Our Travels

We spent a pleasant three days on the banks of the Ashburton River as we were trapped and couldn’t get out.

Sunset on the Ashburton River

We met two couples, one from Sydney that have been on the road for 8 years and another couple from somewhere near Narrogin who had an old Transperth bus converted as a camper and were planning to stay there until Sept.

We spent the three days relaxing, skyping our family and talking to them on the phone and socialising with our new friends who were also stuck. We found out that, although we were stuck , we had left Exmouth just in time. The Cape Range National Park sustained quite a bit of damage and people were evacuated from there. There was so much water that some caravans had water flowing through them. That was where we had been the day before the rain. Exmouth ended up being isolated for several days – no one could get in or out. Probably our camper would have been damaged – some trailers were washed away.

Our first campfire, Jacky was not impressed, it was still 28C

On Wednesday we went for a drive along the road and found that the centre of the road was reasonably dry and above the water so we planned to take our chances and get out on Thursday. Whilst we were so close we drove down to Old Onslow to check it out.

Jacky at the old Onslow Police Station

The old Onslow Gaol

There wasn’t much to see except signs were the buildings used to be telling you what they were and who owned them. There was one ruin – the old jail, police station and the courthouse.

Black Swans on the Ashburton River

During our three days we saw a group of five black swans swimming up and down the river with a couple of pelicans in tow. All in all it was a pleasant few days but it means that we will need to forego Karijini and Millstream this trip and come back and do them at some other time.

Another beautiful day by the Ashburton River

Ashburton River

Reflections on the Ashburton River

Happy Birthday Jacky

We had some fruit cake for morning tea but I couldn’t find any candles

After lunch we went down to chat with our nearest neighbours about 1 km away and had a great afternoon exchanging stories, they were retired and had been on the road for 8 years living in  a small home made camper on the back of a Toyota ute.

Dinner was steak and vegies washed down with Moet (Jacky’s 2012 Christmas present)

The Ashburton Shire finally updated their web site and declared the Old Onslow Rd closed until further notice. It looks like we may be here for a few more days at least.

After the overnight downpour we woke to clear skies and water everywhere.

Old Onslow Rd, the way we came in and the way we have to go out

We decided to pack up wet anyway and get out of here, by the time we had packed and removed 90% of the slaters it was 11 am, we had seen one camper go past with their boat in tow. We were about 2 kms down the road and they were coming back towards us. A roadside chat revealed that further down the road was covered with water for as far as the eye could see. We kept going to check it for ourselves and to take a few photos

The road out

We agreed with their assessment, with few trees to winch off, a trailer behind and 23kms until the bitumen we decided to spend another night here. Same spot, same setup.

Our first river crossing

Why did we cross it?   because it was there, yesterday it was a concrete crossing two feet above the water level, today there was a foot of water running over it.

I thought I had better check our winter clothing that was on the roof rack in a flash new canvas bag. As soon as I tried to get it off the roof I knew there was a problem, it had nearly doubled in weight, all of our winter clothing was soaked, some you could wring water out of. Ropes where strung from trees and clothes were hanging everywhere.

It was a beautiful day, nice cool breeze and the biggest bonus about packing up and setting up in the one spot according to Jacky was that the slaters did not come back in their thousands, the water around the camp had dried and most of them went home.

We woke to a wet camp and were a little hesitant about packing up wet. Eventually we decided to let the tent dry a little before moving on. (BAD Decision) From 10 am to 5 pm it did not stop raining, we were still planning to leave here and go to Karinji on Sunday but Saturday night the rain came down in torrents. We had thunder and some pretty spectacular lightning throughout the day and as everything got wetter. The nearby station recorded 80mm but it felt more like 100+ mm.

The day was spent reading and playing games

The slaters (little crawly bugs) moved in in their thousands, with their normal homes under water they decided our tent was an ideal home. At one point it was as if the  floor was alive with them. Jacky was getting quite stressed, they would crawl up the tent walls then onto the roof then randomly dropped down.

We will need to stay here tonight and hopefully tomorrow will be fine and we can dry everything out and move on.

The puddle that was slowly becoming a lake

Jacky was a little concerned about a puddle near our camp that was slowly becoming a lake as the run off from the road was filling it up.

Our first rain! It started to drizzle as we finished packing up. It rained on and off all day but nothing particularly heavy. We were going to stop at a campsite for lunch but it started to rain as we were stopping so we continued on to Nanutarra Roadhouse and bought lunch which we ate in air-conditioned comfort. The pie and pastie we bought were hot but very ordinary for an exhorbitant price ($6.80 each). As we arrived at 3 mile pool on the Ashburton River it wasn’t raining but it started as we had almost got the awning up. Rain and red dust – a great combination. The trailer is definitely starting to look well used and travel stained. Reception here is good so Terry checked the weather and we have more rain to come either tonight or tomorrow. There weren’t many bugs so we didn’t put up the walls but when we switched on the lights that changed. We were inundated with tiny bugs, flying ants and moths. The walls went up pretty quickly even though they cut out most of the tiny breeze – better to be hot and muggy than covered in flying, annoying bugs.

