Day 62 - Hamelin to Geraldton

We pack and depart, a little sad to leave, but this is the home stretch now, only 2 weeks until we are home so, as much as we could spend an extra day here, it would be doing “nothing” and there are things we need to do at home that have popped up since we’ve been away.

 

Last night we looked at the maps and decided that we would skip Kalbarri NP. The 2 main areas we wanted to look at (Eaglesnest Lookout and Nature’s Window) are closed due to road works until September. Its an extra 130km to go to Geraldton via Kalbarri, so we aim straight for Geraldton, 309km away.

 



There's a Storm a'brewin

We arrive about 1300, set up and go look around. There are many ships in the harbour, swinging at anchor, and the surf can be heard pounding the shore line. Our tent is 100m from the beach, and you can see the spray from the shore break from our tent!!! Someone at dinner mentions that it’s a 4 meter swell, and ships can’t enter the harbour is its over 2 meters as they can damage the pier etc.

 

Tried to book into the Italian restaurant, but can’t as he is booked out for 6:00pm as there is a show on at 8:00 by the Melbourne Ballet company, and everyone is going for an early dinner. We book for tomorrow, as we are here for 2 nights.

 

Then, after dinner, closer to midnight, a strange thing happened. It Rained! Actually, it poured! It took me a minute to recognise the sound of rain on the canvas. Later in the night Mandy gets trapped in the toilets by another downpour!

 

No harm done.

 

Day 62 – day 2 Geraldton.

 

I change the rear tyres on the Hilux to even the wear out. They have done 10000 really hard km, and the back tyres have more weight on them that the trailer or front tyres.

HMAS Sydney II Memorial

Lest We forget

 HMAS Sydney II was a decorated and storied ship of the RAN, that had seen significant action during World War II. The Sydney II was a modified Leander class Cruiser,  which saw action initially closer to Europe, sinking several Men-o-war and Enemy flagged merchant ships and causing several others to flee her presence. However, it was off the shores of the shores of the Australian mainland that her most well known battle took place, even if the exact location of her final  resting place would not be known for over 75 years!

We head in to see the HMAS Sydney II memorial. Opened in 2001, it is an important reminder of one of the greatest single losses of life in the Royal Australian Navy’s history. Engaged in a battle with the German raider Kormoran, it was lost with all hands on 19^th November, 1941. Until 2008, the actual resting place of the Sydney was unknown. The only reason they Navy knew she had been sunk was that she failed to report in as scheduled, and the arrival of survivors from the Kormoran in life boats on the coast of WA around Geraldton.

 

The loss of the entire ship’s company of 645 Officers and ratings is a stark reminder of the losses our country endured during the second World War. The statue as part of the memorial, showing a lady, looking out to sea, awaiting the return of her loved one, serves to remind us that those lives lost, while tragic in themselves, was only part of the loss suffered. Every one of the men lost, not just on the Sydney, but in all conflicts, leaves behind a grieving family, wife, girlfriend, children, brother, sister, father, aunt, and in the modern era, husband or boyfriend.

 

This is MY Child - acting as one should in a place like this:
With dignity and respect. Well Done Max- So Proud of you!

The Memorial is beautifully done. Sadly the sign stating “ This is a place of dignity and respect. We ask that you conduct yourself in such a manner as to reflect the intentions of this place” was not heeded by the Feral Family, letting their kids play chasey around the central pillar of the memorial yelling “hah hah, you’re a loooooooooser” So remind me again, why you came here? Such disrespect is tragically becoming all too common, and the parents are squarely to blame for failing to correct this abhorrent  behaviour!

 

After this we leave to play at the foreshore park. Great playground and the kids run riot. Sadly, the

Geraldton Shire council has a Department of the Bleeding Obvious, and has a sign on the toddler playground that suggests it is common for parents to let their kids play without a nappy on!!!!??? For real??? Seriously? People need to be told it’s NOT ok for their kids to poo on the playground??

