The Groovy's Part 2 - Locked Before Eleven - 23rd - 31st Jul 06

---

---

Team England and Team Ireland bade a fond farewell to the Stokies - the girls had agreed to allow the Swiss part of the contingency to hitch a ride for the rest of the way to Broome. It was great news for us really as it meant that when it was time for Team Ireland to make tracks we still had Woodchucker Flo to collect firewood and, as it turned out, do most of our cooking! Team Stoke minus Switzerland generously donated the cricket set to Team Ireland, loaned their tent to Flo and sorrowfully handed in their walkie talkie then with one swift manouever they turned south and sped off down the highway with Tom leaning out of the window shouting 'Stoke Rules'!
It seemed strange driving north with our caravan of campers down to 2. We arrived in Canarvon in the afternoon and decided it was too late to continue onto our chosen destination, so we slunk into a caravan site, and for the first night of roadtrip we didn't play 'turd man' or any other drinking games for that matter, so The Groovy's, getting used to the new order, retired relatively early.
In the morning, after buying snorkels and masks, fishing lines and food, we headed up to Coral Bay and by lunchtime we'd found a nice campsite, checked in and were on the beach with all of our new toys. Albeit windy and the sea cold, we tried our hand at snorkelling, staying pretty close to the shore (except Flo who was a mile out!) and tried to get to grips with the handlines - we'd bought some squid to stick on the hooks. The fishing was to no avail - we'd have to have only salad for dinner again! By the end of the avo Foxy professed that he would bring home any fish he caught no matter how small! He came home empty handed! Smithy managed to cut her toe open again on the beach, the last injury from Siem Reap having only just dissappeared - it was highly inconvenient being as there was a volleyball net at the campsite, of course now she would have to sit out of any transpiring game!
That evening, after dinner, we all gathered in Team Ireland's van due to rain, and all had a massive conflab - trying to ascertain Team Ireland's plan - when they would be leaving and where they wanted to get to before turning around. This proved to be somewhat trying as 75% of Team Ireland were smashed and the converation wandered continuosly. Finally, after great debate, The Groovy's settled on another day in Coral Bay to do a Manta Ray snorkelling trip. Smithy and Becs nipped over to the backpackers to enquire about the tour and coincidentally bumped into a Western Xposure tour guide called Cleggy - a friend of the 2 Jos friend Jez. The 2 Jos met Jez in Africa and were hoping to do a tour with him from Broome as he now works as a Western Xposure tour guide up there. Cleggy seemed like a real character and promised Jo and Becs that if they came to the backpackers for a drink the following night, he'd give them a great itinerary for the Karijini National Park.
The next morning we arrived at the dive shop at 7am, were kitted out with flattering wetsuits and flippers and made a short walk down to the beach to board the impressive dive boat. On our way out of the harbour we were told the plan, whilst we helped ourselves to some much appreciated tea and coffee. The dive boat operated with a spotter plane - without it our chances of finding a giant Manta Ray would be slim. Maud Point seemed the likely spot and as we navigated our way through the winding Coral channel huge waves broke and smashed over the shallow reefs - never seen anything like it - a 10 foot wave peeling in the middle of the ocean! Reaching Maud Point we had a VHF call from the plane - a Manta Ray had been located cruising in the shallows off Maud Point Beach. With the group being large we divided into 2 to allow optimum viewing. Our turn soon came and one by one The Groovy's hopped overboard. A guide swam with us holding one arm in the air whenever he was in sight of the creature, and we all chased him - a procession of black and yellow limbs engulfed in froth! With your head underwater you became blissfully unaware of the commotion going on on the surface, at least if you got to the front of the pack anyway, and the Manta Ray carried on with his business completely unperturbed. It was huge! About 3 metres in wingspan and so graceful as it drifted up and down in the tide. Hundreds of small fish provided it an entourage whilst it glided and banked and slid along - then all of a sudden it was gone! The Groovy's stalled, stared down into the blue and slowly a shape re-appeared which got closer and clearer, and in unison all suddenly realised that a huge gaping mouth was heading up towards them! Everyone tried to lie as shallow as possible - the Ray was barrel rolling, performing a huge loop the loop, a way of eating the maximum amount of plankton. We were treated to a spectacular show - with roll after roll it was an incredible sight! With satisfied snorkellers back on board we zapped off to another part of the bay, just inside the reef and the 10 foot breakers, to see some great coral formations with some deep drop off's and more types of fish than you could remember - a great morning!
