Marty had packed up the quickest he had done in a long time. We were leaving the Woods, hoping that time apart would mend what had happened. Martin, Mark and Amanda were still not talking, even after he had apologised yesterday, and it left me feeling like the piggy in the middle. I really hate when this kind of stuff happens as it ends up impacting on your trip and your memories. Nanga Bay will always remain in my mind as the awful place where our friendship with the Woods changed and possibly ended. Marty and l have made a pact to not ever travel with mates ever again in a way where our travels would not be our own. We must now get back on track and start travelling our own trip and try and move past this bump in the road.
We said our goodbyes as if we were all acquaintances being polite to each other and headed an hour or so down the road to Hamelin Pool. We stopped off at the Useless Loop Road to check it out, unfortunately it was still closed due to rain which sucked as was going to free camp a little up that road. So now we have decided to stay at Hamelin Pool Caravan Park for a night at this stage. It was reasonably priced at $27 pn. We were greeted by Trish, the owner, who we knew knows Bronwyn and Gavin, people we had met thru other travelling mates. It was again, a small world as always. She was very friendly and accommodating, but 'Frank' on the other hand, gave me the heeby geevies, as in Wolf Creek style. He was nice enough but he had this look about him which totally creeped me out...
Whilst at Hamelin Pool we went and checked out the Stromatolites. These are living marine stromatolites which are over 3 billion years old. They live thru production of bacteria and there are not many places in the world left that you can view living stromatolites. I tried to make this a science lesson for the girls but they seemed more interested in running up and down the board walk. We did the 1.8km loop walk which was really interesting. We passed thru the old cockle shell mine site where they used to cut out cockle shell bricks for nearby houses in Shark Bay Area. There were a few old gravesides too, one for a 7 month old boy who died from typhoid. Always reminds me how we have progressed in civilisation when l see old gravesides of infants. After the torturous walk, thats how the girls saw it, we headed back to the van and actually did torture them with school work!! Lol. I think it back fired, as the torture seemed to be on Marty and l, the girls really digging their heels in and making school life difficult. Seemed like we were in the van all day to get minor tasks completed. To alleviate my frustration l took a run up the road in which l really struggled to complete the 4km due to the rolling bloody hills! But at least l returned a lot happier than l left and the girls, Marty and l ended up having some fun together playing basketball. Other travellers nearby even started taking sides and cheering us on. Have really forgotten what its like travelling by ourselves, seems we hadn't had this type of family fun for ages. Maybe our break from the Woods would be just what we needed after all. After having aching tummies from laughing so much, we headed inside for dinner and an early night, hoping that Steep Point will be open tomorrow
Next morning we had woken early, l was starting school work when Marty came over to say Steep Point open. In a matter of 30 mins we were on our way, all very excited, well Marty and l were. Steep Point was another place on our bucket list. The dirt road was alright, a little corrugated in parts, but overall, not too bad. Marty had some fun in the boggy sand winding thru the dunes on the way which lead to squeals of thrill from the girls in the back. It took about 2 hours to get to the Blowhole turn off, we made our way thru the sand dunes, then we hit grassy hilly country. Amazing how quickly the landscapes can change. The girls had fun wahooing in the back over the big dunes. Marty finally let the tyre pressures down to 20psi which helped the motor run a bit quieter and work less. We pulled up to what we thought was South End Blowholes and had a picnic by the steep cliffs. It was absolutely stunning with huge pounding crashing into the cliffs. We enjoyed our saladas with vegemite and could have sat there all day, but there was much more to explore. So we headed off on the drive along the Zoytdorp cliffs which are a towering 170m above sea level and span the length of the coast from Kalbarri to Steep Point. As we were enjoying the landscapes we saw this huge spray of water in the air, then we saw the sign for South End Blowholes. What idiots we were! As we were sitting eating our picnic l was wondering why they called it blowholes when no water was seen launching up in the air, now we know why, we were in the wrong place. We gave the girls a safety talk, to watch out for spraying water or huge holes in the ground, then we got out of the car to explore the area. It was amazing. The sound was incredible, like the earth was going to cave in. Meg was pretty funny walking up to the holes, so very scared, she gripped our hands tightly and wouldn't let us walk off from her. Boo on the other hand was totally amazed with excitement. The blowholes did a big spray about 5-10m in the air. The noise was breathtaking, so hard to write in words. Definitely like nothing we have ever seen or heard in our entire lives, AMAZING!!! We had to make ourselves leave as we still had a lot of driving to do. An hour or so into the drive along the cliffs, we veered off a little to have a look at the monument of the recent drownings of a ship and her crew on Anzac Day 1963. I cant believe it happened so recently, totally expecting it to be in the late 1800's or so. The track was slow going, rocky with ruts and many tracks around, which if we didn't have the Hem maps on our GPS l'm sure we would have gotten lost. Finally, we arrived at Steep Point, the Westernmost Point of inland Australia. Have now been to all four most points and central to Australia. Pretty cool feeling really, such a huge effort to get to them all. Whilst looking around l noticed this red pole sticking out and thought aloud how stupid it was and why was it put there. I totally changed my mind when Marty pointed it out as being a Fotopole! So cool, especially seeing l didn't have my tripod with me. It allows you to screw your camera onto it. After excitedly mounting the camera on the Fotopole, we took the infamous family shot, one of the girls and then the girls took one of Marty and l kissing. Think we've done that at every point too. Marty couldn't believe that l was just as excited by this Fotopole as l was to have conquered all the most points of Australia! On our drive back, we fed ourselves up on lollies and chips while we took the beach view road back along Sheltered Beach, which was very stunning. Up from the rangers house there was a cool sandstone brick house, it looked like the most amazing location for a house. Brilliant sandstone colours against the turquoise water. There were a lot of campers around with their boats, as this place is meant to be a fisherman's paradise. Was sad that we couldn't camp for a few nights but the campgrounds were booked out as they were expecting all the people who were hanging out for the rain to stop to come in. We got back to the Useless Loop turnoff and decided to head straight on to check out the False Entrance blowholes. Was only 3pm so we had a bit more time. Marty reluctantly drove on, it was only 10km in but it ended up being very corrugated and rough rocky road. The Blowholes looked amazing in the distance as we drove up but when we got there nothing much happened. Huge waves continued bashing into the cliffs and the surrounding landscapes remained spectacular, so not a totally worthless detour. The drive home seemed to take forever, the sun setting with amazing pink, red, purple and oranges blanketing the sky. Cant wait to be by the ocean and watching a sunset again. We arrived home around 6pm and you could see the remnants of a big day out. We were all knackered, had dinner and a shower then headed straight to bed. Although a long day, was definitely worth it and a must for any traveller to explore. Next time we come back this way we will absolutely be returning to Steep Point, and to stay in a tent!!!!

Bell Xxx