KALBARRI 5 - BACK TO THE GORGES - NATURE'S WINDOW AND Z BEND (2 JUNE 2014)

This was the second of our visits to the Murchison River gorges in the inland section of the Kalbarri National Park, and, as was the case with our first we were not disappointed in the slightest. Just the opposite. This is stunning stuff, and in real time it now seems so long ago!

Our jaunt down to Nature's Window began at the very well constructed and maintained lookout at the entrance car park. I think I have previously mentioned how well the National Parks lot have done in building and maintaining these facilities. We have never begrudged the moderate entrance fees charged to visit these sites (we actually bought a year long permit which is stuck on the windscreen...we do feel a little smug as we sail blithely through the check points whilst others are queued to pay).

We could see across the river gorge from this first lookout,












but our destination lay much lower down the slope. Off we went down this marvellously constructed pathway which made the initial stages of the descent a doddle, to say the least.







But then things did change, and it was back to a clamber over the rocky plates of the plateau, where, from time to time, one comes across these rest benches strategically dotted along the track. We did note this one being put to good use on our return climb...its two occupants were of a girth which clearly made the rest necessary and bore testament to the sturdy construction of the bench!








On ever further downwards...the river was by now much closer...where is this darn Window?











A final cautious scramble across the stepped rocks of this escarpment, around the point at the end

and there we were.  "You're looking the wrong way. Lizzie...that's it, off to your right!"










I almost had something of a sense of anti-climax, but this was it. Ah, that's better. Nothing like a 'typical tourist' shot (which we tend to resist normally)






This is typical of the photo which appears in all the promotional material...and from which this natural feature obviously derives its name.

Of course, those done professionally are of much better quality that this happy snap, and always taken when the colours in the river cliffs are highlighted by a late afternoon sun, not in morning shadow as they are here. Once I took a closer look I was suitably impressed by the extraordinary layers of different coloured rock which are a real feature of this landscape. Indeed, I would have to comment, that even if the feature of the destination of any particular walk is not startling, the en route scenery always makes the effort worth while.








So, that is Nature's Window. From this point a looped trail extends off along the top of the Murchison gorge around the point of the cliffs at the top of this shot

and thence back on itself along the river flats of the bend in the river at this spot. this is classified as a Grade 3 walk, and is one we would normally have taken on, but we were on a mission for the day.









So back up the path we scrambled, taking in the views on offer as we went.....












and then it was off on the dirt road to Z Bend,












where the trail down from the car park to the river was of a very different nature to that at Nature's Window. This was all much more rustic.











Again our descent took us over sections of these flat, rocky plates













until we gained our fist glimpse of the Murchison at this location as it snaked through these steep sided gorges.











Despite the somewhat rough nature of the walking trail, our good friends at National Parks have come to the fore at the bottom of the climb with the provision of this great viewing platform

which is accessed via a very study foot bridge (much to Liz's relief....she is not good on suspension bridges which sway during a crossing)











Next to the viewing site itself, a large fissure in the rock provided an alternative view of the river below.














As I crouched here with trusty camera in hand, I was amused to spot this sign. 'No Access' indeed. Why do they feel the need to caution those with a death wish? But what a spectacular sight.








In typical and much appreciated style, the Parks mob have placed an informative sign nearby the lookout.

which I have (atypically) reproduced here in extra-large format to enable the information to be read. As they say, 'why have dog and bark yourself'....I could do no better than these words.







And this is what we could see from the viewing platform...downstream in the one direction


















and (trite as it may sound) upstream in the other. This is indeed a 'Z' bend, and,














at this point it is a bloody long way down to the bottom of the gorge. The mighty Murchison has decidedly won nature's battle between water and rock as it snakes its way through layered sandstone rocks of the Kalbarri National park.












As I noted before, the jaunts to these various tourist destinations often throw up spots of interest during the hike. I have had to engage my most disciplined editing brain in presenting this missive (I took over 100 photos this day), but must include this one example as typical of what one finds all along the tracks.








And, as we made our way back up to the car park, a bonus offering of nature.....the first of the season's wildflowers. I am really looking forward to seeing the countryside cloaked in all its colourful splendour later in the year.




Well, that's it for the inland scenery of the National Park. We still have more coastal cliffs and gullies to explore and then there is the Parrot House, the Cray and Canoe festival and that Australian enigma, Hutt River Province. Kalbarri just keeps on entertaining (and your labouring scribe just keeps on trying to catch up!)

