Our first full day in Canarvon we did the following:-
– Went to the historic precinct which was near the One Mile Jetty. This is one of the longest jetties in WA. It has train tracks running along one side of it and a little 2 carriage train, called the Coffee Pot, runs people out to the end of the jetty and back on an ‘as needs’ basis – no timetable. It was $7 for adults and $4 for children to ride on the train. Lauren and I decided to walk out to save some money (walking is $3 for adults, children free – I guess they are needing money for some restoration work). So Michael, Sam, Hannah and Beth rode on the train out there. We had packed morning tea and some fishing gear, so it was good they could take those on the train. Michael and Sam swapped with Lauren and I on the way back, so we all got a turn on the train.
– We did some fishing from the end of One Mile jetty. Sam had been interested in trying some fishing now that we were back on the coast. We had bought some hand reels at Exmouth, but this was the first time we had got around to using them. No luck catching anything though.
– We visited the Lighthouse keepers cottage museum just near the jetty. No cost for this.
– We drove to the end of Pelican’s Point and saw the stretches of sandy beach there.
– We drove to the small boat harbour and tried our luck fishing there while we had our lunch. There were definitely fish there, and they kept nibbling at the bait, but not taking a big bite on the hook. Sam and Hannah seemed to be the 2 die-hard fisher-people – they wanted to keep going, but eventually it was time to move on.
– We drove along North River Road and South River Road where most of the fruit and vegetable
plantations are located. Some have roadside stalls to sell produce, so we bought some. We found out about the plantation tours which are conducted at Bumbak’s plantation – they are conducted on a Mon, Wed and Fri at 10am and go for 1 hour. As today was Tuesday, we could do the tour tomorrow. We decided it was worth doing.
– We drove to the satellite dish which had been operational at Carnarvon for 20 yrs from about 1965 to 1985. It was part of Nasa’s program, particularly the Gemini and Apollo programs. There is a museum near the site of the dish which houses a lot of old equipment and has some display boards. It was updated a few years ago and they had Buzz Aldrin open the new updated building. We had read that it was open from 10-3 but when we arrived about 2pm, the managers were just leaving the building and said it actually closes at 1pm. So we decided we would come back tomorrow.
So then we headed back to the van park, and had some downtime.
Then late afternoon, Lauren and I went to the shops, while Michael took the other kids swimming at the van park pool. Lauren wanted to look at Target for some new swimmers, so we did that first, and then did some grocery shopping at Woolworths. We got back to the caravan park in time to do dinner and the usual night-time routine.
Our second full day at Carnarvon, we had a few things planned:
– I took the 2 keen fisher-people (Sam and Hannah) to do some early morning fishing at about 7.30. We planned on trying a new spot, but because it was low tide, these places were limited, so we ended up back at the same place as yesterday – and the same result – nibbling fish but nothing caught.
– I had rung the visitor centre to enquire about a 2nd hand bookshop and had thought they had told me it was open from 9-12. So we wanted to go there before going to the plantation tour at 10. But either I misheard or they gave me wrong information as they didn’t open until 10am. So the kids went to a playground for a while instead.
– We then did the plantation tour at Bumbak’s. We found it really quite interesting and learnt some things about fruit growing. Some of the things we learnt include:-
* There are about 80 plantations in Carnarvon, but they are much smaller than the large plantations in Qld. However, because Carnarvon has such perfect weather for growing, they can use more intensive horticultural techniques and produce more in less space.
* The temperature in Carnarvon is about 28 degrees all year around ( maybe getting down to 20 some days in winter and up to 35 some days in summer). And the soil is good for growing. So this is why there are lots of plantations here. Carnarvon produces 70% of the state’s winter fruit and vegetables.
* Water source – Carnarvon sits at the mouth of the Gascoyne River. This is an ‘upside-down river’ in that the water sits under the surface of the ground in the 80cm or so of sand. So it looks like the river is dry, but the water sits in the sand. Each plantation has an allocation of 72, 000 Kl of water per year, so they have to be water efficient. The last 2 years they have had to buy town water rather than use the local river water because a flood in 2010 brought excess clay into the river and now the river water is too salty.
* Bananas – those grown in Carnarvon are called ‘William’ bananas – they are smaller than the Cavendish (those grown in Qld) because they have adapted to needing less water. They have a 22 month life cycle (compared to 10 mths for Cavendish). Each banana tree only produces 1 bunch of bananas. Then the tree needs to be cut down and a sapling shoot can grow and start the cycle again. We saw the ‘flower’ of the tree before the banana fruit started growing. Then we saw the baby banana fruit growing inside the flower. We saw how the outer leaf of the flower rolls outwards and the bananas bend towards the light as the rolled up leaf exposes more light. This is why bananas bend.
* Mangoes – they get 1 crop per year. From when the tree flowers to when the fruit is ready to be picked is about 12 weeks. The flowers are pollinated by blow flies. About 100 flowers start to grow on each branch, but most of them fall off whilst still small buds. Only 5 flowers stay on per branch to grow to mature fruit. Most growers who sell to the large supermarkets pick the fruit in bulk whilst still green and then they are gas ripened (don’t have the nice smell and flavour). This plantation checks each of their 100 trees about 10 times over a 2 week period and only picks the fruit when it is tree ripened (the sugar levels have built up enough to promote ripening and so it is more sweet and flavoursome).
* Grapes – they only grow table grapes, not wine grapes, as the weather is too warm for wine grapes. They have 1 crop per year from the vines. The different stages of horticulture are :- the flowers bud, the lower leaves need to be removed to provide better visual access and prevent mildew, then bunch selection (removing the bunches that weren’t going to grow in the right shape), then bunch trimming (using small clippers to remove some of the grapes in a spiral fashion – otherwise the grapes squash each other as they grow), then they shape the bunches to the shape and size that the customer likes. Then they test them with a sugar level tester – if the sugar levels are right, they test them for correct acid levels before they harvest them. This is all very labour intensive, but produces a good result.
– After doing the tour we all chose an icecream from the shop – they had choc-coated bananas, choc-coated banana icecream, and choc-coated mango icecream amongst others – yum. We also bought some mango and apricot jam and some orange marmalade. The Bumbak’s make these ‘value-added’ products with what would otherwise be waste product (fruit that has nothing wrong with it except that it doesn’t look right for the market).
– We had then planned to go to the satellite dish museum, but I wasn’t sure whether the 2nd hand bookshop closed at 12noon or 1pm. So Dad dropped Lauren and I back into town to the book shop, and then went to the satellite dish museum with the others. They were gone for an hour, but Lauren and I made good use of that time to look in the book store and then browse some other shops.
– We then went back to the van and had a rest again.
– Then Michael took Sam and Hannah for another fishing expedition to a different spot. This time they had some luck – Sam caught a fish! – it was only quite small, so they threw it back. But it was the first fish Sam had caught, so was exciting for him.
– Meanwhile I got dinner ready and went and chose a DVD from the van park office – ‘Waterhorse’- one that none had watched before. So we had a movie night that night, which was fun.
So that was Carnarvon – next to Shark Bay.