MAY - JUNE - Birthday Bash & Ningaloo

NIK’N’OFF

May – June

Something we have been doing for quite a few years is head to one of favorite places in Australia is South Lefroy Bay – Ningaloo Homestead. May and June are our time there but this year we were delayed a few days to me turning 60. My family wanted to celebrate this milestone in my life, at the thought of this I recoiled not wanting to make a fuss but Vickie talked me around and she was getting a lot of enjoyment out of the planning.

When we started planning I had no idea I would have more than a dozen family members attending but the number kept increasing and at last count around 56 friends & family were coming along. We had recently in Feb attended my life long mate’s 60^th and Vickie got some idea’s in regards to catering for the event. Unfortunately we didn’t go with the same company they used and though ours was satisfactory it was not as good, thank goodness our Daughter Caddie had made some delicious finger food sausage rolls as well as they went down a treat. The night went off great, far better than I could have imagined, it was very humbling to be surrounded by the many friends and my superb family and extended family.

Mick receiving his present from his Kids

Brett & Aaron

Elle, Erin Scott

John [Bro] and Mick

3 Beautiful Ladies - Elle, Erin Rae

Millana, Scotty and Ruby

Johnny P and Daniel

Poppy and his girls, Millana and Ruby

Evie Rae, isn't she gorgeous!

Good Looking Dave and Johnny

Fozz, Curls and Julie

John and Linda

Maddi, Erin and Chris

I take this opportunity to thank my ever supporting wife, Vickie, my daughter Caddie for her help and everyone else that attended, I had a great time, I’m sure everyone else did, THANK YOU !

Well with that occasion out of the way it was full forward in preparation to our trip north. This year we had Vickie’s Brother Allan [ FRAPPER] and his wife Eileen [ CURLS] traveling up with us in their newly acquired Caravan. Brother in Law Dave and his son Trevor were also traveling up with us so we had a CONVOY ….

We left early in the morning to try and beat the traffic on the freeway, it worked slightly and we are glad we left when we did as the roads were still very busy. It didn’t take long though and we were out on the open road heading for our first night at Geraldton and a stopover at our mate’s Geoff & Vickie’s property. The weather forecast was not good with high winds and rain forecast and that proved to be the case. Vick and Geoff again turned on their hospitality making everyone a delicious meal of seafood, I was very surprised when Dave went back for seconds on one dish as he is not known as a lover of crayfish mornay, so it must have been good. Geoff and Vickie also surprised me with a Birthday Cake, wow two Birthdays in less than a week, I am spoilt!

Mick and another Birthday Cake, courtesy of Geoff and Vickie

1st stop, Parkers place, Geraldton

2nd Night - side of the road Camp

Cute Bird

Honey Eater?

 The next morning it was time for farewells to our good mates and continue the drive north. Past years we have driven up in two days but this year we had a few days to spare not having to get to Ningaloo until the 10^th so we stayed another couple of nights on the road before getting to the dirt road into the Homestead, here we stayed out at the gravel pit so we would have plenty of time to travel in slowly with the Van’s. Frapper was particularly a bit anxious as he didn’t know what to expect in how rough the tracks would be. Traveling slowly no one had any problems and around a couple of hours later we were at our designated camp area where we have stayed for many years in the past.

3rd Night - Gravel Pit

Detour Track into the Homestead

Collecting Water

Frapper and his girls, Minnie and Dusty

Curls enjoying a laugh

The Group. Happy Hour at Sunset

Another Ningaloo Sunset

ONE SCARY DUDE ! .. Trevor decided to go Mohalk

Mick and Vickie

The weather wasn’t kind, with the wind spoiling it for most of the past five weeks, Frapper and Curls stayed their two weeks and sadly they didn’t get to see the attraction that we do, they did enjoy it and so did their two kids’ Dachshunds who gave their little legs a good work out in the sand. Curls ticked off one box with a nice sized Spangled Emperor caught out of her Kayak, and a ‘Charlie Court’ Cod caught off the beach. Frapper is not into fishing and became the camp ‘Bitch’ making sure the area was tidy and twig free. Happy hours became earlier the longer they were there, a trick by Frapper to make the stay go quicker I think.

