The camping couple and a dog named Pumba

Back to bikinis, boardies and barefeet

camilleandjamie — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 19:09:00 GMT

The Ningaloo Nomads

camilleandjamie — Sat, 29 Jul 2017 19:06:00 GMT

Hello once again and welcome back to our travelling blog. I bet by now you're starting to wonder who Jamie and Camille are and if they will be coming back at all. So it is coming up to one year that we have been on our ‘Around Aus Trip' and our progress has been much slower than anticipated. In fact, we left Adelaide thinking we would be back home within 1 year, but have only made it 1/3 of the way around and we are still currently working on Warroorra Station on the Ningaloo Coast, WA. Yes, we are still planning to come home, but somehow the list of places to see keeps on growing. We are however coming home for a week in early October, so get ready for us!!

It's been over 2 months since we have done a blog, so there is a fair amount to talk about. You might need at least 2 beers to get through this one. Its bound to have you balancing on the edge of your seat, so maybe grab those beers now. I'll start off from where we left you last time. We had just said goodbye to some mates and were waiting for Dennis and Adam to come visit in early June.

It has started to cool down a little lately, dropping to about 6 degrees overnight and daytime temps reaching 28-30 degrees with short days, much like Adelaide in winter. When Adam and Dennis arrived, we had an action packed schedule organised. The plan was to spend 4 days camping on Warroora Station, 4 days in Exmouth and then come back to the station for a couple more nights, so they could get ready to drive back down to Perth. We started off by camping at the best campsite on the station, which happens to be private (station use only). We had a beautiful beach all to ourselves for 4 days, which we spent fishing, shell collecting, kayaking, cooking campfire meals (including freshly caught goat), and a few too many cheeky beers. We awoke early on the 3rd day to drive to Coral Bay for a repeat of our Whale Shark Tour, this time with Adam, Dad and Zach. The weather was perfect and smiles were on all of our faces. We started off the day with an early outer reef snorkel where we saw loads of different fish species, sharks, turtles and beautiful coral. After the first snorkel we went out in search of the illusive Whale Shark. It took about an hour, but we managed to spot 3 separate whale sharks. It is a very difficult thing to imagine seeing a gigantic whale shark appear out of the deep blue water, but let me tell you that nothing will prepare you for how awesome it is!! I was reliving it in my dreams for the following couple of nights. They were so majestic and hosted an entire ecosystem of fish species. You really need to make time to experience it for yourself. The day finished off with another outer reef snorkel, which was full of amazing marine life once again. It really is an impressive reef system and you can see why it is on the World Heritage List.

Next, we stocked up on food and headed off for Exmouth. Pumba begrudgingly gave up a small amount of room on the back seat to allow Camille and Dad a place to sit. It came with a lot of disgruntled noises and way too many stinky Bulldog farts that almost forced us all out of the ute. But eventually we made it into the Ningaloo Lighthouse Caravan Park. We made the most of the first couple of day's nice weather exploring places in Cape Range National Park such as Turquoise Bay, Yardie Creek, Shothole Canyon and Charles Knife Gorge. The National Park offered amazing coastline, gorges and we saw plenty of wildlife including, Echidnas, Ospreys, Emus, Kangaroos, Moray Eels, Turtles and Sturt Desert Pea flowers. Unfortunately we had a bit of a freak storm come though for the last couple of days, but the smiles and great times continued to flow. Heading back to the station to say goodbye was definitely a sad moment. But it was so great to catch up with them and we really had an epic time.

Since we started working on the Ningaloo Coast, we have been waiting to see the start of the Humpback whale season and in Late June they started to show up. Almost 1 month later and we are still seeing whales every time we look out to the ocean. I never took much notice of the saying ‘having a whale of a time' but when you are sitting back watching them breach out of the water, tail slap and just gently cruise past you really can see that they are having a great time. Our local surf break on the outer reef happens to be very close to where the whales cruise past, so we have been lucky enough to surf with whales breaching out of the water no more than 20 metres away.

As you have probably guessed, we really love our wildlife and the station does have a lot to offer in this respect. Lately we have been seeing the rare Australian Bustards in large groups almost every day, we managed to find a very large and slightly aggressive 3 metre black headed python (which we tried to pick up), a stunning Perentie and thousands of Budgies and Cockatiels flying in loud chattering flocks as they head south to Kalbarri for breeding season. We also are happy to announce the newest member of our Station family. His name is Billy and he is a cheeky Ibis who loves hanging around us while we work. Pumba is a bit unsure about Billy, but over time will need to accept that he is now part of the family.

The fishing has been a bit slow lately and there has been a bit too much swell to do as much fishing as I would like. But I did manage to catch a 1.2 metre Giant Herring off the beach. It swam under a ledge and I had to go swimming to get it in to shore. Definitely had the heart pumping for a minute there, as I thought I had hooked onto a reef shark and at one point it was pulling me out to sea while the line was tangled around my arm. We have also been dining on Spanish mackerel thanks to generous campers with boats. As most of you would know it has recently been school holidays, so we have been very busy on the station with tourism. We have been lucky enough to meet some bloody awesome peeps and it has been sad to see them leave, while we now enter quiet season and are forced to sit in our spa alone, with nothing but our tears to keep us warm (oh and the artesian water). Camille has been busy trying to keep up with the demand for her surf jewellery over the school holidays and has just ordered some new charms from Canada. She has been doing so well that it has paid for some of our Whale Shark Tours and a fresh new hair cut for Camille. I, however still have the same old festering mess of hair which is now almost down to my shoulders.

Just recently we have been lucky enough to meet a great couple, Jo and Mike, who ended up here for longer than they intended due to Mike being a diesel mechanic. So needless to say, he is now a very busy man working on a never-ending list of broken machinery. On our last day off they took us out for a spearfish on their boat and they also have this amazing bit of gear called a Sea Bob, which is best described as an underwater jet ski, which scoots along at up to 22km/h under water.

Until next time we wish you guys all the best. Much love Jamie, Camille, Pumbaaaah and Billy

Work, Snorkel, Sleep, Repeat

camilleandjamie — Fri, 26 May 2017 19:33:00 GMT

Welcome back to our working adventures on the Ningaloo reef.

We are now well and truly into the swing of working life once more, though of course we would much rather just be travelling. The working days are hard and very long, but we have come to appreciate a lot of other things such as being able to ride dirt bikes, tractors and bobcats, knowing how to construct a fence from scratch, as well as constantly learning about everyday station life. We recently had some friends of the boss come to work and stay on the station and they have created an artesian hot tub. This was made out of half an old rain tank and hooked up to the underground bore water that comes out at about 70 degrees. We then cool it down until it is the perfect soaking temperature. So now we can spend evenings with a drink in hand, soaking in the hot water and looking up at the Milky Way and counting the shooting stars we see.

Jamie is still very much into fishing; so as well as going fishing a couple nights a week, he now also watches the fishing channel. He has been providing us with fresh delicious fish to eat at least 3-4 times a week. On our days off, we usually go camping on the station at one of the many amazing beaches. We even have a couple of spots which are for private use only so we get those all to ourselves. The weather here has cooled down slightly to around 30 degrees everyday and the nights cool down quite a bit now as well. I can see why May, June and July are then most popular times to visit. We also spend a lot of our free time snorkelling, either on the station or at Coral Bay. There is an amazing free drift snorkel at Coral Bay, which we have gone to a few times. Each time we see so many amazing types of coral and new and different species of fish. We are also lucky enough to get to snorkel less than a metre away from the green sea turtles, which are both curious and friendly.

May seems to be the month of friends visiting us. Firstly, our friends Ashley and Dan, who we met on the road, were passing through so we had them come to stay with us for a few nights. We were able to show them the amazing fishing to be had on the station. They caught a whole bunch of trevally as well as some spangled emperors. They also decided to try for some shark, and after a few big runs that resulted in a loss of fishing rig, they hooked on to a bronze whaler which they reeled into shore. We were able to get a close up look at him before removing the hook and releasing him back to the ocean. We dined on freshly caught fish grilled on the fire that night. We took our friends to another spot called Pelican Point, which is a marine sanctuary zone. Here, you are able to snorkel with giant shovelnose rays as well as baby reef sharks as it is a shark nursery. We would have seen at least 20 shovelnose rays, about 10 baby black tip reef sharks, 6 honeycomb stingrays and even some turtles, all in about 1 ½ metres of water. The next day we spent at Coral Bay doing the drift snorkel and then chilling on the beach with some cold beers. It’s really at times like that, when life can’t get much better.

Out of the blue we also had Jamie’s old bosses from Port Noarlunga Aquatics come to stay on the station. We convinced them to stay 3 nights, when they were only going to do 1 night. They loved it so much, and we showed them the good fishing spots and enjoyed a delicious homemade burger with the lot on the beach whilst enjoying the sunset,

And just the other day we had Rebekka and Fabian (our Italian backpacker friends that we also met on the road) come to visit. We organised to do the whale shark tour together. The night before we enjoyed a campfire and then some drinks in the Artesian hot tub. The day of the whale shark tour we had to get up at 5:30am to get there in time. We had all been looking forward to this day for ages. The day turned out to be perfect weather and we had an amazing time chilling on deck in the sun. We got dropped in for 3 separate snorkels while the spotter plane searched for whale shark. Unfortunately the day came to an end and no whale sharks were spotted. It is not very often that they don’t see the whale sharks on these tours, but it happens sometimes. Luckily for us we get a free voucher to go again and we have plenty of time here to use it. It was still an absolutely fantastic day and we saw and snorkelled with black tip and white tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks, 2-3 metre bronze whalers, cobia, giant trevally, turtles and much more. A highlight was seeing a giant metre long Queensland Groper right up close. We also had a pod of about 50 oceanic bottlenose dolphins swim alongside our boat and jump out of the water and show off their tricks and later some humpback dolphins which I hadn’t seen before. We even saw a humpback whale splashing with its tail from quite a distance away. So all in all it was still an amazing day, and now we get to go again.

Just today whilst we were camping on the station again, we spotted from the cliffs, some giant manta rays playing in the water. We hopped in the kayaks and got to experience two of the giant 4m manta rays swimming right beneath us. They were close enough that we could see the tiny fish swimming in front of them and watch how graceful they are beneath the water. I don’t know how we will ever top the amount of marine life we have been seeing in this amazing part of the world. Now there is only two weeks for us to look forward to Jamie’s Dad and brother coming up to visit us as well. We have a full, action packed schedule for when they arrive, as there is so much to see and do. Well, until next time peeps!!

Our Ningaloo Home

camilleandjamie — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 19:04:00 GMT

Hi everybody and welcome back to our blog once again. I’ll start off by saying a big happy Easter for next weekend and we hope you have a great long weekend, whether it be a camping trip away, or just a weekend at home watching the footy with a cold beer in one hand and an Easter Bilby in the other. Our weekend will be spent working ‘to the bone’ on our station, but more about that later.

Last time we left you, we had just finished up our stay in the amazing Shark Bay region and I believe we mentioned about how we were given a big Spanish Mackerel. Our next couple of days pretty much revolved around how to cook the amazing fish and with what sides. We had Mackerel for breakfast lunch and dinner for days in a row and even that wasn’t enough to get through it all, so we ended up giving a couple of kgs away to some of our neighbours (who were about 10kms away from our camp).

From Shark Bay, we had 4 days until we started work and a total of about 250kms to drive. So we weren’t really in any great rush. We stopped into a place called Hamelin Pool, which is famous for having some of the oldest organisms in the world living in the shallow seawater. These ancient organisms are called ‘stromatolites’ and they pretty much look like a pile of mud that has been festering for millions of years. Geologically speaking they are very interesting, but not very interesting to look at, though we did snap some great pictures of the crystal clear turquoise water of the bay.

Full of knowledge and lunch, we headed north to Carnarvon, which is the largest town near to where we are now working. We spent the night at the Capricorn Caravan Park and met the nice couple running the park. It came to conversation that I was a sparky, so I was lined up with a small job to be paid in beer and wine. Apparently most of their staff had recently left, so we were also offered jobs at the caravan park, which we had to decline. While in Carnarvon we stocked up on groceries from woolies and of course beer, and fresh vegies from a road side stall.

