Step 69 Coral Bay – Exmouth 205 km's

Step 69 Coral Bay – Exmouth 205 km's

Two omissions from the previous Coral Bay update:

1: You don't need a big boat, but boy do lot's of people have them.

That's a Mitsubishi Pajero not a Mini
That's a BIG boat

2: Telstra and Channel 10 came through for us on Sunday night. We managed to watch the Monaco Grand Prix on the laptop. Would have been even better if Jenson Button had won, as it looked like he would for awhile.

Wednesday 1^st June TED

A sad sad day. We packed up this morning and left Coral Bay. We WILL be back.

A bit of pottering around, picking up a couple of bits and pieces from the supermarket, maintenance check on MM, pick up more free food from our fisherpeople friends next door. This time a dozen eggs. To be honest I would have preferred another couple of kilo's of Spanish Mackerel but a food parcel is a food parcel. I'm sure my nans didn't complain about the contents of food parcels during the war.

As we were leaving we saw a Wicked Campervan parked on the side of the road. Now all Wicked campervans have a “saying” painted on the back of the van. Most are not suitable for posting, on this family oriented blog. But it appears Vicki may have been moonlighting as a signwriter because this one read:

              The average woman would rather have beauty than brains

              Because the average man can see better than he can think

Wise words indeed.

Not far to drive today, but it turns out to be spectacular scenery along the way. We're in the Pilbara now and as I said earlier it's starting to get quite red. We've also hit a couple of groups of flying insects. They are the size of small birds! Pretty sure they are locusts but I'm glad we are not on the motorbike.

We are also getting into gorge country. I am trying really hard not to say “and it's gorge ous” but really it's probably best if I just get it out of the way right up front and we can move on. It's gorge ous.

Anyway, just before Exmouth there is a turnoff to the Charles Knife Gorge.

Editors note: Although the Earl of Sandwich invented the Sandwich I am fairly sure Charles Knife did NOT invent the knife. Wikipedia, neither confirmed nor refuted that.

Back on the road, or rather off it in this case, as the road quickly turned to rather rough gravel. Mind you the views were well worth it, I'll say it again, this country is truly amazing.

Back to the main road

Oops, too far. Should have turned left back at that last intersection.
Is that pebbles? What, are we back on Brighton Beach UK

MM is in amongst those trees somewhere

V & H have told us that there are some really nice (cheap) camping spots in the Cape Range National Park just the other side of Exmouth. They have also told us that there is no booking so people get to the Nat Park gate before 6:00am to try and get a spot. Since we have not seen 6:00 am since we left Melbourne it is unlikely that we will get a spot in the National Park so we have booked into the Lighthouse Caravan Park instead. A better recommendation from V & H than their National Park one.

So that's how they got the name for the Caravan Park

 A quick haircut for Steve and then where has the day gone? It's wine o'clock already, followed by a quick walk across the road to the beach for a bit of sunset gazing. From the beach you can see the oil rigs on the horizon, with the flame of the overburn glowing in the fading light. In the fading light you can also see a tear roll slowly down Steve's cheek as he sits and thinks: “If only that was a Bounty Oil rig, off the coast off Newcastle NSW. Pumping out millions of barrels of oil and natural gas and pushing the share price above the 3 cents it currently sits at."

 Editors note: Steve has two plans for funding his retirement.

1: Win First Division Tattslotto

2: Bounty Oil shares hit $2.00 and continue to climb while paying a dividend.

Option 1 is looking more likely since Bounty drilled a hole in the middle of a gas field the size of Tasmania. And missed the oil and gas.

Thursday 2^nd June

A big day planned today exploring the National Park. Well not that big, a bit of snorkelling and a bit of gorging (not gorging ourselves on food, taking in the gorge ous gorge views).

Proof readers note: Sorry about that, he just can't help himself.

First stop Turquoise Bay. Oh stop it, this is getting ridiculous, everywhere up here is just stunning.

 Again the reef is just off shore and again no strenuous swimming required, the current just drags you along to take in the view. Although to be honest the current is bordering on a little strong, we are moving along quite fast. But then again not as fast as we moved when Di pointed out the SHARK swimming 3 metres below us. SHARK!

Let me fill in the details:

Drifting along happily,

oh look that coral looks different to Coral Bay,

mmm isn't that little fish pretty,

wow is that another small Manta Ray,

tap tap point from Di,

double take from Steve

lift heads out of water

Di: “what was that big fish?”

Steve: “it was a reef SHARK”

Di “that's what I thought! Get me the hell out of here”

Steve: “ok, if you insist, but according to the sign we saw they are harmless”

             to be honest, by the time I said that I was already half  way to the beach.

NOTE: the sign, and Herb, said that Reef Sharks are “relatively harmless”. What I want to see in a message like that is that they are “COMPLETELY harmless”

Now based on our new motto: “Never swim with anything bigger than you can eat in one sitting” we probably could have stayed in the water. (Once he was filleted and cut up into flake sized pieces, I think we could have managed to finish him off in one go. Not too many chips with that though).

So I am making an addition to the motto: “Never swim with anything that can eat YOU in one sitting”. Given our friend was about the same size as me (I kid you not) we gave him the benefit of the doubt and decided the risk of skin cancer laying on the beach was a much safer option.

Relatively harmless. I don't think so

 Once we got the heart rates down below 200bpm each we headed off to the next stop for the day, Yardie Creek. Time to don the hiking gear and head off in to the wilderness. Now I am starting to feel like Steve Irwin. Crikey. To be honest it's only about a kilometre walk, it's steep in places though.

Again, the views make it all worthwhile.

I'm staying up here on the cliff
the way our luck is running today
there are probably croc's in the creek

Either they overdid it when they were banging in the posts
or it gets quite windy around here

Are you looking at me?
Are you looking at me?
(even emus do that famous De Niro impersonation)

 After the walk, and given it's quite warm we are already re-thinking our vow never to swim at Turquoise Bay again. After all it was only one shark, and being as tall as Steve really means it was only a metre and half long. Let's give it a try.

All going well as we put on our flippers and goggles and then two young (pre-teenage) kids drift by and say hello. “Wow, it's great out there, we saw sharks.”

What do you mean sharkS, that's more than one SHARK.

“How far out were they?” we ask bravely.

“Oh, quite a long way actually.”

“Excellent, we'll see if we can see them then” - or maybe not.

A very quick snorkel in the shallows and it's back to the beach for us.

It's still a SHARK

But despite all the excitement/fear it's been a brilliant day. Next stop the Lighthouse lookout to watch the sunset. Yep, another V & H recommendation.

Oh look two men in a bathtub, suspended below a kite, powered by a lawnmower engine
and they charge you for this?
Sunset tours in a microlight.

 Quite a crowd up there, but we found ourselves a nice little spot for MM and propped ourselves up in the reading room (driver and passenger seats) with a couple of drinks and a cheese platter. As the sun sets into the ocean and the dolphins frolick in the waves we think to ourselves: “It's a tough life.” But we are prepared to put in the hard yards just so you can all enjoy this blog.

Once the sun goes down the view isn't quite as good

 Back at the camp site we have a chat to the couple next door who went out fishing this morning, not far from Turquoise Bay. While impressed with our story of swimming with the Reef Shark, they kind of trump us with their story of seeing a Hammerhead Shark bigger than their tinny swim by. 

Translation for UK readers: tinny = small metal boat. Hammerhead shark = a not at all harmless shark Now if that had swum by us there would have been some serious walk/run on water action.

Definitely time to move on tomorrow. No swimming for awhile.