THE BIG DASH: Emotional Exmouth
Dropping on whale sharks, surly neighbours and hearty family dinnersReaching Exmouth was one of the most emotional moments of the entire trip.
We’d booked this week months before we even left home. In many ways, the whole journey revolved around one date and one place.
While it also marked three months on the road, more importantly it meant fulfilling a commitment we’d made 11 years earlier.
On her 18th birthday we’d promised to take our daughter Emma swimming with the whale sharks on Ningaloo Reef.
It took a while, but we finally delivered. And while the whale sharks were every bit as extraordinary as we’d hoped, the whole Exmouth experience made it one of the most memorable weeks of the trip so far.
Also read:
THE BIG DASH: Why we went Chinese
THE BIG DASH: Buying all the bits
THE BIG DASH: Sorting the tow tug
THE BIG DASH: Hitting the scales
THE BIG DASH: On the road, finally!
THE BIG DASH: Onwards and upwards
THE BIG DASH: Do we have to go?
Not a lone wolf
Excitement! Approaching Exmouth, a Tasman X-Pro went the other way towing a caravan.
It was our first sighting of another towing Tasman on the entire trip!
The next day, at the RAC caravan park where we were staying, we spotted a Tasman X-Line parked next to a camper trailer. We shared nods with the owner as we drove past.
I would have gone back for a chat, but he was gone the next day. It would have been great to hear about his experiences.
Still, it was nice to see some more Tasmans. It’s been a lonely drive in an ocean of Toyotas and a sea of Fords.
After the 400km tow from Onslow to Exmouth, Tas had a quiet week of commuting.
At one point the dog beds came out so we could fit Emma and her partner Callum in for a trip to the Oyster Stacks and Turquoise Bay snorkelling spots in Cape Range National Park.
Being a national park, the dogs were consigned to a sitter for the day.
Emma and Cal were complimentary about the rear-seat space and also made good use of the tailgate when we set up at Vlamingh Head to watch the sunset.
It’s a big vehicle, which is obvious from the room it needed to manouevre around some of Exmouth’s tighter carparks. But the longer runs to the more distant beaches also served as a reminder of just how poised and refined this thing is when it isn’t lugging around loads and lots of weight.
No fuel numbers this week because we didn’t do enough driving to assemble them.
Dropping on whale sharks
So here’s how it works when you go out on a whale shark cruise.
You’re all kitted up in a wetsuit, snorkel and flippers. You sit on what’s called a Marlin Board at the back of the boat and, when the skipper says go, you jump into the water.
The idea is to form a line and swim alongside the whale shark. Well, so much for the plan! On the first drop - the pros call each swim a drop - we just about landed on top of the poor fish.
I had white dots about an inch from my face as the 10 of us threshed about, whacking each other with fins, arms and elbows. A would-be influencer with a GoPro pushed me out of the way to get a better shot. I pushed right back. I had as much right to be there as they did.
The second time out, the whale shark was vertical - pointing upwards and slowly spiralling with its huge mouth open, munching on krill, plankton and other stuff it reckons is yummy.
Jane thought she was heading straight into its mouth!
We all circled around it as it performed this rarely seen act without acknowledging us in any way.
The next six drops - yep, we did eight in total - were more orthodox as we swam alongside. It was incredible to sit there waiting and then see it slowly swish into view from the blue gloom. It was cruising so gently that we could easily keep up for extended periods. As the drops went on less people participated and the experience became much calmer.
By the end I was cramping and my throat was sore from swallowing salt water. I wasn’t relieved when the skipper called time, but I felt like we’d done pretty well!
Our day also included a couple of snorkels on the reef, during which we saw all manner of tropical fish. But the highlight was undoubtedly a rare dugong sighting. It snuffled along the bottom for about five minutes before effortlessly flicking off into the depths.
Magnificent beaches
The beaches of the Ningaloo coast are magnificent. White sand, crystal-clear water, vibrant sea life and, even in July, warm and welcoming conditions. Daytime temperatures sit around 25-27 degrees. It really is an incredible place to winter.
Drifting from one end of Turquoise Bay to the other while following turtles was a true highlight. Mind you, you could stand on the shore and watch them bob their heads up pretty regularly too. Look further out and you could see humpback whales slapping and breaching as they made their way north for mating season.
Exmouth itself isn’t much to look at. It’s a pretty flat and dreary-looking place. The real attraction is the water around it.
