Doing it tough in WA - and getting paid for it!

[Kalbarri_baru]

At least you guys have some great Swag's, looks like Oz Trail Mitchell King single Swags if I am not mistaken (LOL) not a lucky guess as I have one and we sell them at our shop (I love my Swag).

Have fun up there and stay safe and catcha when you guys get here.

WayneO...............

[60766244]

Sweet setup and great photos!

On the road train count, 3 and 4 trailers are fairly common if you're heading Pilbara way (not sure how far north you're heading) and if you're lucky, on some roads some companies have permission (or just do it) for 5 trailer runs under escort!

Good luck! Looks like a blast.

[RSR 555]

Love the pics Bennie.. makes me want to be there now

That's got to be the smallest Fingermark I've ever seen.. go and catch his daddy. People say these aren't that nice but I found eat them fresh with butter and small bit of garlic and you'll enjoy them.

[El_Freddo]

HUGE day today so I'll just dive straight into it!

This is our new little mascot - Steve. Yesterday he helped out the loads of pranks about seeing a turtle on the reef, he played the part very well! He's just had a latte here before heading off to go fishing for the day:



This is how my very really tough day started out - chilling on the top deck of our charter boat on their couch:



It was a bit of a rough ride out to our first fishing spot - about 60ish naughtical miles off shore, I managed to keep my stomach down so no burley from me - but some of our kids weren't so lucky, one was sick all day and didn't do much more than find a comfortable corner to curl up in. Poor bugger!

We did some trawling on the way out but didn't have any luck. On the way back we had two marlin have a go at the lines but they didn't hook on. Unfortunately I didn't get to see either of them:



One of the youngsters not doing so well:



We squeezed in some swimming between the fishing. The water was a great temperature, an awesome colour yet crystal clear - probably the best ocean/sea swimming I've ever done! And the first out that far!!



This was one of the 3 or 4 beauties I caught today, I can't remember how many I caught as a couple of staff were piss farting around with the tally board so in the end my tally said 4 and theirs said 2



We saw quite a bit of this today! Surprising isn't it? The last time I saw this was in Port Phillip Bay, but there was still something to see on the horizon!




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[El_Freddo]

We also saw a number of these little beauties - they're amazing to watch! Flying fish:



The three markers on the shoreline to show the gap in the reef for the boats to come in through:



Those markers are so that you don't end up on this nice piece of surf:



We were pretty lucky to spot and stalk a dugong for a bit on our way into land!



I was pretty jealous of these guys making the most of the 4wd'n on offer up here!



This looked like it was pretty well kitted out - So much so that it made me think it could be something I'd want to strive towards someday, but then I remember I'm a land lubber and not a scurvy dog on the high seas "Nice piece of kit" though:



Here's my "little fish" that I've already forgotten the name of:




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[El_Freddo]

And here's my big fish I caught - a banded snapper I believe:



The thirty fish we caught were quickly turned into fillets by our crew who put on a great show as they sliced these beauties up:



While back at camp waiting for dinner time I came across these fellas, I thought this was photo worthy. I thought I kitted out Ruby Scoo but I think this setup wins:



Our fish were cooked by one of the local fish and chip shops - we got a load of chips too. It cost quite a bit considering we provided the fish fillets!! But it was so worth it:



I've got a new taste for fish wings now! As usual, this is how the sunset was mid throw:



And this is how it hadn't quite ended, but it's still a great shot of it's progress:



It really was a full on day today! I really enjoyed the competitive fishing between mates and the deep sea swim was one to remember!

Now, to answer some of your posts:


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[El_Freddo]

Looks like loads of fun!!! Will you be back in Perth for long when you shoot back from up north?

Nah mate, not long at all - one night and we're gone I'll have to bring Ruby Scoo back with me next time!

Gee, these kids are getting a top trip, I'd luv to be doing all these activities. Bet you're finding it hard to cope with over there.

