On the Road Again – Kalbarri to Ningaloo and Tom Price………….

Well after many fond farewells, we left Kalbarri on Tuesday morning the 28th April and headed north. We stayed the first night at a roadside spot known as Eddergee, about 76kms south of Carnarvon. Bit noisy with all the trucks coming and going but it cost nothing! Early the next morning we arrived into the town of Carnarvon and shopped at Woollies for groceries and collected some wonderful fresh fruit and vegies from the roadside stalls before heading off north again. We had planned to go out to Quobba and camp there a week, catching up with Pat & Phil who we met in Kalbarri. On checking out the campsite, we were not impressed, lots of flies and weed on the beach and so many vans camped on top of each other. We saw Pat & Phil and they too had not been impressed and were planning to leave the next day. So the decision was made to have lunch at the spectacular Quobba blowhole and then head straight up to 9 Mile north of Coral Bay. Meant a long drive but we arrived just on dusk to find hardly anyone camped there, a full moon and barmy evening. We had made the right decision. The following day Pat & Phil arrived to join us. One other pair of campers, Bruce & Robyn from Perth made for a happy and pleasant camp.

The three couples joined up and off we went with the 4WD’s around some of the tracks we had not covered before. Some very spectacular scenery over Ningaloo Reef between us and Coral Bay. We also tried our hand fishing along the coast but Walter and I at this point had caught nothing! On the way back we found our motor had heated up to over the top levels! We stopped and found water pouring out of the bottom of the radiator. We always carry water so we topped it up, radioed our friends that we had a problem and then limped back to 9 Mile! Found that we must have a large hole in the radiator so had to ring roadside service and organise for a tow truck to pick up the car and get it back to Carnarvon for repairs. Walter went with it and I stayed minding the caravan. It took 4 days for the parts to be delivered and the repairs effected. So we now have a good car again. Thank God though for NRMA as the pickup and tow services would have cost us over $1,200 without being a member! They even picked up for a hire car for Walter and his accommodation whilst he was in Carnarvon. Good service!

After he returned Bonne and David Heawood from Muswellbrook rang us and we were happily surprised to find that they were in WA, north of us. So we advised them where we were and arranged to catch up! It was great meeting up with them after 3 years! We camped together for a week at 9 Mile before we all headed 140kms north up the coast back to beautiful Ningaloo. It really is now one of my very favourite places in Australia.

We stayed the first night at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park and got up early, leaving the vans there, and lined up at the Ranger station. We got into Osprey camping ground where we also knew we could catch up with Pat & Phil who we had first met in Kalbarri, then camped with them at 9 Mile also. Osprey is beautiful and the camping spots overlook the reef. We snorkelled there, finding turtles, lion fish and cuttlefish amongst the large variety of beautiful reef fish. Tried fishing but again came up empty handed. Whilst there met another lovely couple, Janet and Dennis, plus another couple from New Zealand, Allan and Alison. This made for some very long happy hours! We also hiked the Mandu Mandu Gorge track with Pat, Phil, Janet and Dennis. Great walk and views! Some travelled on and then we met up with another couple from Newcastle, Ron & Tina who owns Australian Motor Homes. They also apparently used to live next door to other good friends of ours, Bob & Julie Nelson! What a small world. Whilst there we also heard that Howard & Lyn Grigor were travelling and they had arranged to stay at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park. They have a new little dachshund called Millie, so having a dog meant they could not stay within the National Park. That small world continued to exist as Ron had sold them there new 5th Wheeler!

Once when everyone travelled on to their respective destinations, Walter and I moved to Tulki Beach, another camp spot in Cape Range. The camp hosts there were Hazel and Bill who we met last year. A much smaller camp but the happy hours were still good! We had birthday parties, sausage sizzle and fish BBQ nights. The second day I took my new beach rod down to the beach, baited it up with some Octopus and cast it in. Hazel had walked down the beach to talk to me and we were chatting happily away when she called out for me to rescue my rod! It had pulled out of the rod holder and was heading towards the water! At the end, when I had pulled it in was a 65cm Spangled Emperor! A lovely fish and easily the best I have caught outside of the Blue Fin tuna in South Australia.

Walter found he had a bad infection in his foot, and after a few trips to Exmouth and the hospital for Antibiotic injections, they decided he needed hospitalisation for a few days to kill the infection. Whilst he was in there, a few of us decided to climb Tulki Gorge. No track here, so we had to follow kangaroo tracks and make our way around rocks and Spinifex! The view from the top was worth the climb, overlooking both Tulki Beach camp ground and Ningaloo Reef.

We had a few varying snorkelling expeditions to Turquoise Bay and Lakeside where I was able to play with my underwater camera. Another couple of campers, Vicki & Tony who were also friends of Bill and Hazel’s were great company, Vicki definitely being “Action Woman’! She made a great snorkelling companion for me! She also wanted to swim with the whale sharks so together we booked the trip and we snagged a beautiful day. Lots of sunshine and the water calm as a mill pond!

What an amazing experience! These gentle creatures are the largest fish in the sea, some reaching to a length of 20metres! We swam with 6 the day we went, with the largest being about 7 metres! Trust me this is still BIG! They live on krill in the water, found after the coral spawning each year. So between May and July they are found regularly around the Ningaloo Reef.

Walter ended up with pneumonia after getting some water in his lungs from snorkelling and had to be taken again to Exmouth hospital, this time by ambulance. This ended up being an 8 days stay! Thank goodness he now appears to be well.

We left Ningaloo Reef and went back to 9 Mile for 8 days. This was to give Walter some R & R time and also to catch up with dear friends, Klaus & Carmen. We hadn’t seen them since we left 9 Mile last September! This also gave me a chance to celebrate another birthday with friends. Arthur and Lena, and Rex were also there. So good food, good company and good wine! Arthur made me a lovely Birthday cake, Carmen cooked a casserole of goat, Lena a casserole of Rabbit. It was all beautiful, and Carmen made the most luscious Chocolate Soufflés, just melted in your mouth…..

This week we left and headed inland towards Tom Price. About 640 kms so we took it slow and stayed the first night at a lovely rest area called House Creek. The Pilbara colours are spectacular, White Ghost gums, red earth, blue hills, and bright blue skies. The temperature is quite a bit cooler here, but we were able to campfires on the 2 nights camped out.

We arrived in Tome Price on Thursday. A town purpose built for the iron ore mine run by Rio Tinto. Very neat, sitting beneath Mt. Nameless. This is the highest mountain in Western Australia. We booked into the caravan park, even though it is not cheap. However, having running water and power after 3 months was a blessing! So the van has been cleaned from top to bottom and the car has even had a wash!

Yesterday, after shopping and collecting mail, we took the 4WD up the track to the top of Mt Nameless. This is the highest vehicular access in WA at 1018 m. We took lunch with us so sat there mesmerised with the view and the colours. The view is spectacular! One side overlooks Tom Price township and the other side the large iron ore mine. It also has views right across the mountains towards Karajini National Park.

Tomorrow we leave the comforts of power and water and drive out the 50kms to Karajini National Park. We believe the camp site is a bit barren at present as they had a fire through it earlier in the year, but everyone states that the gorges and pools and amazing.

We will bring you further updates when we get up towards Port Hedland. It this part of the world phone and internet access is scarce! You have to be in a town to be able to access these services.

So until then

Cheers Rob & Walter