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Published: July 14th 2011
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Since our last blog it is sad to report that Tab’s grandpa (Scott’s dad, John) passed away the day after Tab’s birthday, so we promptly checked out of Denham and hit the road for two full days to get ourselves back to Perth. We hitched the red-eye (1.45am departure from Perth, YAWN) on the Monday morning, over to the Gold Coast, only to arrive back in Perth again on the Wednesday night, 1.30am. Luckily we were able to park the bus at Tab’s ex-bosses mums house in Perth and find the cats some luxury accommodation so that took a load off our minds at such a stressful time. The funeral was held on the Tuesday, and despite the sad occasion Scott did a fabulous job with the eulogy and it was wonderful to see some faces we hadn’t seen since our wedding almost 10 years ago. It’s true, sometimes you only get to see people for weddings & funerals.
In a twist of fate, Suzz & Roger welcomed their new baby girl, Grace Ella, on the same day Grandpa died (congratulations guys!) and a stark reminder of the true “circle of life” for us that day.
So in leading
Whalebone Bay Camp Shark Bay Marine Park
You can just see Boris the one over the dune in the far of the pic up to the Tab’s birthday, we did some freedom camps leading into Denham/Monkey Mia, most memorable being the 28th June where we drove into Francois Peron N.P where there is a hot artesian spring, and we mean HOT! 40 degrees, sitting in there with rain pelting down on our heads, quietly sipping a coldie. 3 hours later when we’d been thoroughly cooked, we headed on in to Monkey Mia…now referred to as “Monkey Business” after our one and only night there.
Being a fairly busy place (and the weather absolutely crap) we were asked to park in coach parking for the night, which would have been fine, however they neglected to say we would be parked UNDER the de-salination plant which runs 24/7, next to the camp kitchen we were “welcome to use” which was actually closed, and near the ablution block that was blocked up! At $40 a night for that, Jeff promptly walked up to the office the next morning (birthday day), got a refund, we watched the dolphins feeding and then hit the road, unshowered, unfed and had set up our spot in a beaut van park in Denham…all by 9:30am!!
The rest of the
Monkey Business
This is our lovely spot under the de-sal plant at Monkey Mia...should have heard the noise! 24/7 day was wonderful, we had a pie & a coffee in Denham for a late breaky, hit up the pub for a cider at midday, got some takeaways and went to the cute 18 hole mini-golf, gently sipped & putted the afternoon away in the sunshine. Later that night birthday girl was treated to a beautiful dinner at The Old Pearler restaurant in Denham, a bourbon or two at the pub on the way back to camp. Birthday girl’s husband ended up with a worse hangover the next day so a 2 night stay in Denham was required! And then, sadly we heard about Grandpa on the 30th and hit the road on the 1st July for our Gold Coast flyby.
We stocked up on supplies in Perth, and fuelled up Boris & all the jerrycans while fuel was 30 cents cheaper than up north, hit the road once more and took a slightly different route north, just so we didn’t feel like we were doing the same roads all over again. We stayed at Buntine Rocks the first night, arrived quite late so pretty much had a feed, walked the boys & went to bed! Then another roadside
camp just north of Kalbarri to pretty much end up level with where we left off, but inland. In our quest for “the road less travelled" we headed in off the NW Coastal Highway, via Butchers Track to the tiny community of Murchison, population 15. With rolling thunderclouds chasing us all the way in on the track, we knew we’d be in for some rain, however the rain exceeded all expectations and we’ve been stranded here for the past 5 days!! Stuck with a lovely crew of 4 other people, happy hour by the fire every night from 4.30pm and long chats, all cooking on the campfire long into the night. We’ve made some firm friends and even plan on catching up with Mac & Nell when we get north as they live near Darwin.
Our goal when travelling this way was to climb Mt Augustus (highest peak in WA), however with all the rain the roads all around this region have been closed, so those poor souls that were at Augustus when the rains hit are trapped for 2 weeks while they fix up the track for them to get back out! We’ve heard that Butchers Track re-opened
The storm chasing us
Butchers Track, on the way to being stranded for 5 days this arvo, so we’ll take the chance while we can and head back out that way to the NW Coast Highway again.
So with our departure from here planned, we’ll head into Carnarvon, grab our mail (thanks mum & dad!) and then try and get into the Kennedy Ranges/Gascoyne Junction region, but we think these too might be closed. Some things are just not meant to be, and like we keep saying, it just gives us a reason to come back & holiday in this area another time and see the things we missed. Aint no point getting bogged!
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