(Ir)Regular Ramblings - 9
17/5 - 6/6

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This 'chapter' starts with our departure from Perth. A VERY early start (for us) at 7:30am, enabled us to be in Perth city for an appointment at 8:00am. Parking at that hour, even with the van attached, wasn't a problem and after our appointment we breakfasted at a very nice restaurant, complete with coffee and morning papers. The front page story was related to an incident we'd seen the day before in the Hay Street Mall. I'm not sure if it made the national news, but was certainly on all the TV channels in WA. A crim in a stolen car had driven through the mall at high speed, hitting one lady before crashing into bollards (designed to stop vehicular traffic - they work!). A few minutes before, we had been standing in front of the bollards, watched them raise from the pavement after a security van had passed, then stood in the middle of the mall looking at an overhead sculpture. Fortunately for us, we were all in Myer's when the drama happened and only exited to see the carnage.
Our next port of call was New Norcia. This is a town with a difference; the difference being that the town is owned and still operated by Benedictine Monks. There is some really fabulous architecture, built by the monks and their faithful over the past 120 years. Believe it or not, the place on the right (above) is a pub! The monastery was formed to minister to the local aborigines. It had one school for the aboriginal girls, one for the white girls, and the same for the boys - four in total and NEVER were they to meet. Many of the buildings have since disappeared and the remaining ones are benefiting from restoration work, but the job is a bit too big - perhaps they need a bit of divine intervention. They do have some beautiful chapels etc. many with murals and other works of art inside. One outside mural in another section of town is made up of six absolutely fantastic aboriginal paintings (one for each of the aboriginal seasons - they have 6 instead of four). The detail in the paintings was fantastic and showed all the food (bush tucker) that is available in each of those seasons. As luck would have it, the artist (Sheila) just happened to be in the shade, under a verandah, watching the 'tourists-on-tour' (us). I spoke with her briefly, but had to hurry to catch up with our guide who had moved on (so to speak). Our conversation was long enough though, for me to arrange to visit the artist at her house later in the day. I do wonder if our guides' desire to move on was directly related to my conversing with this aboriginal lady. Our guide, in answer to one of my questions, assured our group that all children at the school were there voluntarily… there were no 'stolen-generation' children at the school. However, the story, according to the aboriginal artist, was very different. We arrived at Sheila's house late in the afternoon and spent quite a considerable length of time sitting in her lounge listening to her. Her story had distinct parallels to that portrayed in the film 'Rabbit Proof Fence' and included her mother attempting to take her from the school when she was nine - only to have warrants issued for her arrest and once they were tracked down, Sheila was returned to the school where she remained until she was 18. Every morning and every night for 14 years, the same food - boiled sheep's head! Ohh… except on Christmas day and Easter and Fridays, of course. They were apparently used pretty much as slave labour to provide for the whites and the monks, even suffering the indignity of having to work in the kitchens where they prepared 'real' food for the others! A very different story to the one we had conveyed to us by our guide. We were reminded of the phrase "Denial - is not a river in Egypt!".
Anyway, we liked her art work enough that we purchased a painting before continuing our journey, once again after dark. Driving rain and strong winds meant the next two hours drive were not too pleasant. Although the roadside stop we used that night was described in our Free Camping book as being a 'delightful spot with native birds and a variety of flora', I'm afraid we were unable to fully appreciate its beauty!

Next morning proved to be little better than the night before, with the rain bucketing down. Our luck however held, with the sky clearing and the sun shining strongly while we visited the Pinnacles in the Nambung National Park. I'd be willing to bet there aren't too many tourists who get a photo in harsh sunlight of a Pinnacle surrounded by a pool of water, plus we had the bonus of the rain having obliterated the footprints etc. of the millions of tourists who annually visit the area, allowing it to appear pristine and natural. The moment we finished, the rain came again and we had a late arrival into Geraldton.
Late arrival - seems to equate with 'free camp'. We found a car park on the foreshore, right in the middle of town, with naval cadets bumping into one another as they marched, 10 metres from the water. In fact, the water hadn't been even THAT far from the car park earlier in the week as the wind had driven the water up to the small stone wall bordering the car park and even onto the bitumen in spots. By this time (9:30pm) the weather had totally cleared and was quite warm. A nearby 'maypole' attracted my attention and I decided to give it a go with the metal detector before I went to bed. I assembled the detector and gave it a quick test on the sand adjacent to the van - ping, a $2 coin, followed immediately by a couple of smaller denominations. I had read somewhere about waves hitting walls and dumping their sea treasures and this turned out to be so. In about a 10 metre stretch, immediately outside the door of the van, I found over 30 coins, including a shilling, a threepence and a penny. The maypole produced more coins and a silver ring. This spot in Geraldton proved quite profitable, with Marg finding a $5 note lying on the sand, Maddie found $1.40 in a coke can dispenser and I found $3 left behind at the car wash. While we haven't yet paid for the trip, we've all contributed, with Jess finding some at a public phone and inside the ball race of a pool table in Perth.