CARNARVON - A LESSON IN SITE SELECTION - LIZ AT WORK - PETE DEFYING A PREMATURE DEATH! (LATE JUNE 2014)

Welcome back, dear readers.  As is self evident, your scribe is back at the keyboard, but with limited verve and a total lack of his usual 'joie de vivre'. Without seeking one ounce of unsolicited sympathy, I must report that the swarm of bugs in my system has declared total war and obviously has a 'no prisoners' policy. To date the wretched microbes have been on a winning streak.....but not for much longer. The forces of well being have girded their loins and are fighting back with the undoubted assistance of their large artillery, bi-daily doses of anti-biotics. 

It is now six days since the initial onslaught. I rather suspect that had I been able to spend all of that time tucked up under the covers, the recovery process may have been boosted somewhat, but needs must as they say. Two days after our arrival the van had to be moved from our temporary drive-thu' site onto that which we shall occupy for the next two months, and given that Liz was hard at it from day one (and at the risk of sounding pompously gallant) I was particularly keen to erect the annex and provide really comfortable living space as soon as possible. Ah, I hear you sighing....what a man!

But here we now are, all settled in at the Big 4 Plantation Caravan Park, Robinson Road, Carnarvon.  

Our new site can be difficult to access if those opposite are occupied. No problems...on the day of our impending move I arose to find to my delight that they were vacant. Thank God...the last thing I needed was a tricky move whilst only half the brain cells were functioning, and even those few on muster were assembling under severe protest. And, of course, given that she was at work, I knew that Liz would not place any newcomers on those spots until I had made the move.

But, true to form, Murphy visited on the day of our site transfer. We hadn't counted on the interference of Matt, the park owner (who is perfectly entitled to do whatever he likes), who had come up from Perth to check things out for a couple of days. Whilst Liz was off doing something else, he booked two large lumps of vans onto the two critical sites.  Poor old Liz's face said it all as she took a break and came down to help with the move.  "It wasn't me", she protested, before I could say a word. Some things are just sent to try us.

Now I don't give in to a challenge too often, but this was now a 'bridge too far'. With a brain function which was about as sharp as a sloppy blancmange and a body wracked by massive and publicly embarrassing regular coughing fits, I happily admitted defeat and sought the previously offered help of Andrew, the park manager, to get us on.

There is something delightful about working with a bloke who can see beyond the obvious. After a close examination of our situation, Andrew agreed with me that backing on was going to present a real problem...do-able but difficult.  There had to be a better way, and indeed there was.  With the initiative of the good country lad that he is, and an impunity spawned by his position in the park system, in no time flat the site boundary post at the rear of our patch was lying flat on the ground and bingo, we had a 'drive-thru'. I could have kissed him!

Here you can see the replaced post at the rear of the van. With its removal, I was just able to sneak us through the gap between the gums and onto our site.





Mind you, our final positioning took some juggling. Given the length of our stay, I had chosen a site with a cement slab as opposed to one which was all grass. There are advantages in this. A completely level floor on which to place all the impedimenta (who can remember their school Latin?) of a long stay (freezer, tables, toaster, gas cook tops, fishing buckets etc etc) and a barrier to the rising damp when it rains, are but two. And please note the potted parsley....the ultimate badge of real grey nomads.





And herein lies another challenge for us 'knights of the road'...there is no such thing as a standard size slab. So what, I hear you mutter.  Well, the problem is that the van annex is not adjustable. The main wall is the length of the awning and the ends conform to its width. These are non-adjustable. Another 'So what?'  This means that, whilst it is usually possible to park the van so the awning reaches over the edge of the slab, it is often necessary to have to tie one end wall down with rope rather than be able to peg it into the ground because no adjustment can be made for length.

Again the 'so what' question. I have mastered the art of an end wall rope down, but it is never entirely satisfactory in terms of stability....and that becomes a problem when it's windy. And what do we have here in Carnarvon at this time of the year...lots of bloody wind, some of which can be quite nasty, up in the order of 25 knots and more for most of the day. The other snag with a roped down end is that this wall does not form a water tight seal against the slab with the result that when it rains the water falling on that end is highly likely to flow further onto the annex floor with obvious results. Experience has taught us that this is not conducive to comfortable long term residency, believe me.

For these two reasons I was very keen to be able to peg all the annex walls firmly into the ground and that meant, obviously, that the site slab had to be just the right size. Oh, and I forgot to mention, at this time of the year in Carnarvon it is good to be facing east where the front shoulder of the van can take the brunt of the prevailing south-easterly hooters rather than the annex. After much wandering about I came up with site 84 as the only one which fitted all our desired criteria (and our length). 

