A Whale of a Time

The wind dropped overnight but the ocean was still roaring away when we woke up this morning.  It was a beautiful morning with clear skies and what an absolute treat it was to step straight out of the van and walk 30 metres down the hill to dip your toes in the ocean and look for sea creatures in the rock pools whilst the tide was out.

Back to the van for bacon and eggs and, once again, to just sit and stare at the ocean and then suddenly exclaim 'there's one!' as another whale surfaced in front of us.  Today might have been sunny but there was a cold wind blowing so it was time to dig out the jeans and joggers and jumpers stayed on til late morning.

We decided to drive up to Red Bluff as everyone raves about it and the Quobba lady sold it by saying it also had a nice little cafe.   The road between Quobba and Red Bluff was particularly bad with corrugations and washouts and we found out later that it had rained pretty much straight after it was graded last time and then people drove backwards and forwards through it and completely stuffed it up very quickly.  Apart from being bumpy it was also extremely boring as it pretty quickly headed inland away from the coastal views and so was just 60 km or so of boring scrubby dune vegetation.  The only excitement was having to stop at the Dampier Salt company road in case a truck was hurtling through but there wasn't, so on we continued.

Eventually we saw the turn off to Red Bluff and headed west and then south again til we could see the little settlement tucked in at the bottom of the rocky headland.  We called in to the office to let them know we were just day trippers and then drove around and checked out the site.  It's a funky little place with everything from camping and caravan sites to back shacks lined with palm fronds to trendy glamping tenty things.  It's got a distinctly surfy, laid back vibe and the little cafe was a little shack run by a hippy selling teas and coffees as well as crocheted bikinis and tops and with a blackboard full of inspirational quotes such as 'This day is a gift, that's why we call it the present''.  As it was so cool there were only a couple of brave souls on the beach swimming and one dog who was digging a hole to China and having a whale of a time.  There were quite a few surfers out near the bluff though.

As we weren't interested in swimming or surfing ourselves, we quickly exhausted the opportunities Red Bluff afforded us and hopped back in the car and headed back to Quobba.  On the way back, we stopped to watch a couple of guys balloon fishing as I had never seen that done before.  You cast your line with a balloon attached to it and the easterly wind carries it out over the water where the bait then skims along the surface.  The bloke had caught something pretty hefty and was fighting to bring it in and we stood and watched for a while until Larry suddenly shouted "Jenny - look!" and about 30 metres from where we were standing on the edge of a small cliff a whale came right up out of the water and waved at us!  So hard to get photos as they go under the second the camera actually takes the shot but - wow!

 

When we got back to the van there were two cars pulled up nearby filled with about 5 or 6 children and 4 adults.  The dad proudly showed us a huge parrotfish he had just caught on the reef with a spear.  I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to fish along this section of Quobba Station beach but they probably have native title rights or something to fish where they please.  He certainly had done well as it was a big, fat fish and his mate was dead keen to also get one but wasn't so lucky.

We sat and watched them and the whales while we ate our lunch and then we just sat there and sat there as it is just such a great view and there were always whales surfacing in some part of the water we could see.  Eventually about 3pm we decided tonight would be the night we would finally have a campfire.  We haven't been able to have one since the Gibb River Road and most of the time we were on that part of the holiday it was really too hot to want a fire but today was perfect and we knew the Station would sell us a huge bag of good quality wood for $20.   We went down to the station to buy wood and to have a hot shower and then back to the van for a little afternoon nap.

About 5pm it was time to get the fire started and Larry very kindly gave Jenny her own little pile of kindling so she could feed the fire without smothering it.  (Jenny starts to twitch if you don't give her something to put on the fire).  By sunset we had a good fire going and so life couldn't get much better - a view, whales, a sunset, a campfire, a beer and a s..t load of wood!  6pm we had a nice amount of hot coals to put our potatoes into and once they were nearly ready Larry cooked up the steaks (which had finally defrosted!) and we had a most delicious meal with the steaks and jacket potatoes smothered in garlic butter.  Dessert was the packet of marshmallows that have been sitting in the caravan for most of the trip in case of campfire, toasted over the hot coals.  Yum, yum, yum.  We then just sat there and stared at the sky as there is absolutely no light pollution (apart from the campfire!)

And so to bed with the sound of the ocean lulling us to sleep.