Thursday 17 October 2013 - Point Quobba
We spent four nights in Exmouth, catching up on a few errands, restocking groceries and enjoying the luxury of plumbed fresh water with flushing toilets, high pressure showers, car wash facilities as well as the pool, kids playground and awesome camp kitchen that the Big 4 provides. The kids had a ball playing with the other rugrats although Glenn and I spend half our time telling them to come back because they’d just take off, running like a bull at a gate, disappearing over to the other side of the caravan park. Yasmin made friends with a little Swiss girl (Zoe, aged 5), whose parents were thrilled because up till now Zoe’s accented English and shy personality had prevented her from connecting with the other girls whilst they’d been on the road. Glenn was impressed with their VW setup (which they freighted over from Europe for $3000) – everything was so practical and compact!
After farewelling Exmouth for the last time (which was a little odd, because we’d spent a lot of time driving in and out of it in the last month or so), we drove south to Coral Bay. This is definitely a beautiful place on the WA coast but, like we’d been foretold, very touristy. Because we’re not so keen on the more ‘packaged’ style of camping, we were only there for a day visit. We drove down to look at the boat ramp, ate a nice picnic lunch overlooking the bay and then donned togs to enjoy the beach. Yasmin and I walked up to Skeleton Bay, which is a bit of a reef shark nursery (we saw two sharks, a stingray, lots of crabs and one dead fish) while Glenn tried to keep Sienna from terrorising the other kids playing on the beach. Then I went for a snorkel, which was pretty good considering it must have a lot of traffic through. Finally, the spangled emperor fish feeding session at 3:30 wrapped up our Coral Bay stay. We washed off the salt and sand, jumped in the car and set off for the rest stop near Minilya Roadhouse. The girls slept very soundly after their fun in the sun!
The next morning we drove from the roadhouse into Carnarvon. Glenn was a bit concerned about the fuel consumption – it seemed to be sucking the tank dry (although we were punching a headwind). Fortunately we made it, but we’ll probably get the injectors checked out soon. First stop in town was the servo, then the info centre, the op shop (cake tin, trackies for Yas and some blocks: $2!), fishing shop (new reel for the kids), water and more groceries. By this point the girls were pretty ratty and had a lot of steam to burn off, so we went to the riverfront playground for half an hour. After a runaround, we ate a quick lunch off the back of the car and then set off for Point Quobba.
We arrived here mid-afternoon and set up, which took a little longer because Glenn built us a toilet. There are no facilities here and you’re supposed to have a chemical toilet, but we don’t, so Glenn improvised – a piece of ply with a hole cut out of it over a pit lined with garbage bags and our portable toilet seat on top does the job! Oh and it’s all inside the shower tent for privacy. After we’d settled in, we drove up to check out the rocks and blowholes. It’s all very rugged and dramatic here and the wind is blowing a bit, but we’re very comfortable.
Dinner was pretty awesome, courtesy of our new Baby Q... sausages with roast pumpkin, sweet potato, capsicum and a few other odds and ends. So quick and easy and yum! Then we were in bed by 7:30, although I did manage to read until about 8:15! Sienna has had a little cold for the last few days so she’d had a rough one the previous night, but last night she just woke up the once to guzzle some water and Nurofen and then slept till 6am. This in itself was cause for celebration – recently 5:45 has been a sleep-in, with most days commencing with Sienna crying and screaming around 5:15am and me trying to convince her to go back to bed for a little while.
Friday 18 October 2013 - Point Quobba
It’s turned cool on us again! I’m wearing trackies and a jumper and have been since the sun began its daily descent into the ocean a couple of hours ago. In Exmouth we were cheering because the nights were starting to get quite balmy, but obviously those couple of hundred kilometres south make a difference! Anyway, at least it’s not stinking hot. Today we did a lot of not very much at all, but it was great. The girls have been fairly content (Siennna’s still snotty but back in usual rowdy form), fighting has been at a minimum and we’re all eating awesome food from our new baby!
After the usual breakfast rabble, Glenn and the girls took the shovel down to the beach out the front of our camp and dug up ghost crabs for an hour or so. I took advantage of the time to tidy up and enjoy a brief, quiet(!) few moments of respite. Then I rounded up the troops for a quick smoko (banana pancakes) and after lathering them in sunscreen and insisting they wear hats, we returned to the beach with a few rods to try our luck with ghost crab bait. Unfortunately the wind and swell combined with our lack of big long beach rods made this pretty much impossible. We abandoned the mission and went back to camp to pack lunch and head off for a look-see at Quobba Station.
The coastline along here is some of the most, rugged and dramatic I’ve seen anywhere along WA. It was a bit of a bummer that there was heaps of cloud around today (apparently a storm in Carnarvon) because it kind-of kills the effect in photos, so I didn’t take any. We saw the memorial for the HMAS Sydney II (over 600 Aussies killed!) and Yasmin tried to pick up the artificial flowers that had been left there (not to take, just to look at!). After driving the 8km up to Quobba Station (which looked deserted – just one family was camping there) and back, we stopped at the ‘aquarium’ just south of the blowholes for lunch.
