Advertisement
4 B 4's
A gaggle of4x4's at Monkey MiaDAY 184
The view from my window this morning is amazing, the turquoise water is lying still next to the white sandy beach and the daylight is edging its way forward as the sun sneaks up behind us. What a great view, there is no better way to start the day, except with a cup of tea of course.
It was 7.00, but as we were up late last night, we stayed in bed until 7.30, taking full advantage of not having to rush off anywhere today.
We are going to head over to Monkey Mia today, which is a resort about 25 kilometres from Denham. As Andrew and Kirsty are moving on today, they gave us a ticket that they purchased yesterday which is also valid for today, the cost of entry is $6.00 per adult, which is very helpful. We were not sure if it was going to be ok as we thought it may only be valid for 24 hours and they purchased the ticket at 8.00 yesterday morning.
I went to put the kettle on in the camp kitchen, we had left our cooking equipment in the truck, we tend to do that
Who's This?
Bilby or Big Ears. We have not seen one yet, they are nocturnal, hopefully in one of the National Parks we may get chance. now when facilities on campsites are good. There was a family in the kitchen eating breakfast and the kettle was hot, but there was very little water in it anyway, but all the same I asked if they had finished with the kettle. The man replied (later found out that it was Sietze and Renate with their children Julian and Clare) “no, we have not been using it.”
So as no one else was in the kitchen I filled up the kettle to boil ready for our morning tea. Just then a young girl appeared and said “oh no you stole the water!” Well I am not sure that I would consider it stealing as the water here is free to use, but I said “you weren’t here and I asked people in the kitchen if they had finished with the kettle”. She did back down off her high horse, but if she was that desperate for the water she should have waited with the kettle. Anyway for the miniscule amount she wanted it was not going to take long for her water to boil (after mine).
It is a large site, the camp kitchens in most large
sites we have been on have two kettles, two toasters etc. This camp kitchen gets very busy; there are a lot of back packers around in these areas.
Anyway after breakfast we set off to Monkey Mia, the views on the way are stunning (as usual) and we stop at the gate to Monkey Mia, we show the ticket that Andrew and Kirsty gave us and we are in, excellent (thanks guys!).
We wander through the visitor centre and straight out onto the beach, wow another paradise found. There are a group of Pelicans lazing around on the edge of the water. The Aristocat 2 Catamaran is waiting at the jetty for its passengers and stretched along the beach are people relaxing. What a relaxed atmosphere and a gorgeous place to be.
We contemplate taking the Aristocat 2, this is the boat that will take you out to see Dugongs, Dolphins, Turtles and anything else interesting that has its home in the sea in this area.
It is $74.00 each to do the trip, we have not done anything like this as yet and it would be a shame to miss out as the girl says
this is the only place that we can do this. We decide to think about it and maybe do it in the morning. I need to do some internet research to see where else we can do it.
My concern being that the waters are getting cooler as we head into winter and the Dugongs will not hang around in cold waters so you are perhaps not guaranteed a sighting. Renate told me this morning that in the summer you can see maybe up to 50 or more Dugongs around, however they saw only about 10.
I wander up the beach for a walk and to get a photo or two, Andy hates walking on sand but I love it in bare feet, especially paddling along in the waters edge. I see a track that looks as if it has been made by a snake, a small one (I suppose it could be a legless Lizard). There are lots of footprints made by the birds.
At 10.30 the Aristocat sails, we were told about a boom net that hangs out at the back of the boat, people lie in the boom net as the boats glides through
the water. All I can hear from the boat are shrieks of joy and laughter as you see the water gushing up around peoples heads bobbing around on the boom net. It does look like fun.
I rejoin Andy, and he tells me that he has been watching emu’s pad around the cabins and the front here. The emus bother nobody and the emus are not bothered by anybody, this is all a natural occurrence as the Pelicans sit on the beach front, they just sleep and occasionally watch the people around them, looking pretty fed up when yet another tourist comes out with the camera.
