the rock that were jammed full of fish! They were no doubt after tasty morsels in the fresh water coming over the rocks and into the lagoon area, as the tide was coming in, not to mention protection from larger predators. It was awesome snorkeling – the fish density was higher than we’d experienced anywhere else, and there was a larger range of coral too!

the lagoon, protected from waves and wind

the lagoon (at low tide), protected from waves and wind

water flowing into the lagoon area

water flowing into the lagoon area

Below are a couple of snorkeling videos. Unfortunately the colours are washed out when using my phone to record video underwater. Can’t see most of the softer colours and markings. Also the flickering sun patterns makes it difficult to see some of the fish – particularly the schools of small pretty aqua coloured ones! The fish shown in these vids vary in size from smaller than the palm of your hand, to largish emperors that would be pushing 50-60cm in length (though they tend to keep there distance from you)!

The short snorkeling vid (just the rock hole with the most fish):

The longer snorkeling vid:

So we spent Sat morning (27/9) snorkeling and enjoying ourselves. After we’d frozen ourselves solid with such activities, it was time to head off towards Carnarvon. Glad we noticed the signs to this area, as it was a great place to visit and well worth the detour. Btw, the caretaker was at the entry to collect fees on the way out…

beautiful sunset

beautiful sunset

Carnarvon itself must be a bit of a tourist town, as it had quite a few caravan parks (but it seemed very quiet this Saturday). A nice place, where a lot of WA’s fruit and veggies are grown. We went out to One Mile Jetty, though there was a fee to walk it so we didn’t bother, and had a cursory look at the train museum there. Aside from refuelling, refilling with fresh water, and stocking up on groceries that was about it for Carnarvon!

Kennedy Range NP is inland from Carnarvon, but it is a bit of driving on dirt road, and the gorges are probably dry at the moment, so we decided against heading inland. Mt Augustus is even further inland on heaps of dirt road, which is unfortunate as it would be great to visit. Mt Augustus is the largest monocline (rock) in the southern hemisphere – about twice the size of Uluru – but has vegetation on it so looks different.

We spent Sat night at a free campsite up on an exposed plateau south of Carnaron (Gladstone Scenic Lookout). No vegetation – just rock, and lots of wind to sway the motorhome about! A very different place to any other campsite we’ve stayed at. A nice sunset too!

sunset pic by Daniel

sunset pic by Daniel

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