Pentz 5

Howdy Folks,

Been a while and it seems even longer since I surprised the family with by organising some Villa accommodation in Exmouth. It was a great change from all being couped up in the van and gave us some excellent respite, an added bonus was that the day we pulled in coincided with the World Cup Cricket Final and watching it on a sensational 50 inch TV.

Our first part of our Exmouth holiday was all about taking it easy and enjoying the Villa. We went down to the free water part, did some fishing at the Marina and jetty and generally sat back and relaxed. It was great to also see some familiar faces, catching up with Gezza and Tiff. After leaving the luxury of the Villa we headed around to Yardie Creek Caravan Park and started doing all the tourist attractions.

Our first one was a fantastic tour on a Glass bottom boat which also included some snorkelling on one of the reefs. It was magnificent and great to see the kids loving all the marine life, including 3 massive sting rays. The tour guide was a great.

The next day was the big ones, with the girls heading out to swim with the whale sharks, whilst I took the boys on a fishing charter. The day was perfect, with hardly a ripple and we caught plenty of fish. Ry was the star of the trip catching a huge Rankin Cod and a 1 metre Cobia. Both proved to be delicious table fish.

Our last day in Exmouth we snorkelled along Turquoise Bay. The day was a bit choppy but it is still a truly awesome place and amazing that so much marine life and reef can be so close to shore. We departed Exmouth for the long trip to Karijini National Park.

Karijini National Park proved to be very spectacular with some of the walks down the gorges being truly breathtaking. My favourite was Dale Gorge where we spent 6 hours walking at the base of the gorge and dipping into the magnificent swimming holes.

From Karijini we went to Pardoo Roadhouse and enjoyed seeing grass again and a dip in the great swimming pool. It was a nice overnight stay on our way to 80 mile beach. We had heard rumour about “Frosty Knickers,” in reception at 80 Mile Caravan Park and it was great to see their most famous tourist attraction on arrival. 80 Mile was as it sounds a huge stretch of coastline, very beautiful, however, filled with sharks so swimming was made a whole lot more exciting. We saw and caught some sharks and salmon, but other than shell collecting and fishing it didn’t offer a whole lot more.

Next on the agenda was Barn Hill Station which provided spectacular coastline, shady sites and very unique outdoor showers. We had fun fishing and showering under the stars, however, the highlight was definitely Kristy capsizing the Zodiac. I did my best ‘Hoff’ impersonation and saved her straw hat.

It was with great excitement that we began to head off to Broome. On departure we heard an almighty bang come from under the hood of the car and steam start coming out from all angles. Being the mechanical genius that I am, I lifted the hood, scratched my head, then a few other parts of my anatomy before calling for Kristy to check what was going on. Whilst Kristy got it sorted, I panicked and tried calling the mechanic I had just met with no luck. Kristy figured it was only the air conditioning, so with fingers crossed we headed for Broome.

Excitedly we made it too Broome and pulled into Cable Beach Caravan Park. It has been fantastic in Broome so far, with plenty of amazing fishing, swimming in the huge resort style pool, checking out some of the sights and generally just enjoying being in one of my favourite spots in Australia.

Later in the week we head to Cape Leveque, which will hopefully provide another highlight.