Time to move on, we want to drive up to Cape Peron and see the Francois Peron National Park, with a view to spending a night or two camping there. We drive up as far as the homestead and pull over along with another 4WD we are letting the tyres down to about 22 from about 36psi. We need to do this in order to cope with the terrain that we are about to drive on also making sure that anything that could fall over and leak was restrained.
Andy at
UTE
This goergeous Toyota Ute the wheel we are soon onto the deep sandy roads, you can see the concentration lining his face. Another 4WD is behind us so Andy pulls in at a convenient point to let him pass, only because we want to get used to the terrain as we have not done this in a while and we need to make sure we stick to the speed limit for 4W driving.
We bounce around the track, slowing up and then speeding up where necessary. I think Andy is worried because of our previous experience on Fraser Island so we still need to banish those demons.
The corners coming up maybe tricky, but soon the Patrol finds its own way round in the tracks made by others, then the sandy road finishes as we drive down onto the Clay Pans, there is a warning sign to tell us to stick to defined tracks as the surface in a Clay Pan is unpredictable and could mean a serious bogging down.
The terrain varied quite quickly from sand and bush to flat white sparse clay. We take it out of 4WD briefly to cross the pan, there is no need the tracks
are as dry as a bone and are easily crossed, although you can see where others have become bogged down in wetter times.
Once crossed, back into 4WD and back onto the sandy roads, the sand is quite deep in places and then Andy said what I thought he would be thinking “We are not going to get the trailer down here”. Now we are both sure that the trailer is capable, it is high clearance and is an off roader, but both of us sore by our Fraser Island experience when we got seriously bogged in the exceptionally soft sand. The trailer is probably about a ton in weight and pulling it through this sand would not be what is classed as fun.
We check out Gregories campsite, the sand is deeper still and we scope out the sites, even if we felt comfortable bringing the trailer in, it would be aggro to try and manoeuvre it into a campsite, just for a night or two it perhaps is not worth it.
Heading on to Caper Peron we pass a dirt bike coming in the opposite direction, I could suddenly see that pang of “Andy still
wishing that he had his bike”. We see other 4WD every now and again, but the track is far from busy.
At the cape, we see the red cliffs, the beautiful turquoise water, strange rock formations on the edge of the beach and of course the huge red sandy dunes. We hope to see Thorny Devils, but alas we are unlucky, I do look at the footprints in the sand and wonder what creature made them.
We wander around for a bit, take photos, it is a hot day today we are wearing our hats and truth be told the fly nets would not go amiss either.
I offer to drive back to give Andy a rest from driving. I am looking forward to this, some serious off roading for me to do as we have 40k’s to get back to the biturmen. With 4WD engaged we are off, a few tips from Andy like try and follow the tracks others have made and sometimes the Patrol itself will just find the route that it wants in these tracks.
It is not easy controlling this beast that wants to go its own way especially when you
try to keep in the tracks, and turn the wheel you are fighting against the sand, you also have to be mindful that if you get into the deep sand you need to keep the revs up otherwise you could get bogged.
We bounce down the track, when we bounce I ease of the accelerator a bit as the bounce tells me that we do not need to be so fast for the conditions, if you go too fast and bounce too much then it would be easy to whip the vehicle over on its roof. Andy and I reminisce about watching the Dakar when they are all in the desert where the conditions are much harsher and bogging is a way of life in the fesh-fesh (very soft powder like sand).
I concentrate hard, you have no option as one mistake could get us stuck (or in the bush), or worst still the sand could easily flip the truck on to its roof, my hands grip the steering wheel like vices and the muscles in my arms work harder, I am sure that I will end up with muscles like Popeye after 40 kilometres.
I pull
over to view a couple of birds soaring above us, they are Wedge Tail Eagles, sadly not close enough for a photo, but we get the binoculars out to confirm our sighting. Back on track it seems such a long time before the 40k’s is up and we are spat back out onto the bitumen. Back into 2 wheel drive and we head back toward Denham to rest for the afternoon - well what’s left of it anyway.