Next morning we discovered the local ABC studio across the road was hosting a 'Big Cuppa' to raise money for cancer research. We thought we'd do our bit and headed over, discovering heaps of assorted cake, including one of my favourites - pink jelly cakes and cream!

All of this plus sight seeing, lunch in a café overlooking the bay and shopping meant we didn't get back to the van till late in the day. We hooked up and then backed up onto the path in front of the car park toilets, until our hose was able to reach from the tap out the front, to our water tanks. The police had driven through shortly before (I waited till they'd gone) and more visited as we departed, but luckily they didn't attend while we were parked so high and dry - I have no doubt we would have had some explaining to do.

Our late departure once again dictated an after dark arrival at Horrocks - again with a car park campsite. Horrocks is a 'quaint' little village with a brand new jetty reaching into a beautiful bay surrounded by coral reef. The recent storm had had a similar effect on the beach to that at Geraldton. We were up early, so I did a little more detecting, again with some good results and some old coins (another penny to spend!).

Despite being up early, a 530km drive with some pleasant stops meant…. you guessed it, a LATE ARRIVAL at Monkey Mia. Certainly too late to get a campsite, they were fully booked! It turned out, that was a blessing in disguise. The amenities at Monkey Mia were 'ordinary' (we know, 'cos we used 'em - but don't tell anyone!) and the caravans were packed in like sardines. It's often difficult parking the van in the dark, but the spot we chose, near the boat ramp was hidden from the road, from the Caravan park and the CALM (conservation and parks) office but had a great view of the sea! So good was this spot, we spent two nights parked there. We were closer to the dolphin area than any of the other vans, yet 99% of people never knew we were there!
The first day, although we saw the dolphins (you can stand in the water with them), neither of the girls were selected to feed them. At the second feed on the second day however, Maddie was selected to feed them twice, kindly exchanging her opportunity the second time with Jess - so both came away very happy. Marg and I just happened to miss THAT particular feed (Murphy's Law) as we were off buying me a wet suit. I had said to Marg, the best way to ensure the girls got an opportunity to feed them, was for us not to be there - it worked!

 

We saw not only dolphins, but a turtle and a large lion fish (one of those 'frilly' looking fish with lots of poisonous spines sticking out everywhere). The girls sat on the grass at the front of the resort, under the palms to do school work and we hired an electric 'underwater scooter' and went snorkelling - giving me a chance to test out the new wet suit.

They had free BBQ's to cook our dinner on and the weather was perfect, but by this time our water tanks were running low so we upped camp and headed back down the road to Denham, where we arrived… EARLY, securing a site on an upper level of the multilevel park, overlooking the bay.

Now, the following is a complicated trail, so concentrate hard!
I have become a firm believer that things don't happen by coincidence - there is always a reason, you just need to find it. While I was in Perth, my mate Bill convinced me to attempt to contact a guy we'd known during our primary school years (who'd lived next door to Bill) that we'd lost touch with since the guy had moved to WA. I succeeded in tracking him down and after talking to him on the phone for an hour, I mentioned to Marg there was only one other person who I really would like to have found over the years, but hadn't been able to - A 'kid' who left my primary school in grade four, but who I'd been good mates with at the time…Ricky Goulter. All I knew is that back then, he'd moved to Western Australia, my phone book searches since however, had come to no avail.
I was sitting outside the van at Denham and a guy I'd never met before walked up and said "VK3JIM?" This is my amateur call sign so I responded "Yes….?" This guy (Bob) had been talking to a guy in Singapore the night before - the Singaporian knows a friend of mine in Melbourne, who'd mentioned that we were in Western Australia (big as Europe…!), in the region of Shark Bay (nearly as big as Ireland!). The Singaporian asked Bob if he'd met me, he hadn't, but went looking the next day. It just so happened we were both in the same caravan park… coincidence enough, but wait - there's more, there's also the steak knives!
That night Bob came to our van and we both sat in our car and spoke on the radio to the guy in Singapore. In the course of conversation, I mentioned to the Singaporian about coming from Moe - Bob then told me he had known people who had lived in Moe some 30 years ago. Of course, it happened to be the father of my mate Ricky from grade 4. It didn't take too long next morning for Bob to have a phone number for Ricky. I rang Rick that night and for another three weeks, he'll be in Karratha - where we should be in about three weeks! He mentioned that there are only two people he remembers from those primary school days, Bill and me!!! As I've said in a previous Ramble…. Some things are MEANT to be!