 

After this disturbing incident we head to L’Italiano restaurant. OMG. BEST ITALIAN FOOD EVER! Great little palace with good selection. Smells great. I had Gnocchi Quatrro Fromagii (Gnocchi with 4 cheeses) Brilliant. You do need to see a Doctor about getting your cholesterol checked, but last I had mine done it was ok, so we powered on. Sam had Meat Lovers Pizza – Beautiful Super Thin crust Pizza, stone baked, not conveyer belt. Delish! Max shared the Large Pizza with Sam and they both had some of Mandy’s “combination” Lasagne, Cannelloni and baked Tortellini. We thought we’d save some $$$$ on 3 mains, but it was all so good, we had to order a kids pizza to fill the kids because we didn’t want to give any up!!!!!!

 

Dessert was good too. I had the Mint Choc sundae. Magnificent. Boys had Chocolate Gelato, with a wafer and one of those chocolate wafer roll things. And on the house I had an affogato. I said to the waitress (who happens to also be the co-owner with her husband who is the chef) that I couldn’t decide between affogato and the mint sundae, so, after I ordered the Mint sundae, she arrived with the other desserts, AND an affogato.  Now, for the non-coffee snobs out there, affogato is a shot of espresso coffee poured over a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream in a small espresso cup. YUM!

645 Stainless Steel Seagulls -1 for each Australian Sailor lost on the Sydney II

 

We roll back to the tent, full up, early start to head to Cervantes and The Pinnacles!

Day 61 – Monkey Mia to Hamelin Station

Today just 103km

 

SO we leave Monkey Mia, achieving what we wanted to achieve, which was seeing some dolphins up close, with the added bonus of the boys feeding them! We drop passed the dolphin area around 0900, but no one is home. The morning interaction was only at 0830 (a bit later than normal – after all, dolphins don’t wear wrist watches!) and we do however see a Turtle in the “Dolphin Interaction Zone”. Max remarks that, whilst cute (he loves turtles) that he shouldn’t be in the Dolphin interaction area, and perhaps they should set up a turtle interaction area as well!!!

 

We drop into Denham and pick up bread and some dinner meat (awesome IGA snags and rissoles) Memo Coles from us: Your sausages are rubbish! Just saying. IGA ones are heaps nicer!

 

Shelly Beach - no sand here!!!!!

We wander to the Hamelin Station Stay. Hamelin station is a working Sheep station on 250,000 acres, running 20,000 head of sheep (at the moment, this number fluctuates depending on conditions). There are 2 reasons for stopping here. 1. Stromatalites at Hamelin Pool and 2. To break up the drive to Geraldton (which would be 420km direct or 550km if we went through Kalbarri NP (which was our initial plan)

 

 

Stromatalites: Be thankful they are here......
for the last 3.5 BILLION years!

Firstly: Stromatalites. What the hell is a Stromatalite? Well, if not for these 3.5 BILLION year old life forms, we, humans, may not be here! Stromatalites are a form of Cyanobacteria which combine with rock and sediment to form a reef like structure. They produce Oxygen from surrounding elements, namely Carbon Dioxide, and thrived in the environments around the time of the formation of the earth, when Oxygen was scarce. Due to such favourable condition, they thrived and made so uch oxygen, that the Oxygen level, compared to other gases (Nitrogen, CO2 etc) gradually changed over 100’s of Millions of years to close to what it is now (21% Oxygen, 78% Nitrogen, 1% the rest!), and it was this change which is thought to have prompted certain animals to seek an existence outside of the water and on land. It is these animals which are our earliest evolutionary relatives.

 

So, you may ask, what’s so important out these Stromatalites at Hamelin Pool? Well, there are only 2 known “deposits” of Stromatalites in the WORLD. Here, at Hamelin Pool, and another in the Bahamas. That’s it!

 

Because they are a lot like coral they are easily damaged and take YEARS to repair. In fact you can see tracks in the Stromatalites here made during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when wool wagons were pushed/pulled over them to load ships in the bay here. Those tracks are still visible, over 100 years later!!!

 

Cant knock these sunsets..........

And the other reason we are here is Hamelin Station Stay. Brilliant. The owners have done a great job building an immaculate amenities block, beautifully maintained. They have cabins, rooms in the old shearer’s quarters or unpowered camp sites. They are large and level. The Price? $36 a night for all of us!!!! We’ve stayed at other stations (Mabel Downs comes to mind) with facilities that are down right 3^rd world compared to these, also unpowered, and paid $45!!! 

 

So, what is there to do at Hamelin Station? Nothing! That’s the beauty of it! You can see the Stromatalites, wander around their lake, watch birds or do NOTHING!!!! Its not a resort, with planned activities and a pool and the like. But the facilities are first rate.