After lunch we wanted to go fishing - there's something about the chase! Having bumped into Cleggy at the bait shop and receiving some welcome advice, we ended up driving out to Maud Point beach to try our luck there. There were plenty of Alf Stewarts on the beach, casting off with their professional looking rods - the aussies had a right laugh at us pommies with handlines, trying in vain to throw out our hook, line and sinker in the manner of a cowboy using a lassoo! They would often snag and land 2 feet in front of our feet, or in Al's special case, a foot behind. A few couldn't catch their breath when they watched Al looking to see where his line would land, before he realised it had rocketed vertically and was on its way back down towards his head! Smithy and Becs accosted a middle aged couple for some helpful hints and ended up with another handline, some new bait and advice about not walking in too deep, as a nine foot shark had chased the woman out of the water up there some years ago. Oh right - weren't we snorkelling 30 metres off this beach this morning?! Finally she cast our lines for us so all we had to do was just stand and wait ... for nothing!
The Irish had an early one that evening, bar Stevie, who joined the girls and Flo for a drink with Cleggy at the backpackers. It was clear Cleggy was hammered when we arrived and after some riotous moments, when he was pushed into the pool by his mate Cam, we settled down to some drunken explanations of the wonders of the Karijini. We ended up with a rather special map drawn on the back of an envelope and some directions to a secret campsite!
Think we had a little inspiration the next morning for we bolted off to Exmouth, got some supplies and drove around the peninsula to Cape Range National Park, all before lunchtime, stopping along the way at a viewing point from Vlamingh Head Lighthouse. From there we could see some surfers surfing a massive point break - the wave must have been at least 20 foot! They turned us back at the gates to the park that afternoon, because it was too full, so we backtracked to Yardie Creek campsite which was lovely. We saw a few Kangaroos, some amusing Galah's and found a funny man called Ron, who we were told could fix our gas bottle. In fact, all he did was swear and curse at it for half an hour before finally explaining that it was buggered!
Up at the crack of dawn we were the next day, to be the first in line to get a spot in the National Park, which we did. Tulki Beach was our camp, a beautiful spot, although a bit windy and cold. Becs and Whits took the van back into Exmouth with Foxy and Stevie that morning whilst Smithy, Flo, Andy and Al found a place to go snorkelling. It wasn't particularly successful as the sea was freezing, there was a strong wind and rip tide. Flo the intrepid however, did find and chase a turtle! After a while it was decided to go and find the others, and following a brief moment of concern when the van got stuck in the sand, Jo, Flo, Andy and Al were back on the road. We all bumped into each other on the way and so we headed down to Turquoise Bay. Whilst the boys attempted more snorkelling, the girls decided it was too windy and cold and hoped instead to make a cup of tea, the water, by the way was nowhere near boiling 45 minutes later when the boys returned - so Whits attempted to hold the pot while we drove back to camp, to relight it there - there was only a thimble of lukewarm water left when we got back though - this might have something to do with Bec's deciding to become Colin Macrae for the afternoon and do a spot of rally driving! Maybe this was why we rekindled our love affair with 'turd man' that night! The wind caused loads of problems after dark with the candles continuosly blowing out. Becs and Smitty attempted to create a windproof lightbox, using an old Emu Export box, some tin foil and the insides of crisps packets, candles, rocks and plasters! It was a time consuming, doomed project which ended up looking more like Tracy Island! So eventually, Stevie sighed, came over, cut up some plastic bottles, put candles inside them and Tracy Island became obsolete! Just to mention we'd seen an amazing sunset that night and later on we saw a Kangaroo practically sitting at the head of our table - Foxy and Al at this point retreated to the safety of their van!
The next morning, we all stopped briefly at another exposed and windy beach before deciding to split up. The lads wanted to go back to the beach with the big waves, whilst the girls and Flo preferred to look around Mangrove Bay, which was great. We saw loads of birds and shells and it was so pretty that it was hard to put the camera down. Flo, as usual, found a den in the mangrove forest, which we all clambered in to. The best bit of Cape Range National Park for us came next. We drove down to a place called Oyster Stacks. When Flo said the snorkelling was really good, Greeny, Smitty and Whits stripped down and joined him. It was unbelievable! You were immediately surrounded by a vast array of fish and we saw everything from a Sea Slug and Starfish to Stingray and Octopus. The colours and shapes and sizes of all the fish were phenomenal.
