Today was very interesting. Last night we met a couple with a plantation just outside Carnarvon who some years ago switched from bananas to sweet corn and who invited us out to have a look. So we took them up on their offer and saw just how they do what they do. As we have already been shown over a banana plantation this was doubly interesting. Then over morning tea we were shown the photo album of his huge collection including medals, fob watches, rifles, pistols, swords and daggers. They were from all over the world and of varying ages, old ages! Really an amazing collection that I would like to see again with a bit more time to study the photos. They also had quite a collection of books. We have been invited back, to stay overnight if we wish, which we will probably do on our way back north.

After a bit of shopping, fuelling and dumping we left Carnarvon around midday heading south to the Gladstone Camp. Unfortunately the Tom Tom would not give us proper directions so I had to fudge things, but we did find the turn off and after 6 kms of unsealed, but not too bad, road reached the camp. This is a nice spot on the beach at the eastern side of Shark Bay and is set up with lots of sites spread along the beach on what is station property. There is a camp host and he welcomed us in and told us to park anywhere, so we chose a spot a little way away from the road in but fairly close to the old jetty.

Now the jetty is another story. The transport up and down WA in the early days was by sea and there are old jettys all along the coast that were used for this trade. The story in Shark Bay is that cargo boat used to anchor at the northern end of Dirk Hartog Island and smaller boats, called lighters, would transfer the cargo ashore all over the bay and of course pick up cargo, in this case cattle, to take back to the ship. The old jetty is still here.