Happy Birthday Jo

Well, that long awaited day arrived... Happy Birthday Joseph, 14 today.  He hasn't counted down for quite so long this year, I don't think he thought there was much to look forward to, but he did it in the end.  We had a lovely day, nutri-grain for breakfast, Tim Tams for morning tea, chips for afternoon tea...party all day.  By the end I'd had enough.  We gave Joseph a camera for his birthday present before we left, so he could take pictures of the trip, but we gave him a big book today, which he'd read by bed time, even with several hours of school work in between!  Just need to get that voracious reading appetite switched on to reading his bible!

Late in the afternoon we drove further south on the west side of cape range, down to Yardie Creek.  They run boat tours up Yardie Creek into the Yardie Creek Gorge, but we've seen quite a few gorges and decided to give this one a miss.  On our way back up we stopped at South Mandu and walked the 500m through the wind to the beach.  I snorkeled in the waves, but the current was strong and there wasn't too much to see so I got out pretty quickly.

Tuna casserole and cheese cake for dinner, Joseph's favorites.  It has cooled down and we had jumpers on.  There are a few more campers here tonight.  We are getting used to the empty spaces.

Nadine mixing the cheesecake

Joseph with the end product

We are planning on heading off tomorrow further south, but we could have stayed here even longer.  Maree, one of the managers here, says last year when she went home, she would wake up in the morning saying "I miss you Ningaloo".
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Vicki

Sunday Fun Day

We were glad to be able to visit the Exmouth Christian Fellowship again.  The worship leader does a great job and we enjoyed Pastor John Fletcher, their guest speaker.  He is an older guy who spoke about the filling of the Holy Spirit, and Joseph and Dominic, and Grant and I, found it very interesting.

After church we visited the monthly markets briefly.  They are very small and were closing up by the time we got there.  We had lunch at our favorite Brumby's store again and picked up some bread and milk and goodies for Joseph's birthday tomorrow.

There were queues of people all over town waiting for buses to pick them up.  There was an enormous Holland American Liner in the harbor and it had deposited it's guests into Exmouth for the day.  One man I talked to was less than enthusiastic about his cruise of a lifetime!  He thought ten days would be his limit, but 20 days from Hong Kong to Melbourne was stretching it, a lot!  He'd found it very hot in
Vietnam and other places they'd visited but the air-conditioning in the boat was freezing.  Poor guy. Only ten or more days to go...

Dom scaring the seagulls with the Liner moored out in the harbour

Arriving back at the van park, the fishing guys were cleaning their catch for the day - more spangled Emperor, tuna and mackerel (a whole one this time) and they borrowed my sharp as steel knife to try and saw through the fishes head for bar-b-queing.  Apparently they'd heard it was good to eat the cheeks of the fish... They very kindly gave us some filleted mackerel to try and it wasn't too bad.  I like this kind of fish, which you don't have to catch or clean!

Keen fisherman filleting their catch

While we were cooking the fish on the BBQ, we met some young Japanese who were traveling around Australia, fruit picking.  The young guy we spoke to had flown into the Gold Coast and was hopping around, down to Melbourne, across to Tasmania and now to Perth.  He told me they'd been walking in Carnarvon, which is south of here,  but it got too hot and they quit.   I thought that was pretty impressive, to be walking around with backpacks etc, and that it would definitely have gotten too hot, but then we worked out that he meant working, not walking!
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Vicki

Swimming with Turtles

I noticed the other day that I am cooking fine with just two pots.  I was going to bring a bigger one but it wouldn't fit when I came to pack, and I haven't really missed it.  Usually at home I end up with three or four pots to wash after dinner.  It's amazing what you don't really need.  I often have grand plans to clear out my house and throw away what we don't use but I have trouble finding the time, disciplining myself to make it a priority, and then deciding what we don't use or need.  I probably just need to get rid of it all.

This morning we drove from the caravan park and across the road to the Jurabi Coastal Park.  Grant enjoyed driving along the soft sand road, trying out his 4WD, while we all bounced along for the ride.  Everyone pitched in to let the air out of the tyres before we set off, so that we wouldn't get bogged.




Looking at our nice bog job in the sand...

 

The boys decided to pack down the sand



As we neared the end of the track, we saw a turtle sitting in the carpark, away from the water on the wrong side of the sand dunes.  We jumped out ready to rescue it, but it was too late.  It must have gotten disorientated in the night and come down the wrong side of the sand dune, then been unable to get back up because of the barriers that are set up to stop people driving onto the dunes.  There were tracks in the sand where she had wandered around looking for a way through, but in the end she would have become dehydrated in the hot sun.  She was all swollen up and stinking, so I think it had been a few days.