After picking the sand out of our sandwiches (get it?), we demolished our delicacies and then the girls got stuck into their usual beach play. Yasmin spotted a little boy and we didn’t see her or Sienna for over an hour. Glenn read his book (a good one at the moment, he’s hardly spoken to me in two days) and I pottered, reading a magazine, checking emails (we get a little bit of dodgy internet service at the beach) and generally getting restless. After a while I went for a stroll up the beach, where the low tide reveals a whole heap of awesome little rock pools. The aquarium is actually a great snorkelling spot, with some wicked looking coral and stacks of reef fish, but it was too cold for me to even consider getting in the water (plus the lack of sun would have made visibility pretty crap). The walk alone was rewarding enough though – I spotted clams, crabs, sea anenomes, sea cucumbers, stacks of cool shells and lots of cool baby corals. Out near the rock ledge are hundreds of fish, which swarm in as soon as you get close (they must be used to being fed).
After I got back, Glenn actually put his book down for a while and seeing that the girls’ little boy-friend was leaving, we decided to all head back over to the rock pools. It was just as fun, if not more, second-time around. Glenn pointed out tiny fish in the rock pools and the girls thought they were awesome. When we got to the fish at the rock ledge, Sienna was so taken by them she did her funny goofy laugh. Glenn hacked a few oysters off the nearby rocks and put them in the water to entice the fish up closer – they thought it was great! On the way back I saw something move under a rock out of the corner of my eye, so I lifted it up and a crab the size of my hand scuttled out, nearly running over Sienna’s feet. Of course, the girls shrieked and giggled (no, not including me!). We topped the day off with a delicious bolognaise on rice noodles (Yasmin tried a new food – the noodles, not the meat and sauce), followed by a damper baked in the Baby Q (Glenn put sultanas in the girls’ one). We were all done and dusted by 7pm, the girls went to bed happy (and haven’t made a peep – a little exhausted methinks) and we’re enjoying the peace and quiet of wind gently blowing the tent, the waves crashing on the shore and the generator rattling away while the computer charges.
Monday 21 October 2013 - Quobba Station
Talk about an upgrade – we are styling it here! When we were in Carnarvon the other day I made a few calls to the local stations, looking for a bit of work that we could both do around the kids. The manageress of Quobba called us back a few days later and after calling in for a quick chat on Saturday, we packed up and moved yesterday morning. Incidentally, it was one of the most horrible pack-ups we’ve had to do, with a very cold, strong wind blowing sand everywhere and making folding the tent most difficult! So after driving the 10km north, we were thrilled to be given one of the self-contained cottages (with bathroom ensuite!) hooked up to power and water. The girls don’t quite know what to do with themselves. We spent the rest of the day pottering and settling in and this morning had a bit of a chat with the owners about what we could do for them. There wasn’t much going on today so we took the opportunity to head into town for a grocery stock-up.
Tuesday 22 October 2013 - Quobba Station
What a magnificent day. I took off just before 6am for an 8km run following the southward road, bordered by the low mountain range in the east and the spectacular cliffs on the west. I was joined by plenty of bunnies, a few roos, sheep (of course) and a couple of goats. Well, they didn’t actually join me, but I saw them along the way. Just as I was returning to the homestead, I heard the bikes starting up and out came Sara, her kids and Glenn, heading off for a small muster. Our girls were snuggled up in bed with the iPad (and a lolly to keep them happy) until I returned.
After a few hours pottering in our cottage, the sheep (and the musterers) came in and it was time for a cuppa on the homestead deck. The big kids went to school and everyone else went down to draft the stock that had just come in. Yasmin was pretty thrilled because she got to hold a tiny lamb (Sienna was too scared), but my gosh, that girl can talk! The whole time we were down there, Yasmin didn’t stop asking questions about the whole thing. Considering I’m not a farmer and know barely more than she does, I had to guess at half the answers!
After they’d finished the first draft, we adjourned to the beach, where Glenn dug up ghost crabs to feed the bluebone that cruised the shallow rocks on the high tide. The girls played in the sand and picked up shells and I went for a wander a little further up to watch the spectacular waves crashing in and out of a little cove. It’s pretty incredible. Then it was time for lunch and a snooze (for all of us!).
The afternoon was pretty magnificent too – the wind had dropped right off and the sun was beaming down. Glenn went fishing with Bob, another worker here. The tide and swell were down so it was pretty much the safest conditions you can get while fishing off the rocks, but Glenn still felt a little bit exposed. Yasmin and Sienna went visiting with the kids, Lucy and Sam and after playing on the trampoline for a while, we all went down to the beach. Being low tide, the rocks were exposed heaps more and it was absolutely spectacular down there in the late afternoon sun. Unfortunately it was beef for dinner, not seafood, but it was darn good steak that we’d picked up from Bullara Station the other week. I wonder what the rich people are doing...
