Christmas Eve

Off just before high tide to the shark nursery, it's overcast and the sea no longer has any colour, it's grey and dark grey, however we do see three sharks swimming but not having our snorkelling gear with us cannot go film them, that has to wait now until Santa is just about to call on you, as hopefully tomorrow morning we will have the beach to ourselves, for obvious reasons and as the forecast is for a sunny Xmas day, better light to film in.........

The sun eventually comes out and I coax someone to come out and snorkel at low tide, we practise with small rays, moving onto little rays in preparation for our Boxing Day excursion.  Just as we should start to head in shore, we see a shoal of assorted fish, possibly 50, swimming in unison and engaging in a feeding frenzy on several of the corals. Neither of us have seen anything like it before, not even in the Red Sea or Mediterranean even after we have broken up a boiled egg in the water........

After several minutes I find the buoy next to me marking the outer extremities of the so called safe swimming, time to use those legs my dear and fin to shore. 6 feet from the shore I ask, "Have you had enough or shall we carry on" Two minutes later we are walking back to the Motorhome, talking about the feeding frenzy, at which I ask what the contents of our post shark swim Xmas dinner will be, mince I am told and no it's not turkey mince........ Now let me think, what wine shall I have with that...........

Back at the van, it's Charlottes birthday and Christmas Eve so let's break out the mince pies and celebrate with a hot cuppa, after all it's getting on and by the time we have showered, changed and got ready for the Coral Bay Xmas eve celebrations, if we are not ready by 7pm, we will have missed them..........

    Small Rays

    Little Rays

    On way to feeding frenzy

    MERRY CHRISTMAS !

Wednesday's boy camper child, is full of woe......

So just how many of you can say I woke up this morning full of the joys of Spring, singing what a wonderful world and good morning sunshine and then open the van door and step in a pile of emus do do........
The salt water bath, i.e. the sea and sun protection wally bandage appears to be having a positive effect on ankles, less redness, itching and inflammation.
Off as soon as the shops are open to do our Xmas shopping, 20 minutes and approx £55, it's all done, we are off to Coral Bay, our Christmas retreat.  Lots more traffic on the road and when we get there it's looking busy, good job we booked up 10 months ago....
Now whilst it sounds enchanting, beautiful and idyllic, apart from taking part in all the s words, snorkel, swim, sunbath and socialise, there is not much more to do and within the hour, one of us is so bored he has found, made friends with and trying to train his new pet, a tiny green bug eyed bug........ He fails miserably as bug eyed bug decides he does not like being the plaything of a bored Pom, so hops off into green grass, never to be seen again.  So far no one has acknowledged the Lost Pet notice on the site information board........
Now with yesterday's turtle blunder still on our minds, I decide to try and make amends by going snorkelling again today on the reef which is just across the road from us, thereby enabling me to change into gear at the van and walk across.  That entails me leaving my glasses behind and walking onto the beach looking for the safety indicator beach markers through squinty eyes......... I'm looking and looking and suddenly see a yellow marker near to the water level, so make my way towards it.  I stop with it about six feet in front of me, put on my fins, gloves and eventually my mask with prescription lens in, to suddenly see my yellow marker is three yellow plastic cricket stumps where some children are playing beach cricket, standing watching me, thinking what is this wally doing.......... A cheerful wave to them in the hope they cannot recognise me later back at camp........
Meanwhile back at camp it's filling up, it's going to test us as its the first busy campsite we have been on, there are Caravans, Motorhomes, tents, trailers, big ol 4x4 Utes, a converted bus and a boxed in Lorry with a boat on the top........ Oh and kids everywhere, we have already been serenaded by the neighbours daughter singing from frozen, had another trip over our canopy guide rope and sat and listened to one up the back screaming her head off and to top it off, the weather forecast for Xmas Day is 36 degrees, Cloudy and Windy.......
So as to try and get a little bit of the festive sprit, we walk around the town (10 minutes) and the camp site (5 minutes) lots of campers have lights and decorations up, one has even put Xmas stockings outside on a palm tree....... In order that we are not left out of the Christmas festivities on Xmas morning, we have decided to wait and open the two Xmas cards we were given and brought with us, on Xmas Morning, Merry Christmas...........
Now before one of you opens a Facebook, 'Go fund me page' on our behalf, please be aware that whilst you are getting up on Boxing Day, feeling as if you should have had slightly less to eat and drink and certainly not had that last mince pie, we will be swimming with Manta Rays, possibly Dolphins and almost certainly some harmless reef sharks, so enjoy and have the Christmas you want. Xx

    The view from our bedroom window, well the rear door window......

