EXMOUTH AND YARDIE HOMESTEAD

August 1st and we are still are Yardie Homestead.  We have been here for about 7 weeks now and have a couple more weeks until we start heading home.  Those of you who have been following us on facebook will know all about the weather, the fishing and the beaches already, but for the others here's a little bit of our time here.

Exmouth is on a cape (not sure what it is called, I haven't been able to find any name anywhere), that is sometimes referred to in weather reports etc as north west cape area.  I don't think that is actually  the name. There is a limestone range running north south down the centre of the cape.  Yardie Homestead is on the west side and Exmouth on the east side.  It is only a few kilometres as the crow flies, but there are no roads across the range. Yardie is about 35kms from Exmouth. 

Yardie Homestead was established in 1884 but now makes it's money from tourists, not sheep. Much more profitable I would think.  The beaches along the Ningaloo Reef shoreline are about 1 km from the park. Unfortunately not walking distance as there are sandhills in between.  The park isn't manicured lawns and fancy playgrounds.  The sign at the gate says that it is for serious fishermen.  

There's very limited mobile phone coverage, generator power which limits appliance use and bore water for washing.  However, the folk here are very friendly, the fishing is good and the beaches and the National Park are beautiful.  The sites are large, so we have plenty of room for everything (unlike Coral Bay!)

Cape Range National Park starts a couple of kilometres south of Yardie and of course we can't go there with Millie.  There is a lot of wildlife in the park, kangaroos, wallabies, emus, echidnas and other small creatures we don't get to see.  We have been into the park a couple of times which Millie has been "dog sitted"!  The limestone ridge, Cape Range, is quite spectacular.

Yardie Creek is at the south end of the National Park.

The better swimming beaches are also in the National Park.  

The ones near us are beautiful, but most of them have quite strong currents so not great for swimming.  However they are lovely to look at and nice to dip into a little bit.  The bonus with these beaches is that we usually have them to ourselves and Millie gets to have a big run.

That's part 1 of our time at Yardie.  

Merrilyn x

MONDAY, JUNE 2 – THURSDAY, JUNE 11    CORAL BAY

Beautiful beaches (but not dogs, so not for us)

Lovely shady grassy sites in the park (but very small, no room for

either the truck or the boat)

Delicious pasties and pies at the bakery (but only if you get there

before 12)

As you can see, Coral Bay was a mixture of good and bad for us.

Absolutely beautiful if you have a normal sized caravan and no dog.

It's just a walk across the road to a beautiful beach for snorkelling and

swimming.

This wasn't the beach across the road, these were two different beaches

where we could take Millie and we had to drive to them.  The bonus

was hardly anyone went there.

There was some fishing done, with successful results.

and sightseeing in the boat, out on Ningaloo Reef.  Unfortunately no

whales, turtles or sharks spotted, but there was plenty of coral which

unfortunately doesn't show up very well in photos.

It's not just sunshine and beautiful beaches up here, we have had some

cloudy days, and even a bit of rain at times.

Makes some interesting photos with the clouds.

Millie loved swimming here, particularly when there was someone else in

the water.

As usual there were beautiful sunsets.  Alan says "how many photos of

sunsets do you need?" But there is always the possibility that one of

them might just capture something amazing.  Anyway, digital photos -

who cares!

And of course wherever we are, there is always happy hour!

And just to show all you wonderful readers that I was there, here I am

on the beach, a little windswept this day.

That's it for our relaxing few days at Coral Beach.  Next stop Yardie
Homestead (where we are still enjoying the delights of Ningaloo Reef.)

Missing you all.

Merrilyn x

In case any of the loyal readers haven't caught up with our family
news, we are very excited to have Luke and Nell moving to Melbourne. 
Luke started his new job yesterday (Monday 21st July) and Nell will
follow as soon as everything else is sorted out.  They have an
apartment in Southbank and Luke will be working in Collins St. Just
working on getting Ben and Jamie back here now!

Finally managed to get a post happening, thanks to my new beaut Yagi antenna which has given me much better internet access.  This post is weeks in the making so is very much out of date now.  We are currently at Yardie Homestead about 35 kms from Exmouth, on the western side of the cape, just a short distance from the beautiful Ningaloo Reef.  We have extended our stay here as the weather is great, the fishing is good and there are miles of beaches for swimming (and for Millie to run on).

Hopefully the next update won't be so long coming.  Thanks for staying with us.


ON THE ROAD AGAIN

FRIDAY, MAY 30        CERVANTES TO KALBARRI

It was time to be on the road again, this time bound for Kalbarri.  We hadn’t really planned to go there, but we had 2 more nights to soak up before we were due in Coral Bay.  The road heading out of Cervantes to Kalbarri was the usual – long straight stretches, red sand on the sides and scrubby vegetation.

When we got to Kalbarri, we realised we had made a mistake – we should have spent a couple of days here.  It was a lovely place and the caravan park was right in town, walking distance to the pub.  That’s always going to be a winner!  Definitely a place to re-visit some time.

SATURDAY, MAY 31     KALBARRI TO GLADSTONE SCENIC LOOKOUT

As this was a comparatively short drive, we had a leisurely breakfast in Kalbarri and a look around the town.  There was a market on the foreshore, which provided 5 minutes distraction, but also some beautiful free range eggs!

As we left Kalbarri, we saw lots of banksia trees.  We had also seen these in other places, but these ones had more colourful flowers. 

We also passed through large areas of burnt scrub and very little else.  It seemed that the fire through here wasn’t too long ago.

Our planned overnight stop was one we made on the way home last year.  A free camp in a spectacular setting and we could have a fire!

This is a popular overnight stop, and as we discovered last year there is a sort of a memorial cairn with lots of gnomes on it.  There are messages written on rocks and some other items there as well.

Once again we were treated to one of the stunning sunsets we have been seeing on the west coast.

SUNDAY, JUNE 1   GLADSTONE SCENIC LOOKOUT TO CORAL BAY

The next day we headed further north to Coral Bay through more flat red countryside.  

But we know what is at the end of the road. That will be your treat in the next post.

ALAN

There's a bit of a story in our family about photos of Alan always showing him walking away.  So on a rainy day in Coral Bay (didn't plan for that!) it seemed like a good time to show the collection so far on this trip.

Natalie and Richard, I know you've been waiting for them.

SMOKY BAY

GREAT AUSTRALIAN BIGHT 

ESPERANCE

ESPERANCE

VALLEY OF THE GIANTS

ELEPHANT ROCKS

CERVANTES

CERVANTES

JURIEN BAY

CORAL BAY

CORAL BAY

And it's still raining, so back to reading and relaxing now!

Merrilyn x