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DAY 122 Saturday 21^st November

We planned to leave Exmouth today and start making our way down along the Ningaloo Reef. There is only one road down the western coast and it runs through the Cape Range National Park. The Adcocks left yesterday and we knew we'd probably find them along the way in a few days.

After packing up our camp in Exmouth we spent a few hours in town. I took the spare set of car keys and did the food shopping whilst David went to the Internet Café to upload our website information. I made it back to the car before David and attempted to deactivate the car alarm with the spare keys only to find the battery was flat! I had some frozen meat and a few dairy products so I wanted to get them into our car fridge as soon as possible. Although I could have unlocked the car and put the things into the fridge I knew that doing so would set off the alarm and it was very loud and annoying and with the remote controller flat I had no idea how to turn it off. I decided to wait in the shade for David, thinking he wouldn't be too much longer.

Whilst waiting, Gigs and Spencer, the couple in the blue E320 Nissan campervan walked past. We chatted for a while and they helped me overcome the alarm as I unlocked our car and put the perishables into the fridge. Then, we all stood around chatting for a while until David came back. Spencer had just got a job - painting an awning, a 2 or 3 day job but the money he would earn from that would have to go toward car repairs. They were still catching fish from Bundegi wharf for food and illegally free camping in the National Park each day. When David came back, we met up and David decided it would be worth fishing again before entering the National Park because of the restricted fishing areas. We needed the fish for food.

David actually caught a Queenfish before I'd even made it to the wharf. He'd rushed ahead while I spent a few minutes splathering on my sunscreen. And so we spent another whole day at the Bundegi wharf catching anchovies with snag hooks and using them as live bait to catch Queenfish.

Around 3pm we left the wharf and finally made our way into the National Park. My maps showed quite a number of established camp sites and we pulled in the very first track to investigate. We were stopped halfway along the road by the ranger who asked if David was "Rob". After saying no he wasn't, we added that we had a friend called "Rob". The ranger then realised he'd goofed and said, "so you must be David". He then told us that our friends Rob and Dorothy wanted us to meet up with them at another camp site which the ranger directed us towards. When we arrived, the camp site was for 3 vehicles although only 2 of the sites had shade. They were well set up under the trees and had left us a great spot too. Before the sun went down a few vehicles came and quickly left and so we had the place to ourselves. The camp site was named T-Bone and was just behind some small sand dunes that faced the Ningaloo Reef. The colour of the water is an incredible turquoise blue and it just looked perfect. Unfortunately, the wind from the south-west just didn't stop howling and we found it difficult to play Mahjong, to cook and to sleep.

DAY 123 Sunday 22^nd November

Because there are no water taps at any of the camp sites we had to be very careful with our water consumption. This was not the first time we'd had to do our washing up in the sea water but after a few days it starts to get a little uncomfortable. Rob and David were keen to go back to Bundegi Wharf again to catch more Queenfish as it was only 40kms away. We packed up for the day, left the trailers at camp and drove back towards Exmouth. When we arrived, we saw Gigs and Spencer were there already. They had camped on the beach and had been moved on at about 2am by the police.

We had another great day of fishing, swimming and sunbaking and I managed to finish reading yet another book. We topped up with fresh water and drove back into the National Park to prepare our dinner of Queenfish in an asian lemon sauce (using a packet mix intended for lemon chicken).

DAY 124 Monday 23 ^rd November

Today we explored a little further south along the Ningaloo coastline and stopped at beautiful Turquoise Bay. As the name suggests the colour of the water is just an incredible, pretty blue. The spot is popular for snorkelling but the wind was so strong and the current moving quite fast, that I didn't get in for a few hours. Finally, once the tide was fully in, I ventured in the water. The bay is protected by the reef, but huge waves crash over the coral on the incoming tide, making currents quite treacherous. The snorkelling was ok but I didn't really venture far enough out to make a fair comment. I took some video footage here to remember it well.

As we didn't catch any fish today, we had to eat meat. I had the frozen mince, which was now well and truly defrosted so we prepared that as a Pad Thai noodle dish with fresh chilli, green capsicum, egg omelete pieces, tin bean sprouts and fresh snow peas. It was tasty, even if we only used half of the packet flavour sachet because Jackson dropped it on the ground! Ah, the joys of travelling with kids.

DAY 125 Tuesday 24 ^th November

We packed up this morning, much faster than the Adcocks with their camper-trailer, and so we took the time to do a few walks in the National Park. Thankfully, it is so much cooler here than where we've been, through Kakadu, the Kimberleys and the Pilbera, where it was too hot to attempt the great walks. We found a walk up through the Mandu Mandu Gorge and took photos of the view back towards the Ningaloo coastline. It was well worth it. We drove on further and stopped in at all the beaches and camp sites for a look before stopping at Yardie Creek - a 4WD only sandbank crossing. The Adcocks and ourselves wanted to do the crossing together since we both had the trailers (our sand anchors) to take across. We'd agreed to meet up with the Adcocks at 12 noon and we were a little early so we did another walk, this one taking us up through the Yardie Creek Gorge. We returned to meet them in the carpark and to walk the crossing and prepare the vehicles. It took us about an hour to let down all the tyres on both cars and both trailers and to send David across in the Troopy first without trailer to check the softness of the sand. Both cars and trailers crossed with no problems but we took video footage just in case! The ranger had told us that the road was not gazetted for trailers and our friends Mark and Sharon had left us email warning us it would be tricky with the trailer, so we had to be careful.

