Stuck in Albany WA

Our trip to Perth was uneventful stopping Sunset beach and at the Pinnacles on the way past. Sunset for Bill, Pinnacles for Bobbie. 

In Perth, Bobbie got her first Covid jab and we had an excellent brunch with friends Beryl and Mike at their nearby beach café at the Mullaloo Surf Club.

 

We then went down the coast to the Margaret River wine area. It is definitely getting colder and rainy. The days are still fine, and we took the tourist train to the end of the 1.8 km Busselton Jetty, and sampled wines at the Mr Barval winery. Very nice Cab-Sav.

 

We also spent a day doing a bike / hike along the Cape Naturalist coastline. Beautiful.

 

On the way to our next stop, Denmark, we took a detour to see the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwen where the Indian ocean meets the Southern Ocean.

 

Our next major stop was to be Cape Le Grand National Park for a weeklong stay at Lucky Bay.

However about 6 km south of Borden WA on the Chester Hill Rd. the Toyota HiLux left the road and ran into some trees and a fence. It seems the driver had a “micro-sleep” and the passenger was snoozing. Fortunately, there were no injuries at all. A very helpful local stopped to help and with the additional help of a local farmer and his large tractor’s forklift (to remove the tree behind the HiLux), we ended up in Albany.

 

The HiLux has been written off, and we expect the same for the Trayon camper, but NRMA insurance has not yet finished the assessment. The end of this trip.

Cheers Bill & Bobbie

 Ningaloo Reef, Cape Range National Park, Coral Bay

After buying 2 new tyres in Tom Price, we had planned to go north to Millstream/Chichester National Park for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, we had very heavy rain (25+ mm in one night).  The vehicles coming down the road from Millstream had mud up to roofs, and we decided it was not worth the rough trip for 2 days.  Instead, we stayed one night at Nanutarra Roadhouse, and then 2 days in Exmouth.  On our way to Nanutarra, we went through Paraburdoo, which has this lovely sculpture that was designed and built by the community. It is called "Resilience".

 

The time in Exmouth was mostly doing chores, laundry, fixing broken things, and sorting ourselves out for our upcoming 5-day kayak trip.  We did find time to visit the harbour, a couple of small galleries, and the tourist information/aquarium/museum.  This was a large building with a lot of exhibits including huge aquariums with various species of reef fish, a history of settlement of the Exmouth area and exhibits on the natural and aboriginal history.  Very well done and we only wished we had more time to see everything there.

 

We were very excited to be going back to Ningaloo reef, as it has some of the most accessible reef snorkelling anywhere in the world.  The fringing reef comes very close to shore, and you can snorkel from the beach at a least a dozen sites in the park.  There are many sanctuary zones and protected areas in the park so there are huge numbers of fish and marine mammals.

 

Saturday afternoon we met with our guides Neri and Matt from Exmouth Outdoor Adventures, and we were kitted up with everything we needed for our trip -- gloves, pfds, wetsuits or stinger suits, snorkel gear, bags to hold our gear -- we really didn’t have to provide anything.

 

On Sunday morning we folded up our camper and followed the Exmouth Outdoor Adventures bus and kayak trailer to Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Reef.  We had an early hiccup when the U-bolt holding the axle to the spring on the kayak trailer broke before we had even reached our starting point.  The guides, however, with help from farmer Rob who was also travelling in his own camper trailer, made running repairs and we started only about an hour late.

 

Our fellow kayakers were mainly women (13 of the 15 of us) and all very interesting and friendly.  A number were from the Swan Canoe Club in Perth and so we had some good paddlers.

We started just south of Tantabiddi boat ramp at Mangrove Bay, unloaded the kayaks and after a lot of packing and preparation got underway.  Bill and I had a double and we took turns in the rear.  Both of us had trouble with the rudder, something you don’t need in the whitewater kayaks we are more familiar with .