    The view from our front window

Traumatised Tuesday

You are never going to believe what happened today........ Put it like this, when I found out I was not best pleased to say the least, more about that later.

So I'm sitting there having breakfast outside when Julie comes out of the van and says look, 6feet behind me is an Emu obviously looking for any breakfast going spare, sorry Mr E my cranberries are for your truly..........  Next stop a little gift shop, where we ask is there a chemist in Town, Yes she replies, two doors down....... Doh! 

We try for a wheel chair but they don't have one, neither do they have crutches or walking frames, so we end up with tubular bandage....... Nice one Steve, now I really look like a geriatric in Bournemouth wearing sandals and socks........

After a slightly heated discussion in the van en route to snorkel, we call once again into the Visitors Center, not only because the nice helpful lady who looks like a film star is there but because someone is worried that my plans for the day will end with her demise....... 

Fortunately, some might say, it appears she was right once again.  According to the nice lady a boat got pulled out by the current where I was taking her to swim, but she is wearing fins I said......

So now with a change of plan we jump into Lakeside, not the retail center but the part of the coral reef where it is safe to swim.  It's good but not brilliant with most of it being caught on video by my go pro.  So next it's in at Oyster Stacks because yesterday was so good, however the tide is out and we are only just managing to swim with centimetres between us and the Coral.  Only thing for it, Turquoise Bay drift snorkel, where the men are shown from the stupid's and little ladies are sucked out to see and feed the Sharks.  Amazingly only one of us does this snorkel getting out way before the dangerous point, so all in all, it's been a fair to good day.

Drive back and get stopped by a couple of Bustards and yes I did spell that correctly, never seen them before but they make their presence felt by having us run around in a slowly moving van looking for a camera........

Once back and having consumed to statutory two cups of tea with a handful of almonds, we look at the video footage we took....... Five minutes into it, her that could have been a Sharks dinner says whilst looking at my iPad screen, "Is that a Turtle?"  Rewind, *<#+${^*~¥;"*#  yes it is and I swam directly over it and never noticed, what a *#$~*,^ .........

Hence the reason we went out for dinner in the Guinness palace just down the road, obviously as you can surmise to cheer up little miss Turtle spotter as she was devastated, unlike me..........

Boo hoo, hoo.........

    Bustard looking really regal after pulling our strings......

    Go away, we are playing hide and seek with the Turtle.....

    Anyone seen a Turtle?

    You can't find me.........

Manic Monday

Whilst we managed to catch up on our sleep last night we are slightly late in leaving for Cape Range National Park and even later after getting stuck behind a slow moving emu, yet again......

We arrive at the park entrance to be met by a little old lady collecting the fees and her security, otherwise known as 'Bouncers'.

Into the Visitor Centre, can you advise please, blah de blah until I say, "Can I swim out to that part of the reef" lady behind counter says, "Yes but I wouldn't, it's full of Tiger Sharks at the moment feeding on the turtles, they may be full but ........." I leave thinking what a Nice helpful cheerful lady whilst she is thinking, 'Plonker'

We decide to go to the other end of the park and work our way back slowly and within the hour we are almost rock climbing on a walk to see another Gorge, only this time with tidal sea water in.  We find two sets of Ospreys nesting on the gorge walls and plenty of evidence that the rare black toed rock wallaby frequents this location, only we never actually see one itself. After me impersonating a gazelle come mountain goat and making this walk look like a walk in the park, we are climbing up a part of the path we had to come down on the way, I am carrying both water bottles in one hand and camera in the other whilst I hop, skip and jump from Boulder to stone to rock to solid baked earth, until my right foot finds a piece of gravel........ I have a millisecond to make a decision, do I save my camera or my dignity........... I next remember looking up at my walking partner through the gap between my knees, whilst sitting fare and squarely on my butt, listening to her saying "are you alright?" I reply, "Just about but at least I saved the camera, well apart from the fingerprints all over the lens......" Next stop lunch, which bay shall we choose out of the 29 we have for choice.... We decide on Osprey Bay, how can lunch take so long,  well imagine an idyllic setting, where the Dark Blue ocean, with white water breaking over the reef, edging a turquoise lagoon lapping up onto golden sand, that's Osprey Bay........ 

