Step 70 Exmouth – Onslow 429km's

Friday 3^rd June – Saturday 4^th June

Bit of a late start this morning, despite having no breakfast. (Slight mistake on counting the bread slices and the yoghurts). But we did have a lovely chat to our next door neighbours before leaving the Park.

Quick stop in Exmouth town for breakfast, at last. A toastie at the bakery then a bit of  a top up shop at the supermarket. Next stop Kalis fish wholesalers where we topped up on Spanglies and prawns. That should keep us going for a few days. Who needs a fishing rod, this is the way to catch fish.

Out on the main road and for some reason there seems to be a lot of vans heading South. This is very unseasonal, people should be heading North at this time of the year. The world's gone mad.

There's also a lot of motorcycles heading South. Looks like there must have been some sort of rally because we must have passed fifty bikes, in groups of 5 to 10. Makes us a bit sad, having left the bike behind in Tweed.

Aaah, the open road

Not much work for the navigator - may as well relax

 Twenty kilometres up the road and we hit our first swarm of locusts for the day. Well that's cured us of the pining for the bike. The thought of picking locust out of our teeth for a hundred kilometres is less than appealing.

The locusts were something to behold, these things were the size of small birds, and thousands of them. When they hit the metal parts of the van they made a “bong” like hitting a metal drum with a hammer.

Editors note: Well that's the sound I imagine a hammer hitting a metal drum would be like. You know I don't use tools or do manual labour. I keep telling you, I'm a software person. NOT hardware.

We ended up going through about half a dozen swarms during the course of the day.

Stopped for a sandwich at an overnight park by the Yannarie River. Tried to talk Di into deep fried locusts but she declined.

Editors note: Surprisingly Elke HAS eaten deep fried locusts. On one of her trips to China. I say surprisingly because we struggled to get her to eat broccoli when she was younger.

Yannarie River - lunch stop.
Did I mention it's very red up here?

It's been quite the David Attenborough day today, because as well as the locusts we have also seen loads of hawks hovering over the road as well as loads of termite mounds. I must admit I was a little perturbed when we saw the first hawk hovering because I thought it might have been the biggest locust anyone had ever seen. Quite a relief really.

Might I just mention these are not the only hawks that are soaring at the moment. C'mon you mighty Hawks.

Didn't manage to get a photo of the hawks - but this is a hill.
It was bigger and wasn't moving so it was a bit easier to capture

 As we approach Onslow I begin to wonder whether it has changed from David Attenborough day, to Biblical day (Old Testament). Having already survived the plague of locusts we are now faced with the parting of the red sea. Again, I may be being a little melodramatic there. But the road did have the water on both sides of the road and it did look a little red.

Exodus 14:21
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

In this case I think it was actually the WA roads department.

 As we enter the town of Onslow two things go through my mind:

1: Who recommended coming to Onslow?

2: Maybe this town was named after Onslow in the TV show Keeping Up Appearances. 

Editors note: Keeping Up Appearances – UK TV Show 1990 – 1995;

The main character Mrs. Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bouquet) has a brother-in-law (Onslow) who is a less than attractive man. The town is less than attractive.

Interestingly (well I think it's interesting) the actress who plays Hyacinth is Patricia Routledge and she went to Liverpool University. I like to think Patricia played hockey for LUHC. Up until Elke and the rest of the cast of “The Other Way is Liverpool” appeared on the scene Patricia was the most famous alumni of Liverpool University. Although now that I think about it maybe there was some other guy who won a Nobel prize or something

Editors note note: Actually according to Wikipedia there are nine Nobel Laureates and one Poet laureate who attended Liverpool University. Plus, Professor Sid Watkins the former chief medical officer for Formula One. 

But none of them could go into the local kebab shop and say “the usual please” and get their order. Elke's friends can.

In the immortal words of Onslow: “Awww....nice”

However, the caravan park at Onslow and the lady that runs it are loverly. Ocean View by name and ocean views it is. Well from our site, and that's all that matters.

Apparently the locusts have been through here too. Twice last week.

Discovery for today: Locusts don't like gum leaves. Well they don't eat them anyway. Maybe they heard the gum leaves were making the Koalas infertile.

Last week this tree had leaves.

This one too

 In the evening we managed to Skype El, quickly, she was on her way to the pub. The exams are finished! Her time at Liverpool is nearly at an end. Liverpool survived a blitz and the Beatles hopefully it will recover from Elke. The big question is will The Other Way is Liverpool survive without her. It's up to you (in alphabetical order): Bronagh, Chris, Danielle, Dee, Haydn, Kate, Lou, Ollie, Rosie & Simon. Do us proud.

Later that night I have a quick flashback to English TV. With our TV program finishing there comes the unmistakable sound of Big Ben. Bong, bong, bong.

Wait that's not Big Ben it's. . . . . . . . . 

OH, locusts bashing into the side of the van.

Saturday: it's housekeeping time. Di is off washing and Steve is hard at work on the blog.

Morning tea is a little emotional this morning as we finish the last of V&H's sultana cake. It would have been a lot more emotional if we didn't still have a Jean Leary fruit cake.

A quick walk along the beach front and around town doesn't take long. Unfortunately the beach is not that good to walk on and the town is not that big. Or inviting. The lady at the caravan park may be lovely but all the windows on the shops have metal grilles on them so some of the locals must get a bit boisterous.

View from MM

I was a little worried this afternoon when we discovered that the camp BBQ that is on tonight is also doubling as a Tupperware party. Fortunately Di seems to have recovered from her Tupperware addiction and we stayed in instead (need I remind any of you of the fact that at one stage in our married life we had tupperware containers for our tupperware so you can understand my trepidation).

So instead of sausages and tupperware it's spangly for tea tonight and very yummo it was too. Those Kalis boys at Exmouth certainly make a good fish (well catch a good fish then). The fish tonight is accompanied by a Popeye and Olive Oil salad. It was meant to be greek salad but one of us read the label wrong. I am now taking credit for making the mistake because the salad was very nice.

Sunset and low tide at Onslow

So we are still not sure if Onslow is worth the 85km trip off the main road (and back 85km's again). I'm guessing if you are a fisherman there's probably more to make it worthwhile. Although I think you probably need a boat of some kind. But it's nice and relaxing. Great with the ocean view from MM and the lady at the caravan park is a gracious hostess. Let us remember Onslow as " a quaint little secluded fishing village".