Yeah mate it's pretty bloody tough! But someone has to do it! The kids are very lucky and they're having a ball which is the whole idea of this trip

Sounds like you & the kids are having a ball. I hope you get in some 4WDn & good fishing...the further north you go the more amazing it gets

No 4wd'n but plenty of fishing, swimming and currently snorkelling! I agree with the further north you go comment, we're off to Exmouth on Friday after some surf kayaking! After Exmouth we turn around and start heading south again - back to the cold

At least you guys have some great Swag's, looks like Oz Trail Mitchell King single Swags if I am not mistaken (LOL) not a lucky guess as I have one and we sell them at our shop (I love my Swag).

Got that right Wayne O! Dunno if they're the King Single but they are pretty roomy so I'd say you're smack on the money there. Looking forward to meeting up.

On the road train count, 3 and 4 trailers are fairly common if you're heading Pilbara way (not sure how far north you're heading) and if you're lucky, on some roads some companies have permission (or just do it) for 5 trailer runs under escort!

Yeah we've only seen the three trailer road trains in the previous pics, haven't passed one on an overtake yet which is something I'm pretty keen to do. On our Perth trip in '07 we passed a 5 trailer one between Norseman and Kalgoorlie

Love the pics Bennie.. makes me want to be there now

I know right?! Just fire up the 22B and you'll be here in no time! It'd be great to catch up in person!

That's got to be the smallest Fingermark I've ever seen.. go and catch his daddy. People say these aren't that nice but I found eat them fresh with butter and small bit of garlic and you'll enjoy them.

Yeah I got lucky on that one! Chalked one up before my mate could. One of the kids beat both of us though!

Cheers

Bennie

[RSR 555]

We also saw a number of these little beauties - they're amazing to watch! Flying fish:

Great to watch these little fellas off the rig, being chased by the tuna

Here's my "little fish" that I've already forgotten the name of:

Robinson Sea Bream or commonly called 'Robbos'

Here's Danielle's one she caught when we were up there..

[RSR 555]

I know right?! Just fire up the 22B and you'll be here in no time! It'd be great to catch up in person!

Don't tempt me.. I wish I wasn't going back to work next week or I'd be there in a flash. Might even try to organise a trip that way after the Coffin Bay run.

[Kalbarri_baru]

Don't tempt me.. I wish I wasn't going back to work next week or I'd be there in a flash. Might even try to organise a trip that way after the Coffin Bay run.

You know I am keen for that one, I am free in August.

WayneO...............

[El_Freddo]

You know I am keen for that one, I am free in August.

What about this weekend

Today has again been full on, simply due to the length of the day for me. It was started with the dawn service, up at 5:15am, service at 5:45am. A good turnout for a town that historically doesn't have any serving ties with the Great War and WWII - after all this area was only started to be set up in the mid seventies.

Here's the service:



And since we were up we watched the sunrise:



Odd that it was pink/red and there was no rain today. Thunderstorms were predicted for the southerly region below us but all we saw were dark clouds on the horizon moving towards the north west...

Pancakes for breakfast!

From here it was onto our snorkelling session today with a difference - the boat that took us out was also a thrill ride - the boat's name was "Aqua Rush", very appropriate for the kids!



^ Had the go pro stuck to the back wall for this ride

The bits of reef we visited were awesome - I could spend all night taking screen shots to share with you but I've gone with these ones I snapped today:








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[El_Freddo]

An underwater "selfie":



And to cap off for today there was a turtle sighting - awesome to witness!



Other than that activity above it was a bit of a mixer day - did a bit of washing, cleaned out the van (sand's been bugging me since it's been there 4 days ago!), had some awesome calamari rings and a thickshake and capped the dinner off with a follow up on our fish we caught yesterday.

Tomorrow we're out sea kayaking, should be interesting. Then we're off to Exmouth for the weekend. Looking forward to the road again tomorrow!

Cheers

Bennie

[subaruby]

Sounds like an amazing adventure, next time you go on one of these "tough trips" and you need some helpers put me on the list.

Swimming with whale sharks is definetely on the bucket list.