So, here we were alongside, but now the next challenge was to manoeuvre the van with absolute precision along the length of the slab to ensure that both end walls could be pegged directly into the ground. My previous sorties with the tape measure told me that we had a mere five centimetres to play with. 

Get on with it I hear you cry...it just can't be this hard! Sorry, dear readers, we still have one more problem to sort....floor levels, both side to side and fore and aft (or roll and pitch axes for the more technically minded).  Apart from comfort (no swinging doors etc) this is critical to the effective operation of the van fridge, particularly if on gas. 

The pitch axis presents no challenge....this can be easily adjusted by raising or lowering the jack on which the A frame rests. The lateral level is another matter altogether.  For those of us without the luxury of inbuilt side jacks, this can only be achieved by running the wheels on the low side up a set of levelling ramps placed under them. And this in itself is usually no problem when the length of the van does not have to match anything else. But here it did...the slab....and centimetre perfectly.

I'll not bore you any longer other than to say that we spent quite some time manoeuvring all of our total of 8.8 metres backwards and forwards over distances measured in centimetres whilst adjusting the position of the two levelling ramps so that we could achieve the necessary height up the ramps on the one hand and still be precisely positioned on the slab on the other. And I haven't even thrown in the added problem of maintaining a parallel position on the slab when there is so little room to move that the cruiser and the van cannot be aligned perfectly straight. It's like trying to solve a Rubic's cube or whatever those infernal toys of the 80's emerging nerds were called.

But I can assure you that the effort is worth it. As it is the slope of the ground has meant that the annex is not exactly square on all sides, but it does completely envelope the slab and is more than firmly pegged down all around. That will do me.

I do crave you forgiveness if all the foregoing has sounded somewhat tedious and self indulgent, but it seemed like a good opportunity to present another aspect of the nomadic life which rarely draws comment but which can place serious demands on forethought and skill and which can be quite central to comfort and safety.  So with all this finally achieved, I withdrew from the field of conflict and retired to bed. The annex would just have to wait until tomorrow. 

But now to the question you have all been waiting to have answered. How has Liz settled in? In short, she's like a kid a in a lolly shop. She loves the job....and I can report with total objectivity, as the recipient of feedback from the park manager, that she is damn good at it.

Her recent experience as a medical receptionist has meant that she mastered the park booking and payment computer systems with ease and her long years of managing staff and patients alike has stood her in fine stead to deal with the few 'nasty pasties' who have already made their unpleasant presence felt in the office and over the phone. 

As I have long thought, it takes an experience like this to fully demonstrate just how many pedantically demanding, self indulgent, incompetent or just plain dopey people there are in the caravanning world...and in some cases they are all wrapped into one!

You want what??????

One aspect of our current situation which really has taken me by surprise is the degree of status within the park community which comes with this job.....I am having a wonderful time basking in all the reflected glory!  Mind you, this is only achieved by the provision of competent and thoughtful service....Liz is providing that in spades and has already been the subject of some wonderfully positive customer feedback. She should leave here with a glowing reference.

So having brought you up to date with our current situation, let me take my leave of you for the moment as I retire again to my cot, snuggle up to all my pills and potions and continue my mental struggle with the impotence of invalidity for the next few days.  I have a jobs list which includes fifteen tasks which await attention, but they'll still be there next week and I have plenty of time.

Next, it will be back to Kalbarri for a few episodes and then on to our adventures in Exmouth. Cough, hack, splutter....bugger!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES! (16 JUNE 2014)

Coincidence....serendipity....right place at the right time....karma....fate.....que sera sera....choose your own take on the latest from the MobileMarshies.  Liz has a job...and it all hinged on one day!

So, dear readers, please ignore my last in which I spoke of our plans to make our way north to Point Sampson before turning south again....we are already back in Carnarvon after a mere week in Exmouth. An explanation is obviously warranted. 

We had originally planned to leave Carnarvon for points north on Monday 16 June, but, having looked at the weather forecast which was predicting ferocious winds on the nose throughout the day, we took the decision to stay put for another 24 hours. An herein lies the tale. 

As we later discovered, an English lass who had been working part time in the park office had something of a hissy fit and walked out well before she had been expected to move on. At about 1630 hours that same day, as we were pottering about the van in the throes of the final pre-departure pack-up, Andrew, the park manager, skidded to a halt in his electric cart on the road in front of our site. 

