Quobba

Quobba, well, it certainly lived up to expectations.  We had heard a lot of great reports about the beaches and snorkeling.  Quobba is about 70km north of Carnarvon.  Basically its a camping area that you pay $11 a night for, near some old fishing shacks and the Quobba Blow Holes.  We were lucky enough to grab a good spot right near the beach for both vans, pretty good seeing as we got there a bit late.  We had planned on staying a week or so but ended up staying two and a half.  The boys were having too much fun rock fishing and didn't want to leave.
We basically spent our days doing school work with the kids and hanging out at the beach if the weather was OK.  Oh and a camp fire or two! I spent a lot of time with Vik and the kids, we've become fishing widows!  In the time we were there we probably had 6 or so beautiful days at the beach, and the rest were a little cold.
We camped right near the sand dunes and this became the kids playground.  They spent hours there making cubbies and then arguing over who's cubby it was!  I asked Jake what he loved the best about Quobba, expecting him to say the magic snorkelling but nope.  He loved the sand dunes the best

The first couples of days were windy with high swells.  Which meant the sea was churning and the blowholes were blasting big noisy water high in to the air.  The noise was just incredible, I didn't realise just how loud it would be.  We had a lot of fun checking out the blow holes and got a little wet when we got a little too close.  The coast line along near Quobba is pretty spectacular, especially the waves, not the safest of places to fish!

At Quobba there is no Internet or phone coverage unless you go up the dirt road to the light house. even then its pretty woeful.  It was nice to be away from technology for a while, but it is a pretty good view from up near the light house.

We went for a day trip past Quobba station to Red Bluff.  Bit of a drive with a few corrugations, but not too bad.  We arrived at lunch time and found a nice beach hut to have lunch in.  Was very nice, felt like there should have been someone bringing me a cocktail!  We had a walk out to the point to see the surfers, there were quite a few out there that day.  The swell was pretty rough and one guy snapped his board in half.  The kids found a sheltered shelf of rock with waves coming in and had a lovely swim.  Its a pretty relaxed place to stay and looks pretty popular with the surfers and back packers.

The kids really are having a wonderful time together.  Both families are doing distance education through Tassie, so have the same work to do.  We did a craft and science morning and got all that 'extra' bits done.  We are slowly getting in the hang of school, much easier now Jake can read but I still begrudge having to do it.  I'd rather be off exploring and holidaying.  But the kids need to learn so on we continue.  Not a bad classroom for them either.

My favourite part of Quobba was the lagoon.  We had been told by our friend Nikki that it was amazing and her favourite place.  You can imagine my devastation when for the first couple of days it was too rough and cold to venture in.  I started imagining we'd left our run to late to head north and would be seeing all these marvellous places in the colder weather.  Then the weather changed, the sun came out and it warmed up.  We went for a snorkel and hung out on the beach and then I understood what Nikki was raving about.  The amount of fish was just incredible and lots of interesting coral and clams.  I'd even say it beats the Barrier reef, especially as its free and we didn't have to pay $500 to go on a boat trip and see it.  We really did have such a great time exploring this area.

So Vik and I are fishing widows.  We basically didn't see the boys that much.  They were off fishing whenever the weather allowed.  But in their defence, they caught some amazing fish.  We ate so well, it was all so fresh and delicious.  After having fresh Coral Trout, they have ruined me for any other crap you can buy at the shops.  In the end they caught about 13 different species of fish, including Coral Trout, Spangled Emperor, Sweet Lips, Cod, Mangrove Jack and that's about all I remember.  They also saw Dugongs, Dolphins, Turtles, Sharks and lots of really big schools of bait fish.  The marine life here is pretty cool.

A tasty catch, hee hee, they let him go

The boys 'babysitting', the kids played on the beach whilst they fished!

My second favourite part about Quobba was the sunsets.  We spent many a night watching the sunset over the ocean.  And quite a few nights almost missing it as the sun seems to drop so quickly here.

That's pretty much Quobba's highlights.  We also saw the Beesons and the Furmedges again.  The kids had two birthday parties, one for Meg and one for Zoe.  Quobbas one of those places where if you chance the weather and the fishing you could very easily stay along while.