Part 7
17th of July 2021
Sadly time to leave the warmth up here, in Cable Beach 🏖. Our first stop of the day was Sandfire Roadhouse, for a break. Good grief, the line up for fuel here today was out of control, every Grey nomad on the road today had stopped! This actually made the ABC news today on how busy the line up for fuel here was!
We arrived early in the afternoon at Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park, and lucky to get a site here! This is a quirky little caravan park, is a fisherman’s paradise! On the day we arrived they had a little market and a classic old couple singing their hearts out. The market was for people staying in the park, selling their crafts. We quickly set up and headed off down to the beach, for Peter to fish and me to look at all the shells 🐚. Eighty Mile Beach is known for the crazy amount of shells along it for miles. Top Spot! Loved my beach walk here this afternoon and in the morning, the sea here is a stunning clear aqua.
18th of July 2021
This morning Peter tried his luck fishing again and me more shells to find on a beach walk, so nice! We packed up again and stopped off at the park store for coffee and ran into some old friends from Mornington, Anne and Roger. A quick chat to compare travels and back on the road, not far down the Northern Highway to Cape Keraudren. This time we scored a great site, on the cliff top looking out to what the locals call, the aircraft carrier. Quickly we where set up and off to find a fishing spot, with plenty of different spots to choose from here. We went to the beach side, another gorgeous beach here, Peter fished while I took everything in around the beach. There was around twenty guys along the beach with their rods out, when along came two Aboriginal ladies and one guy with hand reels. This became very entertaining for me, as quickly the girls caught fish with their reels. (Guys with Rods caught O) Then found a rock pool to store their fish, with their two little boys to play with, while the Mums kept fishing. The boys where so funny chasing the fish around the rock pools, then chasing another boy bigger than them, with the fish. Loved my afternoon entertainment!
Happy hour by the van, watching another sunset 🌅
19th of July 2021
Unfortunately we had to leave early for a big drive to Dale’s Campground in Karijini. We stopped for a while in Port Hedland looking for a tyre place, to get a new one for the van, with no luck. Peter was in awe of the big machinery around this mining port town.
Onto the Great Northern Highway towards Tom Price, this road is very scary 😟 the amount of constant road trains is out of control! A road I will be very happy to never return to!
We arrived to our site number 18, at Dales Campground. Another ripper site, talk about the serenity! No phone, internet or tv reception out here. Bliss!
20th July 2021
Fomo on, up early for our days walks, first stop Dale’s Gorge for the sunken gardens, deep sedge fringed pools and permanent waterfalls! Fortescue falls first which leads onto Fern Pool. Peter swam here, bit chilly for me today. Fern Pool is really pretty as the name implies, lots of ferns! Then we walked the bottom of the gorge to Circular Pool, which is now closed due to falling rocks. We made our way up to the Gorge rim walk, back to our car 2kms. Stunning walk
After the walk we made our way to the Visitor centre, which was really interesting on the actual park and the history of the area. It is an amazing architectural building too, very impressive!
Tonight we did an Astronomy 🪐 sky tour with a very eccentric guy named Phil. He non stopped joked, but was also super interesting. We got to use his very big telescopes 🔭 to look at the universe! 🪐 We actually got to look at Saturn, the Moon, stars ⭐️ and Jupiter. The tour is called Remtrek Astonomy, it was close to our camp site so we just walked over to it. I would highly recommend the night, as the sky up here is so clear!
21st of July 2021
This morning after two nights at Dales Campground we moved up the road, to the Eco Retreat. This is nearer the other end of the National park. Our site here 61, just happens to be Peters age and another cracker of a site. No neighbour’s just lots of Collingwood trees!
Quickly set up and off to tackle a Class 5 crazy 😜 Hancock Gorge. Here you follow a trail to the edge of the gorge then negotiate the ladder to the bottom of the gorge. Here’s the tricky part. Walk downstream, via slippery rocks, climbing narrow rock walls, swim through freezing water to get to another freezing pool, Kermits pool! This walk is next level challenging! Only three times I feel over, one on the part I was warned of, the black slippery rocks. One near miss, then my big fall climbing up from the freezing water to a narrow part, I slipped on a sharp rock and cut my leg. Lucky the water was so freezing as it stopped it from bleeding too much. Another lucky was a nurse happened to be sitting near our bags and had a great first aid kit. Onwards and back up the Gorge, feeling a little disappointed in myself , but happy to have made it to the end!