The next day we drove into beautiful Coral Bay, with a quick stop at Minilya Creek for some bird watching. We saw groups of green budgies, cockatiels, a few brown hawks and kingfishers.

Coral Bay is our closest town and exists only because of its amazing location on the Ningaloo Reef. It is a very nice protected bay, full of coral, and sea creatures. It is one of the few places in the world where people are able to snorkel with Whale Sharks, Humpback Whales, and Manta Rays. We had 2 days until we started work, so we thought ‘why don’t we do a Manta Ray tour’? So the next morning we boarded the boat with about 8 others and went out on a snorkelling expedition. The day was amazing! We snorkelled over beautiful coral beds full of colour, hundreds of fish species, sea turtles, reef sharks and rays. At one stage the captain yelled out that he had spotted a large Tiger Shark and asked if anyone wanted to jump in the water with it. We weren’t sure if he was serious, but said yes anyway and a few of us were able to snorkel with a 3.5m Tiger Shark. (Definitely the highlight of the day). Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any Manta Rays but it was such an amazing day, that we didn’t mind too much.

You know that ‘Sunday blues’ feeling you get before starting work for the week? Yeah well, we definitely had some of those feels going on the night before we headed to our new jobs. So for those of you who don’t know, we are currently living on the Ningaloo Reef at Warroora (pronounced warra) Station. It is a cattle station, with approx 700 cattle, it has accommodation types ranging from shearers quarters ($30 p/n) up to self-contained homes with nice furnishings and beautiful ocean views over the Ningaloo coast ($270 p/n) and 50kms of wilderness beach camping.

We drove from Coral Bay to the northern entrance to the station, which is about 27kms and aired down the tyres for the next 25kms of dirt track. We drove south along the coast towards the homestead. We were starting to find out just how remote it is out here. It wasn’t the greatest weather, overcast, very humid and 40 degrees. Eventually we arrived to ‘the office’ where we were greeted by Marty, Muriel and kids (with a baby goat they had just rescued from a crack in a rock ledge). We were shown our home, which is a 2 bedroom portable house, with a nice kitchen and a bathroom. We are lucky enough to have a rainwater tank, otherwise only bore water would be the option. It is taking a little while to acclimatize to the station life. The simple things that everybody takes for granted like; unlimited drinking water, phone signal, TV, radio and grocery stores just around the corner become more of an issue. We are starting our own veggie garden, collecting chicken eggs, eating freshly caught snapper a few nights a week and eating as much road kill as possible (only joking). We have also started storing Pumbas drool (just in case we run out of drinking water)… (still joking) We have just sent through our first online food order and hope to receive it on Thursday (the mail day).

Now, to get to our work duties. As you can imagine, there is no shortage of work to do on a large station like this (250km squared I think). We have weekly cattle water runs (80kms on the dirt bikes), 20kms of fencing, ongoing cleaning of the various accommodations, campsite maintenance, checking in campers and selling shop items, fixing endless broken machinery and water leaks, grass slashing, chain sawing, hay bailing and general house duties as well as anything that pops up.

Safe to say, we are pretty busy during our 5 and a half days work. Add to that 35-45 degree weather and persistent sticky flies. You can probably see that we have our ups and downs with regards to work. On the plus side, we are living on the Ningaloo coastline and can go snorkelling, fishing and surfing on amazing secluded beaches anywhere on the station. On a side note, the fishing here is bloody incredible. Most times, we come home with large delicious Spangled Emperor (Snapper) for dinner, but have also caught, flathead, dart, sharks, rays and had plenty of big ‘runs’. We also had a surf at our own private surf break, though it did end with us paddling in prematurely due to a 3m shark coming in to have a look.

We have been quite lucky with our wildlife spotting, and anybody who knows us would know that we love our animals. Every time we see something new, we are trying to get a photo and look it up. We have spotted Perenties, Long tailed Dunnarts, Ospreys, White Bellied Sea Eagles, Bustards, Goats, lots of other lizard species and lots of other bird species, turtles, sharks, stingrays, clams and cowrie shells.

The next day we drove into beautiful Coral Bay, with a quick stop at Minilya Creek for some bird watching. We saw groups of green budgies, cockatiels, a few brown hawks and kingfishers.

Amazing Shark Bay

camilleandjamie — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 20:10:00 GMT

Hey everybody, welcome back to our blog (the first one written by Jamie)!

Our last few weeks have once again been packed full of adventures and we have had an amazing time exploring the coastal areas between Cervantes and Shark Bay.

With the current heat wave (a week of above 38) bearing down on us, we decided to head to a more coastal camp than our previous spot in the bush. We drove through the beautiful town of Jurien Bay and tried our luck with some fishing from the jetty, and were extremely lucky and managed to catch lots of fish…… all of which were poisonous puffer fish haha.

We kept driving north along the coast and managed to find a beautiful camp spot on a little point called ‘freshwater bay’. It is a tiny little Bay with a nice sandy headland and a few small fishing huts, which looked to be abandoned. We found ourselves a nice spot right on the edge of the small sand dunes overlooking the ocean, next to a few other campers. It wasn’t time to sit back and relax just yet though, as we have recently started up an exercise regime, so we got stuck into the gruelling death-like exercises. No sooner had we finished, than we started hearing a lot of thunder heading our way. The thunder turned into a huge electrical storm, lightning was streaking the dark sky for hours and heavy rain began to fall. It was really exciting and almost a tad scary while the storm was directly above. True to his nature, Pumba slept through the entire storm.

The next morning we packed up camp after going for a quick swim to cool off, and drove into Geraldton, which is the last main town for about 1000kms. Our fridge/freezer had decided to crap itself so we went into Super Cheap Auto in Geraldton, expecting to have to send it away for months under warranty. Instead we were pleasantly surprised when the service guys told us that they were going to give us a brand new fridge as an exchange. Woohoo! We didn’t have to drink warm beer!

We stocked up on food, water and beer (all of the necessities) and went off to a nice beach called Coronation Beach. We stayed here for the next 4 nights as it was a welcome change to have a cool(ish) sea breeze during the days of 40 degrees. We spent the 4 days parked up on the beach, making jewelry, surfing, kayak fishing and taking frequent swims to cool off. Pumba managed to dig himself a beauty of a den in the sand and peered creepily out at us every time we moved around camp.

Our next stop was supposed to be the beautiful Kalbarri National Park, which has massive gorges and spectacular cliffs. But as we found out, after detouring off the main round for 30mins each way, the entire National park was closed to public for ‘feral animal control’. What a load of crap. Why would they close the entire Park off during peak season? After leaving Kalbarri with crushed souls, full of disappointment, we tried to stop and make lunch at a roadside stop, however the flies had other ideas. As soon as we hopped out of the car, at least 100 flies each swarmed all over us. We can honestly say that after our months of travelling through the centre of the country, this had by far been the worst for flies. So we jumped back in the car, which now had about 100 flies inside it and proceeded to ingest our cold can of baked beans and a pack of corn chips with salsa (the best we could muster together in such a panic situation)

It was safe to say that neither of us were in the greatest mood (Pumba included, whose dozing had been interrupted by the fly storm) and we set off to see if we could make it to Denham in World Heritage Shark Bay (about another 200kms). During the next part of driving we watched some amazing cloud formations roll towards us and turn into about 10minutes of heavy tropical rain. We stopped at a beach named Shell Beach, and let me tell you the name was really fitting. The entire beach was small beautiful shells, as far as you could see and it was the first part of ocean we had seen in Shark Bay. Things were beginning to look up, or so we thought… we walked back up to the car to notice that we had a flat tyre (awesome). We changed the tyre over and drove the rest of the way into Denham (the most western town in Australia). It is a really picturesque coastal town with turquoise water and Dirk Hartog Island in the distance.

We booked into the Caravan Park, as there was no free option for camping around the area. They had a deal of pay 3, stay 4, so we jumped on that and sprinted straight to the showers. From Denham we had a pretty busy schedule lined up over our 4 days.

The next morning we dropped the punctured tyre off to be repaired and went off to see ‘Ocean Park’, which offered a guided tour of their aquariums, run by a Marine Biologist. We learnt a lot about the local area, the local fish, shark, ray and sea snake species. We learnt that there had never been a shark attack in Shark Bay, even though there are thousands of sharks swimming around the bays each day, some Tiger Sharks up to 3.5m long. We also learned about dreaded stonefish. If you are unfortunate enough to step on these fish posing as stones you will be in excruciating agony! Once back at camp, we went for a quick fish straight out the front of camp and caught a few small fish, then all of a sudden the rod started squealing as something big took the drag for a run. We managed to reel in dinner for the next couple of days, a nice sized Shovelhead Ray that looks like a mix between a stingray and a shark. After this we went for a quick snorkel in the small lagoon, which we were warned about the deadly Stonefish that inhabited parts of it. We counted ourselves lucky not see/step on any. That night we had a beautiful meal of freshly caught Stingray and salad.

The following day we woke up early and headed into Monkey Mia, which is a wild dolphin sanctuary, where dolphins swim straight up to the sand and take fish from your hand. We were lucky enough to be one of the few selected to feed the dolphins out of a group of approx 100 people. One of the wild dolphins had an 8 week old calf that we got to view from up close!

We went home and dropped Pumba back at camp, so we could board our sailing cruise on the Shotover Boat. The aim of the cruise was to spot some of the local Shark Bay Dugongs. We had great weather and before we even left the docks we had turtles swimming around the boat. We set sail with Coronas in hand and started our searching for sea creatures. It wasn’t long before we spotted about a dozen Dugongs and a few dolphins. We were lucky to be on board with a cool bunch of people, so it was a really enjoyable cruise. Once again we had a nice meal of Stingray for dinner.

On our last day in Denham, we went into the Francois Peron National Park, which has striking red sand and crystal clean blue waters. The tracks through the park were all 4x4 only, so we aired down the tyres and headed off on our way. We called into the Big Lagoon and fished/snorkelled at Gregories. This time we were lucky enough to catch quite a few fish, (spangled emperor, whiting, garfish) and even managed to see our first wild shark chasing one of our fish on the line. We packaged our fish and put it in the fridge and continued to the tip of the peninsula (Cape Peron). Not far from the tip we saw a huge amount of black smoke. We knew it must be something serious due to it being the middle of the day and total fire ban season. We went to investigate and saw a few cars all parked up, one of which was an old Jackaroo completely engulfed in flames. We made a quick call with the satellite phone, to the local ranger to organise a fire truck. Everything was safe and nobody was injured, luckily. We weren’t much more help to anybody there, so we continued on our way to the tip. What an amazing view! The beautiful colours of the red sand meeting to turquoise water are really a sight to behold. We had a glance at the time and realized that we were running late for part 2 of our sailing cruise the free sunset cruise). We sped off down the track, going much faster than we should have been and managed to make it to the boat 10 minutes after boarding, but before they had set sail. We even managed to spot our first and much anticipated Thorny Devil lizard. He even let us pick him up. It is such a fascinating lizard. The sunset cruise ended up being more of a social event, with the crew from the day before than actually watching the sunset (although that was nice too).

We hit the road once again, heading for a Station called Carrarang Station (the closest dog friendly camping to the western most point of mainland Australia). It was only about 200kms from Denham, but it wasn’t a fun drive due to the 80kms of heavy corrugations. But once we got there we fell in love with the place. The station covers one of the peninsulas of Shark Bay and we have the best campsite, located on a point with 3 private beaches, 2 points and a section of small cliffs and reef for fishing and snorkelling. The wildlife here is absolutely next level! During the day we have wild goats with kids running around, small jimby lizards, a resident Osprey eagle and a larrikin of a horse called Fury. The water is teeming with life as well. There are colourful and delicious fish, we have snorkelled with reef sharks and fed them fish heads, and we’ve snorkelled through schools of stingrays and eagle rays, over reefs and ledges with all the fresh, local oysters you could eat.

