Day 15 – Wed 3rd June

Happy Birthday to Gary!

Today started with a matching photo of last night’s moon…. going down over the ocean with a pink and blue dawn sky… magic…  

Who says a port-a-potti is bad?  How many other places can you go to the toilet and leave the door open for this kind of view? 

Remember that shiny, brand new car I got back in February?  It no longer looks like a shiny, brand new car… 

Today’s activity: exploring all the locations on the Warrora Station to the south of us.  From the northern end of the station, where we are camped, to the southern boundary is about 35km.  The absolute highlight of the day (unanimously voted by all 4 of us) was a spot called Pelican Point.  As we walked along the water’s edge, within a couple of metres off the shore, we spotted about 30 Shovel Nosed Rays, 5 Black Tip Reef Sharks (small ones about 2 feet long) and a Cow Tail Ray.  We also spotted about 6 turtles in the area…. It was pure magic…

Sandy Point 

The road into Pelican Point

All the tracks along the coast were thankfully nothing like the track into the station.  We were driving through serene grassy plains on dirt tracks that were mostly passable in a 2WD.  It was only when you left the track to head toward the beach that it got a bit sandier and boggier.

Pelican Point

Last stop of the day at the southern end at the Lagoon

It was an awesome day in a beautiful setting… one of the many reasons why we are doing this trip…

Day 14 – Tues 2nd June

Monday was a write-off of a day.  We drove from Gnaraloo Station back to Carnarvon to stock up on food and fuel and to do a mountain of washing… also to hunt around for a pair of thongs a 10 year old boy will not destroy in 2 weeks…

Tuesday morning saw our first wet pack up.  Carnarvon must have got all of 1mm of rain… barely enough to register… but sure enough, it occurred over the EXACT period of time we were trying to pack up the camper…  We would later found out that the heavier rain fell north of Carnarvon.

So, wet pack up done, we piled into the car and headed for our next ‘off the grid’ camp at Warroora (pronounced Warra).  I promise  this is the last time I say this is another spot we drive past on the way to Coral Bay and have often wondered what is in here…. well, now I can tell you… paradise!  We have quite a few friends doing a trip north in the near future and would absolutely recommend a stop in at Warroora… just make note of the trip off the main road.  There are two entrances onto the station, a southern and a northern entrance.  DO NOT take the southern entrance.  There is a sign at this entrance telling you to go up to the northern one.

In our wisdom, guess which entrance we took? Yep… the southern one.  Apparently Dave didn’t see/read the sign at all and I got confused about the wording.  It said for  ‘Caravan Camping’ go north.  I thought that meant Ma & Pa in their brand new cars with their shiny caravans  who can’t handle ‘off road’ should go around and the rest of us ‘hard core’ campers would be fine… oops… it meant ALL campers should go around.  Anyway, the first section to the homestead was fine then we found out where the rain had fallen that night… on the muddy, pot holey, corrugated track that we weren’t supposed to be driving on.  50km later, with several ‘puddle’ crossings that warranted some GoPro recording,  we made it to the turn into 14 Mile Camp… and thankfully, we decided it was all worth the effort.

Here’s the view we were greeted with... We ended up getting a site somewhere next to these campers…

Some of the mud on the camper… which is still there since we have no spare water to clean it off…

Once the camper was set up we had a new and exciting task… ‘Operation Toilet’.  There are no facilities at all on Warroora, it is true nature camping, so one of the requirements for staying here is you bring your own chemical toilet.  This is the first time we have ever used one so of course the kids think it’s great…  

By the time the camper and toilet were set up we only had enough time for a quick walk up the beach to check out the rest of the camp.  We are at the southern end of the camp up on a hill (called the ‘Ridge’) overlooking the water.  What we found at the northern end of camp are apparently the popular spots on the beach… so popular, they are jammed in like sardines… SUPER happy we are in the spot we ended up and not down here… 

No sunset shot to end the day today, however, I managed to snap this shot of the full moon rising 

Day 12 – Sun 31st May

We had originally paid for two nights camping but after the second day, we had not yet had our fill of this beautiful area.  So, we paid for the extra night with the plan to hit Gnaraloo Bay for some more snorkeling.  All I can say is WOW! WOW! WOW! Anyone who knows me, knows I love Coral Bay.  Well, I think Gnaraloo Bay easily rivals Coral Bay.  I think if you were to compare Gnaraloo Bay to the Coral Bay town beach (not including Oyster Bridge or 5 Fingers), I would say Gnaraloo Bay wins.  Firstly the beach is far more scenic/picturesque and is almost deserted, so you have it to yourself and secondly, because there is far less human traffic, the snorkeling is way better.  I reckon the snorkeling is better because less people means less impact on the coral.  

Driving on the sand track up to Gnaraloo Bay there is a section of cliffs running parallel to the road.  Not sure if you can see them in this photo, but there are a whole heap of goats standing right on the edge of the cliff looking down on the world...

These people rudely photobombed my perfect shot of this idyllic location...