Hamlin Pool is home to the most ancient living creatures on this planet - Stromatelites. The single cell organisms grew from 'the great slime' and form colonies to filter their food. Without them, earth would never have had oxygen and well.. I guess the rest wouldn't be history!
That such an ignominious creature could have been so important to our evolution - I figured it was worth a least a quick look. Huge mats of sea grass allow the water to be replenished from the sea as it evaporates, but don't allow normal tidal flows. The water in this huge bay (Hamelin Pool) is super salty, more than twice that of the connecting sea.
Left: Hamelin Pool - Stromatelites
Top: Gascoyne River
Bot: Shark Bay
Right: Gourmet Chef

The Gascoyne River near Carnarvon is also worth a mention - it's the biggest river I've seen so far that isn't! Wide and long, the sand stretches East and West, with narry a drop of water in sight! Apparently they call it the 'Upside Down River' - still waters run deep!

We continued our snorkelling at Coral Bay. One of the gourmet chefs travelling with us found a new use for the mask - Maddie insists it does make it easier to cut up the onions!

Coral Bay has many water related attractions, one is to go swimming with the whale sharks, the biggest fish in the sea. At $310 per head (mine, not the sharks), it isn't what you'd call a cheap day out, but it was worth it. A spotter plane flies overhead to locate the whale shark, remaining overhead while swimmers are in the water, to warn if other, more dangerous sharks are in the vicinity. The cruise boat had to travel about 8km's north to a passage through the outer reef which is about 2 km's offshore. We then cruised back and forth until the spotter plane found a shark - then it was full speed ahead. Our first one was spotted at about 10:30am, with a total of three spotted during the morning. The day before, they hadn't spotted one until 4:00pm! It's hard to give someone an impression of how big this fish is. The ones I saw ranged from about 7 metres to over 9 metres, and they reputedly grow to about 18 metres!.
The shark appears to glide effortlessly along, while I had to swim hard to stay with it. With a mouth big enough to ride a motorbike around inside, it was a very eerie experience to swim slightly in front and to the side, then to see its beady eye fixed on me and watch as the shark turned towards me. Harmless giant though it was, I discovered I could swim just that bit faster! A slow side to side sweep of its tail propels it, until it wanted to dive - the tail stopped, it pointed its nose down and just glided out of sight into the depths. The skipper said it was about 55metres deep, so even though the water was very clear, it could just disappear into the darkness. We had numerous swims with each shark, swimming for 10 minutes or so, then climbing aboard the boat for a spell, before swimming again with the shark. Unfortunately for me, there was a rather large swell at the time, lifting and dropping me about 5 metres - it didn't take long for the motion to effect me. I made a hasty retreat back to the cruise boat, feeling very green and looking VERY white! No sooner had I clambered back onto the boat (which was pitching and tossing something awful), than I felt the urge to run to the side, grip the handrail very tightly and lean over…. the rest you can imagine I am sure. Fortunately for me, another passenger had some sea-sickness pills which took effect within the hour and by lunch time I was even able to sample some of the magnificent buffet provided. During the afternoon, we motored through a turtle rookery, where I saw in excess of 100 turtles, then swam just inside the reef amongst some coral atolls. The atolls were absolutely beautiful with a massive amount of fish and spectacular corals. Three reef sharks put in an appearance, with the largest being about as long as me, but they kept their distance - a fact that pleased me immensely, given my still rather 'delicate' state.

From Coral Bay to Exmouth and around the 'North West Cape' to Cape Range National Park for a few days. We arrived at the end of a long weekend and had some concerns about the availability of sites. As it turned out, we chose the right afternoon to arrive - there had been a mass exodus that morning (Monday) and we got a good site near the water with shade… a rare commodity! There were loads of fish around a large variety of coral, but not too many being caught. The next few days saw every site filled each day, until the wind hit on about our third day. We stuck it out for one day, taking a drive down to the Yardie Creek Gorge, but that night had even stronger wind and we'd already planned to leave for Giralia Station. Our water supply had almost run out, so it was time to move on. The gorge is home to Black Footed Rock Wallabies - how they move around the shear rock faces of the gorge astounds me. I couldn't help but wonder how many have slipped and gone swimming. Echidnas also seemed to be a fairly common sight.

