2 lucky ducks on the road again

We woke to another day of the wind blowing 50 barstards, Merv walked to the top of the dune to check on the boat and saw that it had dragged the mooring and was on  the beach, he came back down got me and we went down to check the situation. When we got there the boat was on the beach with sizable waves coming in constantly as the wind was driving hard north west. There wasn't any way we could push it back out by ourselves so I took off to the nearest camp to find some help, I got a couple of younger guys to come and help, with their help the four of us managed to push it back into the water then the guys had to try and wade it around against the waves to the area where we launch while I ran up hooked up the trailer to the truck and brought it down, with the help of everyone we managed to get it on the trailer with no damage where we decided it could stay, obviously the mooring blocks were heavy enough for a boat our size in strong wind.

Yeah it looks like a nice day to be on the water, we headed straight out and along to the inside of the reef. As we were going we could see huge turtles, massive rays with big remoray on them, the water was crystal clear and was only about 2 metres deep once we passed the channel. When we got out to the inside of the reef the water was even more shallow with the tide going out, we could see beautiful fish everywhere, we fished for awhile caught enough Charlie Court rock cod for dinner then left just admiring the wildlife. As we approached the launch area we saw a manta ray. We moored the boat, cleaned the fish for dinner, the fish cleaning station was near the mooring which made it nice and easy. The two different colours of the water was amazing 

Today the weather still isn't good enough to go fishing so when the tide was right we launched the boat and moored it up ready for when we can use it. The afternoon found us just having more long walks.

Another sunny but windy day, the nights have been very cold and the day temperatures are still often quite chilly. After breakfast we decided to go for another long walk, we  headed the other direction, there was not a lot of bait fish around yet, a few turtles, a woman filmed a large hammerhead shark close in but we haven't seen it yet. While we were walking we met a young man from Canada who warned us about going past the rocky point, he had been there and seen a pair of perigan falcons unfortunately he stopped to take photos and they swooped him as they were nesting there, he left with a bleeding head. We continued on but made a point to keep walking and not look up, they did swoop but not too close, we did see them chasing the sea eagle often. In the afternoon we went to the beach with the throw net to try to get some bait as we are hoping to go out  fishing tomorrow.

The weather was windy again today so we went for a 15km walk and done some hand washing to get rid of some of the red dust.

Today was definitely a day to try and clean the red dirt from the Pilbara out of things. After working on the camp area we took the boat down to the beach so we could Barack it up to the water and give it a good scub, we had to use the salt water as fresh water is precious here. When we went onto the beach we never bothered to let our tyres so the inevitable happened, we got very bogged, Merv let the tyres right down and with moving the sand away from the tyres the truck walked out without any further bother. We spent quite a bit of time trying to clean the boat up a bit, still didn't look pretty but at least most of the loose dust was gone. In the afternoon we went for another walk and found a spot to moor the boat and made sure the mooring blocks were in the right place, the water is still pretty cold to wade in. Another walk before dinner.

After a restful night we set off for 9 mile camp, stopped at Nanutarra for an ice cream. When we arrived at the camp area we took our time to set up then went for a long walk on the beach and around to where the boats get launched and moored to see what damage had been done by the excessive high tides in June 

This morning we broke camp early and went into town to buy the parts needed to repair the trailer. It only took Merv approximately 1 hour to complete the repairs and we were on our way back out across the rough road. We found a quiet free stay for the night 

We left Karajini on our way to Nanutarra we went via Tom Price where  we had to get another tyre for the boat trailer as we had a blowout, then we done some shopping and picked up more water. When we finally left we were approximately 20kms on the rough road when we broke a ubolt on the boat trailer. Merv tied everything in place with some tie down straps so we could head back to Tom Price, meanwhile I walked up the road to try and find the mud guard that had been torn off, I did find it but it was not salvageable. We made our way slowly back to Tom Price where we booked into the caravan park for the night, at least the hot shower that night was very nice.