Swollen dead turtle

We headed down the path to the beach, and found ourselves alone on a long stretch of sand, except for about fifty turtles.  I had come ready to swim, because the manager of the caravan park, Marie, said it's lovely, but the others hadn't. However, when they saw how beautiful the water was, and all the turtles floating around, they were quick to strip down to their undies and jump in.  Dominic started the idea of crawling down the beach on his stomach, like a turtle, so by the time they got to the water their pants were full of sand.  A bit of clothes optional swimming was attempted...Dominic thought it was great fun.  "There's no resistance". But the arrival of a turtle necessitated some hasty dressing.  Turtles have big beaks.

Once the others got out and the water quieted down, a number of turtles swam past, usually dawdling along in the shallows, then when they spotted that I wasn't another turtle, doing a very fast 90 degree turn and shooting out deeper.

It was so lovely I could have stayed in all day, but I'm glad Grant called us out when he did, because I got a little sunburned again.  The backs of my legs are peeling from the snorkeling sun burn.  Now my arms might go the same way.

Piling quickly back into the car to get away from the smelly turtle, we bumped back down the sandy road, with Grant trying to find all the softest spots to try out the 4WD.  We stopped to look at all the shells covering the sandy plains behind the sand dunes.  I don't know how all the shells got there, as the high tide would never pass the sand dunes, but there were thousands of white sun bleached shells across a huge area of flat ground, most of which aren't broken, which says to me they were put there gently and not by tossing waves like when the tide goes in and out.  It was very interesting.  I will asked someone at church tomorrow if they know anything about it.

Building a city



The pool at Yardie creek was a hit


We had a slow afternoon, with Grant insisting on no computer for the big boys, and in the end Joseph and Dominic joined in making a city in the sand outside the caravan with water piping and swimming pools, and then a game of cricket, with Joseph keeping a tight reign on all the rules.  I was able to do three loads of washing all at once because of all the machines in the laundry here.  I am seriously considering a second  washing machine at home!  I hung up twenty-four pairs of undies...

The boys went and watched some of the campers gut and fillet their catch for the day.  There were some more Spangled Emperor, a Tuna, and half a mackerel.  The shark got the other half.  They came back with ideas for what bait to use for their own fishing.  Joseph and Dominic are getting quite keen, but we haven't had much luck catching anything.

We had a movie night tonight, watching "are we done yet", and afterwards everyone got themselves ready for bed.  Nadine went off to the loo (a huge achievement for her, as at the start here she was too afraid of the lacewing insects to go by herself) and Cooper, already in his nappy, announced he wanted to go as well and trotted after her.  I told Grant he'd better go and make sure he left the loo clean and tidy, and went back to making up beds.

Grant came back pretty soon to say that Cooper had run into the girls' toilet after Nadine and he couldn't help him.  So off I went, up to the toilet block, to make sure Cooper didn't cause too much trouble.  I passed Nadine on her way out, who mumbled something about Cooper running off, which I thought was her way of telling me that Cooper had run away from Daddy into the girls' toilet.  I went in to find one toilet occupied with the door locked, so I stood in front of it and called out "Hi Cooper" or something like that, and followed that up with a few "are you fininshed yet?" "good job Cooper" and "let mummy in"s.  There were some toilet noises, paper ripping, which sounded very advanced for Cooper (usually he just unrolls the rolls) and toilet flushing without any announcement first.  He was, in fact, remarkably quiet in there, and my mother's instinct got me away from the door just before a grown lady opened it and stepped out.

I muttered something about losing my son, and made a big show of looking in all the toilet cubicles, then rushed out the door.  Her husband was waiting outside, and I laughed to cover my embarrassment and said I'd lost my little son.  He wordlessly pointed to the boy's toilets.  Cooper had switched facilities while we weren't looking.

As Grant was heading off on a second mercy trip, Joseph led Cooper up to the van.  Praise the Lord for big brothers!
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Vicki

Fish for Dinner

The week is rushing by.  I thought staying the extra week would be too long, but we are relaxing and enjoying ourselves and each day is full.  I just hope we can go a bit slower for Katie as well when she gets here.  She will certainly need the rest.

After our school work this morning, we were slowly getting ready to head out for the afternoon, when Les, the manager here, came and asked if we wanted any fish.  He had been out with a few of the long term residents here in the park, and they had some fish to share.  They gave us some freshly filleted Spangled Emperor, which are a nice big fish with botox lips and nasty looking teeth.  Les said it tastes better if it's left to sit for a bit, so we decided to have it for dinner and had sandwiches for our lunch.

