Ningaloo Station

We arrived in Exmouth on 28th April. The flights were long, nearly 5 hours to Perth then 2 hours to Exmouth. The jetlag and time difference is just like flying in from overseas so we took 2 days to recuperate. We were hoping to enjoy the warm weather back here, but alas when we arrived it was with a cold change, so the 37°C they enjoyed the day before was no longer. It was a mild 26°.

After much shopping and having the BushTracker and LandCruiser serviced we headed to Ningaloo Station with the news that the road in had just been graded after several camper trailers died on it the week before. So the 32 kms in to the homestead was quite a pleasant surprise and definitely the best we've seen it.  The 20kms to South Lefroy Bay was of course untouched, but this is just a sand track, so you can't expect too much.

We pulled into South Lefroy Bay but the signs to the campsites were missing, so we overshot our camping spot. Being just sand tracks there's just no where to turn around, so I tried to back the van up to the last little intersection. Hmm, backing a 4 Ton van uphill on a sand track sounds almost impossible doesn't it? Well it was. The Cruiser sunk into the soft sand, as well as the van.

So forward was the only possibility, but even forward was impossible as all 8 wheels were dug in. We got out to have a look, and the Cruiser was on its belly. The tow ball was also hopelessly dug into the sand. I thought we were well and truly screwed. We had to get the van off the car and try to get the car out. After jacking the van up, we watched with amazement as the big block of wood under the front jack just disappeared into the sand, it was going down and the van wasn't coming up. This was the softest sand you could imagine, and I was trying to back up a hill in it!

Finally just at the end of the stroke the van lifted just a touch off the tow ball, enough to tilt the tow ball backwards so the car could go forward. Now "could" is the operative word here. A guy had come to check on us, and said we should let the tyres down to 18psi.  We'd already let them down to 24 when we turned onto the station road, so down to 18 they went.

The car then started to creep forward at a snails pace, and much to my delight it finally, after about 10 meters, floated up to the top of the sand and was free. So we had to fill in the Grand Canyons the car had made, and then backed it slowly up to the van, backwards and forwards to try to pack the sand down a bit.

The tow ball on the car was a good 30cm above where the caravan tow hitch was, so jacking up the van proved a slow exercise as I was sure we were going up the same amount as the block of wood under the jack was sinking down. We had to do it in 3 stages, using other pieces of wood to support the van while adjusting the jack. Not the safest thing with a ball weight of around 400kgs!

Once it was connected the car actually pulled the van out ok with a bit of a struggle. We headed forward to the beach where the sand was harder. I remember Jayne saying as we turned a corner on the soft sand "Do you think we have to be going this fast?", clearly the answer was YES!

This is our  campsite at Ningaloo Station, not too shabby!

The sunsets are amazing here

In the morning we spotted some dolphins swimming right up close the shore. One was shooting across the water so fast he looked like he had a motor! We went down to see them and there was about 5 or 6 of them up really close to the waters edge. One even looked as if he was beached and struggling to get back to deep water.

This fella was certainly stuck for a bit, but he managed to get free

We learnt later that the beaching of them is the mother showing the young what to do and how to get out of this situation. We were watching dolphin school.

The wind finally dropped today and everyone went fishing, so did we. I caught this Sweet Lip Emperor, or Red Throat Emperor. He made for a nice lunch between the two of us. Jayne caught a Rankin Cod but was a bit small to keep.

Our neighbours who invited us over for drinks last night went out beyond the reef and caught heaps. We certainly wont be taking our small boat out although they tell us we should. Our neighbour Ted just dropped us off a nice filleted Gold Band Snapper. Folks sure are friendly around these parts.

Here you can see both our neighbours, both are very friendly

The Air Force must be doing manoeuvres at Learmonth Airport (Exmouth Airport). It's a Military Base as well as a commercial airport, as we're being treated to jets flying up and down the beach at very low altitudes and very fast! Quite a show going on. One was so low we had to open up the front and back windows so he could fly right through.

There's a lot of military stuff around here and Boeing have the LHF communications base here and the US Navy have there antennas for communicating with the submarine fleet. There must be something about this location that makes it ideal for radio communications.

We went fishing again today, and Jayne caught this one.

Quite impressive isn't he? But he wasn't good looking enough, so back he went. We later heard he mkes for excellent eating with the whitest flesh around, but the from others we heard they use them for bait! We'll never know