Point Samson to Katherine - 28 September to 4 October

Point Samson  - 28 September 2012 

We got up at 6.00am and were ready to go by 7.30am. We said our goodbyes to Cal, Paula and the boys, the camp host Greg, and a few others and hit the road for Point Samson, some 630km away. 

We stopped in Exmouth to top up on fuel and Sue schooled the girls as we headed south into a fairly fierce head wind. Eventually we turned east, and then west onto the main highway, and stopped at Nanutarra Roadhouse for fuel. Unfortunately their autogas pump was out of action, so we topped up with unleaded, both the car and a jerry can just in case. We gave the girls a break from the schooling and Sue joined me in the front to work on the blog for the next leg to Fortescue Roadhouse.

We topped up on petrol here and Sue again joined the girls in the back for another bout on the books. Our last stop was at Karratha Roadhouse for autogas and petrol, where Sue again joined me in the front for some more blogging. We had a good tail wind by now and so trialled the air-conditioner for the last run into Point Samson. We arrived at about 3.30pm and set up the van. Sue went for a walk to stretch the legs and I set up the boat trailer for the next day, before tucking into a well earned happy hour.

Point Samson - 29 September 2012

I spent the morning preparing the tinnie and tackle, while Sue did some laundry and then we all ducked into Wickham to pick up some groceries, before returning to settle down in front of the box for the AFL grand final between Hawthorn and Sydney. Sydney were the better team on the day, emerging as 10 point victors. After the game, Sue went for a walk and the girls joined her on their bikes, while I rigged up some mackerel rigs for the next day.

Tonight we enjoyed another great meal of Pilgramunna calamari.

Point Samson - 30 September 2012

Up at 6.00am, we launched at 7.15am and headed straight for Cal’s mack spot near Bezout Island. We drifted out two garfish under balloons, both on wire of course. Mackerel have very unforgiving teeth. I picked up a small shark early, which the girls were keen to keep for dinner, as they had never tried flake before. To fill in time, we cast a small chrome slice across a nearby bommie and Georgia and I picked up two small queenfish, which were released.

Noah for dinner
 
At about 10.15am, Sue’s rod went off big time, spewing out around 50 to 100m of line. It was mack time at last. This was to be Kelsey’s fish, as she was due for a big one. With a bit of help from mum, she set about bringing a beautiful big Spaniard of 16kg to the boat. It put up a really good fight and she was one tired little angler at the end of it, but she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. I promptly dispatched it with a few choice blows to the head and we kept it in two damp hessian sacks until we returned to the ramp later.

 

Sue & Kelsey with their ripper Spanish Mackerel . . . . our first for the trip

We fished for another hour or so without luck, and on the return trip home we spotted some bust ups not far from the end of the Cape Lambert wharf. We cast the same small chrome slice into a school of feeding mack tuna and Georgia picked up her first of the species, around 3kg. I picked up another small one, about half the size, before we returned to the ramp. 

Georgia's first mack tuna off Cape Lambert

Back at the park, I cleaned the macko and shark, and tidied up the boat a bit, before planting myself in front of the telly to watch the NRL grand final, with my beloved Melbourne Storm taking on the Canterbury Bulldogs. Canterbury were favourites, having won the minor premiership, but Melbourne had all the experience. In the end, Melbourne triumphed with a 14-4 victory and the two keen rugby fans, Georgia and I, celebrated with great gusto. Not being big rugby fans, Kelsey and Sue went for a walk to escape our carry-on. That night we enjoyed another great meal of mackerel in beer batter using Cal’s recipe.

Point Samson – 1 October 2012

We got up at 6.00am, launched at 7.00am and enjoyed a nice quick run across a much calmer ocean to the mack spot at Bezout Island. We again put our garfish out under balloons and within half an hour had 2 really good hits, which took a lot of line, but failed to hook up. As the tide rose to its peak, the action slowed right down to a stop, so we cast to the adjacent bommie again. This time, a school of big eyed trevally were in residence, and we picked up a few on the small chrome slice. One I hooked, was almost back to the boat when it got monstered by a whaler shark of about 5 feet long right on the surface. The shark and I had a tug of war for about 20 seconds before I managed to reef the hapless trevally out of his mouth and quickly drag it to the boat. The shark wasn’t too happy about losing it's meal and took off in hot pursuit, missing the trevally, but in the process hooking up to Sue’s bottom fishing rod that was sitting against the side of the boat. She had to grab it in a hurry to stop it disappearing over the side, but luckily the shark bit through the nylon trace quite quickly. 

One of the large bulk freighters receiving it's last feed of iron ore before departing the Cape Lambert wharf

With the action on the macks still slow, Sue fished the bottom with bait, picking up many stripeys and small bluebone, and sharing the rod with the girls. I kept one stripey and put it out as a live bait for the macks. When the run-out tide picked up its pace, so did the action. We scored another ripper run on the smaller rod and this time it was Georgia’s turn. I handed the rod to George as the mack ripped off 100m of line. The fish slowed and then again took another 50m of line at an even faster pace. We feared it might have a shark on its tail, and this unfortunately proved to be the case, as Georgia pumped back only half a large mackerel, which had also had another large bite taken out of its gut, courtesy of the gentlemen in the grey overcoats.

