Catch Up Blog

I have been very busy (slack) and am way behind with the blog so I will attempt to come up to date.

Since leaving Monkey Mia we travelled to Kalbarri for a few days where I played golf with the locals and was made very welcome. It is a lovely beachside village but unfortunately was very windy while we were there. King brown or Mulga snake this time.

Then on to Geraldton where I got the Landcruiser serviced (timing belt $1500) and Bonnie did the Parlor things (wax,hair etc.) Very expensive stay but a nice place with some very big, modern houses. So time to put some money in the bank by doing some free camping.

Off to Ellendale Pool which is only 50ks from Geraldton but what a great spot. Free gas bbq, flushing toilets and a lovely lake for swimming which was just as well as it was nearly 40 every day. Very peaceful, lots of birdlife,didn't see a snake but plenty of sleepy or stumpy lizards. We stayed there a week.

Next down to New Norcia via Wannamal and Moora.

The buildings of the monastery are fantastic and no one should come over here and not go to New Norcia which is a town totally owned by the monks of the monastery.

We were running short of time as we had arranged to get to Manjimup for the Cherry Festival so due to the un-dog friendly nature of the Perth caravan parks and our aversion to large cities we decided to bypass and keep going south to Mandurah and Bussleton which are both lovely if a bit colder than we are used to. We are hoping that it will warm up when we go inland before spending Xmas at Albany.

Will try to be more proactive and not be so long between blogs.

TTFN

Monkey Mia

Well what a great place and an even greater experience.

Bon and I have been lucky enough to be able to be volunteers at the dolphin experience here at Monkey Mia which involves preparing the feeds, which happen 3 times each morning and then picking out the tourists to feed the dolphins. Bonnie is in 7th heaven,

A truly memorable experience that we will both remember for a long time.

One of the benefits from being a volunteer was that we were able to take the cruises at half price so we took a package which included a wildlife cruise on Shotover, a 60 ft ocean racing catamaran where we saw heaps of Dugongs, dolphins, sea snakes, turtles and tiger sharks which was absolutely brilliant. the package also included a sunset cruise on the same boat and the evening was perfect.

We have stayed here about twice as long as we planned but it has been worth it especially now that the wind has gone and it lovely beach weather and we are at a lovely beach to enjoy it.

 

Unfortunately we are leaving on Thursday and heading down towards Kalbarri, hoping it will be nearly as nice as here and will report in then.

 




Carnarvon WA

Well I have quite a bit to report since my last blog.

After leaving Cleaverville Beach we filled up with water at Karratha then drove for about 3 hours before deciding to stop at a little caravan park at Nanutarra roadhouse. It is a crappy little park and the roadhouse sold Autogas for $1.35 / litre, the highest price we have seen (so far) but it was bloody hot and windy and they had power so we hooked up, set up the satelite dish and watched the Commonwealth games with the air conditioning on. The fridge in the van was playing up pretty badly.

The next day we travelled 200 ks to Exmouth, still bloody windy so we probably didn't see it at it's best but we were a little disappointed. We got a fridge mechanic to look at the van fridge which he proceeded to pull out of the van by removing the door and upending the fridge 5 times to stir up the gases. $120 down.

Next on to Coral Bay which everyone raved about. Well, guess what. Bloody windy, expensive, crap water.
Not our favouite place but we perservered and went on a glass bottom boat tour which was ok albeit a bit rough and snorkelled in the bay.

On down to Carnarvon for one night to stock up with food and water before heading back 75 ks to Point Quobba at the blowholes intending to free camp along the beach for a week or so. Initially it was pretty windy so we set up camp behind the sand dunes in a nice little clearing, found plenty of firewood and settled in. We snorkelled there right off the beach and it was amazing. So many fish and different colours and very few people. On our 5th day we were sitting in the shade of the van awning reading when Bonnie jumped up and hustled the dogs inside because she had seen a snake slither between two little mound about 5 metres away. We discussed it and decided that it was probably not surprising and that at least we had seen and would be a bit more cautious so we bought the girls back out and had all just settled down again when Bon was coming out of the van she saw the bloody thing slither straight at us to within a foot of Charli. When Bon yelled I jumped up and the snake did a 90 degree turn and took off under the van into a bush behind it.
Well, needless to say, that was the last straw. We have never packed up so fast  and left a camp.

This is what it was, a Gwardar or Western Brown Snake, the deadliest snake in WA, perhaps Australia.
It still creeps me out to think how close it got to us. So back to Carnarvon wher we finally look like we have found someone to solve the fridge problem (blocked gas jet). Fingers crossed.

Carnarvon is not a bad place realy , quite like an oasis with all the fruit and vegetable farms after thousands of ks of desert so we are taking a deep breath here before we head down to Monkey Mia from where I will next report.

See you all.

Cleaverville Beach

Hi All,

We are currently camped on the beach at a place called Cleaverville which is about 30 ks north of Karratha in WA.
As you will see from the photos at the end of this blog it an idylic, if remote location offeringvery few facilities except rubbish bins and toilet dump points.
There are a few other people camped around but not near enough to prevent skinny dipping if one was so inclined.
This is our 6th day here and one very important saving grace is that we won't have to put up with any Collingwood supporters who I imagine are absolutely insufferable by now.
Yesterday I made a damper in the camp oven which turned out ok.
Today it was 35 degrees by 9.30am so Bonnie and I went for a swim at 7.30am, where we were joined by some turtles which was lovely.
We are starting to run out of water so will have to make a decision today as to whether we do a run into Karratha tomorrow to get some or move on down the coast towards Exmouth. However, we really don't want to get down that far before the WA school holidays finish at the end of next week.

W.ait for the next episode.

TTFN

Port Samson

Hi,
Well we are in Port Samson, just north of Karratha after staying at Pardoo Station and watching the cattle muster and then camping out at a place called De Grey River which was great except that it was very windy.

Port Samson is very nice, 34 degrees, blue sky, blue sea and white sand.

We went on a tour of Rio Tinto's iron ore facility at Cape Lambert. Very interesting and informative. The size of the operation is simply unbelievable.

We leave here on Tuesday to camp at Cleaverville Beach which is only about 40 k's from here with no facilities but blue water and white sand. Apparently there is good fishing there but if I am to be successful they will have to be suicidal.

Probably won't have internet access there so it may be a while before I can report in again.

Barn Hill Station

Well, well, well. Would you believe it, 36 degrees yesterday and today 12 hours of solid rain. Go figure!

I guess we are cutting it a little fine in judging our travel south to be just ahead of the build up to the wet season whilst not getting too far south before it warms up.

Gee, I don’t know the stress of having to make all these decisions is almost as tiring as working.

We are currently at Barn Hill Station where the camping ground is on rich red cliffs overlooking a usually aqua Indian ocean. They bake fresh bread every day and have a bowling green overlooking the ocean

When we leave here, whenever that is, we will head down to a place called DeGrey’s River on the way to Port Headland.

Will update then. Cheers.

Introduction to the blog

Hi All,
This is my first attempt at blogging so please  excuse my lack of knowledge.

We are currently in Broome and it is very hot. We have been on the road for over 5 months now and are having a great time. We have met some lovely people on the way and hopefully will have started some long friendships while missing our friends from home.
As I get better at this I will download photos etc.