Hamelin Station Stay

It took us quite sometime to say our goodbyes at Carnarvon... Richard had one of our neighbours lift the bonnet of his Toyota two minutes before we were due to leave. John (being a male) was obviously very willing to have a long discussion about the engine and the other John was joining in too. Once again we said farewell to John and Wendy and John and Jenny..... we hope to meet up once again on the road! Eventually, we left on chuck out time 10 a.m. and had to travel over 200 kms again!!

The highway was brilliant, very little traffic and very, very straight. The landscape was changing to a more colourful one due to the considerable amount of wild flowers adorning the side of the highway. We are heading into wild flower country.

The turn off to our destination was so visible, advertising the "Shark Bay" region.
Shark Bay was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1991 for its natural heritage values. To be inscribed, properties must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of ten selection criteria set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). You can find the full list of selection criteria here. Shark Bay satisfied all four of the natural criteria for World Heritage listing.
Many of Australia's iconic destinations are World Heritage-listed sites such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics of Queensland, which includes the Daintree Rainforest; the Greater Blue Mountains in New South Wales; the Northern Territory's Kakadu and Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Parks; and Western Australia's Purnululu National Park in the Kimberley.
The Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia has recently been inscribed on the World Heritage List for its natural beauty and biological diversity. The Ningaloo-Shark Bay National Landscape now boasts two World Heritage areas at its northern and southern ends.
We are so lucky to have been able to visit and see these amazing areas.




What an amazing place the Hamelin Station stay is, the manager Jason showed us the very big camper's kitchen and dining area that we can use, it looked like people were using this instead of cooking in their caravans. This area is where we are able to get Telstra and internet connection. Jason gave us information on the Stromatolites that are organisms which are the very beginnings of life on earth...these are a must see!!  We were shown our spot and Richard reversed the van in but we weren't level side to side, Helen jumped in the ute while Richard used his trusty spade to take away some earth from one side of the van and hey, ho we are level.....

Our pitch



The amenities block

The sign from the Station

 We spend the afternoon having a little look around the camp ground, it was immaculate! it is very well done and laid out!!
The early evening was spent inside the dining area, sitting at a long table with some very nice people and a nice wood fire, obviously with glass of wine in hand.
























One of the Camp Kitchens we used

The following day we headed off to visit Denham which is a round trip of 240kms. The last time we were in Denham was in August 2007 where we filled up our motorhome with diesel, we liked the look of it and promised that one day we would be back!! We visited the Information Centre and saw that the little town had been spruced up a bit and that work was ongoing on a new jetty this we thought is so good for the local community. We had a nice coffee and snack in a café on the waterfront.

Another significant memorial to the HMAS Sydney.
This has the name of every sailor who lost his life,
which was all of them.

Some friends had told us about the Aquarium which was 10kms south of Denham, we passed it on the way in! we decided to go back and have a tour. We paid our money and went straight into the first tank area, the Stingray tank. A very knowledgeable young man guided our small group through some amazing areas of the Aquarium, maybe half way round we were then taken over by another knowledgeable young man (English this time) on the final part of the tour. This guide showed us the most venomous of the fish including Sea snakes, Blow fish and Stone fish. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our tour here.
Helen finished off with a very nice glass of white wine sitting on the deck overlooking the beautiful Indian Ocean.

Along the route we detoured off to a place called Eagle Bluff about 2km off the highway, there were a few vehicles in the car park and we ventured out walking on the superb boardwalk on top of the cliffs to a spectacular viewing area where we spotted sharks and stingrays basking and swimming, what a sight, no wonder they call this place shark bay! We stayed here for quite some time chatting and exchanging binoculars with others young and old.

 













 

Part of the view at Eagle Buff there are a number
of sharks and stingrays in the water,
trust me I tell no lie!!

Another view, inland this time
from the amazing walkway at Eagle Bluff

Shell beach, amazing place, was another viewing stop we did on the way back to the Station but managed to get back for Happy hour.

