Day 92 23/6/2011 Coral Bay – Cape Range National Park – Yardie Creek

Day 92 23/6/2011 Coral Bay – Cape Range National Park – Yardie Creek

It was with reluctance that the kids agreed to leave Coral Bay, they had had a fabulous time playing with other kids in the park and frequently reminded me that I was always telling them to make friends when there are other kids around.  I explained to them that we needed to go as we were booked into Yardie Creek, they didn’t seem to think this was a good enough reason. We eventually packed up and got moving.

Claudia with the joey

To describe the drive between Coral Bay and Exmouth as “visually unstimulating” is not being cruel or unappreciative of different landscapes, it was more than boring!! it was long and flat and wide with nothing to look at.  The only exciting change worthy of note was the appearance of sheep in the paddocks I never imagined that someone would farm sheep on the most western point of Australia!! How do they get shearers to come here as part of their shearing route??

We had to do some groceries in Exmouth, oh my goodness, I understand why the local IGA only provided small shopping trolleys, and it’s not because they have skinny aisles, it is because the products are so expensive that when you fill the tiny trolley you think that you have filled a big trolley and then you are less likely to pass out at the size of the bill!! Well I passed out, this was our most expensive grocery shop on the trip and we got so little for example 10 litres of drinking water was $10 we have previously been paying between $5 and $7, the additional cost adds up when your family drink about 50 litres of water a week. Also whilst in Exmouth we paid the remainder on our whale shark tour, so if we weren’t reeling from the grocery bill we were knocked out after paying for the whale shark trip!! (The De Rooy’s stimulus package is still working hard Ms Gillard…..)



Yardie Creek campground sunset



We headed into Cape Range National Park happy though because even though the sign said all camp areas FULL, we had a booking at Yardie Creek for 6 days so we continued on.  When we arrived at the entry gate we were met by a ranger carrying a joey in a sling and to Claudia’s delight she got to hold the joey whilst our booking was confirmed.  YIPPE we were in, we had spoken to many people on the road who had either missed out on getting a campsite in the National Park or who were hoping to get one on the off chance that someone was leaving on the day they were waiting at the entry gate.  This was a very popular place for visitors!!



This was where we helped pull the boat and trailer out!



We arrived at our Yardie Creek campsite late in the afternoon and set up camp.  Zac zoomed off to fish and Callum and Claudia explored the sand hills around us.  Just as Pete and I settled in with a cuppa Zac came running back yelling “Dad you’ve gotta help, this guy is bogged up to his axles in the creek”  Pete and I jumped in the car not sure what we could do because we did not have a snatch strap, so unless the “guy” had one we could not pull him out.  Well the site that greeted us was almost comical, I would have taken a photo but it almost seemed rude to say “Oh we’ve come to help but before we do can I just get a photo of your car and boat trailer bogged up to it’s axels in sand!!” So sorry no photos but it was the first time I had seen a 4WD sinking into sand.  Luckily we were able to let the cars tyres down and with some digging of the sand away from the front of the tyres, some man power, we pushed and pushed the car out of the sand.  Of course we then had the second problem of getting the boat trailer unbogged and then dragging the boat back up the sand!! All in all it took about 1 hour to get the couple back on the road.  When we asked why he tried to load his boat straight off the beach he explained that he had unloaded it in the same spot this morning, I gently explained that he had unloaded the boat at low tide so the sand was harder, his reply was he didn’t think of that and the sand looked quite firm!! Even with the tide just on the way out!! What made the whole experience even funnier for us was the young man was driving his father’s 4WD so he had to go home now and explain that he had bogged the car up to the running boards in salt water.  Oh well, I guess he was lucky that water didn’t get into the car or the engine!!

After the excitement of the afternoon Pete and I headed down to the beach to watch the sunset.  (I wonder what the workers are doing?????)

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