Step 67 Carnarvon - Point Quobba 91 km's

Tuesday 24th May

Still chuckling at Di's story of the impatient husband we had a few things to do before leaving Carnarvon.

First stop the wholesale fish shop to stock up on a few meals:

    prawns (beheaded and peeled of course);

    scallops (looking forward to my first attempt at cooking scallops);

                You know the motto – What could go wrong?

    local pink snapper.

That should keep us going for awhile.

Next stop Morels fruit & vege shop. It came highly recommended but to be honest a little disappointing. It wasn't exactly the Vic market in terms of range. But we did manage to get some beans, avocado and bok choy (another first for my culinary skills). Of course to be fair to Mr & Mrs Morel, over the Christmas New Year period this whole area was under eight feet of water.

What morning would be complete without a stop at the supermarket, newsagent and $2 shop (Pound Land for our UK readers).

So eventually on the road and off to Point Quobba – another stop recommended by V & H.

No, not a refugee camp on the Ghaza strip
This is what you get for $5.50 a night. 

Point Quobba is another “off road” stop. A park right on the waterfront but with extremely limited facilities. In fact, given Vicki's description of the toilets we didn't even bother trying them. Mind you at $5.50 for the night we are still getting a bargain.

That's the ocean just the other side of the bushes

The ocean

Not sure how much extra you have to pay for this
a PRIVATE dunny

I think I may have stumbled upon a naturally growing Breast implant
Then again that may just be my obsession with boobs

One thing that didn't crop up in V & H's description was the FLIES. Horrible little sticky flies. The ones that don't move when you wave your arms at them. The ones that crawl up your nose, behind your glasses. The ones that dance on your eye lashes as you blink. Yuk. A liberal dosage of Rid and we ventured out again. Well that's stopped them crawling up my nose, they are too happy licking the Rid of my skin.

Plan B – we'll sit inside and admire the view. That's better.

Point Quobba famous for:

a) The Blowholes – but unfortunately not today.

b) Fishermen selling fish cheap off the wharf – but again, not today.

But despite all that it's been a good stop and we'd give it a go again if we were passing this way. Who knows the holes might be blowing and the fishermen might be selling and the flies might have flown. It's still a beautiful view. Apparently the coral in the bay here is quite good as well, but too cool today to venture into the water.  

All day I've faced the barren waste,
Without the taste of water:
Cool water. (Water.)
Old Dan and I, with throats burned dry,
An' souls that cry for water: (Water.)
Cool, (Water.)
Clear, (Water.)

Water. (Water.)
Words and Music: Frankie Laine.Now that would be Western music, NOT Country

The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, marks the most southerly latitude at which the Sun can appear directly overhead. It also marks one of the few spots in the world where it is acceptable to wear a sleeveless T-shirt in public. Sleeveless t-shirts are also known as muscle shirts. But not in this case.

Step 66 Monkey Mia – Carnarvon 369 km's

Monday 23^rd May

After the excitement of the dolphins it was back on the road, literally, because we were headed back down the same road we came in on.

Di took the wheel again this morning and lucky for Skippy she was paying attention and alert. Yep, our first Kangaroo suicide attempt for the trip. Missed him, with the van and with the camera. Pay attention Steve.

Well at least I got a photo of the warning sign

On the way back to the main road, this time we managed to stop in time for a photo opportunity at the 26^th parallel. Apparently if we followed this line to the left we would end up in Namimbia, if we followed it to the right we would travel along the Northern border of South Australia into Queensland. In both cases we would not see much civilisation. Actually that's not entirely true, you'd probably see a bit in Namimbia.

Is it just me or do the natives look restless?

Which way was civilisation again?

Stromatolites to the left. Yeah right, I'm not falling for that again.

 Lunch stop, another V & H recommendation, Gladstone scenic lookout. Like Ayres Rock, or even Uluru, a tabletop rock appears out of the flat plain. Unlike Ayres Rock: a) it's not very big; b) you can drive to the top. But still it was a great view.

 Back on the road and the wildlife abounds, well we saw a goat and an emu anyway. Also saw quite a few Skippies on the side of the road who were not as lucky as the one we missed this morning.

