Mon, 30th May to Sun, 5th June - Warroora Station

At around 3am the rain started ... and it poured down.  I had to get up and close up the four seasons hatch and wipe down the table and seating area as it was drenched.  We had several heavy falls through the night and woke to a very overcast morning.  We hadn't done much the previous day in the way of setting up, so it was easy to pack up and head out.  We called in to the Blowholes on the way out ... only a couple of kilometres away. It is a dangerous spot and there is a memorial there for those who have drowned there.  There is already one name listed with a blank line left for the next poor soul.

We then headed to Warroora Station which is a working sheep station (14 Mile Beach) about 25kms south of Coral Bay, and adjacent to the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park.  Here it cost $15 per night or $75 per week for a site with no facilities and you must have your own toilet or they won't let you camp.  We had rain all the way there and at times there was a lot of water over the road. We were starting to think we might have to continue into a van park in Coral Bay as we knew that it would be a dirt track into Warroora, which would be boggy.  But the further north we went, the more obvious it was that the rain had been much lighter, so were were going to give the track a go.  We had been told there were two turnoffs into Warroora and that we should take the northern turn as that track wouldn't be as sandy.  We took that turnoff and ended up on one of the roughest and rocky dirt roads we have been on all trip and it seemed to go on forever.  At least it was dry though, and we eventually made it into the beach area where we found ourselves a reasonable spot overlooking the ocean.  On the way in we passed hundreds of termite mounds.

When it came to pay for our site we decided to pay for a week ... you actually pay $75 for five nights and get two free.  It was windy (again!) so we had to turn the van away from the water to get some shelter.

Even with our external aerial, the only place to get internet and mobile phone is on top of a nearby hill (Telstra Hill).  We drove up there to get our emails and as we looked down we could see Steve and Linda (from Bush Beach) heading in to camp.  When we caught up with them a bit later they told us it was lucky we had left Bush Beach when we did as the following morning, where we were camped, we would have been in six inches of sea water.  They also said that when they left they were in low range four wheel drive with the diff locked to enable them to drive out over the muddy road and they were still sliding all over the place.  So, by the time they had done that and then come over the really rough road into Warroora, Linda had just about had enough!

Tuesday we rose late to a sunny but still windy day.  'The Wrecker' decided to give some of the drainpipes a good clean with a bottlebrush attached to the end of his broken fishing rod.  All went well until he decided they weren't quite clean enough and he wanted to give it another go.  You can probably guess ... the rod came out of the pipe and the brush stayed behind.  This is not the type of place where you can get a plumber to make a house-call!  Not to be too concerned, he went for a drive around the paddocks and found some old fencing wire that he made into a hook and used to retrieve the offending piece of plastic!  The day before we had been invited by Steve and Linda to join them for morning coffee so we had an enjoyable morning with them at their van.

We returned and had some lunch and then Rick set up the awning, flooring, etc. while I cleaned inside.  Once the chores were done we headed down to the beach for Rick to have a swim.  A short distance from Rick, I spotted a large turtle just drifting in and out with the waves and later Rick spotted a large Ray gliding on the surface.

On Wednesday we decided to drive the 25kms into Coral Bay to do some washing and have a look around.  Steve and Linda's sausage dog had been bitten by something - probably midges and had come up in a rash and kept them awake all night.  They had organised to meet a vet from Exmouth out on the highway sometime during the day so they asked us to get their gas bottle filled in Coral Bay for them.

There wasn't much in Coral Bay ... two caravan parks, a couple of shops, backpackers accommodation and a resort.  We were able to do our washing in one of the van parks for $5 per load in de-salinated water or we could have used bore water at $3 per load ... that's if the bore water machines weren't all being used - no such luck!  We also bought water there for 10 cents per litre.  We were going to stock up on some food at the supermarket but it was far too expensive ... we'll wait until we get to Exmouth which has a population of approximately 2400. We paid $1.78 per litre for diesel.  We went into the resort to have some fish and chips for lunch.  Just as we were about to walk outside to sit down with our food, 'The Wrecker' dropped the glass salt shaker and smashed it on the cafe floor ... he probably should have thrown some over his shoulder.

Thursday was sunny again after showers of rain and strong winds during the night.  Steve had shown us his set up for catching clean rainwater off the awning of his van and Rick asked for his help in setting one up for ourselves.  Each National Park camping area has hosts who camp on site to collect fees and make sure people are behaving themselves.  We heard during the day that our host's (Tracy) husband who works on Warroora Station itself, had been flown to Port Hedland as he had been bitten by a brown snake.  We checked later and found that he was quite OK and would be home in a couple of days.

Rain was expected again on Friday night so Steve and Rick rigged up a water catcher for us.  Steve and Linda invited two other couples besides ourselves, to take food and join them in a BBQ in the evening.  One of the other couples cooked some calamari that they had caught off the rocks here - very nice.

The rainwater catching system didn't work quite as planned on last night, but with a couple of minor modifications on Saturday, would work a treat ... we just needed some more rain.   We took a drive further down the coast to another spot that our host had originally suggested we might like to camp.  No way ... the van wouldn't have coped with the even rougher tracks and a lot of it was four-wheel drive only.  Later in the day we went on-line to try to book into a couple of other National Parks near to Exmouth for next week.  Of the 7 or so areas, only four can accept bookings on line and those four were booked out until the end of June.  The others are also so popular we had been warned we would need to line up very early in the morning to see if we could get into them (or even camp overnight at the entrances).  We ended up booking into a park for two nights in Exmouth first and we would make some day trips to see what the National Park sites are like.

In the afternoon storms started brewing all around us.  It became really windy, so at around 8pm Rick put away the awning as it sounded as if it would be torn off.  At least with it folded away, the noise doesn't keep you awake all night.  The wind eventually settled at around 10pm.

On Sunday we just had a quiet day tidying up a bit and starting to pack things away. In the morning a stranger driving past stopped and offered us a small reef shark, but Rick declined.  The fellow said that the best thing to do with them is to fillet them and put them in the freezer for a couple of weeks before eating.  With its head removed it was probably about 80cm long. In the afternoon Rick went down to Steve and Linda's to watch the football ... they have a satellite dish for TV reception.  We haven't had TV for ages and I find I really miss seeing the news at night.

Blowholes

One of the many huge termite mounds in the area

Our campsite at Warroora Station (14 Mile Beach)

Looking down to our campsite from Telstra Hill

The beach in front of our campsite

Sunset from our site

Overlooking the beach at Coral Bay