The sun was shining for the 5 hour journey to Exmouth, but we struggled with this leg, the emptiness of the outback threatened to swallow us up and it felt like really hard going on mile after mile of straight, empty road, even the road kill was uninspiring and no longer caused us to slow down to retch.
But what did make the final 100 kms exciting was the very real prospect of running out of fuel. We'd filled up where we could, but there simply aren't enough petrol stations in this region. 90 km to go the fuel needle dropped to the notch above empty. 50 kms remaining, the needle hits the top of the empty marker. Holy cow, this is going to be tight. 10 kms and were running on empty. The garage appeared at the far end of town and it was like seeing Brigadoon appear out of the mists, was this magical place real? Was it really there? Yes and yes.
The campsite is a short walk away from the town beach, a vast expanse of soft, yellow sand which is backed by a barrier of decent sized sand dunes. We had a few hours at the beach, people in 4 wheel drives drove along the wet compact sand, people on horses trotted passed, but largely, like everywhere else it was all but deserted.
The sea was so cold, there was no way we were getting in, I waded to mid calf before deciding that I didn't need to be doing this, turned on my heels and headed back to the warm sand.
Camp cooking has been a simple affair, when its been dry we've cooked a feast on our two portable stoves. Pasta, rice and really anything that can be made in a single pot. With limited resources, we've had some mighty tasty meals, but it has just been nice to cook for ourselves after all this time.
On Jan's birthday we took a drive round to the West of the peninsular, our first stop was the lighthouse perched on top of a hill, the views from up there were spectacular. Miles and miles of bays, coves and points, all with beautiful sand and turquoise sea and barely a sole on them. This was what we were expecting from a western Oz road trip and it was so worth the wait and the effort. The hill gave a panoramic view of both sides of the peninsular and with this commanding view, played a key role during World War Two, defending the country against the Japanese, remnants of a lookout tower and gun placements remain as a reminder.
From there we headed to a couple of the beaches that we'd seen from our earlier vantage point.
The one we settled on was aptly named Jansz beach, soft yellow sand beautifully clear but chilly sea and it was good just sitting in the warm sun listening to the waves crash on the shore in this stunning location.
We had a plan to head back early, grab some fish and chips and have a few bevies, the chippy was closed and after 2 drinks we were all too sleepy to go on. Stupid fresh air.
As we ate breakfast the following day, we were joined by an emu, taking the opportunity to have a drink from the pools left from the previous night's rain. It was enormous at over 5 feet tall and not in any way shy. It's piercing orange and black eyes studied us for a few moments before it came over to see if we had anything it wanted, decided that we hadn't and went back for another drink. It eventually wandered off into the bush where it buddied up with another and then the two birds disappeared.
A short hop to Coral bay for more beaches and hopefully some snorkelling if the weather improves.