Canarvon to Exmouth (427 km)

This morning we woke up reasonably early, showered, ate breakfast, packed up Bessie and got back on the road for our drive to Exmouth. After filling up the car we drove for a few hours before hitting the Minilya Roadhouse roadhouse where we stopped for a quick break before heading on to Coral Bay for lunch.

At Coral Bay, Elyse was amazed at the colour of the water (as we all were!) and we had a very brief (and chilly) dip before heading back to set up our picnic table in the car park for lunch. As always, lunch was accompanied by a beer and we lapped up the warm sunshine and great views before heading back on the road for another couple of hours before we hit Exmouth.

At Exmouth, we checked into the Potshot hotel where we had a 1 bedroom villa with a spa – the only accommodation I could find in town as everything else was completely booked out. It was late afternoon again by this time so we walked over to the bottle shop to replenish our supplies before relaxing in the room with our bottle of sparkling Shiraz. We made up Elyse’s bed with the mattress and bedding from Bessie before heading across to the pub for another drink. The outside bar at the Potshot hotel was great – friendly staff and a nice atmosphere by the pool. We were actually just passing through on our way to find some food but we stopped for a beer before moving again.

The receptionist had said that Whaler’s was a good place for dinner so we walked to the shopping mall only to find that Whaler’s was completely booked out until 8 o’clock. We decided we couldn’t wait until then so we went to Planet Burgers (a fast food joint set up in a caravan with fairy lights) just outside the Potshot Hotel and had the most amazing burgers with fries. We sent Elyse back to the outside bar to see if she could convince them to sell us some beers to go with our meal and she came back successful so we sat on the picnic tables and enjoyed our dinner and beers.

Naturally after dinner we walked back to the bar where we found that the bartender (Elyse’s boyfriend for the night) already had Cooper’s on ice in preparation for our return. Ross went back to the room to pick up some jumpers and the cards and we sat playing Shithead again for hours until the bar closed at 10pm. We went back to the room and continued to play Shithead until we were too tired to speak and fell into bed exhausted again and looking forward to spending the day exploring the reef and not in Bessie on the road.

Denham – Monkey Mia – Canarvon (331 km) and Elyse arriving!

It had poured down over night but when we woke up in the morning the sky was bright blue. We got Bessie organized and tidied up before walking down into town for breakfast at the bakery. Over sausage rolls and cappuccinos, I updated my blog and Ross read the paper as we watched people come in and out of the super busy bakery.

We walked back to Bessie and chilled out for a while, spoke with our friend Dee who should be on the road trip with us but couldn’t get time off work and did a few more things to get ready for our drive to Monkey Mia to pick our friend Elyse up who is flying in from Perth today.

With Bessie all packed up and ready to go, we drove towards Monkey Mia to have a look around. Our first stop was at Little Lagoon, a tidal lagoon just off the coast. It was a beautiful spot and we walked about half way around before walking back again. It looked gorgeous at that time of the morning although it was still a little chilly.

From Little Lagoon, we thought we would drive in to Monkey Mia to have a look around but when we arrived we realized that we had to pay entrance fees just to get into the area. Seeing as we didn’t really have time to see any dolphins and the fact that we had seen them before, we decided not to go in and headed back to Denham instead to buy a couple more things and fill up the car before going to meet Elyse.

We found the Monkey Mia airport fairly easily and waited in Bessie until we saw the plane fly over getting ready to land. By this time the car park was pretty full with people either picking passengers up or waiting for a flight themselves. Elyse’s plane landed and we met her at the wire fence. It was great to finally have her here with us in Aus!!

First things first, we mixed up a cocktail (see photo) and gave Elyse her presents – a pair of thongs with the names of beers in different states, a stubby cooler with all Aussie Sheila sayings on it, and her RECD tour tank top (the Campervan and Cocktails tour from Perth to Broome July 2009). After catching up for a while in the airport carpark, we headed back out on the road for our drive to Canarvon; Elyse and I with traveling cocktails for the afternoon.

We drove for a couple of hours before hitting our first road house where Elsie started her trend of taking a photo of her jumping in front of every roadhouse we would pass. Back on the road again and we made it to Canarvon by about 5pm and checked into the Plantation Big 4 Caravan Park. “Shirl” (not her real name) at the desk was a doll and provided Elyse with her first true Aussie Sheila experience.

Being a Sunday night, things were pretty quiet in Canarvon but “Shirl” put us on to the roast dinner buffet at the local motel about 1 km down the road. After setting up Bessie, we rugged up and walked down the road to the motel. It was obviously a popular spot as the place was packed and the only table we could get was outside. The food however was amazing and just what we felt like after a long day. As we ate, we were entertained by a lovely old bloke playing the keyboard with his wife sitting next to him picking and refiling the music as he played – it was pretty cute to watch as they must have been both over 70. After our third dessert and on our second bottle of red wine, we started playing Shithead until one of the waitresses came over and told us that they closed at 9 (it was 9.25 at this stage). So we finished our game and headed back down the road to the caravan park to play more Shithead in Bessie until we were ready for bed.

A good first day on the road with Elyse.