 

The camp kitchen and BBQ areas are brilliant. Large and spacious, they are well equipped. When our host, Julie, took us through, I through she’d walked us through the station kitchen! It had a commercial type cooker hob with Oven, full array of frying pans and saucepans, and 2 separate eating areas, the larger enclosed by café style vinyl blinds! Staff and owners are brilliant, and we had a good chat to both, just shooting the breeze and learning about the place. Just a great place to stay. Also some pretty nice sunsets.

 

Day 58 – uPDATED Carnarvon to Monkey Mia – via Denham

 

Distance 389km 
Avg Fuel consumption for the whole trip so far 15.7l/100km
Fuel used 1567.4 Litres!

Total Distance travelled 10071km!!!!!!

 

We depart Carnarvon a little later than hoped after a call from the Local Ambo’s to say “thanks” for the hand the previous day. Seems “Dave” is actually pretty unwell, and was Airlifted by the RFDS about 2130 last night with a Brain Aneurysm, in an induced coma. Not sure what the future holds, and probably won’t find out, but I’m glad we stopped to help and didn’t just hand it off to the locals (knowing now that they are Volunteers, not paid Paramedics – As volunteers, they do not have the same skill set as Paramedics, but are still well trained and effective First Responders, and more importantly, they have transport to hospital!!!!)

 

To Support the RFDS please click here to find out how

 

We stop off at the Overlander Roadhouse and grab a snack, $2.20 for a fried Dim Sim!! Wow! Head back in the car aiming for Denham for lunch. Find the Bakery and grab pies for lunch. $5 for pies, and not too shabby either. Eating them on the foreshore made them taste better still!!!!

Denham foreshore - Why would you be here????

 

 

What you lookin at!!!!

Again back in the car aiming for Francois Peron NP and the Monkey Mia Dolphin conservation reserve. It is probably worth the mention that the whole area, known as Shark Bay (the whole area is on a bay…..) is World Heritage Listed and protected in all manner of ways from exploitation etc. There is still a thriving tourist industry here too, so things are protected AND people can see it.

 

We stump up our additional $30 to get in, to the WA DEC (Department of Environment and Conservation) and book into the caravan park. Site found and tent set up, we stroll to the beach for sunset, and a general feel for the place.

Some nice pics around sunset. All in all, seems fairly cool

 

Day 59 – Day 1 at Monkey Mia

 

Photos taken during Dolphin Interaction: 1062 :) (Thanks Mum!)

 

 



2 mothers and their Calves. Just 4 of the 15 different dolphins to come in

We have 2 full days here and decide to jump straight in and see the Dolphin Interaction. The Dolphins here are wild, in as much as they can come and go as they please. They only feed certain dolphins, and no more than 3 times a day, and only ever 5 small fish, which accounts for about 20% of their daily 12 kg food requirement. This forces them to maintain their hunting skills. This is important because the young learn this behaviour from their mother, and if the mothers (most of the dolphins that come in are female) don't hunt for fish, then the calves wont learn to find food, and eventually die. This ain’t Seaworld: There is no free lunch here, just a free snack!



Max looking at Niki - trying not to fall in!!!!!






Feeding "Surprise" the dolphin

Only 5 people per Dolphin get to feed (1 fish per person, 5 fish per dolphin), and they never feed more than 5 dolphins at a time. This time around the boys missed out. There are up to 6 more chances (2 today and 3 tomorrow with 1 on the day we leave if required). Not too disappointed. We watch Niki, one of the regulars trying to catch a fair sized fish under the jetty, providing a good 45 mins on entertainment for the gathering crowd.

That WAS pretty cool! Thanks Surprise!!!!

 

They go for “interaction” 2 for the day, and we get front centre spots again. This time the young French guy, here volunteering, picks the boys to feed. Both are rapped, and we get a couple of great photos and some huge smiles from both boys! They thought it was awesome, and fair enough too. Sam remarked that he’d fed dolphins on the East coast and the West coast of Australia, as we fed a captive dolphin at Seaworld a few years ago.

 

Spent the rest of the day lazing around, looking in the shop etc. The boys picked up some more stuffed toys. Max a Shark (not sure what specific type) and Sam a d tiger Shark. We bought a stuffed toy Sting Ray for the baby: Given the Child won’t be called “Steve” or use the word “crikeey” a lot, I feel this is a safe option. It was also Waaaaaaaay cute and gender neutral!