We have been here 4 days now and have spent 3 of the days just enjoying our location. We almost didn’t want to leave to see Steep Point (the most western point of mainland Australia) but decided it was worth seeing.

Our trip to Steep Point started early as we had been told it would take 7 hours return to drive the 100kms to the point. They weren’t wrong; the 4x4 track had some of the worst corrugations I have ever seen that stretched distances of up to 40kms per section of corrugations. The tyres were down to 18psi and at times we had to sit on 15kms/hr so we didn’t rattle the car to pieces. As far as the track goes, it wasn’t very tricky 4x4 wise, but the corrugations really made the Edel National Park a remote place. We made it to Steep Point and took a few photos at the sign and had a look at the Zuytdorp Cliffs. It was a really rugged place and the water is a really dark blue, due to how deep the water is. This is what makes it some of the worlds best land based game fishing. So we tried our luck with fishing off the cliffs, we barely had our rod in the water for more than 20 minutes when a bloke fishing next to us hooked onto a 1.2m long Spanish mackerel. He pulled the 10kg fish up the cliffs, walked over to us and said, “you guys may as well have this one”. After a bit of a discussion we found out he was being dead serious and that they were staying here for 2 weeks and bound to catch more fish than they could keep. To say we were stoked was an under exaggeration and we happily started filleting up this giant A class eating fish (we even started cutting into it and eating some Sashimi style). What a good bloke!!

With absolutely no need to fish, due to having about 8kg of fillets now stuffed into our fridge we went off and went to a nice turquoise bay and snorkelled around the reef. Saw a huge amount of different fish species, a few brightly coloured giant clams and more oysters. We packed up and on the way back to the car found a couple of cowrie shells on the beach, for Camille to use for her jewellery. We started our 3hour trip home and couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces. We gave a couple of large fillets to the Station owner, had a bit of a chat and properly met the 17 hand horse called Fury. He was an ex-racing horse and full of character. He gobbled down a carrot, tried to snatch a bag of chips out of the back of the ute, barged his way past and popped his head into the inside of the car searching for more food and ended up settling with licking the salt off the paintwork. Hahaha what a legend!

Dinner that night was a delicious Asian style honey soy mackerel with a Vietnamese cabbage salad. Followed by more delicious mackerel meal creations for the next breakfast/lunch and dinner.

We can honestly say that Shark Bay would be the highlight so far of our 7 months on the road. You really need get up here and see it for yourself!

Meeting up with mates

camilleandjamie — Fri, 3 Mar 2017 16:25:00 GMT

Whilst staying with Kayleigh and George in Dunsborough, we decided that due to the state of our finances, it was time to start looking for some work. According to everybody we had spoken to it would be easy getting jobs with our combined skill set, so we started looking and applying. However, easy was definitely not the case. There wasn’t a lot going around and we soon realised we couldn’t be fussy so we started applying for pretty much anything. Meanwhile, Kayleigh and George took us to see some nice beach spots and introduced us to amazing wines. I had also decided to start making beachy, surf jewellery to pass our spare time whilst camping and to perhaps sell. I picked up a few supplies from the spotlight and on the days of heavy rain in Dunsborough, Jamie and I sat making bracelets and anklets. Despite having been roped into it, Jamie was annoyingly far more patient than I was and therefore managed to produce much nicer stuff. We’re both pretty certain we’ll have a million dollar jewellery empire in no time…or maybe not!!

Since we were still in Dunsborough, we decided to visit nearby Busselton to walk the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. At 1.841 km long it was quite an impressive jetty with a tram that even runs the entire length. At the end of the jetty, there is an underwater observatory and you can also go snorkelling there. As it wasn’t the best weather we opted out of the snorkelling. We decided to return the next day as well, as the Busselton Jetty Swim event was on. The swimmers completed a 4km swim through fairly deep ocean, all the way around the jetty. Impressively, even kids as young as 12 were completing this in under an hour. The event also had a concert and we got to see Shannon Noll performing all his hits!! He was actually a very good performer, despite my earlier reservations! We also wandered through a craft market where I saw people with really good handmade jewellery businesses that made our jewellery look like it was made by a 4 year old. It was a good day to be in Busselton as the ship Queen Mary II was docked there as well, and all the people were getting off the ship to explore the town and do tours such as scenic helicopter rides. All the residents of Busselton seemed to love Pumba, and as we walked him around he got the most praise and pats of anywhere we had been.

When it was time to head off we said our goodbyes to Kayleigh and George and thanked them for the luxury of a proper bed and shower. We then headed into Bunbury, known for the wild dolphins that come into shore frequently. A visit to the dolphin discovery centre was interesting and we got to see octopus, Port Jackson sharks, and various fish in the aquarium section. The centre had also rescued a green sea turtle, which we watched at feeding time. The turtle had been suffering from floating syndrome, which is common among turtles and one major cause of this is ingesting bits of plastic. Once being rehabilitated the centre will release the turtle back into the wild. It’s a great reminder to everyone how badly litter can affect sea creatures. Unfortunately for us the wild dolphins had already visited that day, and none could be seen out in the ocean so we camped overnight in a nearby caravan park so we could get up early and try for the dolphins again the next day. When we arrived the next morning we spotted a few swimming in the distance but none came in close so we gave up and continued on.

Our next stop was Golden Ponds, a marron and fish farm/caravan park, as Jamie’s friend Colinn was staying there at the time for work. We got to catch up with him that night and have a few beers. Golden Ponds was an interesting place, with over 10 purpose built lakes that you could pay to fish or catch marron from. It made for quite a pretty setting. In the morning we just so happened to be next door to an outdoor Wake Board Park. Having never been to one we thought it would be great fun to try it out. Instead of wakeboarding behind a speedboat, a large cable pulls you around the lake so that about 8-10 people can be wakeboarding at once. The park also had jumps and rails for the people who really knew what they were doing. After one failed start, Jamie already had the hang of it. I took about six stacks before I finally got up and could board around the whole course. It was pretty fun, but also very exhausting and quite a strain on my arms. Little did I know at the time that I would be very sore in the shoulders for the next 4 days or so.

We then headed to our next stop, which was another friends house. By some miracle we had managed to coincide a visit with my good friend Eleanor and her husband Fuzz, with my other two friends Kate and Bianca who had flown from Adelaide. We were able to spend a full 4 days with all of them. Eleanor is only a few weeks from giving birth to her first child so we spent quite a bit of time baking enough food to fill her freezer for when the baby first arrives. We also helped pick out some baby stuff at Baby Bunting (whilst Jamie went surfing), and got to just hang out and go to the beach. We had about a week of 35+ weather so we were pretty happy to spend most of the time indoors. We did get to check out the Fringe for its last weekend in Perth (though I would have to say Adelaide’s Fringe is a bit better). On Bianca and Kate’s last day we had brunch at a café that had a special dog menu for when you bring your dog. We ordered an ice-cream sunday for Pumba which he noisily licked at for a good 10 minutes. Jamie and I were both slightly embarrassed that we were “those people” that brought their dogs to a café and ordered things off a menu for them, but admittedly it was quite funny. It will be the last time that Pumba gets treated like royalty!

Jamie and I stayed on another week with Eleanor and Fuzz and it was good to get a chance to spend some time with them. We kept up the search for jobs but decided that Margaret River and Dunsborough weren’t coming up with much in the way of work, so we changed our search to Coral Bay and surrounds. We also did some exploring around the area and Jamie managed to get a surf most days. Trigg Point was a popular surf break that provided consistent waves, but was also massively crowded at all times. At one point a shark had been spotted there and all surfers were told to get out of the water. Jamie and a few other surfers refused to listen and took the opportunity to catch a few waves without all the people around, until the surf lifesaving boats had to physically push them back into shore with the boats. We also went out to Fremantle to explore, as Jamie had never been there. We had a good look around and finished with an amazing 10 free beer tastings at the Little Creatures Brewery. Having liked the brewery so much we decided to meet up with another of Jamie’s friends, Kyle (also over for work) at Little Creatures. We had dinner there and the boys spent most of the time paying out the craft beer hipsters that were everywhere. Regardless, it was a very impressive looking brewery right on the wharf of Fremantle. At this stage we had been offered a job on a station near Coral Bay as staionhand/caravan park managers. Eager to finally have some work lined up we jumped on the chance and now have a start date of 20 March, which gives us 3 weeks to explore the coast on the way up. It comes with accommodation and they allow Pumba to stay there as well, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. As well as that, we will be able to do the swim with the whale sharks at Ningaloo reef, which has been on our bucket list for quite some time.

For our last day in Perth we had booked fast ferry tickets to go out to Rottnest Island as neither of us had been there before and it seemed a shame to miss out when we were so close. The ferry was only 40 minutes over there but a tad rough. It was perfect weather once on the island and we had borrowed Fuzz and Eleanors bikes so we could ride around. It was a beautiful island with numerous gorgeous turquoise coloured bays for swimming and snorkelling, but our main highlight was the super friendly creatures called Quokkas. Rottnest Island had actually been named “Rat Nest Island” because of the funny large rat-like creatures that dwelled there. These rat-like creatures are the Quokka’s, which are like a very small wallaby crossed with a very large rat. They were incredibly friendly and so cute. They would crawl right up onto our laps (even though you technically weren’t supposed to touch them). We got a whole bunch of good photos including a few selfies with them. All within the day trip we managed to cycle 22kms, snorkel twice in beautiful clear bays, have a picnic lunch and spot over 20 Quokka’s. It was a pretty amazing day to say the least. We went home exhausted but happy.

The next day it was time to be back on the road, so we once again said goodbye and thankyou to our gracious hosts, Elle and Fuzz. We were immediately hot and somehow already dirty the moment we were back on the road. The whole week is once again forecast for 30 degrees and over which is good for the beach at least. The next morning we headed out to the Pinnacles. I didn’t have much of an expectation for the Pinnacles and was surprised how amazing they were. For those that aren’t aware, the Pinnacles are a geological formation about 200km north of Perth. They are limestone pillars (anywhere from 50cm to 4m in height) in a sandy landscape that spans a large area. They are like nothing else I have seen anywhere else in the world and are really cool to see and explore.

Well that’s all for now folks, we’ll keep you all updated on the next few weeks of our trip as we make our way up to the Station to start work. Talk again soon!!

The adventure continues

camilleandjamie — Thu, 9 Feb 2017 16:00:00 GMT

Australia Day dawned with absolutely perfect weather so in true Aussie style we made our way to Middleton Beach, Albany to celebrate. They had a family event happening at the beach with food trucks, stand-up paddleboards for hire, beach volleyball and more. The water was a beautiful clear blue and we were lucky enough to come across the Italian couple from our campsite a few nights earlier again, Rebekka and Fabian. We had some beers with them and spent the day in the sun between beach volleyball and on the SUP! Flume came in 1^st for Triple J’s hottest 100 and so it was a good day all round!

We decided to check out Ocean Beach, a good surf break in the area, and it was perfect as it had a nice beginner wave for me, and a more advanced wave for Jamie. After our morning surf we headed over to the beautiful Green Pools and Elephant Rock to swim in the beautiful clear waters and in my case to jump off the 6m granite rock into the water!

Over the next few days we sampled the Southern Forest regions culinary delights including a cheese factory and winery and then over to The Elephant Rocks Cider Company for a tasting of some very alcoholic ciders. They also had some amazing toffee so we took full advantage of all the samples, whilst Jamie got drunk on the cider!