"G'day, Andrew, what's new?"  "Is Liz about?"  "Yep, I'll get her for you."  Liz emerged to hear that the park owner had asked Andrew if he thought there may be anyone in residence who would be interested (and capable) of taking part time work for the 'busy season'...July and August...to fill the gap left by the premature departure of the late lamented Pommie back-packer.  The co-pilot's eyes lit up immediately. "When do you need answer, and when would I be required to start?"

Rather than bore you with any more of the fine detail, suffice it to say that Liz accepted in principle later that afternoon. The only remaining matter for resolution was a starting date.  We decided to head north as planned on the Tuesday morning with the Vogts and finalise the matter of the job by phone link from Yardie Homestead. 

The electronic communications challenges presented by the location of Yardie made things somewhat difficult, but we managed. After a series of calls to and from Matt, the park owner, and a fair bit of 'message tag', a start date of Monday 23 June was agreed, and our planned two to three weeks in the Exmouth - Karratha area was a thing of the past.

We did stay the week with our Victorian friends at Yardie Homestead and later for a couple of days in Exmouth itself, but took our fond farewells of them on Sunday and here we are, back at the Big 4 Plantation Caravan Park, Carnarvon, our home now until 1 September. As the header of this blog indicates, this all came about because we delayed our departure by a day.

Liz has already completed her first day (it's Tuesday 24 June as I write), a pretty solid 10 hour shift which included orientation for the morning, familiarisation with the computer booking and accounts systems, and gaining a good understanding of the various site sizes so as to ensure that a spot allocated to a new arrival would be large enough to accommodate their rig (something with which we are only too familiar...from the opposite perspective). She was pretty confident that the experience she had gained working as the medical receptionist at the Eastwood Physio services would stand her in good stead, and this was clearly the case. At lunch time Andrew announced that he had no concerns as to Liz's ability to manage the office, and she was on her own for the afternoon. Nothing like a splash off 'deep end' to sharpen the focus.

Matt, the park owner, flew in from Perth in the later part of the day and spent a few hours with the travelling whiz kid at the end of which he announced that he was equally satisfied with Liz's skills. I suspect that this was more than helped by the fact that during this period, amongst other things, Liz had to deal with a terse and quite unreasonable prospective client who cancelled a cabin booking at the very last minute and could not be made to understand the park policy of no refunds for a cancellation at such short notice (which is standard throughout the country). Matt's comment was apparently along the lines of, "well there is no doubt about your ability to handle people."

So here we are. After these first couple of days Liz will work for five hours a day, six days a week on a rotating roster with the other office lass. To date the roster management has been somewhat haphazard....Liz is already onto that. As she told Matt, after rostering staffs of 40 or more through 24 hour shifts, this is a doddle.

The pay is not earth-shattering....$22.00 an hour, but there is a real spin-off benefit...our park site fee is reduced by $90 a week. And, as important as anything else, Liz is acquiring new and very potentially useful skills and experience.  As she very sagely commented  "I'd much rather book people into a caravan park than empty bed pans!"  

As for your scribe...I'm really looking forward to the next couple of months. We already have a good rapport with two couples we met during our last stay (the blokes are keen and good fishermen) who are just up the road from our site. They do not plan to leave until the end of July at least, and then there are our other friends from Busso who are moving into their on-site van for three months at the end of this week. What with that, contacts already established at the local RSL, and a myriad of those 'little things' to do around the van, I'll not be bored (not to mention catching up with a few week's worth of blogs).

But I must add a rider to my pronounced blogging ambitions. There will be a delay. I have not been feeling totally 'on song' for the past two weeks or so....nothing serious....just not quite right. Well, things deteriorated badly during the our last two days in Exmouth and really came to a head after we had hauled back down to Carnarvon on a miserable wet and windy day on Sunday. I have now been diagnosed by one of the local medicos as having developed severe bronchitis (Liz was amazed to hear that it is not pneumonia...she nearly carted me off to the local hospital on Sunday night my breathing was so bad). I did spend most of yesterday tucked up in the cot, and am now on a programme of antibiotic mega-bombs, increased doses of steroids and a two hourly nebulizing routine for the next ten days at least. 

Thank goodness we are staying put. So the male Marshie will be hibernating in our mobile cave for a few days whilst herself is engaged in ensuring that I can claim 'kept man' bragging rights at happy hour (when I'm fit enough to resume that social activity without risk of serious deterioration.....or worse, a verbal lashing from 'The Matron')

I hope to be pottering on the keyboard in a few days or so with the last of our Kalbarri adventures and our trip to Exmouth.