Our next stops where Joffre lookout, one of our favourite’s
Then onto Knox Gorge and Junction Pool lookouts.
Tonight we had dinner in the Eco Resort restaurant, which was very nice and much appreciated!
22nd of July 2021
Up and on the road by 8:30am to Hamersley Gorge Waterfall, via horrid corrugated roads for an hour. This walk goes down via very steep rock steeps into the gorge. Followed by extremely slippery steep rocks to the Insta famous Spa pool. Here as we where early we got it almost to ourselves. Unfortunately I could not swim it, due to my cut on my leg. So Peter was the lucky one here, he swam over with the GoPro to capture it for me. Very very Fomo jealous here! Such a beautiful morning, the sun shining on the pool. This gorge is super stunning with crazy coloured rock formations.
The drive to this gorge there and back is pretty full on,as it’s very corrugated. So we both kind of fell in a heap, ready for a afternoon nap and a read. We headed over for a drink at the bar, and met the most interesting couple from the middle of NSW, the guy was a horse whisperer, many stories!
23rd of July 2021 Tom Price big surprise, lovely mining town
This morning we left the Eco retreat early for Tom Price. As Peter was interested in doing the Rio Tinto mine tour, while we where up this way. We arrived an hour early for the tour, so we had enough time for a coffee, before it started at 10am from the Tom Price visitor centre. I caught up with some grocery shopping and loading my photos onto this blog. Peter really enjoyed the tour, keen on a career in mining 💰💰💰💰💰 to be made!
We checked into the Tom Price caravan park and caught up with a weeks worth of washing. Then went for a four wheel drive up to Mount Nameless for amazing views, and another beautiful sunset.
24th of July 2021
This morning we took it a little slower to take off today for Bullara Station. Sorted out a few things out with Nick, while we had internet access in Tom Price. Today was a bigger drive, from Tom Price to Bullara Station, around 480kms. Lots of wildflowers along the way, and good music to pass the time. We almost stayed at Nanutarra Roadhouse, I went in and paid for a site. We parked the van, and both looked at each other, and said, let’s keep going! Went and got a refund, and back on the road til dark, which we don’t normally do. When we eventually got to the Bullara Station, it was so worth going the extra miles! Great stop for the night, peaceful and full of things to see in the morning.
25th of July 2021
By now we are both as FOMO, as each other! Peter was up by 6:30am and off to the Lava Tree showers, so off course I had to go check them out too.
An early morning walk around this beautiful station, walking the beer bottle track, and meeting another plumber taking a year off travelling with his young family. Then time for a morning coffee and the famous Bullara Scones, very nice too!
We loved our one night stay at Bullara station, so planned to come back for another few days. We arrived in Exmouth mid afternoon at the RAC caravan park. Which we actually liked for a few days of a powered site, to use the washing machine, charge up every thing, and of course the Coffee Machine, ah the small things! I also liked the camp kitchen here too, especially as the Olympics are on and big screen TVs , everyone bonding over telecasts.
26th of July 2021
Up early as Peter was dying to go for a fish 🎣, but unfortunately for me time to catch up on some bookwork. So Peter headed off to try his luck fishing, up the northerly end of Exmouth. No fish caught, but lovely photos of passing turtles 🐢, he had a nice day. As for me I found a place to print out a few documents that needed to be signed, (lots) the Eurocar/second hand book store, had a printer! Made friends with the owner, bird lover, she looked after wounded wild birds.
