Day 29 (8 June) – Geraldton (Beautiful weather – just a little windy – up to 25o at Geraldton)
In our golf gear, we arrived at Geraldton Golf Club around 08:15, hired a cart and prepared for 18 holes. Very slow greens and not much run on the fairways. Lyn had 30 points and I had 31 – not bad for the first time we played the course.
We had lunch on the way back at Broadys – The Broadwater Hotel. Not a bad lunch, but very hot out in the sun.
Back to the motorhome where I had a nap whilst Lyn went for a swim.
I then did some flight planning for the next day and fixed the BMPro Smart System that we use to monitor all the key items around the motorhome and Jimny.
A snack meal for dinner as the lunch had been pretty big.
Updating blogs and planning, to prepare for the flights tomorrow.
Day 30 (9 June) – Geraldton (Beautiful weather – still a little windy – up to 23o at Geraldton)
I got up early, checked the weather and did a flight plan change based on the forecast winds. Our new plan was to fly from YGEL – Geraldton – at 6500′ up to YBLB – Billabong Roadhouse – (through the centre and along the main highway) then on to YSHK – Shark Bay Airport at Denham. The return trip was planned for 3500′ from YSHK via YKBR – Kalbarri – back to YGEL – Geraldton.
I had Lyn take me to the airport, arriving just after 08:00 and filled out all the paperwork and had a breifing from Ray He. Ray knew ESA – the last C172 that I’d flown – in December. In the meantime, most of my flying has been twins or Warriors. Ray got his licence from RMIT at Point Cook We did a couple of circuits down the duty runway (03) then Ray wanted to see my crosswind landings so we did a three on 08. Fortunately the landings were good and I got some compliments from Ray (one bounced a bit but I think it was a wind gust).
We refuelled the plane, then I went inside and found Lyn who had returned after her swim while I was doing the inductions and flight check.
So, off we went, North out of YGEL and heading up towards YBLB (Billabong Roadhouse) a trip of around 75 minutes. It was fairly uneventful with not much of interest except for the traffic driving up the highway (that we’ll be travelling on in a couple of days).
Turning left out of YBLB and heading for Shark Bay, and the bays and peninsulas at the base of the bay. We headed South of the YSHK airfield so I could do a straight in approach – no problems and a fairly long runway. We went into the terminal, put the $30 landing fee in the honesty box and then left the terminal to go out to the plane. As we were leaving the terminal, Shanelle approached us on the other side of the perimeter fence, introduced herself and asked if we’d like to use their ute to go into town. She explained that, as we’d come in a Shine Aviation plane and the boss of Shine had been really good to her sister, her sister, Michelle, wanted to repay the courtesy. A great offer but we declined as we were just about to leave and we didn’t have time to go into town. She spent some time though explaining that her sister had a couple of planes, was building the hangar we could see being constructed, and that she and her sister were going in the Outback Air Race and asked if we were going in it also.
Back in the plane, we backtracked on 36 then took off North and headed over to Monkey Mia, then down along the coast, back to Denham and then travelled across some bays and peninsulas to the main WA coast. It was much more rugged that we’d expected and Lyn took some great shots. We continued down the coast, occasionally seeing what we thought was marine life then deviated around Kalbarri (and along side YKBR) to have a look at the scenery before travelling South, passing the Pink Lake on our way, and then landing at YGEL at the end of our trips.
I loved the experience but later found that Lyn had been in pain from the seat position and headset for the final 60 minutes of the flight.
We stopped for dinner at Skeetas and then back to the motorhome for me to watch the umpire-influenced outcome of the Demons vs Magpies game. Even the commentators made several comments on the decisions that all seemed to favour Collingwood. Ah well, that’s the AFL.
Day 31 (10 June) – Geraldton (Not bad weather – just a bit windy and slight rain late in the afternoon – up to 22o in Geraldton) Happy Birthday Steve!
We decided to play golf at Spalding Park Golf Club – very close to our Tourist Park. Lyn didn’t want a cart but was in extreme agony for the last few holes and didn’t play the last 2 at all due to the pain. We won’t play again unless we have a cart after this experience. A nice course and we had a small lunch and drinks before returning to the motorhome where I spent the afternoon negotiating with Macquarie over closing my parent’s estate account and preparing to leave Geraldton the next day.
We decided to have dinner again at Skeetas as it was such good food and service. Then back for more administration, preparation to leave tomorrow and laundry.
Day 32 (11 June) – Geraldton to Denham (Shark Bay Caravan Park) (Great weather – up to 22o on the way to Shark Bay – 414Km)
I took Lyn to the pool to have a swim as it helps her back. I then went on to the airport as I thought I’d seen the C310, that Jacko had told me about, behind one of the hangars and out of sight generally. When I arrived, I found the plane – it had definitely seen better days. It looked like the front wheel had collapsed, the nose had been hit and the right tip tank was missing, oh, and it was very dilapidated.
I picked up Lyn from the pool, we then packed up, refuelled in Geraldton at a service station nearby (Bluffs Point) then headed North.
First stop was the Billabong Roadhouse that we had flown over on Monday (75 minutes by air, 2.5 hours by road) and refuelled again as I’d noticed this was the cheapest fuel around for the next couple of days at least.
On to the Overlander Roadhouse where we turned off to Shark Bay and Denham. We arrived in Denham just after 15:00, set up (it was hard getting the Jimny off as the gravel road in the camping ground wasn’t level) and had a discussion with the guy next door who had used our water connection. (2 hours by plane and 5 hours by motorhome from Geraldton to Denham).