Once on the other side, we had to use the air compressors to pump up all the tyres on both cars and both trailers. The girls prepared the lunches while the boys did the work. Of course, on this side of the crossing there was not a single tree to shelter under for the hour that it took to fill the tyres.

The road from here on down the Ningaloo Coast is soft and sandy with many tracks leading off to the right to the beach and some free beach camps. It is only 110km from Yardie Creek to Coral Bay but it was 2.00pm by the time we had left Yardie Creek and the boys were getting tired. We agreed to start looking for a good (shady) beach camp site. The girls consulted their books and maps and directed the boys to a sheltered bay along Winderbandi Point. The books confirmed that fishing was allowed and the water looked a superb turquoise colour so we ventured in along the soft sand track. The track quickly degenerated into a sand bog and we had to let down the tyres of both cars and both trailers again before moving on. Dorothy and I walked ahead to confirm the suitability of the camp sites and although we didn't find many trees to shelter under we found a camp site behind the dunes with the water just a few metres away.

We arrived too late to catch fish for dinner so I cooked the last of our meat - strips of beef in sesame and teriyaki sauce with rice. David asked me to keep a few strips of beef to use as bait for tomorrow, so it was a small dinner.

Our free beach camp is perfect except for one thing - the wind. It seems we are stuck with the prevailing 25 knot south westerly for the rest of the WA coast. I keep thinking about getting out my sailboard, but stories of TIGER SHARKS have reduced me to a nervous mess in the water. My sailboard is sitting on top of the trailer, closely guarded by our mascot SHARKY.

DAY 126 Wednesday 25 ^th November

We woke up this morning in our own piece of paradise.

We have been commenting on how this is really the first time we've felt "out bush". Camping in Australia is so regulated that we have found it difficult to find a place and just set up camp - free. The Caravan Parks Association is to blame - they have struck a deal with the councils that anywhere within a 50km radius of any caravan park is declared illegal free camping. We see "NO CAMPING" signs in all the best places and we don't risk avoiding the laws. Some people do, but like Gigs and Spencer found it is inconvenient to be moved on by authorities knocking on your window at 2am!

We fished, swam, collected seashells and sunbaked all day. We watched a large stingray come all the way into shore and puff himself up onto the beach and then later move back into the water with the next wave. Even with all our diving I'd never seen this type of stingray - it was about 2 metres wide, yellow with black dots and its tail was thick and twice as long as his body. There are 12 different types of stingray in the area apparently. The highlight of our day was watching a pod of dolphins leaping out of the water close to shore. One left the pod to chase a large fish and to our delight, chased it all along the weed line just one foot from the shore! The stretch of beach was many kilometres long and we were able to run along beside the dolphin watching his fabulously fast tail movements. He outran us of course, but I tried to get a photo. They say the dolphin is magical, and I thought it bizarre that I couldn't focus my camera when I zoomed in but could only focus when the lens was far out and each time that happened the dolphin ducked under water.

Collectively, we caught enough fish to feed the 6 of us. We used bits of raw chicken and beef to catch garfish that were then used as baitfish. Jackson collected pipis from along the beach and used those too. It was difficult work taking many hours in the hot sun. The strong wind pelted sand against the backs of our legs and Dorothy and I couldn't persevere as long the boys. Six-year old Jackson didn't give up all day. He uses a child's learning rod that is intended to teach them to cast a plastic fish. The tiny reel is similar to a bait caster without a bail arm and operates by pressing a button. David caught 2 flathead, a trevally and a flounder and then the last catch of the day was a beaut golden trevally caught by Jackson! He was so proud and so he should have been. It seemed a miracle that he could catch such a large fish on such a tiny rig.

We prepared a camp fire dinner, Dorothy and I combined all that was left of our fresh vegies into a camp oven, and each fish was prepared a different way. The flathead in foil with dried thyme and garlic. One trevally was cooked whole with garlic and a little olive oil in foil. The other trevally was filleted and coated in cajun spices, pan fried, and the flounder was basted in flour and pan fried. The 6 of us sat inside the Adcocks camper trailer and ate together to keep out of the wind.

We had a perfect day, with temperatures not exceeding 32 ° and our fridges running smoothly at 4 ° . We have to ration our fresh water, although we carry 60L but that soon goes if we wash dishes or ourselves. Each morning we collect a bucket of salt water from the sea and leave it at the back door of our car. We rinse all our dishes in that water and quickly dry them off with a tea towel. That seems to take away the salt. We don't wash ourselves, other than swimming in the ocean and occasionally splashing a bit of precious fresh water on our faces to wash off the salty grit at the end of the day.

DAY 127 Thursday 26 ^th November

Last night was windy again but after dinner we sat around our camp fire and chatted over the last of our wine and then had coffee. We agreed to put up with the wind and keep on fishing. We have the beach to ourselves and we don't want to leave this little piece of paradise just yet. We had no more meat to use as bait and so Rob concocted dough. See recipe below:

Ingredients
A bush handful of flour
A bush cup of water

Method
Mix together to form a ball. Thread small pieces onto small hooks and cast on hand lines to catch baitfish such as garfish.