‘gateway to ningaloo’ might actually be the best description of carnarvon. gateways by definition are generally not remarkable: it’s the place they take one to (or take one away from) that deserves attention, the gateway itself is just being passed as a matter of course, and often without another thought.
in this case, as i mentioned in another post carnarvon has cleverly established itself between geraldton and – depending on where you go – coral bay / exmouth or karratha, and therefore has to be passed on the way towards the north. that’s pretty much it. believe me, we have looked and we have not found anything particularly remarkable here. which might be remarkable in its own right. let me put it like this: the massive radio antenna on the way into town looks like the most significant feature here. the antenna was part of a tracking station set up for the nasa gemini and apollo missions and was closed in the 1986. remarkable.
i don’t mean to be ungrateful: the people here are as nice as anywhere we have been. let me give you an example: we went to the local rac (auto club) service station to get the wheel alignment on the van checked. nothing wrong, just normal maintenance after dragging it half way around the country. they could fit us in pretty much right away, which would be unheard of in, say, sydney or melbourne, probably even in perth. and they were kind enough to lend me their grease gun so i could make sure the universal joint on the hitch and the bushes on the van’s suspension remain properly lubricated. mind you, that gun was dangerous, i did look like a greased pig after using it. kris made me take my t-shirt off before i was allowed in the car.
since we’ve also been running low on honey, we figured what better place to ask where to get the best honey in town than the rac. the local tourist information people didn’t know, a bit odd, usually they are very well connected. the friendly lady at the counter pointed us to barry at the pet meat store, just down the road. true story, bear with me. barry was not there and the pet meat store locked, but there was a sign with his mobile number on the door, which we called. barry, not at all surprised that we called from his pet meat store to inquire about honey, said he didn’t have any left (something about the the bees running out of flowers) but pam at the news agent’s probably still had a few jars. her shop was just across the road from the tourist information – ironic, right? and guess what, pam, who didn’t bat an eyelid when we told her that barry from the pet meat store had sent us, did have a few glasses of barry’s (bees’) honey left. she explained that sales of barry’s (bees’) honey were much improved since she started offering it at her newspaper store, together with her other health food. a pet meat store, she noted quite rightly, might not be the natural place people would think of when looking for honey. we could not argue with that. and here is the honey.
that is actually the most remarkable story i can share about carnarvon. ok there is one more thing.
apparently carnarvon also supplies most of australia’s winter vegetables. and it lies at the mouth of the gascoyne river which i remember crossing a few times during the safari race – there was not a drop of water in it.
we checked: no water now either. apparently when there is water, there really is water … everywhere.
oh, and carnarvon has a ‘one mile jetty’, a bit like busselton. except you have to cross a desert / mud plain just out of town to get there and only when you get to the jetty you find out that you can’t actually go on the jetty because it’s been closed due to safety concerns (i.e. it’s falling apart).
i hope the people of carnarvon can save their jetty, like the guys in busselton.