Day 136 21/4/14 – 80 Mile Beach – Quandong WA

Our plan was to spend two days getting to Broome in time for ANZAC day and, though I’m still not quite sure how, we completely stuffed up as it is Monday and ANZAC day isn’t until Friday. Oh well...we took about 10 seconds to make the decision. We’ll drive through to Broome, stock up and then head up to one of the council free camps on the way to Cape Levequee.

We rolled out in record time and I grabbed the computer to catch up on blogs while De drove the 300+kms. During the trip De and Jacko started playing car cricket where a certain colour car or truck scores you x number of runs with another colour being out. Jack led off with valiant 71 with De, Sam and I all getting starts. The ‘wicket ball’ was a car caravan/RV/camper and I suggested we spice it up in the 2^nd innings by adding if the wicket ball had a boat with them then it was a no ball. All agreed and Jack went into bat and got a good start as did De and Sam but they were just getting into the rhythm when they played a silly shot and were out. I strode to the crease with a lot of pressure with the press all calling for my axing. I started nervously and when  was still in single figures managed to be saved by the brand new ‘no ball’ ruling. Confident it was my day I put my head down and played a magnificent innings, retiring un beaten on 101 as we pulled into Broome....the irony being is the next car was towing a camper and I would have been out....the howls from the crowd were deafening!

We rolled into Broome, grabbed some fresh bread...ahh fresh bread....even the woolies in Port Hedland get there ‘tip top’ bread frozen....and headed for the park for a late lunch. On the way we passed Michelle and kids, who we had seen a few times, whose husband had just rejoined them after having to fly home for a while. We pulled up at the water park as they did and the kids hit the park. Pretty soon Mark with his tow kids in tow also arrived, a small Karajini reunion!

My mum has a couple of friends who have been travelling around Oz for a few years and had asked us to pass on a few presents to them when we crossed paths. We were held up at the water park so Chris and Linda (Whoa re avide readers of the blog – must be good people) came to us and had a good yarn before we all headed off.

We stocked up and headed up the Cape Leveque road, turning of to one of the council free camps at Point Quandong, 50kms from Broome.

We managed to find a great site overlooking the beach and set up. While the temperature had been gradually getting warmer this afternoon we got a really good taste of the tropics at its best! One funny sight I had never seen before was condensation dropping from the A/C vents inside the car..all be it the windows were down!

We sent the boys down the beach while dinner was prepared and soon the returned with a bucket full of hermit crabs....these things are like flies! After a yummy dinner of Sam’s ‘whitey’ we managed to convince them reduce their catch to 2 crabs each and after a bit of research they made up some food for them of cuttlefish and seasalt!

We have had to completely change our cooking habits - it is now ALL done outside!

Along with De needing to start drinking from the bottle again, as they don't sell wine in casks in the Kimberly we have also upgraded her ice! With the bore water having many and varied tastes all the ice is now from bottled water..la de da!

Sporting the new look in soft coral beanies!

Along with the heat comes the bugs and even as I type this there are about 10 bugs crawling across the screen as it is the only source of light in the van....oh well had better turn it off..ni ni

Day 135 20/4/14 – 80 Mile Beach WA

The Easter Bunny had managed to find the boys, drunk the beer and nibbled on the carrot left for him. My guess is that he liked the beer more than the carrot!  He had left a small stash for each of them and I cringed at how much sugar was going into their guts before breakfast!

After a serious truckers breakfast (deigned to soak up as much of the sugar as possible) we relaxed and waited for the tide to come in. Based on yesterdays experience I figured we had better head down pretty early to get a prime spot. We went for a drive about 10kms up the beach and were amazed that it was pretty much the same as far as the eye could see. There was the occasional rocky outcrop or there were more shells on the beach but it almost identical. 

The beach was already starting to fill up so we staked our claim in front of a channel that I thought would be full of fish in an hour or two. The boys and De walked the 300m to the waters edge for a dip and found heaps of flat round shells. They loaded up one of the boggie boards and dragged them back to Izzy where they laced them onto some fishing line.

It was not long before the water started heading across the flats and into the channel that held so much promise. At one point it seemed as if somebody opened an invisible gate and everybody started heading down the beach to start to fish...it really was quite weird!

Within a half an hour the blokes on either side of us had caught some blue salmon but we were struggling to lose our bait! Jacko was struggling with his beach rod so he retreated to the truck to rig up his own rod. In the mean time Sambo started to wind his line in to check if he still had some bait when he realised he was on! He was really struggling and the tiny rod and reel were groaning under the strain. Once I caught a view of what he had on the end of it I wasn’t surprised..it was bloody big! He got  it into the little waves and I grabbed the leader and dragged it up the beach. He had landed a 77cm White Threadfin Salmon on a $15 combo! There were high fives all round and I think it was the best Easter present by far!

