Well, it has been a while since our last update and we have covered a reasonable amount of Australia in that time. Between a lack of phone signal, huge distances between anywhere and no-where, and a small amount of lazy-ness on my behalf, there is quite a bit to tell in this blog update. So, you had better make yourself comfortable….

We finally left Cape Keraudren after two and a half weeks, not bad considering we planned on staying there three days. The day we packed up the camper, the weather was the best it had been, not a cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind, the ocean was like a lake. Typical… The drive to Port Hedland was quite flat, open and uninspiring. We stopped there for much needed supplies, and after paying $250 for our groceries we got out of there quick! That's the worst thing about W.A., everything is expensive. A couple of hundred k's down the road we camped at a roadside stop for the night, then entered the Pilbara region, and drove in to have a look at the Karratha / Dampier / Wickham area. There were few surprises for us here, the whole area revolves around mining and the mining industry, and that's what dominated the scenery. One thing that was good to see in this area was the wild flowers that were beginning to poke their heads up. On the side of the road we spotted a number of Sturt Desert Peas growing, many of them with plenty of their bright red flowers standing out easily against the barren surroundings. I brought the Pajero to a halt at one point and got out to take some photos. Me lying on the ground, on the side of the road, in the middle of no-where, taking photos of a flower... never thought I'd be doing that! We continued on and visited the historic town of Cossack, which had a few buildings remaining from the 1800's. It is a quiet little town with a nice outlook over the ocean inlet, but to get there you need to drive past expanses of salt flat mines and pass countless mining related equipment. Karratha was passed through without a second glance, just a town, and we continued out to Dampier. Dampier was a bit of a surprise. The town is surrounded by mining, you drive in through the salt mine flats, past the iron ore machinery, past the inconceivably long iron ore trains and arrive in Dampier with its green grass, tree lined streets and recreation areas surrounded by palm trees. They have done a good job of making the town feel separate from the surrounding mining area, although it is still quite easy from town to see the conveyers and the huge ships being filled with iron ore. A quick drive through was good enough and we stopped at the Red Dog memorial for a photo. If you haven't seen the movie Red Dog, do so, it's typically Australian and good viewing. While at the monument, we got talking to a woman with two dogs, one of which was a Blue Healer, the same as our late Cody. During the conversation she told us that she had only taken over caring for the Blue Healer in order to find her a new owner, as the original owners were going to have her put down. The woman said that she had become quite fond of the dog and she was now going to keep her. Kathy was also becoming very fond of the dog, it was easy to do, and the woman said that had we been in these circumstances a couple of weeks earlier… well, we would have probably driven away with a dog (sitting where is anyone's guess…), which would have made for a good story, finding a dog at the Red Dog memorial and all…. As it was, we parted company and continued south along the North West Highway. That night was another stop at a roadside rest area at Robe River, and in the morning as we were packing up, there were hundreds of Budgies flying around the area near us. We had seen Budgies flying around as we drove along, but this was the first time we had seen so many of them together, and so close. Needless to say, we ended up taking longer than planned to get moving, but it didn't matter. Another day of driving through a desolate, straight, flat environment through the Pilbara Region. It certainly is not as interesting as the Kimberley. There are some sections of the Pilbara that have rocky outcrops and a few small mountains, but for the most part it is a very uninteresting landscape. I know, we are spoilt, but if you have the chance of visiting either the Pilbara or the Kimberley, the Kimberley wins for scenery hands down! After a long day on the road we took the turn off toward Exmouth, no change in the scenery, and stopped at the Yardie Homestead between Exmouth and Cape Range National Park. This "homestead" is nothing more than an old house with an area next to it that is doing a pretty good impression of a caravan park. Not what we expected really. We stayed here for three nights as we were booked in to camp at Cape Range N.P. on the Monday, and had time to kill. We explored the area around North West Cape, had a look at Exmouth, and had a drizzly overcast day which was a change to the endless blue sky days that we had experienced for the past couple of months.