During Georgia’s fight with the mack, the larger rod also went off and this time it was my turn to do battle. Knowing there were sharks around, I got stuck into it on the heavy gear, but again my fish lit up the afterburners and I soon felt a knock through the line, after which the fish slowed down dramatically. My fish was still very heavy and eventually I got it back to the boat, missing only it's tail, with all the good meat still intact. Why the sharks hadn’t returned for the good bits we’ll never know. With so much mackerel now on board, we bagged them for the trip home and headed back to the ramp.

Back at the ramp with our abbreviated spaniards

Back on shore we found a lucky fisho and offered him the intact mackerel torso, which he gratefully accepted. We kept the severely shark bitten mack, as our freezer was almost full from the day before.  Cleaned later, it perfectly filled what space was left in our freezer.

Our plans to leave for Broome the following day, meant another afternoon of packing up for me, while Sue went for another walk. The girls enjoyed air conditioning in the van and watched a Harry Potter movie we had recorded earlier.

Happy hour was followed by dinner and an early night.

Broome  - 2 October 2012

Big day today, as we planned to have our biggest day on the road yet, just over 800km to Broome. Being such a long day, we decided to hang the expense and put the foot down with the air-con running to minimise our time on the road. By travelling at 100kph instead of 80kph, we potentially would save ourselves 2 hours on the black top.

Sue schooled the girls in the back as we drove to our first fuel stop at Port Hedland. The teacher continued until our second stop at Pardoo Roadhouse and then joined me in the front for a session on the blog.

Sandfire Roadhouse was next, before our final leg of nearly 300km saw us at Roebuck Plains Roadhouse, only 30 odd km short of Broome. We experienced our first rain this afternoon, our first major drop since Queensland back in May.

We set up at the Cable Beach Caravan Park and the girls immediately hit the pool. A blinder of a pool, even having its own waterfall with a cave behind it.

After a very quick happy hour we bundled into the car again and headed off to the Stairway to the Moon markets, on the foreshore at Roebuck Bay. We grabbed some food from the stalls and enjoyed our meals on the grass. Then we cruised the market before sitting down in the dark with many others, overlooking Roebuck Bay, waiting for the moon to rise over the sand flats.

The Stairway to the Moon is created when the rising full moon reflects off the wet sand flats left behind at low tide. This occurs from May to October during the dry season, over 3 consecutive nights each month. Unfortunately for us, the rain earlier had left some cloud around, and the moon was partially obscured, so we didn’t experience the full effect of the reflections on the sand flats. We left for home and slept very well that night.

The Stairway to the Moon over Roebuck Bay

Broome - 3 October 2012

The girls hit the pool straight after breakfast and then we went into town to the tackle shop. Here we made enquiries about camping at Telegraph Pool on the Fitzroy River, further up the track. Considering the heat, the dirt track in and the conditions they said we could expect, we decided to give it a miss and make a run for the Territory and the Daly River instead.

We had a wander around town and then grabbed a lazy meal at Maccas, before dropping into another shopping centre for some groceries, and finally returning to the van. The girls hit the pool again, while Sue and I did some more trip planning.

We had an early dinner, before heading into town to Sun Pictures. Here we watched Madagascar 3 on deck chairs under the stars, in Australia’s oldest outdoor cinema. We all got a great surprise at one stage, when a jet flew very low overhead and landed on the adjacent airport runway. The movie was great and straight afterwards we drove to Roebuck Bay again, to see if the last night of the Stairway to the Moon would be any better than the previous one. The cloud wasn’t a problem tonight, but a higher tide meant most of the sand flats were still covered with water, again reducing the effect. We took a heap of photos anyway and then returned to the van for the night.

Broome - 4 October 2012

This morning, surprise-surprise, the girls again hit the pool. I called my boss, Des, at John Holland, to let him know that I would be returning to work on November 12, giving him one month’s notice as planned. I couldn’t reach him and so left a message. He called back about 30 minutes later, only to tell me that the bottom had fallen out of the coal market in the previous 2 to 3 weeks and, that as they didn’t have enough work in hand, I no longer had a job to return to. Not the sort of news we were hoping to hear, and it put a real damper on the rest of our day. There may be a few other possibilities of ongoing work with John Holland and he said he would call me back in coming days, when he'd had a chance to explore them, but for now things didn’t look good.

We joined the girls for a swim in the pool and then came back and had some lunch, all the time tossing around ideas of where I could pick up some work. Just about every city of Australia was discussed.

After lunch we dropped into the post office, but our mail still hadn’t arrived, so we would have to make other arrangements down the track. We picked up some fuel and then returned to the van for the afternoon. I packed up a few things, while Sue went for a walk.

Leycester’s Roadside Stop - 5 October 2012

We got up at 5.30am and hit the road just after 7.00am for another big day in the saddle, just under 800km. Sue schooled the girls during our first leg to Willare Bridge Roadhouse, where we picked up fuel and then continued on to Fitzroy Crossing. We refuelled again here and Sue joined me in the front for the next run of nearly 300km to Halls Creek.

We completed the last 100km to Leycester’s Roadside Stop, arriving at about 3.30pm. I promptly set up the van, then cranked up the gennie and the air conditioner, as it was about 40 degrees in the shade. Thank God for the air conditioner in the car!

Katherine - 6 October 2012

We left Leycester’s just before 7.00am,  stopping only 60km down the road at Warmun for our first refuelling. Next stop was Kununurra, a further 200km down the track. Leaving Kununurra we stopped at the WA/NT for a few quick photos before continuing on to Timber Creek. Sue took a break from schooling the kids and joined me in the front as we continued on to Victoria River Roadhouse. Here we stretched the legs and took a toilet break.

