Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Wednesday 5th October Francois Peron National Park

We have now been on the road for a month. Today we visited the Francois Peron National Park. We did it as a tour as we were not confident about driving through the deep sand. Our driver was an Englishman who regaled the history of the area and his life. Our first stop was the old sheep station homestead where the tyre pressure had to be let down. The National Parks actually provide a tyre pressure station where you can decrease/increase tyre pressure.
We drove through red sand – I mean RED!!! When we got to the beach, you just had to marvel at the beauty of the red sand dunes as they contrasted with the aqua and blue of the water. It is just a magic scene and the photographs do not portray the true grandeur of the scene. After lunch, we drove from Cape Peron to Skipjack Point where there is a platform that enables you to look over the bay. We could see fish, rays and turtles in the water and on the shores below were colonies of cormorants. Again, the contrast between the land and the ocean just astounds you.
Tonight we went out to dinner at the “Old Pearler Restaurant”. It was built by Tim Hargraves (his fore-bare invented the “spinning jenny”), our guide for today’s tour, out of the shell blocks and it is one of the only buildings that I have seen in Denham that is still made from the shell blocks. Tim finished building in 1978. These blocks can no longer be quarried as it is within the World Heritage Area. This is the most westerly restaurant in Australia and the most photographed building in Shark Bay.

No comments:

Post a Comment