Thanks for sharing and the inspiration.

I want to go camping again.

[Kalbarri_baru]

Jealous as, here I am stuck at work with the front door facing the River and Ocean watching people Fish and Snorkel all day long (That Sux) wish I was there.

Wicked photos and ur underwater camera takes a good pic.

Stay safe.

WayneO......................

[El_Freddo]

Sounds like an amazing adventure, next time you go on one of these "tough trips" and you need some helpers put me on the list.

Swimming with whale sharks is definetely on the bucket list.

Thanks for sharing and the inspiration.

I want to go camping again.

No worries mate! Always a pleasure sharing! You NEED to go to Coral Bay

Jealous as, here I am stuck at work with the front door facing the River and Ocean watching people Fish and Snorkel all day long (That Sux) wish I was there.

Wicked photos and ur underwater camera takes a good pic.

That would suck! The camera is one of those new olympus ones - goes well, just have to make sure the flash is off.

We had another big day yesterday, kayaking first up - I managed to loose the gopro when a planned capsize ambush went wrong, it had the floaty back door on it but the frame I was using dragged it under. Shattered.



The "Ayers Rock" coral formation. I'll upload a better pic when I get hold of the olympus SD card.



We left Coral Bay, not much to show for it except this:



On the way to Exmouth there was plenty of this:



I finally saw what I thought I'd see a lot more of - sandy desert. I think we've come on the back of a good couple of years of growth for the plant life up here as this area was burnt out, looking at the charred shrubs anyway:



We pulled over for a bit of a break and to check out the beach that was just over the dune from the road we were driving on. It turned out to be a war memorial for the "Z force" crew that did a couple of missions from this area to Singapore, this is the remains of the jetty with the memorial on the dune:



We went and showed the kids what a marina was - they were gob smacked!




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[El_Freddo]

Once at camp and setup we headed off to the nearest beach for a swim. Turns out that the tide goes way out and it's not all sand. We ended up playing frisbee before a lightening storm showed up - no one believed me that it was there!



Back at the marina after dinner for some fishing and lightening storm watching. It was amazing. I got these shots plus about 100 more (not all good though!):



^ This one was actually from the top of a van at camp.







I'm really loving my camera right now!

We had a good downpour in the swags, mine held up very well, a little humid but I still managed to sleep. The thunderstorm was totally awesome and reminds me of the storms I used to watch in the territory when I was a kid.

Things look like they might be mixed up from the original plan. We're back in Coral Bay tomorrow (I think) for another two nights That'll suck. Then off to Kalbarri.

Looking forward to it all!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Wow, how time flies!

Had a bit of a downer moment in Exmouth - I think it was a combination of things but most of it came down to the fact that I hadn't been able to contact Mrs El Freddo who was living it up while I was away!

Exmouth. Well, what can I say other than I haven't had my time with you. We ended up cutting our stay here short to ultimately return to Coral Bay - we barely gave this place a go and I found this disappointing.

We split into two groups on this day (Saturday I think) - My crew headed out to Yardi Creek - Yardi means creek in the local aboriginal language so it's really creek creek we're saying with that name! Here we did a river cruise, pretty short, very informative and some great scenery. It really reminded me of the Katherine Gorge but a smaller version.

In this gorge are these endangered rock wallabies - the Black Footed Rock Wallaby that is endemic to this gorge. Here's one of the little fellas out during the day:



^ He's in the top left area of the pic.

And here's another pic to put it into perspective of where they live. Spot the wallaby!



^ Same wallaby with a different zoom setting - he's pretty small in this image!

We were also lucky enough to see an Osperay near it's 100+ year old nesting site:



From here we had lunch under the shade of the only 6 trees around - probably planted years ago! I'm certainly going to be back here with Ruby Scoo at some stage to "make use" to this sign:



Meanwhile in the background another storm was brewing - it took a left hand turn and headed south so it completely missed us:



This rain resulted in the Euros - smaller kangaroos - to come out of the scrub and lick the available water off the road. I've never seen anything like it that I can remember, the little buggers wouldn't move until you were about to nudge them with the van!