After lunch we continue our bay examination and come to Oyster Stacks, where within minutes we see a Shovel Nose Ray swimming no more than two feet from the shore, it's at least 7 feet long and I'm standing 6 feet away with a camera but not a snorkel....... Ten minutes later I'm in the Indian Ocean but not a ray in sight, half hour later I come out and get asked what was it like, if I was twenty something I would have said "Awesome" but instead I say amazing, best yet and we will come back tomorrow so you can do it........

Next stop Turquoise Bay, it's okay but has a dangerous rip current that takes you out between an opening in the reef to the waiting sharks.......  

Onto Mangrove Bay and a Bird Hide looking out over a mangrove swamp, all is well until a Brahminy Kite flew over and then dived, not a happy swamp except for Pelicans, Herons and Sea gulls.......

We get back just before dusk, having avoided dozens of kangaroos who are out enjoying the slightly cooler weather but we are unable to have ankles checked as Pharmacy is closed, however we now have a new theory as to said life threatening injury because of the shape of what now appears to be a burn, it's bloody fly repellant that has reacted with the sun.......... nowhere on the can, can I find a disclaimer about not using it in the sun, so we file our law suit tomorrow and hope that the discomfort and suffering claim payout will be enough to pay for coffee........

    'Bouncers' security........

    Yardie Creek Gorge

    Osprey Nest

    Turquoise Bay

Lazy Sunday afternoon

It's 5.30am, I open one eye and it's daylight, I open the other eye and think, No hangover, thank you for the litre bottle of water last night but best I get up quickly...... Now I'm up may as well go for a walk and let someone else sleep in after all it is Sunday.  So off to explore the marina, you can now see the American influence on the town, small inlets with their own private boat berths all leading down to a small harbour, even the style and design of the new houses look more Californian than the original Exmouth housing, what I notice is the construction of said houses, all steel, no wood, no concrete, no blocks they look like giant Meccano  constructions, we assume due to the possibility of cyclones.....

Are you awake? I ask, it's 7.30am I say before asked, followed by can you look at my ankles please nurse...... It appears that the plonker who went out to Python pool in sandals has had a reaction to the Spinifex Grass that hid all the snakes as he walked through it blazing a trail for Mrs I'm not Stupid...... So a visit to the pharmacy tomorrow......

We drive off exploring the nearby beaches and immediately become aware that this is basically a holiday resort where the Australians come to relax at the weekend as within minutes we are a traffic obstruction as we drive around slowly........ We see an Osprey land on the telegraph pole with its freshly caught breakfast, we find snake tracks through the sand dunes but no snakes, we find mummy emu taking the kids out for a Sunday morning stroll, we find a 108 year old wreck of a cattle ship and a lighthouse with a view, all of which have the same problem for us, wind, too much of it, the sand on the beach feels like needles hitting us, it's a struggle to close the van doors and the sea is too rough to go in, so best we return to the camp site and take it easy so as to finish our tour of the area tomorrow, hopefully with less people about........

We get back to find our English neighbours sitting out on our site because of the shade and protection from a large tree, so we join them and share travel stories and several beers over the next four hours whilst moving every so often to remain in the shade, well that's my excuse the real reason being because the Corella's were crapping on me.......

    House Construction Aussie style

    Fresh Fish breakfast

    The Captain of this ship lost his licence for 3 months........

    North West Cape

    Will you kids do as you are told..........