 

 

The day was hot and sunny and the paddles relatively short (total about 4 kilometres) and easy.  We stopped for lunch on the beach, and were served wraps, cold cuts, salads, cheese, veggie options plus tea, coffee or cordial.  The lunches they made out of what was carried in the kayaks were truly amazing.  We saw lots of wildlife -- rays and small sharks, turtles, dolphins, osprey and a couple of dugongs close to shore while we were having lunch.  Finished at Ned’s camp.

 

At the end of the day we beached the kayaks and chained and locked them together.  We were then picked up and transported back to Exmouth Outdoor Adventures private camp just north of Yardie Creek, which is primitive but comfortable.  Accommodation is tents, the toilets are long drops, and the special luxury is outdoor showers from solar heated shower bags.

 

Every night the guides cooked a huge dinner, starting with an appetizer of cheese, olives, and snacks.  One night the main was Mexican burrito bowls, one night fish parcels, one night a yummy curry.  Always finished with espresso coffee and sweets.  The food was abundant and excellent.

 

Every morning there was a large breakfast with fruit, cereal, toast, oatmeal, coffee and tea.  One morning we had a huge cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans, bacon, and toast.

 

Our days followed a similar pattern, of paddling, snorkelling from the beach or rafted up kayaks, lunch on another beach, more paddling and/or snorkelling, and dinner back at camp.  You could paddle in a double or single kayak and we tried both.  The weather was beautiful and sunny with light winds (mostly behind us) and calm seas.  The water was turquoise blue over fine white sand, with coral patches and bommies at the various beaches.  There was always wildlife to see -- fish, sharks, rays, turtles, ospreys and eagles, dolphins, dugongs and various birds.  The only wildlife we didn’t like were the March flies that were numerous and left very itchy bites.

 

(Sorry if you are not a fan of coral and sea creatures, but I just love them).

The activities also included some optional hikes -- one to Yardie Creek to watch the sunset from the top of the gorge, and one to Pilgramunna Gorge to see the Black Flanked Rock Wallabies. 

 

Our days passed all too quickly and our trip came to an end.  We travelled over 30 kilometres from Mangrove Bay in the north to Osprey Bay in the south.  Nothing was too much trouble for our guides who worked from 5:30 in the morning making breakfast til probably 9:00 at night cleaning up after dinner.  In between they herded all of the kayakers, helped the laggards, lead snorkelling expeditions, fixed broken things, and fed us morning tea and lunch.  It is a good thing we were paddling as with all that food we needed to work it off.

 

After our last day paddling Bill and I moved to Osprey Bay Campground in the National Park.  We reserved a site here for a week and continued our exploration of the reef with daily swims and snorkels.  We did a short hike to some caves near Bloodwood Creek and enjoyed the incredible sunrises over the hills and sunsets over the ocean.

 

We also booked a “Swim with the Whale Sharks” Cruise with Ocean Eco Adventures.  We had 20 people on Latitude 22, a large, converted cray boat crewed all by women, except for one of the in-water guides.  The skipper, the other in-water guide, the marine biologist and photographer were all female.  When we asked why they said most of the men left for better paid jobs in the resource industry.

 

Whale sharks are the largest fish in the sea.  They have beautiful spotted skin and are not usually aggressive.  Although they are big, they are filter feeders that eat zooplankton and small fish.  Juvenile whale sharks, (75% male), congregate off Ningaloo from May to August.

 

We started our cruise with a short snorkel at Mangrove Bommie, an offshore location with clear water and great fish and coral.  This was only to make sure we could all swim sufficiently to keep up with the whale sharks.

 

Shortly after our snorkel, word came that their aerial shark spotter had found a whale shark, and within 20 minutes we were in the water.  It was truly amazing to watch these huge, docile animals cruising along through the ocean, with schools of smaller fish huddled underneath them for safety.  Our whale shark was very co-operative, and we were in the water about 4 times with him as he swam.  We spent a whole hour with him, which is the maximum the tour operators are allowed to stay with one shark.  We also saw one other whale shark that was not so happy to see us and dived away. Later we had another swim with a larger whale shark.  Apparently, we were very lucky to see 3 sharks as the average is 1.8.  (What .8 of a whale shark looks like I have no idea.  No tail?)

