Week 18 (25th - 30th July)

Our proposed tea stop on the de Grey River extended over two days and nights! During the course of it Lea baked our first cake with honey and walnuts on the top! A Hollander, Nic brought his New Zealand wife Ethel to meet us and joined us for tea and cake on the Sunday afternoon. The number of grey nomads on the road and “holed up” in places such as this is truly remarkable. At times, it seems as if there are more caravans on the road than cars! While some of the nomads travel in convoy with friends, there are others that travel in huge Leyland buses, as well as loners travelling in old Vee-Dubs; another lying in the shade with nothing but a swag, a gas cylinder and a motorbike. All happy to have a yarn yet minding their own business. By 9.00 at night there is not a sound. The absence of “hoons” is a blessing.

Railway bridge over de Grey river

It was “back to the seaside” for us this week and little else than one lazy, sun-filled day following another exploring the coastline between Cape Keraudren and Eighty Mile Beach – both locations lying well south of Broome and in a section of the coast where the tidal range is becoming large, i.e. in the order of 5 - 7m.

The campsite at Cape Keraudren is run by the Shire of East Pardoo.

Campsite at Cape Keraudren from crest of dune

Other than a bush toilet, used by one fellow to post a notice about his availability as an IT expert, there are no facilities. No fresh water and no fire wood – just a few dunes, rugged limestone platforms at the water’s edge and the bluest of blue seas stretching as far as the eye can see. Most folk who camp there, for periods up to three months, rely on the Pardoo roadhouse, 14km back along a dusty corrugated track to the main road, for their supplies. They not only do their laundry at the roadhouse but also use the phone; get their post, vegetables and groceries delivered there and use it to re-supply with water & fuel.

We parked Getaway in a bus terminus! Actually a group of nomads all using buses, some the size of luxury Greyhound coaches, as their chosen mode of travel. Behind a few, a trailer can be found to transport their runabout car, as well as a boat. They carry 600 litres of fuel on board and 44 gallon drums full of water, not to mention the dog (or dogs) and, in one case, the cat as well! They are serious nomads these folk, making our little rig look positively miniscule by comparison!

Our days at Cape Keraudren were filled by much idleness, walking along the beach looking for shells, reading and sleeping. However, at low tide we sprung into action and spent many a happy hour wandering over the vast expanse of flat rocky platforms, capped by fine sand that lay in front of us, peering at the weird variety of creatures exposed in the rock pools, many of which we had never seen before; rude squirts shooting water up our legs when we least expected. Not to mention lots of sea-anemones closing up in a fashion similar to lights going out across a city as we stepped across them semi-buried in the sand. We found an octopus trying to maintain a low profile within a shallow sand pool, razor shells and sponges – one even making a good beanie for Lea.

Lea's sponge hat

Close by was a mangrove creek in which we could hear the squabbling of roosting fruit bats and found evidence of mass mortality of small fish & prawns on the floor of the channel. They must have been stranded in the pools formed on the last spring tide and, as in the case of “the last feast of the crocodiles”, died as the pools gradually dried up. Now that we are this far north it is interesting to see how many elements of the Northern Territory fauna are gradually becoming apparent – not only fruit bats but also friar birds, various parrots, barramundi and warnings about crocodiles. We had magnificent views of the tidal flats, with gnarled old mangroves on the edge and ornately sculptured, oyster clad rocks. At one point we found the tail of a reptile still actively wriggling on the ground that had either been shed, or severed, after capture by a bird of prey. After searching through our book back in the truck, we decided it must have been that of a legless lizard (lerista). By the end of that evening walk Lea was decidedly twitchy after finding another two dead “snakes” (lerista) and a dark brown snake crossed our path. That one, too quick to identify!

The Caravan Park at Eighty Mile Beach was our next stay where the white expanse of sand stretching as far as the eye can see is an unbelievable sight.

