The first part of the journey from Coral Bay was the 13km to get back to the main road and once we got there we really did turn south. I was still a bit concerned about the river we forded on the way up to Exmouth, we've seen rain clouds to the east and south of us. If we got to Lyndon river and it was impassible then it would mean turning back and adding 256km to our journey. My concern was heightened by the complete absence of traffic coming north but crossed my fingers and hoped that was due to it being early on Sunday morning.
My fears were unfounded, but it was clear to see how much water had been over the road the day we forded it! In a more positive frame of mind, it was foot to the floor, or at least to 110kph and get a wriggle on! It took us just short of an hour to do the 91km to Minilya Roadhouse. (Remind me to show you the polo shirt I got from here!).
Now back on the North West Coastal Highway, our next populated place and fuel station was Carnarvon some 140km south. Once again, it was a case of engage cruise control and start knocking off the kilometres. Luckily, we saw no wildlife on the stretch of road and rolled into Carnarvon just after 1030.
We pulled over here and refuelled the car. The girl in the gas station was not only serving fuel customers, but making coffee, clearing tables and serving breakfasts. We chose not to have a drink as we could see it would take ages!
The next stretch of the road we remember as 480km of scrub and three fuel stations. Today, we only had 200km to do before our turn off. It's the stretch of road too where straight means straight! A 35km stretch followed by a 25km stretch followed by a 100km monster straight! Half way down the 'monster', we stopped at the Overlander Roadhouse for a sandwich, it was surprisingly busy there.
After a drink, we took the turn off to the Shark Bay World Heritage drive! This is a 138km long one-way street to Denham and Monkey Mia. Our destination was Denham, Monkey Mia, for us, is a bit too kitsch with its dolphin feedings etc. After 30 km, we turned off to look at Hamelin Pool, famed for its Stromatolites, living organisms that look a bit like rocks, but believed to be similar to life on Earth 3 Billion years ago. The thought is fairly staggering and we walked around the boardwalk looking at them, but it was blisteringly hot and the flies had returned, so we didn't stay too long.
From here, it was about 100km to Denham and Shark Bay. The first Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartzog, in the 1660s gave it the Shark Bay name. It's really little more than one street on the water front. Luckily, there was an onshore breeze and the flies seem to be few and far between.
Tradewinds Motel is directly on the waterfront and the rooms very pleasant. I went for a wander to get the lie of the land and found a couple of places to eat. One in an old shell brick building was a bit pricey but the other two were quite reasonable. The waterfront is quite nice here, plenty of grass and shade, it's also possible to swim here, but at the moment there is a lot of eel grass on the beach.
This evening, we went to the 'old pub' a small hotel about 200 metres up the road. The menu looked interesting, the beer was cold and the owner friendly. One Squid Stir-fry and one Thai Curry later, we were stuffed! From a personal perspective, I think I got my 'daily five' and more in one meal plus lots of squid! The beer was good too, a pint of Yak in my case!
No comments:
Post a Comment