Day 63 - Carnarvon (9 Nov) - On the move

We are finally leaving Carnarvon (after 2.5 weeks) on Wednesday.  The thought of packing up and decamping has been too onerous to think about (haha - we are just getting lazy).  We will head to Geraldton then inland to Kalgoorlie via Mt Magnet, Sandstone and Leinster (phew going to be hot) then down to Esperance for a couple of weeks.  John's dad is going to drive from Albany (480kms) and spend sometime with us which will be good to catch up with him again.  It is approx. 1900kms from Carnarvon to Esperance with not a lot in between, you don't appreciate just how big this state is until you drive it.  No wonder some of the eastern staters are daunted by the distances here when they have towns so close to each other.   From there we will head east into SA.  Looking forward to crossing the border, will really feel like we on an adventure then.  This picture is of the OTC (Overseas Telecommunications) dish.  It is no longer functional (we think) but is a landmark in Carnarvon.  At night they light it up and it is very pretty.  Some blurb on the dish pinched from the web - "The OTC dish is one of the landmarks of Carnarvon, it is 29.5 metres in diameter and was the first antenna in Australia to transmit and receive world-wide television via satellite. The Overseas Telecommunications Base is situated on Brown’s Range and ceased to operate on 31st March 1987. It was one of just eight in the world and was an integral part of the communications network for the Apollo Moon Programme and also for tracking Halley’s Comet.

During the “Gemini” and “Apollo” space missions it was the station that transmitted the first live TV from Australia to the outside world on November 25th 1966 and transmitted the first live TV into Western Australia on July 21st 1969. The second event was Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.