Low tide at Eighty Mile beach

The beach is probably the best part of 700m wide at low tide; flat as a pancake and composed of finely packed sand on the surface of which are masses of shells. We walked out at low tide stepping over the small crabs that, on our approach, bury themselves in an instance; picking up shells (sand dollars) and wandering aimlessly over the incredible expanse of wet, gradually draining sand which, as you can imagine, is an absolute spectacle as the sun goes down. Our food stocks are running out, particularly fruit, veg and bread, but we are in no hurry to rush so making “do” with dry goods.

En route to the Port Smith caravan park we enjoyed watching a black-headed python crossing the road. However, the park was not on the coast as we had expected, but 500m away from a “lagoon” – a mangrove dominated inlet which we walked to in the afternoon while the tide was going out, the floor of the swamp covered by masses of small black & white molluscs. On the way back to the park Lea found a can full of beer – Emu Export – lying on the road It served as the basis of our shandy that evening. This caravan park was most definitely a fisherman’s haunt. Not somewhere we would return to in a hurry yet we found pleasure in the crested pigeons, the friar birds calling amongst the trees and some captive wallabies in an enclosure right next to our site.

We thought we’d completed our second blog in Port Smith, in readiness to send off the two from Broome on Monday bringing us up to date again. However, on the dirt road from Port Smith we were waved down by a passing rig and told fuel or liquid was pouring out behind us. Turned out the tap on our water tank had shaken loose. This adds another thing to be rectified in Broome along with the repairs to be made to our fridge and awning as well as having the deep cycle batteries realigned that Getaway has been booked in for. Big “shop up” required before we tackle the Kimberley region and Skiv needs to refuel and be serviced. Sometime in the coming week we will be losing Paula who has been on the road with us for the last six weeks. From Broome she will be trying to sort out a way to return to her home on the Gold Coast.

Week 17 (17th - 24th July)

“King of the road are we; up a mountain road we wind, with a mile of traffic stuck behind; two more friendly folk you wouldn’t find, cheery old chooks are we … We’ve hit the road and sold the home; like a pair of drovers, round we roam; no more winters, no more phones; we’re wild and fancy free …”

With acknowledgment to John Willamson

As a newcomer to the Karratha area one could certainly be excused for mistaking the massive piles of large reddish brown dolerite boulders that lie heaped up throughout the landscape as having been blasted to pieces and pushed into assorted mountainous shapes by bulldozers.

Jumbled piles of dolerite characterise the hills around Dampier

Yet, these jumbles of rocks must have represented different things to different people? To the road-builder, township developer or investors in the port facilities at Dampier the boulder strewn environment must have been a huge impediment to development. However, 5 - 6000 years ago the Aboriginals that frequented the Burrup peninsula regarded them as a perfect medium for recording the things they saw around them by engraving the face of the rocks. In the process they left behind what is considered to be the largest outdoor art gallery in Australia! We visited “Deep Gorge” on the Burrup peninsula in order to see the Aboriginal engravings.

Aboriginal rock art in Deep Gorge, Burrup peninsula

They were not all that easy to find amongst the profusion of boulders. Many rather indistinct, but we discovered that by climbing to the top of the ridges and looking downwards, the etchings became easier to locate. We were also pleased to see some wallaroos (euros) boulder hopping amongst the jumble of rocks, one stopping on the skyline to watch us, before disappearing over the rim.

The conducted tour we took of Rio Tinto’s (Hamersley Iron) port facility, built in 1966 and now Australia’s largest tonnage port shipping 65 million tons of iron ore each year to countries all over the world, proved very worthwhile. It began with a 20 min video before boarding a bus that took us to see and hear a mass of facts come spinning out according to what our eyes beheld….Each train capable of carrying 25 000 tons of ore from the mines inland, the machinery used to unload the 2.4km long trains; each ore wagon being unloaded in 60 seconds; the loading of the 250 000 ton ships waiting at the terminals; driving alongside the conveyor, itself 5km long and running at a speed of 25km/hr, carrying the ore out to the stockpiles on East Intercourse Island; the trouble taken to suppress dust emissions, a vacuum cleaner (the size of a three storey building to help see to the job); a massive stockpile of 44 gallon drums in which samples of the ore being shipped are retained just in case there is any argument about the quality!