Couldn't decide which one was a better pic!

While De wondered up to get supplies for our chip butties, I managed to finally catch one, a 50cm Blue Salmon. Just as De arrived back Jacko got smashed by something but it snapped his line leaving him to ponder what would have been. Just after lunch he did manage to land a small Blue Salmon but his mean dad made him throw it back!

The tide had come in and the fish had headed back out to where ever they go and as quickly as they came the fisherman we all packed up and headed back. Sam was the toast of the cleaning station as he had caught the biggest one of the day. Needless to say his dad was pretty happy for him!

De put on the Easter Sunday roast on while I spent the next couple of hours packing up the fishing gear and cleaning out the back of the truck! It was a cracking afternoon and we enjoyed sitting in the shade having a few beers chatting with fellow campers.

Some of the rigs the locals use when fishing....

Nana had given us (adults) each a bottle of wine for Easter so we enjoyed it with our yummy roast and finished it off with some eggs for desert! After the boys were in bed John (from next door) came over we had a good chat. He had done the north last year so he gave us some good tips and it again it wasn’t long before we were heading for bed after another big day!

Day 134 19/4/14 – Cape Kereaudren – 80 Mile Beach WA

One of my first world problems is that I have so much fishing gear that when it all comes out it takes me about an hour to pack it up....so that’s what I spent the morning doing! While the boys are usually really helpful packing up, we have discovered that when they have BFF to play with and we are leaving we are better of letting them run riot and we just potter...so we did!

We headed northwards again and set up at the 80 Mile Beach Caravan Park. There is pretty much nothing for 200ks south and 350ks north but in this isolated spot is a massive van park with around 1000 people camping there. It was great as all of the sites were grass, keeping us of the sand and red dust. We pulled in and set up for Easter

It was a bit weird as there were hundreds of van, tents and swags but you could count the number of people on one hand. Jack and I wondered over the dune and were completely amazed by the view we encountered. Bar the handful of people the other 1000 were spread out 5 – 10 m apart from each other fishing, as far as the eye could see. Figuring the tides must be right for fishing we packed up and followed the crowd!

Looking South

Looking North

Pretty soon we were donating bait to the threadfin and blue salmon as people around us were pulling them in....grrr...this is starting to get frustrating!!! As soon as the tide turned the beach started to empty out and by 2pm there were only the frustrated fisherman left! We headed back empty handed but I had spent a bit of time at the end quizzing some of the locals and felt we were going to have more luck tomorrow!

Sambo's new nickname is Sanga
All of the red dust and sand has infiltrated his blonde locks turning them a shade of ranga red!

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing around in the shade, it was pretty tropical, but a nice breeze kept it cool! The boys made baskets and signs for the Easter Bunny. I said they had better not get their hopes up to high as its is pretty hard for him to carry to much gear to such an isolated place!

The best part was that there weren’t any midges or mossies so De and I could sit outside and have a few drinks while I whipped her but in a game of Euchar before turning in for the night!

Day 133 - 18/4/14 – Cape Kereaudren WA

With high tide not due until lunch we couldn’t fish until 10ish so the boys headed off with their new BFF while I prepared all of the fishing gear. We were going to catch something, today come hell or high water!

The water came rushing into the inlet and so did the fish! Jack had some serious first world problems once he started fishing as he changed from lure to spoon to popper to bait! Sam had been using one of his poppers and got a good size queenie on but was busted of as he was using lite gear – Bugger! The biggest frustration was that you could see the fish as the water is so clear and at one point Sam was casting over the top of a huge queenie, it would come up to it, look at it, you could almost see it open its mouth and then change its mind...ahhhhh!!! He got another hit but just couldn’t hook one! 

After lunch they boys disappeared with the BFF and I returned to have a relaxing fish without my first world boys. I cast, flicked, jigged, popped and tried everything I could but I just couldn’t get one on! I did hook a monster for about 1 ½ seconds but it was obviously smarter than I was! In the end the fish had well and truly beat me. Bugger!

In the afternoon the boys walked across the flats again but spent an hour or so cracking oysters of the rocks. We did manage to get a few of them open but they were to small and I didn’t fancy putting a knife through my hand for the sake of a 2g morsel!

Being Good Friday we had fish for dinner but unfortunately it wasn’t fresh!

