Monday 21 May -Tuesday 22 May
We spent a couple of days in and around Exmouth, shopping, swimming and cycling. The bikes have proved a real asset and make zipping down to the shops a real pleasure. We went for a couple of wonderful swims, one out at Bundegi and the other out near Lighthouse Point. We tried a spot of fishing from the rock walls at the marina but with no success. We had arvo sleeps and read a lot. Can’t complain. Well I can actually. The one bad thing is that we can’t get the satellite TV to work any more. The last morning at Quobba we found that it had blown over so we don’t know whether it is damaged or it is just our incompetence. In desperation, we went out and bought a $20 pair of “rabbit ears” and instantly got a perfectly good picture.
Wednesday 23 May
Today we travelled to Cleaverville River (between Karratha and Roebourne). It was not quite an uneventful trip because the electronic overdrive on the automatic transmission played up and the light started flashing. I checked automatic fluid levels but that was the extent of my ability to do anything. We 
pushed on, resigned to even worse fuel economy than usual without the overdrive. The other point of interest was the price of supplies at Nanutarra. Fuel was a disgusting $1.75 a litre. We decided to make life easy and buy some lunch but when we saw that a basic ham sandwich was $6.50 we backed off and ate nuts and Cruskits as we drove. On reaching Cleaverville, we found that our favourite camp site was vacant so we set up in wonderful calm balmy conditions. The flies proved numerous so we set up the full annex and extra shade enclosure. As the sun set, the flies went to bed and the sandflies emerged in force. By the time we realised they had arrived, we were both badly bitten. Life here will mean a strict regimen of “Rid” and “Aerogard”.
Thursday 24th May – Saturday 26th May
We have enjoyed a fabulous 3 days of fishing, snorkelling and bike riding. The quality of the snorkelling right on our doorstep is amazing, with some beautiful corals and some great fish life. The fishing has been interesting enough, but the really big fish have eluded us. On our first trip, we were frustrated by the sight of a barramundi smashing up a school of mullet and leaping right out of the water in front of us. I was surprised to see a barra this far South but another fisherman saw three sheltering under a fallen log in the creek. They can’t be enticed to bite though. There have also been some monster queenfish around but they don’t seem to be too hungry.
On Saturday the wind had dropped right away so we headed out to sea towards a nearby island. It proved to be surrounded by some beautiful reef and spectacular corals. Drifting across it, I soon hooked up a nice blue lined emperor. as it came to the surface, two large cod appeared behind it. One grabbed the emperor but couldn’t quite fit the whole thing in its mouth. I wrenched it back and decided that I’d take the emperor for tea rather than try to wrestle with the cod. I got a good sized flag to go with it and lost a couple of terrific fish before the wind sprung up and we headed back to the safety of the creek. We had a wonderful meal of snapper that night. The crabbing is really poor at present. We got one huge mud crab in our first effort but that has been it. We cooked it by just laying it in the hot coals, producing the very best crab I have ever tasted.
We have set up the portable boat on the portable trailer and it has proved ideal for moving the whole rig up and down to the creek from camp. The little trailer won’t handle speeds but we crawl along anyway.
The automatic transmission warning light has stopped flashing, so maybe the problem has solved itself. We did have a win with the satellite dish. Amazingly, there is a sat technician staying at Cleaverville and doing small jobs as he travels. He had to take our dish away overnight but it came back in working condition. We also bought a new card from him to give us access to the NT stations as well as the WA ones.
Sunday 27 May
Today we drove to Port Hedland. Unfortunately, after only 20kms or so, the automatic warning light started flashing again so we will have to get some attention in Port Hedland. We booked into Dixons Caravan Park opposite the airport. The park is nice enough but being both opposite the airport and being the main refuelling point for all the road trains, it is very noisy at night. The good news is that we managed to get TV with our repaired sat dish.
Monday 28 May to Saturday 2 June
We have had five days of hard tiring work. I have been at Port Hedland Primary School, Cassia Primary School and Baler Primary School. Much of my time has been spent as a Phys Ed teacher. Christine has been at Cassia Primary School in a Year 6/7 class. The similarities between the different schools here outweigh their differences and they all have a very large cultural mix of children. I have developed a new respect for teachers doing relief work. It is a hard slog but at the same time it is terrific to be able to walk away at the end of the day or week. There have been a few suggestions of us staying on in Port Hedland but we quickly laugh them away. Not a hope!
The sagas of both the sat dish and the automatic transmission continue. The TV operated fine until Friday. We came home to no signal. After an hour of mucking around, I declared the system to be “junk” and vowed to never touch it again. I tried to set up the “rabbit ears” we had bought in Exmouth but we could not get a worthwhile picture from them. The next morning I broke my promise and wasted another half hour. Christine rang around the town seeking either another sat dish or a decent caravan antenna but no one seemed to be able to help. The shopping here is really very poor. Finally, while trying to buy yet another TV aerial at Harvey Normans, we were given the name and contact of a sat technician. He came out and had a look, pronounced every component of our system to be “crap” and then got our TV going by using a setting that we were previously unaware of. Another $50 down the drain but we may have solved the problem. Meanwhile, the automatic transmission warning light still flashes occasionally. We need to find someone with the right sort of computer to read the error codes and tell us why it flashes. There is one automatic centre in town but when we went there we were greeted by a locked gate and a sign that read “By Appointment Only”. We rang them and there response was, “Truck it to Perth,” followed by “You can drop it around but it’ll take us 3-4 months to look at it.” Getting anything done in a hurry up here is impossible. Too much work and not enough workers.