Veni Vidi Vici Thevenard Island

In the words of Julius Caesar "We came, we saw and we conquered" the Mackerel Island road trip for 2011.

We'd been home a day and had all wound down.  Our besties were happy to be home again and to have us home. They missed us.

A text message was sent and we all met at the coffee shop for a get together and swap the things back that had been left by each other. Cameras, cards, more food and Bugsy was happy to have his jacket back.

A great morning tea, sitting with Sue's husband, Digga and chatting with friends who passed by reminiscing our past 2 weeks.

We had travelled from Northam to Thevenard Island and home again in the Hyundai I-Max van.
Bugsy did the majority of the driving, a job well done, keeping us all safe on the road.

The special bus had served us well, it didn't miss a beat in the 3,459 kms using 350 litres of unleaded fuel to do the trip.

1714 photos were take by Mags, Sue & Tez - Bugsy proudly took 6. Tez now had the job of putting the videos and photos together for a dvd of our adventure. A promise from Bugsy to have a pizza night with the viewing, but still no secret dough recipe handed over.

Then it was time to depart, Tez was taking the special bus back to Perth as Bugsy headed off to golf and everyone got back into their normal routines once again.

While driving the bus back it started to rain, the first rain we had seen since leaving, and Tez was reminded of the day she picked up the special bus with Mags throwing her out in the pouring rain at the airport to collect it. It seems so long ago but the time has gone by so very quick.

There is some truth to the quote "it's not the destination, it's the journey". We had a great journey to a great destination. Some opportunities were missed but others appeared, lessons were learnt, "there'll be a test".

Thanks to the Countryman for running the competition and to Drew & Tracey for being great hosts on Thevenard Island. We all had a great time.

Don't forget Albert

We have come away with some great moments to share with tales to tell of the motley crew, hairy critters, a good looking sheep named Albert, one Pesky seagull, a shark and a beaut little island called Thevenard.

As the bus was parked back in Budget's yard, we said goodbye special bus, we will miss you.

Happy trails

Wednesday 14th September - Coalseam & Icecream as we head on home

Day 12

After a very noisy night at the campsite - Sue didn't hear a thing - we packed up our tents and camping gear, whilst Bugsy was queried as to his real identity by one of the other campers.

We got some wildflower tips from our Scottish & Kiwi campsite neighbours before heading off at 9.15am, last night we were going to walk, this morning that was all forgotten as we drove up to the breathtaking Irwin's lookout which overlooks the Irwin River valley.

View from Irwin Lookout

Lots & lots of wildflower photos were taken giving Tez some work to do when we get home. Lots of grey nomads were out and about doing the same. We thought the army was on its way when we saw 3 of their vehicles heading to the lookout, only to find that they were tourists, travelling around in their own unique way.

A touch of MASH at Coalseam

The flies were being really pesty as we made our way around to the Fossil picnic site and went for a walk along the Irwin River.

Bugsy wandering through the Irwin River bed

There was not much water in the river, so we were able to look for fossils in the river banks.  They were very tiny but Sue managed to locate a few specimens for a photo shoot.

Oh look - a fly netted fossil

Back on the road heading for Mingenew, after waiting at the rail crossing with stomachs grumbling, for what seemed to be an eternity, we found the bakery and opted for some pies, drinks, icecreams and a milkshake. Mingenew's traffic was getting pretty busy with vans and tourists arriving for the MidWest Expo happening on the 15th & 16th September.

Big Ears

Taking a quick look around the main street we found a giant Wheat Stalk sculpture in Cecil Newton Park, known  as “Big Ears” by the locals, it emphasises the importance of wheat farming in the area. Then off to the visitor's centre bumping into one of Mag's golfing mate's daughters for a quick chat before piling back in the van at 12.15.

Hitting the road to Watheroo, we found the pink strips which meant that there were some wildflowers located there, stopping for a few more photos. 

Pink ribbons for wildflowers

It didn't take long and we were all wildflowered out, still, looking forward to getting home to try and identify the photos we had taken. A job for our resident pink toenailed botanist no doubt.

We are getting pretty homesick by this stage, missing our besties as we get closer to home, so much so, that by the time we got to Watheroo we decided to head for home as it was only a couple of hours away.

We talked about all that we have seen, funnily enough only 2 police cars on the whole trip,  1 blowfly,  3 emus, 6 bustards, 1 butterfly, lots of moths, 1 walker, 3 pushbikers, 1 giant cod ( sort of), spanish flag, shark mackerel, chinaman cod, sharks, stingrays, longtoms, dolphins, pilot whales, humpback whales, flatback turtles, green turtles, green tits, ospreys, oyster catchers, tata lizards, quails, backward coloured willy wagtails and one pesky seagull along with a few of his mates.