Day 132 – 17/4/14 – De Grey River – Cape Kereaudren WA

We were up and going early to get to our next camp. We found a great spot looking out over the inlet and we headed over for a fish of the rocky headland 50m from our site. We spent the next couple of hours casting lures and could see heaps of pretty good size queen fish chasing them but we just couldn’t get them to hit the lure. It was extremely frustrating to say the least! We tried a few different lures but nothing would work.

We headed back and as we set up for lunch a euro, the local species of wallaroo, came over to check us out. I figured it must have smelt our water and was thirsty so Jack got a bucket of water and it practically inhaled it without even looking up! We named her VB as she had a hard earned thirst and refreshed she moved about a meter away and lay down in the shade off  the van, where she remained for the rest of the afternoon. It was pretty cool!

We headed back for a fish after lunch but we soon realised we were really in the north west as the tide was well and truley on the way out. I looked up willyweather and discovered that the tides were 9m between high and low!!! Within another couple of hours the rock that we were casting off was now cliff and the beautiful blue/teal water that we were overlooking was replaced by a sandy mud flat!

The boys had found a two new BFF, Timana and Cane, and they headed out onto the flats and had a great time squashing sea cucumbers and checking puddles for octopi. Ricky, the BBF’s dad, even saved a turtle who must have got his tide times wrong! 

As the sun began to set the midges decided to make their presence felt. For once in her life De wasn’t the tastiest human morsel for the midges as they preferred my supple skin! We did manage to have dinner outside but it wasn’t long before we fumigated the van and headed inside for the rest of the night!

Day 131 – 16/4/14 – Karajini – De Grey River WA

We had a reasonably big drive in front of us and De’s itchness hadn’t gone away so we wanted to get to Port Hedland to see the doc. Our biggest challenge was getting to the nearest fuel station....Not again I hear you ask! I had done my calculations based on getting our usual 6.5kms/l....the problem was that the last diesel that we had brought must had been such sh17 quality that we were lucky to be getting 4kms/l. This left us with enough fuel to get about 50kms but it was 80kms+ to the nearest servo. Luckily as we were packing up the nice Scottish lady that I mentioned yesterday was also packing up and heading in the same direction so they agreed to follow us and pick me up when we ran out of fuel.

We got to the junction of the Great Northern Highway and I was already on one bar with 35kms to go. There was a big rest area so I grabbed an empty drum and left De and the boys to see if Mr Falconio was in the region.

I had a great trip with the ladies (sorry I forgot their names) Two lady teachers from Launceston who had gone halves in a Winnebago and were travelling to help out at a remote Aboriginal school. We had a great yarn on the way. They really wanted to drive me back but once we were at the roadhouse the second person I asked was to take me so I bid farewell to the first of the days helpers and squashed myself and a full drum of diesel in the back of an old Toyota Forerunner . I think there may have been room for Sam to fit in there but I made my self fit which included my new driver, Marcus from Germany pushing the door closed on me.

I sat behind the driver...

The first couple of minutes were fine but the next 30 kms were so uncomfortable they were funny. By the time we arrived back at the van one of my legs had gone completely to sleep from the waist down and the other one was feeling very drowsy. As I peeled myself out of the car it took me a couple of minutes before I could walk...but we had fuel and De and the boys were still in one piece!

We filled up to the brim at the roadhouse and as we were driving out two blokes asked us for a lift as their car had a flat tyre and they needed a lift back as they had been trying to get it fixed for more than a day. How could I say no! So Stefan (USA) and Oliviea (France) piled in the back with the two boys and headed the 40kms towards their vehicle. The problem was that the tyre had a security nut on it and they didn’t have the 13mm hex head fitting required to take it off. We had a great chat and the boys enjoyed having some company in the back seat. Once we got there I went to work trying to help them. My hex heads only went to 10mm and we were using all kinds of combinations of bolts, screw drivers wedged in with Jacko finding the perfect fit in a punch I have. The only problem being is that we didn’t have a spanner of socket to fit it! After 15 minutes De suggested that they look for the fitting designed to take the nut off and pointed towards the compartments in the back of the station wagon. Five minutes later and with the right part in hand the tyre was changed and we were on our way! I can only imagine there facebook posts about that one!

Photographer: Sam Perrier 

We headed north on what must be one of the busiest trucking routes in the world. Truck after truck heading to Port Headland with triple and quadruple trailers rumbling along behind them.

The boys were pretty excited to finally get a truckie to blow his horn! This bloke made up for all of them.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we were amazed by the size and scale of everything in Port Headland. The salt piles, the length of the trains and the loading machines were all huge.