 

You looking at me kid? You Lookin at ME?

 

After lunch decide to play on the beach. It’s down to mid 20’s now, so not even my 2 “Daaaaad, can we swim??” boys want anything to do with swimming here. Max built a sand castle turtle, which was pretty good

Day 2 - Monkey Mia and Denham

 

Weather isn’t as good as the previous, oh say 8 weeks, and we pass on early dolphin interactions, given the boys have already fed one and we had a pretty good time of it yesterday. Wander down, have a look, and no dolphins around. Look through the information centre and the like. We decide to head to the Shark Bay Aquarium after lunch, and so we eat and jump in the car for the 30km drive back to Denham. Weather is still further closing in.  



Nemo: FOUND!!!!!

We handed over our $63 for our family entry. We had heard good things about this place and were   and a variety of sharks including tiger, reef and  some others I can’t remember!

not disappointed. The staff, though young, are knowledgeable and entertaining in informing us of the different types of marine animals they have. All animals are local to Shark Bay. They have sea snakes, Rays, Turtles, Clown Fish (aka Nemo)


 

 

The sharks are in a large tank, strangely enough, along with some other fish that they apparently don’t like to eat! Very very interesting, and the best part is, that once you’ve paid to get in, you can stay all day. So if you wanted to do the tour 7 times you can, just keep tagging on to the end of the next tour.

Ya think!



Max and Bob, the 3 flippered Turtle



What's in there d'ya reckon?

 

Dinner tonight is Pepperoni Risotto, done in the camp oven (but on a burner as no fires allowed in the National Park) which came up really well. I didn’t expect it to work as well as it did.

 

 

.

What are we running.........

Many of you will already know this stuff.. but if you dont.... here's a run down on our setup for this Trip, a 3 month jaunt around WA via Ayre's Rock (or Uluru if you prefer)

The Truck/Car/Tug

Our chariot will be a 2007 Toyota Hilux D4D, Twincab, 3.0 turbo diesel, Manual. Purchased new, it has been fitted with a number of accessories to keep us safe and get us out of trouble. these include:

• ARB Bullbar/Siderails
• Snorkel
• Kaymar Rear Step/Towbar
• Lowline Steel framed Canopy with roofrack
• Black Widow drawer system with custom fridge storage and standard fridge slide
• Ironman Foamcell suspension (with 45mm lift at front)
• Ironman 12000lb winch and synthetic cable
• Cooper STMaxx tyres on "Sunraysia" Steel wheels all around including Trailer
• Long Range Automotive 145 l replacment fuel tank
• TyreDog Tyre Pressure monitor
• Fuel Manager FM100 Fuel "pre filter" and water separator

Added to this are a few other things to make life more enjoyable/safer/because I like to talk......

• Codan 8528 HF radio with RFDS and VKS737 channels
• Icom dual band (70cm/2m or UHF/VHF if you prefer) Amateur radio
• 80ch UHF CB
• Reversing Camera/GPS
• Narva 225 driving Lights
• Tekonsha P2 brake controller

We're Navigating with the full suite of Hema  and Geoscience Australia Maps, via my Asus TF-201 10" Transformer Prime ePad, with Oziexplorer for Android and Holux Bluetooth GPS

The Trailer

click to enlarge

Our accommodation for the trip will be our 2011 Tambo Omeo Camper Trailer. One of only around 
25 of these fabulous trailers are out there at the moment. But...... Tambo has re-opened and are back, bigger and better than before. Ian and Emma are giving that same great Customer Service that Tambo are renowned for with the same quality build and ruggedness Tambo trailers are so well known for. Visit www.tambocampertrailers.com.au or phone 03 9801 9222 and see why WE are running a Tambo! You will NOT be disappointed! (No I don't own shares, but when I get a product I'm happy with, I make sure that I let others know, because word of mouth is the best plug for any business, and these guys deserve it.)
15,000km on this trip plus at least another 10,000km through Lake Eyre and the Victorian High Country, including the infamous "staircase" to Lake Cobbler and not one single Mechanical issue. This thing is TOUGH.

built ridiculously tough. the only issue was a bent tent arm -
 caused by Me not packing it up properly

7x5 Steel framed construction, with Australian made 12.5oz Canvas all around, The Omeo was one of the first "Walk up" designs, which allows us to drop a step down at the foot of the  bed and simply "walk up" into the bed. No Massive step up, no climbing over each other to get out of bed!! Genius!

