Traveling Northwards

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After a dodgy shower and a rushed breakfast we headed off to pick up our van. Picturing a little VW camper I was a little apprehensive but I didn't need to be, as with everything in Oz, the van was much larger than expected.

By about 12pm we had navigated our way to the edge of the city and bought all our supplies including plenty of wine and we were ready to set off.

We drove. Well I drove, Maria had a good look out of the window. After 350kms or so (about 4 hours) we stopped for the night by the sea at a place called Dongara (Don-guh-ruh) or Port Denison??? The two were so close to each other they might aswell have been the same place. Our first taste of sea air and a sunset over the ocean. After dinner and a few wines I pretty much passed out, tis very tiring driving.

At 6.45am someone banged on our window - very hard. It was the local Police dude, although he couldve been a park ranger or a steve Irwin type from the way he was dressed. He told us that there was a $500 fine for camping within a townsite. If it wasn't for the fact that we were British, slightly ignorant of local laws and that his sherrif wasn't up yet I think we would've been in trouble. As it was he gave us 15mins to clear out, which we did in about 4!

With such an early start we thought it'd be best to get as far north as possible. WE went around 650km through Geraldton, Binnu, Nerren Nerren, the Billabong and Overlander Roadhouses, all the way up to Carnarvon. We didn't stay for long though, just enough to pickup some essentials then we left to find somewhere to camp. We found a place a little off the road where another van had already stopped and we had our dinner watching the sunset around a campfire. Very nice. The stars in the outback are fantastic but our camera wont record them unfortunately so you'll just have to imagine them.

Up until now we had been driving along the North West Coastal Highway but we turned off that to go further towards the coast in search of The Blowholes. Didn't sound very good to me but it was only 50km so we thought we'd have a look.

We drove towards the coast and a place called Quobba and got there early enough to catch High Tide. The bitumen (tarmac) comes to an end as you approach the ocean and there is a huge sign which simply says "King Waves Kill" - very welcoming. We drove along the dirt road a little and pulled up. It was amazing. The power of the ocean is incredible. The pictures don't do it justice. Very very impressive.

We later found out that a King wave is a huge wave that literally comes from nowhere, will come way further up onto shore than anyone thinks and then drags you back into the ocean. Massive killers apparently, mainly of fishermen. We didn't see any though! Boo!

We met a friendly couple, and after taking photos for each other the gentlemen gave me a leaflet about God, which I passed over to Maria and told us that all of the white crap in the pools of water around us was actually pure sea salt. He showed us his placcy bag full of the stuff. Amazed by this I went off to collect some 😊

After this cool start to the morning we drove a little up the coast to a place called Coral Bay where we stayed for lunch, a swim, and a sunbathe. I won't say much because we came back here on the way down the coast but it was very nice. We drove a little further north to Exmouth (ex-mouth: not ex-muth) and decided to stay at a campsite. We were as far north as we were going to come and very tired. A good night's sleep and a shower sorted us out though.

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Comments

[Noel]

salt?
What did you do with the salt? Possibly the most random souvenier ever!

[adnria]

Salt
I covered Maria in it to preserve her aging skin in the hot ozzy sun!