We arrived at Katherine at 5.00pm local time, losing 1½ hours at the border crossing. We set up the van at the Boab Caravan Park and enjoyed another well earned coldie or two at happy hour.



　

Mesa - Cape Range NP- 19 September to 27 September 2012

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 19 September 2012

We went over to the camp hosts, Thelma and Murray, just before 7.30am and managed to secure ourselves a transfer to Mesa camp at the northern end of the park. We then had brekky and packed up the caravan, again leaving the boat to pick up later. Doug and Joan dropped over for a chat, as did Thelma and Murray. We exchanged phone numbers with Doug and Joan and goodbyes were said before we left.

At Mesa we were greeted by camp host, Greg, who informed us that our friends, Cal and Paula Baker, and their boys Charlie and Kade, had already arrived. We weren’t expecting them until the following day, so that was a nice surprise. They were down at the beach having a swim when we pulled in and returned a few minutes later to hugs and handshakes. It was great to see them again, the first time in two years, since our last trip to Melbourne. Sue and I had met Cal and Paula 18 years earlier during our first trip around Australia. They had been travelling like us, and we hooked up together experiencing many good times.

The kids immediately hit it off, with the 4 of them disappearing into the sand dunes to play. After setting up the van, Cal and I went for the drive back to Pilgramunna to pick up our tinnie.

That afternoon, Cal and I dropped the tyre pressures on his cruiser, to check out the possibility of launching the tinnies in the sheltered bay adjacent to our camp. The sand was firmer than expected, so it looked good for a launch the next day.

Sue, Paula and the kids went down to the beach for a swim, before Sue and Paula took a short walk up the beach towards Neds Camp. The adults later enjoyed happy hour and a good catch up, while the young-uns again disappeared into the dunes . . . . back to their secret hideout. We retrieved the children for dinner, well after sunset.

Georgia and Kelsey enjoying a swim with new best mates, Charlie & Kade

Sue with Paula & Cal, enjoying a drink at sunset

 




Mesa sunset

Our children . . . . Lords of the Dunes

That night Sue and I wrapped Georgia’s presents for her birthday the next day.

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 20 September 2012

The birthday girl arose at 6.30am to many colourful presents. Although she knew most of what she was getting, mum and dad managed to slip in a couple of surprises as well. It was a big birthday after all, reaching double figures…. 10 years old today.

Spoilt rotten . . . .

After a hearty breakfast of egg and bacon, we packed up the van and moved to the other side of the camp, 30m away, which now gave us an unobstructed water view over the bay to our north. Following set up, we piled into the car, drove to Yardie Homestead and put on 3 loads of washing. We all showered and then headed into Exmouth to the post office. Here we picked up a load of mail, including many cards for the birthday girl. Some even contained cash! Lunch was next, at Graces Tavern, where the girls devoured a huge family pizza between them. Unbelievable!!

Pizza Piggies . . .

After the usual round of shopping, fuel, water collecting, etc. we returned to Yardie Homestead and picked up our dry laundry.

A pair of Kori Bustards welcomed us back to camp

Back at camp we shared a sausage sizzle with Cal, Paula and the boys, followed by icecream cake for all.

Birthday dinner at it's best . . . . a hot sausage in bread with your mates











The birthday girl with Mum, Dad & sister Kelsey . . . (now put down the camera & cut the cake already)

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 21 September 2012

The girls did some of their journals after breakfast, while I finished mine outside the van. I had a visitor in the form of a lone corella, who I nicknamed Crackers. He wasn’t shy at all, so the girls bought out some bread out and were able to hand feed him. He popped in for many visits over the course of our stay.

Crackers enjoying a piece of multigrain with Georgia

Sue schooled the girls during the morning, while I finished setting up camp ie. the ensuite, clothes line, etc. After lunch, Charlie taught Georgia how to play chess while Sue got her diary up to date. Then I tied some fishing rigs, while Sue and Paula went for another walk along the beach. It was very windy, so hence no fishing. Later in the afternoon, Cal and Paula came over to our van and we watched Collingwood v Swans battle it out in the AFL semi-final. This time Collingwood weren’t up to it, with Sydney winning by 20 odd points. Later we all had dinner together.
Mesa - Cape Range NP – 22 September 2012


Calvin and Paula transferred their van this morning, from the far side of the camp, to two sites down from us, also giving them a great view of the water.

The kids played together during the morning and after lunch Sue and I grabbed a couple of rods and a few lures, and went for a walk north along the beach up past Ned’s camp. We cast soft plastic lures along the way without any success, until finally I hooked something, only about 10m from the beach. In the choppy wind blown water it was hard to see what I had on, but after a spirited fight, I beached a nice little golden trevally of about 2kg. We were rapt, as this was our first golden for the trip and was one fish we were hoping to catch before we returned to Brisbane. We bled it, bagged it and packed it in the back pack for the return trip against the wind. It was a hard slog in the soft sand.

A nice little golden trevor from the beach

Back at camp the girls had a swim with the Baker crew, before we went up to happy hour with the rest of the campers. We chatted to our next door neighbour, Dianne, and a Kiwi by the name of Keith.