 

After lunch and another coral snorkel, we headed back to shore.  A remarkable day and an excellent tour.

 

We left Cape Range National Park and spent the 22^nd - 24^th of May at Bullara Station, a working cattle station and caravan park halfway between Exmouth and Coral Bay.  We could not get into any camping spot in Coral Bay, and we wanted to do a Manta Ray Cruise there.  So we stayed at Bullara and drove into Coral Bay on Sunday to look for Manta Rays with Coral Bay Eco Tours.  This turned out to be a good thing as Bullara was much more spacious and interesting than the overcrowded caravan parks in Coral Bay.

 

The tour was similar to the whale shark tour, with some snorkelling and luckily, swimming with Manta Rays.  The boats smaller and older, but we had a very good day.  We did short snorkels at two different reefs, and then the spotter plane found some Manta Rays and we were off.  According to our guides, once again we were very lucky.  We saw four slow swimming Manta Rays who did not seem to be upset by our presence.  The rays were all circling and returning to one spot, apparently a “cleaning station” where little fish nibble the parasites off the rays.  

 

I have only a couple of photos from the tour website as my underwater camera died while we were in Cape Range, and unlike the whale shark tour they took lots of photos, but you had to pay a lot extra for them, so we settled for the memories.

 

We are heading south tomorrow and meeting up with some former work colleagues of Bill’s in Perth on Sunday.

 

 

 Ningaloo Reef Trip 2021

 

After much delay we finally started our western odyssey on Thursday 22 May.  We had planned a trip kayaking on Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia for May 2020, but the Covid Pandemic and interstate movement restrictions put paid to that.  This year, we rebooked the trip and planned to leave in early April.  The fridge in our camper died, however, and the new one was delayed.  After a nerve-racking wait, Bill got the fridge on the 21st, stayed up late to install it, and we manged to leave about noon on Thursday.

 

This delay curtailed our time to explore on our way to WA, as we have to be in Exmouth (near Ningaloo) on 9 May, so the first part of our trip has been a hard driving race across the continent. Hopefully we can take it slower on the way back.

 

The first day we drove through Ebor and the pretty ranges south and west of Yamba to Tamworth, Australia’s “Home of Country Music”.  There was a cold snap overnight (down to zero) and we remembered how wide the temperature range in the western plains could be.  

 

Friday, we drove through Gunnedah to Cobar, a small town in western NSW.  We started to see a bit more wildlife, with a group of emus, lots of herds of feral goats and many dead kangaroos. I don’t understand how the goats can be smart enough to learn to avoid vehicles, but the kangaroos just don’t seem to get it.  Leaving Cobar Saturday and still pushing hard, we had lunch in Broken Hill.  Broken Hill is known for silver and copper mining and home of BHP (Broken Hill Pty), now a large international mining conglomerate.

 

We left Broken Hill, crossed the Border to South Australia and spent the night in a funky renovated cottage in Peterborough. It was decorated sort of like grandma’s house, (knickknacks everywhere) but with up-to-date kitchen and plumbing.  Heating was by fireplace and we certainly needed it.  

 

Peterborough used to be a big railway centre, and the beautiful old roundhouse with a huge wall of small paned glass windows is now a museum.  We had a quick stroll around town, but we were late arriving and most things were closed.

 

Sunday we continued on through the Horrocks Pass, a beautiful twisty road through the hills west of Peterborough. We passed through the pretty tourist town of Wilmington. It has many fine old stone buildings and a magnificent wide main street with a boulevard of trees down the centre.  We stopped for coffee in a mystery town, which boasted silo art and this interesting statue honouring the Australian Farmer. I can’t tell you the name of the town until next blog as Bill has put this photo in the yacht club newsletter as a “guess where this is” contest.