We have also seen a few guys closely resembling Bugsy or Richard or Colin.

Most hummed tune on the whole trip had been "Do the hustle" - thanks Mags, we couldn't get it out of our heads.

We pulled into Moora for an icecream and found that the Magnum competition wrappers were wrong, it is not 1 in 6 Magnums that wins, it is 1 in 7 as Bugsy won the only free Magnum for the trip.

We turned off to head to Northam and Sue got excited as we spotted a very large blue wreath of wildflowers on the side of the road, pity they looked a lot like a pile of bailing twine.

We headed back into town and out to Spencers, unpacking systematically and loading up Mag's & Bugsy's cars before saying goodbye to Tez who took the bus home to clean it out before returning it on Friday.

Lots of critters were on front of the van.

Tuesday 13th September - 1 big banana & a crick neck

Day 11

We packed up the Hobbit Cabin and headed to the Big Banana for a photo.
Carnarvon's Big Banana was originally built for a Northam service station - video store in 1988. The creator of this Big Banana was a Queensland boat builder, Michael McEvoy. In 1986, he built the first Big Banana in Mackay, Queensland, as a gimmick to attract people to his fruit and vegetable shop. The idea was so successful he moved to Northam to erect another Big Banana. The vertical 10m x 2m
Big Banana was not so successful in Northam and was later sold to the Tourist Bureau as a promotional icon for Carnarvon.

My fish was this big

We headed down the highway piloted by Bugsy, CoPilot Sue put her pink toenails up and read the Countryman, whilst Tez cruised along to her own music and Mags snoozed on the sunny side of the bus.

Pink toenails and a paper

A quick pitstop at Overlander for Magnums and morning tea. Tourists were everywhere and we were all served with a smile which was a lovely change from some of the places we had been.

On the road again, listening to some new cd's, filling in crosswords as we were passing lots & lots of grey nomads heading down south,  along with a few trucks and some pushbikers doing the Aussie trek.

Wildflowers started appearing in droves and poor Sue was getting a crick neck as they were on both sides of the road. We were all getting a lesson from our enthusiastic "on board" botanist who informed us all that there will be a test later.

We rocked into Northampton for fuel, lotto and the butchers. What a great little place, with good service. Checked out the tourist bureau for some wildflower information before heading to the turnoff  to make our way to Coalseam Conservation Park which would be our home for the night. Hoping to make it in daylight hours so we weren't setting up tents in the dark,  there was no time to stop for photos.

Albert found a good use for Timmy

It was a quiet trip as we travelled through the Chapman Valley filled with bright pink, blue and white everlastings. The area between Nanson and Yuna was had some beautiful displays of wildflowers.

We saw the flat-topped Moresby Ranges and Albert waved as we drove past a few of his friends on station grazing properties. A lot of farming history in this area with some old colonial buildings still standing and there was a beautiful stone church in Nason. This area would be well worth coming back to explore.

We found our way to the Coalseam Park turnoff and travelled about 8kms along a corrogated gravel road before we arrived at this little gem.  We were very lucky to get the last camping spot available at the Miners campsite, where the volunteer campground hosts came and collected our fees of $7.00 per person per night.

With the tents up, drop loos located, it was off for a bit of exploring and you guessed it, more photos.

Taking in the sunset and beautiful everlastings, we headed around the walk trail, finding Johnson shaft (no relation to Bugsy) before getting back to camp to prepare dinner with the meat we had brought in Northampton. The bbq's were free to use, so with headlamps on, sausages, chops and kebabs with corn on the cob and potatoes were all cooked up, thoroughly enjoyed with a little drink of port to wash it all down. Mags supplied a delicious dessert of big white chocolate freckles from Northampton. Yummo.
As we watched the moon come up, the layers started going back on as it cooled down pretty quick. We all hit the deck pretty early so that we would be energised for tomorrow's wildflower adventure.

Monday 12th September - Termite mounds & a giant prawn

Day 10

After a hearty breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, toast, eggs, bacon, sausages and coffee at the Potshot's restaurant, it was off to explore Exmouth.

Having eaten all that food, Sue needed a little lay down on the day bed at the hotel before we left for our tourist trek.

We can see one of these going up at her house

We made our way around to the shops, where Mags and Sue went souvenir shopping. Then with an extra sweet smelling passenger aboard, we headed out to the Lighthouse and the Jurabi Turtle Centre doing the tourist thing. We had a few strange looks from other travellers with Albert and Sue's new friend having their photo taken along the way. But we could see they were thinking "what a good idea".

Exmouth Lighthouse

Albert and Sue's new friend at Jurabi

The Jurabi Turtle Centre is located on the Jurabi Coastal Reserve.  It's an interpretive educational facility constructed in recognition of the urgent need to manage turtle-visitor interaction and minimise the impact of human disturbance on nesting marine turtles along the Ningaloo coast. There are displays about turtle biology and behaviour, threats, appropriate observation techniques and conservation strategies. You can actually volunteer to come up here and help out during the season.

