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Getting ready
At Stews placeMarch 28 was the date set some 18months ago for a convoy of friends to spend a few weeks holidaying in Coral Bay, so was a time frame we worked to as we travelled the bottom half of Australia. Wed 18th saw Kym and I move to Stew and Tracey’s place in Joondanna to make our final preparations as we were to leave earlier than planned and spend a week or so camping at Warroora (pronounced ‘Worra’ )Station before everyone else arrived in Coral Bay. We left Friday morning to rendezvous with Simon and Phillipa at Geraldton, before setting up an overnight camp at Galina Bridge, just north of Kalbarri.
Simon was towing his 7m boat, which he camped in with Phillipa and his girls Kiara and Jessica while Stew had his Camprite camper in tow to sleep Tracey and young Sarah Michelle. We stopped in Carnarvon to pick up Jason, who had flown up and we all filled up on fuel and water. The plan was to launch the boat in Coral Bay, and then drive the 40 minutes south and set up camp while Simon and Jason motored the boat down and establish a mooring, as the boat was
Half way there
Camped at Galina Bridge, Kalbarri too large to launch off the beach at Warroora. We arrived later than expected so decided to stop the night in the Coral bay caravan park, and launch the boat in the morning.
Warroora station runs sheep and goats, and is incredibly bleak until you reach the blue waters of the coast. The beach is protected by the fringing Ningaloo reef and is sheltered from the ocean swells which keeps visibility in the water quite good and therefore an amazing light blue water greets you as you crest the final hill to the beach. The sea breeze was blowing quite strongly and as Simon and Jason were sleeping in tents we decided to seek a little shelter and camp behind the first row of dunes at a spot called ‘14 mile’. This camp spot was accessible by caravans of which there were quite a few set up right on the beach, and although there were many other campsites south of where we were, accessible only by 4wd, we had to stop at 14 mile as it had the best access for the boat and the safest mooring area.
Simon is a mad keen fisherman and pretty much as soon as
his boat was in the water he had some lures out. Once we had found our campsite and started to set up, Simon found us, set his mooring and arrived on the beach with dinner - a lovely Spanish mackerel!!
Simon took us all fishing over the next week, and we all caught some magnificent fish - Rankin Cods, Red Emperors and Spangled and Sweetlip Emperors were the main fish caught and kept, although amongst the fish that went back or were used for bait were nor’west blowies, parrot fish, small cods and a few school sharks. Simon had already prepared loads of rigs and between him and Stew there were enough good rods to enable everyone to have a fish. It seems Simon had already been to this area before and mapped out some good ground on his GPS, although it required a few hour long trips banging straight into the wind to get to a few of them. On my first trip out I was surprised to catch my first Rankin Cod, but more so because I was seasick for the first time in my life! Blechhhhh....I managed to keep my breakfast down but was feeling very green
The campsite
At Warroora from the dunes behind us. until we arrived on terra firma. It was Kwells each trip after that and no more problems =)
Once Simon had honed in on his fishing spots the fish were plentiful, with boat limits of Red Emperors reached or threatened each trip out. Everyone managed to get on the end of a few magnificent Reds, and succulent fish was for dinner most nights. When we weren’t fishing, or cleaning the catch, we were swimming in the 25 degree turquoise water of 14 mile beach, or keeping the Coopers beer factory in business =))
Some days were quite windy, so we explored the stations southern coast to find some lovely headlands enabling us to swim and snorkel out of the wind. We went to Pelican point, which was a reef shark nursery - there were lots of baby sharks swimming around, as well as a few turtles. Kym and I had a snorkel over many different types of amazing corals, and I had my first shark encounter! A 5 foot black tip reef shark swam past me about 3 metres away, giving me a beady eye!! They are not dangerous so it was quite an experience. Fortunately Kym didn’t see it
(so she said), but there were a couple of other smaller ones. We also spent the day at another spot called Maggies, which was another lovely snorkel over corals and lots of colourful fish.
The time at Warroora was magic and we could have spent a lot longer there, however the time had come to move to Coral Bay where Jas, Stew, Simon and their families took residence in a couple of houses and Kym and I set up camp in the Caravan park. It turned out, after talking to the people camped next to us in the park, that they grew up in Port Hedland the same time I was a junior there, and the gent (Wayne) remembered mud crabbing with my dad some 30 years ago! The story went that they were knee deep in the mud, and a snake slithered through between dad’s legs and he bolted, leaving his leg stuck in the Mud! (Dad has a prosthetic leg). Such a story was remembered by a boy of 9, to be repeated many years later! (For dad - does the name Les Solley ring any bells?)