The Omeo has a Stainless steel topped Kitchen bench, with Lido Junior 2 burner stove, as well as Massive kitchen storage drawer for all food storage requirements.

The Omeo came from the factory with no electrics (as requested) and has been modded by us to suit our requirements.

• RedArc BMS1220S2 update
• 2 x 100Ah SSB AGM Deep cycle battery
• 240v 10A, 30mA RCBO for earth leakage and overload protection
• 10 outlet fuse block for 12v distribution
• 2 x Anderson plug outlets - 1 rear and 1 front
• 2 x twin cigarette lighter outlets and 1 x single cig/twin USB 2A outlets in kitchen
• NO Inverter fitted, but we carry 2 x 200w Inverters to use as required

The Cameras

So we are shooting a few cameras:Primary Image device:
       Nikon D70 DSLR 6.2Mpix
               18-55mm f3.5-5.6
               28-80mm f3.5-5.6
               70-300mm f 4.5-5.6 All genuine Nikkor Lens
The 2 shorter lenses run a Cokin "A" series filter system, and use the circular Polarising filter
also on duty id the FijiFilm F100 Compact digital. 12Mpix and the main "glovebox Camera"
Apple iPhone 4S also made a few contributions when the big camera was packed away.

Also the Samsung Digital video Camera had a bit of an outing, but sadly, not as much as I would have liked, as I get carried away with my stills too much and forget to grab it out!!

Day 55 -57 - :( as we leave Cape Range – to Carnarvon

 

The wind finally gave up on day 3 and the last 2 nights have allowed us to sleep, and it is with great sadness that we must close the chapter on Cape Range National Park, for it is truly one of the highlights of the trip so far. I’m not really a beach person, in spite of growing up going to the beach for a week or 2 every year over Christmas, as a kid. This is a truly amazing place, and worthy of its status as both a Marine Park and World Heritage listing. We pack slowly, hoping it will last just a little bit longer.

 

We hit the road and on the way out visit the Turtle Centre. This has information boards about the different types od turtle that nest here. The have Green Sea, Loggerhead and Hawksbill turtles, and the life cycle is an amazing story of perseverance. To think that 1 in 1000 hatchlings will survive the 20 years until they return to the same beach where they were born, find a mate, and lay up to 120 eggs (varies slightly with each species). That they survive predation whilst an egg (foxes, dingos and crocs where applicable), predation while getting to sea on the beach from crabs, eagles, kites etc, and predations as a adolescent and adult from sharks as well as Fishing lines and boat strike, its amazing that there are any at all.

 

We refuel in Exmouth, and head for lunch in Coral Bay, reported to have a very nice Bakery. Bakeries are seemingly rare in WA, not sure why, but most towns rely on the local supermarket for their day old (or 2) or frozen mass produced bread. In Victoria, nearly every little country town has a bakery.

 

Should have stayed here...... REALLY should have stayed here

Anyway, we dine on some pies (and quite nice they were, ALMOST as good as Mt Evelyn Bakery pies) and decide to drop back in for something from  the Cake department. We run into Sharyn, who along with Peter and their kids, we have run into 5 or 6 times now. Bizarre. We stop and chat, and decide to head down to the beach for a look and a play.

We park the car, and in doing so, drive right past their site at the caravan park! End up stopping in for an hour or so and swapping stories. We only just ran into them at Karijini (and Middle Lagoon , Broome, and Manning Gorge and Home Valley station before that!!)

 

A quick play in the beach (and the realisation that it's already 3.00pm) has us regretting booking into Carnarvon already, as we could easily stay here!

 

We remount the Hilux and drive another 200km south to Carnarvon. Nice park, reasonable sized site and we quickly set up, opting for Takeaway. We find a Fish and Chip shop that looks nice, and this time, $36 the feed the family, with Sam having a Fish Burger that is massive, and Max’s Snapper was bigger than his plate! Mandy had grilled Snapper (locally caught apparently) and said it was great. Me: I had a burger. The $8 “plain” burger comes with cheese, onion and tomato, along with Lettuce and your choice or BBQ or Tomato sauce. Better than any burger McD or HJ’s ever made!!!

