Red Bluff W.A

I said good bye to the boys and Mum in the morning as they were off to school (reluctantly) and it was my job to pack the #Navara and the #Camprite Tx6 for our adventure to Quobba Station's "Red Bluff "on our W.A coral coast. This is a place I had read about in many Surfing mags over the years and we had even driven past once before on our maiden adventure 5 years ago to Gnaraloo.

The Boys were all super excited when school finished and they got home as we were all but packed and hooked up ready to go.

We left Geraldton heading north early the next morning so we could hopefully score that perfect camping spot that we all dream of at the Bluff and hopefully avoid all of the not so educated drivers on the road at this time of year :) We arrived into Carnarvon around lunch time, so it was decided we would fuel up then call into the local camping store to grab a few new headlamps and some local knowledge, We would recommend if your up this way the # Outback Travel Roadhouse on the way out of town (heading north) we stopped for lunch and it was great food.

From Carnarvon it's a relatively short drive past all the plantations to the Blowholes turnoff where you leave the main NWC hwy and head West again towards the ocean, where at the end of the road your met by a big sign "King Waves Kill" .We air down the tyres here to hit the gravel and the boys checked out the blowholes again.

Right now to be honest we gauge all gravel roads on how bone chattering rough this road was last time were up this way 5 yrs ago so we weren't looking forward to it but the shire has done considerable work to it and we were very surprised at how smooth and well maintained the road now is. That and maybe the off road users are becoming educated and do let their tyres down on these roads. "can only hope"

Cresting the last small hill on the road in, we had our first glimpse of the area we would call home for the next 8 days. Red Bluff (Quobba Station) W.A
We pulled up at the Caretakers house to check in,  pay our way and have a chat,then went about picking a suitable camping spot. Luck would have it there were a few to choose from as we had beaten the rush so we ended up with a superb location right on the beach.

This truly is a special place and no wonder it's a hit with the surfers from all walks of life.
Most of our days were spent swimming and exploring the beaches and rocks on the coast. This suited our boys to a "T". one pair of shorts all day every day.  The weather was as good as you could of asked. 35+ degrees during the day and very comfortable cooler 10 degrees at night "Perfect"
The boys were in the surf from sun up to sun down pretty much every day and they were well and truly soaking up the awesome weather. This gave Cathy the opportunity to spend several hours a day relaxing with a good book or a crossword.
The boys made several new play mates on the beach "as you do" while mum and I enjoyed the serenity peacefulness and many a beverage each. It was good for us as parents to be able to be close enough to just watch and let the boys do their thing and gain self confidence in the open ocean.

There were large schools of bait fish being pushed close to shore every day by larger feeding fish. We saw Mackerel, Tuna and some not so small sharks everyday hitting them sometimes that hard they would fly out of the water. The Whales even came in close enough for us to see them without binoculars .. True signs this is one healthy eco system.
This was prime opportunity to bring out the Soft Plastic lures and rods and throw a line out. Mum William and myself hooked a few Thread fin Salmon one afternoon which we converted into a tasty meal that night. The following day I had a nice sized Trevally destroy a soft plastic, that was good fun to bring in and yep he was safely returned to the eco system. I also tried kayaking and flicking a hard body lure around in hope of hooking a Mackerel. Lets just say that didnt go to plan. in my hast to get on the water I forgot the metal trace( #@$# it) so when it got hit that lasted all of a split second before the braid gave up and I was a lure down and the fish now had a lip piercing. On my return to shore I didn't plan my beaching too well and that resulted in me unwillingly donating my prescription sunnies to the Red Bluff eco system and having an earlier than planned bath.....  you get the picture.. :(

Sunrise Moon shine

Ancient reef

Nope can't eat this one

One afternoon while have a coldie on the back of the #Navara it was decided a campfire was in order and the obligatory Camp fire hot pot was our chosen meal. We came prepared for such occasion and yep it was the first of many. The next night was yep another Coldie :) while cooking Damper and enjoying with a healthy spread of honey for that nights sweats..  Gotta Love Camping.

Kitchen view

With days wasting away fast and our drinking water coming to a dribbling end we had to depart at day 8 unfortunately. We had planned on 10 days but it was a test to see how long we could get out of our 120L on board water in out #TX6. With the awesome days I had under estimated the drinking water usage but that's what we wanted to achieve and yes we had 30 litres extra incase.

The day had come, it was time to fold the #Camprite up and make our way back to the blacktop via the sometimes rough corrugated road for Carnavron, There was a silence in the cab and i can only put this down to everyone contemplating the past 8 days and quietly reminiscing about what the trip was to them and the good memories we had made. yep the boys dont do confined spaces well so the peace didn't last much pass the Blowholes .. We pulled into Carnarvon Refueled, had an awesome burger for lunch at the roadhouse and continued in a southerly directly towards Geraldton.

Till our next adventure !  Get out there and see this great country of ours and Drive Safely.