Hamersley Iron's ship loading terminal on East Intercourse Island at Dampier

Even the stockpile colours of ore differ according to each of the seven mines in the Pilbara. These may be blended together for consistency and, there was a site for the blenders to practise this art. We were equally surprised to learn that the Queen of England was the single largest shareholder in Rio Tinto – the crafty old devil!!

Our blog had us on a wild goose chase this week! All on schedule first thing Monday morning to send it off – we found the only internet café was closed for 50th birthday celebrations! Their notice advised the used of the town library. Not possible - in turn, they suggested Macdonalds… even the Seafarers Centre in Dampier gave us hope but all were to no avail. We had to wait until Thursday for the original café to open up - only it didn’t! Fortunately a painter advised us of a dive shop with internet access in the next block BUT we found it round another … this poorly advertised place was perfect and so well set up that we finally had last week’s blog on its way. As a result it will throw this week’s one out as well – sorry!
Internet work completed, we left Karratha, heading north with plans to visit the ghost town of Cossack and spend a night in Port Samson. Cossack was once the first port in the North West, home to the fast growing mother of pearl industry. However, after being obliterated by several cyclones in the 1890’s, the establishment of a harbour & jetty at Port Samson and over-exploitation of the pearling grounds, Cossack was abandoned in 1950. Beautifully reconstructed, one of the old buildings house backpackers and another is used by local Aboriginals as an art centre. The Cossack Art Award is staged annually in this historic settlement. Respected internationally and recognised nationally as the most isolated acquisitive art exhibition in the world. And, we struck lucky with the dates and were able to walk through the Old Bond Store enjoying this colossal exhibition in the middle of nowhere. Particularly, the Pilbara subject matter in assorted mediums.

No sites available in Port Samson so we took to the bush finding a small rest area beside the West Peawah river on route for Port Hedland. Parked 25m away we noticed a man, slumped in the front seat of his car, apparently sleeping. Feeling sorry for him Lea even suggested we should invite him to supper. However, later that evening with our game of scrabble over Lea & Paula were quietly rolling up the extension cord with the aid of a torch when the silence of the night was broken by horrendous cussing & swearing as this fellow leapt out of his car directing his wrath at them. In horror, they scuttled into the caravan and after the nervous giggling subsided Paula crept out to her “boudoir” in Skiv – locking all doors for the first time! Nerves on edge – we all twitched at every sound until the crazy fiend drove off far too fast for the gear. The empty beer cans in the morning gave good reason!

Arriving in Port Hedland, we chose to inform ourselves about BHP Billiton’s similarly massive investment in the mining and export of iron ore. They claim to hold the world record for the operation of large trains – one, in 2001, had 682 wagons, stretching 7.3 kms, carrying 99,732 tonnes! The port even contains an under sea bed harbour tunnel for the delivery of iron ore fines to an island offshore. On the edge of the town was a large expanse of evaporation ponds used for the production of salt and one of our lasting memories of the place will be the masses of road trains carrying ore, salt, and fuel on the approach roads.

Dampier Salt's stockpile at Port Hedland

Thus, with our “oresome” experiences for the week over and leaving what must be one of Western Australia’s most highly modified, industrial regions this Saturday morning - it is a welcome relief to now be writing this on the edge of the de Grey river in a large rest area dominated by huge paper-barks, river gums and plenty of bird-life. So good, that when we stopped for morning tea decided we had to linger longer ….

