And then there were three

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“And then there were three”

Qantas flight 843 touched down at 12.50 and by 12.55 I had spotted Barb.
Screams of joy, lots and lots of hugs and tears and grins from ears to ears while we waited for the Louis Vuitons to arrive, then out to the awaiting chariot and E for more hugs, laughs and screams of joy!!!!!! The happy drug had been swallowed in multi dosages and us three were about to float up to Cape Leveque on a major high.
For 220kms the car was bursting with non-stop yackity, yack, and screams of laughter. Only time we drew air was when we pulled over for a cuppa and my famous egg sandwiches for afternoon tea.
It was about 3.30 when we arrived at Cape Leveque’s Kooljiman Resort, a remote beach wilderness paradise on the North Western tip of the Dampier peninsula for our 6 day stop/catchup.
We had booked a beach camping shelter, that we could park our canvas chateau next to.
We had an amenities block next to us, firewood was supplied and in our thatched shelter was our very own fresh water shower, table and chairs and bbq.
And 20 steps to a crystal clear 26o beautiful white sand swimming beach, just perfect !!!!
Our 6 days were just glorious, we fished, snorkelled, laughed flew Anna’s kite, caught up with some people we had met down the line Amanda and Bruce, took a drive to the amazing long, white sand beach at Lombardina and did a quick visit into One Arm point, two other Aboriginal communities up on the Peninsula and then every afternoon at about beer o’clock we would set ourselves up for the sunset ritual, (either at our beach or over at Western beach) followed by a gourmet dinner and the magic of my Ian’s hypnotising campfires, a couple of reds, and then before crashing we would always do the milky way viewing, some of us on some nights were better than others !
But our most popular pastime over the 6 days was just doing nothing.

Then on the 9th reluctantly we packed up for an early getaway and headed back down to Broome. (Oh and by the way the road was great for anyone wanting to know, we had heard so many stories about how bad it was, but not so, in fact a great portion was sealed.)
Even though we were all sad to be leaving Kooljiman resort, we were so lucky, as we were now heading back to Broome to do the mid day flight back up the coast to the Horizontal Waterfalls flight and that would allow us to see Cape Leveque one more time from the air, on the way back down the coast.

Anyone wanting to have the thrill of a lifetime and to see one of the great natural wonders of the world, then this you should do !!!!!

We hit Broome about 10.30 did a quick grocery, grog and gas fill up and then headed over to the visitors centre for an 11.30am pickup.
At 12.30pm we boarded our prop jet seaplane with 5 others and flew up to The H.W passing over the 1,000’s of Islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago, at about 1.30 we landed in Talbot bay, got off the plane, did a bit of a tour around the adjoining bays, including one of the Paspaley pearl farms, then boarded a 60ft houseboat for a grilled barramundi lunch and a show of local shark feeding, while we waited for the tides to be right for the ride of a lifetime!!!
At about 3pm we boarded the jet boat,(with dear Barb and I in the front seat, oh S--t) with a skipper who advised us just before taking off that he was not yet old enough to have a car licence!!
Ian said just hold on Barb and Corrie and keep your eyes open, fine for him, he wasn’t in the front.
Our Jet boat was the only company able to go through both of the openings and they had the most experience of riding the falls, so we knew we were in for a great experience and that it was!!!!!!
The incredible tidal power is quite phenomenal as you speed through it at about 80mph,Barb and I just screamed the whole time, which made the driver go even faster, Ian had the job of cinematographer, and did a great job in between enjoying the experience and laughing hilariously at Barb and I screaming our heads off.
Unfortunately, like all things the adrenalin pumping experience did come to an end and we then reboarded the flight back to Broome, passing by our beautiful beach shelter at Cape Leveque, which to our utmost disgust someone had already moved into since our departure only 9 hours ago. So we just waved and smiled with good memories all across our faces.
On arrival back at Broome about 5.30pm, we collected our shoes and headed 120kms off down the coast on the Great Northern highway to camp the night at Barnhill beachside cattle Station, overlooking the Indian ocean. We hit there about 7pm,in the dark, found Beryl, the camp host, set up camp, cooked and ate tea and with a mixed feeling of pure exhaustion blended with exhilaration as we all crashed into bed and dreamt of the Horizontals.
In the morning we awoke to the usual noises of life in a caravan park, but this one did have a very homely and well loved sort of feel ,as people greeted each other and shared stories of their plans for the day.
It turns out Barnhill is a home away from home for many Nomads who make their way there for anywhere between 2 to 6 months of the year,every year, it is a bit of an institution in the caravanning world, being especially well known for it’s famous Sunday night roast.
By the time we left at 9am we had met a man who went to school with Barb’s brother in Fish Creek, people who had lived in Warriewood and we had been given lots of hints for our travels down the line and all in all we’d meet a great bunch of Aussies who were all enjoying life and all who of course had a story to tell !!!!!
On the road again, and now heading for Pilbara country (Ironore country) and The Karijini national park,(second largest in Australia, 627,445 hectares) formerly known as the Hamersley national park, a place Ian had visited many years ago and he had always remembered fondly.
Our destination was the Savannah Campground, were we had fortunately prebooked a site for 4 nights, as it was WA school hols.
We arrived in just on dusk and went to our site in the camps overflow,set up, had some dins and hit the hay. Next morning we began exploring, hiking and getting a taste of Karijini and the Gorges around Savannah.