On the Monday morning we drove into Cape Range N.P. where we intended to be camped for a week next to the beautiful waters of Ningaloo Reef. On the way in through the park a kangaroo bounded out directly in front of us. Kathy yelled out, I swerved and braked, and I caught a glimpse of him as he went past the driver's door… no "thump", and I was sure we had missed him, but a bit further up the road I looked in the mirror and saw him lying on the road. A quick U-turn found him stone dead, his escape foiled by the camper trailer. We felt bad, but what do you do? As we were to see on our drive into Cape Range N.P., car verses kangaroo is not an uncommon occurrence on this road. There are literally hundreds of dead kangaroos on the side of the road, and a quick shine of the spotlight around the camp at night shows they are far from endangered, they are everywhere, even on the beach in the day! We arrived at our campsite to find it was made from ultra-hard rocks that wouldn't allow a tent peg to be hammered in. "No worries", says the campground host. "I have this piece of half inch bar and a big f**k-off hammer you can use to make a pilot hole for your tent pegs". So here I go, hammering this half inch bar into the ground, and it is vibrating and singing like a tuning fork!! So I swing off the hammer harder, and finally, success!! I bent the half inch bar… great… now what. "Dunno", says the host. Awesome. So we tied the tent down to some big rocks and tied it to the pine fence around the campsite and hoped for the best. As predicted by the weather bureau, the winds picked up to include 30 knot gusts, and they pretty much laughed at our tie-your-camper-tent-down-with-rocks effort. The wind would come in strong for the morning, usually start at about 1am and last until midday, which made it hard to go snorkelling. We persevered and managed to get a good snorkel at Turquoise Bay and at Oyster Stacks. The water was cold, so we wore our wetsuits, but the coral and fish life was fantastic. The coral at Ningaloo is not quite as colourful as at the Barrier Reef, but at Ningaloo you have the definite advantage of being able to snorkel on the coral reef only metres from shore. We also went for a walk to a nearby, un-named gorge that the campground host told us about and caught a few glimpses of Black Footed Rock Wallabies. These things are amazing how they can hop up an almost vertical rock face with seemingly little effort. We did spot a quite large Wedge Tailed Eagle circling above the gorge as well, obviously waiting for those wallabies that are not quite as sure footed as they should be. After three nights of being blasted by the wind and getting little sleep due to getting up at 2 and 3am to hold the tent down again, we decided to stay one more night and head off. On the last arvo the wind died off again and I convinced Kathy that we should at least go for a quick snorkel off the beach that we were camped near. The trouble was, the wetsuits were already packed away, and the water was cold, but she was brave and agreed we should give it a go. I thought that we had possibly been acclimatised to the warm weather up north, and the water was not really that cold, that we were being wimps. But when I entered the water in a pair of shorts and a rash vest for a quick snorkel, well, it was actually bloody cold!! Cold enough to make my breathing erratic for a few minutes, cold enough for Kathy to hear me squeal through my snorkel as I started paddling to keep warm. To her credit, Kathy sucked it up and jumped in as well, even after hearing my complaints. We had a good (short) snorkel around the reef just off the beach, heaps of fish life, very little current and clear water. The sun was shining on our backs but it was not enough to stop us from leaving the water shivering after only 15 minutes. It was worth it though. The next morning we woke to the wind roaring again and had fun battling it to get the camper packed up. We drove back through Exmouth and headed south toward Coral Bay. We had heard a lot about Coral Bay, read about it in countless magazines, and had collected the brochure from the tourist info centre. We found it to be over-rated. It's a nice spot, right on a beautiful white sand beach, turquoise water and the coral reef is close enough to reach out and touch… but the town itself consists of a couple of blocks of holiday units a few old houses and a caravan park slash general store, and that's about it. The glass-bottom boat can be taken from the beach for a cruise around the bay, or you can snorkel right off the beach, which is great, but no different from the rest of this coastline. We had lunch in a park in the centre of town and headed off again, driving south and stayed the night at a free camp on the side of the road. Today was a driving day and we stopped at Hamelin Station, on the way into the Shark Bay area, which is where we are presently camped.

Hamelin Station is a pleasant surprise for us. We picked it out of the Camps book as an alternative to the caravan parks in Denham, which are packed and expensive. Hamelin Station is a working sheep station of somewhere around 500,000 acres. They have a great camping area with one of the best amenities block and camp kitchen areas that we have seen. The camp ground is well set out and is surrounded by the farm. We have a spot right near the old shearing shed, not too far from the sheep holding yard. The owners have been rounding up sheep for the past couple of weeks ready for sale, so we will be kept company by the bleating of sheep until who knows what time at night! Tomorrow we are going to take a drive out to see the Stromatalites at Hamelin Pool and then have a walk around the station in the arvo and relax a bit. We'll explore Shark Bay further in a day or so, and we'll be sure to let you know what we come across.