Week 16 (10th - 16th July)

Oh dear! What confusion for our body temperatures this week. Hazy days of summer on the beach with a fresh Exmouth prawn feast in a 24hour roadside park that night after leaving Exmouth. Sean’s Giralia Station turned out to be too woebegone to contemplate a night. The next day we seemed to have spring busting out alongside the roadside as we moved towards the Pilbara region – masses of purple and golden yellow flowers with Sturt desert peas adding their blood red dashes of colour. That night we settled into another bush camp of our making near the Beasley River as stormy clouds began banking over the red hills we’d nestled up against.

Storm clouds at campsite on Beasley river - the last photo taken on my 3 year old Sony Cybershot camera

These hills appeared to have been pushed up out of the earth in many folds. As the sun went down we witnessed an incredible sunset which we were unable to capture on camera as calamity struck – after three years George’s overworked digital camera had finally given up the ghost! It is only thanks to Paula, our back-up camera girl, that we have been able to provide photos this week.

During the course of the night a wind came up which had Skiv & Getaway being knocked this way and that as it howled around and temperatures plummeted. In the morning, bleary-eyed, we looked up in dismay at wintery skies and as the day passed we steadily added layers of clothing! By the time we reached Tom Price, the “top town” by virtue of being the highest in Western Australia, we were reluctant to walk the streets as uncertain skies threatened rain and the wind chill was severe. In order to obtain a permit to travel the privately run Pilbara Rail access road George had to watch a video in the Visitors centre of the potential hazards involved before we were able to set off for Karijini National Park. That proved no warmer encircled by the Hamersley Range with savannah land of mygums and spinifex stretching out in all directions over gently undulating red soils. We’d been advised to take the gravel road to Savannah Camp ground if we wanted a less crowded place than the other park camp on the tarred road. Although we found ourselves a beautiful site there we were far too cold to appreciate it – just hankering for a warming stew to keep out the awful cold.

Paula assumed the role as our official weather recorder. Next day she reported it was 2°C at 6.00am. Cold enough for our breath to be condensing as we spoke! Clad in our black lumber-jackets we walked to the Joffre Gorge / Falls. We were most impressed by the way the gorges of Karijini lie hidden in seemingly un-dissected country and suddenly appear out of nowhere. 100m deep chasms of red coloured banded iron formations dropping away into the depths of permanently shaded ravines.

Later we visited the Joffre, the Hancock and the Weano Gorges.

Hancock Gorge - Karijini NP

The Oxer lookout provided a superb vantage point from which to look down into the confluence of the three. We descended part of the way into Hancock Gorge stopping where the descent continues by ladder. Although scenically, a very attractive area we could not help being struck by the absence of wildlife – a few tiny lizards, hardly any birds, the pools containing no obvious signs of fish and the surrounding woodlands empty of mammals. Not even a kangaroo in an area which purports to have an extremely diverse fauna.

George braved a shower in one of the corrugated iron cubicles equipped with solar heated water and a canvas bag that one fills and raises overhead (a la Keith & Colleen in Niassa) using ropes on a pulley system. All very well except for the chill afterwards, when the wind came howling in under the walls!

Curiosity got the cats… Wittenoom, a mining town on the other side of the Hamersley Range, was on the news recently when the government cut off its electricity supply. Since 1978 the town-site had gradually been closed down because of exposure to blue asbestos dust in the area was considered to be a serious health risk. Once regarded as “Australia’s greatest mining disaster” with asbestos tailings present in backyards, on roads, the race track and even the airport the majority of the population had already left but a handful of stalwarts had remained. We couldn’t resist a visit.

Strange to enter a ghost town with but 7 people remaining, one of whom, Loraine Thomas, we met in the gem / souvenir shop she runs. They maintain that the current level of airborne asbestos in Wittenoom is lower than in many other parts of the state and are determined to stay. One could not help feeling saddened at the sight of the few remnants left of the little settlement against its magnificent mountainous backdrop. The profusion of wild flowers in the empty town-site, Sturt’s Pea, purple mulla mulla and white kapok in particular, was superb and apparently due to the effects of 7 cyclones this season.