Arriving in Carnarvon, we ignored V & H's advice to stay in the Marloo – Retiree and Seniors Tourist Park, mainly because we are not Seniors and we are NOT retired (Steve – you are NOT retired). Bottom line we continued on and stayed at the Coral Coast Caravan Park. The ONLY park in the centre of town.

Carnarvon pier - it costs $4.50 to walk out to the end. We didn't.

I have no comment - it' just a picture I took

Wine o'clock much more pleasant tonight, with a couple of degrees extra temperature and several mph less in wind speed it was nice enough to sit outside.

What? Another planning session Di?

 Given we are in seafood country we decided to risk it and headed for the local fish and chip shop for tea. Good choice kids. The snapper was sensational and the chips excellent. Given the good weather we ate them sitting down by the river watching the sun set.

Tuesday 24^th May leaving Carnarvon

On the road again today but before we left Di picked up the following, true, story in the ladies' amenity block:

An older couple, who had been on the road for awhile were struggling with their different “speeds” of getting ready to get on the road each morning.

On this particular morning the husband, or the impatient one as he shall be known, suggested “Why don't you finish off the packing up in the van, while I drive on down the road.”

The wife, or the long suffering one as she shall be known, said “oh for goodness sake, if it stops you nagging, fine I'll travel in the van for the first bit.”

Some distance down the road the husband stopped the car to check his maps. The wife thinking this was her time to get in the car got out of the van. Just in time for the husband to drive off and for her to realise that she was standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

Honestly the lady telling the story swears this is true.

Eventually the wife managed to hitch a ride to the next town and went into the police station to try and track down the husband.

Not quite sure how they managed to catch up with the husband but the story finishes with him being booked for travelling with an unrestrained passenger in a caravan.

Carefully strapping Di into the passenger seat, we set off together, chuckling to ourselves.

Step 65 Denham – Monkey Mia 31 km's

Sunday 22^nd May

Not exactly a testing drive today, but to be honest we had conflicting advice on whether to stay at Denham or Monkey Mia so rather than make a decision we stayed at both. Call me indecisive if you will.

Monkey Mia is famous for it's dolphins. The same families of dolphins have been coming to Monkey Mia since the 60's, not unlike some of the people in the caravan park. Early on in the piece people would feed the dolphins by hand on the beach. This feeding has become a little more scientific over the years in an attempt to not “corrupt” the dolphins and render them incapable of hunting and feeding themselves. This was of great interest to me because that's how Di trained me, she fed me when we were sharing a flat together and rendered me incapable of hunting and feeding myself. Where were the scientists then ?

Proof reader's note: ......Well as Rube used to say "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach"

 Like the Ningaloo Reef, Monkey Mia appears in all Around Australia traveller's stories so we were pleased to see that it hadn't been spoiled.

It is however very windy, an occupational hazard on the West Coast, but we managed to walk alomg the beach, catch some dolphins frolicking in the bay and to watch some of the videos at the information centre. Unfortunately they didn't have any NCIS so we watched videos of the dolphins and local area.

We would have taken some photo's of the camels, on the beach for the Camel Trek but the camel handler was even grumpier than the camels – at least he didn't spit. Although I think he got close when the Asian tourists continued to take photo's without paying for a ride.

Di deep in thought at a planning session

Continuing with the nature theme we even managed a walk out into the nature reserve and back along the beach before resuming our more usual activities with wine o'clock (inside MM, out of the wind).

Di deep in the Australian Bush on a nature ramble

Steve got excited tonight when he realised that we could watch the Spanish GP on the laptop via One HD live streaming. Yet again Steve was disappointed by Telstra and/or One HD. We did get to see almost a minute and a half of the pre-show before it stopped working.

Monday 23rd May

Up early this morning to see the dolphin feeding. Unfortunately the dolphins weren't up early. Mind you it did give us the opportunity to grab a proper cappuccino from the cafe. (reasonably priced actually and surprisingly. Although to be fair the whole resort hasn't been too bad on the prices given their location and captive market).

While waiting for the dolphins the lady running the show had to work through her repertoire of filler material and was able to tell us where the pelicans are. See I didn't keep you in suspense too long. Right. The pelicans are in South Australia, on holiday. Actually they are at Lake Eyre. Because of the rains and the fact that Lake Eyre has water in it, the pelicans have been a bit slow in returning to the coast. Amazing, this blog is a regular Richard Attenborough show!

