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Published: November 15th 2009
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Day 201 - Near Denham
Happy Birthday Mark ‘Mush / Shag’ Coulsell! We hope you have a fabulous day and that Mrs Coulsell brings you all your heart desires, or at the very least she doesn’t bring you a mouldy bread bacon sandwich! Happy Birthday mate, lots of love from both of us x It hadn’t really crossed our minds about how high the tide would come through the night, we must have just assumed that despite our relative closeness to the shoreline that we were safe enough and luckily we were! Higher deposits of the sea grass proved that we weren’t imagining the sound of the ocean seeming closer last night, it did come up higher than normal. The wind howled us to sleep making the caravan rock like a babies cradle but by morning the wind was gone and we woke to an ocean still and tranquil.
A cuttlefish swam in the shallows, cleverly using its ability to blend in with the surroundings by changing colour. It took us a while to realise it was actually a cuttlefish for just that reason as the last time we’d seen them they were bronze!
Our pace has
slowed somewhat as we dig in our travelling heals to wait for the Elliotts and Reeves families who we think will probably be enjoying the community at Quobba round about now! It still puts us about 4 days ahead so we need to spend more time relaxing in pleasant surroundings and less time on the move as we desperately want to see these families again before we have to say goodbye, to the Elliott’s at least, when we leave Perth.
The camper vans that arrived just before sunset yesterday were quick to pack up and leave this morning as was the motorhome parked in the way of the full frontal wind through the night although they did have the prime location until the wind picked up!
That left us and the other couple in the big caravan whom we rather suspected had been camped here for much longer than the legislated 24 hours. Turns out we were right and during a nice long friendly chat they let it slip that they’d been here for 4 days but were moving on today and heading in to Denham.
What’s good for the goose? It seemed a shame to leave
such a good spot when the wind had dropped and everything was so calm. We thought we’d play things by ear and if more people arrived throughout the day then we would move on, but if they didn’t then maybe we would stay to keep the ocean and its occupants company.
With the other caravan gone we had the place all to ourselves and it was lovely! We just pottered around for a bit, walked up on top of the cliffs and wandered along the sand dunes.
Today is Friday 13th 2009 but rather than sit around terrified that bad luck will somehow drop at our doorstep we let fate take it’s course and make a decision to travel back to Denham leaving the caravan where it is for the time being. Denham is only 20 kms away and the trip would give us the opportunity to charge up the laptop using the convertor and upload a couple more of the blogs so that we’re keeping up to date.
We have no fear of Friday 13th, hence the blog title but it’s fascinating to wonder why this superstition was attached in the first place. Wikipedia is of
course the first place to look for an answer but it’s something that nobody can be sure of, it’s folklore and as such remains open to the theorists and ‘experts’. One thing that is certain is that we’ve seen the back of ‘that day’ for another year as it could only occur three times in 2009; February, March and then November. So that’s it then, all the bad luck has passed us by, goodie!
Whilst back in Denham we wandered up for a look at the shell bricked St Andrews church which is beautifully simplistic all round. The font is a gorgeously large conch shell on top of a shell stone pedestal, how unique and very fitting!
We search through the tiny town for the War Memorial but come away empty handed! Ridiculous as it may sound (and considering the miles we have covered on this trip it actually is a bit insane), despite following every sign post and covering the entire area 4 or 5 times we could not find the memorial. How very bizarre!
The trip in and out had been a success in terms of charging batteries, a spot of lunch was in order
and then we made our way back to Eagle Bluff for another try at marine watching! The wind hampered our efforts quite a lot, it was back and stronger than before but we did find an additional lookout to give us an extended view of the area. It was great to see so many people on the boardwalk and even though the wildlife wasn’t in the same sort of abundance as yesterday we did manage to spot a couple of shovel nosed rays and some smaller sharks in the shallows. It's truly amazing to think that this area was land locked 18'000 years ago and that the ocean was over 100 kms away! Back then, had we even been able to make the journey, we would have been standing in dry, arid land and in the not too distant past Eagle Island was being 'farmed' for it's covering of guano (bird poo) which in the 1800's was apparently as valuable as gold. Ships came from Europe even, to gather the phosphate rich fertiliser. Incredible really.
Before we go back to the caravan we check out the last of the four free camping areas. Goulett’s Bluff is about 8 kms
back towards Nanga but it’s another really pleasant site with a beautiful outlook. There’s nobody camped here, we couldn’t see anybody camped at Eagle Bluff or Fowlers either which seems a bit strange given that it’s free and it’s coming up to the weekend.
Back to the caravan we go and we find that we’re still the only ones at the site, but not for long! We were joined by Dot and Beth who are cousins and travelling in separate vehicles but mainly touring together. Dot is driving a beaut of an RV emblazoned with Ghost Rider across the front, she later tells us she’s a widow so we guess that the name is a tribute to her late husband Dave. Beth is driving an enormous 5th wheeler with ‘Country Born and Breed’ across the back, they’re both lovely ladies and are really enjoying their trip around Oz.
We enjoy the sunset even if the wind does start up again but it’s nowhere near as bad as last night and as luck would have it we had a nice walk with the ladies up over the cliffs. The sunset wasn’t half bad and the night sky brought us
a trillion stars to look at.
Beth invited us for a look around the 5th wheeler, pretty stunning to tell you the truth as it has all the mod cons plus the luxury of the 4WD up front so she can still get off road when she needs to.
All rather predictably dinner was of course gorgeous, Mr Howells again at the cooker controls to produce a rather yummy sausage casserole. We offered the ladies some but they politely declined, they clearly don’t know what they’re missing!
Pirates of the Carribbean - At World’s End kept us entertained until bedtime and lights out.
Love to all from both of us at our probably fairly obvious, not so secret location!
Dar and Sar
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Gary
non-member comment
Finally
Well, it took some time, but I am finally caught up on your blog. You do a great blog. And you are obviously having a great time. Superb! Check out Findlay's B-B-Q Fish when you are in Kalbarri. It's a pretty unique place. Food is good and wasn't expensive when we were there in Oct 2009.