Donna and Pat joined us the day after arriving so there
A loverly Rankin Cod!
Good thing you can't feel my queeziness! were now a lot of people to take fishing! Simon’s boat went out almost every day taking 4 or 5 people out and again returning most days with bag limits of fish, mostly the delicious red emperors. Simon and Stew came well prepared with a cryovac machine which kept the girls busy doing a fantastic job of stocking the freezers with well prepared fillets.
At one point there were more people wanting to fish than were space on the boat so Stew and Pat took a day out on a charter boat and caught a variety of fish, most which they donated to the other charter fishers, as Stew had earned the charter boats prime award stubby holder BOB (Best on Boat). This award was adopted by the fishers on Simons boat and created some healthy competition, with the winner of each days outing earning the right to drink with the revered stubby holder! Kym managed to secure it one day, with a haul of no less than 5 red emperors (the boats bag limit was 10) - much to the chagrin of the male fishers on board!!
Marty and Gen joined us in the middle weekend of the 2
weeks which was cause for celebration, and we had a great night with a massive bbq feast of red emperor wings and more Coopers =)
Apart from fishing we spent a lot of time swimming and relaxing, as well as exploring the coast to the north of Coral Bay. Simon had some other friends in an adjacent house that used to live in Coral Bay running the tour boats, which was very fortunate as Beck took a boat load of us out one day and tailed the operator of the Manta ray snorkelling boat, dropping us on some of these majestical creatures! To go on the charter boat cost around 200 dollars to experience this and about 8 of us experienced it for free! It was energetic swimming to keep up with the Manta rays but well worth it, it was amazing to see such a large creature, between 2-3 meter wingspan, swim underneath you and turn upside down to glide back the other way. To dive with the whale sharks was just shy of $400 and being on a budget we opted out of that experience , maybe another time.
W e also explored some of the coast to
the north and south of coral bay to check out some future camping spots and some nice protected bays. Supply runs were made to Exmouth, 140km to the north of Coral Bay, for fresh fruit and veges, bait and of course - more beer =) There were more arrivals in the second week with Simons sister and friend driving up, Glen (fresh from years in Spain) flying in and a surprise visit from Chad for the last 4 days! Natasha, Paul and little Rikki also made the journey up for our last few days in Coral Bay and for us it was just magnificent catching up with all our friends in such an idyllic and relaxing environment. Unfortunately it had to end and everyone had to go back to Perth leaving us to carry on our Northward journey, it was sad to see everyone go =(
We spent a few days in Exmouth recouping and restocking and exploring the area north of Exmouth, and I managed to get a couple of nice surfs in at a spot called Dunes, which had a nice shelter constructed for those looking on. Another blast from the past occurred in Exmouth, while chatting to
a few fisher folk in the local pub, we were joined by a fellow who used to play in the state basketball league the same time I did. After a few more lubrications he turned to me and asked me if I knew a fellow named Seb Whittles - which I did but from many, many moons ago when I lived and worked in Karratha aged 18. He then proceeded to tell me he remembered playing basketball with me in the local comp there, and went to a tournament in Broome with me!!! He even remembered I was there with my dad and said he had photos of me hanging of the basketball rim!! He rekindled memories buried deep in my minds vault of a time long ago and we spent a few more hours chatting with quite a sense of amazement how people link up in this world.
From Exmouth we drove down the western side of the peninsula through the National Parks fringed by the Ningaloo reef. It was so nice we decided to camp a few more days on the coast at Ningaloo, but further south at the Ningaloo station, where we could take the dogs. Lefroy
More reds!
Stew with a double barrel =) bay was where we stayed and it was the nicest place we camped on this stretch of coast. The snorkelling was unbelievable with astonishing amounts of fish and varieties of coral, all accessed from our camp 30 paces from the water. We thoroughly recommend everyone to visit this part of the state if you have the chance. Upon leaving, we drove the 50km’s to the highway and stopped to put some air back in the tyres, another car stopped and the driver got out and approached us, it turns out he was a good friend of Kym’s - Dale! We had walked past him in the semi darkness the night before, and our Qld plates caused him to stop and say hello! Unbelievable, to have someone who knows us stop at a road junction at the same time we were there in such a remote part of the state!!!
Next stop for us is Karratha, and then on to Broome.
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Stew
non-member comment
9.9 outta 10
"Some days are better than others, those days were 9.9's easy!!!"