Frapper and Curls enjoying a brew at their Van

Our Camp 2013

Trevor and Mate Daniel, doing it hard

They continued to do it hard all night

The Group at Camp NIK'N'OFF

Trevor is always good value going away with, this year we didn’t get to do ½ the beach fishing we usually do due to the windy weather and wrong tides, and when we did the fish caught are not worth mentioning, except for Trevor's GT which measured out at 1.1mt. Why do we continue to come back? The answer to that is simple, we love the place not just for the fishing but lots of reasons, it only takes a nice day chucked in amongst the rough to remind us why we keep coming back.

Trevor and GT 1.1mt

Even with the lousy weather we still manage to fill our days in, this year was no different, from sorting out Frapper’s Caravan water  tank problem’s, ‘a Kinked breather hose’ to installing some LED strip lights to our cars. This is something I have been meaning to do for a long time now and this year Trev surprised me with a 5mt roll of LED strip to fit into the canopy of my Ute. The result was excellent, very low power consumption and nice and bright white light lighting up the interior and exterior of the canopy.

Before we knew it we were saying goodbye to Frapper and Curls and Trev as they made their way back home. We were not by ourselves for long though as we had Trevor’s Brother Chris and his mate Mark coming up for 5 days and in the middle of that we had Abby, Chris’s girlfriend flying in for a 3 – 4 day stay. Now you would think with so many people making the effort and expense to come up and see what we and the Billy’s have been talking about all these years the weather would be on its best behavior, but alas no, the wind continued to blow and the fish continued to stay away.

This may have been the best day of Frapper's life ... leaving 

Safety 1st Chris, enjoying a Fish

 Another week passed and it was farewell to the latest visitors and then there was just the Billy’s and Us, ………… Then the weather Gods started to smile, not in a big way, more like a grin but the weather has improved, Unfortunately my back has been playing up big time and taking away the good feelings I should be having, to make matters worse we had to do another Midnight drive into Exmouth as Vickie had severe stomach pain like she had in Kho Samui. The Hospital kept her in a couple of days and ran some tests, they thought she had a kidney stone but wanted to confirm that so that meant we had to drive down to Carnarvon Hospital for a CT scan, then a few days later back into Exmouth for the results which confirmed the Dr’s suspicions.

Apart from pain management they haven’t done anything else, hoping that by drinking lots of water she can pass the stone, as I write this now on a Tuesday Night she is again in pain and being sick. Whether we stick out the next 3 weeks I cannot confirm, if this continues we may just have to head home where she can get the help she may need to remove the nasty stone.

In between all that’s been happening we have caught up with many people that we know who like us come here to Paradise every year, We have had some lovely Happy Hours, one in particular that continued into the night at Brett and Doreen's Camp, lots of laughs along with Gary and Pam. It’s a small World and we have met people who live not far from where we do, plus a couple of friends who we convinced to buy a Bushtracker, they are extremely happy and haven’t looked back.

High Tide caught a lot of Campers unaware

Camp NIK N OFF

Camp MEERCAT MANOR

Interested Goat

Ningaloo South Lefroy Bay

Old Whaling Station Ruins- Norwegian Bay

The Ranges

Ningaloo Sand Dunes

Ningaloo Sand Dunes

Old Grave Site -  RIP

Dave Made it up in the old 1HZ

Ningaloo Sand Dune Photo's

Vickie and Jo - beach fossicking

Vickie at the Old Whaling Station - Norwegian Bay

My Gorgeous Beautiful Darling Wife - Vickie

Mick Mr Busy

Kung Fu Dave

Camp Meercat Manor

The Mighty 'Trucks'

Underwater shot,

Underwater Shot

Leopard spotted Charlie Court ??

I think the 1st time Frappers 4WD has seen mud

Doreen, Camera Shy but i sneaked one in

Brett, our neighbor. His wife Doreen supplies lovely cooked cakes

Doreen's Cake's - YUM!