Mulla mulla and sturt peas at Wittenoom

On enquiring where we might be able to camp were given “freedom of Witenoom”! We landed up camping in the back yard of the town’s one and only “guest house” where we paid for the privilege of using the ablutions. There we met “Bob” from Bunbury, a very pleasant but lonely old chatter-box who was camping in an ancient, 23 year old, combi. He has been visiting this shang-ri-la since 1997 and was delighted to take us for a walk along the deserted streets, most of the buildings now flattened; past the old Convent, Doc Holiday’s café, the old fuel station and the site of the caravan park, which was simply bulldozed under ground.

The next morning we drove into the Wittenoom gorge along the old road that serviced the mine. A most beautiful area spoilt only by the mess the mining company had left it in when closed 40 years ago. Totally unacceptable by today’s standards! The tailings dumped on the slopes of the gorge have slid into the river below with the result that the bed of the river comprises little else but asbestos wastes. We are amazed that CALM can turn a blind eye to all this in the middle of the Karijini NP.

Tailings dumped from asbestos mine on side of Wittenoom gorge

As we took the Pilbara / Hamersley railway line access road to Karratha George thought one of the wheel bearings on the caravan had gone! It turned out to be an enormous train coming up behind us with 238 coaches filled with iron ore. Lea counted them as they streamed past George’s nose! 400km on gravel roads have taken a toll. We discovered one of the deep cycle batteries in Getaway had become dislodged and even our fridge had tried jumping its casing due to the corrugations. All problems revealing themselves as part and parcel of having had a good “shake down cruise” and, with Getaway being under warranty, we hope to get these attended to in Karratha.

If you have seen the poppies grow on Flanders fields – perhaps you can imagine the equally stupendous sight of Sturt desert peas spilling forth across the verges of the Pilbara rail access road. Not a sign of vehicles, people, buildings ….. and tired of being shaken we pulled off 100km short of Karratha for the night in the midst of some spinifex covered hills next to our railway line with iron ore trains regularly rumbling by only 50m away.

Today, Sunday- we anxiously made our way into Karratha – checking the fridge every 30 kms to push it back into its wooden cabinet. We were most relieved to be given the last remaining site in the caravan park. Tomorrow we can begin sorting out repairs and exploring the Burrup Peninsula outside Dampier.

Week 15 (3rd - 9th July)

This week’s review will be shorter than normal because we have stayed in one place and done much the same each day – relaxing out in the open in a variety of gorgeous vicinities “where the desert meets the sea”!

Checking out the snorkelling spots - Ningaloo Marine Park

Having fuelled and shopped up with fresh goods we departed for the Cape Range National Park on the western side of the Exmouth peninsula. With so many grey nomads out on the road and school holidays for Western Australia fast approaching, camp sites are becoming much harder to find let alone allow us to choose where we want to be! Our hopes to camp in one of the several small bush camps within the National Park fell by the wayside as they had all been taken. Fortunately we managed to get a site at Yardie Homestead which in the nearest caravan park to the National Park entrance. Even they preferred us to take it for a week rather than a couple of days. That suited us as there are many ideal places for snorkelling in close proximity to the beaches AND, now that we have seen the different camping spots inside the park, all very exposed to the elements, we realise that we are sited in a veritable oasis. Each day allowed us to explore different parts of the park for the senior’s rate of $3.00 a day. Without “Getaway” tagged on we have been able to call in at all sorts of different spots without any difficulty. Wandering along the shoreline at T-Bone Bay we spotted stingrays, a sand-shark and a blue-ringed octopus (one of the much feared poisonous species) in the shallows so close that we could almost have touched them.

About do some serious snorkelling

George and Paula went snorkelling at a number of different sites and always seemed to delight in what they saw. But that hasn’t helped Lea get her mind over the matter of the cold sea. George & Paula don’t stay out in the water for long and many youngsters are wearing wet suits - so it IS cold! One misfortune occurred when our bunch of keys went snorkelling in a pocket and never came back!

