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Hey Presto
Ready to goWell as usual I was up early, it was 5.00am I had breakfast to do, and as I mentioned previously it was our responsibility for the next few days so there was no way we will negate are responsibility to do our share.
So I crept out of bed making sure I didn’t disturb Caroline, first I got the fire going so everyone would have a nice fire when they got up, it was easy to get going, I just put a couple of kerosene tea bags and on top of that some light timber which would burn quickly, a couple of blows and hey presto, the embers burst into life and the fire took hold.
I went back to Roobie and “The sleeping Caroline” and proceeded to make preparations for breakfast, on the menu this morning were bacon, eggs, sausage (British Pork Snags of course), tinned sloppy tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms in garlic butter and toast, I had borrowed Peter and Leigh’s BBQ and put that on as soon as I got to Roobie to let it warm up to temperature.
I should have prepared the mushrooms last night as they
Hey Presto
In the Quarry were fiddly and needed to be cut in to quarters washed then cooked in the garlic butter, soon all the components were cooking away nicely, by now Caroline was up and lending a hand and soon our hungry morning breakfast guests made an appearance.
Our guests had brought their chairs, plates and cutlery over and soon were tucking into our morning offerings, the only problem, as I was spinning a few plates at the time I kept burning the toast, so we used way too much bread but never mind we got there in the end.
In a blink of an eye, the plague of locusts had devoured everything except for two rashers of bacon and a couple of sausages, and as luck would have it Don the owner of Hi Vallee Farm had come down and obviously the dogs had come down with him so Beau and Girly wandered over and it was those two gorgeous canines who finished off the final bits of our breakfast., oh we are suckers for working dogs.
Breakfast was finished and a success, now it was time to wash up, it was still early,
Hey Presto
Pete gives it a go so we filled the bowl full of hot water, Peter and I did all the washing up and Leigh and Caroline did all the drying up.
It was time to mount up and head to Jurien Bay as we all had a 10.00am appointment with one of our club members who lives there and often takes members out for some sand driving when they are passing through town.
Once we had fuelled up with coffee and diesel, we waited at the service station to meet our man, a broad Irishman, who had been in Australia for about 30 years but still had his lovely soft accent and a pleasure to meet, Tom gave us a bit of a brief and we all drove off in convoy. Tom took us to an old quarry where there where two big hills, Tom said the left hand track up the hill was the easier of the two, so once Tom had given us a demonstration how it was to be done, then Caroline and I put Jack in to low range, four wheel drive, engaged second gear and headed for the hill, we were going well, not
too fast but half way up all the ground fell away and Jacks tyres had to bite hard to get to the top, but we got there, turned over the crest and headed back down the other side, easy.
Everyone else now proceeded up and over the hill without any drama, and when everyone had had a go, Caroline said she wanted to do it so we swapped seats and we did it all again and executed it perfectly.
Caroline then attempted the hard climb up the right hand side, well she was sitting in the driver’s seat, Jacks drive train was set, so up she went, she didn’t even miss a beat and came down the other side crawling down in low gear. That surely was deserving of a high five when we got to the bottom.
Once all our hill climbing shenanigans had been concluded, we regrouped and followed Tom through Beekeepers Nature Reserve and to the beach, driving from Sandy Point to North Head.
The weather was absolutely stunning around 28 degrees, we were just in shorts and thongs, we stopped, to air the tyres
Hey Presto
feels good to be driving in the sand again, especially as it used to be my nemesis. down from 50 PSI to 16 PSI, sand is a swine to drive on unless you get the pressure of the tyres right, but there are so many factors to take in to account, like the weight of the truck and even the temperature, if its hot the sand is even softer.
Everyone had deflated their tyres and we were off just a gentle crawl over the sand dunes and down the other side, the driving was absolutely stunning with the golden dunes in front of us and the turquoise blue of the Indian Ocean as a back drop.
Our first stop was Drovers caves, we would never have found this if we ventured here on our own, it was hidden in the bush and not marked at all. The cave entrance had a big rusty door and was very rusty, it was a job to open and interestingly there were security cameras on the inside of the cave.
Tom spoke to us about the history and we moved on to the next which was Hastings cave, it was much bigger than the drovers cave, this one had a huge opening,
and seemed protected by thousands of bees buzzing around the entrance, one of our group was stung on the ear.
We stopped at North Head for a lunch break by now the day was scorching, we parked the truck facing the ocean, looking at the ocean it truly looked amazing a beautiful site, but there was one problem, I don’t like the sea, well, it’s more to do with sharks really, they scare the living daylights out of me, and you don’t usually get a second chance with these professional killers.