Cal later cooked us a beautiful feed of mackerel in beer batter, perfectly accompanied by a knockout potato bake from Sue. The kids enjoyed a movie, while we enjoyed a few more drinks.

The chef and his taste-tester sampling some pretty awesome mack-in-batter

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 23 September 2012 


We woke up this morning to a bit of a disaster, the solar panel had blown over in the wind during the night and smashed the glass on one half of the panel. My silly fault for leaving it sitting too vertical over night. We did some school work with the kids during the morning and then prepared the boat and car for a launch at our local beach. We thought we had let the tyres down far enough, but both Cal and I managed to get ourselves bogged in the soft sand. We extracted ourselves with the assistance of his homemade Maxx Traxx i.e. two sheets of aluminium chequer plate.

We left the beach and headed out towards a gap in the reef of about 200m, otherwise known as South Passage. We started trolling and immediately had a double hook up on bludger trevally. Further trolling only produced a small cod, so we headed off to shallower water to see if we could find something else worth fishing.  The Bakers headed off in another direction to do the same. The wind picked up quite quickly and made conditions pretty uncomfortable, so after a grand total of only 2 hours, we gave up and returned to the beach.

After lowering the tyre pressures even further, we retrieved both tinnies without incident.

That afternoon Cal and I went to the bore and filled some buckets with water and later we all went to happy hour.

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 24 September 2012

Our friendly souwester was blowing its guts again this morning, so we readied the tinnies hoping we might find some sheltered water on the other side of the peninsula at Bundegi. Upon arrival we discovered that the wind had more south than west in it, and we were greeted by a very choppy Gulf. We gave up on the fishing idea and filled up our drinking water containers with desalinated water at the fish cleaning table.

We then headed into town and dropped into the post office. Sue and the girls later did some grocery shopping, while I chased down a replacement boat roller for our trailer and picked up some fuel. I picked up the girls and as we left town we gave my sister, Aunty Lisa, a call. Both our girls had a chat and then we gave Cal and Paula a call to see where they were. They’d returned to Bundegi to see if the wind had eased, but unfortunately there was no change. We said we would meet them back at camp. We decided to return to town and get some icecreams and buy Sue a pair of thongs.

Back at camp we enjoyed another happy hour at the communal tables.

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 25 September 2012

This morning the wind still hadn’t stopped blowing, so Sue and I spent the morning in the van planning our return journey to Queensland.

Cal dropped over and said he was going to go and fish anyway, so I decided to join him in his boat. We trolled the gap initially and picked up bludger trevally and many barracuda, all of which were released. Cal hooked a slightly better fish at one stage, which screamed off at a great rate of knots, leading us to believe it had a shark on its tail. Cal free-spooled it to give it a chance to escape the shark, which it did, but it bricked him on a bommie at the same time and he lost his favourite mackerel lure.

He re-rigged and we did another trolling pass, again hooking barracuda. This time Cal’s fish didn’t escape the shark and the shark managed to hook itself on the lure. He handed the rod to me while he drove the boat and I managed to get a bronze whaler of about 5 to 6 feet long next to the boat in around 5 minutes. Unfortunately for Cal, the shark either bit or wore through the trace and he was now down two lures.

We gave up on the trolling and tried drifting and casting to coral bommies in shallower water. Cal managed to pick up a nice spangled emperor of about 45cm, balancing the ledger somewhat. We retrieved the boat soon after and returned to camp.

Sue had spent her day planning potential stops for our trip home and had enjoyed a good chat with one of our neighbours, Val, who had told her of the good fishing to be had at 40 Mile Beach, south of Karratha.

Later that arvo, Sue and Paula went for another beach walk and then we all had showers. Cal had kept a big feed of barramundi from the Roper River to share with us, and tonight he cooked a magnificent meal of barra in his own beer batter recipe, perfectly accompanied by another potato bake ala Sue.

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 26 September 2012

Up at 6.00am, we launched both boats by 7.00am. The wind was down, so we trolled the gap for starters, but could only raise the usual suspects, bludger trevally and barracuda. Both boats headed south hugging the coast to avoid the wind, which had picked up to around 15 knots. We stayed close to the coast and cast to a few bommies, while the Bakers headed further out inside the reef. 

Georgia hooked a nice little long tom while casting a gold bomber over shallow bommies in only 2m of water. She was rapt ,as this was her first fish taken casting lures. We returned to the gap and started bait fishing while drifting. We caught many small cod and a few other reefies, keeping 5 of the larger cod. Cal had dropped the family off back at the beach and returned to bait fish over a bommie where he’d caught his best mackerel years earlier.

We continued fishing nearby and Sue hooked a real hooter, which gave her a really good stretch. It turned out to be a ripper bluebone of around 3kg, perfect for the table. We were really rapt with this fish, as it was our first legal size bluebone, another wish fish from our list.

While cleaning the fish back at the beach, Cal returned with 3 keepers of his own, a spangley, a wrasse and a stripey.

The kids amused themselves on the beach, burying Charlie, while Cal & I cleaned the fish

Thanks to Calvin’s tails of glory on the Spanish mackerel at Point Samson, Sue and I decided to visit his macko spot as we returned up the coast, so we headed into the Visitors Centre to book ourselves a spot at the van park from the public phone. Unfortunately it was out of order, so we headed north to Yardie Homestead Caravan Park to call from there. We needn’t have bothered, as they had plenty of vacant sites at Point Samson. We said goodbye to the park manager, Miffi, and exchanged phone numbers, hoping to catch up with her, in her home state of Tassie, on a trip down the track sometime.

