Betten On Bike: DAY 56 - 4TH JUNE 2013 - CARNARVON

Day 56– 4 June 2013 - Carnarvon to Monkey Mia (pronounced 'mya')

Up at 5.30am – the weather sure is cooling down now – it was bitterly cold this morning – maybe 5 degrees at our campsite overlooking a field and in the distance a banana plantation. This area produces most of the bananas for the whole of W A. They also grow large amounts of winter vegetables for the state as well as paw paws, and other tropical fruits so a very different area in comparison with the harsh desert areas we had been traveling through during the past 3 weeks or so.

Walter left at 6.30am & we an hour later, to resume our journey south on the North West Coastal Highway.

Cycling Stats: 190 kms

Cycling Average: 25.6 km per hour

Headwind this morning (constant !) meant that Walter could achieve only a 28 km per hour average for the first section as we reached him a lot earlier than we expected to. Today we saw many groups of wild goats – the little baby kids were very cute staying so close to their mums – pure white ones and also black ones. Saw a few sheep close to the highway too. The vegetation is low shrubs & grasses with little change as we travel through. Stopped at 73 km mark to wait for Walter – the sun was out but it was still bitterly cold. Walter had put on 3 layers this morning so was kitted out well against this cold headwind.

We reached the Wooramel Roadhouse where we had agreed to meet Walter for a lunch stop. The owners were very friendly and offered me a 4c fuel discount and they told Walter to pop in for a free cold drink when he arrived. Later they came out with a generous donation for our bucket. Wow – the lovely people you meet. Today called for a power lunch so it was 2 bananas and 5 slices of bread with honey to fuel him up for the next section.

Walter cycled another 86 kms or so (still with the ever constant head wind) and then, as we still had a long way to travel to get to Monkey Mia (154kms drive from the turn-off) Walter decided to jump in the van for the last 10 kms to the turn-off & entrance to the world heritage listed Shark Bay National Park. I am not keen to drive after dark in these areas because of the animal life. The highways are littered with road kill and I certainly don’t want to cause any more fatalities.

Thirty kms or so along the Shark Bay Road we turned off to travel the 5kms to Hamelin Telegraph Station. Walter was keen to see the ancient Stromatolites. This viewing was along a 200 metre boardwalk where we could see the layers of the largest & oldest living fossils dotting the shore of a pool in rocky clumps.

Stromatolites are colonies of micro-organisms that resemble the oldest and simplest forms of life found on earth around 3.5 billion years ago. They grow in Hamelin Pool because of the extreme salinity of the water.

Then it was another 55 km drive to the very famous Shell Beach for a quick late afternoon look and walk along this beach which is comprised totally of billions and billions of tiny white shells in some areas apparently 10 metres thick. There is a dune / wave like topography to this beach due to the firmly packed down shells which is unlike other more common sandy beaches and the water is a beautiful calm and pristine blue.

Then another 75 km or so along this mostly straight roller coaster road with long steep ups and downs and seeing only very densely clumped green broad shrubs (no sand or earth was visible just the dense growth of these shrubs) – quite spectacular & as far as the eye can see. There were also areas of pinky heather type vegetation. It was evident why this area is world heritage listed.

We arrived just on dark and checked in to our Limestone Garden Villa – plenty big enough with 1Q and 3 singles and a nice big bathroom – a luxury after all the camping grounds.

As we had had such a big day today we opted to dine in the Dolphin Bar / Restaurant and all went for the lemon peppered snapper which was outstanding. We also saw that the actor / uni- cyclist Samuel Johnston was here. We had heard that he was on the road in his quest to raise $1m for cancer. What a lovely guy – we had a great chat. He averages around 20km per hour and rides days and sometimes through the night. He has had amazing media coverage being a famous Australian actor (starred in ‘Rush’) and many other shows and has raised $250,000 to date.

Then it was time for a lovely herbal tea back at our villa & bed. We were all ready to hit the hay !!!