Day 98 Carnarvon, WA

Last night I sat up and watched my favourite tennis player Nick Kyrgios play Novak Djokovic in the mens finals at Wimbledon.  I have been following Nick's progress for longer than I can remember and even though he is portrayed as a "bad boy", and rightly so in some circumstances, I also think he brings an element of excitement to the tennis game. But let's not forget that above everything else he is also one helluva talented player and I was not surprised at all to see him make it to the Wimbledon finals. He might have lost the game on the night but he is a winner in my eyes 😍.

So, it was a slow start to the morning.  First thing to do was visit the Information Centre to get directions to the places we wanted to visit over the next few days.  From our visit here we have been able to do a bit of planning.  The One Mile Jetty discovery centre is only opened on Wednesdays so that is the plan for that day.  Tomorrow therefore will be the blowholes as it will be a full day.  The Space Museum will also be covered on Wednesday.  We have been told to allow at least 3-4 hours to do it properly.  That left the Fruit Loop Trail for today.

The 26km long trail, with nine locations for purchasing fruit and veggie, doesn't cover a big area but every available square inch of land is under crop so it is quite an impressive site.  The farmers receive their water from the Gascoyne River.  At 865 kms in length it is the longest river in Western Australia.  The river flows most years but Carnarvon and the horticultural area rely on aquifers under the river that can store up to four years of water.  The Carnarvon area produces 80% of Western Australia's fresh produce.

The mighty Gascoyne River 

We stopped at all nine locations to pick up various fruit and veggie.  One of the stops was better known for its Cactus Garden.  It was quite amazing to see the different varieties of cacti from the towering to the smallest balls.  Some of the cacti was in flower so that was quite special to see.

Our last stop for the day was not really a fruit and veggie store but rather a preserves and ice-cream store where we picked up a tray of homemade pumpkin scones and some Mango and Hazelnut Rocky Road. It has now been devoured and you can take my word for it that it was delicious! 😋 The produce prices were very cheap, as they always are buying straight from the farm gate, and I managed to pick up this variety for around $50.  There is enough to keep us going for at least a month and as it is much cooler now, I am able to store almost all the produce in the pantry cupboard. Philip has fired up the Weber to roast the bag of capsicums for me so they will be preserved in oil and used when needed.  The tomatoes will make Curried Tomato Soup courtesy of a recipe from Justine Schofield and the watermelon is already sliced into pieces and sitting in the fridge for snacking on.

Bok Choy, Zucchini, Spring Onions, Corn, Red Cabbage, Broccoli, Bananas, Lettuce, Curry Leaves, Cherry Tomatoes, Field Tomatoes, Lemons, Avocados, Capsicums, Mandarins, Watermelon, Pumpkin Scones & Rocky Road

The foodie that I am, just loved travelling around this area today and so many recipes are running around in my head, but as the food is so fresh it will mostly be used for salads and stir-fry.