Yardie Homestead CP

Yesterday we travelled from Coral Bay to YHCP 33ks outside Exmouth. It's an old cattle and sheep stationbetween the Cape Range and the Ningaloo Reef. The stockman's quaters are converted to cheap accommodation and the old wool shed is quite near our van. It's got a pool and tennis courts, but it's sandy. Lots of people play bocchi in the sand though which is good to watch. We bought a cheap set after Christmas and might have to take them out and have a try!

Last year we stayed back at the Lighthouse CP-it was closer to town, but we spent a lot of time driving 16ks down and back to the boat ramp at Tantabiddy. Now we are 3ks from it which is much easier.

When we arrived, the guy at the office asked if we had been told about the electricity when we booked in. No, we hadn't! It's available 24hrs a day, but you can't use anything with a heating element, so no toaster, jug, elecric frying pan and hotplate, sandwich toaster and no aircon. We have really had to rethink the way we cook and are finally happy we bought a portable BBQ. Once again like Coral Bay, we have to go get our drinking water from a tank, but the bore water here is much less salty than it was there.

Today we went out fishing. It's easy to catch a feed quite close to shore which we did-a nice feed of cod. We hooked half a dozen other fish that seemed like they would be good, but had them bitten off by a shark. He was about 8 or 9 feet and seemed to wait until we had a bigger fish then took the lot. We shifted three times, but he seemed to follow us. Eventually we gave him the slip or he gave up! He would grab the fish, then throw himself in the air sideways like they do, sending up a huge spray of water! Apart from him, we saw so many turtles I couldn't believe it, and a dugong who stayed about 30 metres from the boat sunning himself for about an hour.