Left: Echidna or Sea Anemone? Cape Range National Park
Top centre: Marg & Jim - Yardie Creek Gorge
Bot centre: High powered Eagles nests
Right: Exmouth goanna with a name that ends in 'i'…. I think….

(I felt sad when I approached the eagles' nest in the left photo and found the eagle dead on the ground, but nature has a way of continuing life - the nest is now a multi-story apartment block for Julian Finches, one can be seen flying from the nest at the top right of the photo)

A large amount of this chapter revolves around our frequent late arrivals, but the Giralia Station homestead was only 150km away, so after re-plenishing our tanks (fuel and water), the fridge and the larder, we arrived mid afternoon. A brochure we'd picked up showed this station at its best, with green grass, a 'four star' tourist mecca, resplendent with swimming pool and 'Stockman's Dining Room'. We arrived amongst billowing clouds of red dust, greeted by a young guy who had obviously spent the day upside down in a grease bucket before being rolled in the red dust. Obviously a hard working young fella, I could accept that, and he wasn't the one who'd be serving our dinner in the Stockman's Dining Room… or was he? I wasn't too sure. The tourist bureau in Exmouth had rung and enquired if we could get in, and were assured there were "plenty of sites". There were too… there was tens of thousands of hectares of red dirt, and us - we were the only van there, and I suggest the only one in recent history. I don't know how old the brochure photos were, but the current state of affairs was a LOT different to the impression created in the glossy!
"Sorry if it doesn't look too nice, but it hasn't rained for a year"
"That's OK - I can understand that". It didn't however excuse the rundown state of the amenities. Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, the shearers quarters had benefited from the addition of some new showers - not much had happened since. A family council was held and the decision taken to keep moving. Even Bart the one and only sheep in sight wanted to come to, attempting to climb into the car with us as we departed, then standing solid in front of us so we couldn't leave without him. Another 150km and an hour after sunset we arrived at Nanutarra Roadhouse, AFTER DARK ONCE AGAIN. At least we'd be able to have nice hot showers… hot yes, nice NO! These ones were in a worse state than the sheep station! I just hope it isn't too much of an indication of what to expect throughout the north. It wouldn't be quite so bad if they didn't demand top dollar.

At least everyone is happy and well. The roadhouse did have a good range of meals on their menu and served a nice dinner. The late travelling also meant we saw some Australian Bustards! Yes, I did spell that correctly. Growing to about one metre tall, and looking like a solid cross between an emu and an ostrich, these birds can run like an emu, but can also actually fly. (There is one featured in a stylised form in the photo of part of the mural, on our Photo Gallery page). Running with long lanky steps, jumping into the air and then flapping large wings with long necks outstretched, they are a sight to behold!

I thought the previous paragraph would be the last in this ramble and that it was a nice 'positive' note to end on, but the trip from Nanutarra Roadhouse was not 'uneventful'. In my wisdom, I felt we had enough fuel to get to the next roadhouse, some 160km's up the road, so didn't re-fuel when I could/should have. At one point, Marg had leaned forward and turned on the air conditioner; I promptly leaned forward and turned it off - Marg looked surprised so I explained "I'm not sure we've got enough juice to get there with that off - we certainly haven't with it on…"
I hadn't factored in a strong headwind and some hills… the inevitable happened - 7km's short of Fortescue River Roadhouse. Fortunately even before we had rolled to a stop, another caravaner had passed, realised we had a problem and done a 'u-ie' to come back to help. While they didn't have diesel, their travelling companions ten minutes behind did. A jerry can was produced and promptly emptied into our tank. We followed them to the next roadhouse and re-filled the jerry can for them, before continuing along on our merry way.
This was also the first time we hadn't secured one of the roof hatches before driving off. A fact that only became apparent when we ran out of fuel. The hatch had opened right up as we travelled and acted as a venturi, sucking as much dust as possible into the van. Even though we had been on a bitumen highway, it is amazing how much red dust had been sucked in.
After re-fuelling, we continued on to Miaree pool. With ducks, fish and surrounded by bulrushes and paperbark trees, this oasis is a pool of (semi) permanent water in the middle of the hot dry semi-desert that accounts for most of this area (the Pilbara). Again, unfortunately, the sharp twisting red bulldust track that looked navigable as we entered proved to be not quite so… Our new step, at the van door, must have caught a dirt bank as we turned sharply and is now somewhat bent. It will live again, just needs some straightening and some paint. All in all, not too bad a day. We may have had to wait hours for fuel, the hatch could have broken, the step may have been irreparable etc. The day could have been a lot worse! As I sit outside and type with crickets cricketing, birds still calling, a full belly and a gentle 24 degrees C breeze, it is very easy to feel content.