Day 71: Carnarvon to Wooramel

 It is a short drive to Wooramel River Retreat today, so we are in no hurry to leave early. It is also Saturday morning and the weekly Gascoyne Growers Market is on in town this morning starting from 8 am. So we pack up and get the van to the stage it is ready to hitch up, and then drive into town to the market.

The market place more or less revolves around the area where the visitor information centre is, a nearby arcade and a large open area at the exit of the arcade. Initially it looked a bit anaemic, but that was only the bit fronting the main street, most of the action was in the arcade and out the back.

It was quite early when we arrived, and by the time we left the crowd was building.

Food stalls were also popular

The arcade was filled with jewellery and handicraft stalls

This particular stall sold Goat's Meat and they have won several prizes for their goat meat pies.

We bought a frozen pack of the pies to sample along our travels. Back on the way to the caravan park, we stopped at Kenjen's Fruit and Veg stall near the caravan park to top up on tomatoes. 

Checkout time is 10 am, so we hitch up and leave before the deadline. An hour and a half later we pulled in to Wooramel River Retreat, a station stay on the Wooramel River. Apparently the Wooramel River is known as the "upside down" river where water flows mostly below the dry sand bed. It also has Artesian Bore Baths. A short dirt road in from the highway, we are soon settled in to our camp spot, convenient to just about everything.

Our nice green grass site

This place is incredibly popular and has camp sites ranging from grass sites convenient to just about everything, to riverside sites that continue along the river front for hundreds of metres. We were told that the place is booked out and one late arrival we spoke to was only in a tent and was given a space in an overflow area, outside the normal camping grounds.

The facilities include a cafe that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a large alfresco  dining area and a stage made from an old flat bed truck where live music is sometimes provided.

The Cafe

The Stage

There are 4 artesian baths which are regularly  emptied and refilled.

This bath is being refilled which is done daily

The sought after riverside sights are mostly full, and look over the dry river bed, something that must be appealing to many.

                                                Riverside sites on the right, river on the left.

Along the riverside the sites do not look as generous in size, and are very popular, so it is packed. I took the photo above as I have been intrigued by the creativity of bringing a Tinnie on holiday, with it's trailer all carried on the roof of the vehicle. A fisherman's dream.

It was time for afternoon tea and to taste Carole's latest baking achievement, a fruit cake baked yesterday. A great success which just shows what you can do on the road.

Later in the afternoon we went to have a soak in the Artesian Baths fed from the Birdrong aquifer. The temperature was a comfortable mid 30's C and it is a communal activity, so you get to talk to a lot of other travellers, nearly all of which were from WA. The remedial benefits of a soaking in the mineral rich waters is not immediate, so we probably seek out another dose tomorrow before we draw any conclusions. Putting that aside, it was very relaxing and will definitely warrant further research tomorrow.

There was live music at the cafe tonight, a country and western style one man band, of which we have seen many on our trip so far. The repertoire seems to be the same at many station based stays, perhaps reflecting the demography of those who dominate the bookings. So far, it is a very pleasant break from the traditional caravan parks, there is no power or water, but the fees are also reasonable given there are showers, toilets, artesian baths and a cafe.