The dolphins did eventually show up at 8:30, which was very kind of them. The 50 or so people on the beach were very grateful. Amazing, amazing animals. Actually we were very lucky with the crowd, there's normally a lot more people here. In fact on Easter Sunday they beat the previous record, when 800 people turned up to see 4 dolphins. Yep 200 people per dolphin.

Excitement over it was time for a quick shower and hit the road for Carnarvon.

Step 64 Kalbarri – Denham 406 km's

Saturday 21^st May

Quite cool this morning, 15 degrees :-), but fine.

Quite a long day on the road today but on our way out of Kalbarri we are visiting the other part of the National Park. The part with the made road. The good news is that's another $11 of value out of our $80 annual park pass. $33 down, $47 to go.

The National Park and a couple of other parts of the Murchison River did not disappoint it sure is a beautiful part of the country.

Is that stunning or what, and the view of the park is pretty good too.

 Sightseeing done for the morning it's on the road, back to the main road, to head North to Denham / Shark Bay.

With Di driving and Jethro Tull rocking away on the CD, this is the life.

Editors Note:

Part 1 – Jethro Tull, not an individual artist as most people think but the name of a band. A folk rock group from the 70's, possibly one of the only rock bands ever to have a flute as the lead instrument. Famous for such classics as the 43 minute long Thick as a Brick, Aqualung, a song about a derelict with his "coughed up lung" and an album (Warchild) featuring the 1973 skyline of Melbourne as it's cover art.

Part 2 – For our younger readers. CDs are the way we used to buy, and play, music before Steve Jobs invented iTunes.

I notice from the passenger seat that it's getting a lot redder on the side of the road now. We are really looking forward to the red dust ahead, and trying to clean the van afterwards.

The morning is punctuated by another few lunatics cyclists pedalling away furiously, miles from anywhere . I've said it before and I'll say it again, what part of this seemed like a good idea. Oh well, at least it's only in the 20's not the 40's as it could be at other times of the year.

At the turn off for Denham/Monkey Mia we had a quick lunch stop in MM before heading back towards the coast. Denham/Monkey Mia are off to the side and basically a 130km in and a 130km out on the same road. But well worth it by all accounts.

To break the journey we turn into Hamelin Pools to see the World famous Stromatolites. Stromatolites apparently look like rocks but are actually living organisms and are possibly the oldest living organisms on the planet now. Some scientists believe they were the first living things on mother earth. The ones at Hamelin Pools are thousands of years old. I say allegedly, because after following the signs to a dead end, there were no more signs and Di and I never got to see them. Unbelievable, thousands of years these things have been there, they are rocks and don't move and we still couldn't catch them.

The sign to the left of this van said - "No camping"
It didn't say anything about "No hanging your washing on the fence"

 Next stop was a little more successful when we stopped at Shell Beach. What appears to be your common or garden variety WA white sand beach is in fact made of millions and millions of tiny cockle shells. I guess that would have come as more of a surprise if they hadn't named it Shell Beach. Damn those early explorers and their imaginative naming conventions. Molly Malone could have really stocked up her barrow here, but then again it would have been a long push back to Dublin.

No, not white sand. Not English pebbles. Millions of cockle shells

A cockle's last view before his shell becomes just one more
 in the  rich tapestry  of Shell Beach

Just before Denham there are a number of turn-offs to the beach. Being the adventurous types and given we had been told you HAVE to go to Eagle Bluff we headed off down the 6 km's of dirt road to the lookout. Let's just say that despite the smooth sailing for the first few km's I sensed trouble ahead when we saw the grader parked on the side of the road. Call me phsycic (or call me Dianne) but the next 2 km's were a little less comfortable. It's amazing how many rattles you can have in such a small van.

MM - off road again

But to be fair the views at the end were well worth it. We even saw a (small) shark cruising the bay looking for a feed. Now that I thnk about it, what part of visiting a place called Shark Bay seemed like a good idea??? The goggles and snorkles might stay dry for a little bit longer.