I was so hot, and the sea looked gorgeous I wanted to go in, but there was one minor problem, we didn’t keep any spare swimmers in the truck, I opened the back and grabbed a large piece of rag, took my jocks and shorts off and wrapped the rag around me, hiding all my bits.
I walked down to the water and walked in, and slowly sinking in to the water it was bliss, your imagination just runs wild thinking of what would happen if I saw a shark, I would be out of the water in a flash
Hey Presto
Drovers Cave and I wouldn’t care if I was naked or not!
A few more of our friends had a bit of a swim, Trev went out quite a way for a swim, it made me really nervous but he seemed to be enjoying himself, he swam back to shore and was about chest height in the water, when a little face popped out of the water about ten feet away from him and it was a seal who just wanted to see what was going on!
When Trev went underwater the seal apparently swam around him a couple of times and seemed to want to play, there is nothing like a great bit of wildlife to get everyone focused, but they do say, if there are seals there are sharks, sharks love seals.
Everyone came out of the water and dried off, we had lunch, Caroline had prepared ours before we left this morning so it was easy. We sat and chatted with our friends and took some photos, we had a few more kilometres to go so we got back in to the trucks and off we went.
We stopped at a memorial to a chap who had been taken by a shark in 1968, we parked on most precarious point and when Caroline went down and took some photo’s she was horrified to see how the rock was eroded underneath, she came back and said where Peter and Leigh’s truck was parked there was virtually nothing underneath.
You couldn’t get any more of a picturesque spot, we know how lucky we are living in such a beautiful part of the world, again Tom advised that we still had a bit more sand driving to do, so we all got in the trucks and off we went.
We took the route back from whence we came, Tom needed to be back at 4.00pm as he had a prior engagement so it was only fair to let him go, we had had the whole day of his time, and he was more that gracious, we followed him back to the bitumen where we all re inflated our tyres.
We got back to camp at around 5.00pm, Caroline and I were 2
nd in the convoy and there were only 2 showers
up at the homestead, so as soon as we were back, we raced into Roobie, grabbed our shower gear and drove back up to the house, one person had beaten us to it, but there was still one shower free. It was bliss, but way too hot for such a hot day, so the hot tap was turned off.
I also had to saw some more wood for the fire tonight, we had had the most epic day and returning to this great camp site to round off a perfect day with the perfect camp fire.
Again our evening was sitting around the camp fire, it was Andy and Karen’s turn to do our evening meal, it was braised steak and onions with mash and gravy, how good is this we eat better when we are away then when we are at home, who said camping had to be dull? You certainly don’t have to starve!
A few weeks ago a heard a funny description of Camping which went like this.
“Camping - spending a fortune on trying to live like a pauper”
Again the evening was cold but the night sky was amazing, we did some star watching, and some of our members had brought around nibbles, Sandy made a cheese, sundried tomato and nut damper it was very good, just a dollop of butter and it was good to go.
We possibly hit the hay at about 10pm absolutely bushed, we put the diesel heater on in Roobie just to take the chill off, call us wussy by all means but we think we have earned that luxury after doing it tough under canvas for 16 months on our original trip! Feeling warm and toasty in bed sleep came quickly.
Our last day I was up early again as I was on the final breakfast shift, coffee for Caroline was done and cooling for her, I got the camp fire going then started breakfast, we were half an hour later than yesterday but we were in no rush this morning.
Our brekki guests turned up and stuffed their faces, with the usual breakfast delights, then it was time to prepare Roobie for her trip home. Packing up of course is easy, but
Hey Presto
On the beach, far more confident beach driving than I ever used to be. it takes a while when you are with so many people, we are always talking.
When Caroline was inside sweeping the floor down she found a Redback Spider, which had to be dealt with, but the interesting thing was that Caroline also alluded to feeling something crawl on her hand in the night, without waking up properly and looking she said she flicked her hand to flick away whatever was on it. She is now wondering if it was the Redback that she flicked off!
We finally set off, a little later than anticipated, not only because we were talking but Peta made a batch of scones that were cooked in the camp oven on the camp fire.
Our trip home took us about 3 hours, a good journey back and part of the route meant taking a road which we have never taken before, always good to see somewhere new.
Hope you all like the pictures.
KJ
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ThePass
Australia 2008
Pictures
What a great bunch of pictures. Wonderful. Need a rule to keep 'swimmers' in the truck!!