I drive carefully and at fairly low speed on the bitumen, as we are unable to pump the tyres back up until we get to Denham (a compressor would come in handy here, not everyone carries them). If you take a corner too sharply you risk the tyres coming off the rims.
We decide to stop at the Little Lagoon maybe for a swim if the water is warm enough, who do we see sat by the side of the lake reading, but Liz. We pull in along side and have a chat, we decide that the water is far too cold to swim, but it is beautifully clear. Liz tells us that she has already had a swim today
(her campsite has a swimming pool). Liz said that Andrew and Kirsty left at about 10.00 this morning to make their way up to Carnarvon.
We decide to head back to camp for a cup of tea and a rest. In the shade we both relax and have a read (after a light cheese and biscuit lunch that is). The sometime later we decide that we need a bit of a planning exercise.
Maps and books out on the table , we are looking at the distances we have to travel to get to Broome then on to Darwin, and how long we estimate it will take. We are both just staggered how huge this country is.
With 3500 Kilometres to Darwin give or take the shouting and another 3500K’s from Darwin back to Brisbane. What we are both sure about is we do not want to rush this part of the journey as the next 3000K’s will see us getting into the Northern Territories, then having to rush through it so we can get back to the sunshine coast for the 24th June would be such a shame, as who knows we may never venture back
Monkey Mia
The Beach at Monkey Mia this way again?
The decision has been reached we are going to fly down to the Sunshine Coast just before 24th June to maximise our time up in the far North of Australia and try to see as much as we can. We don’t know, as yet, where we can leave the truck and the trailer and will have to sort this out.
The flights are at just stupid times of the day and night so this is a bridge we will also have to cross, but amazingly from Darwin to Brisbane is just over a 4 hour flight, but going by road based on our mathematical equation would take us 8 days, so it’s a no brainer really.
I am some what peeved that our evening has been taken up with so much planning, I was hoping to have a bit of a relax and maybe, just maybe a bit of a read or even a practice on my didge.
The Dutch lady on the next site to us Renate comes over and tells us her husband has gone on an aboriginal walk this evening and she needs to get some washing done, and as
we are sitting outside would we listen out for the children if they cry and come and alert her if they do, we say we would put her mind at rest.
I have just finished the last short story in the excellent book sent to us by Reen, thanks it was excellent, Caroline will soon pick it up one she has finished her Marian Keyes Novel.
Renate comes back and sit with us for a while, she has a lovely soft Dutch accent and tells us that she is doing a journal about her children and documenting the trip and some of the things they say and do, so she can show them when they are older. We just think this is a fantastic idea.
Renate tells us that her 3 year old son Julian was excited about this trip to Australia, which is 4 months long, back in the Netherlands they asked him what he is looking forward to seeing and he said Aeroplane, they asked him what animals he would see and he said Kangaroo, Crocodiles, Snake, Koala, Monkeys and Lions.
Yesterday as a family they went to the “Big Lagoon” where Julian was
watching a large crab bury itself in the sand, he was determined to put his little hand in the hole made by the crab as it got deeper and deeper, and Renate said “Julian! You don’t want to go putting your hand in to holes, there may be snakes or spiders in there”, Julian added “and Elephants!” Caroline and I roared with laughter when Renate told us what he had said, just imagine the size of hole it would be, if an elephant was hiding in there.
We had a really pleasant evening talking to Renate, they have travelled a lot and have done a lot of their travels by bike, especially in Australia, however with children now in tow, they do their touring a little bit differently and have a 4x4.
Renate leaves us still waiting for her husband to return and we put all our stuff away then fall in to bed exhausted and we have decided that we won’t move on tomorrow so that we can spend the day relaxing and enjoying this beautiful environment.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.104s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Darryl and Sarah
Wallaby Wanderers
Happy memories!
Great to see you enjoying WA - we love it and can't wait to enjoy it again!