We drove to look at a ship wreck off  North West Cape, a rusty Skelton sticking out of the water, then in to town again for more food and phone calls.

The wreck off Point Murat

On our way back to the van, we turned in to the Bundegi beach and Dominic and Joseph fished off the jetty with their squid for bait.  They could see all these fish in the water, but they just nibbled the bait off their hooks and we didn't catch anything.

Fishing off Bundegi Jetty

I spoke to a retired couple who are on a trip around the coast of Australia, and will get home to Gundagai for Christmas.  The lady was missing her two grandchildren, one and two years old and her favourite part of Australia so far is Mooloolaba .  We chatted about the places we'd been and agreed that the crocodiles in Kakadu were pretty scary.  The man said around six people a year are taken by crocs up north, but they don't advertise it.  He spoke to a pilot who flew a small plane every day along the same stretch of coast to deliver mail or something to a remote location.  He noticed some bushwalkers making their way along the beach, a bit further along the coast each day, however he also noticed what they couldn't see - the large crocodile following them off shore, just waiting for them to reach the river that joined with the sea and which they would need to cross.  He dropped them a note from the plane one day, and the next day they had turned away from the coast and headed inland.  I'm so glad we are away from the crocs.

As we were packing up the fishing rods to head home, a man called us to watch a whale splashing out to sea. It was getting dark, but we could make out it's dark shape, and then the white of the waves it was making by breaching, or jumping out of the water.

At home we cooked the very fresh Spangled Emperor fillets and they were fantastic.  Just right.  Even if we hadn't managed to catch them ourselves.

The wind occasionally gusts here,  and we've had a few night and morning showers, although I think we are getting very calm weather for this time of year. It is just lovely, and I wish I could bring you all over here to see it.
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Vicki

Quiet days

Today Mr and Mrs Chris left on their way home to Perth, and the park is suddenly empty of travellers.  There are still a few permanent people around, but it is very quiet.  We feel like old timers now.  We have a big toilet block to ourselves, and it gets cleaned for me every day!  Plus I have a laundry with four washing machines.

Late this afternoon we headed off to snorkel at the Oyster stacks.  We've been waiting for a time to go when the sun is not too hot, because you can only snorkel here when the tide is high, and all this week high tide had been in the middle of the day.  

The beach at Oyster Stacks is very rocky and it's sharp getting into the water, but the coral was lovely.  There are lots of fish and Dominic and Nadine saw a little fish that looked like floating seaweed.  I saw pretty much what I've seen before, but it's always fun. 

Jo and Grant and Dominic went fishing in the evening.  They went to Trisel beach and didn't catch anything.  There were so many turtles around that they gave it up after a while and watched the turtles digging their nests instead.

It is cooler again tonight and by the time they came home they were all freezing.

I read the novella, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway to everyone this week. I was amazed at how interested they all were. Only Cooper fell asleep.

It's a very ordinary story, about a man catching a fish, and I can't work out why it is quite so interesting, because the language is certainly not picturesque .  I've read it once before and found it fascinating how such simple words and a basic topic can paint a picture so alive and real you feel that you are watching it happen before you.

It talks about different fish, sharks, currents, and other fishy things, and it was fun because we have seen some of these fish and turtles and tried to fish.  I'm not sure if they would have listened to the story a few months ago.
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Vicki

Stories

Our English journalist friend, Tom, came and borrowed the kettle again this morning.

After making his very strong brew, he told us a few more stories (journalists have to be good at telling stories, I guess).  He and his girlfriend were coming to the end of their visas in Australia when he saw a job advertised for the Manjimup local paper, a small town in south west WA.  He applied and got the job and sponsorship for permanent residency.  Apparently it's a lovely area if very quiet, so he and his girlfriend keep themselves sane by getting out and travelling around every few weekends.

Big news in Manjimup is a cat stuck up a tree, which doesn't happen that often. Tom was sweating about what to put on the front page the other week, delaying the apologetic phone call to his boss in Bunbury, when a local lady walked through the door, announced she'd just been attacked by a kangaroo, and asked if he wanted the story.

"Yeah, absolutely" he replied, and she proceeded to show him the stitches around her ears and on her back and tell the story of her rescuing her dog from the clutches of a large kangaroo which had attacked while they were walking in local bushland.

