Aaron & Lib's Australian Adventure: June 2016

Here we are!

18/06/16 Day 22 (Sa). This morning we got up nice and early to get down to the water’s edge by 0745 so we could watch the Park Rangers explain the protection and history of the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia. What started as an accident when a holidaying family started feeding one dolphin turned into a catastrophe as dolphin mothers were no longer feeding their young and they were losing about 12 out of 15 calves. So sad. These are wild animals and now better protected. The number has increased to keeping 12 of 15 calves which is in line with survival rates in the wild. I highly recommend everyone puts coming here on their bucket list. It is an amazing experience in a truly beautiful part of our country.

Dolphins @ Monkey Mia

After that we headed back out to the highway and on toward Carnarvon. Tonight we are camped at New Beach, approx. 30 south of Carnarvon along a highly corrugated road 10 km’s out to the beach from the highway. Bess didn’t like it very much and lots of Lib’s “Dash Board Dudes” took a tumble. Beautiful spot though and only a few people here.

Dolphins @ Monkey Mia

19/06/16 Day 23 (Su). Today was another pearler of a day. After we slept in we travelled back out the corrugated road to the highway and continued into Carnarvon. We took the alternate route into town via the HMAS Sydney II Memorial Drive to Boat Harbour. Not much to look at but plenty of palms lining the road. Once in town we stopped in at the info centre to get the low down on local caravan parks and also saw that the yarn bombers had been at work in the main street.

Dolphins @ Monkey Mia

After checking into the CP, getting our washing done and having lunch, we then went and took a drive through the local produce plantations which line both sides of the Gascoyne River. The water must be under ground in the river here because it is very wide (maybe 200m across) and there isn’t a drop to be seen. We stopped in at two fresh produce stands and bought fruit and veg and some treats. The best of these being Chocolate Coated Frozen Banana’s! Yummo! Then we went out to One Mile Jetty which is approx. 1400m long. It is in a serious state of disrepair and a wonder that it is still open to the public. But we took the dogs and the fishing gear with us and with success we are dining like kings tonight on Threadfin Salmon. First time I’ve ever caught or eaten one. I also caught 5 or so yellow fin bream.

Sunset @ New Beach

20/06/2016 Day 24 (Mo). Today the weather was a bit drizzley at times. We decided that today was a stock up shopping day so we went to Woolies and had a big shop. We also picked up a snorkel set for me and some other bits and pieces for the van. With our late start and our shopping fest that took up most of the day. We took the dogs for a run down at Pelican Beach and were back at the CP by about 5 pm.

Tomorrow the forecast does not look pretty with 70 mm of rain being forecast for the region. We will decide tomorrow if we are moving on to our next destination, the Quobba Blowholes.

22/06/16 Day 26 (We). The forecast yesterday was for 100% rain up to 70 mm so we hunkered down for another day in the CP and wouldn’t you know it, Carnarvon got 2 mm. Murphy’s Law really.

Today we departed Carnarvon and headed out to the blowholes which were disappointing really. I guess when you come from NSW, the Kiama Blowholes are the standard that you measure all other blowholes by. And so far all the rest fall short. We did try and drive Bess up to the lighthouse but to do that we had to pretend she was a 4X4 and we managed to get ¾ of the way before we had to concede defeat.

Dolphins @ Monkey Mia

After driving back to the highway we continued north to Minilya and are camped for the night by the river listening to the songs of a massive flock (at a guess 400) of Corellas.

I took Charlie for a walk and found a rotten cow carcass from which I took the skull and am going to mount on the back of Bess. Cool!

Crowds @ Monkey Mia

23/06/16 Day 27 (Th). We headed on to Coral Bay today. We were going to spend the next few days to a week at a station stay but after getting the low down at the information centre from a very friendly man named Bill, we decided that Warroora Station and Ningaloo Station were not places we could get Bess into.

Sunset @ Monkey Mia

I booked into a full day fishing charter on Saturday and then we spent the remaining day checking out the local marina and nearby beach. We met some fellow holiday makers and looked at the rock pools with them for an hour or so where I saw sea cucumbers, coral and live little cowrie shells. We also ran into a nice Italian couple (Steph and Jimmy) we had previously met in Monkey Mia who we clicked with and tonight are camped about 20 km’s out of Coral Bay on the highway with, in a gravel pit. We shared quite a few drinks and many a story til way after the sun went down. It was a really beautiful night especially as we were so far from a town and when we turned all the lights off the stars we so bright and so many. The moon rise was pretty awesome too as it is still almost full. It was a great night all round.

One Mile Jetty @ Carnarvon

Tomorrow we are looking forward to snorkelling in Coral Bay where the Ningaloo Reef literally meets the beach. The temperature here is in the low 20’s so we will have no drama leaving the dogs in the van.