A sprinkle of salt

After ditching De at the Docs the boys and I headed to the visitor info centre. The coolest part was a board that listed the size, weight and destination of all of the iron ore ships that were leaving TODAY. We headed to the park across the river from where they were being loaded and I was amazed by the size of the ships.

The Ten Jim Maru didn't make the list but it was under 300m...a small one really!

We did our usual stock up and headed to viewing area for ‘Staircase to the Moon’. Whilst we are in the west there are peninsulas that allow you to look to the east over water and around the full moon between March and November. As the moon comes up over the horizon the light reflects on the ripples in the water creating a staircase effect. It is pretty cool especially when the moon is above the horizon and there is a clear white line across the water. I cooked up a marinara and we ate dinner on the boardwalk waiting for the 6:40 rise.

Being anything but a professional photographer I tried to get a few tips on how to wrangle the settings on my camera to get a half decent photo. As the moon rose I frantically snapped away adjusting my ISO and shutter speed hoping that I would get the right combination at the right time. In the end I managed to get some great shots but it was Jack’s comment that ‘That was the best activity that we have done so far’ that made my day!

I couldn't decide which one was the best so I put in a few.

It had been a huge day and the boys put their heads down and we drove 80kms to the nearest free camp. De finally understood why I have put two massive spot lights and an even bigger light bar on the front of Izzy. There were cattle all over the road and we ended up having to drive most of it at 60 – 80km/hr. We eventually arrived and I needed a good couple of rums to settle my nerves before heading off to sleep.

Day 130 – 15/4/14 – Karajini National Park WA

Warning: Karajini is a photographers all you can eat buffet. And while I do not claim to be a photographer I wasn't lining up at the salad bar!

Mentally I had decided that we should get a pretty early start as we were going for a pretty decent walk in the desert and the temperatures have been in the low 30s all week. I am not sure where my good intentions went because as we were walking out of camp it was already 10am and the nice Scottish lady camping next to us was just getting back from her walk!

For the next 4 ½ hours we had a wonderful time walking through Dale’s Gorge. We started at Circular Pools where we had a swim in the pretty cold water. The small waterfall was created by water seeping through the rock so it was nice and warm. So we would clamber out of the cold water ,up the rocky face of the fall, shower for 20 or 30 seconds in the warm water and then dive back in again! It was great fun!

We headed up the gorge and had a great time as the track varied from gravel paths, through long grassy flats, paperbark plots, rock hoping and wading through shallow pools. All the time we were dwarfed by the 30 or 40m high cliffs of red rock towering over us. Just as we were beginning to warm up we reached Fortescue Falls.

Here the water splashed and bubbled its way down a rocky set of stairs about 40m long. We all swam to the bottom of the falls and enjoyed sitting in its wake as it bubbled against our backs. After  lunch we headed further up the gorge to Fern Falls. This was my favourite! You swam the 40m across to the falls which dropped directly from an over handing ledge in two places. The first, where the water really pounded over I sat on the rocks as the water massaged  my back and shoulders and the water against my head created enough noise to drown out all sound. The second fell into the water and while the water fell on your head the rest of you was under water so it was a very different experience! Underneath the ledge was a big area that was covered in moss and Maiden Hair Ferns.

On the way out of the water the boys were having fun with the fish that inhabited the pond. As Jacko stood up to go his massive frame was too much for the timber decking to withstand and him foot went straight through it. The poor bugger was pretty rattled and a bit scratched an bruised. While he hobbled back out of the gorge with De, Sam and I rushed ahead to get the truck and bring it back to the closest point. It was 2:30 by the time we returned, it had been a great morning.

Ants nest - surrounded by spinifex seeds

The afternoon was spent sitting in the shade of the van reading books while the boys completed their “Junior Ranger” booklets and returned them to get their “Junior Ranger Patch”. At one stage we were all sitting there when you could hear the wind increasing. A bit weird I thought, and then over the next 20 seconds it got stronger and louder and then all of a sudden a whirl wind passed right through the centre of out camp! It picked the solar panel up and flicked it a few metres and grabbed hold of a foam mat and deposited it a couple of meters up a tree 10 meters away. It was pretty cool but was happy that it was only a small one!

The boys got a game of soccer going late in the afternoon and we headed up for a short ‘happy hour’ at Mark & Amy’s. Soon the telescope was out as it was a full moon and after dinner Jack got the moon map and managed to locate some key landmarks, that I thought was pretty cool as I had tried unseccsefully to do it the night before! We also managed to take a couple of pics of the moon on my phone using the telescope....now that is realllly cool!

It had been a big day and the boys were in bed and after finishing Rowan Of Rin they were asleep before their heads hit the pillows!