Drove through the town of Denham, that didn't take long, and checked into the Caravan Park. Pretty much all of the sites have sea views, including ours. Although a Husqvarna chain saw would have come in handy to get a better view of the sunset. 

 We also managed to get out for a walk and had a chat to the ladies at the Information Centre. Apparently the overnight camp sites that we checked out on the way in are free. There are no facilities, you can only stay one night and you have to register on the day but the views are magnificent and free sounds like a really good price. We might check that out on our way back to the main road after Monkey Mia.

Readers of V & H blogs, Hertaeg Nomads and Travels with the Taj will remember Denham caravan park as the place where everybody sits around the camp kitchen in the evening to sing “How much is that doggy in the window?”. Everybody does NOT include the Kendalls. We did not venture down for the festivities preferring the motor-homers practise of shutting the door and curtains as soon as it got dark and pretending we are not home. That's not entirely true because Steve ventured outside after dark and checked out the stars. Strangely it was the first time on the trip where we have really experienced the “big sky” of outback Australia. Hopefully it's not the last.

Step 63 Coronation Beach - Kalbarri 198 km's

Tuesday 17^th May (TED)

Woohoo, it's sunny again and we're on the road again.

Before we left we chatted to a couple from Mandurah who are travelling in a MM too. Pretty much the same as ours except their's is a 2001 model. Good to know that all being well we have at least five years left in ours. They are spending a lot more time in off-road type camps so they are all set up with storage boxes on the back and carrying a generator. Lesson for today: “If we do buy a generator, make sure it's a Honda. These guys had a Yamaha and it's a lot noisier!”.

Editors note: Mandurah is either a very big town or it's currently a ghost town at the moment, because every second person in every van stop is from Mandurah

A quick trip back to the main road and a stop at Northampton for a minor stock up. If you are passing this way the local IGA is very reasonably priced.

Left the main North West Coastal Highway (Hwy 1) and took the Port Gregory Road towards the coast. A very brief stop at the Linton Convict Ruins but to be honest they weren't much chop. In fact , not to put too fine a point on it – they were ruined. Boom boom. If it wasn't for the long legged Dutch backpackers in their Australian short legged shorts I would go so far as to say it was a wasted stop.

Reader's Quiz: What is this plant/fruit/vegetable?

It grows on the ground on a vine and looks a bit like an apple.

All answers via e-mail to the editor. 

First correct answer will win a special mention in the next blog 

Port Gregory

Next disappointment for the day was the Pink Lake, it wasn't. Not even a little bit. But to be fair I guess “The lake that looks a little bit pink, in the right lighting conditions, on the right day when viewed from the right angle” is a bit long to fit on a sign so they probably just shortened the name to “Pink Lake” for convenience.

Now the day is picking up, we cruised along the Coastal Cliffs road and had lunch overlooking the sea and the cliffs and the views are as stunning as along the Bight. Just then Di's sixth sense started to kick in with a warning that we should get to Kalbarri and book a campsite before continuing the tour. As we all know when Di's Spidey sense kicks off it it's not to be ignored so we headed into town. Yep, right on time, got one of the last sites available, and booked in for four nights. How does she do it?

Somewhere over the rainbow - is Mighty Merc

Now fully relaxed we headed the few kilometres back down the road to take in the views. Great Ocean Road, Bunda Cliffs – eat your hearts out.

WA's answer to the Twelve Apostles. The One Apostle

After a quick trip to the supermarket to stock up it was dinner outside again. Although to be honest we had to put the awning out because just as we were getting ready we copped a bit of a storm, thunder, lightning and rain. But good old MM and the awning protected us and it was rather pleasant after all.

PS – The showers at the amenities block, after two days without were absolutely – delightful.

and we were worried towing a trailer with a motor bike
This thing is about the size of a road train.
Nice pun though - name of the rig - "Wheel Estate"

Wednesday – Friday 18^th- 20^th May

Well we are booked in for four nights here at Kalbarri so it's a nice relaxing few days and catching up on the local scenery.

The town of Kalbarri itself is relatively compact and the Murchison Park Caravan Park is well positioned so we are able to explore on foot. A bit of exercise is certainly not going to go astray given the recent daily routine of: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, wine o'clock, dinner and two squares of dark chocolate each to finish off. But hey, we're on holiday. NOT retired don't forget (Steve).

