Thursday 7 May to Monday 11 May - Quobba

Everyone enjoying the spray from the Quobba blowholes

We got off to an early start for the drive to Quobba, plus we had all had our fill of dolphins so didn’t bother with the morning feedings. On the road to Carnarvon, we stopped at Shell Beach, which is a beach made from…shells. Seen enough after 2 minutes. Next stop was the Stromatolites (or Stromatoilets as we called them). The Slites are living rock, made from cynobacteria, a basic cell that existed 3.5 billion years ago. These ones weren’t quite that old (only 3.5 thousand years) but still quite interesting.
After a shop and lunch at Carnarvon (don’t know how you lived here Bec), we headed to Quobba. Turn left at the "King Waves Kill" sign. We were looking forward to Quobba based on Libby and David’s recommendations. However, we were somewhat overwhelmed by the number of flies that descended on us when we stepped out of the car. All the other campers had fly screen hats on, which wasn’t a good sign. We were tempted to get back into the car and head north, but as it was late we decided to set up camp for the night (plus it was free).
The next morning dawned and we were very glad that we stayed. We headed down to the beach for a spot of fishing. Punto had reckoned that I wouldn’t catch a thing, but within a minute of casting in I pulled in a good size Bream. That was all we caught, although somehow Tom S managed to catch a mullet with his hands! Mind you, it did look a bit sick swimming upside down in the bucket. We spent the afternoon lazing on the beach and snorkelling in the lagoon, then Nick, Tom S and I headed down for a late evening fish. The onshore breeze was so strong Nick’s line was landing 20m over his head in the campground, so we didn’t stay down for long. Sue cooked a roast lamb with baked vegetables on the camp oven that evening for dinner which was fantastic. Went very nicely with our cask of Shiraz (our standards are slipping).
Saturday started off with an early morning fish. Sammy caught a cod and black spotted goat fish. Needless to say there was no fish for breakfast. Apparently, due to the large schools of baitfish that have come in, the fishing isn’t nearly as good as it would normally be. Why eat meat stuck on the end of a sharp hook when you can gorge on swarms of baitfish?
Checked out the blow holes, which weren’t blowing, so went back to the lagoon for lunch and a lazy afternoon. Spent the afternoon snorkling. Nick and Tom saw a shovelnosed ray amongst many other wildlife. A cloud of baitfish came into shore and Tom dived in to chase them which was fun to watch and reminiscent of a scene in Finding Nemo where the clouds of baitfish change into shapes like a massive shark as they are being chased. More concerning was the shark that we saw in the shallows near where we had been snorkelling. Probably searching for the baitfish that Tom had just been chasing! The snorkelling is really fabulous here.
Tried out our camp shower for the first time (no-not our first shower!) which was a success. We also spent some time re-organising the car. The things you do when you have time on your hands.

(Sue here)Since we’ve been enjoying Quobba so much we have decided to stay another day (so glad we weren’t put off by the flys on the first day!). Tim has mixed emotions about staying because he thought there would be less pressure on him for Mother’s Day if we were on the road. Instead I got to hang out in bed reading a book with the kids and then breakfast in bed. Lying around on a roll mat having breakfast is not quite as luxurious as being in our queen size bed however not bad way to start the day. Spent the morning swimming and snorkling at the beach before heading back to camp for a Mother’s Day lunch of sausages and a beer.
Went to the blowholes nearby as they were going off. Great fun and the kids had enjoyed getting absolutely soaked in the spray of the water shooting out of the rocks.
On the way back to camp, the kids, Sam and Tim stopped to collect oysters from the rocks at the end of the beach. Kate is going to make oysters mornay for an evening snack!
Happy Mother’s Day to Granny and Grandma!