Wandering Along

The wind had dropped this morning when I woke up, which meant I could go and do the dishes from last night outside. Last night I was just too exhausted and Dominic advised me to go to sleep first!  Very good advice.

There were loads of bunny tracks in the wind blown sand.  They are very shy, however, and we haven't seen any around while we are in the camp ground.  Oskar really wanted to set a bunny trap overnight and catch one, but we ran out of energy.  Plus I didn't want to distress the bunny, although I don't think the parks people would mind.  They have been introducing Spanish fleas to carry viruses to infect the rabbits with diseases to wipe them out.  They are trying to reintroduce species native to the area (bilbies, Mallee fowl) but need to get rid of the feral foxes, goats, cats and rabbits first.  The feral cats are proving particularly hard to get rid of.  They are not interested in the baits they drop by air, and are too clever to get caught in the traps.  but so far 'project Eden' as it is called has had great success with freak fox reduction and introduction of the bilbies and mallee fowl.

Grant went out early this morning to try some uninterrupted fishing while everyone else was asleep.  Usually  he spends the whole time baiting, casting, repairing and unsnagging other people's lines.  His peaceful interlude didn't last long, however, and everyone woke up one by one and went off to the beach to fish as well.  When the fish are biting, it's very exciting,

They weren't biting this morning, however, so everyone came back for breakfast and packing up.

Nadine cooking the fish from last night for breakfast

We made it out of the sand towing the van with no trouble, and back down the narrow tracks, scrubby bushes sticking out on either side, and pulled in to the compressors to fill our tyres back up with air.  Who should we meet, letting their tyres down on the other side of the track, but Kumar and Jill.  They were going to try for the campsite we didn't get to, a lot further along the soft sand stretches, so we wished them luck and waved good bye.

Around the corner we stopped for a final dip in the artesian hot tub, boy it was hot, and a quick tour of the old shearing shed and shearer's quarters.  This area used to be a sheep station run by the Pepper family, and it was only when the lease ran out in 1991 that it became a National Park and was listed as a world heritage area.

Nadine, Dominic and Cooper were very interested in the shearer’s shed

Both the shearing sheds and quarters were interesting, with lots of information on the shearing process.  Because of all the scrubby bushes out here, they were unable to muster the sheep in the normal manner, instead they caught them all at water holes in one way pens (they could go in, but not get out), which could take up to two months.  Then they were walked back to the station along fenced trails by drovers.  The longest trail was from below Monkey Mia and was 40km long.  It took a few days to walk the sheep from there.  Sounded like a lot of fencing to maintain.

It took us a long time to get back to the North West Coast highway, with stops at Denham for fuel, Eagle Bluff for a walk to the lookout and a last view of the clear waters, and Shelly Beach where we saw the millions of tiny cockle shells that make up the beach.

 Joseph Covered in shells

mass shell toss

Shell Angels

We read about Dirk Hartog, a Dutch sailor for whom the largest island in Western Australia is named.  It forms the western boundary of shark bay, and is off the shores of steep point, the westernmost point of the Australian mainland.  Dutch Captain Dirk Hartog landed there in 1616, the first recorded European to land on Western Australian soil, and another Dutch explorer discovered his pewter plate, nailed to a post, when they landed there in 1697.  That's a long time later.  It's also a long time before 1788 when the first fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour.

Spelling tests and maths books in the car - seems to be the only time we have to do them.

We didn't pull into our roadside camp on the banks of the Murchison river until 6pm, however the sun wasn't quite down, and the boys tried throwing in a line. Joseph caught the tree above his head and Dom caught lots of weed.  The fish weren't into squid here.

Murchison River campsite

Grant and the boys brought a giant spider out of the van as we were all sitting down for dinner.  I can't believe it got in there, and Oskar was a bit nervous going to bed a little later.  Nasty looking thing.  Hope there's no more.

Spider is middle foreground

It was a long day, and we are ready for bed.  Glad to be away from the big wind and the wasps.

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Vicki