On the northern rim of Yardie Creek

We all thoroughly enjoyed a morning hike along the northern rim of the Yardie Creek Gorge. Sitting on the cliff high above the creek overlooking some egret rookeries, we revelled in the spectacle of four emus silhouetted against the skyline, swallows swooping past and flocks of corellas seeking respite from the heat amongst the rock ledges of the cliff face. Back at the mouth we had a picnic in the shade of a few tamarisk trees while observing the creek crossing that ensnares so many. Listening to those that know… explain how best to go about it only to have the driver decide otherwise and get stuck proved quite entertaining! As one woman so aptly put it “men…!”

Mandu-Mandu Gorge

The Mandu-Mandu Gorge trail also gave us some enjoyable exercise and as we trailed back along the floor of the gorge with its multitude of smooth white boulders one couldn’t resist adding to the cairns just in case they were there for another reason. So many strange shapes and sizes added to by fellow hikers.

Another of the highlights this week has been Paula’s birthday giving us good reason to celebrate with a three course meal in “Getaway”. Our next target is the Pilbara region and the Karijini National Park with a stop over at the Giralia Sheep Station to see where Sean Pattrick spent a few months working with sheep.

STOP PRESS: In the eleventh hour, with a huge shriek, Lea made it into the water to snorkel the lakeside bommies ….

Week 14 (26th June - 2nd July)

The outback coast has been that and more wending or way from one remote spot to another.

It has been another memorable week filled with diversity – drama (having got well and truly bogged); excitement (having seen dugongs at long last); contrasting landscapes (after travelling through empty plains and looking into deep canyons); and a of mixture of both luxurious and fairly rough campsites.

After spending last week exploring Red Bluff and Gnarloo, our next target was Coral Bay. Plans to spend a night en route at a roadside camp beside a river came to nought but a dry salt river in a barren area. However, a sign indicated the presence of a campsite on Warroora Station 23 kms towards the coast. We took a badly corrugated road for 30km before spotting a scruffy little hand painted sign saying “14 Mile Beach”. The track wound its way down to the edge of the Ningaloo Marine Reserve. There were no facilities of any description at the campsite that spread far & wide with a large number of vans and tents camped cheek by jowl in this remote spot. Being late afternoon we had little option but to take an uneven patch of bush – a pretty spot spoilt by sheer numbers!

Not unexpectedly, we found Coral Bay buzzing with people; caravans; boats; jet-skis & quads but, after taking an un-powered site in at the “People’s Park”, literally right opposite the main beach, realised we had got a prime position .

Campsite at Coral Bay

The park beautifully grassed with plenty of trees & immaculate ablutions. We stayed three days thoroughly enjoying this place in the sun. George bought some snorkelling gear and together with Paula regularly went snorkelling over the coral “bommies” in the area taking great delight in the friendly shoal of snappers that would swim up to them. Chatting to fellow campers, walking the beaches looking for dugongs made for an idyllic time.

On Justy’s recommendation and the guide to free camping spots in WA we headed for Lefroy Bay. We took another corrugated and at times, stony road leading to Ningaloo Station through vast expanses of grasslands dotted with termite mounds that often looked like the mud huts of Africa. We spotted a few sheep and emus now and again. Once beyond the Ningaloo homestead the track narrowed as we bounced slowly along. Eventually reached a sign advising us to deflate ALL our tyres! Having no idea how Getaway would perform on sandy roads and concerned about a dune ridge to be crossed George walked the route as far as the coast while Lea and Paula prepared lunch.

After deciding that we could risk letting the tyres down (on Skiv only) we reached the camp ground without any trouble. Quite a few caravans well spread out so we walked around to find our perfect site right on the edge of the beach. Two dolphins just off shore caused much delight for us… George returned to Skiv & Getaway and drove slowly down the sandy tracks to where Paula & Lea marked the place. Sighed with relief too soon! Getaway was unable to take the bend into the campsite and got stuck on a small hummock, causing Skiv to dig in and sink down to her axles in sand!