 

We stayed in Ceduna Sunday night, and on Monday morning took our bikes along the foreshore path, which is an easy ride along the edge of the inlet to the Pinkie Point Light. It was nice to take a littler break from driving and do a bit of tourist stuff.  The inlet was calm and busy with fishermen, waterskiiers, and walkers and bicyclists on the edge.

 

We travelled on across the Nullarbor and spent the night at a free camp called Bunda Cliffs.  This was about 2K off the road and behind the dunes on the cliffs overlooking the Southern Ocean.  Lovely spot, if a bit windy.  Beautiful moon over the sand dunes.

 

Tuesday we headed for the Western Australia border.  The recent cases of Covid in Perth and the snap lockdown had us a bit worried, but our cross-border passes were accepted and we were into WA.  We camped that night at Balladonia Roadhouse, famous as the Skylab Crash Site 1979. We had travelled about 3300 kilometres by this time, and both of us were getting a bit tired of the incessant driving.

 

Wednesday the 28^th we stopped in Kalgoorlie for 2 nights.  Time for a bit of a rest.  We rode around Kalgoorlie’s excellent network of bike paths, and admired the fine old architecture, particularly of the grand hotels.  I nearly did a Rory, however, after we stopped at a sports store.  (Rory is a friend who broke two fingers after he fell off his bike, not realising the front tire was flat.)  I had exactly the same experience, but I managed not to fall.  We had forgotten the notorious “Double Ds”, a nasty seed with two tough, horn-like thorns that are the bane of Western Australian bike rider’s existence.   

 

I had to walk the bike home over 2k as I did not want to change a tire on the main street of Kalgoorlie.  After I had fixed my tube and tire, Bill realized his front tire was also flat.  More repairs.  Then the next morning my rear tire was flat as well.  We had to visit a bike store for tubes, tire liners, patches and slime to survive the rest of the trip.  

 

Friday, we travelled on Leinster, a mining town north of Kalgoorlie.  It is run by BHP and they have a small, inexpensive caravan park ($20 for a powered site and free washers and dryers).  As well, you can have dinner in the Miner’s Mess for $20, which has an enormous buffet of hot and cold food, salad and dessert.  Mains included such unusual dishes as a vegetable biriyani and a polenta and vegetable bake as well as roast dinners and fish and chips.

 

Saturday, we headed up the Great North Highway where you really start to get the feel of the outback.  Three and four trailer road trains with hay, stock, chemicals, ore and mining equipment are very frequent on the roads. We found the drivers very professional and polite, often signalling when it was safe to overtake and even slowing down as we did so. What a change from the Pacific Motorway near us in NSW.  The roads have numerous exits to mining or exploration sites, as well as the occasional outback station. The rate that mining is going on here Australia will be nothing but a huge hole with all the minerals shipped to China.

 

We camped south of Newman (another mining town) at an attractive overnight rest stop on the edge of a small cliff overlooking the desert.  The land is so flat that despite being over 1k from the road we could still hear the traffic.

 

Sunday May 2 we arrived In Karijini National Park for two nights.  Karijini is in the Hammersley Ranges and is famous for its beautiful red rock gorges.  We got in around noon and took a very corrugated road to Kalamina Gorge, where we did a short walk through the gorge along a stream.  Lovely to be out of the truck and walking.  

On the way back to our campsite, however, the road got the better of us and we totally shredded a rear tire.  A pleasant young couple behind us stopped and helped us change it.  We don’t think any major damage was done apart from the tire.  We are heading to Tom Price Tuesday so I guess we will be tire shopping.  Funny, we were here 10 years ago and we ruined a tire and had to buy a new one in Newman.  History repeats itself. These roads in WA do not like us.

Today we hiked through Dales Gorge to Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool.  Very deep, shear, red rock gorge with a trail along a stream at the bottom.  Beautiful light and scenery.  I finally got in short swims at both Fortescue and Fern Pools, the first since Yamba.  

Looking forward to next week when we get to Ningaloo Reef.

 

P.S. We managed to get 2 new identical tyres in Tom Price, and are confidently on our way again. -Bill