Once again we went into Exmouth to pick up a few things then headed back to the National Park to explore some more beaches. We stopped off on the way to check out the Vlamingh Lighthouse. The view from up there was terrific. There is an old radar mount from World War 2 up there surrounded by some of the sand bags they used at that time. From there we went back to Yardie Creek to have lunch at one of the picnic tables under the trees. It was another beautiful day and we  went to Sandy Bay for a swim.

Sandy Bay

It is a large bay just like Turquoise Bay just not quite so popular so less people. The water is still quite clear and the current is not quite as stong as Turquoise Bay.

Turquoise Bay

I kept swimming whilst Terry took some photos. I could really get used to this lifestyle.

Sunrise at Yardie Creek, warning of weather to come?

We awoke to find our furry friend from the night before had paid us an early morning visit and Terry shooed him away but not before he had eaten my breakfast – some bacon and cheese rolls that I was going to toast. It got worse – he had knocked a cool bag onto the floor that contained 3 or 4 apples and 2 oranges. The apples were gone but he graciously  us the 2 oranges. Pat came down with the good news that he had secured us a new campsite at Ned’s Camp up the north end of the park. We got to Neds Camp and met our new camp hosts, Frank and Merl and proceeded to set up on a snug fitting site – it was long and narrow. By the time we finished it was 35 degrees. We walked down to the beach and had a swim before lunch. After lunch we visited the Myerling Information centre and then drove to Turquoise Bay. It is very popular and was crowded when we got there. It is a large, sheltered bay with beautiful, turquoise water and it is very calm although the current is quite strong. The water is so clear you can see the bottom even when you are quite deep. Some people snorkelling were following a group of sea turtles.

The wind blew quite fiercely throughout the night but we awoke to a beautiful, calm day. Terry’s plan was to continue up the coast on the four wheel drive track and cross Yardie Creek to get to the campsite but we couldn’t get reliable information about whether the creek was crossable or not so we went back to the highway and headed for Exmouth and down to Yardie Creek from there. We arrived in Exmouth around lunchtime and were able to get the tent poles we needed. After having lunch in Federation Park, across the road from the shopping centre, we hit the road again to get to our pre-booked campsite at Yardie Creek. On entering the Range National Park we enquired about the availability of campsites after tonight and were told that the park was completely full. The ranger said we could line up at the ranger station in the morning when they allocated sites on a first come first served basis. The ranger station opened at 8.30am but we were told that people started lining up from 6am. The ranger radioed ahead to Yardie Creek to let the camp hosts know we were on our way. Pat and Barb were the camp hosts and on arriving we asked about the possibility of staying longer. Pat said they were fully booked  but he could try to get us into another campsite at 7.30am the next morning.

Yardie Creek

We went for a walk to the creek and Terry found that it would have been fine to cross – better safe than sorry.

The creek would have been about a metre deep at high tide and ankle deep at low tide and with high tide at 2pm we would have had to wait to around 5pm to cross

The good thing about Yardie Creek was very few flies so no need for the walls around the canopy. Terry took some photos of the sunset but it wasn’t that spectacular as there were too many clouds. We had a visit from a cheeky kangaroo later  and he put his nose right on to the table whilst we were still sitting there. We fixed the shower tent and had a wonderful shower before bed.

Bruboodjoo Point

Today is a travel day. We drove back into Carnarvon to see if we could get new poles for the roof of the shower tent or a new shower tent as ours had blown down in the night and broken the fibreglass roof poles. No luck – being Easter Monday, only the chemist, news agency, supermarket and visitors centre appeared to be open. We fuelled up, filled the water tanks and parked under a tree near a table so Terry could send off his job application. I rang the kids and caught up until he finished and then we headed off to Coral Bay. All the way up the highway we passed dead kangaroos and even two dead cows on the side of the road. Terry decided that we may stay in the Caravan Park for one night but the two caravan parks were so full that you could barely walk between each campsite. Sardine camping doesn’t appeal so we decided to move on after having a look around. The beach looked quite inviting except that it was so crowded. We headed a little further up the coast to 9 mile beach – a large bush camp – where we met up with Bill from the 4wheel drive club. We had afternoon tea with Bill and met some of his friends. It was a nice afternoon despite the wind.

Today we drove into Carnarvon and arrived just before lunch. We found a boat supply place and got a replacement pump for the camper trailer as ours had simply died. After buying a few supplies we found a nice shady spot and made lunch. We ate lunch looking across a canal at some pretty impressive, large waterfront houses. After lunch we left Carnarvon to find Quabba Blowholes, our next camping spot. We set up camp and then went to see the blowholes.

Quobba Blowholes

Didn’t get as close as I would have liked, 2 reasons:  1) I didn’t want salt spray on my new Nikon D610 and 2) the good wife kept calling me back

Just near the Blowholes

They are quite impressive.