With the school holidays over, we made a quick trip South of Derby to Wulungurra, a small Independent Aboriginal School on Milidjidee Station. This small community is some 50kms South of Noonkabah Station and on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, nestled alongside the St George Range. It was all new country to us and proved to be really spectacular. The Fitzroy River at Noonkabah is a sizable river and the crossing was made easy via a well formed concrete crossing. We were pleasantly surprised by the well formed roads heading South and we soon found ourselves at Milidjidee. We set up camp with our tent behind the Principal’s house and took a walk around the community in the afternoon to meet all the local family groups. A couple of days of work followed, installing electronic projectors and whiteboards in some of the classrooms, followed by a half a day of training for the staff on the use of electronic whiteboard media in their lessons. All went well and it was soon back to Derby to ready the boat for the trip South.
We drove fairly hard and fast across the Pilbara with Exmouth as the ultimate destination. With only a two day stop at 80 Mile Beach, the kilometres rattled by and we were soon rolling into Exmouth and making plans for a week or so cruising Exmouth Gulf. The Pilbara and Gascoynes are currently filled to overflowing with travelling tourists and Exmouth was no exception. We tried to stay in a caravan park to provision and organise but they were all full. Eventually, we found a spot in the Shire overflow area at the recreation centre, using the Tennis Club showers and toilets. With power to recharge the boat batteries and water to fill the tanks, we had all we needed and the next morning we launched at the Exmouth Marina, leaving the car at the local storage yard for a very reasonable fee.
The next week was incredible. Given that we had given up on sailing in Exmouth Gulf on our way North 3 months earlier, the week that followed of almost no wind was an amazing contrast. We sailed and motored approximatley 20 nautical miles across the Gulf to the Eastern side and explored the many islands making up the Rivoli group. These are mostly coral atolls and abound in fishing, snorkelling and beach combing opportunities. We ate like kings from the sea and enjoyed some wonderful snorkelling over some of the best coral we have encountered anywhere. Ningaloo Reef, Whale Sharks and big game fishing seems to get all the publicity up this way but the unheralded champion is Exmouth Gulf itself. It is a paradise.
We followed the Eastern coastline South then crossed the Gulf again to the well-named Bay of Rest, a large mangrove inlet that provides excellent protection against almost any breeze. One evening, while walking the tidal pools, I came across the biggest mud crab I’d yet seen. It was destined for the pot and fed us for two meals.
The humpback whales amused us during most sails we had in the Gulf. We saw them performing full breaches, where they leap from the water and crash down, apparently to rid themselves of parasites. At other times, they would swim on their sides and flap a fin across the water, throwing spray everywhere. Some show-offs preferred to stand on their head and “tail slap” the water, making a gunshot sound that could be heard for 3 or 4 miles away. We generally kept a bit of distance but one pod came within 150m and put on a fantastic display for us.
Our timing on the water proved excellent and once we retrieved Sandpiper onto the trailer, the weather turned bad. We spent a couple of days slowly driving South, waiting for the rain and cold winds to ease before reaching Shark Bay. We were both so glad that we had managed such a good week in Exmouth, having had to bypass tis attractions on the way up. There is still much to explore in the area and I know we will be back.
We spent 6 nights in the Dampier Archipelago, visiting a myriad of islands and secluded coves. The Archipelago is extensive and we really only explored the Western half, sailing out as far as Rosemary Island to the North. We experienced dead calms, fresh breezes and all points in between. Only one day was overall too windy to sail much and even that was spent in a wonderful bay that saw us catch plenty of fish and squid. The beauty of the area is somewhat spoilt by the profusion of ships in the area. A great many of the vessels are strange looking beasts, straight out of some futuristic movie. They no doubt service some aspect of the off-shore oil and gas fields but we could only speculate on the exact purpose they serve.
There are many wonderful bays out amongst the islands. Some of these harbour “beach shacks”, elaborate affairs with lots of rubber matting pathways, incredibly creative out-houses and decorated with lots of seashells, floats and bits of old rope. We got to see some of these get-ways in action because we were sailing over the June long weekend and the Karratha locals came out in force to frolic on the clear sands, consume the amounts of alcohol that the Pilbara demands of people and show off the sort of boats only mine workers can afford. It was heartening to see so many people having so much fun that was inclusive of the whole family unit.
We spent 3 weeks working at Derby District High School. I was a fill-in administrator because they were going through a period with numerous absences from the administration team. I took on responsibility for overseeing the Primary School Reporting process, despite the fact that it was only last December that I swore to myself that I would never again have to do reporting. Christine worked as a paid teacher about half the time. The other half, we worked together on our “2 for the price of one” deal. Christine found herself out at Birdwood Downs station on a couple of Thursdays with a group of senior high school boys who are doing a TAFE course on horse management and general cattle station duties. It seemed to be hard work but she enjoyed the experience. I got to drive a bus load of Year 2,3 and 4 students to Broome to tour Malcolm Douglas’s Croc Farm. The speed and power of the huge beasts he looks after is awesome and very scary. They seem to delight in chewing up the large black plastic floats the workers throw at them.
Eventually, we pulled the boat out of the water and headed off North, stopping overnight at Bush Bay, about 40 km South of Carnarvon. Then it was on to Exmouth, where we settled in to a caravan park for a few days. Depending on the weather, we will stay on land for a bit then head out and do some motor sailing. It still looks like the main sail is 4 or 5 days away so we may have to do without for a while.
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”.
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.
Recent Comments