The first stop on the slow journey south from Exmouth was to a homestead - Bullara Station, www.bullara-station.com.au
This is a large ranch which offers a variety of options to stay: Shearer's quarters, places for caravans, trailers and they also accept the occasional odd mad English campers. We keep telling people that were are camping-with-a-tent and not a camper-van. The place was almost deserted, as the holiday season this far north is almost over. Temperatures are now rising and will exceed 40 C frequently through the next few months. It provided our first dark nights with the Milky Way easily visible and a waxing moon (doing it from the opposite side too).
Bullara is about 95km south of Exmouth - a mere 60 minutes at a steady pace. It's a mixed cattle and sheep farm employing a couple working as farm hands and temporary Backpackers otherwise known as WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), who are working for board and lodging in order to get some sort of credit towards a working visa application. The most recent were from the UK and apparently not familiar with country life, let alone the 40+ km rides out into the bush on trials bikes in order to round-up livestock!
This stay is best described as rustic, on account of the way in which they have established the necessary services such as showers and other ablution facilities, as the Australians refer to toilet blocks. All water is from bore holes. They lift bore hole water with those familiar windmills that operate a piston pump (think Southfork Ranch). What we didn't know is that the water is then pumped vast distances across the ranch to supply local tanks for livestock.
The showers are outdoor and heated by intriguing methods loosely based on old boilers now burning dead wood. It's a great experience to shower under the stars.
We met a couple of grey nomads, with Pommie roots. Tom was happy to show me the solar panels and control equipment on his caravan that allows them to be off the power grid for most of the time. Kate cooked a pineapple cake which we all enjoyed as we sat around the open-air camp kitchen. Tom was bothered by flies and killed as many as possible with a fly swatter but this was purely therapy, as for each dead one, a replacement alive and irritating one began to pester him.
As with a lot of Aussie on the road, these are retired people who have embarked on a long tour around the country, towing a caravan, trailer or in one case, a roof tent. We met one couple who have been away for over four years. They have a return ticket however in that they have held onto a pice of land on which they will build a house. Most have left houses with house-sitters; quite a nice idea I think.
On a wander around the ground near the homestead we saw many snake tracks, plenty of bird life and one kangaroo. Of greater interest for me was the contents of the sheds and various bits of equipment only very slowly decaying in the dry climate.
All-in-all this was a very pleasant stay, marred only by a bit of a medical issue for Dawn which she thought she had overcome a couple of days earlier. Rather than continue further south and thus further from Exmouth, we decided on Sunday morning, to return there in search of a doctor. This was at the hospital and Dawn was given a prescription which we couldn't present until Monday morning at the pharmacy. So for her comfort we checked into a holiday lodge for an overnight stay and sleep catch-up.
On Monday 21st Oct '13 we then travelled to Coral Bay, a very remote 'resort' further south on Ningaloo Reef.
This is a large ranch which offers a variety of options to stay: Shearer's quarters, places for caravans, trailers and they also accept the occasional odd mad English campers. We keep telling people that were are camping-with-a-tent and not a camper-van. The place was almost deserted, as the holiday season this far north is almost over. Temperatures are now rising and will exceed 40 C frequently through the next few months. It provided our first dark nights with the Milky Way easily visible and a waxing moon (doing it from the opposite side too).
Bullara is about 95km south of Exmouth - a mere 60 minutes at a steady pace. It's a mixed cattle and sheep farm employing a couple working as farm hands and temporary Backpackers otherwise known as WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), who are working for board and lodging in order to get some sort of credit towards a working visa application. The most recent were from the UK and apparently not familiar with country life, let alone the 40+ km rides out into the bush on trials bikes in order to round-up livestock!
This stay is best described as rustic, on account of the way in which they have established the necessary services such as showers and other ablution facilities, as the Australians refer to toilet blocks. All water is from bore holes. They lift bore hole water with those familiar windmills that operate a piston pump (think Southfork Ranch). What we didn't know is that the water is then pumped vast distances across the ranch to supply local tanks for livestock.
The showers are outdoor and heated by intriguing methods loosely based on old boilers now burning dead wood. It's a great experience to shower under the stars.
We met a couple of grey nomads, with Pommie roots. Tom was happy to show me the solar panels and control equipment on his caravan that allows them to be off the power grid for most of the time. Kate cooked a pineapple cake which we all enjoyed as we sat around the open-air camp kitchen. Tom was bothered by flies and killed as many as possible with a fly swatter but this was purely therapy, as for each dead one, a replacement alive and irritating one began to pester him.
As with a lot of Aussie on the road, these are retired people who have embarked on a long tour around the country, towing a caravan, trailer or in one case, a roof tent. We met one couple who have been away for over four years. They have a return ticket however in that they have held onto a pice of land on which they will build a house. Most have left houses with house-sitters; quite a nice idea I think.
On a wander around the ground near the homestead we saw many snake tracks, plenty of bird life and one kangaroo. Of greater interest for me was the contents of the sheds and various bits of equipment only very slowly decaying in the dry climate.
All-in-all this was a very pleasant stay, marred only by a bit of a medical issue for Dawn which she thought she had overcome a couple of days earlier. Rather than continue further south and thus further from Exmouth, we decided on Sunday morning, to return there in search of a doctor. This was at the hospital and Dawn was given a prescription which we couldn't present until Monday morning at the pharmacy. So for her comfort we checked into a holiday lodge for an overnight stay and sleep catch-up.
On Monday 21st Oct '13 we then travelled to Coral Bay, a very remote 'resort' further south on Ningaloo Reef.
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