Mesa - Cape Range NP – 27 September 2012

I started today by packing up all the gear for our departure the next morning, paying particular attention to cleaning off any salt and sand from the tinnie and trailer. We had wanted to snorkel at Lakeside on our last day, but the wind was still blowing and I took longer than expected with my pack up, so we missed out. Sue went for a long solo walk on the beach. 

 



 

Mesa camp, with our van in the centre & Cal & Paula's at the far right

A closer shot of our camp

 

And the view we enjoyed while showering, with the beach in the distance

The beach view from our site at Mesa

Cal and Paula went into town in the morning and picked up a package for Sue from the post office, that she had been waiting on with great relish. It held a Collingwood guernsey that she had ordered online, and which she wore to our final happy hour that night, much to the disgust of many at the table.

Our last happy hour at Mesa (& Cape Range) . . . . gotta photoshop that rotten jumper . . .

Last drinks . . . . .

We enjoyed our last supper with Calvin and Paula, another sausage sizzle followed by a very decadent chocolate icecream cake.

I was on cake duty . . . anxiously watched by 4 ravenous beasts

Come on Kelsey, the cake wasn't that good . . . . . serious brain-freeze . . . .

Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 13 September to 18 September 2012

Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 13 September 2012

We left Coral Bay this morning and arrived at Exmouth, where we went to the post office and picked up our new generator, which had only just arrived. Kelsey had developed an infected ear from a dodgy earring, so we dropped into the pharmacy for an opinion. She suggested that we should take her to the hospital in town, where they gave us some alcohol wipes and suggested Kelsey stay out of the water until it had cleared up. We picked up a few groceries, filled up our water containers and headed for our second stay at Pilgramunna. After setting up the van we headed over to the happy hour tables with the other campers. 

Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 14 September 2012

After breakfast I drove up to Yardie Homestead and picked up the boat. I gave Miffi a box of chocolates as a thank you, and she was very grateful. On the way back to Pilgramunna, I stopped in at Mesa Camp and chatted to the camp host, Greg. I explained that we were going to transfer to Mesa at the end of our stay at Pilgramunna, and that we also had friends who were coming in to join us. They would arrive the following day.

After lunch, we launched the tinnie and I picked up some 10 inch mullet with the cast net. We drifted around the gap with one livie out. While we didn’t catch anything, we did attract the attention of a large hammerhead shark of approximately 10 feet long. His hammer was about a metre across. I used the livie to try and tease him close to the boat for a good photo, but he wouldn’t be in it. We moved the boat away from the shark and started another drift with the livie, this time attracting the attention of a good size squid. We quickly got some quick jigs on the casting rods and over the next 30 minutes, we managed to boat 7 really good size squid, which would later provide us with 3 good meals of calamari. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough grabbing the last smaller squid, and it let a black ink burst go right next to the boat, scoring a direct hit on the back of Kelsey’s seat. Luckily she was standing, along with Sue, but they both still copped some overspray and suffered a rather nice inking. Georgia and I couldn’t stop laughing. The laundry lady wasn’t impressed. We returned to camp late and began cleaning the squid, with everyone lending a hand. It took a while and we missed happy hour in the process.

 





Georgia with one of our squid back on shore

Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 15 September 2012

We launched the tinnie at Pilgramunna and immediately headed over for a troll at the gap, picking up 2 bludger trevally, which were both released. It was quite calm this morning, so we tried venturing outside, but after about 50m we decided it was better to be safe now than sorry later, and promptly returned to the safety of the lagoon. 

A nice bludger trevally for Georgia

And another for Kelsey

Pristine Ningaloo sand flats

We left the gap and trolled some shallower water, catching 5 small cod and keeping 2. We retrieved the tinnie in time for lunch and had a lazy afternoon at home. Sue and Georgia went for a walk along the beach later in the afternoon, returning in time to catch the AFL preliminary final between Collingwood & West Coast. Collingwood did a great job to beat the favoured Eagles by 12 points, advancing to the semi-final against Sydney the following week.

Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 16 September 2012

We got up at 6.00am this morning, and after sorting ourselves out with laundry and buckets, we left for Tantabiddi at about 8.30am. We launched the boat, headed straight offshore and started trolling in about 60m of water, where we had seen numerous small tuna bust-ups. After a couple of circuits and no luck, we trolled further out and had a couple of good hits, before Sue finally hooked up to a screamer. It took a lot of line off her before she was able to pump it back to the boat, where we discovered it wasn’t a really good mackerel as we'd thought, but only a 3kg striped tuna on steroids. The vivid purple colours on its flanks, as it struggled at the side of the boat were amazing.

Sue's big mackerel wearing a striped tuna disguise

We headed further out into 80m of water and started bottom fishing amongst an unusual number of orange sea snakes on the surface. Quite incredible to believe that they would swim 80m to the bottom to feed after taking a breath. We also saw many large turtles offshore, presumably gathering for the breeding season. Our bottom fishing didn’t go too well, as we were plagued by sharks. At one stage, we had three large whalers circling the boat beneath us. Kelsey did manage to get a really nice doggie mackerel to the boat unmolested, which we kept for the table. 

