Day 5 Tuesday 24/7/18


Day 5 Tuesday 24/7/18
The day before the BIG day!!!  Getting very excited....
Stunning dawn over Exmouth Gulf (view from our balcony)
Collection of domes - part of Solar Observatory
Decided on a relaxing day today, went for a shortish drive south of Exmouth for about 35Km, first stop to look at the Solar Observatory, its all behind fences and little signage!! We couldn’t get in although it has an interesting collection of domes and radio discs but NO visitors centre...come on guys people are interested - if you build it we will come!!  We then headed of to Learmouth.
Oil rigs in Exmouth Gulf (view from Learmouth Jetty)
Then went to the Krait and Potshot Memorial. The Krait was a Japanese fishing boat which the Australian Special Forces captured in WWII and used to conduct a sneak raid of the Japanese fleet in  Singapore harbour, sinking about 35,000 tons of Japanese vessels.
Remains of steel ball used as buoy for the submarine base
The Potshot Memorial tells the story of the American base setup during WWII as a forward fueling base. It was incredibly well stocked compared to the Australian Base.  This led to a lot of the US troops taking in the Aussie troops and opened up supplies of food, beer etc. The US Supply canteen had a policy that once it was at break even point with recouping its costs it gave away its stock until the next shipment came in and it had to charge the troops for luxury items. This lead to some spectacular parties apparently when free beer became available.
Display is very informative - Dale is deeply fascinated.

Sculpture depicting the many gun emplacements that protected the base
From here we visited the Charles Knife Gorge Road. This road was surveyed by Charles Knife, who was not a surveyor but his boss decided he was perfect for the job as a surveyor would just say it was impossible. The road was put in by the WAPET company, later taken over by Chevron (Ampol in Australia) to explore for possible oil in the ranges. This was unsuccessful and oil was ultimately found in at Barrow Island and later the in the Gulf.

The tourist road heads up into the hills, however is a magnificent legacy.
One of the many gorges viewed from Charles Knife Road
Erosion and cracks in the stone
View back towards Exmouth Gulf from Charles Knife Gorge Road


Further along - amazing scenery
Elevation goes quite abruptly from sea level plain at around 15M to up on the range at around 300M, and we didn't get to the top as the road became a little rough and unsealed.
Moving further north of Exmouth we visited the Vlamingh Head lighthouse and radar station and then retraced our steps via the wreck of the SS Mildura to Exmouth.


Hard to see but this is the VLF listening station first used during the Cold War. The main tower (in the centre) is supposedly the second tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 389M.

View from Vlamingh Head lighthouse

Vlamingh Head lighthouse

Local flora in flower.

Remains of radar station and WWII sand bags at Vlamingh Head

Whale breaching in the Indian Ocean just off Vlamingh Head
Wreck of SS Mi;ldura which prompted the building of the lighthouse at Vlamingh Head

Surf breaking on the reef off Vlamingh Head


Seals frolicking in the bay on their way out to the shelf

Sea birds.....
Camels came to visit again
Interesting sky colour at sunset (view from our balcony)

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