And then it was time to move on to Walpole, Pemberton and the giant Karri and Tingle tree forests. We did a long forest walk to get to a waterfall only to find the waterfall was completely dry when we finally arrived there. At least it was a beautiful walk though! From there we went to climb the trees that originally brought us to the area. They are old fire lookout trees that were used to spot when a bushfire started and give adequate warnings. There are 3 of these trees left that the public are allowed to climb, so we thought we would start with the tallest one, The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. The climb was 65m and involved metal pegs that had been hammered into the tree in an upward swirl. At the very top there is a little platform to stand and survey the view. Despite not having a fear of heights, both Jamie and I were a little nervous to start off with. But we soon got into the swing of it and reached the top proudly. We were the only ones up there and you could see the top of the tree canopy stretching out in all directions. Feeling bold after having conquered that tree we decided to do the next tree, The Gloucester. This tree was only a mere 58 metres high so we breezed to the top, and by that I mean went far too quickly as I was completely out of breath by the time we got up there. With 2 out of 3 trees conquered we decided it was time for some ice-cream, and after that felt too tired to do the 3^rd tree. We had found a nice campsite set up on someone’s property and they had built toilet and shower blocks which was nice. Our English friends Ashley and Dan that we had met back in Esperance were passing through as well, so they joined us at this camp. The guy who owned the property was away and so his friend was looking after the campsites. He had walked all the way from Perth with his dog Prince, who became friends with Pumba.

As Ashley and Dan hadn’t done the tree climbs yet, we decided to climb them again the next day together and this time we took some beers to enjoy at the top. We only did the 65m tree and then headed to Beedelup Falls. It wasn’t the most impressive waterfall but at least there was water in this one. Jamie had a shower under the falls but the rest of us decided to wait for our swim. We took a walk instead over to Karri valley resort which was right on Lake Beedelup, so we jumped in for a swim surrounded by all different types of ducks. When we got out one of the resort workers sold us some birdseed and about 40 Port Lincoln ringneck parrots came and sat on our shoulders, hands and heads to get at the birdseed. It was so much fun having 4 parrots fighting over the seed.

The next day we headed off and decided to visit Hamelin Bay, a spot famous for the eagle rays that come right into shore. It did not disappoint, and we were able to feed the giant rays and touch them on the back. They felt surprisingly slippery but were so beautiful and graceful and incredibly friendly. We had found a camp spot nearby called Boogaloo Surf and Yoga camp, which offered both regular campsites and luxury tepee tents. Although we didn’t stay in the tepee’s I was able to do some yoga inside one, which was really just as good. The camp is a new start up business, and the wife takes yoga classes and offers remedial massage and her husband makes his own surfboards and does classes so you can make your own board too. The area is famous for some really amazing caves and so we decided to explore a few of them. We decided on one guided cave and one self-guided cave. Jewel cave was the guided and it was amazing inside. They had installed lights throughout to really showcase the amazing stalactites and stalagmites. It was a huge cave with boardwalks throughout and it was really quite stunning The self guided cave, Calgardup cave was a bit less impressive as we only had our two torches but we did see some impressive cave formations and some frogs as well.

From there it was off to Margaret River region. We started off in a free forest camp and stayed there a few nights. From there we could explore the area including the surf beaches, like the famous Surfers point where the Margaret River surfers pro is held. Jamie surfed there, but I decided to sit this one out, as it wasn’t the best weather. We also did some tastings at various breweries’, a distillery and a winery. After all, when in Margaret River you have to spend the majority of the time drinking. To compliment this we also did some cheese tastings. After discovering an abandoned tent in the forest we were staying at we decided it was suddenly a creepy camp spot and so packed everything up in the dark and found a new campsite right alongside the Margaret river.

We were lucky enough to catch up with some old friends that we worked with in Mt Buller, Kayleigh and George. They took us to a cool secluded beach and while Pumba tried to play with their dog Molly (a small Westie) we went and got us some abalone off the rocks. They also very kindly offered for us to stay at their house, which we very gratefully accepted. George is an amazing chef and they have their own very successful business. He made us an amazing pork ribs and chips for dinner which we had with beer. Unfortunately I am so used to camping life and going to bed early that I was out for the count by about 10pm.

We are in for some stormy weather for the next few days so we might just chill out inside for a nice change. Until next time peeps!

The oasis after the desert

camilleandjamie — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 18:44:00 GMT

I have been a bit slack with the blog as the last few weeks we have been pretty busy. Thinking back and looking at the photos we have taken, it is obvious how much we have actually done in the last 3 weeks. After getting our car fixed at the mechanic in Ceduna, we said goodbye for the final time and headed West. We started at Cheetima Beach, not far from Ceduna as it’s a beautiful spot. However, this time around the weather was bleak and rainy and once again through a whole night of rain our bedding got a bit wet and had to be hung out the next day. There weren’t many other people around at all and after 2 nights of not great weather we continued on. The next stint of the trip was the Nullarbor, notorious for being a stretch of boring, flat nothingness. In some aspects this is certainly true, however there is also quite a few things to discover within the Nullarbor. The word comes from 2 Latin words “Nullas” meaning “no” and “Arbor” meaning “trees”. Parts of it were very long and dreary. The highlights were the Bunda cliffs, stunning steep 70m high limestone cliffs along the coast, stretching as far as the eye could see. We also explored the Murrawajinie caves. You might never have known these were there and it took us at least half hour along a rough 4x4 track. They were made up of 3 large sinkhole caves that you could climb down and explore. We also drove along Australia’s longest stretch of straight road that went for 146.6km without a single bend. At one of the random one night camp stays we had along the Nullarbor we spotted a whole pack of dingos that had bred with wild dogs and ranged from the usual sandy color to black and white spots. In the same night we also spotted a very rare pair of Australian Bustards.

A this stage Jamie had been experiencing some stomach pain for a little while and decided it needed checking out so we drove the remaining 650kms to complete the Nullarbor and ended up in Norseman. There he was able to get a doctors appointment and some tests taken. The doctor advised it was probably an infection so put him on antibiotics. The town of Norseman is named after a horse that allegedly found gold in the 1800’s when it was tethered up and unearthed a nugget with its hooves. There is no more gold left but we were able to go to a public fossicking area for agate and opalite and found a few decent pieces. Unfortunately it is relatively worthless and therefore did not make us rich (once again). As the weather was forecast to be 35+ for the next few days we exchanged a trip up to Kalgoorlie for gold prospecting for a the much prettier and cooler Esperance. We stopped for a night on the way down and upon arrival there realised there really wasn’t any free camping within the township of Esperance. What it did have was an abundance of the most stunning blue water and over 100 small granite islands as well as more than enough to see around the area to last us a week. We headed out to a beautiful campsite called Membinup right in the sand dunes on the beach. I got to have a nice surf on some small waves, while Jamie ‘instructed’ me, just out the front of our camp. From there we left Pumba at camp and went to explore Cape Arid National park. It had some beautiful beaches with great views and also plenty of hiking onto granite formations. It was at the top of one of these hikes that an angry bee stung me right on my upper arm. There was a moment of panic as one was still buzzing in my hair and Jamie and I were running down the granite back to the car to avoid getting stung by anymore of the swarm. Luckily I didn’t have any kind of allergic reaction, however over the next few days it got very red and itchy and a little bit swollen.

The next day we went into Esperance as they have a market on Sundays. We checked that out in the morning but it was already a scorcher of a day so after getting a juice and an ice cream we decided it was time for the beach again. We had to leave Pumba at our new campsite (a free site 25kms out of town) so that we could go into the next national park – Cape Le Grande national park. On the way we stopped at Australia’s Stonehenge. It is a full size replica of what a fully constructed Stonehenge would have looked like 4500 years ago. It was made from local pink limestone and really quite mazing to see. Cape le Grande Ntl park really blew our minds. It was made up of granite outcrops forming perfect, protected bays that had such vivid blue water and the softest whitest sand. One of the beaches Lucky Bay, has been voted Australia’s whitest beach and the sand was so fine that it squeaked. I had to look up why the sand is so white and it is because it has a high amount of quartz. This same beach is also home to a heap of kangaroos which hop around from awning to awning, exploring curiously and hoping for a morsel of food. We watched 2 sets of mother and baby and fed them a bit of carrot and gave them a pat. It was really amazing seeing them on the beach. Leaving the kangaroos to relax on the beach, we went out for a snorkel and saw quite a few varieties of fish. Jamie even had time to surf further down the beach in the stunning clear blue water. It was the perfect weather and the perfect day.

The next day’s weather wasn’t nearly as good for the beach so we instead went to an animal park where we could pat and feed a heap of native animals and birds as well as farm animals such as goats, alpacas, ponies and sheep. The goats and the emus were definitely the greediest and we also met a Macaw called Zeus that seemed to love Jamie. It would follow him up and down the cage but wouldn’t do it for me. We also passed an arboretum forest called Helm’s Arboretum so decided to walk Pumba through there as well. Back at camp we had a haircut by a travelling hairdresser originally from the UK. Her and her family were our next-door camp neighbours and the kids loved Pumba. It certainly was a different experience getting my hair cut in a camp chair!

We decided to stay the next 2 nights at a farm we had found on wiki camps. The owner Tom is an absolute legend and greeted us like old friends before inviting us to have some of his homebrew on the deck. How can you refuse an offer like that? It’s also there that we met a lovely English couple, Ashley and Dan. We offered to take them into Cape Le Grande Ntl Park with us the next day, as we loved it so much we wanted to go back. So the four of us went in while Pumba stayed behind, getting fed bones from Tom. The Kangaroos weren’t at Lucky Bay this time and it was a bit windier than last time, but still beautiful. Jamie and I went out for a surf but I didn’t manage to catch many waves so came in and let Dan have a go on my board. Driving off the beach we passed a new looking X-Trail that was completely bogged in the sand and the tide was coming in so we stopped to help. Using the Max-Trax we eventually got him out before the water came in. He was an Irishman on holiday with a rental car so it was certainly good we saved him. He was so grateful that when we stopped at the Lucky Bean café cart, he bought us all a “Kangachino” (they’re specialty cappuccino). We then decided to do the very steep climb up to Frenchman’s peak, which is a granite hill with a cave garden at the top, offering stunning 360 degree views of the beaches and the national park. It was super windy up there, and quite a hard walk but well worth it.

Finishing the day, Jamie gave a surf lesson for Ashley and Dan and got them all standing up. Needless to say we were all fairly exhausted when we got back to the farm. Tom had collected the yabby nets we had put out the night before and we had only caught 5 so we had a small taste of the yabbies each before collapsing into bed completely worn out.

We had decided to meet up with Ashley and Dan at the next campsite too, however on our way we discovered the rear diff on the car was leaking oil. Jamie explained to me that this was a definite potential crisis and after a few calls to his mechanic mate josh and the RAA, he inspected it a little more closely to find it was just some bolts that had loosened themselves and were therefore leaking. This was the best possible news, though we had Ashley and Dan pick up some diff oil for us just in case anyway. We stayed the next 2 nights at a nice spot called Starvation Bay, which had a nice little beach that was protected from any wind. The next day was my birthday, so Jamie made a delicious breakfast of Turkish bread toast with Jarlsberg cheese, avocado and bacon. We followed that by all having a piece of $4 caramel sponge cake from woollies. Since we couldn’t finish the whole thing even between the 4 of us, Pumba ended up getting 2 bits and got cream all over his face!! He must’ve thought it was his birthday, especially since Ashley had bought him a new rope toy! We spent the day on the beach, relaxing and drinking beer and playing with Pumba. Jamie had also bought me a fresh coconut, which is my favorite. With the clear blue water, I felt as if I was celebrating on a tropical island somewhere. As Ashley and I relaxed on the beach reading, the boys went kayak fishing and ended up catching 10 fish including sand whiting, tommys and a flathead. We filleted and lightly battered them and had fish burgers. We then went over to our camp neighbours, that Ashley and Dan had met a week previously, for a campfire and a beer/sparkling moscato.

It was nice to have met a couple that is our age instead of the usual grey nomads we see most of the time. It was an added bonus that Ashley absolutely loves Pumba. They mentioned how much they loved our set up with the camper trailer and how much stuff we had compared to their car that had all their stuff including their bed. I suppose there are upsides and downsides to both types of set ups.

