Tues. 11th Sept., 2012 - Coral viewing & drive to Carnarvon

Another early start, as we had booked a coral viewing tour at 9am & had to be out of the caravan park before 10am.  However, we were well ahead of ourselves & were ready at least an hour before the tour began - pretty good for a couple of late risers!

Mal & Steve were out walking on the beach, so we joined them for half an hour or so.

The coral viewing trip was great & the glass-bottomed boat provided an excellent means of looking at the reef, giving clear, unobstructed views.  It was a long time since we'd last seen coral & we'd forgotten all the wierd & wonderful forms in which it comes - huge 'cabbage' shapes, spiky formations, 'brain'-like corals & many others.  Unlike on the Great Barrier Reef, the coral here was mainly brown, with some blue & lavender patches, but this allowed us to concentrate on the shapes, forms & patterns, which were beautiful & fascinating.  There were also plenty of fish to look at & we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience - wouldn't have missed it.

We bought some bread rolls, then set out for Carnarvon at 10.30am.

During the latter part of our journey, we came across patches of vivid pink wild flowers.  What a shame that there were no stopping-off places - we would like to have taken some photographs.  There had been little of interest up to that point - the scenery had simply changed from a tree-less terrain to one that was covered in bush & scrub (& the soil was still red!)

Near the Gascoyne River, the land was intensively cultivated.  There were banana plantations, mango orchards & various other crops that we couldn't identify.  Having travelled through many kilometres of unproductive land, it was good to see an area that was obviously very fertile.

On arrival at the Winter Sun Caravan Park, we caught up with Judy & Charlie again - they are leaving tomorrow but we are going to stay another night so that we can have a good look at Carnarvon.