 

Day 2 Carnarvon

 

Coffee Pot Train

Sunday today so a lazy start, and we decide to head in, grab some food, and then see the 1 Mile Pier, and associated “coffee pot train” Sadly, there is no coffee on board L

 

Massive pier though, because the sand is so shallow here, they had to go so far out to get deep water,

which is 12m deep at high tide!
 

We hit a play ground, kids have a ball, while we sit mouths agape as local aboriginal children (some in nappies) wander around with no one older than 9 or 10 seemingly “looking after them”  about 20 minutes later some adult wander up, pull icy poles from a box, while a 6 or 7 year old washes her feet in the Drinking fountain. Thanks for basically fulfilling every stereotype about Aboriginal people I’ve ever seen. Sad part is, I know this is not necessarily the majority, but what the kids are seeing a a lot of this behaviour in public, and I’m concerned that they think this is normal. I’m sure it is normal for this individuals, it is not necessarily “normal” for all people of Aboriginal decent.  

 

Day 3

 

Astronauts

Head to the Carnarvon Space and technology museum. This facility was opened by no less than Dr. Buzz Aldrin. It shows an interesting insight into the use of Australian facilities by NASA during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions, prior to the decommissioning of the site in 1988. Kids have a ball and learn heaps, with both boys taking an renewed interest in space and astronomy.

 

Also here is the OTC 29m dish, used for initially space mission comms in the 1960’s and early 70’s   from 1972. It carried 13,000 telephone and 10 TV “circuits” allowing instant overseas telephone, telex and television connectivity with the rest of the world. Previously, and this is hard to imaging, the only way to communicate overseas was by telegram, by HF radio.!

and then for telecommunications

 

"one small step for a man".....
relayed via here

We climb the stairs on the dish and have a look, but unfortunately, you cant go any higher :( 

Off to the hospital for Midwife appointment, and all is well. 

On the way home we see a guy driving at 30kph in a 60 zone and all over the road. We try to call the police wondering if he’s drunk, but as we pull next to him, he looks really unwell, and we try to pull him over. He doesn’t stop, hits a few street signs, nearly has about 10 head ons, and we follow him home, and call an Ambulance (after being told one was not available…Mandy did the “we are both Paramedics from Melbourne and he needs an ambulance” we are sent the local Volunteer crew. Patient is getting worse, and load him, and crew want me to come with them, as I expressed by concern that the patient was getting worse, and is probably having a stoke.

 

BACK to the hospital we’d left literally 45 minutes ago. I ask who was going to do the handover, and everyone else took a step back….. I’ve manage to make it 2 and a half months without doing any work!! I really thought I’d make it all the way home.

 

I’m not sure what happened to Dave (not his real name), but I hope he’s ok…… We’ll never know

Cape Range NP Days 50-54

 We leave Exmouth after a quick stop to pick up supplies. There are a number of Defence Department installations here, a hangover  over from World War II. the Navy operate The Harold E. Holt Naval communications station, with its associated antenna farm!! Whoa, there are some serious antenna here!!! Massive phased arrays, ELF HF, everything. A map we have notes on mast at 365m high!!!!

Just prior to that is RAAF Learmoth. As we drive past, an F/A-18 Hornet is taking off! Very Cool.

 



Lighthouse and WWII era Radar station relic

First stop is Point Vlaming Lighthouse. The view is amazing, turquoise ocean and we even spot some Whales broaching off the shore!! I get a little excited as we get a great view of the RAN antenna farm…..yeah, I know, I’m sad. The lighthouse site also has the base of a Radar station used during WWII to detect Japanese aircraft. Although the electronics are gone, the tower remains, restored by the local RSL. 

We continue on after an hour or so and arrive at the visitor centre for a look around. Max has been looking to purchase a stuffed Turtle, and as Ningaloo Reef  is known for having a large number of turtles, we advised him to wait until we got here to find one. He was not disappointed and found a gorgeous Sea turtle which he named “Turtley, as in Turtley Awesome”.

 

Kurrajong campsite in Cape Range is another 20 minutes down the road, and we make several sightings of turquoise ocean over sand dunes. We arrive, check in with the camp hosts, and set up. It’s a little windy…. I suppose that will pass.

