June 2015 - Ningaloo South Lefroy Bay

Ningaloo 2015 will be remembered for the excellent weather we encountered, and the company of family and friends. Also it will be remembered due to the troubles we had with our brand new Landcruiser 200s VX. We had only taken delivery of our car a week before going away and four days of that was spent with it in Ultimate 4WD having it fitted out with upgraded GVM suspension, BullBar and winch, roof rack and rear storage drawers. Upon getting it back I quickly loaded up our gear hooked up to our caravan and left the next day for Ningaloo.

We only got as far as Moore River when the car started violently shaking and loud banging noises, quickly pulling over my 1st thought was a flat tyre or a collapsed shock absorber, I could see nothing wrong but knew that things were not good so I called Ultimate who could not shed any light so We decided to turn around and head back home. The next day (Saturday) I took the car into Ultimate and they straight away determined the fault was a front left hand CV joint (drive axle). On the Monday I got the call to say it was fixed and they apologised as the problem was caused by them when fitting the new suspension. I believe in life that shit happens but it's how it's dealt with is more important than whinging about it, I obviously was disappointed but accepted the facts and looked forward to heading away again.

Due to our delay in getting our car and then it's drama we had kept having to tell friends Glenn & Karen that our meeting up with them along the road somewhere kept getting changed, they decided to go into Coral Bay for a few days which gave us time to have things fixed and then arranged to meet them at the entrance to Ningaloo Homestead in two days time. I was keen to get there so we left at 4am and after a relaxed comfortable drive finally arrived to surprise them that night around 8pm. The difference in towing our van with the new 200 compared to our previous 79 series was one of quietness and comfort it will certainly have its limitations compared to how handy the ute was but the
comfort factor for our bodies will out weigh any disadvantages.

After being here a week I drove to the Homestead and upon returning to camp we could smell oil from the car, a look underneath revealed oil coming from the front diff and the CV joint had pulled out again. A phone call to Ultimate to let them know and I left the arranging of flat top truck and repairs to them to organise. This was not going to be a cheap exercise for them but they assured me they would do everything required to have this sorted and find out why it kept happening. It finally took 14 days before getting our car back, nothing quick happens in Exmouth. I have now had the car back a fortnight and all appears to be ok apart from a noise coming from the front left brake but most likely sand in the brake pads, the Kinetic KDSS needs to be reset as one side is higher than the other this will be done when we get back and Ultimate go completely over it checking that everything is ok. It certainly has been a huge inconvenience and disappointing especially given that the car is new and has been away longer than we have had it. My confidence in my decision to buy the 200 has wavered but I don't regret doing it. I'm also confident that Ultimate 4WD will continue to make sure that we are happy as they are extremely apologetic.

So the past 6 weeks we have settled in at our camp, we have enjoyed the company of our son Dan and Elle with their two young girls Eve & Heather for a week, Glenn & Karen stayed with us for 5 weeks and have left for Tom Price, Trev & Ashley have also left and so has Maddison who flew in for a week so it's just Dave & Jo and us to see out our last week. Our time has been spent kayaking and fishing, Vickie has enjoyed being able to get on the water as she can get stir crazy :-) sitting around the camp.

Another beautiful Ningaloo sunset

Paradise

Mick and Vickie at Norwegian Bay old whaling station

Awesome time with family and friends

The new Landcruiser and filling the water bladder

Glenn and Karen leaving Ningaloo

Dave, Trevor, Mick

Karen and Glenn

Billy's famous fish & chip night

Ashley & Trev, awesome couple.

Our rig

Poppy and Eve and her 1st Fish her Daddy caught.

Dan & Eve

Eve loving the big sand pit

Bath time for Eve & Heather

Our Niece, Maddison

Another Happy hour!

On our trip home we stopped at Carnarvorn (Apologies again Tammy) and whilst Vickie was getting some fruit and veg a pretender to the throne pulled up alongside us. :-) Joe and his wife were from Ferntree Gully Victoria and on a big lap around Oz, I'm glad he couldn't spell NIKNOFF correctly lol

Pretender to the Throne :-)