KALBARRI 4 - THE COASTAL CLIFFS - MUSHROOM ROCK AND RAINBOW VALLEY AND A REAL TIME UPDATE (MAY - JUNE 2014)

The scenery around Kalbarri is stunning. There are so many locations from which to choose, we decided to visit in stages. I think I have already commented on those we had met who arrived in Kalbarri and headed out helter skelter to 'do the sights', only to return in the late afternoon utterly exhausted and not really having taken much in. This is not our way of things.

We have already paid our first visit to the inland gorges, now let's head to the coast. Today we chose to walk the loop from Mushroom Rock to Rainbow Valley and return. All the walking trails in the Kalbarri National Park have been assessed and classified according to difficulty. This is a great help in making decisions. The loop we had chosen for today's ramble was listed as 'Class 3' which is generally used to describe a walk which has uneven and loose rocky surfaces and stretches where climbing up and down is required. How right they were!

This is what we were about to take on. 

Things did not look too daunting at the beginning of the path from the car park,

nor did the final stretches of the walk which we could see from the trail markers (the tiny little white strips) as we looked across the valley and hills to the south. "Liz, this must have been wrongly classified". Spoken too soon.

The initial stage of our descent to the sea was relatively benign and structured

and as we made our way further across the cliff tops we saw that we were we communing with nature in more ways than one.

And now things were becoming more challenging

as we looked down at what was in store. But what a view! "Come on Liz, this is fantastic."

"OK, smartie pants, which way now?"

"Follow the markers", was the somewhat scornful response from your scribe.  "I'm not a mountain goat", was the rejoinder.

Despite my resorting to that well know quip from Malcolm Fraser that 'life was not meant to be easy' I have to admit that this section was a scramble. If this is Class 3, what does a Class 4 trail present?

We persevered (obviously) and were soon able to stand at the bottom of the ravine and look back along its surprisingly sandy floor and the rock walls either side.

And, as we turned towards the sea, there was Mushroom Rock, the name of which clearly needs no explanation.

Again, we were not alone. We were amazed to see how close to the surging waves this heron was foraging...but it did keep a close eye on proceedings with what seemed to be an uncanny ability to read the swells and scuttle out of the way of any wash over the rocks.

Looking back up the gully from our vantage point at the water's edge we did wonder how these formations came to be. The explanatory sign nearby told the story.

I know that this photo is off the page, but it was just a tad too small to read otherwise and I could not do better than the explanation provided by the National Park folk. In fact these signs can be found throughout the scenic walks. They are most informative and a credit to the powers that be.

As I have said before, what goes down must go up. It was time to clamber out of the gully up the hillside to the south where the layered form of these cliffs and gullies was on clear display.

From the top of the cliffs the view to the north across the Mushroom Rock (which can just be seen at the left of the photo on the grey, flat rock at the water's edge) gully opened to us.

And in the other direction, we could see the handiwork of some bright sparks who decided they could improve on what nature had sculptured in the rock. This reminded us of an area on the walk around Rawnsley Park in the Flinders Ranges where passers by are invited to add a small rock to the cairns in the area.

Now our ramble took on a more moderate aspect as we made our way along the very welcome flat path towards Rainbow Valley. Your scribe's right knee revelled in the respite. "Yes I know, Matron, I forgot to pack my knee bandage.  I'll put it in my knapsack when we get back."

Along this section of the track we came across these rounded boulders strewn across the landscape.

  

And once again, the good custodians of the park had provided an explanation as to what they were and how they had come into being. 

At the risk of repeating myself, the placement and informative value of these signs does a great deal to add to the enjoyment of the scenery along these trails.

Rainbow Valley is named for the varied colours of the stratas of rock which form the low cliffs of this area.

Whilst they are not what I would describe as spectacular in themselves they harbour another surprise.

Again, I'll let the sign tell the story.

These formations really got me in. I stood here contemplating the concept that these tiny worms burrowed their homes here over 450 million years ago, and reflecting on the fact that these delicate structures remain to this day. Would it be too cynical to suggest that hoons and vandals are highly averse to physical exercise?

Not too distant from the worm pipes, the landscape again changed dramatically as we traversed these sandy flats, the end result of constant earlier wave action when these areas of the raised cliffs were at sea level. A similar process is still taking place at the base of the cliffs along this coastline.

