Day 18

Day 18 Exmouth

Emu next to road

Dingo Warning

Dropped off Trude at the sparky today for her new pacemaker. I was going to sit and read a book whilst it was done but he said he would drop me off back at the park, which he did. Problem was, how to get back to get Trude. The place is only about 750m-ish away so we decided to walk back and pick it up, how hard could that be? So at 9:30 we set off, should have packed a cut lunch and water bottle! Took me for ever and by the time I got there I was buggered. Trude has a new

Flowers

temperature gauge that works! It attaches to the thermostat housing and monitors the metal temperature and has an alarm set for 100 C. The decision was made to go out for a drive to the cape then down to Yardi Creek. The last time I did this was 30 years ago with my brother in law Roger and it took the better part of half a day to get from Coral Bay to Exmouth – 155Kms. So I warned Maureen to be ready for a roughish ride. Well I was proved wrong here.

We drove to the cape where they have the Harold E Holt

Harold E Holt Base

Communications Base. It has an array of huge towers that are antennas that use Ultra Low Frequency Waves to communicate with submarines. If you want to know more, you will have to talk to Blinky, our submarine expert. The antennas are huge in height blend in with the sky so pictures do not show them at all well. Nearby was Bundegi Beach which has a launching ramp and jetty and would have been good for a swim if the wind was not so strong. Near the Comms Base there was a sign for cycle track that went back into town that warned about dingoes. We did not see ant dingoes but we did see some emus, right on the side of the road, Maureen was able to get a quick picture.

SS Mildura

Flowers

From there we drove out to the cape with the wreck of the SS Mildura, a cattle transport ship that ran aground in 1907 and caused them to build a lighthouse here. So from the wreck we went to the lighthouse and boy what a view, the unfortunate thing was the camera ran out of battery so we had to put it on charge. You can see all of the north end of the cape and miles to the south. The water is just fabulous. From there we could also a number of whales breaching and moving north, in the background

Flowers

you could see a number of oil rigs on the horizon. There was also an old radar station there from World War II with some great information panels. They also mention that they chased some Japanese soldiers that had been landed – something you do not hear much about.

Using my ACROD Sticker

Lunch

Going down the coast we dropped in and visited the different camping sites and beaches. We went into the National Park and as we were paying our fees the lady asked if we had any concessions – Maureen said we had our ACROD  All the campsites were booked out but they look great and just idyllic. We moved on down to the Milyering Information Centre, a great little place and  we used our ACROD sticker to use a disabled parking bay for the first time. We had lunch at the centre with great views of the bay. There was a great spot in the brick

Sturt Pea

paving where there was a Sturt Pea growing.

Fowers

sticker and she said okay, got in for less! (thanks Tia)

Kept going south along the bays such as Turquoise bay with the snorkel trails but again the wind was far too strong for us to get wet. On we pushed to Yardie Creek. As I mentioned earlier the route was a track, today it is bitumen all the way, right up to the creek crossing where

Turquoise Bay

it goes to sand at last! We got there just as a couple decided to do the crossing in a fully loaded Landcruiser. They unfortunately did not let the tyres down enough and got about halfway exactly before running out of steam and stopping.

Flower

 

It was good to see both jump out to fix the situation. The guy went around and let his tyres down, she got the camera out to record the event. We left them solving the problem and slowly moving across.

It was now about 4:00 and we decided to start heading home. On the way we dropped into Mandu Mandu Gorge which we had passed on the way south. Maureen got out and had quick look. They mentioned a walk trail but it would take about 3 hours but as there was no one else there but also late, that we decided not to do it. So back on the road and it was

Yardie Creek

dodge the wildlife! There were Emus on the side of the road and Euros everywhere that just like to stand in the middle of the road and watch you approach and just get off the road in time. Judging by the number of dead ones, some are not so good judges of distance.

Yardie Creek

Well that was our day. The new temperature gauge worked well with a temperature range between 87 and 92 C all the way. We got back to camp and started

Mandu Mandu Gorge

to cook tea. Ann dropped by to say farewell and wish us good travels, she is on her way south to Carnarvon before heading to Perth. Over a drink, we realised that we have half a chance to cross paths again in November when she expects to travel to Melbourne. Our plan tomorrow is to try and organise a shark swim for Sunday and an ultra-light flight for Monday.

Flower

We have also booked in to Coral Bay for Monday night for 3 nights.