Next morning we were very lazy, just chilling out chatting with fellow campers particularly with a very nice man who was writing for his Bird Watching club, he showed us some beautiful photographs he had taken and told us the names of some of the birds that were here at the Station.  Whilst we were looking at emails etc, a Ute and caravan rolled in, it was friends we had met way back at Lee and Jenny's bushcamp, we had last seen Greg and Pam at Barn Hill a little catch up was had and they went off and set up on their spot. This afternoon we drove out to the famous Stromatolites and Wow! what a very thought provoking place this is, these micro organisms are the basic building blocks of the first life on earth.
Once again we walked on a well built pathway above this awesome sight. 
Hamelin Pool is one of only three places on Earth where you can see living marine stromatolites. (The other two places are in the Bahamas.) Stromatolites are found in Hamelin Pool because its water is twice as salty as normal seawater. Few predators and competitors can survive these conditions, allowing the microbes to flourish and form stromatolites much as they did billions of years ago.

Plaque at the start of the walkway

 

The walkway



Stromatolites




Some of the wild flowers on our walk to the cafe

Afterwards we had a walk to the Caravan Park called Hamelin Pool CP.  Here we found a very quaint little café, they were serving a coach load of Japanese tourists their lunch. A chalkboard advertised Devon teas with scones. The coach driver had a chat with us, he was from Perth and was on the third day of his tour, he informed us that this group of tourists visit this area of WA at this time of year especially for the wild flowers, which I must agree are the most amazing sights anyone could wish to see.

After looking around the old-fashioned shop which was in the same building, we decided to partake of the tea. We chatted to the ladies who were running the place, the owner was from England and she told us that the recent Cyclone had hit her business very badly, we could see that as she had only 3 caravans on site. She was a very hard working woman and it was sad to hear her stories.  Unfortunately, the tea wasn't up to scratch, Liptons or something like that, not as good as Yorkshire tea bags, scone was OK though. Back at camp and Helen prepared our evening meal and we decided to use the kitchen's oven whilst having a drink with friends. Another interesting and very pleasant evening spent in the dining area.
Our next stop will be Kalbarri where we hope to see some friends.



Carnarvon and the Blowholes

Carnarvon, Saturday 29th August
We travelled south once again and rolled into the Outback Oasis Caravan Park, Carnarvon, immediately we knew we had made a good choice, a big drive through spot for us and lovely grass, yes we had grass on our spot!! We met some nice neighbours again, Wendy and John who gave us some information on the little town. We took a short trip into town to the local Woolworths store for supplies.
Sunday was a day for the Blog and for the washing of sheets and clothes. Helen checked out the washing machines and saw that they use hot water, so mattress cover and all other white laundry was done. New neighbours John and Jenny arrived too.
Carnarvon has a jetty that is one mile long so a visit to this was a must but, Helen was quite anxious while walking on it. Who came walking towards us? is our neighbours John and Jenny, after a long chat we parted company both couples going in opposite directions. The old jetty looked very rickety and unsafe even though there was a little train running up and down on it!!! Helen was very cautious where she trod! We had a lovely drive around the town and found the very interesting Memorial Drive, where there is a plaque to every person who perished in November 1941 on the HMAS Sydney in this area. This tragic loss is a most important event in Australian history as there were 645 souls on board at least one serviceman from every city and small town...it took nearly a week before the authorities knew this ship was missing, communications so different to nowadays.


Richard was disappointed that this
was not a steam train!

Hold on to the hand rail!



Don't walk on the railway lines!

 

A bandstand being built on the old livestock wharf

 



 



A very long day out!

Desolate beach

We went for a day out to the Blowholes that are 70-80kms north and then onwards towards Quobba Station and eventually to Red Bluff for a special reason. There is a campground at the Blowholes which we wanted to check out first so we had a look around, quite remote but very cheap and windswept but, very beautiful. We visited the HMAS Sydney memorial cairn another very important area of history, as this is where the German survivors of the ship that allegedly sunk the Sydney came to shore, not one of the 645 crew of MHAS Sydney survived.