Thursday 24 October 2013 - Quobba Station
Well, we’re still having a fantastic time. Yesterday morning we woke to the muted sounds of hooves clattering as a truck was loaded with a whole lot of rams from the recent mustering efforts. It was a gorgeous, still morning and it was all the more pleasant because Sienna had waited for the alarm on Glenn’s watch to beep at 5:45, instead of launching herself out of the cot and screaming at us as soon as she woke up (usually between 5:15-5:30am!). After breakfast, we all went up to the homestead. Glenn was doing a bit of electrical work in the bathroom, which had just been renovated and Sara and I, with a little help/hindrance from the girls, began painting the first coat on the front external wall. After smoko (I was treated to another REAL coffee), we finished off and went back to our cottage to organise some lunch. Not bad for a day’s work!
Sienna had asked to go to bed before I’d finished painting, so when she woke up, I took her for a little wander around the campgrounds and Glenn had a snooze. Yasmin took herself off to bed too, with the promise that she could play with the kids once they finished school. The tide was high and the breeze hadn’t picked up too much, so I decided to head up to the Blowholes for a snorkel... pretty awesome!
Then we capped it all off with a lovely afternoon at Two Mile Beach. I walked with Sara and Lucy, whilst the men drove up (Glenn took the girls). The fellas all fished off the rocks while the kids played on the beach and us two mums enjoyed a sundowner. Lucy is great with the girls (Yasmin is practically in love with her) and Sienna has taken a real shine to Sam – she was thrilled when he joined us after fishing. Glenn caught a nice little sweetlip just to top the evening off. After watching the sun slip out of the sky, we all squeezed into the cars and went home for showers, dinner and bed. Bliss!
Today was another warm, clear day with hardly any wind. We’d been given permission to go exploring, so drove 20km north to another spectactular spot. The track takes you right down the side of the cliff to another rocky fishing area. The water was so clear you could see fish everywhere, including a huge groper, a couple of turtles and a few sharks . Glenn caught a Spanish mackerel (his first ever off a rock – declared in honour of his grandfather Bernie) and after filleting it, put the frame back on his fishing line. After about 20 seconds of dangling it in the water, the groper zipped up to the surface and smashed it! Absolutely incredible. We then set off back to Two Mile for lunch and more exploring, where I saw a small pod of dolphins swim by. The waves crashing on the rocks are almost hypnotising and its so soothing just soaking up this raw, rugged but beautiful environment, being mesmerised by the power of nature.
Sunday 27 October 2013 - Quobba Station
I hate to repeat myself, but we’re still having an incredible time. It struck me today that pretty much everyone who works or lives here smiles a lot. It’s such a warm, friendly, respectful environment, while still being relaxed and easygoing. The girls are having a ball and because there’s so much for them to do, Glenn and I are finding it easier to deal with them as they’re less demanding of our attentions.
Friday was a lovely day. Glenn did a bit of work in the morning and then when he finished, I helped Lucy out with an art project. In the afternoon, the troops arrived and it was full swing into Sam’s 11th birthday party. The kids threw water balloons everywhere, shot off a real rocket, tossed pop rocks at everyone’s feet and generally ran riot. The adults coped by ingesting many bottles of beer and wine. It was a really good night, one of those ones where everyone just kicked back and enjoyed themselves.
Yesterday was my birthday, but due to the poor state of our health combined with limited sleep (both us and the children), we didn’t do much at all. We all had lots of naps and chilled out with movies on the laptop, read books and played the iPad. It was cool and drizzly in the morning too, perfect slumming weather. By the evening, we’d recovered enough to witness one of the most magnificent sunsets I’ve seen all year (someone knew it was my birthday!) and after a low-key celebration with just us four in the cottage (Glenn baked a cake – his first ever!), we all crashed in bed.
This morning was an early one for Glenn, with mustering starting at 5:30am. I had a nice lie-in with Sienna, who came in at a quarter to 6 and then Yasmin joined us both at half past. After a leisurely breakfast, we joined the crew back from mustering just after 8am for an early smoko. Then they went out to finish the job and Yasmin and Sienna played with Sam’s little cousins (Eve and Adelaide) while I got stuck into cleaning the deck fridge. I was on a roll and managed to get the kitchen fridge and pantry done as well, while Yasmin pottered around and Sienna had a big snooze in the lounge. It was really nice to feel productive while knowing the kids were happy.
After the mustering, the boys had to draft and it turned out to be quite a big working day for them. While everyone else enjoyed a cold sundowner, I decided I wasn’t sweaty enough (I’d been working in the air con all day) so I set off for a run up to Two Mile and back. Today was really humid but the wind had picked up so while it was still warm, the breeze cooled me (only on the way back though, as it was a southerly and I went north first). Sara would have felt it when she went mid-afternoon though! I got back just after 6 and the sun still wasn’t setting for another half hour or so – the days are getting really long now, it’s great! Then it was off to throw the chook in the oven to roast, feed the kidlings and chill out after a very satisfying day.
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