But dig a little and you’ll find a vibe, much of it thanks to the never-ending flow of young backpackers and the energy they bring. There are a couple of breweries for a well-earned end-of-day drink, the best being Whalebone, which not only serves fine craft beer but excellent pizzas too.
We also enjoyed Froth in the centre of town, while Mutts was a great breakfast joint with excellent coffee and food. As its name suggests, it’s dog friendly.
Wear 'n tear
The MDC is starting to show a bit of wear and tear. The rubber seals on the front bum are beginning to perish where boxes have been dragged over them.
The flywire screen door has a tear near the handle, while the handle itself has lost most of its paint.
We’ve also got a minor leak from the beloved washing machine, but we’re still trying to work out where it’s coming from.
The van’s 20,000km service is scheduled for Perth in August, so those items are on the to-do list. Twenty thousand kays! It seems only days ago that I was picking it up from Campbellfield.
One thing we have changed is the jockey wheel. The standard ARK winder has always seemed stressed by the load it is being asked to carry and, in Exmouth, it started to misbehave.
In automotive parlance, it was as though it had a box full of neutrals. I wound the handle, but the height didn’t change and it rattled like a bag of bolts.
Some fiddling and faffing later, it returned to normal operation.
After that I consulted some internet forums to see what the caravan community thought of this type of jockey wheel. ‘Mixed’ is the appropriate description. Some swear by the ARK; others dismiss it altogether.
Not wanting to risk problems later, I took the experience as a warning and resolved to change to something more robust.
Understandably, Exmouth has a comprehensive caravan sales and servicing business. The bloke in charge, David, recommended a Trail-A-Mate hydraulic jockey wheel.
Unlike the geared ARK, the Trail-A-Mate uses a simple hydraulic ram that will hopefully prove far more durable over the long haul. It also comes with a flat plate as well as a wheel and, in most circumstances, the plate does a better job of keeping the shaft straight.
The challenge was getting the Trail-A-Mate fitted to the MDC’s A-frame in the limited time we had left in Exmouth. The ARK simply clamped on with bolts, but the Trail-A-Mate clamp had to be welded in place.
Thankfully, the ever-helpful David put me in touch with Paul at Specialised Precision Engineering, who did the job at short notice. To protect the integrity of the A-frame, he first welded a plate to it and then attached the clamp to the plate.
Paul has done a lot of caravan welding and says Chinese-built frames such as the MDC’s can vary in quality. But he saw no major issues while working on ours. That was reassuring.
So far, the Trail-A-Mate is working perfectly. But it is still early days.
School holiday shenanigans
Because Emma is a teacher, we had to organise our Exmouth visit to coincide with the Victorian school holidays. It turned out they overlapped with WA’s school holidays.
Exmouth is one of the most popular places in WA for families to decamp to during the winter break. By the time we arrived it was already jam-packed. Every caravan park, including the RAC resort where we were staying, was full to the rafters.
I’ve said it before, but any sign of travel shyness because of diesel prices is long gone.
We noticed a very different vibe in Exmouth compared with further north. Up there we had become used to couples like us travelling on their own. Now there were groups of 20 people - and sometimes even more - setting up across multiple sites.
They were less inclined to chat to strangers like us. They were there for a fortnight’s holiday; we were living on the road. It changes how you travel.
Some people looked absolutely exhausted by the experience rather than energised by it.
Think about it. You work your bum off, work some more to get ready for the trip, drive 1000km, set up, entertain the kids all day, cater for them and then finally relax after they go to bed. Yep, I’d be a bit distracted too.
Some people gave off the impression they did not want to be there at all. Our neighbour for part of the week ignored us unless directly addressed, and even then he would barely offer a grunt.
It reached its most ridiculous point at a beach called Wobiri, where I realised we had parked next to him and his family. When he saw me, he put his head down and hurried off in the other direction. What the?
The change in attitude was really noticeable because we had just come from Onslow and Point Samson, where we met lots of people, shared sundowner drinks and enjoyed a very chilled vibe.
Still, we were probably a bit insular ourselves. We had Emma and Callum with us and spent most of our time with them.
After more than three months on the road, just having Emma with us for a week felt very special.
Jane is a great cook and, heroically, she prepared full evening meals for all four of us in the caravan. We even managed to squeeze around the dining table to eat them!
After a week in Exmouth it was time to pack up and head inland for a few days. Multiple people had told us we had to visit Karijini National Park.
“You have to go to Karijini,” we’d been told for months
We’d heard enough.
So next week we turn inland to discover whether one of Australia’s most famous national parks really can live up to the hype.
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