Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 64 - Barradale to Exmouth

Two days of driving had tired me out, that plus the wind buffeting the van all night, AND the C-Pap machine cutting out for no apparent reason, and then coming back on, made for a restless night’s sleep. Its cold this morning, colder than we have experienced for some time. In the car it suggests the temperature is only 15 degrees.

There is movement at the other vans. We have slept in a little and now we need to get a wriggle on. Thankfully there are left over sausages to eat, and Robyn adds a cup of tea to that and we are ready to start. I didn’t unhitch last night so all I need to do outside is pull up the stabiliser legs and put the blocks away. By the time I have done that Robyn has the inside almost ready, expect for the TV, which is my job because of its weight and unwieldiness.

Its still cold and I have donned a jumper for now, so has Robyn. We have 35 kilometres into the wind before we should get some respite but keeping the consumption to its present level is hard. I back off, but that doesn’t seem to make an awful lot of difference.

Finally, we reach the turn to Exmouth after what seems an eternity of fighting the wind. Immediately upon the turn with the wind up our bums the fuel consumption starts to fall. It brings down the average for this tank full, which is now almost ¾ consumed down by one tenth of a litre about every four kilometres. With the wind behind I can go from 80kph to 100kph and still have significant drop in average consumption.

I catch back to the others, even calling for an increase in speed, but have to pull back to their cruising speed of 96kph. There are times though when the road curves us back into the wind from time to time and the fight to maintain a lowering average means losing touch again. I admonish Sliver Leader for taking us back into the wind – there is no reply.

By the time we get to Exmouth the average is close to 25 litres per 100 kilometres, so over about a quarter of a tank we have dropped from 29 to 25. At times we were cruising at what had to be less than 15 litres according to the gauge, a please change from the almost double that of earlier.

We crawl into Exmouth, I have made it with 40 kilometres to spare according to the gauge and I fill up as does Forbsy, but after he has hit the Outdoor Store for a new water pump, the one he is presently using is creating too much pressure and there is a leak in his van. There is a job for the afternoon I suspect.

Silver Leader and we head on out to the van park, another 30 kilometres out of town and look to check in. Right under the lighthouse here, this Ningaloo Lighthouse Caravan Park is full, just as well we had booked. We are shown to our spots and I start to negotiate the reversing process. More than a little tight and the amenities block in front stopping any site creep, to get a better angle. Finally, we are in and I assist Silver Leader with his. We are unable to hook up to water here as it is deemed too salty. We have to use their amenities if we want showers etc. Having free camped the night before, although we were unable to fill up, we still have sufficient water for now.

Silver Leader and Rosalie head back into town for a shop and we wait for Forbsy, who we assist into his spot, even though he has no need because there are no obstructions, unlike our spot.

Not wanting to waste time, and we need a few things at the store as well, we suggest to Forbsy we are heading into town and would he like to come with us, he agrees. The town is about 30 kilometres back down the road, and without the van the Cruiser does just that, cruise. As we drove in we noticed a number of what appeared to be man-made channels giving many houses a waterfront. We drive past them, thinking there might be a circular road around them, but not. There is though a road with appears to encircle the town on the other side of our present road and we give it a go.

Not far in, Robyn asks me to stop and she immediately jumps out, phone in hand to take pictures of what she thinks might be Sturts Desert Pea, that and another purple specimen that looks a little like the Patterson’s Curse of home. She comes back to the car and we drive on. Eventually we come to the shopping centre, we park and head into the local IGA.

I am confused. There is an Exmouth IGA on the right and a Ningaloo Harvest IGA on the left of the colonnade. Must be that one has fish and the other normal type fare. No, on investigation they are both simply IGA stores, the Ningaloo one a little newer than the Exmouth one, and more spacious, but both apparently fully stocked. Confusing to say the least.

Purchases done, I take them back to the car and I re-join the others for an exploration of the arcade. Its quaint without being small and packed. There is a good variety of shops, most in some way linked to the ocean which is visible at one end, although a fair distance away.

At the entrance to the tackle shop there is a huge T-Shirt and chair. The T-Short has written on it “Game Fishing – is going fishing with the boys ON HER BIRTHDAY”. We need to see inside this shop to see if they might be for sale as rugs and mats for the man cave. Unfortunately they are not, but the female owner gives us the history of the item and that they used to sell them but the supplier scrimped so much on the production, they were unsaleable.

The owner is a veritable encyclopaedia of the fishing spots in the area. A couple of customers are getting the drum and she ushers another saleperson to assist me, but I tell her I am only listening in. Once she has finished she hands me the same set of maps, duly marked with all the spots by her hand, and all we wanted to do was come in because of the T-Shirt outside. There are other shops to investigate, and although the proprietor has ushered Robyn to the “waiting chair”, we are cautious not to overdo it.

More meandering before we find the car park, after the pub of course, although we don’t imbibe (this time), and as we get into the Cruiser, Silver Leader calls enquiring where we are. He is going off for a quick surf and will see us on his return.

At the van, Robyn checks her emails and notices one form a prospective client. She makes the call and points outside the window. There is an emu walking past. I quickly take a photo and post it on Facebook, suggesting our offices have all the views.

