We left Exmouth today after nearly 10 days there. It was enjoyable but a bit too long. The surf disappeared on day 3 and apart from some very cool snorkeling and nice gorges there wasn’t a heap to do… unless you consider $380.00/person to see a whale shark a good deal…
The mornings and late afternoons were great but from 10-4 it was hot – stinky hot. And when all you have is a camper there aren’t many places to hide from the sheer heat. I know it gets much worse, but that was enough for me. When stuck at camp I spent the middle of the day reading by the pool. Oddly the pool is icy cold and is the one place where you can go for respite. I fell asleep in my chair on several occasions.
We have now started school with the kids – an hour a day of learning basic literacy and numeracy stuff. It is simple but the heat meant none of us were very motivated on the first few days
If you’re headed to Exmouth I would not overly recommend the Lighthouse Caravan park. The facilities are adequate but very basic by comparison with the other places up that way and the place is a dustbowl and unattractive. I imagine if you are fishing it is a good compromise if you wish to launch from Tantabiddi Jetty, otherwise I would stay in town.
It took us two hours to pack up today going at a steady pace. Its not something you’d want to do too often, but we know the drill reasonably well now so we aren’t overly stressed by it and I imagine if we went hard we’d be done in just over an hour. I reckon its one of the great tests of a marriage … how well you can set up and pack up when camping… At times the stress has shown… but we don’t need counselling… yet…
We camped last night at Robe River about 2 hours north of Karratha and it was sensational by comparison. We rolled in around 4pm after about 3 hours of driving and saw a beautiful river, a vacant spot right by a tall shady tree and we were sold. The fact that it is free is just a bonus. We swam in the river for an hour and then got out and went fishing. We got a bunch of little bait fish and thought we might catch something bigger, but time ran out and we had to head back for a feed.
It was a beautiful place and aside from the odd truck horn (and some clowns who packed up their camper at 3am) it was peaceful and quiet. Sam woke at 5.30am… and by 6.15 both kids were swimming in the river. The earthmoving equipment kicked off at 6.20 right behind us and we decided it was time to get up…
Aside from the construction work it was great and well worth a stop for any future campers!
Along the way, before Robe River, we pulled in at the infamous Nanutarra Roadhouse for a ‘wee stop’ and Sam, Ellie and I finished up going for a swim in the Ashburton River. On the way out we checked the LPG prices and it was $1.28 /litre. This place has a reputation for being a rip off but that’s just plain silly!
For Danelle who is a ‘north westy’ she is as close to heaven as she can be.
Gotta thank somebody for all of this don’t you?
Tonight we are in Port Hedland and staying thru to Monday with an Indian family who lived in Butler for a while and who Danelle got to know quite well. Marleenie makes a sensational curry so I reckon I’ll be a happy camper for the next few nights…download invisible circus the dvdrip linewatch divx online