I'm not sure if you noticed the story in the paper a few weeks ago.  I had because it just seemed a silly thing to do - wrestle a huge kangaroo to save your dog, but Tom wrote the story.  And as he says, "it went viral".  A larger WA paper picked it up, and foreign papers, WIN news interviewed the lady and various radio stations took up the story.  he said he even managed a follow up story in his paper about the media attention the lady had gotten.  Sounded like one of the highlights of his time in Manjimup!  Although, after speaking with Tom, I'm sure it won't be long before another adventure finds him.

While everyone was busy school working, blogging and oil changing, Cooper found some scissors and cut his hair.  A lot.  He looks like a little Friar Tuck.  I cut the rest of his hair to try and bring it all into line, but I didn't shave it all off.  A haircut completely changes the way people look!  Mrs Chris next door said that it's only a couple of days between a good and a bad haircut.  I said it would probably be a bit more than that!

Trying to fix up Cooper's hair

We headed off to the shop before lunch, basically because we had nothing left to eat.  Now that we know we'll be here a week we bought food for a while.

The Brumby's here doubles as a cafe, with milkshakes, sandwiches and hot chips for sale.  We've been buying the occasional bread rolls for lunch, which are nice, and today we treated ourselves with some hot chips.  A lot of the businesses seem to need to double up to survive.  The kitchen shop I looked through sold bathroom and baby things as well, and the Auto Pro shop Grant went to was also a mechanic and a front for car rental.  The hardware store sold goldfish and pet food.

Later this afternoon we went back down to Turquoise bay and Grant tried out Mr and Mrs Chris' waterproof bag for our phone.  He managed some successful video of snorkeling underwater, which was fun.  It was a bit murky today, though, and harder to see distance.  Hence I didn't last long when my turn came, and I watched a few fish that looked like a cross between a black catfish and an eel and then got out.

Another stop at the big sand dune on the way home, this time with Oskar's full support.  I walked up the beach watching all the turtles sitting in the shallows, while the others rolled and jumped down the sand dune, using up lots of energy.  There were a few unusual birds around today that I haven't seen before.  A weird tall bird with a black "do" on his head and long legs, and a nervous black and white bird with a bright red "needle" beak and red legs.  On my walk up the beach it kept watching me and changing direction every time it thought I was heading it's way.

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Vicki

Ningaloo Time

We have decided to stay at Cape Range/Ningaloo for another week, to rest and work on our school work a bit more. Plus we are really enjoying the snorkeling and the warm weather, and it will be nice to go to the Exmouth Christian Fellowship for their singing one more time!

In our snorkeling adventures today we went back to Turquoise Bay and tried the drift pool side.  There are stronger currents here, although today there weren't really any. There was lots of coral, and I saw a starfish, which was cool.

In the quieter part of the bay there were two turtles playing around and a number of people swam out to visit with them. One big turtle swam past me in the water, but I think the male turtles might be a bit fiery at this time of year, so I left him alone.

Grant has managed to rig an Internet connection to our van with an arial so that makes our school work and emails a little easier.

We ate our last tin of corned beef in a casserole for dinner, and at first everyone turned up their noses.  Once they tasted it, however, it was all guzzled down.  Grant managed to whip up some custard with the last of our milk to go with the tinned peaches to fill us all up for dessert.  I'll worry about breakfast tomorrow.

We met a young English couple, a journalist and his girlfriend, who are travelling in a borrowed falcon sedan.  First they came over and borrowed our kettle to make their morning coffee.  We don't mind- we don't even drink coffee, so the kettle is rarely used.  Soon after, Tom sheepishly came back to see if he could borrow some jumper leads.  The car wouldn't start.  Grant went over and helped to get it started and had a good chat about their other travels.

It turns out Tom and Helen have been traveling for a while, and one of their trips was in an old Tarago.  Tom isn't particularly car savvy and they got to know a lot of garages on their way round Australia.  At one point the Tarago was making a weird noise, which Tom hoped was nothing serious, until the transmission fell out on the highway.  However it just so happened that the mechanic they showed up to had the exact same model Tarago as a wreck in his back yard and he just switched the transmissions and they were off again. Wonder if the Falcon Sedan friend has heard that story?

The new Zealand couple beside us, Chris and Chris, are off doing things all the time.  snorkeling, fishing, driving down to the old whaling station (I didn't even know there was a whaling station).  This is all even more remarkable because Mrs Chris just had her second hip replaced in May.  They travel in a spotless Toyota Delica, a 4WD van, which Mr Chris has fitted out with a queen sized bed and storage.  They told us the best places to go fishing and have given Grant some ideas for the car and the van.
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Vicki