It was a beautiful day with only a metre of swell and only a very slight breeze, but Georgia still wasn’t feeling too good in the tum. We pulled the lines in and ran back towards shore, to get some wind in her face. About 2km before the reef, in about 55m of water, I thought I saw a whale’s pectoral fin slapping the surface in the distance. We decided that direction was as good as any to head in, but it wasn’t long before I realised it wasn’t a whale, but in fact a free jumping sailfish about 1/2 km ahead. We immediately put the big lures in on the big rods and started trolling. After only about 50m, we had a hit on the biggest rod with 24kg braid, and a good sized sailfish erupted from the water and started tail dancing all over the place. Luckily for me, I was on strike, and so grabbed the rod while Sue brought in the other troll line. The sail screamed off about 100 to 150m of line and again jumped and danced all over the ocean. Sue manned the video camera, and Georgia the stills camera, while I started playing the fish. After about 10 minutes and many more jumps, I had it within about 20m of the boat. Kelsey was scared to death that it would jump in the boat, so hid under her beach towel.

Eventually we had the sail alongside and it was lit up with beautiful iridescent colours, but stubbornly resisted being bought close enough for me to take the trace. I’d already donned a yellow glove on my left hand, and the next time the fish swum close enough, I grabbed the trace, handed Sue the rod and then took the bill in the gloved hand. The lures hooks came out quite easily and we pulled the fish on board for a few quick photos. It’s bill and tail overhung both sides of the boat and we estimated it at about 2.2m long.

After the mandatory pics, we slipped it back overboard and towed it by the bill, to flush fresh seawater through its gills. We swum it this way for about 5 to 10mins, before releasing it under its own power.  Thankfully it swum away strongly. I sat back for a breather, and to soak in what we had just achieved. A sailfish from a 12 foot tinnie is no small feat and we had been very lucky. Not only had we been able to entice a strike, but we got a solid hookup on a hard bodied lure (Rapala CD18), and the hooks had stuck, without the fish throwing the lure during its many leaps. It had also taken the large rod, which had the extra heavy trace, preventing its abrasive bill from wearing through during the fight. The fishing gods were on our side this time.

Unfortunately the stills camera was set to auto focus and from where Georgia was sitting, the back of my chair often took priority as the camera focused, leaving us with many blurry shots of the sailfish jumping. We hope to pull a few good still shots off the digital video at a later date. 

Great shot this . . . for the chair manufacturer . . . a perfectly focused chair with a blurry sail jumping in the background

Not a bad effort from a 12 foot tinnie . . . around 2.2m of sailfish & about 25kg

That's why they call them sailfish . . .

We left the sailfish and headed back to the gap off Tantabiddi, where we tried a bit more bottom fishing, but unfortunately without luck. The wind sprung up, so we headed back to the ramp and retrieved the tinnie.

Leaving the ramp, we headed to Yardie Homestead and put on a load of washing. We filled up our buckets with water and headed back to van at Pilgramunna. Happy hour was extra good, because I got to brag about my sailfish and show everyone the photos. It'll probably never happen again, so you have to make the most of every chance you get . . .
    
Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 17 September 2012

Today we decided to take a break from the fishing and have a snorkel instead. We headed to Oyster Stacks late in the morning. Here I piggy-backed the girls into the water across some sharp rocks and we swam over shallow reef, again seeing many coloured reef fish. The better fish were gathered under the edges of the plate coral. We saw many emperor, mangrove jacks and Maori sea perch up to about 2kg.

We left Oyster Stacks and had lunch in the car park at South Mandu, before walking down the path to the beach. The girls made some great sandcastles, while Sue and I relaxed on the beach and snorkelled over the coral just offshore. Returning to camp, we enjoyed another happy hour, before a beautiful feed of mackerel in batter.

Yet another brilliant Pilgramunna sunset during happy hour

Pilgramunna - Cape Range NP - 18 September 2012

After breakfast, Georgia and Kelsey headed off to the rocks for a cast with the spinning rods. Sue and I went for a walk to see how they were going and found Georgia labouring over a severe knot in her line. I took over while Sue and Kelsey headed back to the van. On the way, Sue stopped to have a chat with new friends Doug and Joan, from Mandurah, south of Perth. The quick chat lasted for about an hour. I spent about 45 minutes on the mother-of-all-knots before finally triumphing and returning to camp.

We got the boat ready and launched at Pilgramunna at about 11.00am. We trolled the gap and scored a double hook up on bludger trevally, returning both. The next pass saw us with another double hook up, this time barracuda, which were also released. Third pass, you guessed it, another double hook up. Barracuda again. Enough of that, so we tried our hand at a few squid instead. They didn’t want to play, so we headed north, up towards the Mandu sanctuary zone. We trolled the area just outside the zone with gold bombers and caught heaps of small cod. We kept 7 over 30cm and returned to Pilgramunna.

Georgia with a Pilgramunna gap barracuda

Doug and Joan dropped over for a chat as we retrieved the tinnie. I cleaned the fish and we did the happy hour thing again, from 5.30 until 7.00pm.

A cheeky roo scoped out our site while we were at happy hour

Yardie Homestead to Coral Bay - 6 September to 12 September 2012

Yardie Homestead – 6 September 2012

We left Osprey this morning for a three day stay at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park. Sue schooled the girls on the way. While I set up the van, Sue put some laundry on and I returned to Osprey to pick up the tinnie, eating lunch on the way.