This is the Blowholes area, don't go near the water!

Wild seas!



Wonderful seascape



The campground is situated next to a calm,
protected sea area a little like a lagoon.
A bit cold for a swim today.

So sorry we didn't have a swim here



The dirt road up to Quobba station



The memorial cairn for HMAS Sydney, lost with all hands.



The lighthouse at the Blowholes.

 

Unfortunately our trip to Red Bluff wasn't to be, as the road was so rough and it was a further 50 km... it was time to have a quiet moment en route at our most northern point to remember a young man from our home town of Grimsby back in the UK, it certainly is one of the most beautiful, spectacular and remote areas we have visited.

Our time at Carnarvon was really interesting, we moved on, headed for Hamelin Station and cooler weather unfortunately!



Bruboodjoo (9 mile camp)

After leaving the Ningaloo Lighthouse Caravan park we had to call into the Information Centre area for us to fill our caravan water tanks...We are off to a remote camp ground on the beach that has no facilities whatsoever!! This is due to the Cyclone that hit earlier this year it took out the toilet block and the windmill where people would get bore water.

We drove in and no one was using the water taps yippee!! Helen knew it would take a while to fill so she went into the Centre and asked for a free Wifi number...we needed to update all phones and iPad. Needless to say this didn't happen as the updating of our technology was going to take for hours.
We got back on the road and found the secluded gate off the highway which is 15kms north of Coral Bay turnoff to our campground. Here we had to drive about 10kms it says 9 mile but it didn't seem like it. We took our time down the long sandy, rocky road and thank goodness didn't come across another rig coming towards us.



If we had it would have been very interesting. The view from the final rise towards the sea and caravans was just sensational, the sea was the most wonderful colour of blue and the whole area looked amazing. 









Just part of the road into Bruboodjoo

We followed the signs to the caretakers caravan, Helen had been communicating with Ken Stokoe over the past 2 days so, we at last got to meet him and introduce ourselves. It became apparent very quickly that most of the caravans here also had a "Tinny" and most of them had been set up there for quite some time. Ken suggested a spot in the distance for us to put the van and have a lovely sea view.



On the way to find the caretaker

We tried our best to position the van as far as possible away from our two neighbours on the spot we thought Ken had suggested.
When we are this type of campground it is so good to have the space between everyone. After setting up we were sat outside admiring our beautiful view when a cruiser with the boat came and manoeuvred itself around the back of one of our neighbours. The gentleman immediately came to us and introduced himself and wife as Phil and Lindy, they had been out fishing all day. Another "Tinny" arrived and parked up at the far side of Phil's caravan, parked up and two men had also been out all day, Phil invited us to his firepit later that day where we met other lovely people. We were made to feel so welcome with this smashing group of people. Johanna and Trevor our nearest neighbours in a small 5th wheeler were from New Zealand and she loved our Silver Fern on the van...I found a spare one and later presented it to her at "happy hour". We met Jack and Annie too, they were from Adelaide and had been here a few weeks, Phil and Lindy had been here for 4 weeks and had brought with them an amazing amount of water!


Some of the vehicles with boat trailers 



We were so lucky to park up here, we had amazing neighbours and then everyday they would give us fish, well everyday, we were only here for 4 days. Johanna and Helen somehow found out that there was a hairdresser on site, they found her and duly made an appointment for haircuts. Jan from Coogee, WA did a great job in windy circumstances, so at last Helen had a haircut!!
We did try and repay their generosity by providing morning tea one day, when no body went out fishing and Phil and Lindy were packing their rig up ready to move. Unfortunately our time here came to and end and we had to move on to Carnarvon, Johanna packed us up with piklets she had made.



Another amazing sunset

 

A view from the beach to the van (on left of centre)

Next stop Carnarvon