Did the usual trip to the info centre to check out the local attractions and Steve has picked out the Quad bike tour. Unfortunately no one else has, so we are wait listed until someone else books in. Bugga. While we waited for confirmation it was a quick walk out to Chinaman's Lookout. But it must have been the wrong season because we didn't see any Chinaman at all.

View of Chinaman's Point - maybe it should be called Fisherman's Point
Unless it's a Chinese fisherman of course

Speaking of the wrong season, there are no pelicans here at the moment. Normally the local fisheries and wildlife people do a daily feeding down by the river and give a talk on the life and loves of pelicans (Not to spoil it for anyone planning this trip but basically their life is based on their love of eating fish). Keep reading the blog because in a couple of days time we find out why there are no pelicans here........ suspenseful eh?

Unfortunately no other takers for the Quad bike tour on Wednesday so we wait listed again for Thursday. To fill in the time we indulged in our fortnightly activity of re-organising things in MM. This time I think we have it right – a place for everything, and everything in it's place

Editors note:

This proverb is variously associated with Samuel Smiles, Mrs Isabella Beeton and Benjamin Franklin. The Oxford Book of Quotations dates it from the 17th century. That reference is usually accurate, although they supply no evidence for their assertion. If correct, it would pre-date all of the above notables.

I'm not sure about all that but it certainly should be quoted in the “How to” manual for the MM

Thursday and still no takers or the Quad bikes. Damn, damn, damn, what has happened to the Australian Spirit of Adventure? Where are the backpackers when you need them? Right, Plan B: The bus tour out to the Murchison river Gorges. We decided this would be the best way to get out there because there is about 30km's of dirt road and with the rain we have had lately I'm guessing the road is a bit chopped up. Not to mention with the tour you get a bit of local knowledge.

So Friday it's a bit of a shock to the system and we have to set the alarm. Pick up at 8:00, be at the gate by 7:45 so the alarm goes off at 6:45 and scares the living daylights out of us. Di decides to make the most of the early start and hangs the washing on the line before we leave. Sevral hours later Di regrets that decision.

8:00 right on time, Davo from Kalbarri Adventure Tours picks us up at the front gate. Only one other couple on the tour today so we are in for a personalised service. Davo on his own turns out to be worth the money for the tour, never mind the absolutely spectacular scenery along the way. 

Seriously, and Davo wasn't for more than a couple of minutes at a time, this is spectacular country side. The Murchison Gorge(s) might not be as deep or as long as the Grand Canyon but it is truly amazing and to think there is even more of this to come on our trip North and through the Northern territory. A hundred metres onto the dirt road and we are sincerely grateful that we left MM at home. This road can only be described as bad (well in polite society that's the only way it can be described).

Aaah, don't they look happy. Why would anyone want to send that poor lad back to work?

Photo courtesy of Davo - Steve and Di at Nature's Window

In January the water through the gorge here was 8.5 metres higher

during the high water some local lads thought it would be
a jolly jape to "float" down the river on boogie boards.
The Navy found them 30 miles off the coast of Perth

Again, with our charmed life with the weather, the morning is fine with just one light rain shower, then just as we start to head back to town the heavens open. Within a couple of minutes the road is awash and by the time we get to the gate of the National Park they are putting the Road Closed sign up.

Ever the customer service professional Davo manages to get the coach into the caravan park and drop us right at the door to MM. Even so Steve is soaked to the skin by the time he does the chivalrous thing and gets the door open for Di. Of course Steve is not the only thing that is soaked: the washing on the line (wetter than when it came out of the machine); the two chairs we left out after breakfast (soggy does not do it justice) and the bag with the mosquito coils (lets just say its going to take more than one match to get those little suckers to light).

So that was Kalbarri, well worth a visit:

• but bring a friend so you can do the Quad bike tour
• even if you have a four wheel drive do the Kalbarri Adventure Tours trip to the Gorges with Davo (you'd pay more to get a comedy routine this good at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and you wouldn't get all the info on the National Park or get to see the spectacular views)
• DON'T leave your washing on the line if you go out for the morning and DO put your chairs away

Late update on UK trip – special edition for the Facebook generation

WARNING: Some older readers may find this section disturbing, other older readers may find it reminds them of their youth.