We parted ways the next day with Ashley and Dan and drove to a campsite near another ntl park we wanted to explore. All the campsites near there ended up being completely full so we were forced to drive along a 4x4 trak to find somewhere to camp. It ended up being a pretty nice spot with a great view over ‘Two Peoples Bay’, and no one else around so it wasn’t so bad. After that we headed into Albany which is a pretty big town and is known for it’s whaling and ANZAC history. We completely lucked out and found a free camp that allows us to stay for up to 7 nights. It is amongst a whole heap of trees with a path right onto the pretty beach so its perfect. I sit writing this now in my hammock among the trees listening to the waves crashing and thinking that I really am quite lucky!! We met a young couple from Italy at camp and chatted with them for a bit.

From this campsite we have been out to explore quite a few national parks. Porongurup ntl park had a walk up to Castle Rock; a purpose built walkway out over the tall granite rocks with a ladder to get to the top. It was a very cool walk with some really speccy views. We also went to another national park to see the Gap and Natural Bridge, which was another purpose built walkway on the granite, this time out over the ocean. We watched the waves crashing against the sides of the granite and surging with an unfathomable power.

We tried to go kayak fishing but the wind and current was too strong and we just drifted around way too fast and didn’t catch anything (unless you count Jamie catching 2 rock cod). We did find a cool walk along our campground beach to a freshwater stream where we found the cutest little green frog with gold eyes. Since we were paying too much attention to the frog, Pumba started to get boisterous and run amok around the pond and then he just leapt into the pond. Little did he know he had jumped into a really deep part of the pond and he went completely under and disappeared for a second before surfacing and scrambling out of the pond. He promptly hacked up some water and then threw up. Jamie and I didn’t know whether to laugh or be concerned but Pumba acted as if nothing had happened, as if it was just too embarrassing to dwell on. We later found another 10 frogs in this same pond. They were so cute!

We have decided to stay in this campsite another few nights and go into Albany for Australia Day celebrations and then continue along the coast. So until the next blog… Sayonara!!

Surf, Sand and Fun in the Sun

camilleandjamie — Thu, 5 Jan 2017 13:25:00 GMT

So our month of work has finished and we are back into holiday and camping mode!! Saying goodbye to Andy and Teresa we met up with Marcus and Hayley and their little girl Gabbie who had driven from Sydney to Adelaide to spend Christmas with family and then over to the West Coast to come camping with us. They had picked up our mate Steven as well. As with this entire trip so far the plans on what to do and where to go were changing on an hourly basis, however we did finally agree to stay down at St Marys Beach, around 70km south of Ceduna. It’s a great spot that Andy had taken us to previously, so we set up camp right along the beach, Jamie and I in our rooftop tent on the trailer and the others sleeping in swags. We decided to get straight into it that afternoon so went down to the beach and met up with Jamie’s cousin Corey briefly and then had a swim in some beautiful rock pools. I was the one to have jumped into the rock pools first and shortly after Jamie spotted some jellyfish in the water. Needless to say no one was then game to go for a swim there anymore and I decided it was in my best interests to get out as well. Instead we drove up the beach a little where the waves were crashing in search of salmon and it was while we were slightly bogged in soft sand that we spotted a huge school of salmon and a group of people reeling in a bunch of them. We hurried to let the tires down so we could keep driving and then we rushed to get the rods in the water and Jamie managed to hook onto one big one before the school disappeared. We vowed to be a bit more prepared when the school returned, so I become the spotter standing up on the sand dunes, Jamie and Marcus were the fishermen as they were the only ones with beach rods, and Steven got the job of unhooking the salmon, killing them and putting them in the bucket. This worked well, and as I was shouting to the boys where to go to cast into the school they hooked onto another 3 salmon each. We decided that was more than enough fish for us, given only 3 of us actually ate fish so we headed back into camp to scale and fillet the catch. Fish burgers were on the menu for dinner and they were delicious!!! We spent the afternoon drinking beers on the beach while watching the sunset and then had a fire under the Milky Way and a heap of shooting stars. The weather was perfect and it was a great start back into camping. And then we went to go to bed and that is when we discovered that most of our bedding was wet and also covered in mould. There had been a small tear in the cover of the rooftop tent and with some of the crazy stormy weather, rain had gotten in and gotten everything wet and then had gone mouldy. It’s always a great thing to discover just as you are about to go to bed. Luckily our mattress had plastic on it and we had one dry pillow and one spare blanket and sheet that we could use.

The next day we met up with Andy, Teresa and Summer and went to Pt De Mole to do some fishing. We didn’t have any luck at all and it was fairly windy so we gave up fairly early and decided to try Acraman creek for fishing and a bit of wind protection. Jamie, Marcus and I baited up and started fishing in the creek and caught about 6 “shitties” or trumpet fish each. Disheartened we again gave up and headed back to camp.

When we got back to camp, the wind had picked up considerably and our trailer had somehow fallen forward and the wheel jockey had come out of place. The tent was flapping all over the place and our campsite which had been perfect the night before, was now just way too exposed to the wind. So we moved to a spot fairly close by that was within the sand dunes and much more protected from the wind and had some drinks around the fire after dinner.

Day 3 we had changed our plans again and having looked at the weather report we decided to go to Davenport creek for the next two nights. First we had to head back into Ceduna where we could fill our water supply again and go to the laundromat to take care of all our mouldy bedding. When we arrived we did quite a bit of driving around in the dunes looking for a good, protected spot until we eventually found a great one with a wide sandy area, out of the wind and with plenty of firewood around.

The boys started up a big fire, because Marcus and Hayley had prepared a camp oven roast and we needed the hot coals. While the roast was cooking we went for a walk to the beach, which turned out more to be a bit of a bush bash through scrub and sand dunes. The beach views were definitely worth it though, as was the amazing roast beef and vegetables that were ready as we got back. We had another beautiful night by the fire with a clear sky of stars before getting into our now mould free tent!!

New Years Eve day we met up with Andy, Teresa and Summer again and did some more fishing off the rocks and this time we caught a KGW, a few salmon trout and some tommys. I also went for a swim and yet again had to get out pretty quickly as I spotted some jellyfish nearby. After our fishing session we went around the headland to the mouth of “the creek”. It is this gorgeous area with stunning blue water that rivalled the blue lagoon in the Cook Islands. We were all able to have a nice jellyfish free swim there and then headed to another beach spot for lunch and to explore. Steven and Jamie played piggy in the middle with Pumba and didn’t let him get the ball once. On the drive back we went up to the top of a giant sand dune and let Pumba have another run while we jumped off the edge of the dunes. The views from the top took in Davenport Creek on one side and the ocean on the other. It really is a stunning spot.

We had a great fish curry for dinner and made a bonfire to sit by for our New Years Eve drinks. We saw out the very end of 2016 sitting amongst the sand dunes, stars and a roaring fire with friends and some cold bevvies.

It was time to say goodbye to Marcus, Hayley, Steven and Gabbie who were heading back to Adelaide a few days early and so we decided to stay another night at Davenport and go kayaking and fishing at the Creek. Andy and Teresa were going up to Cactus to camp so we decided to join them there so Jamie could get some surfing in. The campground is a cool spot in yet more sand dunes and right there at the surf breaks. It just so happened that I bumped into my friend Nat from Adelaide who was there with a whole crew for surfing. Jamie got in 3 surfs at various breaks the next day and we decided to give cliff fishing a go. Within 20 minutes we had reeled in a huge 60cm salmon, which was more than enough to feed us. I even decided to give surfing a go in the afternoon as the swell was a nice, manageable size. I mainly got rolled by waves but managed to stand up a few times and ride them in. I tired out quickly though and had to come in after about an hour. We spent the afternoon watching the surf and having a few beers with Dan, another mate from Adelaide that we had bumped into. We had a good night spent with Nat and crew, drinking beer and cooking a late dinner and then chilling out by the fire. From here we have gone back to Ceduna to get the car to a mechanic to sort out a possible suspension issue and then we are finally starting out for WA.

West Coast Warriors

camilleandjamie — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 21:09:00 GMT

Welcome back to our blog! This being the final one for 2016, where has the year gone? We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope that your well-earned time off work is amazing.

I write this, sitting in our beautiful house, looking out over the ocean, as Day 2 of our family Christmas festivities come to an end.

We’ll do a bit of a recap of the previous month of our working stay in Ceduna. We’ve had the luxury of staying with Jamie’s Uncle and Aunt, Andy (Grandy) and Teresa, as well as getting to spend some time with more of his side of the family. We both had full time jobs; I was doing 6 days a week at the Ceduna pharmacy while Jamie worked Monday to Friday with the local electrician. We sure made the most of our off time though, both after work and on weekends as well as eating like kings in the usual style of Andy and Teresa.

Our first weekend, the Ceduna races were being held, so we dressed up and headed to the slightly dry, dirt racetrack. Jamie’s cousin Corey and his wife Nia were there for their Christmas work show so we were able to catch up with them and meet some new people. I got fairly drunk in true race fashion and so we had a pretty early night that night and had the next day as a recovery day.

Mid week after work Andy and Teresa took us to a really cool spot to have a picnic dinner and go fishing. I managed to get the record for catching the most “shitties” (trumpet fish which are no good for eating). After getting off to a slow start Jamie caught a whole bunch of salmon and Andy scored a KGW. The sunset was absolutely epic that night and the weather was just perfect. Needless to say, we dined on various fish meals for the next few days including some delicious Thai fish cakes. The next weekend we were taken out to another great beach spot, famous for surfing, where Jamie was able to get a good surf in while Pumba and I watched and photographed him surfing. It was a perfect weather day and we had another picnic lunch and then had a nice swim in the crystal blue waters that the West Coast seems to be famous for.

Before we knew it, the weekend of our shark cage dive had come around. To get into a Saturday spot we had to book it about a month in advance. We both took off work early on Friday and drove down to Lincoln for the weekend. We had an amazing seafood dinner that night in preparation and then were up by 5:30 ready for our big day out on the water. We had booked in with Calypso Star Charters, who are the only company to use burley bait to lure the sharks in. We had about a 3 hour trip to get to the Neptune Islands and the seas were quite rough with massive swell. We were prepared and took seasick tablets both the night before, and that morning, but even so as we rode up and down the giant waves (thinking we were part of The Perfect Storm) Jamie started to feel less than average. There were quite a few on the vessel that were feeling a bit sick. I went outside to get some footage of the rolling waves and get mega wet from a wave crashing over us. Worth it though!! We were given breakfast, fresh fruit and cappuccinos on board. When we finally got to the Neptune Islands the weather cleared up a bit and Jamie and I ended up in the first group. We suited up in our thick 7mm wetsuits, booties and hood, had a quick practice with the breathing apparatus and waited for the first sighting of a shark. After about 40 minutes they had spotted one so we jumped into the cage with other people. It was the first time Jamie or I had ever used a SCUBA like breathing apparatus, and admittedly we both freaked out when we first had to plunge into the water. It was also very cold which didn’t help. I took quick, short breaths when I tried to practice underwater and it just made me panicky, as I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. So I popped my head up and had to have a stern talking to myself to relax so I could get on with it and enjoy this experience. Once I had done that, I was fine and able to really enjoy the whole thing. We spent the first half hour in the water without any sightings of the sharks and just got to watch the large groups of giant tuna and trevally swimming around us. Then finally out of the dark blue depths of water our first shark came into view. I actually stopped breathing when I saw the first one, as it was so big and amazing and I was so excited to spot one. We spent the next 15-20 minutes with two different sharks swimming past the cage. They weren’t anything like we expected. They were calm and graceful and very beautiful in their own way. They didn’t get into any kind of blood frenzies or anything and they only went for the bait when they had decided it was worth their effort. We even got to watch them from the viewing decks on board as they came up to the bait and even take the bait on several occasions. A seal even came around but sped away quite quickly when it realised there were sharks around. After the other 3 groups had spent their 45 minutes in the cage and we had devoured our fresh cooked lunch onboard, some of us from the first group changed back into our already wet wetsuits to go into the cage again, as the sharks were a lot more frequent now. I again marvelled at their size and composed demeanour as we spotted three different sharks to the first dive. I only got out in the end because I was shivering uncontrollably; otherwise I might have stayed in there even longer. We arrived back into harbour at about 6pm still on a high from our massive day of shark viewing. Sunday was spent in Port Lincoln doing some errands and our Christmas shopping at a cute little market.