We decided to try and make Carnarvon before dark, but we didn't want to go hungry on the trip so headed back in to Exmouth refuelling and grabbing some rolls at Brumbys, along with a bag of doughnuts for the trip. Nice service at Brumbys Bakery in Exmouth.

Captain Mags was our pilot with Co-pilot Sue keeping an eye out for any stray sheep or roos.
A short stop at the Big Prawn to grab some prawns for the road (more food) and learn about the Gascoyne Food Trail which we think we may have already done with all the food we have had already.


It wasn't long before we were on our way again, past hundreds of giant termite mounds. No need to tell you what Sue was thinking and, NO, she was not allowed to stop for a photo shoot.

We took a slight detour to have a look at Coral Bay and were all shocked to see just how busy it is now. No longer a quiet little hamlet, but still very beautiful. Very, very touristy. Parked the van in the shade whilst Sue and Mags went for a stroll and Tez searched accommodation online for Carnarvon.

Coral Bay

Back on the road, heading for Minilya Roadhouse, we had missed the phonebox in the middle of nowhere but we had one very important photo stop to make at the Tropic of Capricorn.
The Tropic is a climatic frontier. The territory to the north has warm, dry winters, while to the south winters are usually cool and wet. So we knew it would be getting cooler from now on.

After a quick icecream & toilet break at the Minilya Roadhouse, which has the smelliest toilets ever, we  headed off to Carnarvon going back to the same fruit & veg place we had stopped at before. It was later in the day and there wasn't as much variety as before, but the bananas were still $6.00 a kilo so we grabbed a few bags before heading into town to find accommodation for the night.

Mags setting up in Hobbitville

Capricorn caravan park had a cabin available, Tez got the double bed, (again woohoo)  Mags & Sue the bottom bunks and Bugsy got the mattress on the floor, while all the bags got the top bunks. It was a little hobbit cabin. We used their share kitchen and cooked up some leftovers from the island, tested out the camping table and chairs as we ate even more food and checked out the map of where we are headed tomorrow and the best way to get to Coalseam Conservation Park.

A couple of happy campers

Sunday 11th September - We say farewell our Island dream

Day 9
Rise and shine, we are off the island today. Everyone was busy packing and getting ready to depart.
Sue headed off for one last shell collecting expedition. Then we all pitched in, packed and cleaned up.

Drew arrived to let us know we would be leaving at 1.00pm as the sea was calm enough to go, even though it still looked a little rough to us.

I hope there's room for all the shells.

We said our goodbyes to the Thevenard Crew and headed back to the mainland with the people from the Ashburton Resort, who didn't even remember us from a week ago which was a bit strange. They had come over on Friday for a weekender. 

The trip back was a bit solem and a little rougher than the one over, we still had no-one suffer from sea sickness. About the only thing we did have was just the rocking boat feeling when we went to bed.

Goodbye island we'll miss you

Group shot with our host Drew.

A quick stop in Onslow for fuel, icecreams, snacks and cigarettes and we were on our way to Exmouth.

Back on Highway 1

The road into Exmouth was quite slow as it was full of free roaming sheep with lambs, Bugsy did an excellent job with Co-pilot Sue as we managed to miss them all, but a couple of little potteroos now have big headaches.

When we finally got to Exmouth at about 7pm, everything was closed. After ringing around the caravan parks, we found out that they do not take people after dark - that doesn't sound very tourist friendly does it.

We were lucky enough to get a unit from the lovely lady at the Potshot Resort, it was open until 9pm.
A quick unpack, then off to the restaurant for a Surf & Turf where we got to cook the steaks ourselves. We all thoroughly enjoyed the steak and the garlic sauce was divine.

Look at the thickness of that steak.

Trying to get an icecream in Exmouth after dinner is worse than trying to get accommodation, everything apart from the bottle shops were shut even the garage.

Tomorrow we are doing a bit of sight seeing, hopefully there will be something open in daylight. Very disappointing first impression of Exmouth.

Saturday 10th September - One more sleep & a missing sheep

Day 8

Awoke to another windy morning, but where was Albert ? .... it was so quiet and he was nowhere to be found. Tez had heard the girls giggling last night when she went to bed and thought that Albert had probably joined their pyjama party and could only imagine what photos would be available when we save them from Sue’s camera which was also missing....

Albert at Club Thevenard

All was revealed when Sue sheepishly appeared with her camera at the ready. After downloading the photos and having a good laugh, Tez headed off with the wind pushing her all the way to the shop to pay her account while Sue and Mags recuperated from their wild night with Albert at the disco.