Well after protracted discussions with corporate, copyright and patent lawyers we can finally post an extra update on some of our adventures in the UK. Details still remain somewhat confidential due to Facebook contracts and the pending release of a new reality show to rival The Only Way is Essex. The working title for the new show is The Other Way is Liverpool and the setting is the halls, student accommodation and haunts of Liverpool Uni students. It was going to be called Elke's Excellent Adventure but apparently Keanu Reeves objected.

Editors note: movie reference – Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure 1989; a cult classic starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter

Anyway, on our trip Di and I were fortunate enough to meet some of the potential cast members.

In order of appearance:

Simon, who (with a team of others) assists Elke in some of the more difficult challenges she has faced in Liverpool like feeding herself and getting home.

At a special dinner in our honour, at one of Liverpool's more salubrious eating establishments – The Gourmet Burger Bar (student discount Monday – Thursday) we then met:

• Simon (again), Chris and Haydn – a likely (and lively) bunch of lads who share the Hall with Elke. With a diverse range of studies including law, flying and colouring in.
• Bronagh, Rosie, Lou, Kate, Danielle - not sure of the details with the girls, because all conversation took place at “the girls table” and secret women's business rules apply. I can reveal:
• • Rosie may be visiting Australia for Christmas (I mention this Vicki because you may need to set an extra place for lunch).
  • Any of our younger male readers who are interested in spending more quality time with Kate would be wise to invest in a decent pair of Chinos and a well made pair of shoes
  • As a veterinary student Lou doesn't get as many holidays as the others. Unless you consider a couple of weeks helping sheep give birth as a holiday. (Not many people outside of New Zealand and Wales do).
  • As another hockey player much of what Danielle talked to Di about has not been passed on to me (thanks everyone for that, remember Rule 4: Dad doesn't need to know)

On our travels out of Liverpool we then met:

• Bronagh (again), who we eventually met in Belfast. We would have met her, and her lovely Mum Tara, earlier if a) the Sat Nav had been working and b) we could have given them a better idea of where we were in Belfast than “outside a dodgy looking pub and near a multi storey car park”

• Ollie – bon vivant, sailor and man about town. Ollie drove cross country from his home near Chichester to Brighton to meet us for lunch. Not quite a Ewan McGregor, Charlie Boorman Long Way Round but a good effort nonetheless and much appreciated by us.

• Xtina, that's the Aguilerra spelling, in Eastbourne it's spelt Christina. We met Christina and her, also lovely, mum and sister in Eastbourne for dinner. Christina is currently a little out of action due to a skiing accident. Eastbourne newspaper reports local club takings are down.

To complete the tour it was back to Liverpool and:

• Bronagh (again) – I think if we had stayed an extra week we may have had to talk to Bronagh about stalking.

• Chris, Simon, Haydn and Lou for a tearful farewell

Special mention must be made of potential cast member Dee, who we didn't manage to catch up with because of her studies. Apparently the Mothercare catalogue is huge this year. Good luck Dee, we're all thinking of you.

Thanks to everyone and apologies to anyone I missed. 

Older readers may want to keep an eye out for the TV show when it airs - and make sure they don't watch it! It will probably carry a PG31 rating (Parents and people over 31 should not view this material).

Step 62 Dongara - Coronation Beach 125km's

Sunday 15th May


Well it's grey again this morning but the sun is trying to break through.

Amazingly we were up early enough and got organised quickly enough to get away before10:00am.

Only 125kilometres to do today but we stopped for morning tea anyway – at a place called Flat Rocks. Lovely little surf beach and in an amazing coincidence the point of the bay was

flat rocks. Those early explorers were not very imaginative in their naming.

Drove into the car park of the Greenough Historical Village but we didn't end up going in becaue it looked a bit old. ;-)

Herbert! Come away from the edge.

The leaning tree of Greenough. Sometimes I know how it feels, but in the tree's case it's just the wind that flattened it.

Another picture in the series "where are the brakes on this thing"

Do not argue with these things!