Captains Log

Star Date: 19/12/2015 We have spent the day travelling and arrived at Exmouth, and        WOW what a difference, we could be in another world, this town is clean, smart with civilised people, restaurants and bars.  As I lie here now reflecting on the day, I have to say, I do believe we are a lot happier than we were last night.  
The day began slowly after a restless night and only one cup of tea at breakfast time, due to the journey being a mere 546kms, I wanted an early start, especially as it was going to get us from the North to the West Coast.  
Apart from being sideswiped by a mini whirlwind, clocking up our 10,000 kilometre and having to do an emergency stop so as the arse end of a snake did not go through the windscreen, (it had been caught crossing the road by an Eagle, who was slower than normal at obtaining the height he normally would achieve due to the extra weight of the snake he was still clutching, subsequently the end of the snake he was carrying almost collided with our windscreen, had we not undertaken the training we received from Lewis Hamilton before we left) we arrive in Exmouth, a town that apparently the Americans built, I'll say this quietly as apparently they have sensitive monitoring equipment nearby.........
Good for them I say as this town is smaller than Dampier but oh so different, for a start it has several restaurants, it has numerous bars, one of which has become my new favourite, not only is it similar to my last favourite, except for the sea view but it serves GUINNESS..........   it also has a nice comfortable area to relax and drink in, where the 'Cow girls' come to your table to serve you, a Trip Advisor review will be posted tomorrow...... it is also smart, casual and obviously designed to encourage families rather than the manual 'my wife is a thousand miles away' worker........
So having tested the quality of the Guinness, we venture forward to the Italian attached to our camp site, OMG, it's got real Italians working there, they have been here 6 years and appear to be making a good living out of it, the restaurant is busy, they deal with you in a European manner, free water with dinner, order at table, table service and pay when finished.........Belisimo!
It should also be noted that today is the first day we have become really aware of it being so close to Christmas, not only are some houses, tents, caravans, offices, shops, petrol stations, termite mounds being decorated in Christmas dec's but several Lorry Road Trains went past today with Tinsel wrapped around their 'Roo Bars'.........  So in order to enter into the festive sprit, whilst in a bakers I had a slight delve, well twice actually,  into the 'try a taste' basket and ended up buying a Homemade Christmas Pudding as well as bread, I tell you this with no word of a lie, the tasters were delicious..........
In our Lonely Planet Australia guide book it makes mention to and when we booked into the campsite, the receptionist also made reference to the fact that Emu's wander about both the town and the camp site, within two minutes of walking to the Town Center we see an Emu strutting it's stuff down the middle of a road, 30 minutes later when arriving back at the van, there's another one being photographed outside the our passenger front door by our camper neighbour.........
I don't mind Emu's being around us a bit, it's just if I have to get up in the night in order to participate in a call of nature, I now have to do it, paying special attention to where I put my feet.........
And so, here we are, once again as happy as, well as happy as before we went to Dampier, enjoying it as a holiday should be enjoyed, but only better, this time it's on a belly full of Guinness...... Beam me up Scotty........

    Mini World Wind 

    Out on the Town.......

Depressing Dampier

After an early morning walk along the beaches of Dampier, I cannot help but think of the depressing conversation being held by four guys on a table near to us yesterday. There is basically nothing here, the sign may say Town Center but could easily say "Tesco Express" because that's all that is there.  The only reason to come here is sleep after a day's work at either the Salt Mine, The Iron Ore works, The Port or the Liquid Gas Plant, which apparently you can see the lights from space at night........ 
Last night we watched the DVD 'Red Dog' which according to the locals made this Town famous, in it are scenes that could be recorded exactly the same today, the town itself has simply stood still in the last 25 years........
That may explain why some two hours later we are standing in the Deep Gorge, in the Murujuga National Park on the Burrup Peninsula looking at Rock art that is believed to be 30,000 years old.
Rock art being different from Aboriginal painting as it is made by grinding rubbing and scraping rocks together.  It takes us some time to recognise what is what but eventually we can make out some rocks with what appears to be some sort of a drawing on, albeit by a child..........  What also surprises us is the way in which the kangaroos can camouflage themselves so easily on these rocks and their agility when bounding/climbing over them.  We then find one with his rear end stuck up in the air and nose buried down between a group of rocks on the ground, unfortunately our agility and camouflage skills are some what lacking and we disturb him, when we look we find a hole about 4 inches wide 8 inches deep with running water at the bottom, no other signs of a stream/creek/river whatsoever......
No holding us back now, we are off to the Salt mine look out, 9 million tones of Salt are produced here annually from the sea, a lot of which goes to melt the snow on European roads and is made into chlorine for swimming pool treatments........ However the making of so much salt, take it from me is not a pretty sight.......
Hearsons Cove is possibly stunning when the tide is in but when it's out its another pretty beach surrounding mud flats.......
The Natural Gas plant is huge and a scar on the environment as is the Port with all roads leading into closed to the public, so that's it we have been all over and seen all that is advertised in this areas publicity, to say tomorrow we will be glad to be making our way from the North Coast to the West Coast is an understatement, as we possibly feel the same way about the area as did those British Nuclear Scientists in 1952 when they set off and tested Britain's first Nuclear Bomb 120 miles SW of here.......
Out for dinner to the Sailing Club, I shower, shave, put on dark blue shorts with a white 'Boss' polo shirt and clean my deck shoes so as to look the part, but we can only order something to eat without alcohol as we are not members, WHAT! forget it, and we go to the Bistro in the local Hotel, where we are the only customers but meet a lady from Ireland working there, she sums Dampier up as, "You only come here for the money, when you've got it, then you get out"  "Most of the people in the bar tonight are 'FIFO's' (Fly ins, Flys out!)"

    30,000 year old Kangeroo rock art 

   The real thing blending in with the background

    A rock art Goanna 

    Salt production pens