Bright purple flower coral

It always brings a smile to my face when I spot one of my favourite fish, a Boxfish

Megan playing in the water

Tomorrow we're heading back off grid again to Warroora Wilderness Camp (just south of Coral Bay) so no phone/internet for a few days again... bliss ;)

Day 11 – Sat 30th May

Today’s agenda included some more exploration of the coastline, with the destination being Red Bluff (camp ground between Quobba and Gnaraloo).  First stop, a surf spot called 'The Tombstones' (not sure why it is called that?).  It was going off!  There must have been 30 cars in the teeny tiny car park.  We reckon that most of the surfers must have come from Carnarvon for the day.  

We were back at our camp for lunch before hitting the local lagoon for a snorkel.  The snorkeling was amazing.  Crystal clear water, shallow reef in a protected bay… what more can you ask for?  We have been working hard on getting the kids into the snorkelling over the past few years and it is paying off.  We finally have both kids in the water with us for up to an hour… it’s a pretty big effort, especially for Megan.  The payoff… watching the joy on their faces when we relive the moment when all four of us are swimming after a turtle…

The Tombstones surf spot

Not sure if you can see the surfer

Red Bluff

Camp sites at Red Bluff

Snorkeling in the lagoon at 3 Mile Camp

Spot the sting ray

The sign of a perfect holiday destination...

Day 10 – Fri 29th May

Time to pack up and leave Carnarvon and head for Quobba. First stop, 70km north of Carnarvon, are the Quobba Blowholes.  On the day we saw them they were pretty impressive.  The coastline along the Quobba area is rugged and the ocean pounds the cliffs.   There is sad evidence everywhere along this coast of people lost to king waves.  Anyhow, back to the blowholes… there were two main holes next to each other, a smaller one that got up an impressive wooshing noise as the air is expelled in front of the water spout.  The second is a much larger hole that goes off less frequently but when it does a fair volume of water is expelled.  Aiden absolutely loved the blowholes… Megan stood about 20 paces away cringing… oh well, you can’t win them all…

From the blowholes we plodded our way up the coastline, stopping in at all the side detour tracks.  There was a nice monument and story dedicated to the HMAS Sydney.  Apparently in WWII there was a battle between the HMAS Sydney and the German vessel Kormoran.  All 645 sailors on board the Sydney were lost so the story from the Germans is considered uncertain…  The Kormoran also sank but a couple of life rafts managed to make it ashore further up toward Red Bluff.

We took the next detour track heading north expecting another ocean view over the cliffs, but were pleasantly surprised to stumble across Cape Cuvier, the Dampier Salt loading facility.  It was actually a pretty awesome panorama with the loading facility, ship at dock and another ship waiting just a bit further out.  I don’t know how the others felt but I was pretty chuffed with our view for lunch…

Finally, further up the main track, we reached Gnaraloo Station, our destination: 3 Mile Camp.  I will intercede here and add a little tip for new travellers like us.  We had been given the advice to listen to what the locals have to say and not other travellers.  Well, we learned that lesson today.  Ma and Pa in a caravan across from us in the park, with their shiny new Pajero that’s never been off road, who’s idea of ‘off road’ means you drive up to a maximum of 1km off the bitumen,  told us the road out to Gnaraloo was too corrugated and we shouldn’t go past Quobba with our camper.  Luckily for us, a local guy who works at the caravan park was willing to share some local knowledge and told us you could actually get a 2WD up to Gnaraloo.  We are so glad we didn’t listen to the other people or else we would have missed out on the awesomeness that is camping at Gnaraloo… So, moral of the story is… seek out the advice of the locals…

We loved staying at 3 Mile Camp.  Although we didn’t get a beach side camp spot we still enjoyed the surroundings.  My favourite… the open-air bathroom!  We learned a lesson about perspective here.  We had read on WikiCamps some miserable comments about how expensive it was to stay here considering the state of the facilities.  Bah Humbug I say… Yes, the roof was missing, but, the toilets were flushing!! Flushing toilets in a bush camp!! Unheard of!  AND they were spotless. AND most of all, we thought it was the coolest thing on earth to sit on the toilet and look up and see the stars and moon or the birds…  or to have an open-air shower.  Although we did learn the hard way that all four of us turning on our showers at the same time equals no pressure…

The view when sitting on the toilet... there were usually birds sitting on the pole...

Here are some photos of us exploring the beach where we camped.  Another cool thing was the fact that when you looked out to sea, on the left hand side there were people surfing on decent sized waves and then on the right hand side there is a protected lagoon where the snorkelling is amazing.  How often do you get people surfing and snorkelling simultaneously all within a short distance of each other?

More sunset shots...

Day 9 – Thur 28th May continued...

As I sat here working on my blog post Dave took the kids down to the 1 Mile Jetty for a spot of fishing.  And guess what… they caught something!  Apparently Megan was the star fisherwoman, catching the biggest fish of the day.  They caught a whole bunch of bream, none of which were of size.  However they did manage to catch four Skipjacks (we think that’s what they are??).  Dave even brought them home, filleted them and then cooked them up for dinner…