By now we were nearing the final stage of our 3 kms tramp around this part of the coastal cliffs. One last gully between us and the car park which can just be seen at the top right of this shot.

This final stretch of the track was a comparative doddle, 

but did hold one last surprise along the way in the shape of these odd clumps of rocky outcrops, the origins of which remain a mystery to me.  For once there was no nearby explanatory sign, but how could one be critical after all that had gone before?  We were just left to accept them for what they were...odd and interesting.

"Almost there, Lizzie." We could see the silhouettes of fellow adventurers on the hill line of the car park. As we made the last climb out of the gully, a couple did stop us to ask how challenging the 'loop' was in reality. We did suggest as kindly as possible that thongs were not the ideal footwear for what lay ahead. They boxed on regardless. "Good luck."

This had been a wonderful morning's adventure, and there were more to come as we visited the highly under-rated (our view at least) Pot Alley, and took in Natural Bridge and Island Rock. But these are tales for another day.

I must conclude this episode of the adventures of the MobileMarshies with a real time up-date. Things were so hectic in Kalbarri, in the nicest possible way, that, as you can see, I'm eons behind in recording all that took place there.....and we have now moved on to Carnarvon where we have spent the last week.

Before leaving Kalbarri, another significant equipment failure overtook us.....the outer door handle to the van snapped. Fortunately it did hang on by a thread, but this had the potential to be a major disaster. If it had given way completely it would have rendered access to the van impossible without jemmying the door open and completely smashing the locking system. 

What to do? As a first step out came the trusty duct tape. Not a really satisfactory solution. As an insurance against lockout we then left a pair of needle nosed pliers outside the van with the fervent hope we would not have to see if they could do the job.

A phone call to Country Time at Geraldton saw a new handle placed on order with postal instructions to our Carnarvon Park. We had hoped it would beat us there....not so. For the next six days we treated each van entry as if we were handling someone else's new born child....with exagerrated care. But at last the $45.00 dollar (I wont go there!), small strip of plastic arrived. 

Fortunately the most obliging folk at Country Time had provided me with the Internet address of a site which presented visual instructions as to how the handle should be replaced.  OK, that did not look too hard. I should have known better...they left out one critical step....the need to insert and turn the locking key once the handle assembly had been removed and the outside section was being dismantled.

In what I am happy to confess was a feat of a very 'un-Marshie' like patience and thought process, I did eventually nut this out, and without boring you with further details or bragging on, an hour later we were again ship-shape. Another lesson learnt.

I have also spent quite some time disassembling and trying to clear a blockage in our water pressure reduction unit, but this remains a work in progress until I can find a vice (another long story)

Our time here in Carnarvon has been spent almost totally in logistical endeavours. Apart from the mechanical side of things, and hunkering down in the face of some ferocious south-easterlies (which have even gotten all the locals complaining), shopping, cooking up meals to freeze, fitting water filters, filling water tanks, washing the cruiser and the van, haircuts, replenishing medical supplies and so on and so on have all taken time. We are about to head further north to places where the infrastructure and supply lines are limited.

Given that we plan to spend a fortnight with friends here at The Plantation Caravan park in Carnarvon on our return south, we have made no attempt at this point to 'do the tourist thing', other than taking a day trip out to Quobba Station and Quobba Point camping grounds, a potential destination after we leave Carnarvon. Not any more. Windy, dusty, cold and with virtually no facilities is not our idea of a good time (photos later). Our travelling companions were in complete accord. 

We have now decided to leave Carnarvon tomorrow (Tuesday 17 June) and make our way to the western side of the Exmouth peninsular.  Our destination for the next few nights is a place called Yardie Homestead, a working cattle station at which facilities are adequate but limited. From here we plan to explore the Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth, Learmouth and the surrounding areas before making the two day trip north to a spot just out of Karratha, Point Sampson.

This is as far north as we intend to travel this winter. Our current plan is to spent a fortnight at Point Sampson where we'll take in Karratha, Dampier, Wickham and Roebourne before returning to Carnarvon for the dreaded school holidays prior to making our way slowly southwards to arrive back in  Albany in late October.

I was concerned to add this postscript to our Kalbarri epistles for the simple reason that for the next five or six days we shall be in the 'electronic wilderness'. Once we reach Point Sampson I shall endeavour to catch up with what will undoubtedly be an absolute flurry of blogs.

.

Adeiu for now, dear readers. The Marshie pinkies are going to take a break.