WILD WEST: Gusts and grime
Coastal wilderness camping doesn’t come much better than West Australia's Warroora StationIt’s decision time for your faithful ‘Wild West’ correspondent: which wilderness camp to stay at on the return trip to Perth; which bed end of the New Age Wayfinder to sleep in; and is eating dead cow every night for dinner for the next week a good idea?
Who cares, except me, as the rest of the Fincham clan have flown home to Melbourne, via Exmouth’s tiny Learmonth and Perth airports, leaving yours truly to pilot the RV rig back to Perth ‘solo’.
I’ve given myself a leisurely five days to drive the 1500km to Margaret River, so there's plenty of time to ‘get dirty’ and spend a couple of nights at Warroora Station, a popular farm stay location just south of Coral Bay.
To get there, I drive around 200km down the Exmouth Coral Bay Road, before taking the second turn-off to Warrora down a 20km long mildy corrugated dirt road to the main Homestead.
Warroora (pronounced Warra) is a family-run Outback cattle station with its western boundary flanked by stunning coastline and the Ningaloo Reef.
It costs $10 per person to stay on one of the designated beachfront campsites, but you need to be self-contained so I fork out another $10 (plus $50 deposit) for a porta potti, plus $25 for a bag of firewood.
There are 2WD access sites as well as on-the-beach camping, but given the off-road capability of both the Ford Everest and New Age Wayfinder, I drop the tyre pressures to 20psi and hit the soft sandy tracks to one of the more secluded and elevated sites which offer birds' eye, 180 degree ocean views of miles of red rocky cliffs, aqua seas and pristine white sand.
It’s truly breathtaking, with my site around 500 metres from 'neighbors' on both sides, and a beach cove virtually all to myself (despite the distance between us I still manage to bump into my fellow campers: one is an old bloke who camps permanently in an old Jayco and works a couple of days at the office, while the other is a ‘hippy’ surfer who drops by with binoculars to get a better view of where the waves are breaking!).
In the evening though it’s just me and the campfire as I grab front row seating to watch the sun slowly drop into the Indian Ocean, before retiring to bed…
The downside of the magnificent cliff-top location is little shelter from the winds when they blow up, and the first night is a noisy affair as the Wayfinder’s canvas flaps and tent frames groan against the 50km-h plus gusts.
Both the Everest’s and Wayfinder’s independent coil suspension cope well with the bumps and corrugations, and the only sign of wear and tear (apart from some dust intrusion) is minor stone chipping on the Raptor coating protecting the lower front body of the camper.
Apart from instant hot water (an option on the Wayfinder) the only thing I miss while camping at Warroora is a shower, as an external shower is another optional extra. Never mind, as a ‘wash’ in the ocean and a rinse of the feet at the drawbar tap gets me through the three day wait before my next hot shower.
Otherwise the Wayfinder fits the brief for a few days of free camping, with its ample 80 litre water tank, a rooftop solar panel to top up the battery and 9kg gas bottle to keep the fridge running.
And unlike a claustrophobic caravan, the 360 degree ventilated view delivered by the Wayfinder with all canvas meshed windows opened, lets me continue to enjoy the scenery while relaxing inside on a bed or one of the two lounges.
Perched up high on the aptly named ‘Veronica’s Vista’, I also get sufficient Telstra mobile reception to touch base at home. Life’s good…
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