We swung by the oyster stacks to check them out. Not much more to see than this without our snorkel kits:



Turquoise Bay - totally awesome beach, except for the permanent rip that occurs. We must have got there at a good time as there was almost no current action where we were. The beach was isolated, "busy" but very chilled out too. Again we didn't spend enough time here before we "had to leave":




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[El_Freddo]

On the way back to camp just north of Exmouth I snapped this pic out the window of the termite mounds in the evening light:



Unfortunately due to our camping ground location I wasn't able to check out the sunset - but according to some mates and some backpackers I met tonight it was pretty awesome on the National Park side of the point...

So on to Sunday and we were once again headed to Coral Bay - I had mixed emotions about it due to what I said earlier, I believe we didn't give it a run for it's money - but that wasn't my decision.

I decided to break the drive up by visiting a few places along the way - they were both close to Exmouth/RAAF Learmonth. The first stop was to check out the canyon, not the one with the gun shot name, the otherone - will have to edit the correct name when I'm looking at the map. It was pretty impressive up there - the layering and erosion really reminded me of the Grand Canyon in the US but it wasn't nearly as big or deep! It gave some great views of the surrounding area though!

The canyon:



Looking East:



From here we cut the journey further in short as we were apparently already too far off track - it's a good thing we did, but more on that later.

Next stop wasn't far way at all - Pot shot memorial was the stop. I learned here that Exmouth is basically there due to the US seeing the advantage of setting up some sort of military base here in WWII for their sub patrols. Then a RAAF pilot effectively stole his plane with some of his mates and their planes, they ended up here and instead of being reprimanded the RAAF decided it a good idea to setup up here - hence RAAF Learmonth! Heres' a part of the memorial:



From here we legged it to Coral Bay. The amount of fuel I had left became a bit of an issue - seems the fuel gauge in the van isn't the greatest - or the van was chewing the juice all of a sudden... I watched the fuel gauge like a hawk, at one point was pretty worried about it and even more so when the fuel light came on about 20km out of Coral Bay. We made it without running out but not knowing the vehicle's fuel gauge well it was almost touch and go! This is what you see after the 50km/h signs as you come into Coral Bay:



^ They really need a big bright coloured town name sign that rivals Exmouth's one!

And here's the carnage of setting up, always fun!



The sunset for the night was impressive, but I missed a pic of the flaming ball before it started to dip below the horizon, so you'll have to make do with this one:



Here's one of the staff and a student messing around in the water while watching the sunset:




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[El_Freddo]

With a busy morning paddling into the wind in a glass bottom boat just for something different there weren't any pics until just after lunch. We organised a "bucket lunch" - this is where you cut up all the ingredients for a mexican style dish that's a bit like cold nachos but it's served in a wrap. It doesn't look very appetising but it's a flavour party when you eat it!



Bucket lunch, it'll also make you fart like a trooper...

Here's some history of Coral Bay, I hope you can read it as I think it's worth the effort:



The first history page:



The second info board with some pics:



The second history page:



The bore water is 3km below the surface, comes out a ~68*C at a surface pressure of 58 PSI - crazy!

The last sunset I'll see here for some time





It will be sad to see this place behind us again, it'll be sometime before I'm back here again, but it'll also mean I'm a day closer to seeing Mrs El Freddo again whom I'm missing more than ever!

We're up early tomorrow and headed off to Kalbarri - I'm really looking forward to checking this place out!

The next update might be when I'm back home depending on mobile reception/how busy I am with the kids.

Until then,

Cheers

Bennie

PS - Taza - I'm out of credit, hence no reply - you got my last text message! Still in WA! Just...

[Kalbarri_baru]

Caught up with Bennie at Murchison House stn last night, good down to earth bloke, the kids all seemed to be keen fishos, and the lucky buggers have been on different tours today (how I wish I was at school again).

Photo Below of Bennie in front of the Shop.

WayneO................