A driving day was had the next day heading out of Cape Range National Park via Exmouth for supplies and out towards the Karijini. We made it to the campsite we had intended to get to just after dark, made a fire and some food, drank a bit of goon and went to bed although Foxy, Andy and Flo stayed up and got absolutely caned! We made the haul to the Karijini National Park the following morning, stopping in Tom Price for fuel. Unfortunately, Smithy misplaced Cleggy's map, but could at least remember the order in which he told us to do the gorges. Turned out Cleggy's info was really useful as we certainly did see the best of the park. On the way out to Hammersley Gorge we clocked our campsite then proceeded on to spend the afternoon swimming and jumping into the pools of the gorge - spectacular! Around five o'clock we drove the 5 km's back to the campsite which was just stunning! The views were incredible and the sunset awesome. We didn't even have to attempt to light a fire as as we chucked the firewood onto some old charcoal from someones fire the night before and it relit itself. The lads found an old tree which took all five of them to carry, so that kept the fire roaring all night! Flo cooked a superb bolognaise before the evening slid into the most debaucherous session to date - we ended up playing 'turd man' with goon - a highly dangerous combination, resulting in Flo being sick on Jo Whits feet causing her to fall over her chair as she tried to run away, before staggering back to his tent and prompty falling on top of it, caving it in! Shortly afterwards, Team Ireland began a tirade of Irish rugby songs, much to Smither's delight, unitl she realised that the standing up part was a bit tricky and proceeded to fall into the 2 fold out tables flattening them to the ground - all the while Becs sat there in a confused drunken state wondering how she got so nailed although she was the instigator at dishing out the shots on the role of the die at the first part of the evening - revenge is sweet Becs!
Of course there were a number of sore heads in the morning, in fact everyone except Andy who'd abstained from drinking, due to his 'out of body experience' from his excesses the previous night, was hungover. The cold Kermits Pool of Hancock Gorge soon put us right however. We had a great walk down through the gorge, negotiating all sorts of surfaces including a particularly fun trail called spiders walk - a narrow crevice with fast water flowing through it - it was great fun. We moved on to Weano Gorge that afternoon and encountered even more tricky trails, loads of pools and we all definitely enjoyed the walk, swim, walk combo - Bec's dry bag came in very useful as we floated it down the channel! The gorges were all stunning - it's too difficult to pick a favourite. Leaving Weano Gorge we struggled to find a campsite. There was construction work going on at the most obvious one, so we eventually creeped past a 'no entry' sign into a campsite that had clearly been closed down for a very long time. We tried to position the vans so that they could not be seen from the road, and decided not to have a fire all in aid of evading the park ranger. It was Team Ireland's last night - tomorrow we would be going our seperate ways. It was a good job we'd kind of celebrated this the night before as this campsite certainly didn't have a very pleasant aura - it looked like something horrible had happened in the toilets - there were red backs and other monsterous spiders in there. After dinner we chatted and a few of us sloped off, before Whits announced that she was hearing voices - Smithers exclaimed that she too had heard something but hadn't wanted to freak everyone out. At that, everyone freaked out - Al was up with the torch shining it around, although never moving far from the circle, and Stevie had a look of grave concern on his face! Nobody wanted to stick around for too long, so pretty sharpish The Groovy's last night came to an end! For those of us sleeping in the vans, the doors were locked, curtains drawn and all peep holes blocked up, and for those in the tents ... they just had to take their chances!
"Good talk ... See you out there" (Foxy, 26th July 2006)

---

Photos

Getting decked!
Team Ireland play in the waves

Maud Point
Comedy fishing!

Hammersley Gorge
Flo takes the plunge

In the mangroves
The crazt Swiss goes climbing

Stunning
Hammersley Gorge

In the van
Keeping it tidy as usual!

Kermits Pool
Team Ireland jump in

Vlamingh Head
Another town another lighthouse

Sexy in rubber
Team Ireland prepare to snorkel with the Manta Rays

Unreal
Sunset at the Ningaloo Reef

Extreme tanning
Greeny will take any opportunity to top up the tan

Coral Bay
Another gorgeous sunset

In the Karijini
Chilling in the van

Kermits Pool
Smithy goes for it!