 





The view from our camp at Osprey just prior to packing up

When I got back, we drove to the lighthouse and enjoyed the view, spotting quite a few whales in the process. Sue received a voicemail message from her mum, asking her to call as soon as possible. She tried to get through, but had to leave a voicemail message of her own in return.

We drove from the lighthouse to one of the nearby beaches, where we spotted one of our neighbours fishing. While chatting to him, Sue got a message about a missed call on her phone, so we   returned to the lighthouse, to get back into phone range. Sue called her mum and found out some bad news, that her dad had suffered a heart attack the night before. He was okay now, and stable in hospital, but had had a nasty scare. He was taken from home to the hospital having a lot of difficulty breathing. Sue later managed to speak to him and found out that he would have to spend a couple more days in hospital before returning home.

Relieved that everything would be okay, we left the lighthouse for a second time and dropped into the Jurabi Turtle Centre nearby. We all learnt some interesting facts about the lifecycle of loggerhead, green and hawksbill turtles. They return to the Ningaloo coast each October to breed, so we might have a chance of seeing some later in the month.

We returned home for happy hour and a quiet evening.

Yardie Homestead – 7 September 2012

After breakfast we went to the boat ramp at Tantabiddi to see if conditions were favourable for a fish, but the wind was up, so we returned to the park and decided to have a trip into town instead. Before we left I gave the car a bucket wash with a chamois, while Sue chatted with our neigbhours, Sandra and Dennis.

We dropped into the shell museum at the Lighthouse Caravan Park on the way, but it had shut 10 minutes … for the season. Scratch that idea. We left for town and made another detour, to have a look at the wreck of the SS Mildura at the top of the peninsula.

In town we had a leisurely stroll, chatting to a few shop keepers and had smoothies and milkshakes at a café. We returned to the van park and had happy hour with Dennis and Sandra, followed by a sausage sizzle for tea.

Yardie Homestead – 8 September 2012

The wind was down this morning, so we put the tinnie in at Tantabiddi and headed straight outside the reef. We found a nice drop off in about 18 to 26 metres of water and started catching fish straight away. Kelsey got a nice moses perch, which we kept. I was next on strike, and while answering the call of nature, the rod went off. Rod-hog Sue jumped on it and brought in a beautiful 60cm spangled emperor, which of course should have been my fish. 

Sue with 'my' spangled emperor . . . .

Kelsey's nice Moses Perch


Next I caught a smaller red throat emperor and Georgia caught a nice stripey. We gave up the bottom fishing and trolled for a while without success. The wind spring up, so we headed inside the reef. We tried for some squid close to shore, again without success, until Sue called out she had something. It started striping line off the reel, unlike any squid, so I started the motor and we gave chase. We were only in about 2m of clear water, but with a bit of wind chop it was hard to identify the unseen jig muncher. We thought it may have been a foul hooked turtle, but eventually we got sight of it and discovered that somehow, Sue had managed to hook a shark of about 1.5m long. We still don’t know if the shark ate the jig, or a squid that had taken the jig, but it was well and truly hooked, and too big to fight on the light squid rod. The decision was made to break it off and sacrifice a jig.

On the way back to the ramp, we had a chance encounter with a pod of 5 dolphins. They followed us and rode on our bow for about 5 minutes, thrilling the girls and providing a great video opportunity. 

We retrieved the tinnie and went back to camp to clean the fish. At the cleaning table there was a family consisting of a father and his 3 adult sons. We chatted to the father for about 30 minutes while one son cleaned a nice wahoo, coral trout and 2 big cod. They’d had a good day outside the reef, about 10km south of where we had fished. After the chat, I tidied up the boat and put it into storage behind the office at the caravan park. We arranged with Miffi, the manager, to leave it there while we spent the next 4 days at Coral Bay.

Coral Bay – 9 September 2012

We left Yardie Homestead and stopped in Exmouth for some fuel and a quick trip to the local monthly market, where Sue picked up a nice tie-dyed singlet. We arrived at Coral Bay at around 1.30pm and set up the van on a very small site.  A walk over to the shops saw Sue purchase a nice hoodie, while I picked up a singlet for myself. We had a quick walk along the beach and returned to the van for happy hour, which was followed by a beautiful meal of battered spangled emperor and chips from the local shop.

Coral Bay – 10 September 2012

After a lazy breakfast we spent the morning on the beach. The girls spotted a lot of large spangos in the shallows and we all snorkelled together, seeing many colourful reef fish. I also spotted a school of snub nosed dart. We returned to the van and had toasted sandwiches for lunch.

Crazy snorkellers on the Coral Bay foreshore

A cheeky little lizard made itself at home on Sue's foot while we relaxed on the beach

 







Beach beauties frolicking in the shallows

We went over to the fish feeding later in the afternoon, where we got some good video and underwater photos of the big spangled emperor which come in for a feed and swim between everybody’s legs in the shallows. 

Sue & Kelsey at the fish feeding

The stars of the show - large spangled emperor lining up for a feed

On the way back Sue and the girls stopped off at the pool for a swim, while I started happy hour.

Coral Bay – 11 September 2012

We left the van park and first headed down to the new boat launching facility south of Coral Bay. Very impressive! Then we continued back out to the highway and headed south for Waroora Station.  Off the highway, the road in wasn’t too bad, narrowing as we approached the coast. We first stopped at 14 Mile Camp, which was set right on the beach, with a great view of the adjacent reef only about 1/2km from shore. It was quite a steep beach and would probably prove tricky for launching the tinnie. We continued on south through the station, checking out different beaches and camp areas, including Sandy Point and Elle's Beach, eventually ending up at Lagoon Beach, where we got out and stretched our legs. We took a few photos and then headed back on the road to Coral Bay.

