Back to Carnarvon

Alexander had the Alarm set for 6AM so we could fish at High Rock as the sun was coming up. All went to plan and we were casting lures into the reef from High Rock at the appointed hour but today's swell was much larger then yesterday's with large splashes of water reaching 10mt+ above the top of High Rock - what a sight and what an enormous display of power.

I now understand why some people talk about converting Wave-Power to electricity. We only stayed for an hour admiring the big waves and casting lures but eventually got the lure caught in the reef deep below and had to break the line.

The only thing we caught was a fish the same size as the lure. This fish was accidentally speared by one of the big hooks. As you can see from the photo, another one of those colourful tropical species.

Back to the caravan for a quick breakfast and then into the car for the 80km trip to Carnarvon to get our tyres sorted out. Driving along the coast we could see the waves continuously splashing a long way over the top of the rocks. No wonder there are memorial plaques for dead fishermen at every single fishing spot.

There wasn't a huge range of tyres to choose from in Carnarvon but I decided to upgrade to a more solid Light Truck rated tyre, which unfortunately is a little bit larger my current tyres. That means I have to put on 4 new tyres plus get a couple older (but also larger) ones for spares.

Whilst I sat at the tyre place working on the laptop and updating the blog, Ilse went across the road for a little bit more food shopping as we wan't come near another supermarket for a little while now.

With the new tyres fitted we drove out the Small Boat Harbour so Ilse could buy some fresh King Prawns. The rest of us got chinese takeaway. After refuelling the car we spoiled ourselves to another delicious Mango smoothie at one of the local farms before heading back to Quobba station where we arrived around 3pm.

The reminder of the afternoon was spent exploring more of the station's coastline to the north of the homestead. About 24km from the station is Cape Cuvier where the wreck of the Korean Star rests deep down. To get there we crossed a couple of Mine Hauling roads where they transport the salt, which is mined at Lake McLeod, to the loading facility and jetty at Cape Cuvier.

We didn't have enough time to go all the way to Red Bluff but next time we come over here we must go there and stay at Gnarloo station which is a fair distance north from Quabba station.

All roads out here are made of dirt and have corrugations. There are no signs on the roads or the turnoffs and no roads showing on the GPS. We have instructions (from the station) like "first turn left after the 2 mile mill" - that would be the windmill 2 miles from the homestead. The only other navigation aid here are station fences, so we go north to 4th fence line.

The station owner, Tim, flies a gyrocopter (single person, open cockpit kind of helicopter). His airstrip is still waterlogged so he takes off from the road or any other flat ground he can find. He also taxis his gyrocopter on the roads used by the cars.

We spent some more time admiring the huge swell crashing into the shoreline and rising up to shower the area on top of the rocks. Standing downwind

of one of those meant we received a continuos shower of fine saltwater droplets. One of the locations had a 10mt waterfall running continuously from a large pool at the top of the rock which gets refilled regularly by the waves.

I can not find words that adequately describe what we have seen here but we have some of this action on video which has hopefully captured the power and dynamics of this enormous force which is continuously pounding the coastline in this part of the world.