And then it was our last week of work leading up to Christmas. We were both super busy; Jamie because everyone always wants electrical work done before Christmas and me because it’s retail!! On the 23^rd a huge storm rolled in out of nowhere. Jamie and I had come home for our lunch break when it started bucketing rain and heavy winds which blew in the garage roller door. Uncle Andy was mega impressed at this! When I got back to work there had also been a power outage and some flooding in the front of the shop. We were one of the only shops that remained open as we had back up generators, so we were super busy while the rest of the town remained without power for 24hours. After I finished work on Christmas Eve, we went to the beach as Jamie’s cousin Jess and her fiancé Dan and little girl Summer had also arrived. The boys all had a good surf and then we had a barbeque on the beach followed by Jamie and I annihilating Jess and Dan in a fishing competition. It was the perfect, relaxing Christmas Eve. Christmas day started early with lots of present opening and then Jamie and I made everyone Loukamades (Greek honey balls) as it has become a tradition to have them for Chrissy breakfast. We then relaxed a bit before more family came over for a visit and more present opening. Both Dan and Andy received drones so they were testing those out, somewhat unsuccessfully. Lunch was an elaborate spread of local king prawns, local ham, chicken, mango and mint salad, black rice salad, beetroot salad and topped off with individual Christmas puddings and brandy cream. It was a boiling hot day so we all walked down to the beach for a swim and then spent the afternoon playing pool and having an all out shooting war with nerf guns. Leftovers for dinner made the ideal end to a great day full of eating, laughter and great company.

West Coast Life - Adelaide to Ceduna

camilleandjamie — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 18:22:00 GMT

Today is now day three of our new jobs that we have started in Ceduna. Jamie is working as an electrician with the local sparky, also called Jamie, and I am a Pharmaxy assistant at the pharmacy in town. But first let me fill you in on what we have been up to for the last week, since leaving Adelaide yet again.

We took our time packing everything up to leave on Monday morning, so we only ended up setting off at 2pm with hopes to get past Whyalla. As we drove, a weather pattern was forming which took the previous days 35 degrees down to about 23 degrees and brought some rain along with it. The one benefit of that was the awesome sunset that it created turning the entire sky into an endless ball of orange/red fire. However, as darkness fell and we still had yet more driving to do, we started to get pretty miserable, due to the fact that it was 9pm and we hadn’t stopped for dinner. Luckily by the time we did eventually find a suitable camp spot, the rain had eased and allowed us to erect our tent without being saturated.

The next day was a shorter drive to take us to Port Lincoln. The weather remained at around 23 degrees, which felt wintry compared to the 35+ we experienced in the centre. We looked into the shark cage diving while we were in Port Lincoln, only to find it was busy enough to be sold out for the next couple of weeks. So we have instead booked in for mid December where we will do a trip from Ceduna to Lincoln. I can’t say if we are more excited or nervous at the prospect of it.

We decided to bush camp outside of Port Lincoln, however Lincoln National Park doesn’t allow dogs, so to get around that we camped literally at the signed entrance to the national park. We later found out that was private property so we technically weren’t allowed there either, but no one bothered us. It was a stunning spot to camp, right in between a large clear blue lake and giant sand dunes. Over the sand dunes the rugged coast provided sweeping views as well. Pumba certainly enjoyed being let free on the sand dunes where he would careen up and over them and then sprint down in a puff of fine white sand. We used our camp oven (kindly lent to us by Dennis) for the first time and made a slow cooked Italian lamb shank meal on the fire. We were rewarded with another stunning sunset, which we watched from the top of the dunes while Pumba continued to leap around crazily.

The next morning Jamie found a cliff spot to fish from and we were lucky enough to catch some decent sized mullet and some salmon trout for dinner. We also did some dune driving while in the national park and even a kayak in the lake, all before 12pm! We headed again onto our next spot which was a campsite called ‘The Ledge’. The site was at the tip of a peninsula at coffin bay which was just across the water from the town of coffin bay but you had to drive ½ an hour all the way around to get there, or swim 200metres across the bay. It was another awesome spot, surrounded by scrub and the beautiful bay. We walked around to explore the area, finding lots of tiny little crabs living among the seaweed before cooking up our freshly caught fish and quinoa salad dinner.

The next day Jamie had organised to catch up with his dad’s friend Cactus, who owns an Oyster lease, so we were lucky enough to go out on his boat and learn the ways of an oyster farmer. Since we weren’t in our wetsuits, I don’t think we were all that much help and instead just lazed around on the boat in the sun (tough life really). We were taught about the baby oysters and the different stages involved in growing them to a commercial size. It really is a lot of work that goes into constantly maintaining the oyster leases. We even got to spot a rare osprey and a seal while we were on the water, as well as sample both the Pacific oyster and the local oyster. All in all, a pretty hard days work! Jamie collected some mussels from the beach around camp, for us to have for dinner as we hadn’t caught any fish that day, so we again dined on the finest seafood.

Moving on from Coffin Bay we caught up with some friends John and Barb who live at Kiana. They had a whole host of stumpy tail lizards living on their property, which we hand fed strawberries to. We did some exploring of the beach at Kiana as well which had drastically changed from the recent storms. What used to be a nice sandy beach, was now 3 metere high boulders along the rocky beach. It almost made it more beautiful and certainly more unique. Jamie attempted some more fishing but didn’t catch anything big enough to keep so we kept going, we camped at Mount Drummond among the sand dunes to try and avoid the winds. Jamie did more fishing while I chewed through an entire 600 page novel within a few days.

Our last day before reaching Ceduna, we stopped at The Granites to check out the surf, but it wasn’t really big enough so we went to Point Labbatt to see the largest colony of Australian Sea Lions. It is a beautiful, protected spot for the sea lions to breed and not be disturbed by anyone as the lookout is high up on the cliffs. The female sea lions can get to 150kgs and 2 metres long, but the males can reach 400kgs and 3 metres in length!! You would not want to be up against one of those, that’s for sure! We had lunch at sSoky Bay and stopped off to buy a couple dozen oysters and then headed to Jamie’s uncle and aunt's house in Ceduna. The house has a great ocean view and we couldn’t be more happy to have a room with an ensuite all to ourselves!! Uncle Andy showed us how to shuck oysters and we had an entrée of fresh oysters with lemon and worcestershire sauce, followed by steak and salad for main and homemade and home-grown apricot crumble. We were then both shown the ropes of what our jobs would entail, mine as a pharmacy assistant and Jamie working with the local electrician. So we will settle here until Christmas working our respective jobs and enjoying the local cuisine, beaches and fishing while here.

West Mac's vs East Mac's

camilleandjamie — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 22:02:00 GMT

After what we now fondly refer to as “death gorge” or Redbank gorge, as it is actually called, we still had quite a few gorges and sights left in the West Macdonnell Ranges. Here I was thinking I would be sick of gorges, as the West Mac’s consisted of about 8-10 gorges but each one surprised me with it’s own unique beauty and differing wildlife. We camped for a night at Glen Helen Homestead which had some pretty good facilities but also seemed like it had fallen into disrepair. In its defence it was in a prime location, with the homestead looking right onto the towering red cliff face of the gorge itself. There was also a lot of water and reeds in the gorge, which made it even more beautiful. We were running low on water after several days of bush camping so we filled our 95 litre water tank with the bore water, despite the ladies vague warning that it was “drinkable” but a little salty tasting. We didn’t pay her much heed and proceeded to fill the tank while I made myself a coffee. I had just finished putting sugar and milk in and took a big gulp only to spit it straight back out as it tasted like I had made it with seawater. The bore water was absolutely disgusting and in my opinion hardly drinkable. As there weren’t a whole lot of other options we were forced to drink it anyway for the next few days. The weather had just changed and it started raining so we figured we would go for a kayak in the gorge since we would be getting wet anyway. It really was a stunning gorge and was nice and wide for us to paddle through. We even found a rope swing to swing into the water with. Glen Helen bar even provided us with some nice live acoustic music for that evening to enjoy with our beers!!

The next day we decided to kayak through Ormiston gorge, but since it’s a bit of a trek to get in there we only took one kayak which Jamie carried most of the way. Even though the water didn’t go through as far as we had hoped we were rewarded with some amazing wildlife sightings including a sacred king fisher, an adorable family of black footed wallabies and to my amazement a wild Perentie. Perenties are Australia’s largest monitor lizard and can reach over 2 metres. I had been hoping to spot one all trip. Even though this one was only about 1.5 metres, we didn’t know it was a Perentie until later. It is a stunning lizard with circular patterns on its body and a long tail. We watched and photographed him for a while, he let us get about 3 metres away and then we even saw him hunt and eat a smaller lizard.

Heading finally in towards Alice we stopped at a few more beautiful spots along the way including Ellery Creek Big hole, Simpson’s gap and Serpentine gorge. We stayed 2 nights in a caravan park just outside of Alice Springs and took day trips in. One of the highlights was the Desert Park, with the bird show where they showcase owls, falcons, buzzards and kites. We also got to see a heap of other desert birds and lizards and learned some more about Aboriginal culture, bush food and weapons.

Jamie had recently discovered there were some towns in the East Macdonnell Ranges that had gems and gold to be fossicked and found. So with high hopes to find riches enough to fund our entire trip, we set out again. We started the adventure off at Gem Tree where there are zircons and garnets to be found. Jamie discovered quite a few garnets in the fossicking fields, with much digging and sweating in the heat. So it was with fairly high hopes that we approached the zircon fields, zircon being a more valuable gem than garnet. When we found some we were both sorely disappointed with the look of zircon, as the colors ranged from brown/orange to clear yellow. They basically looked like little pieces of plain quartz. We were both starting to tire of this venture and could see that our fortune was not to be had so we moved on to Arltunga, Central Australia’s first gold fields. Arltunga town was nothing more than a small visitor centre and the fossicking areas did not yield the elusive gold we had hoped for. We did awake to some amazing news that we had become an aunt and uncle again to a beautiful baby girl, 4 days earlier than expected.

By this stage, we were both a bit fed up with the never-ending heat, flies and bugs that pestered us constantly. As it was forecast to get even hotter (up to 40 degrees) we proceeded quickly back to Alice Springs where the caravan park had a pool we could seek refuge at. We spent the next 2 days swimming and escaping the heat, and also meeting some people with a pet eclectic parrot that sat on my shoulder. Tomorrow will be the start of our trip back to Adelaide, and so ends our central Australia chapter! We look forward to meeting our new niece when we get back home.

Kings Canyon and West Macdonnell Ranges

camilleandjamie — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 00:12:00 GMT

From Uluru, we drove to Kings Canyon, another place we had heard much about. As we didn’t particularly feel like spending another small fortune for an unpowered site at Kings Canyon resort and campground, we instead camped at Jump up lookout. It was a pretty spot 25kms out, set up on a rock cliff face and overlooking the ridges that make Kings Canyon. The only downsides to the camp was the relentless dust, that left you feeling dirty no matter what and the tiny prickly weeds that seemed to cover a lot of the ground. On the way I spotted an eagle up in it’s nest not far from the road, so Jamie skidded to a stop and we watched it through the zoom of our camera as it fed a dead lizard to it’s fuzzy little white babies. Then the dad eagle swooped to the nest with another kill and the two parents set about feeding their young together. It was a spectacular display of nature that we were lucky enough to witness.

We started the rim walk at Kings Canyon fairly early the next morning, as it gets too hot in the middle of the day to be hiking. The start was a pretty hard, steep 100m ascent to get to the top of the rim. In my unfit state, I was huffing as we reached the top, whilst Jamie hadn’t even broken a sweat. Typical! The rest of the walk was over natural rock and meandered through differing landscapes that brought us to the edge of the rim where we received stunning views of the canyon below and the sheer cliff faces. True to our nature, Jamie and I explored as much as possible whilst trying to get photos of us on rock ledges overhanging the cliff faces. It was pretty tiring but an absolutely amazing hike. There were tracks that led off the main loop that went to lookouts and one called the Garden of Eden that was a beautiful tranquil part of the valley and finished at another sacred waterhole. When we finished the entire loop and had walked 9kms we were both pretty hot and tired, so we retired back to camp where Pumba had been waiting.