 

 

 

This is so bad, I think we should leave immediately!!~!

 The beach is AMAZING. Again with the turquoise (I’ve never used that word so often in my life!!!). We have a wander around on the beach and opt not to swim yet. WE’ll do that later. Sunset is yet again, a brilliant Westerly view over the Indian Ocean, watching the sun disappear under the horizon of water……. Not getting bored of this at all.!!!!!

You can sit at the table and chairs and have dinner and watch this!! Hard to take!

 

 

 

Overnight it is blowing a gale! Gusty wind from no particular direction is making the tent shake and rattle. Even the Victorian High Country isn’t this bad. I’ve tented through some pretty vile weather in the High Country, including thunderstorms and snow, and its never been as bad as this. Not much sleep had L

 



Not much else to do today........

Day 1 (full day that is) is a little less windy, but not a lot. We attempt to snorkel just off the bay where we are, but the beach conditions were better suited to Body boarding than snorkelling! We have a go, but as I have to watch both boys at the same time, the weather is too much and we just have a swim instead.

 

Mandy was having an afternoon siesta, when we got buzzed by an F/A 18 Hornet flying along the beach at about 200ft and 400kts speed. We are 50m from the beach and it was LOUD! Boys and I thought it was awesome.....Mandy said "that's a horrible alarm clock!!!!!





 



"Tower, this is Ghostrider Requesting a flyby"
"Negative Ghostrider, the pattern if full"

Windy again tonight, although maybe not as bad as the first night…..still a restless nights sleep. The boys slept like logs!

 

Day 2....

A slow start and we have a look art the beach. The tide is set to be quite low all day, thanks to a high tide that is not much higher than the low tide: Weird!

 



$4 wetsuit from Kmart- Don't Mind if I do!!!!!
Max saw a Sting Ray here!

Consider snorkelling at “our beach” but opt for Turquoise Bay, 5 minutes up the road. AMAZING. The color is well…….turquoise, and we jump in the not so warm water for a snorkel. It is at this point that I say a massive THANK YOU to Kmart South Hedland for having Mens WetSuits (spring suits) on clearance for $4, yes folks, Four lousy dollars!!!! We picked one up as an offer too good to refuse ( and we should have picked up a Mens Small for Sam in about 2 years time!!)

 

 

Turquoise Bay - Very hard to take.........

The boys had springsuits, and the chill is soon forgotten after warming up, and even further forgotten when just 5 metres off shore, we start seeing bright Blue fish, Archer fish, a fish that was Rainbow Colored and Max is adamant he saw a “Sting Ray”, although here it is most likely a Manta Ray. I didn’t see it as I was looking at something Sam was pointing to, but he said it was near the rocks, and his description was spot on, even down to the proportions of the tail to the body, so I’m inclined to believe him (not that he tends to make these things up anyway…)  Pretty damn Cool!

 

Sam snorkelling at Kurrajong beach

We abandon any further marine adventures when teeth are chattering so hard we almost bite the mouth pieces off our snorkels!!

 

My biggest regret (and probably my only one so far) is not buying a waterproof Digital camera before this trip. So many opportunities to get some good pics while swimming, especially of the boys (or a Manta Ray!!!!) but alas, it is not to be L

 

Day 3

 

I'm not sure but I think Max is having fun here!!!!

More snorkelling, and some great weather, flat calm ocean and just fantastic all round. We get another RAAF fly-by, this time from a Hawk Jet Trainer, at about 200-300ft. Plenty more marine critters spotted, and it soon becomes apparent that we will be leaving tomorrow, and I get a little sad that our time here is coming to a close.

Day 48 and 49

 Karijini to Exmouth (with a stop at Nanaturra Roadhouse (680km)

Total Km 8921

Photos Taken: 4203!!! thank God for Digital SLRs!!!!! (and Mum for the bigger memory card for my B'day!!!)

 

So, sadly we have to leave Karijini NP, and after the kids collected their “Karijini NP Junior Ranger” badges, we headed off again, West now towards Exmouth, which is our Gateway to the Ningaloo Reef. We are booked into the Big 4 in Exmouth and as such are going to “ drive until it hurts” today, and find a suitable rest area to stay in along the way. We stop in at Tom Price for a few groceries as we have been told the Exmouth IGA is very pricey!