Coastal view from Black Moon Cliff at Waroora Station
 
We went to the fish feeding again that afternoon, and once again got some good underwater photos. We all had a swim in the pool on the way back, before happy hour.

Coral Bay – 12 September 2012 

After breakfast Sue and I gave the caravan a long-overdue bucket wash with a chamois. It came up a treat. We grabbed our gear and headed down to the beach, but it was very windy. We managed to find a sheltered spot and the girls fed some old bread to the fish at the water’s edge, attracting a small crowd of onlookers. We all had a quick snorkel in the warm water, before returning to the van. Sue played a bit of basketball with Georgia, while Kelsey and I had a lazy afternoon.

Osprey Camp - Cape Range NP - 2 September to 5 Seotember

Osprey - Cape Range NP - 2 September 2012

We got up a little earlier this morning and said farewell to Rod and Jenny, who were returning to work at Karratha. We chatted to them for about 30 minutes and exchanged phone numbers. When we returned to the van, the girls had tidied up for us and hung up home made father’s day cards for me. I scored lots of big kisses and hugs and a $40 voucher to spend at Tackle World in Exmouth. Sue made me a beautiful breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, and a nice hot cup of tea.

It was our last day at Pilgramunna too, so after breakfast we packed up ready to leave for Osprey Bay camp site. It was a big tide this morning and as we left, wave surges pushed water down through the camp site along the roadway, making a water crossing necessary. It was only 4 inches deep though.












Our last morning at Pilgramunna - the water crossing is just visible

A closer shot of "Our Creek"

We arrived at Osprey, which is perched on 5m high cliffs above the beach, to a howling south-westerly. Waves were breaking over the rocks and throwing spray into the air. We set up camp without drama and settled back to enjoy the view over lunch. Sue schooled the girls during the afternoon, while I drove back to Pilgramunna to pick up the tinnie. Later we enjoyed a 5 star happy hour overlooking Ningaloo Reef.

The windblown girls & our first sunset at Osprey

 

Osprey - Cape Range NP - 3 September 2012

We drove to the Visitors Centre at Exmouth and asked where we could find an auto electrician. I was concerned we weren’t getting charge to the second car battery and an analysis by the sparky confirmed this. Apparently Toyota’s computer control doesn’t allow the alternator to send enough charge through the relay to trip it, and therefore charge the second battery. While we had smoko at the café across the road, the sparky removed the relay and fitted a manual switch in it's place. This would enable me to send charge  to the second battery while driving and then turn the switch off overnight, so our fridge wouldn’t flatten the main battery.

We picked the car up and headed off to the Potshot Hotel for lunch.  Again we plugged into power and took care of some emails, etc. Then we went into town to pick up some groceries, water and fuel, and put a load of washing on at the laundromat.

We returned home to Osprey and had happy hour.

 




The girls built a racetrack (?) before dinner . . . .

Osprey - Cape Range NP - 4 September 2102

We woke to an overcast day, which actually became rain, the first we'd had since Queensland, but it was only a short, light shower. It did produce a beautiful double rainbow out over the reef, of which we took many photos. 

A double rainbow over Ningaloo

We were very concerned about the amount of charge we were getting from our solar set up, especially on such an overcast day, and so decided to head into Exmouth again and do some research on generators. We priced them at Auto Pro and at the auto electrician's. The cheapest they had to suit our needs was $1500, a lot more than we wanted to spend.

We went to Graces Tavern, the other pub in town, and had possibly the world’s best steak sandwich for lunch. We spent the next few hours researching generators online, reading many reviews and forums. We tried ringing our friend Cal, to see how his new generator was performing.  He was busy driving and promised to call back later.

When Cal called back, he gave me the drum on his $650 generator, which apart from being a third of the price, had twice the power output of those we had priced in town. We ordered one immediately, and arranged for it to be sent to the Exmouth Post Office from Sydney.

We also spoke with Cal about the possibility of spending some time together in Cape Range. Our schedule at the time would have seen us cross paths somewhere north and only very briefly. After some discussion, we decided to re-jig things and have about a week or so with Cal, Paula & their boys later in the month. We would leave the park from Osprey, have a few days at Yardie Homestead and then spend the next 4 days at Coral Bay, before returning for our second 6 day pre-booked stay at Pilgramunna. Then we would meet them at Mesa campground. 

A very grateful kangaroo with a juicy carrot, courtesy of our next door neighbour at Osprey

Osprey - Cape Range NP - 5 September 2012

Following a windy night, we woke to an equally windy morning. After breakfast the girls did their journals and then we did some school work with them.

The next bay to our north is called Sandy Bay, so we decided to go for a walk and check it out. We saw many turtles and fish from the shore along the way. Sandy Bay is a beautiful sandy bay, as you would expect, and is protected from the south westerly wind. A great place for a swim. There were many groups on the beach doing just that, and a couple fishing as well. We saw one guy pick up a nice whiting. As we arrived back at camp, we saw a pod of dolphins feeding about 200m offshore from our van.

We had some lunch and spent a lazy afternoon at the van. Georgia and I grabbed a couple of rods and cast some lures from the rocks without success.