Cape Range – Ningaloo Station
During our week at Exmouth and Cape Range NP we were bombarded with fantastic
reviews about Ningaloo Station, part of the same coastline and the Ningaloo Reef
stretching 250 kms. Horror stories about the road conditions were mixed with
great reviews of the camping. It’s a 32
km corrugated dirt road into the Station, then an even worse 25 km track to the
various camp sites along the beach. It’s
only $20 a week, so people spend months camped there.
You get nothing for your money except a spot in the sand, so all water,
food etc needs to be taken in with you.
We shuffled our calendar around and found 5 days we could spend there.
Before hitting the corrugations, we let the tyres down to 22 psi and
bounced along, passing naked paddocks with dust billowing across the road, then
open scrubland with sheep, goats, kangaroos and emus, getting to the homestead
around 5 pm - much later than we’d hoped so we didn’t have much time to get to
our campsite before sunset.
We were handed a key to Green Gate 3, North Lefroy Bay.
Just as Alan was getting into the car, he discovered one of the car tyres
was flat. The air was pouring out
of the valve so we gave it a quick pump and off we headed.
The road was atrocious, and very soon we had to pump the tyre up again,
and again, and again, and again – and again!
We were like a well-oiled pit crew at Bathurst races, jumping out of the
car every couple of kms to pump up the constantly deflating tyre.
The sun was sinking fast and we only had a vague idea where we were going.
The kilometres and gates ticked away - there’s the gate to South Lefroy,
Point Billie, Green Gate 1, Green Gate 2 and finally Green Gate 3.
The sun had just disappeared when we limped into our camp spot.
The neighbours were a reasonable distance away, but still – nobody came
out to greet us and some of their setups looked like a refugee camp.
We wandered down to the beach and it looked okay, but we weren’t sure
what the fuss was all about.
After the corrugations I wasn’t surprised to see the oven door had flipped open
and baking trays were scattered across the floor of the van, and the lid had
wound off the coffee jar, so there was Nescafe all through the cupboard.
We were quite shell shocked and couldn’t see what was so special about
the place, so didn’t unpack anything, determined to leave the next day.
Next morning Alan checked the flat tyre to discover the valve was loose and only
needed tightening up! This was done
in a couple of minutes, so all the stress from the night before melted away.
It was a sparkling day with turquoise water glistening in front of us and a
slight breeze blowing. Waves were
breaking over the reef a couple of kilometres away and people wandered past and
either waved or stopped for a chat.
Our nearest neighbours Ron and Yvonne came over and invited us for drinks that
night. Ron turns 81 next week, and
they’ve been coming here for 21 years.
Things were starting to look up, so out came the chairs, table, and mats
to cover the sand in front of the van, then Alan fired up the generator for a
cappuccino.
Because the campsites are so far away from each other, campers use a 2-way radio
to contact the station, and each other.
We can listen in to all the chat through our radio, e.g. morning tea at
10 am at somebody’s camp, or an invitation to go snorkelling.
Pam’s 60th birthday bash was up the track from us, and people
came from far and wide, carting chairs and platters of food and drinks.
We’ve taken the little boat out every day, dragging it and the motor across the
sand, and although our fishing skills are severely lacking, we’ve had the
opportunity to do some brilliant snorkelling off our little boat.
We’ve seen reef sharks, manta rays and turtles, and were circled by a
friendly dolphin when he came up to say hi.
Now that we’ve learned how to get back into it from deep water it’s a
piece of cake. I climb up over the
motor, and Alan kicks his flippers like mad and launches himself up and over the
side like a seal.
One day we motored about 4 kms to South Lefroy and discovered this was the area
everybody we’d met had raved about.
Our beach on North Lefroy was lovely, but South Lefroy was absolutely
magnificent. It’s on a pristine
white sandy beach and campers set up right on the sand or just behind the dunes.
We’ll definitely come back and camp here next time.
Hopefully with some friends to join us!!
We’re glad we stayed the 5 days there. The
night before we left, Ron & Yvonne came for drinks at our house.
Tall, lanky and cheeky 92 year old Tom joined us dressed in his Bad Boy
T-Shirt and boardies. He’s only
allowed to stay 6 weeks this year, as his wife wants him back in Perth for their
70th wedding anniversary!
He’s an incredible guy and to drive 1,200 kms from Perth alone (scary
thought) and be able to set up a camp and launch his boat is very impressive.
The neighbours have helped out, but he’s very independent.
He’s got a rattling old compressor fridge run by a fan belt on the
A-frame of his van, which he turns on for a couple of hours each afternoon, and
before he turns it off at 8 pm and we can just hear his music over the racket –
all great stuff from the 1920’s and 30’s.
Greg the handsome South African (a Rambo/Bear Grills type but with purple
painted toe nails) came back with a haul of 3 enormous coloured crayfish and
fish for his wife and 5 kids for Mothers’ Day.
Luckily we were there when he brought them in and he gave us some fish
fillets for lunch – delicious! Only an
Afrikaaner can say mackerel rolling 10 r’s!
Mackerrrrrrrrrral.
Before we left, neighbours came to hug and say goodbye.
It won’t be the same next year, as Ron & Yvonne are calling it quits
after 21 years and moving to Gympie Qld.
Tom’s decided it’s time to slow down and stay home with the wife back in
Perth.
So our next stop is Karratha for haircuts, a physio appointment for the thumb
and a new windscreen. It’ll be
great to have endless amounts of water and mobile phone service, but at $52 a
night, we’re not hanging around for long.
There are more adventures up the road, with Cape Keraudren and Barn Hill
Station for more beach camping, then Broome, where we put the car and van into
storage and fly home on 5th June for 2 weeks.