Every year we make the trip up to Exmouth way to camp at one of our favourite places in Australia, South Lefroy Bay, in the Ningaloo Homestead Pastoral Station. We have been doing this for over twenty years, yes we have missed going some years but for the majority it's been our annual sojourn.
This year was going to different to the previous, we were going by ourselves and no one was coming up or dropping in, usually we have Dave & Jo Billy and some of their family along with some friends or family of our own, That was the deal anyway but Dave had to undergo a gall bladder operation and was hoping to come up after the op, we were very pleasantly surprised to hear our nephew Trev and his girl friend Ashlee would be coming up about a week later than us and bringing his tinny.
We recently had the passing of Vickie's father and funeral to deal with, he was nearly 91 years of age and thankfully did not have to suffer and passed on after a short stay in hospital. Just the impact of that had our minds elsewhere and as we packed up the van we were battling to remember what to take. My back has deteriorated more and a few weeks back I went into hospital and under went some spinal injections to attempt to freeze off some nerves to alleviate some pain, it helped but wasn't as successful as a previous time.
With the van & car ready to go we left home around mid morning, we were stopping at our good mates Geoff & Vickie's home in Geraldton for a couple of nights, we rocked in around 4pm and the next two days were spent catching up and reliving our UK-Europe trip we did with them in 2014. Such great people and easy to get along with,
We left Geraldton and stopped that night at Minilya free camp, it was fairly busy by the time we got in but we found a spot that wasn't to close to anyone else, a couple of drinks and it was an early night to rest my body.
The following morning it was an easy few hours drive into the Ningaloo Homestead where we caught up with Phil the manager and then onto our camp site at Sth Lefroy Bay.
We have been coming up for so many years that Vickie remarked it doesn't feel like we have left, I guess it can feel like that but it's a nice familiar feeling, not a Groundhog Day feeling. We set our camp up which for us doesn't take long compared to some other campers, we just peg some double shade cloth down on the sand, roll out the awning, fit a couple of shade walls and break out the chairs and tables. Off with the kayaks and set up the fishing rods and were set to go, just in time for our 1st sunset drinks.
Camp NIKNOFF
OPIE THE TANGLEY DOPIE DOG
VICKIE, ASHLEE & TREV
The weather was mostly windy the 1st week, and we only got out with the Hobie's a few times, we caught the usual Charlie Court (chinaman cod) and I also caught some nice fat threadfin salmon off the beach one morning. The day's ticked over and a week later Trev & Ash arrived, this year they had a companion Opey their golden retriever, dopey or tangles as he should be called is around 9months old and very playful and very well behaved most of the time. Trev and I wasted no time in getting his tinny into the water, I had bought up my old sounder which we fitted to the boat and this year we hoped to get onto some decent fish.
MICK & 2 SIZE SPANGLED EMPEROR
GUITAR FISH
TREV, BIG YETI, BIG TOE
NEVER GET TIRED OF SUNSETS
Well that didn't quite work that way, but we did catch enough each day to have a meal each and keep some for the freezer, we were also lucky to catch quite a few squid this year with some a monster
size. You will have to trust me on that as my camera was playing up and I didn't think to use my phone to verify my statement.
We received word that Dave & Jo would not be coming up, the operation was a success but Dave was in to much pain to consider the trip. Sad for them as they were both looking forward to it very much.
MONITOR LIZARD
HIGH TIDE
The weeks slipped by, we got into a routine of driving down to shark alley and doing some beach fishing, I had a huge run and fight on my hands for a while before finally getting it in close enough only to see a huge turtle caught on my hook, Trev got it in close enough to release the hook in its flipper and it swam away probably wondering what the heck had happened. Another time I had a large frame on a large hook in close to shore and it was taken by a good solid sized shark of around eight foot, a large guitar fish or shovel nose ray took my bait another time and took some effort to get in so it could be released. Vickie also caught some good size golden trevally.
OH DEAR .....
Trev and I did some night fishing but the tides were against us and neither of us could be bothered fishing around midnight or later when the tide came in.
We did one trip into Exmouth after four weeks and a few drives to go beach combing but mostly we just hung around fishing, swimming or reading. Our mates Glenn & Karen who stayed with us last year drove across from Tom Price for a long weekend but would you believe it rained just about the whole time they were there, Glenn, Vickie & Trev played cards with Glenn coming out the big winner, it was lovely to catch up again, this time they had sold and changed cars and they had a nice 200 series Landcruiser, so Glenn and I were able to compare and talk about all things Cruisers.
MICK & KAREN, IT WAS COLD AND WET BUT BETTER THAN PLAYING CARDS
YACHT MOORED OUT FRONT OF CAMP
MOUSE PLAGUE APPARENTLY, BUT WE ONLY SAW ONE
Of course after they left the rain stopped, it was still windy and Vickie started talking about flying home early which was always on the cards, what we were not expecting was Ashlee's uncle to be in hospital with terminal cancer and Ash being told his life expectancy was not long, so with that very sad news both girls flew home and were picked up at the airport by Ashlee's parents. It was just as well they left when they did because after Ash and her parents visiting Uncle Kev straight from the airport he passed away that night.
With Trev and I left to our own devices we were thinking we would be fishing as much as we could, but with the death of Ash's uncle Trevor started thinking he should be home for the funeral and support Ashlee and her family. We had one last night where Trev went to Coral Bay to visit some mates and I went over to my camp neighbour along with about twenty other campers and helped him celebrate his birthday with a karaoke night, it was all good fun but I told others I had to leave because of my bad singing.
MOST NIGHTS WE HAD A FIRE
The day suffering a bit I started to pack up our camp, the next day we both left Ningaloo, we stayed the night at Edegee free camp and next morning Trev headed straight for home and I went down to Geraldton where I stayed another two nights out with Geoff and Vickie at their daughters block.
GEOFF & VICKIE's DAUGHTERS BLOCK
Friday I arrived home, the sun was shining, no wind but it does get chilly late afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment