Good Morning Carnarvon!
Low 8°c (46°F) – High 26°c
(79°F)
Another relatively sleepless night for me! Aside from having a massive number of
mosquito bites that started to itch at 3.00am (a parting gift from Manilya I
suspect), at around 4.00am the freezer while going through its cycle of -18
down to -15 tried to re-start as it does all day and night long and next thing
the error code was flashing – not enough battery power obviously to kick it
over. Frustrated, worried, annoyed –
there wasn’t anything I could do about it so I just got up and turned it
off. Going back to sleep would have been
the sensible thing to do but worrier me just lay there thinking about food
going off and how the heck we can free camp when the freezer won’t even last a
whole day.
We tried to start it again later in the morning when we had the car
hooked up to head off but the motor was making a strange noise so I decided to
leave it off. Not ideal - but nothing
would defrost before we got plugged in to power so long as we kept the lid
closed.
It was roughly 3 hours to our next destination of Hamelin Pool in the
World Heritage Shark Bay area on Peron Peninsula, and the changes throughout
that journey were fascinating, from the colours of the soil which turned from
our now familiar red through to a sandy cream and very rocky, to the undulating
hills green with grass. It’s also the
first we’ve seen down this side of the continent of large goat herds although
the foliage and rocky ground is probably only suitable for these sure-footed
garbage disposals.
We pulled in to Hamelin Pool Caravan Park some time after 1.00pm and so
glad we didn’t get there any later. Pick
a site – any site – so we had our choice of many as the park was probably about
1/3 full. Happy with our selection and
able to drive through onto the site opposite to back in to ours, it wasn’t long
before many more vans and campers pulled in and the park filled up very quickly
indeed. It’s a really unique spot that
backs on to Hamelin Bay although I didn’t brave the walk to the top of the
dunes to take in the sunset as my knee has been really painful the past couple
of days and hill-climbs are just the worst for me right now. The park provides power but water taps
dispense bore water which is no good for drinking. We have plenty of potable water on board to
last us a few days with a pretty full tank and an additional 2 x 10 litre bottles
of water that we keep filled at all times specifically for Kitty. Internet was a bust and in fact we’ll
probably struggle with that over the next few days until we reach Geraldton.
We sat outside to enjoy lunch in the shade of the van and watch as
everyone else pulled in and got set up.
After a break and time for Kitty to chill, we took a bit of a drive
around the area. First stop was next to
the caravan park to see the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites, the oldest living
fossils known to man. It's one of only two places on the planet where these
rare organisms occur, with Hamelin Pool considered to be the most diverse and
abundant example. Unfortunately you can
now only “view” them (and I use that term loosely) from the beach as the
boardwalk which used to take tourists across the water above them was destroyed
by a cyclone and the whole beach is now fenced off at the waterline.
Of course you can’t see them properly unless you are above them and as
it happened the family who are camped behind us at the park had a drone and
were looking at them via that. They
showed us on the phone screen they were viewing from, but of course it’s hard enough
to see a phone screen in the sunlight at the best of times. Cyclones have a lot to answer for around
here! The mystery surrounding the origin
of the Stromatolites has apparently attracted scientists from around the world,
with many comparing them to discovering a living dinosaur. The Stromatolites took shape over millions of
years from a binding process of algae, sediment and sand. They grow at an astonishingly slow rate of
just 0.33 millimetres each year. Even more astonishing is imagining the time it
took for them to reach their current height of one metre.
Not wanting to travel too far north on the peninsula as we will be
seeing more of that in the coming days, we backtracked a little to the entrance
of Hamelin Station which covers much of the area here to photograph an old
truck at the entrance, and then returned to camp.
It had been a lovely peaceful place and we had been enjoying the sound
of the birds, that was until one couple decided the whole camp should listen to
their selection of pop music which while not booming, was loud enough to drown
out any of the bush sounds we had all been enjoying, and they had to talk quite
loudly over it themselves to have a conversation which meant the rest of the
camp were all not only listening to their music but her conversation about her
ungrateful sister whose cupboards she had re-organized. Thankfully after a few drinks, things got
amorous on a chair and they retreated to their caravan, the music stopped and
they didn’t reappear for some time. It
was hard to miss in a cramped camp ground with limited views between cars and
caravans.
Sadly I missed having a look through the old telegraph station as by
the time we returned from our little drive the building had been locked
up. Long before the Stromatolites were
discovered, Hamelin Pool was an important transport and communication hub. In 1884 the Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station
was built and became an important link in the telegraph line between Perth and
Roebourne. Originally named the “Flint
Cliff Telegraph Station” after a local landmark, the station played a vital
role in Western Australia’s communication system until the advent of the public
‘telex’ system spelt its demise in the late 1950’s.
Also known as Flagpole Landing in the early 1900’s, Hamelin Pool was an
important transport terminus and was the landing point for cargo vessels
bringing in supplies and taking out wool from surrounding stations as well as
one of the main suppliers of Sandalwood in WA.
There were no roads in those days and wool was hauled by camel train out
to small vessels which then took it out via the lighter boats (barges) to the
main boats in deeper water where it was taken to Perth. Apparently the wheel tracks from those carts
can still be seen today in the algal mats near the boardwalk but of course with
the boardwalk closed and blocked off we weren’t able to see this either.
Hamelin Pool also had the original Post Office for the Shark Bay
Region. Located opposite the Telegraph
Station is a Community Post Office for the region which has limited supplies,
but you can have your mail stamped with a special postage stamp. You can also
leave your mail on site to be posted - out Monday and Thursday and in Tuesday
and Friday.
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