It was freezing as I crawled out of bed at 7:30AM this morning. Cold enough that while the dogs jumped up onto the bed to keep themselves warm by snuggling with Bec, I put the coffee pot on one burner of the stove, then lit a second burner just to try and warm myself up.

The early start was a necessity, to ensure we have enough time to make the drive to Denham, while allowing for a few stops along the way. We had originally planned to split todays drive up, taking it easy by staying overnight in a freebie camp along side of the road. With the extra day spent in Carnarvon caring for the dogs, we made the decision to do it all in one hit. Not that we are talking about any great distances, as it’s only about 340Km, even accounting for a couple of quick detours along the way.

Anyway, back to the story at hand, while I banged about in the kitchen, trying to make my coffee in abject silence, while trying to warm my icy hands over the gas hob, Bec and the dogs enjoyed a further ½ an hour of shut eye. With my coffee warming me from the inside out, I ventured outside, the crystalline droplets of dew glittering like diamonds in the early morning sun, as I got underway packing up the pipes and hoses and cords that would otherwise tether us to our site.

Bec was soon up and making good inside the van, before letting the dogs out for a quick morning amble about the park. We made relatively good time in packing and hitching up, although would have been somewhat thriftier in our use of time had we not had to struggle to line ‘The Beast’ and the caravan up. A task that was made all the more difficult by the proximity of the front end of ‘The Beast’ to the shrubbery fence line. Never the less, we were all hitched up and ready to roll by only 10 minutes after our designated time of departure of 9:00AM.

Then, we got chatting. This is not the first time this has happened, but you are all ready to go, just going through the final few pre-departure checks, and the next door neighbor will say G’day. As a result of this mornings interaction, you can expect us home another 25 minutes late. We were able to glean some helpful info from our new friend however, as she has travelled from the south, and was able to advise us on a few dog friendly places to visit.

Along the way, we were reflecting upon what wildlife we have seen so far during our travels. We keep saying that we haven’t seen that much, but when we started listing the animals we’ve spotted, it was quite an extensive list. And, today, we got to add another specimen to the catalogue. We spotted something that looked like a cross between a goat and a sheep. I told Bec that they were Geep, half goat and half sheep. Do you know what she did? She laughed at me. Surely no such thing existed she asserted. Naturally, she didn’t believe a word of it, until such time that Wikipedia confirmed my assessment. With the head of a goat and the body of a sheep, they are an odd looking creature, wandering about the low shrubs along the road.

It was another 2 ½ hours later before we wheeled off of the main road and pulled into the car park of the first of our two diversions. We were at Hamelin Pool to view the stromatolites, earths earliest known life form. Walking out along the boardwalk, peering down through the glassy water, the stromatolites look like nothing more than rock, but they are actually living organisms that grow at a rate of only 0.3mm per year and produce oxygen. It was stormatolites that changed the make up of earths atmosphere to allow for the evolution of life. We can add them too now, to our list of wildlife.

That’s them. The Stromatolites reaching out into the bay.

We then had another ¾ of an hour drive to our second planned stop, at ‘Shell Beach’. We first sat in the caravan for a bite to eat for lunch before making the short trek down to the beach. Unlike the shell beach at Exmouth, this is a true shell beach. Where you would expect to find sand, the ground is covered in millions of tiny little shells, all crunching noisily beneath your feet with each and every step. There are several hard packed shell dunes over which to clamber, before reaching the waters edge, where the shells are strewn loosely across the ground. Everywhere you look, these tiny little cockleshells form a sharp, crunchy beach. Despite the unusual ground covering, the water that gently laps the shore is of an indescribable clarity. It was of an almost similarly indescribable coldness, although wading in, its chilly effect was diminished as the extremities of our legs numbed to its influences.

It was colder than it looks.

We spent nearly an hour, stretched out prone, shells needling our backs, as the sun warmed us and the water tickled our toes. If not for the threat of severe lacerations, I could imagine laying here and making the equivalent of snow angels.

The name really does say it all: ‘Shell Beach’.

Ouch, gotta watch where you step (or sit for that matter).

Handfuls of shells.

It was straight to Denham and our caravan park from the beach, where we checked in and surprisingly reversed the van into our allotted space with little effort. It took us a couple of hours to set up the awning and an annex wall in an effort to prevent Alvin and Bethany spotting the big, bouncy, friendly pooch in the site behind ours. We also spent some time carefully aligning the TV antenna, only to find that the ABC is the only channel that is broadcast terrestrially in these parts. At least that ought to prevent any arguments over who has control of the remote control.

With the van all set up and feeling like home again, we all bundled back into ‘The Beast’ for a quick look about town. To drive from one end of town to the other takes all of about 30 seconds. There is one main street, which runs along the waterfront promenade. Here, a handful of small stores, a couple of hotels and the visitors centre overlook the waters edge. The town rises up the hill from the esplanade, but there is little more to see here. It is however the western most town in mainland Australia, and only separated from the extreme western point of Australia by a hundred or so kilometres and a rugged dirt track we have already decided we won’t be attempting to navigate.

I figure you’d all be sick of sunset pics by now, so we turned around for this photo. I can say it was pretty nice though.

We stopped briefly at the northern end of town to take the dogs for a walk along the beach, but it was only a narrow strip of rough sand leading to the high tide. We found the beach at the opposite end of town to be more conducive to a walk, although Alvin decided to have a go at wearing me out again, by continually tugging at his leash until such time as I gave him a run. Thus, we spent the final minutes of sunlight, waltzing energetically up and down the beach as we watched yet another fantastic sunset.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.