 

With the Grey Nomads stopping for lunch and then forgetting to drive again after lunch, the Free Roadside camps fill up soon after lunch with 60 foot Caravans driven by people who scare the daylights out of me just being allowed to drive a car! None the less we head west, and opt to stay at the Nanuturra Roadhouse, about 230km short of Exmouth. Not bad: $30 per night, hot showers, power and clean amenities. Just a shame that you can’t hammer a tent peg into the ground L !!!!! Our “neighbour”, who is staying for a few weeks offers to park his ute in such a way we can tie some guys to it! Nice!!!!

 

Showered and rested we drive on to Exmouth. We opt to go and grab some things for lunch. On the way out of the park we spot another Tambo Omeo Camper Trailer. There are perhaps only 20-30 made so it’s a bit of a treat. We point and gawk, they look at us strange, as we have dumped the trailer in our spot having already checked in. We wind windows down and say “we have an Omeo too!!” and discover we are also both on MySwag, and in fact had exchanged messages about some things!! Small world. We agree to catch up later, turns out we can see each others sites! Weird!! Simon and Kylie and family, it turns out, have just stayed in the same campground, Kurrajong in Cape Range NP, that we are heading to tomorrow. They are also leaving tomorrow for Ningaloo Station (very envious!!!!!) and are going to try and come back to Kurrajong!! Wow, seems we picked the right place!!!  

 

Spend the arvo, lazing (for a change, there are no little jobs to be done!!!) and chatting for a bit with Simon and Kylie about their set up, the way they pack and manage things. We compare electrical set ups and storage ideas. We also got the inside running on a few things to do and see up there. Brilliant!!!!!

 

 

Day 46 and 47 – Tom Price to Karijini NP

Catching some Rays: Solar works great up here!!!!

About 70km from tom Price is the Karijini NP. This National Park, the Largest in WA, encompass’

some of the most magnificent gorges and scenery. Unlike Windjana Gorge, which is raised above the land and gorges carved out of the Mountains, Karijini, is flat with the gorges deep, deep into the ground!

 

Karijini NP also includes Yampire Gorge, the place Lang Hancock first discovered and mined crocadilite (Blue asbestos) but then shut that down when the larger deposit was discovered at Wittenoom gorge. Wittenoom Gorge is only 10km from the savannah Camp ground, admittedly, over a mountain range! Still, so close to such infamy is some of the most amazing scenery this land has to offer!

 

Drop by the Camp Hosts to get our sire allocation. Camp hosts are people who volunteer to assist DEC rangers with camper issues. Here there are 2 couples, “working” a 2 on/2 off roster. In return they get, free camping, power and water (the rest of the NP has no power or even bore water!!) Seems they are looking for a couple to do this for 4 weeks, starting next week! I offer, but an quickly shot down, being told they are looking for COUPLES, not FAMILIES. D’oh!

 

We head to look at Circular Pool Lookout. Amazing. One thing that need to be said. Everything here sits on a bed of iron ore. This whole national Park is RED, with Red and black tonings. The Visitor Centre is made of untreated steel, allowed to gather surface rust, and it just blends in to the surroundings. The Red in the photos still doesn’t quite do it justice!

 

In Memorium

Day 2 here and we head into the car and head to Oxer Lookout and Junction Pool. WOW. 4 gorges all coming together, makes for a spectacular sight and again the colors are amazing. At Oxer lookout as Regan’s Pool. Regan’s Pool, was renamed in 2004 after the death of a Newman SES volunteer who was killed when a flash flood struck during a rescue operation of a tourist who had injured themselves on the walk in the gorge below. Several members of the rescue party were injured, and Jim Regan was killed. The tourist suffered no further injury. A Celtic cross adorns the site., Also bearing testament to the number of cliff rescues is the permanent tie off fixtures present for High Angle Rescue gear.

Stoopid People

 

 

 

Fern Pool! Awesome

Max having his toes nibbled by fish!!!

 

 

We head back for lunch after dropping by the visitor centre. Again, brilliant, we done DEC!!! Blending local indigenous heritage with the more modern “European” history of the area.

 

Afterward we head to Fern Pool. As this is a class 4 walk (1 being wheelchair accessible, 5 requiring “experienced hikers”) Mandy  opted not to do it, after I’d recced it the day before