Jamie, who can never sit still went to track some birds in order to take pictures of them while I read my book. He came back with some great photos of a superb fairy wren a small bird that is bright blue and black.

The next morning we were woken at about 6:30am to something sneezing. In my half asleep state, I thought it could perhaps be Pumba in the tent below us even though it seemed too loud to be. I was too tired to really care, so went back to sleep, when Jamie said next to me “There’s a camel right by our tent”!! Well of course my head shot up and I looked out the mesh windows of our tent to see a camel just standing there about 5 metres away. It up and ran off right before we could get a picture, crashing through the scrub. That’s one way to wake up!

Our next stop was to the West Macdonnell ranges. We drove the corrugated dirt track called the Meerenie loop that is part of Aboriginal owned land. We saw some beautiful, dark wild horses along the way as well as some wild budgerigars that Jamie had wanted to see the whole time. We stopped at a lookout into Gosse Bluff which is a crater formed when a comet hit earth millions of years ago. It is another Aborginal sacred sight and they believe that the Milky Way women, who made up the stars had a baby that fell to the earth to create the crater that is now Tnorala (Gosse Bluff). We made camp in a wide, dry creek bed just before Roma Gorge. A half hour drive along the gum tree lined creek bed takes you to the Gorge. Just a short walk in and we were rewarded with another beautiful gorge, but this one had ancient petroglyphs, which are indigenous rock carvings. At the end is also a beautiful water hole surrounded by rock that is different to any other that we had seen. It really is a beautiful place, helped by the fact that hundreds of bright green budgies are flying around and chattering.

The next day we decided to explore Redbank Gorge, which was a short drive from our campsite. I didn’t have particularly high expectations as we had done a few gorges by now, but this one was completely different and absolute amazing. It was a 20-minute walk along a creek bed that still had water in some pools along the way. Jamie carried the surfboard, as he had read that there was water at the end that you could swim or float in through the gorge. So despite the fact that the water was quite cold and too murky to see the bottom, we braved the slippery rocks and got both of us lying on the one surfboard. The gorge here was made of a marble like rock that was smooth and made of many different swirling colors. We paddled through the canyon/gorge, some parts fairly narrow and some too shallow so that we had to walk over them to resume our paddling. It was an incredible experience to be paddling through the channel of a gorge. We reached one part that had two small dead birds as well as couple of dead fish. Not to be deterred by the slightly stagnant water we continued on until we found a section where you had to paddle into a cave underneath a boulder and then climb out the other side. The water and the gorge continued on as far as we could see but we decided to turn back, as we were both pretty cold from being in the water for so long. What we saw on the way back made both of us reconsider if we would swim in there again. One was a small snake about 15cm long which was possibly also dead, and the other even more terrifying thing was a water scorpion. We had only just learned about these aquatic bugs. They have hooked forelegs and a long tail and can both swim and fly. We had read that they cause intense pain in humans if they were to sting with their tail. With that, it was well and truly time to get out of there, so we paddled back to our bag where we met some other backpackers that we chatted with. Without meaning to we may have put them off swimming through the whole gorge and they settled for just swimming in the first pool instead. Regardless of all that, it was well worth doing and a really amazing spot.

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

camilleandjamie — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 00:11:00 GMT

People had said it was amazing and really something to behold, but everyone also said you couldn’t know its true beauty until you had seen it for yourself. A wave of disappointment and confusion hit us as we had our first view of this giant rock named Uluru. “That’s not what it looks like in pictures” I said to Jamie. We both looked at the fairly impressive rock, which was still disappointing our expectations. “Is that really it”? we wondered aloud. Well, it turns out we were not the only tourists fooled by Mt Connor on the way to the red centre and briefly mistook it for the much larger and more red rock of Uluru. With relief, we realised our expectations were not broken and that we hadn’t quite reached Uluru yet. On finally arriving, we decided to stay in the Ayers Rock campground despite the fairly hefty price, as they allowed dogs and were nice and close to the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. The other bonus was the swimming pool, which we used regularly as a much-needed reprieve from the heat. We relaxed at the campground and delighted in finally having access again to running water both of the drinking and showering variety.

We had decided the next day to do the base walk and perhaps climb Uluru if it was open (it was often shut due to weather conditions). We were fortunate to be able to have Pumba looked after by a friend’s dad, so we entered the national park to get our first up close sighting of Uluru. It certainly did live up to the great expectations, a giant ochre rock set in a surprisingly lush landscape. Both Jamie and I had been pleasantly surprised at the amount of trees, desert flowers and greenery around the area, especially coming from the dry, arid zone we had passed through. We certainly found out why it is called the “red centre” as we remained covered in red dust from the red sand that was everywhere. None more so than Pumba who now resembled more of a red heeler in color than a white American bulldog.

We started the next day at 5am in order to get to the sunrise viewing platform where we watched the sun come up and colour both Uluru, and Kata Tjutu in the distance into a glowing orange and red. After, we started our base trek with a guided ranger walk, where Adam our ranger showed us the caves the local Anangu aboriginals had dwelled in, and taught in as well as some plants and bush tucker in the area. Cave drawings could still be seen and we were lucky enough to have some of the creation stories of the area told to us as we explored the rock up close and got to touch it and wonder at the sheer size and color and cutural significance. After talking with some locals and listening to our ranger-guide we decided not to do the climb, as it seemed to disrespect the strong culture of the Anangu people. After a 10.6km walk around the base, marvelling at the ever-changing crevices and shapes of the side of Uluru we were probably too tired to have attempted the climb anyway! There was so much to see and admire, especially when we stopped for a snack at a sacred waterhole and read the story of the rainbow serpent that slumbered there (according to the creation story).

After a much-needed swim back at the campground, we headed back to watch a different side of Uluru as the sun set and again colored it a deep, vibrant red. No photo would ever do it justice and you really couldn’t imagine it without seeing it in person.

We used the next day as a rest day, especially since we didn’t want to be hiking in 35 degree heat. We did decide to visit the camel farm and pat and look at the cute but ugly desert creatures. The emu, kangaroo and ducks there provided us some good entertainment in the afternoon as well.

On our third day, we headed out to Kata Tjuta, which seems to be the forgotten sister of Uluru. The name means many heads, as it is made up of over 35 giant rounded boulders melded together millions of years ago. We got up even earlier, at 4:40am and watched the sunrise behind Uluru this time and onto Kata Tjuta. The giant moon was just setting as the sun slid past the horizon coloring the rock and silhouetting Uluru. There are several walks to be done at Kata Tjuta so we chose two of them. The first was a fairly short walk through the beautiful, towering Walpa Gorge. And then we were onto the 7.5km circuit named the valley of the winds. The walk was much more wild than Uluru had been, and took us up and down through gorges and giant boulders. Karinga lookout was a highlight, looking down on two sides of a valley through soaring red rock formations as the wind rushed at us. After being up before dawn and walking nearly 13kms it was fair to say we were exhausted and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at camp. We enjoyed our last sunset there from a lookout right near camp (rather than inside the national park) and watched as people skydived in front of Uluru as the sun was setting. Pumba was absolutely engrossed in watching the skydivers and wouldn’t take his eyes off them, as they parachuted to the ground. We will miss this place, with the glowing sunrises and fiery sunsets and the spiritual rocks that you couldn’t help but to fall in love with.

Getting back to bush camping

camilleandjamie — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 18:46:00 GMT

Our week in Roxby downs had been necessary, not only to fix our trailer and give Jamie a chance to do some work, but also to ride out the heat wave of above 37-degree days. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t glad when we were back on the road again, and feeling free as we set up camp, 10kms from Coober Pedy in a rocky area with some trees and not another soul around us.

Pumba was happy as well not being tied up anymore and as we set up camp, he began his usual exploring and sniffing of the area. It was only when we saw him standing very still and staring at the ground that we started calling him back to us. He proceeded to ignore us completely so we had to go over to see what held his attention so captivatingly. And that was when we discovered the cutest baby eagle sitting on the ground and staring at our giant dog with big wide eyes. We ushered Pumba away, even though he hadn’t touched the bird and started stressing about what to do. Had it blown out of it’s nest in the strong winds, or been abandoned by his mother? We weren’t sure but didn’t want to leave it on the ground especially if no parent had come for it by nightfall. We decided to get in touch with a local kangaroo rescue sanctuary who informed us the best thing would be to bring it in to them to look after. So we picked up the fuzzy little eagle as it made the tiniest squeak and drove him to the sanctuary. The lovely people there took in the little bird and promised it would get the care it needed and would be released into the wild if and when possible. They even showed us a baby wombat they had rescued which was so amazingly adorable that I was tempted to swap it for Pumba.

The next day we went out to explore Coober Pedy and of course noodle for more opals. We had both become slightly addicted to noodling, as I think it had the same effect as gambling. Everytime you found a little piece of opal, you just couldn’t help but keep scouring the ground hoping there was a big, sparkly vivid one in the next dirt pile. We had managed at least to collect a small bagful of tiny opals and had noticed the ones in Coober Pedy were more white and opaque and seemed less vivid than the ones we had found in Andamooka. We also toured a fascinating “dugout” home and old mine in the town of Coober Pedy. It made total sense that the people would live underground in such a hot and arid landscape.

With only one more night at a rest stop along the way we started to get excited that our next stop was Uluru, the Australian icon right in the centre of our country that we had heard such good things about.

When disaster strikes – The value of having a Sat phone

camilleandjamie — Fri, 7 Oct 2016 13:55:00 GMT

The storms had done a very good job in making life pretty hard and miserable for the poor people of Northern South Australia. I know a lot of people in Adelaide complained that they went for a whole evening without power, but as it turned out some of these small country towns were without power from Wednesday to Sunday. It meant it was really hard for us to find a petrol station to fill up, let alone buying any fresh food. Luckily we were pretty prepared and got through it fine.

We stayed a night in Leigh Creek Caravan park which looked to me like nothing more than a gravely carpark with a toilet building. There was still no power there, which meant we couldn’t have a hot shower, watch the footy grand final, or do our washing like we had really been wanting to. With the weather starting to get warmer Leigh creek was really very un-appealing. Nothing was open, due to the power outage and there were locusts everywhere. The one activity we did manage to find was to metal detect in a playground where we found a grand total of $4 in various rusty looking coins. Great success!!

I wanted to get as far away from Leigh Creek as possible, as it hadn’t really been the most enjoyable experience, but Jamie was cautious of the fact that we weren’t able to get petrol at many places. I thanked our lucky stars that we had a Satellite phone on us as well, as there had been no phone or internet reception, so we relied a lot on Jamie’s parents calling to let us know weather reports etc.

