Day 129 - Sunday 12th May 2024

Awake really early this morning; I gave up on the idea of getting back to sleep at 04:30. Out of the room for breakfast at 07:00, and being a Sunday the cafe on the holiday camp site opens at 15:00, which is no use to me. Across the road the bakery was open though, so I nipped in for a croissant, a blueberry muffin and a large coffee which I took back to my room to enjoy.

All packed up and ready to leave at just before 09:00, I checked out and visited the automated fuel station. With these unmanned stations, you select how much you want to spend before the pump is authorised, so I said Aus$100 thinking that'd be enough to fill up. It's expensive out here in the middle of nowhere, so when I hit the 100 and the pump cut off I was a little short of full, but with more than enough for today.

The first stop was the one that I missed as I'd just completed overtaking a truck outside of Alice Springs; I spotted the Tropic of Capricorn sign from the road, so exited into the layby to capture the sign. It's not as cool as the marker on the Stuart Highway, but at least I was able to stop this time as I exited the tropics.

Today wasn't a long drive, so I had the opportunity to explore. I turned off of the coastal route to drive about 60 kilometres off track to go and have a look at the Quobba Blow Holes to the north of Carnarvon. I arrived at the site and left the car to explore, only to return a couple of minutes later to retrieve my hat and fly net; the little sods were out in force today.

Across a nobbly and uncomfortable underfoot rock surface to a lookout with the waves crashing into the cliffs. In a few places the waves broke across a shelf just above sea level. I was enjoying watching the waves breaking when I caught out of the corner of my eye a bit of a pillar of water ... so, that's where the blowhole is!

I found the site, and watched the water rise and fall through a hole in the rock to fill a basin from below. It was really hypnotic, like a heart beat, filling then emptying the rock bowl. There were a few surges as a bigger wave came in, but no more pillars of water erupting while I watched for 20 minutes.

I returned to the main road, and on my way into Carnarvon saw a sign to a couple of national parks. I took the turn and pulled over to see where they were (the sign gave no clues) to discover that they were over 700km away, which isn't really much of an option. So, I continued into Carnarvon to see what was happening.

It's a Sunday, so nothing is happening in Carnarvon which is all shut up! The only thing left was to find my accommodation for the evening and I checked in early at 13:30. All unpacked, I took the opportunity to borrow a vacuum cleaner to get rid of some of the sand on the car floor; they charge extra for cleaning if it's returned with sand on the floor!

Then into the room to catch up on a few days of blog now that I have WiFi again, and to get the latest video out there. It's been one of those long travel day and cancelled activity weeks, so it was a little light on content this week. The video is in the usual place here.