Advertisement
Published: September 7th 2013
Edit Blog Post
IMG_3391
the living rocks - Stromatolites 01-09-13 to 03-09-13
Carnarvon to Nanga Bay
I must say, we were pretty pleased to be leaving Carnarvon today, it’s not that we didn’t like the town, we had just had two very bad nights sleeping in the caravan park and were looking for somewhere nice and quiet. We had read up about a little place called Nanga Bay Resort, it sounded great, but unfortunately as it turned out this was not the case. It no more resembled a resort as the Murray River resembles the ocean! Anyhow, there were some really interesting things we wanted to spend some time looking at in the area, and it’s only for a few nights so it will be fine.
From Nanga up to the Francois Peron National Park all form part of the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive. This area known as Shark Bay was granted World Heritage status in 1991 for its natural heritage values. To obtain this status this area must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of the ten criteria set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. (UNESCO)
Shark Bay satisfied
IMG_3392
more stromatolites all four of the natural criteria for World Heritage listing;
· Natural Beauty
· Earth’s History
· Ecological Processes
· Biological Diversity
Other properties that satisfy all the criteria are the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos Islands and the Grand Canyon. But by satisfying all four natural criteria, Shark Bay ranks as one of our planets most important wilderness regions. (I got this info from a brochure, there is no way I would have remembered all that!)
Our first point of call would be the Stromatolites, these living rocks are amazing, I must admit, I had never heard of a living rock! But as we walked along the boardwalk and read about these amazing things, I was gob smacked at their ability to produce oxygen.
Then we ventured along to the Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station and Shell Block Quarry. The shell block quarry is truly incredible, here shell blocks, made up of tiny little cockle shells were cut using a cross cut saw and these blocks were used as building bricks.
The Telegraph station wasn’t that exciting to view but it does hold a
IMG_3413
shell quarry very important part in the history of the area and the communication link on the Perth to Roebourne telegraph line in the late 1800’s.
Taking all that in was enough information for one day, it is now time to return to camp, enjoy a dip in the artesian hot tub and a nice drink and digest all that information
On returning back to camp, we run into the Harvey family, and when we stopped to say hello, Heath informed us that he had been told the WA Fisheries were out fishing in Nanga Bay for Pink Snapper, they were fishing for this particular breed of fish to gather some information for research, and they only need to carcass and if you go down to the beach when they come in, they will give you the fillets. Even though at first we thought we may have been set up by the gentlemen that had passed the information on to Heath, we didn’t take any chances and went down to the beach with our plastic bags and waited. Sure enough, in came about 5 boats, one of them marked WA Fisheries, the others just keen fishermen
IMG_3418
Anglican Church in Denham made from bricks of shell helping out, and out came some massive snapper. We left the beach very happy little campers with a very nice feed of snapper, and then followed this up the night after as well.
02-09-13
After nearly being blown of the planet last night with strong gusty winds and rain, we got up this morning and found our winter clothes, it was bloody freezing; we made our way towards Denham for a day out.
We stopped at the marine display at Ocean Park. This was a very informative tour of some of the local marine life around this area, it was now time to head into Denham, the weather not showing any signs of improving. After a quick visit to the Info Centre, and a look at the Anglican Church, made from shell bricks, we thought we would have lunch at Australia’s most Westerly pub.
With that out of the way, we headed back stopping in at a few lookouts etc along the way. The one that sticks in my mind and memory bank the most is Shell Bay. This is an amazing pure white beach made up of
IMG_3447
the vermin proof fence at shell beach millions of tiny cockle shells. It is thought that these shells are up to 10m thick and apparently extend for 120km along the coastline, scientists are puzzled by the proliferation and extensive deposits of these shells thought to be up to 4000 years old. This my friends is where the shell grit comes from for your chooks! Also along this beach there is a massive vermon proof fence in an attempt to increase the population of Bilby, this has been built from sea to sea across the skinniest part of the land prior to entering the National Park.
Another big day with an information overload.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.113s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0823s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb