Days 50-53 (Week 8) - Carnarvon (25-29 October)

Our first day in Carnarvon was lovely and sunny in the morning however a thunderstorm is imminent.  As the day progressed it got cloudier and a few sprinkles of rain, and during the night it poured down and we had some great thunder and lighting.  After the heat and dust of the Pilbara it was so nice to feel some rain, it refreshed us.  The great thing about the rain is that it isn't cold!  Much more bearable then the rain down south.  It is so nice to get cleaned up after the dust and grime of the Pilbara and the best thing to stay clean!  Not overly packed park but just about everyone here is washing their caravans and cars, must be to get the dust and grime off after being up north.  We obviously aren't that caravan proud as we don't even own a mop like these guys, some even have high pressure hoses!  I guess we will clean the van one day. We just sit and watch them all, that's tiring enough (haha). We have booked in for a week initally and take it from there.  We are gorging ourselves on fresh fruit and veges from the nearby plantations - so cheap and really is just picked!  We are hooked on wax jambo's (from the persimmon family and similar to apples but different) and the black sopote, a soft fruit that tastes just like chocolate pudding and of course bananas.  On the Monday night we went to the local Rotary meeting.    Being such a small club they self cater (each person brings a hot dish) and the food was really good and the best thing $5 for the meal and $3 for a glass of wine and no fines session!  There were two inductions on the night which is great for a small club.  We ended up having a good night meeting some very friendly and interesting locals including some of the local constabularly and John is getting up early Sunday morning to help them with the "Gascoyne Bash".  The GasDash is off road racing, cars and bikes racing 500km on the riverbed.  Starts Thursday and ends Sunday.  It is a huge annual event apparently and attracts national and international participants as well as locals.  At the moment we are quite happy to stay here to relax and catch our breath.