27th of July 2021
This is the day most of this trip was booked around, as the Whale Shark season is supposed to end at the end of July. We where picked up from the caravan park at 7:45am this morning, for an hours drive to the boat ramp. We went with Ningaloo xx , a Catamaran for our whale shark swim. Today was very windy, raining with quite a big swell. We stopped for a quick snorkel, to make sure we could swim ok for the dive later in the day. The sea today was quite rough, making me feel not so great. As it is nearing the end of the season, it took many hours for the spotter planes to actually find a shark. So it was after 3pm til we got the yell, Get ready NOW! We had minutes to jump in the water for the chance to swim beside the big whale shark. The waves where quite big, very challenging trying to keep up with the group too. The leader of our group was really incredible, patient and a Bloody strong swimmer. I had a massive panic attack with all the stress of hurrying and yelling to get into the water so quickly, she helped me by yelling at me to put my head in NOW, to see the shark swim by. Getting back to the boat was crazy in the waves too. Peter loved the trill of it all, sadly I was not so impressed, I felt like I’d well and tendency put through the ringer! The day wasn’t what I had envisioned, nothing like the glossy leaflets, that’s for sure. One Whale Shark for eight full boats, to swim with for a total of two minutes. Peter went in for the second dive, beside a reef, which was pretty hair raising as the boat could not get near the reef to pick everyone up, they had to swim for their lives!!! We saw many whales all day going by, which was nice. Met Belinda and her very nice mum (80years old) – mum failed the first snorkel 🤿 test, there was no way she could of done the dive. We loved the bubbles at the end of the day, but sure could of done with them earlier!!!! Belinda and her mum ended up coming back to our caravan park after the trip, for dinner with us, a roast I quickly cooked in the camp kitchen. Nice night!
28th of July 2021
29th of July 2021
Today we went for a long drive to all the beaches on the other side of this peninsula. This coast is simply beautiful 😍 , the colour of the water today was so aqua clear blue. We stopped at Turquoise Bay for a couple of hours. As soon as we got in the water, another family beside us feeding the fish, shared some bread with us. We had a school of clear fish with blue fins surrounding us, and followed by some big fish that nearly jumped us for food. Lots of photos taken, surreal moment. Peter snorkelled, while I got my new boggie board out, and shared with a little toddler. A rain cloud came over so off to the next beach.
We stopped at Yardie Creek, where Peter walked across to see how deep it actually was for crossing it by car. Then we went for a walk up by the Creek, very picturesque, and hope we can come back and explore a bit more.
30th of July 2021
Today was our get sorted day- Clean the car, washing, shopping, bills 💵 clean and pack to camp at South Lefroy beach.
We started the morning off with a walk towards Town Beach, and ended up at The Mandalay Resort for a late breakfast. The Resort is super lush, garden, pool and views to die for.
31st of July 2021
Time to leave Exmouth RAC Caravan park this morning. Funny how the day your leaving the neighbour’s get friendly, and decide to be in for a chat. It seems to take a few days before people sus you out, before getting friendly. Last night in the caravan park, Peter was on fire, chatting with the guy across from us, who had played his guitar in his annex singing away. He has a young buddy in front of us Matt, who is very loud, a rough diamond. Matt bought a run down country pub, made huge hamburgers, got a name for themselves, sold the pub and made quite a profit! So Matt and his family are travelling Australia for two years. Another lovely couple with two little kids in front of us, told us to call in on them on the way home, below Perth. All up for a chat this morning on our way to out. Today we stored the Van, next to the caravan repair shop, to do a wheel rotation. Picked up some last minute bits and pieces, before heading off to camp at South Lefroy beach for five days.
We arrived at the camp site around 4:30pm, with Peter introducing himself to our new neighbour Bob and his little dog Spud. We quickly set up with Bob asking us over for a drink, couple of hours – stories of around the area the past 38 years at Ningaloo station! What is it with us????? We sure can attract them!!!!!!!!
1st of August until the 5th of August South Lefroy Campsite ⛺️
Our five days at South Lefroy we spent walking the beach, 🤿 snorkelling when the wind dropped, reading our books, fishing 🎣 and a lot of time with the neighbors Bob. He knew all the history of the area, and the camp gossip. One morning he took us four wheel driving over the sand dunes to view The Sanctuary from above, and to an old Norwegian Whaling Station ruins on a deserted beach. We met a young couple through Bob, Leihani and Riley, who happened to have work with Matt Barnes, our nephew. (Small world 🌎)!
While we walked along the beach one morning, we ran into Riley and Leihani fishing. Riley is twenty three, and a very knowledgeable fisherman, who gave Peter a few tips.
5th August – 9th August 14 Mile Beach Camp