Hopelessly stuck at Lefroy Bay - photo by P Baxter

Never turn down an offer of help is an Aussie maxim! A fellow camper came past and seeing Getaway perched across his path offered help. We turned him down thinking we had the situation under control as we began digging Skiv out. That didn’t work. So we began removing the mound in front of the Getaway (imagine it - an environmentalist wilfully destroying dune vegetation!); Second offer of help from the same kindly bloke returning to check on our progress - again turned down. Now we were trying to raise the truck using the high lift jack (itself not working properly because the weak, rusted springs on the locking pins and the difficulty of finding suitable points from which to insert the jack); and, just as we started preparing to winch ourselves out by burying the spare, our saviour Colin, returned a third time to lend a hand. By now Skiv’s winch had jammed when only half of the cable had been unwound! After checking our tyre pressures and finding them still too hard, Colin eventually extracted us using a snatch strap. By then we were exhausted and so hot that we made a cup of tea and had a swim in the sea a few yards from our site. Lea still only managing a knee high paddle!
The waters of Lefroy Bay are just magnificent!

Walking towards North Lefroy Bay - photo by P Baxter

Next day Colin took George fishing in his dinghy. Although both returned empty handed, he enjoyed looking at the masses of coral below the boat as they motored slowly over them searching for the “Blue Hole” which lay just behind the surf breaking on the reef of this the huge lagoon. Meanwhile Lea read in the shade of Getaway and enjoyed looking out on the water- worthwhile as she spotted a turtle and some unknown dark shapes further out while Paula went snorkelling off the point. Whilst having our lunch Paula noticed a dark shape with no fin rise 50m offshore with a humped back periodically surfacing… With the aid of binoculars confirmed it was a pair of dugongs! George promptly grabbed his snorkelling gear and swam out as rapidly as he could – hoping to get a close up view. He found it difficult to keep a bearing on exactly where they were, but got sufficiently close for the dugongs to sense his presence and swim away. Not long after, while gazing out to sea, Lea and Paula spotted a whale spouting (twice)!

After so much excitement we were then faced with inevitable, namely the nerve wracking task of trying to move our rig into a position from which we knew we could safely depart next day- Sunday. On the advice of another camper we deflated the caravan tyres as well but, for half and hour or so, churned back and fore across our patch of sand making very little progress until landing up stuck with both Skiv and Getaway perched on different dune hummocks! Once again our good Samaritan Colin brought his trusty Ute and with one good pull of a snatch strap we got ourselves back on a track that looked negotiable.

When we called at the Ningaloo Station homestead to pay our dues we met the owner, Phil Kendrick, and were amazed to find he and “his girl” (a Lefroy) run the 49 000ha station all on their own. With three generations of Lefroy’s having owned the station it was sad to learn of CALM’s intention to take over all the privately owned land along the Ningaloo coast and even have plans for a 500 bed resort at the homestead!

Many hours later we were back on the main road to Exmouth. We became concerned at the droves of caravans heading for Exmouth and the stories we had heard about accommodation at this time of the year being at a premium. There are simply too many grey nomads around all escaping the Perth winter!

After having had a good scrub up at the Ningaloo Caravan Resort in Exmouth we took the opportunity to explore some of the canyon (karst) country in the Cape Range National Park without Getaway, following the Charles Knife road for 13km into the range.

Canyons of Cape Range National Park

Although late in the afternoon we managed to get some spectacular views of the Exmouth Gulf, mirror calm at the time and the limestone gorges. An internet café is around the corner so tomorrow we will send this off before we disappear into the Cape Range National Park. We have been lucky enough to secure a campsite at the Yardie Creek homestead, on the edge of the Ningaloo Reef.