We decided to do the Oodnadatta track, which is basically a dirt road that runs from Maree to Oodnadatta. Little did we know it would be so rough and torn up from the previous weeks wet weather. We were going along fine in the dry and dusty landscape when after a couple of hours Jamie noticed the trailer was towing at a funny angle. He got out and realized the trailer brakes had seized on and they were boiling hot. Not great news, but we were able to jack the car up on this dirt track in the middle of the desert and take the brakes off completely, leaving the wheels to free spin again. Crisis averted, or so we thought. Another hundred metres down the track it was still towing at a funny angle so we got out again and I noticed that on one side the trailer mud guard was touching on the tire. This, it turned out, was because we had snapped the welding on the leaf spring locator. Now we knew it was pretty serious. We were in the middle of nowhere and needed a welder to be able to fix the problem. Luckily we were about 25km from a campsite called Coward Springs, so we were able to hobble the trailer into camp going about 30km/hr. What we arrived to was a beautiful little oasis in the middle of the dry, arid desert. Coward Springs is an old bore hole that they weren’t able to cap, resulting in a water hole as well as some nice trees and vegetation. They were very well set up and they even had a hot shower that you had to light a fire to get the hot water. We decided to camp the night and work out our next move in the morning, as unfortunately the manager of the camp didn’t have a welder. Luckily we had our Sat phone again as there was of course no other phone reception and we were about 200km from any major town. We called Jamie’s dad Dennis who suggested the RAA, which wasn’t something we had thought of, being so remote. Dennis organised a free tow to Roxby Downs for the trailer while we followed behind the next day. The next day the tow truck came and we followed behind on another bumpy dirt track to Roxby Downs. On the way a huge rock was flicked up from a passing caravan and put a big chip in the windscreen as well. We certainly weren’t feeling all that lucky. However it all worked out in the end as we had our trailer fixed that day and decided to stay a while in Roxby Downs Caravan park, where they had power, showers and even an air-conditioned TV room and kitchen. This was the ultimate luxury to us at this stage. Jamie was even able to get some work with Coates Hire to help us pay for the repairs to the trailer. The weather is also starting to really heat up and is forecast for 41 degrees on Sunday. Roxby Downs happens to be a really nice town, with friendly people, a library, rec centre, swimming pool, cinema and even a woolworths.

On our first day in town, while Jamie was trying to organize some work, we went opal hunting in a town called Andamooka. It is a very interesting town that looks nothing more, than small-outdated houses amongst huge piles of red dirt. We walked around town and found out that everybody is able to go “noodling” for opals in the dirt/rock piles around town, and much to our surprise we actually found ourselves quite a lot of small opal inside the rocks we were breaking up.

Getting into the swing of camping life

camilleandjamie — Mon, 3 Oct 2016 17:28:00 GMT

It is day 6 of our adventure and while I sit here to recount the previous days, I marvel at the fact that there seems to be so much time in a day when you don’t get up with an alarm clock to go to work, but rather wake with the sun and sounds of the birds for a day filled with any possibility.

Our campsite at Burra Gorge was right next to a creek, shaded with giant hundred-year-old gumtrees, so we got to spend the day walking through the gorge and up the side of a rocky hill to get sweeping views of the area. I must mention that in the lead up before our trip, Jamie had decided we would need “hobbies” to keep us entertained while out camping, since with so much time in the days we might get bored. So he decided gold prospecting could be a great hobby with all the places we are going to and the time we would have. It started with him buying a gold panning kit off the internet, but quickly he had become quite obsessed and that led to him needing to buy a metal detector and of course, then a gold coil to attach to the detector. So, at various times through the days he would decide to go detecting and could be seen walking about camp with his detector and pick axe. I was of course fairly sceptical that he would find anything of use, and much to his displeasure I have been right so far, unless you count the bottle caps, used bullet shells, and other useless bits of metal that he comes back with. But true to his nature Jamie remains positive that he will soon find something valuable and continues to venture off searching. That night we pulled in the yabby nets we had put in the creek and found over 20 tiny yabbies in there. We of course released them back to their home, but with such a wet September the creeks were full and teaming with life.

We had a message on our satellite phone in the morning from Jamie’s mom Sue, warning us that some heavy storms and bad weather were on the way. We checked the full weather reports in a town when we got some reception and were both a little excited and apprehensive at the reports of 60-100km winds, and thunderstorms. Nevertheless, after 2 nights at Burra Gorge we headed out to one of our favourite spots just south of the Flinders Ranges, Warren Gorge. We also made quick stop along the way to a spot Jamie had heard about called Magnetic hill. There are hills like this all over the world and they are a natural phenomenon where the magnetic field within the hill can actually pull a car slowly up the hill. When we arrived there the sign told us to stop and put the car into neutral and take your foot off the brake and then it would start pulling us uphill. For whatever reason, possibly because our car is ridiculously heavy, it didn’t work and we rolled back instead. Both Jamie and I were pretty disappointed, but could only laugh and shake our fists at the not so magnetic hill.

We arrived late afternoon into Warren Gorge and set up camp on high ground in case of flash floods and then went to explore the creeks, finding a giant blue yabby and some small frogs. The next morning despite the very warm air, we could see heavy, dark clouds threatening on the horizon. With all the warnings we had from the weather reports as well as family and friends we started to baton down the hatches. We put pegs, and ropes everywhere on the tent and set up a shelter of an awning and some sturdy tarps to keep us from the rain. Just before it hit we felt the change in the air and saw the speed that the clouds started to move above us as the dark grey clouds moved in. Then came the thunder and lightning and we started to get a bit excited. The wind really picked up and then came the rain, bucketing down in torrents. It only lasted all of about 20 minutes and afterwards the dark clouds had been blown away with the wind and the sun came out. Since the sun had come back out we went for a big hike up the steep rocky faces of the gorge for more stunning views and a rock wallaby sighting. Pumba came with us and was clambering over the rocks like he was a mountain goat. It was late afternoon when another storm hit us. We saw it coming over the ridge of the gorge again and managed to get everything back in the tent as well as ourselves just as it hit. The rain was pounding down this time and as we watched it started hailing. It wasn’t like any other hail I had experienced before and just seemed to keep getting bigger. Jamie was worried about it damaging the car so we dashed out of the tent to put a tarp over the bonnet. We were instantly drenched the second we stepped out. It was a mad rush in the rain and wind to put the tarp on, all the while getting hit by marble and some golf ball sized chunks of hail. We managed to get the tarp on and stood dripping in the bottom of our tent. So now a bunch of our clothes were drenched, all to save the car. Again, the storm stopped after about ½ an hour and the sun came out. This time the creeks were gushing and the color of chocolate milk as they continued to fill up from the down pours. The night passed with large gusts of wind, but luckily the tent held and nothing was broken.

The temperature had really dropped and it was pretty miserable outside as we made our way from Warren Gorge to our next spot. We hadn’t really decided where we were going so we first stopped at Hawker to get internet so we could figure out if the bad weather was to continue. We took some four wheel drive tracks to get to Hawker and were stopped and yelled at by a farmer in a ute. He seemed to think we were city slickers who knew nothing about the outback. He told us very patronisingly that we shouldn’t be tearing up the tracks and more to the point could get stuck out here because of all the storms and potential flash floods. I wanted to tell him where to stick his advice and that we knew what we were doing, but Jamie handled it very diplomatically as usual. The weather report said we had another day of some rain, and wind and we also discovered that the whole of South Australia had a power outage from the storms, so it almost didn’t seem that bad to be camping since we didn’t rely on electricity anyway. However, I soon changed my mind about camping being so great, once the cold got to me. Every campsite we tried in Parachilna Gorge wasn’t protected from the icy wind. We argued about whether it was worthwhile going to a caravan park, or one of the free spots that are in the wide riverbeds. After much debate, as we were both tired, hungry and cold, we decided the free spot in the riverbed. The tiny caravan park didn’t really look very good anyway. My mood certainly improved when Jamie built an impressive fire and we cooked a delicious minestrone soup on it before retiring to our tent for the night.

As my hair was starting to resemble a bird’s nest at this stage, Jamie set up our shower the next morning, which consists of a bucket with a tap and a shower attachment and a little pop up tent. We boiled some water and if it weren’t for the cold wind it would actually have been a very pleasant and warm shower. I was starting to realise the extra planning and preparation that Jamie had gone to in making showers, and buying extra gas bottles for our cooker and felt pretty grateful that it hadn’t been up to me. Feeling much more presentable with my washed hair we set out to do a mining tour of Blinman Mine. It is an old copper mine that the locals have now made into a tourist attraction. Our guide was an interesting, but very knowledgeable man and told us all about the old mining days when this was a working copper mine. He managed to paint a very good picture of what it would have been like crawling around the dark tunnels with only the light of a candle to see by, and it certainly made me appreciative that we live in a modern age where machines can do most of the hard work. We stopped off to the general store in Blinman to get one of the famous miners Cornish pasties for lunch. We finished our afternoon with a walk along the pretty, wide creek and then another climb up the side of a steep gorge for breathtaking 360 degree views and even got to see some kangaroos up there for our efforts. I feel like I will certainly be getting fitter with all the walking and climbing we have done so far. Once again we lit the fire and Jamie cooked an amazing meat pasta on it along with an amazing salad. I am really appreciating the satisfaction you get from making and cooking your dinner on a fire we built and found the wood for.

Photos: Australia trip

camilleandjamie — Mon, 3 Oct 2016 16:43:00 GMT

Day 1 - Burra Gorge

camilleandjamie — Mon, 3 Oct 2016 16:35:00 GMT

I sit here writing this next to a crackling fire made by Jamie, under a canopy of giant gum trees and a sky full of brilliant stars. Pumba wanders the campsite exploring any noises and smells as he goes. We have fitted him with a headlamp around his neck so we can see where he is in the dark.

Today was the very first day of this yearlong journey we have undertaken to travel around Australia. We hadn’t even fully finished getting everything ready, and I had only just had my sister’s baby shower the day before. Yes, my niece or nephew will be born while we are away but we have decided to come back briefly to Adelaide to meet the new little baby before continuing on. We had gathered our last few items and fully packed the trailer, whilst Pumba slept on the porch being his usual helpful self. We picked up a care package of homemade road snacks from my best friend Bianca and then did a food shop, guessing at how much stuff we could take, and how much food we could fit in our fridge. And then we were driving and it felt a little bit real, like this was actually happening and not just a dream we had conjured up months before.

It was only a few hours to our campsite, at Burra Gorge so we made it well before dark and set up our rooftop tent in the quick way we had already become accustomed to. I made a dinner of green chicken curry on rice while Jamie collected firewood and Pumba galloped to and fro across the creek, making as much noise as possible. Once the fire was going we were then able to relax and let it all sink in with a bevvy in hand. Not a bad way to finish out our first day on the road!!

The Decision

camilleandjamie — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 14:20:00 GMT

The decision to become nomads, if only for a year, didn't come lightly. We had discussed many times together, our desire to travel, to explore and discover new and exciting places. We had already travelled to a lot of places, both together and separately, but this trip was going to be different. This trip meant leaving everything that had become normal in the last 5 years. Leaving our jobs; mine as a travel agent and Jamie's as an electrician, leaving the house we had bought together 3 years previously and leaving all our family and friends. But it seemed it was the right time in our lives for this new adventure, for a really big change. We both felt a little like the nomadic life was calling to us, tempting us with the allure of wide open spaces, no time restrictions and the ultimate feeling of freedom.

And so it was with these ideas floating in our heads that we made that final decision to travel around Australia for a year with nothing more than a 4x4 a trailer (hand built by Jamie) and an American Bulldog named Pumba. The next stage was the planning and there was a lot of it to do. For starters we needed to find someone to rent our house, and having successfully found suitable tenants we then had to move in with Jamie's Grandma while we finished out our jobs and gathered everything we would need for a year away. It was also during this planning process and moving out of our house that I was planning our overseas wedding and honeymoon in the Cook Islands. It was an exciting but overly busy time. When we arrived back from the wedding, after an amazing time with family and friends in the sun, sand and water, it was time to give our notices to our employers about our year away. I was lucky enough to be given 12 months of leave without pay, which certainly made this venture slightly less risky.

I gave 6 weeks of notice and the time both crawled and sped by as we planned and organised everything we thought we would be needing. Jamie all the while was building up the trailer which now consisted of a fully enclosed space, with a water tank plumbed to a sink, 2 kayaks, 2 BMX bikes, a solar panel, space for surfboards and would fit all our worldly possessions (at least the ones we would be taking with us).

The last week of work was a very emotional one for me, saying goodbye to all my friends and colleagues and really starting to think about the enormity of what we were about to do. It was definitely then when I began to really panic about what the hell I was supposed to pack for a year. I began Googling and Pinteresting ideas of how I would cram a years worth of stuff into a very small space. At the end of the day I eventually realised, we could always stop and buy things if we needed, but it was still with some trepidation that i began to pack as lightly as possible.