The rugged dark red, combined with the soft greyish green beauty, dotted with snappygums of Karijini results from a unique combination of it’s geology, the climate and the natural vegetation.The rocks in and exposed throughout the gorgesoriginated as fine sediment on a sea floor 2,500 years ago and it is rich in iron and silica, hence the unique and rich dark red colour, it is known to be the best example of this geological history in the world.
Aboriginal occupation dates back 20,000yrs and still many of the sites have strong cultural and spiritual significance to the current traditional landowners.
Day one we visited and walked in the Hancock,Joffre, Knox and Wittenoon gorges and the Oxer lookout
Day two we did the Dales Gorge and went for a super refreshing dip under the waterfall in the Fern pool and Fortesque Falls and visited the lookout over the Circular pool.
Day three we went into Tom Price the mining town of Rio Tinto, went up the Mt Nameless lookout,(great views, well worth the visit) bought ourselves a new battery for the trailer and visited the local bakery for a pie and a 7/10 vanilla slice (no passionfruit on the icing lost them points)And on the way home visited the Weano Gorge lookout.
Each day and especially the nights were quite cold in the park, in fact one morn we awoke to ice on the cooker, Helen’s knitted woollen hats got a good wear both day and night and Barb and I looked pretty glam in our Bonds longjohns ,spencers and possum socks each night, very sexy !!
Day four on our way heading out of Karijini, after filling up our water tank we visited Hammersley Gorge and did a super walk, up on the top ridge line, taking in the spectacular ancient geological formations in the gorge and the stony, treelined water course winding it’s way down below.
Karijini was a jewel in the crown to our visit to the North West, it left a strong impression on us all.
From here we began to head West again towards Exmouth.
As we didn’t depart from Karijini until 12pm after walking the gorge our goal for an overnite stay was to just bush camp by about 4pm wherever we had got to. So at just after 3.30pm we pulled into Duck Creek about 300kms south west of Exmouth. We set up camp, Ian set up the hot shower and a hypnotic camp fire and I put on Pavorotti and my ast and I began cooking a mean chicken curry. By 5.30pm we were all showered, and us girls were in our jamies looking good so we then began having happyhour in Duck Creek to Nessun Dorma, what more could you ever ask for!!!
Next morn we had a leisurely breaky of sardines ,bananas and tomato on toast and then began to make further tracks to Exmouth.
Hit Exmouth visitors centre about 3pm only to be told overflow camping in the town oval was our lot( due to school hols)so be it, but it was off to the Valmingh lighthouse for sunset for us first and then back to the overflow to set up camp and have a left over curry dinner, always better the second day.
In the meantime we had heard that the Whale sharks were still about (they have usually moved on, further up the coast by now) so we of course had to have a go at that, so next morning at 7.30am we were picked up by Kings Tour company and taken down to the Tantabiddy wharf to board the boat to go diving with the Whale sharks.
Just to put all your minds at rest, these are not man eating type sharks, in fact they are known as the worlds largest fish but also as the gentle giants of the sea,they do however grow to 18mtres long, but the ones that migrate through these waters have normally been between 4 - 6 mtres long, still b. big!!
By 9am we had all had a briefing on the code of conduct and what to expect and to trial our gear and see that we could swim/snorkel we were given a little snorkelling side trip on the way, from that we were then broken into 2 teams of 10, and then with an overhead spotter plane and all of us peering into the depths, the search for the sharks began. About then all our adrenalines had begun pumping, as once they would be sighted it was to be something like a precision military operation, where if you missed your cue,”there will be consequences,so do as you have been told or else”, it actually was bloody exciting, combined with a little nervewrecking. By 12.30 neither us or the plane had sighted any whale sharks,but we had seen dolphins, dugongs,many whales,a sea snake and all of us had enjoyed the snorkelling over the reef. And we had enjoyed a very scrummy lunch .But alas no whale sharks , then at about 3pm they received a call from the spotter plane and off we went to head for the Sharks, everyone was soooooo excited!!! All up we got 3 dives in,but some people did find it quite stressful and pulled out after the first dive, it was quite a challenge in fitness and lack of fear to dive in and then swim quickly to get to the shark before it would submerge and then get back, and onto the boat so the other team could head out, but the end result was that Ian and I did manage to see the shark and it was a spectacular sight to see such a rare and unique animal, something we will never forget and all up we all thoroughly enjoyed the day, one of those we will all never forget.
