After leaving the underrated Monkey Mia we headed to Carnarvon. Pulled into a caravan park and I get out to look for a shady spot as the weather was very warm. Out comes one of the permanent residents, reeking of booze, asking if I needed help. I told him I was just looking for a shady spot and to work this one out he proceeds to ask me a million and one questions about my car, trailer, length of stay, wife and kids, places previoulsy visited etc. etc! After half an hour rambling on, telling some stories about his youth and how he use to chase the girls, I got away from him and he still hadn't recommended a site. Meanwhile, Sharyn's walking around trying to find me and just as we meet, another permanent comes over. He calls out something and I tell him we're just looking for shade and cupping his hand to his ear to indicate he can't hear, he motions for us to come over. I murmur to Sharyn, "Not again!". Another million questions but this guy was quite nice but he bagged out the other guy and it was like the movie 'Grumpy Old Men'. One was in charge of cleaning the toilets and the other watering and mowing the lawns. Funny stuff. We ended up here for a few days sorting some things out before moving on.
We were heading for Coral Bay but detoured to Quobba to view the blowholes. The big one was quite spectacular and you could hear the roar of the water rushing in under the rocks before blasting its way up through the hole. Continuing North on the same track, we arrived at Gnaraloo Homestead, which had been recommended by others we had met. This was a fair way off our intended route as we had to follow the same (rough & sandy) road back out before getting on the highway to Coral Bay.
A sign at the gate said to keep to the tracks and lower your tyres to 20psi. Well the tracks were hard gravel so I didn't see the point in dropping the tyres down, so in we went and just idled around checking the place out. There were heaps of small units half completed, a bit like a little ghost township. Up on the verandah of the homestead I noticed a woman holding a broom looking quite angry. Thinking it couldn't be us I ignored her and continued driving about and then noticed she had dropped the broom and was now standing there arms across her chest looking towards us with a 'Not Happy Jan' stance. Thought I had better drive up to see what was going on and she comes strutting down with some lovely expletives on her t-shirt telling those who read it to 'harden up' a little. Nice. First she tells me that she thought I was going to drive over her pipes; told her I didn't and I was just having a browse. Then she said it would be a great idea to do that on foot so I wasn't pulling 'that great big thing around'…she meant our little camper trailer. I told her I was sticking to the tracks as advised by the sign at the gate (and if were suppose to walk it should have said so on the gate). I must mention she had a very broad English accent and she ended every sentence with 'hey?'. So by now she didn't really have any comeback as we had done no wrong, but to help ease the tension I enquired about the place itself and what accomodation was available. I followed her inside the homestead to get a pamphlet and basically the only accomodation is in the homestead (imagine trying to explain the words on her t-shirt to the kids if we stayed) or at a campground a long way back on the track. Apparently some Japanese investors were putting up the money to build the small outbuildings for tourists and pulled the plug before they were finished. Anyway, I managed to get away unscathed and driving out we were amazed that this girl was the public face for this tourist place, complete with attitude and a t-shirt with the lovely f word blazed across it. We did later check out their website and it looked great, but it depicts the whole area as a finished and real happening place. I hope not too many people read that and then get the welcome we received, followed by the realisation that the place in only half complete. Looking at the distance and time we had wasted getting there, we put it down as 'an experience' and headed back out for Coral Bay.
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