Next stop Geraldton, which we had marked down as a possible overnight stop. The caravan park looked alright in itself but it was in a kind of nothing part of town so we decided to have a quick look around town and push on to Coronation Beach.

Unfortunately we have fallen into the old “I'm sorry it's Sunday we are closed” trap again. At least we are stocked up on food and drink this time.

So after a quick visit to the HMAS Sydney II Memorial (only the second national memorial) it was back on the road again.

I'm sorry we"re closed. Could you come back tomorrow?

After the cruising around in Geraldton we were a little later getting into Coronation Beach than we had planned but fortunately there were still a few sites available. In fact we even managed to bag a site with a sea view. To top it off this is one of the Hertaeg's “off-road” recommendations and so we can stay the night for the princely some of $15. “Thank you very much – I'll take two nights then.” Mind you if we had got here a couple of months ago we would have got the site for $10 a night as Vicki & Herb did. For that price you don't get electricity and the toilets are pretty basic and there are no showers, unless you bring your own water. But the view is sensational. Given it's not Saturday there is no problem not having a shower though. (That is a gratuitous dig at my English heritage. Just trying to make up for all the Geeelong jibes).

All in all the facilities are pretty good for the money. Apart from quite a few toilet blocks there are gazebos on the beach front and a massive observation deck perched on the side of the hill. The observation deck was apparently built by the local prison population which gave me images of a chain gang struggling up the hill with the wood and Paul Newman being told “What we have here boy, is a failure to communicate”

Editors note: Cool Hand Luke. Warner Bros. 1967. George Kennedy received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

 Wine 'clock, lying back in MM watching the sun set over the ocean fondly remembering the alternative - working in an office in Melbourne.

 We didn't actually see a chain gang but we did see an older couple carrying a generator up the, very steep, steps. Apparently they were a) having problems with Internet reception and b) had a laptop with a dodgy battery. Definitely a gold star for perserverence. Their longer term fix to their problems was that they had got their son a job at NBN. Hopefully the next time they come through here they won't have to rely on Telstra for internet reception.

Monday 16^th May

Woke to half blue, half grey sky, but magnificent view over the ocean out the back window of MM. Sea Gulls dive bombing the water for breakfast which is much more energetic than me. I just lay on the bed and wait for Di to pass me mine.

Chatted to a guy this morning, in his late 60's, who is travelling with his wife for four months in a Toyota Prado. That's not: a Prado towing a caravan; a Prado towing a camping trailer; a Prado with a tent in the back. That's just a Prado. Now I am all for the minimalist approach but I think that's taking it a bit far. Don't think that actually qualifies them as Grey Nomads, I think that's more like a shopping trolley short of  homeless people.

A slight shower after breakfast (rain obviously, I already told you there are no showers)  and then it cleared up a bit so off we set for a walk. Lesson for today “if it's already rained and storm clouds are brewing over the ocean, do not go for a walk.” Oh well, don't need to worry about there being no shower here today after all. On the other hand the rain (and bear in mind it was very heavy rain) did lead to an amazing discovery. Di can jog. Quite fast. Who knew?

The rest of the day was like being back in Melbourne:

“Oh look it's raining. That looks like it's set in for the day”

“Oh look the sun's out again”

“Oh look it's raining. That looks like it's set in for the day”

Repeat several times.

Editors note: I know you are all keenly following the toilet situation on this trip so it is with great delight that I can inform you of the marvellous breakthroughs in drop toilet technology. The facilities at this park are absolutely amazing. You wouldn't know that they were not plumbed in. Well apart from the no flushing bit. I'll keep you posted as we head North.

Another breakthrough tonight when we managed to connect to the inverter ($80 from Dick Smith's at the Glen) directly to the house battery. Fantastic news Steve, but what does that mean in real terms? I hear you ask. Well, that means power for the big laptop and that means two episodes of NCIS. To be fair, it gets dark at 6 o'clock and its cloudy and raining so no stars out so...

Editors note: This stage of the trip follows V & H trip last year – Travels with the Taj. So it has been good to check back on their blog and get reminders of what to see and where to go. Not to mention the notes that we made when we caught up with them at the beginning of the trip. We also have the benefit of the combined experiences of mates we caught up with in Perth of course. All in all it's making it a lot easier to work out where to stay.