From the drop off back into town we then headed to the pub for a wind down dinner and then home to bed,as tomorrow was to be an extra early start - 5.30am so we could be at the Cape Range National park rangers station by 7.00am to be able to secure a camp site down in there for the following nite(we had been given the tip, be there by 7am or miss out.)
Hi ho silver, at 6.20am we pulled out of the overflow, drove passed a servo and pulled in for a quick top up and 2 coffees and a bacon and egg sandwich for breaky, then at 7.00am we pulled into the Rangers station queue behind one other to wait for the 8am opening to hopefully secure ourselves a campsite in the Cape range national park. By 8am there were 6 other cars in the queue. By 9am we were at our campsite at Tulki bay.As there are not many sites in the park and it has in itthe Ningaloo marine park, the park is apparently always a popular spot hence the need to queue up, but it is certainly worth it, the beaches, snorkelling and fishing is just super!!!!!
By 10am we were all set up and ready to head off down to Turquoise bay were we heard the snorkelling was the best on the coast.
And it was here we believe someone was looking after us, as, as we walked onto the white sand, with crystal clear aqua blue water beach, what should we see in the bay, about 40mtrs out but 5 pilot whales just swimming around freely in amongst the people, we were all stunned, couldn’t believe our eyes or our good luck to be seeing them so close!
After about 3 or 4 minutes of getting over the shock/excitement we popped on our snorkel gear and began swimming out to join them - this was an amazing experience, they showed no fear, in fact they seemed to be quite enjoying the human interaction and company, all 3 of us had an incredible experience swimming close by them as well as enjoying the rest of the coral reef and all the sealife, we stayed in the water with them for about 11/2 hours until they drifted out, obviously getting tired of all the contact. This has without a doubt been one of the highlights of our trip.
Back to camp we were invited by the camphosts Thelma and Matt to join them and the other campers for 5sys, this was great and allowed us to gain heaps of social collateral for the road ahead.
Next morn we headed out at about 8am, down to cross Yardie creek and then continue on the coast rd to Coral bay for lunch (passing some other great campsites that we must come back to Lakeside,Ningaloo stn and Winderbandi point near Lefroy bay, all of which looked fantastic)
Then on down to Carnarvon for a fresh F & V stop,( lots of market gardens)
And then to our wonderful bush camp at Bush bay for the night, a great fun night with lots of hilarity.
Next morning we had a leisurely start and headed off to Monkey Mia about 9.30am.
We arrived at Monkey Mia about 3pm, set up camp and headed for the laundry and showers,no clothes and our noses made it quite urgent.
The next day we resorted ourselves and found all our lost property,had a general clean up and kept washing and due to the rain arriving( only our 3rd lot since we left 21/2 mths ago) we queued with everyone to use the drier, due to all our hard work that day, that night we treated ourselves to three episodes of ER.
This morning we got up at 7am and went down to the beach to watch the dolphins being feed which is what MM is famous for, it was wonderful to see them so close, they are such gentle souls.
We then took ourselves out for breaky to the resort restaurant, quite a treat and then E and barb went shopping and I caught up our paperwork.
And to top a wonderful day off, we then watched NZ win The Bledisloe and The Tri nations again, sorry all our Aussie friends and family.
Tomorrow we begin to head in an Easterley direction, towards Kalgoorlie, the Goldfields and across The Nullabor towards Parkes and to Sydney by the 2nd, hopefully I’ll get another blog in before then, I will try, but we will be on the road a fair bit, so no time for typing.
Meantime love to you all, only home for 2 weeks but hopefully we’ll catch up with most of you.

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Comments

[Sue]

Fantastic
Dear Corrie, Ian and Barb Loving your blog - it all sounds so amazing. Ohh for some warmth. Freezing cold here - the coldest winter for several years. Mark and Bron have been without water for nearly 2 weeks now. Noel in Auckland still. Paul has pneumonia so not feeling well at all. Not only did we win the rugby last night we won the netball too in a very close match. Have now won 1 each with the decider on Tuesday night from Adelaide. Continue to enjoy the journey. Safe and happy travels. Love from all Sue xxxx