It didn't take long after breakfast for Mags & Albert to curl up on the sofa with a good book to relax the morning away, nodding off dreaming of puzzle piecing.

The seas where choppy with Thevenard 1 being knocked around by the swell. Drew had told us yesterday that we wouldn’t be leaving the island tomorrow until the sea calms down probably after lunch.

When it did settle down, Sue got out the Ipod [known as the ipood] and headed off for a walk along the shore soaking in some rays, collecting some more shells for her project.

Mags & Bugsy had headed off to watch the footy, Mags came back feeling a bit off, I think it might have had something to do with the Eagles losing, so she went and had a lay down.

It was a lovely afternoon, so Sue and Albert took a stroll to the shop for butter and milk.
Albert enjoyed running around the island as he hadn't really been allowed out much since we arrived.

Pay your bill Albert.

 

Paying for past mistakes

Tez went in search of some last minute photo opportunities, but got the feeling she was being watched. Sue had become a resident stalker and we never knew when she'd pop up, or where, with the camera.

Stalker Sue at it again

Once the sun went down it was off to the jetty with Bugsy for some last minute fishing.

It was getting late and the staircase to the moon photos were not happening, so we headed home with no fish or squid again.

We had no chance of finishing the jigsaw we had started, so we packed it up before sitting down to our last dinner on Thevenard Island, a delicious dish of chilli bolognese and soy pasta.  

It was an early night for everyone as it was going to be a big day tomorrow, packing everything up ready to load it all back on the boat for the trip to the mainland.

After picking up the special bus we will have a reluctant stop in  Onslow, [Sue needs smokes] before heading to Exmouth.

Friday 9th September - Snugglepot, Cuddlepie & pink toenails in the Shark Nursery.

Day 7

After a very windy night, Bugsy was up early and captured the sunrise.

Early morning sunrise

It remained quite windy all morning with the ocean taking on a real muddy look.

Sue & Tez headed off to the laundry and rec centre for some internet usage.  Past the dead houth mouth where Sue just had to take a photo.

They have a Thevenard Mouse also known as a short tailed mouse population on the island, but what Sue had located was a common houth mouth. ( she never tired of it )

We couldn’t really do much outdoors as it was too windy today, so we continued on with the jigsaw puzzle from hell. Somehow I don’t think it will be finished before we leave.

Tez headed off to make a phone call to Telstra about the internet , after being put on hold for about 15 minutes on her mobile, finally got through to someone who gave her some steps to follow.

Whilst she was away Albert took himself on a spending spree, shopping with Sue’s card.

Ka-ching

 He later paid the price for that little stunt.

After an afternoon game of downhill dune Bocci, we packed up the esky drinks and snacks, got the cameras ready and Sue asked the age old question, do you think pink toenails will attract sharks ?

Downhill Dune Bocci

Drew arrived in the troupie and took us for a drive along the Gunbarrel Hwy of Thevenard Island, past the huge Osprey nest out to Pristine point.

What a slice of heaven that is. We felt very privileged to have been given the opportunity to go there.

Pools at Pristine Point

We wandered over the rock pools.  Spotting shark eggs, turtles resting on the beach and a sting ray whose spots became a real fluorescent blue as we got closer.   We saw remnants of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Drew had previously told us a very funny story about the Thevenard Races and the fathinators that were made up of these little hats.

Thevenard Fathinators

Pristine Pink Toenails, Crocs and a matching Ugly Stick

We did a bit of beach fishing, had a few drinks  and watched the sunset. It was just divine. Not one fish was caught but it didn’t matter. Pure serenity out there on the point.

Magical Sunset

Drew wanted to get back in time to watch the footy,  so back on the gunbarrel and over the airport runway to home with the troupie smelling a bit fishy from the bait we didn't use.

We all thanked Drew for taking us out there and made a mental note of everything we need to research when we get home. “Marine eggs, sting rays & green eyes”  (the little birds we’d been calling green tits), turtles and ospreys.

Bugsy opened his new business "Thevenard Pizzeria" with kitchenhand Sue as the slicer and dicer;

Receiving  instruction from the cook

We feasted on some of the best pizzas we have ever had. Bugsy has promised to share his secret recipe for the dough. The fresh veggies along with the chillies we’d collected from Onslow topped them off.

Even Albert got his own pizza .... yummo

Best pizza ever

This little Weber Q  bbq (every cabin has one) has really sold itself on this trip. We have put it through its paces and would all thoroughly recommend them for everything from fried & grilled fish, quiche & most definitely pizza. We haven’t even put a chop or a sausage on it this trip. Maybe next time...

We want to take the Weber Q home with us

What a great day it was today, some of us seeing the sunrise and all of us seeing the sunset over the beautiful ocean. Magic.