Gascoyne River @ Carnarvon

24/06/16 Day 28 (Fr). The weather today has been mainly overcast and so we decided to forego the snorkelling in favour of Lib finishing the painting on the van which she may well have done had it not started raining this afternoon. I spent the day exploring and at 1530 they had fishing feeding right in the shallows of the main beach here at Coral Bay. The fish were Spangled Emperor’s and they were huge. The big ones were easily almost a metre long. It was quite an experience to have these huge, beautiful fish swimming around your legs. The only rule was to bury your toes in the sand.

Humpty

Banana Plantation @ Carnarvon

Tawny Frog Mouth @ Carnarvon CP

Gascoyne River @ Carnarvon

Coffee Pot Train, One Mile Jetty @ Carnarvon

One Mile Jetty @ Carnarvon

Fishing on One Mile Jetty @ Carnarvon

Big Banana @ Carnarvon

Corella's@ Minilya Free Camp

Coral Bay

Termite Mound on the way to Coral Bay

Clam Shell @ Coral Bay

Minilya River

@ Quobba Blowholes

Woo Hoo

Coral @ Coral Bay

Marina @ Coral Bay

Minilya Free Camp

Coast Line @ Quobba Blowholes

Here we are

G'Day all, here is the next installment in our journey. One house keeping point before we start. You may or may not know that if you click on a photo they enlarge so you can get a better view and don't need to squint to make out each photo.

To date we have traveled 2438 km on this leg of our journey.

Wicked Camper

12/06/16 Day 16 (Su). Yesterday we left Galena Bridge and kept moving north but as it was such a sunny day with light winds when we got to the next rest area we pulled up (approx. 1030 am) and decided to keep painting the van with the paint we picked up in Geraldton. We got plenty done but there was still plenty more. We painted til the sun went down, shared our one remaining beer, had dinner and went to bed.

Hamelin Pool

Today when we got up we checked the forecast but for the area we were in it was for rain so we moved 100 km’s up the road to Overlander where the forecast was for 20% <1 mm. And pulled over and got stuck into the painting again. As the suns going down and I’m writing this, the first coat has been finished all round and approx. 50% of the second has also. At this stage it looks as though we can finish it in another 2 days and then Bess will have her facelift.

Hamelin Pool

14/06/2016 Day 18 (Tu). After spending another day painting we spent last night in our gravel pit at Overlander. It is a Main Roads gravel pit next to the intersection for the highway and the road out to Denham and Monkey Mia just opposite the Overlander Roadhouse. Though we did complete the coloured sections on Bess Lib has still to finish the black outlines but we have decided that it can be done a little each day and us not being stuck out in the middle of nowhere for another 24 hrs.

Hamelin Pool

Today we headed west towards Denham. We stopped at Hamelin Pool to check out the 3.5 billion year old stromolites. Then we stopped at Shell Beach which has no sand. The beach is made up of tiny little cockle shells no bigger than your pinky nail and can be up to 10 metres deep in places. In the past, as the shells were compacted together over time, they were quarried into blocks and used to build structures.

Hamelin Pool

Then we stopped at a lookout for lunch and took the dogs for a walk along another shell strewn beach where Lib and I saw 4 shovel nosed sharks swimming in the shallows. They were only young with the biggest measuring approx. 40-45 cm.

Tonight we have stopped and camped about 30 km’s south of Denham at Whalebone Bay. The vista is spectacular and was a great spot to watch the sun disappear below the ocean.

Hamelin Pool

16/06/16 Day 20 (Th). Yesterday we moved on to Denham where we have spent the last two days. We managed to stock up on supplies yesterday, get some housekeeping done and a few minor repair jobs. Lib continued with putting the final touches on Bess’ facelift. I tried squidding at the local jetty but came away empty handed though there was plenty of evidence on the jetty of others success.

Shell Beach

Today I tried again a couple of times with no luck. They are rebuilding the foreshore here and the water is all stirred up and murky which is hampering my success. Even the locals reckon the current situation is not all that great for squidding. I tried at high tide in the morning and then again in the evening after dinner which is supposedly the best time. I tried bait fishing at the jetty late in the afternoon but there was a big school of blow fish hanging around the jetty and I was fed up of catching them after landing a half dozen or so and nothing else.

Before lunch though, Lib and I took the dogs for a nice long walk along the beach and saw a couple catching sand whiting. Lib was able to find some nice shells for her ever expanding collection.

Shell Beach

Shovel-nosed Sharks

17/06/16 Day 21 (Fr). Today we headed out to Monkey Mia for the dolphin experience. And we weren’t disappointed. After we checked into the resort ($36/N with a RAC discount for an unpwred site in a carpark) we took the dogs for a walk through the resort and down onto the beach. When we got to the jetty there were two dolphins swimming round in the shallows and at one point I was literally 2 metres from them. We got some really good photos and then continued on up the beach to check out the fishing spot we had been told about and where this afternoon I went down and caught only blowies. For lunch we stopped in at the resort restaurant to treat ourselves to Beer Battered Flathead and Prawn Caesar Salad. While I was fishing Lib kept on painting the van.

As the sun went down we went and had a beer at the bar and looked out over the ocean. It was magical.