Octagon September, 2016

of town. Could not find a fresh water supply
though, and we knew we need it for further
north.
Had hoped to get to Denham for the night, but
found a far better place to say - the Hamelin
Station Park, oh heaven, just had a shower oh
bliss. This station has recently been well set
up for campers. Great showers and facilities.
Finally got some good water in Denham, the
first we had to pay for - $1.00 for 20 litres, but
then found that the bus water tanks were not
taking their nominal capacity. A bit of a worry
and another gremlin.
We spent two nights at the station, and went
to see the Stromatolites, wow mind blowing,
always wanted to see them, and now we
have. The tiny shell beaches are amazing,
millions of tiny white shells make the sand...!
in fact the paths here for the camping are all
made of the shells.
Rain and thunder in the early morning, next
day, a cooler day, overcast and bits of rain.
Malcolm trying to fix a new problem - manifold
leak on his MG, begged cover so in a shed,
with assistance from the on-site maintenance
man who provided some good sealant.
Denham is a small spit of a place, definitely
a holiday town only... went on to Monkey Mia
on the return trip where the ranger let us in
for free, seeing it was late and the feeding is
in the morning... talk about a clip joint, and
as Karen surmised her Mum and Dad saw
the best for free... tourist trap now, even the
caravan park was a clip joint... so much, so
many.
From Hamelin on Tuesday, 12th April, day 31
of the trip, we headed off to the Blowholes,
Point Quobba via Carnarvon. Karen quickly
took advantage of the empty beach and
popped in to the water for a skinny dip... ah
bliss. Ian went in later with togs on.
The bus was serviced in Carnarvon early pm
but seems we were on the end of a queue,
and left quite late in the afternoon. Karen has
made great use of our Dream Pot, a utensil
where you cook on heat for 10 to 15 minutes,
then it continues to cook for hours on that
stored heat in the outer container. No further
heat or power needed. We always enjoyed the
meals from it.
Quobba is the most beautiful place pretty
remote, has a dump site, no water, no bins,
but oh the water, a bit of surf on the reef and
then still lagoon water, just heaven. Ian skinny
dipped this morning, and enjoyed it, but he
may have scared the local fish.
In earlier planning we were going to visit
Exmouth and Onslow, but this trip decided to
leave them to another time. Accordingly, from
Quobba beach we travelled to Yannarie River
and thence to Karratha over the next two
days.
However, a new gremlin appeared in the bus -
the electric water pump that supplies the sink,
shower and toilet refused to work. Needed
to use our supplementary water supply in 10
litre plastic drums. Perhaps it was the heat, as
when we stopped late afternoon it was 57ºC
outside. Used the generator to power the air
conditioning at our free camp throughout the
night until it ran out of fuel.
Onwards to Karratha, hoping that we can
get things fixed there, do a wash, find some
28
The Octagon - September 2016