I went to the airport to see if I could find Michelle or Janelle (from our Monday trip to Shark Bay) without success. While I was away, our next door neighbour came around the corner to ??? and found Lyn sitting under the awning and then retreated very quickly. I think we’ll lock up each time we leave the site.
We decided to go for a look around town. Lyn had been told that the best restaurant was The Old Pearler and that you normally need bookings as they only have around 8 tables and the other places to eat are the two main hotels – Shark Bay and The Heritage. After a very brief trip down the main street we decided to go to the Heritage Hotel for dinner. As we pulled up we noticed The Old Pearler on the opposite corner and decided to walk in and try to book a table for the following night. To our amazement there was one table available at 17:15 and so we managed to have a great meal and meet some very friendly Dutch tourists who were dining there also. As it was BYO, I went to the bottle shop of the Heritage Hotel, got a six pack of Great Northern and a bottle of Maguigan Zero for Lyn. (I shared a couple of glasses). As I got one of the beers, I offered our Dutch companions a beer, which was gratefully accepted by the guy. They were very thankful and said it was lovely meeting us as we left the restaurant around 18:30 and then headed back to the camping ground for the evening.
Day 33 (12 June) – Denham (Great weather, a little high level cloud – up to 23o at Shark Bay)
We decided to go to the Information Centre and check what they had to offer. They gave us the top 10 things to do in Shark Bay. We had coffee at one of the very popular cafe’s on the main street and then headed back along the main road into the area to Shell Beach. Shell Beack is 120Km long and up to 10m deep of small shells. These shells were used to make the bricks of The Old Pearler where we dined the previous night.
Next we, headed back to the Ocean Park Aquarium. We arranged to go on the 13:30 tour and had time for lunch before the tour started. We both had Shark Bay Prawns with salad – a really nice meal in a cafe that was recommended to us by the Caravan Park.
The tour was fascinating where we were shown around by one of the marine biology students who work there and run the tours. Lots of dangerous animals from stone fish to sea snakes and on to the less dangerous sharks in the main display. The four stonefish in the photo below were really hard to distinguish from rocks.
Back to the motorhome where we arranged an all WA park permit then headed in to the Francois Peron Nature Park and the Artesian fed Hot Tub. It was pretty warm and we spent some time with a tour group from Melbourne and two Germans, one of whom was working at the Billabong Roadhouse for the next few months.
Back, via the Little Lagoon and scenic route back to Denmark, to the motorhome where we started preparing for an early departure the next morning with a very light dinner. Later I found that I’d miscalculated the distance from Denham to Coral Bay (our next stop) and had included the section to Exmouth. So instead of 707Km we only need to travel 554Km tomorrow – a much more manageable distance and not such an early start.
A beautiful sunset that evening.
Day 34 (13 June) – Denham to Coral Bay (Coral Bay People’s Park) (Great weather, a little high level cloud – up to 28o on the way to Coral Bay – 577Km)
We packed up earlyish and got out of the caravan park at 07:45. Almost a full moon as we were getting ready to leave.
I had done some calculations and had determined that we didn’t need to refuel in Shark Bay and that we could make Carnarvon with the fuel on board after we refuelled at the Billabong Roadhouse.
What we found though was that, due to the undulating terrain, our fuel consumption was higher than we’d been experiencing and so as we exited the Shark Bay environment, we refuelled at the Overlander Roadhouse. (As it turned out only a few cents per litre more than Shark Bay).
A fairly long trip to Carnarvon where we went to the hardware store (I’d notice that the brake cable for the A-frame for the Jimny was badly frayed), IGA for suppies and the Post Office to pick up some stamps and post more postcards to Wren and Luna. It’s great to have the facetime calls with them where we get to hear our postcards read out again.
Leaving Carnarvon, we filled up with Diesel and AdBlue at the Ampol stations on the exit to town. On the way we had a wedgetail eagle swoop down towards us then fly away, it was fairly close and I managed to work out how to get photos from our new dashcam (thanks James for our Christmas present).
We then drove to Coral Bay arriving around 15:30. We checked in and found we had been allocated a “million dollar” site. It was in the front row near the beach and with the beach walkwayalmost directly in front of our site. It really was spectacular. I suggested a drive around town and, after finishing it in around 15 minutes, had to agree with Lyn that it was easier to walk.
The people next door in the caravan park are a couple – Mining Engineer (Danny) and a GP (Emma) – with three young children, Leila, Arthur and Eddie. I started repairing the Jimny tow brake cable, our neighbour, Danny, asked if I wanted some cable as he’d had to fix the brake cable on their caravan a couple of days before! I spent around an hour repairing the Jimny brake cable with the cable I’d bought at Mitre 10 in Carnarvon. I found out his wife came from Gippsland and he said a mate of his had a plane at Leongatha airport. It turned out to be Kent who owns a troublesome Wheeler that is kept in the same hangar as our plane.
Just before 18:00 we departed for dinner at Fin’s cafe (next door to the caravan park that opens at 18:00). A really nice meal.
Day 36 (14 June) – Coral Bay (Not a cloud in the sky, just a little windy though – up to 27o in Coral Bay)
Wow! It’s so nice here! And what a view outside our front window.
We went down to the beach where Lyn went for a snorkle while I waded in the crystal clear water, looking back at our motorhome just over the road.
The, just to slow down our pace of life, we sat outside our motorhome and watched people going by and seagulls drinking out of a muddy pool in front of us.
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