Silver Leader, having gone surfing, has left us twiddling our thumbs. Bugger that, lets go exploring. There is a light house at the top of the hill adjacent the park, I wonder how we get there. Easy, lets find out, it cant be any harder than drive to the road and turn left, which is what we do. Around two corners and we are there at a turn off that seems to go towards the peak. Up we go, expecting a view of a spectacular nature and we are not disappointed.

The light house is actually been de-commissioned several years ago, but the locals have created a museum of sorts, talking about the importance of the area to the Australian Economy. There are oil rigs in sight (on a clear day) and there are plaques here talking about the importance of the radio installations here erected during the Cold War as a consequence of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are 13 towers that can be seen from the light house that form a listening post.

One of the plaques talks of the idea around building it here –

We want you to go to the most remote capital city there is, travel 700 miles north and build a technological and engineering marvel, and ok by the way, you will need to build a road and a town and power station and a pier – and did I mention the heat and the cyclones.

There is also one about the oil drilling offshore hear, that also needed infrastructural support. Another plaque talks about road building –

           Will we need a road surveyor – no they will only tell you it can’t be done.

These sorts of remarks humanise the stories on the plaques, and at times gives you a giggle. We are above the van park here and can clearly make out the three vans parked adjacent to each other. We take many pictures then return to the Cruiser for more exploring.

At the bottom of the drive we again turn left, heading further away from the van park. Not having any idea where we are going, we are just going. I am tempted to stop as various signs say things like “Janz Access” pointing towards the beach, but not just yet.

We travel along until we get to the Yardie Homestead. Yardie Creek will be one of the places we go tomorrow but that is another 50 kilometres or so down this road. We stop to read the sign about the cafe here and its opening times. The sun is getting down a little so I chuck a U-turn and start back.

This access roads that intrigued me on the way down, now require exploring. I turn in the first track I see, although this one is not sign posted. The road starts off OK but then the road turns into a rocky version of Hells Kitchen. Then the rocks change to soft beach sand. This is not good, as I feel the Cruiser struggle to stay on top of the sand. We stop and deflate the tyres to around half their highway pressure and continue. The ease at which the Cruiser handles the sand now is comforting.

All of a sudden, we reach the beach, and not wanting to stop, I head out onto the beach to turn around, simply problem, not enough room to do it between the water and the vegetation. I head down the beach a little, there is a sign saying no vehicular access beyond this point. I need to make a decision, the dunes or the water. Discretion being the better part of valour, I choose the dunes and head off the beach into them watching carefully for debris or obstructions.

Robyn is having her usual conniptions at me playing “outside the rules”, although I feel I have the situation well in hand. We get back to the access road and I point the Cruiser back towards the bitumen road. No problems.

Back on the bitumen, we find the next access road and turn in again. This time the road leads to a car parking area by the beach. There is a plaque suggesting this is a turtle rookery and between October and April, turtles nest here. We stop and go for a look and see the reef here is right up to the beach, and at this time in the tide, it would be very painful for anything to run the gauntlet. It would be much easier at high tide where the turtles could swim right over the reef.

Forbsy and Robyn examine the reef with vigour. Forbsy take a snap of a perfect heart shaped crevice in the rocks, and I take a picture of Robyn bending over, from behind, and when I show her she performs husband abuse on me. I wonder why I am the butt of this abuse.

Back to the Cruiser and into another access road. Again there is a car park, again there is the turtle rookery plaque. This is repeated a number of times until we get to one where there is possible boat launching. The beach here has no reef, just sand and at this moment of the tide should allow for whiting and flathead fishing.

We do most of the access roads, even taking a picture of the Mauritius Access sign for Julian and Hanya. The access roads where there was a walk to the beach were ignored. We finally get back to the park and we check out the bistro options of the park, preferring though to have happy hour back at the vans, it will be significantly cheaper too.

We compare notes on where we all have been. Silver Leader was not at the “surfing beach” we believed he had ventured but had been to the other side of the cape, and had also found other potential fishing spots. Robyn is not ready to be a fishing widow again here and is very keen for anything but fishing.

Forbsy is keen to look at Yardie Creek and the visual investigation of fish in the water as well as the coral and other things that could be seen. There may be snorkelling required but the rumour is all can be seen without the need to swim, but we will need our marine shoes.

We also discuss the next stops. Coral Bay is next, Forbsy has friends there he wouldn’t mind catching up with, who we hope can get us into the park they work at. After that Silver Leader wants to do Quobbo Station and Red Bluff, a surfing mecca. This doesn’t interest either Robyn or I, although there might be reasonable fishing there. Carnarvon with its Space Museum and its participation in the Apollo 11 moon landing are more our cup of tea.

We may be splitting up again soon.

It has cooled off quickly tonight, and although the wind has dropped (and thankfully as the direction it was coming from was directly from the sewerage), it is cold enough to warrant a jumper. I think we might sleep well tonight. First thing tomorrow Silver Leader is going surfing again and we are taking Rosalie with us to the markets. We are guessing they markets might not be a huge affair.