Point Quobba

POINT QUOBBA

Thursday, 2nd July.

Yesterday's (Wednesday 1st July) blog was very brief, because a glitch in the caravan park's internet on Tuesday evening, when Mike took the Carnarvon blog draft to the activity room in order to publish it, caused the blog to vanish, just as he was about to press the publish button.  Despite a couple of hours trying everything he could to retrieve it, it was not to be found and as we expect to be without internet for a few days, we decided to write a brief replacement blog before we left.  Thankfully it worked!

We enjoyed our time in Carnarvon, the weather was lovely and we learnt a little of the town's history.  The HMAS Sydney II, having won battle honours for bravery in Mediterranean engagements was sailing off the coast of Shark Bay when on 19th November, 1941, the German auxiliary cruiser HSK Kormoran, sailing under disguise as a Dutch merchant ship but whose mission was to lay mines in the shipping lanes to disrupt all shipping, refused to identify itself and a battled ensued.  The Sydney was fatally damaged by sustained firing from Kormoran's torpedoes and guns and was sunk, taking all 645 hands.  The Kormoran was also damaged in the battle and the captain gave the order to abandon ship.  Of the 380 man crew, 318 survived.  Many of the rescued crewmen were held in the Carnarvon gaol  before being transported to P.o.W. camps in WA and Victoria.  The locations of the remains of both ships were finally found in 2008.  A Walk of Remembrance around Carnarvon's Fascine (meaning bundle of sticks) was created in memoriam of those who were lost.

The Carnarvon Tracking Station was commissioned in 1964 to support NASA's Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs and operated for 11 years.  It was the last station to communicate with the space capsules leaving earth orbit and the last in contact before splashdown.   It was also the largest manned space flight tracking station outside the US.  Mike spent 8 minutes in the capsule simulator in the museum but I declined the invitation which I'd have found claustrophobic.

Nearby is the OTC Satellite Earth Station, built primarily to carry communications from the NASA station to the US, and is the current site of the Carnarvon Space & Technology Museum.

Arriving at Point Quobba yesterday morning, we found a spot to park the caravan and have spent a restful day and a half here.  It's sunny but very windy and Mike's fishing expedition this morning was sadly not successful.  We visited the absolutely stunning blowholes yesterday and took a squillion photos, have walked across the dunes to the beach and walked along it.  

There are many people here but sites are spaced and it's very quiet.  Our neighbours have been here for 3 weeks, bringing with them from Perth all the water, fuel for their generator, food etc. etc. they needed for their stay, caught fish in their first week but none since and said that today is the windiest it's been here since they arrived.  They're leaving tomorrow for home, we are also leaving, heading north.