Carnarvon

We stayed in Carnarvon for 2 weeks and spent both Christmas and New Year there. Carnarvon is the food capital of Western Australia and there were plantations (mostly bananas and mangos) everywhere! Unfortunately, we were in the wrong season to enjoy the “fruit loop” trail as most of the plantations were closed to tourists while we were there.

Space Museum

Carnarvon has a great space museum. The facility was an integral part of NASA’s Gemini and Apollo space programs in the 1950s – 60s, tracking the rockets and astronauts from the other side of the world from the US. You could visit the various outside antenna and radar dishes.

The main dish outside was huge! It is lit at night and really dominates the skyline.

Inside, they had several rooms complete with the old technology they used, a planetarium, a simulation of the Apollo 11 take off, and a replica lunar landing module.

The museum was incredibly informative and interactive – we all loved it! One of the rooms had 1980s arcade games for some reason!? When I asked the kids at the end of the day what they learned from the museum, our son said “That 80s video games are really hard to master!”

Carnarvon Town Centre

Downtown Carnarvon really didn’t have much to offer. But they did have a proper supermarket which we found absolutely amazing after shopping only in smaller supermarkets for the past several months!

They did have a very nice walkway along the waterfront where we walked a few times and the kids went fishing (we didn’t catch anything – too windy).

And there was a nice little walk across an old tram line out to an island with an old tram station on it.

Quobba Blowholes

One day we took a drive out to the Quobba Blowholes which was pretty cool. The effect doesn’t really get captured in the photos, but the water shot out of several blowholes simultaneously and the sound was incredible.

About a kilometre down the road from the Blowholes is a place called “The Aquarium”. It was a little lagoon that was supposed to be good for snorkelling with a white sandy beach. It’s also very shallow so it’s a good spot for beginners and kids. We went snorkelling, but it looked like it was probably really good about 10-20 years ago, but now the coral has been destroyed (looked like cyclone damage).

There was a nice little shaded picnic table up on a cliff overlooking the lagoon and while we were eating there, a wild goat walked by with what looked like a very newborn baby who was just learning to walk.

Holidays in a Van

While in Carnarvon we celebrated both Christmas and New Year. The kids decorated the van (inside only – too windy outside!) and we put up Xmas lights both inside and out.

We cooked a lot of food too (see our son’s updated cooking post) even though it was a heatwave and around 40C every day!

Our daughter’s Xmas was all about Whalesharks. For Sinterklaas she received a whaleshark plush toy and for Xmas a whaleshark necklace and t-shirt.

Next, we’re off to Shark Bay…