After two weeks at Cape Range National Park we had a lot of washing to catch up on and the boring jobs of cleaning the van and car. I think we took half the beach with us when we left!! Our time in Exmouth was spent mostly in the caravan park doing mass loads of washing, cleaning the vans and restocking the cupboards. The kids were hardly seen, off playing on the playground and on the grass, something we haven't seen in a while! We stayed at the Big 4 caravan park in Exmouth, costing us $64 per night and that's with a 10% discount with out travelling north vouchers!!! Can you believe how expensive it is to rent a piece of grass just to use the washing machine, lucky we only stayed one night.
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| Campsite at Exmouth... |
Exmouth itself is a cool little sea shanty town with enough shops to keep someone entertained. Lovely little jewelry and clothes shops, that if l had more money l would have brought some goodies. We passed the big international radio communications on the way and sort of made me wonder why we would need such a big service in this part of Australia. Anyway, looked very important with all its wired fences and security personnel guarding the outside. We headed to the info centre for the tourist pick of the kids in front of the huge shrimp, the town was founded and made from the big business of shrimp fishing in its early days. Apart from all that, not much to see or do around town and we were ready to get moving to our next leg of the trip.
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| Kids sick of posing....time for funny faces! |
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| The Big Shrimp... |
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| Love marina's..... |
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| Sea Hawk checking us out... |
We had heard from some other travelers whilst doing the washing that Bullara Station is worth a stay, its only 80kms out the road too. We fluffed around town in the morning getting our full monies worth out of our stay int he caravan park, charging all our stuff up before heading out. We made the short drive and headed up the short dirt road, something Marty hates doing with the van in tow. We pulled in and were greeted by a 3rd generation daughter of the station, Edwina, who was really lovely and interested in our travels. It was $40 per night, so we booked in for the one night of course! The station itself looked really rustic with heaps of quirkiness and memorabilia lying around. There were the usual old bull skulls stuck up everywhere, the old sheering shed still had wool lying around on the sorting table, and they decorated some areas hanging different glass bottles from trees. Even though it was a bit pricey considering we had no power or water to hook up to, they did have a cool outside shower that was heated with wood fire though.
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Wouldn't be a station without an old bull's skull and horns mounted...
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| Loved the idea of this decorated tree.. |
After booking in we drove down to the caravan camping area and were greeted by the caretaker Steve who directed us to the allocated spots. The kids, as always, were starving and couldn't even wait for us to unpack the bloody van. So after feeding them lunch we made them get some school done, which they were equally unimpressed by. After school, Boo, Meg, Jordyn and Riley went out exploring around the farm and found the local Shetland pony "Peppa", who was black and a bit mangy but the kids didn't care, they were so excited. He was very tam considering there were excitable kids lining up for a pat. Next thing we know we were greeted by the Merino sheep foraging on the trees, again very mangy with their wool very patchy.
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| Rustic bathroom with no roof! |
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| Everyone is greeted by 'Peepa'... |
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Tonia's feeling at home with the horses'
around....farm girl from way back! |
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| Mangy Merino's!!! |
We took a stroll around the station which is really well kept. The main house is glorious, reminds me of the McLeods Daughters homestead. The kids were very eager to see the lambs and when we found them in a pen out the back of sheering shed they were a little disappointed as they were all very timid, not really friendly at all. As soon as we got close they all ran into the corner of the pen. The owners had said to go see them and we presumed they would be friendly, whoops.
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| Outside the sheering shed... |
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| They were all looking a little freaked out! |
Back at camp Boo chopped up apples and carrots. Boo, Jordyn and Riley fed Teddy, another old white horse that was hanging around. Meg wouldn't have a bar of it and hung back int he background. Teddy was such a guts that he ended up frothing at the mouth as the kids were feeding him too fast before he could swallow. Jordyn got a little grossed out and gagged herself!! Lol.
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| Teddy loved the attention...and food! |
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| Boo was in love with 'Teddy'...loved the cuddles! |
Later on Steve started the fire early for us at the happy hour site so we could have our baked potatoes for dinner. Around the campfire we met some grey nomads for happy hour. One cool old bloke and his wife were good to chat to and been on the road for 8 years, but as always there is a know it all nomad that is around. I was obviously not int he mood to listen to him tell me how wrong we are doing everything so to ignore him l got tickled. Luckily Marty was in charge of cooking dinner which we got stuck into in the camp kitchen. The baked potatoes were so delicious, love cooking over the fire. Sadly this didn't sober me up and l was in bed very tipsy at 7:30pm!!!
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| Ton giving Peppa a wet one! |
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| Communal dinner... |
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Another awesome WA sunset!
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Woke next morning feeling not too seedy thank god. Cant believe it but it was raining too!! Ton and Cam ended up staying up around the campfire chatting to the old bloke and his wife till late, in which case they woke up worse for wear! Boo and l had a shower together in the outside shower with cold rain coming in through the top, very cool, literally! We packed up in the rain and headed off to make our way to a free camp up the road outside Karratha......Bullara Station was pretty cool with all the free ranging animals for the kids to interact with and the rustic decorations hanging about but l think they need to lower the price, in which case we might have stayed longer.....
Bell Xxx
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