We had a late start to our drive to Warroora Station from Carnarvon. Stocked up with groceries, bait etc so didn't get going till about lunch time. We travelled through very desolate country with hardly a tree to be seen on the way.
After letting our tyres down to help with the corrugation over the 10km track into the beach at Warroora, we were quite pleasantly surprised by the condition of the road. Caretaker Lesley, who lives in her van at the entrance to the beach, provided a warm welcome and directions to our site next to the Hannans, who had arrived a couple of days earlier.
With the Nigaloo Reef clearly visible just off shore, we made our way along the firm sand to our site.
A number of "long termers" had already established themselves for the 4 or 5 month stay that lay ahead of them, just as many of them have done for the last 10 or so years. Not sure I would like to stay that long but we certainly enjoyed our 3 or 4 days on the beach. The views are quite spectacular, wildlife abounds including kangaroos that seem keen to spend time next to the water whether that means rock hopping or spending time on the beach. Also unusual is the number of crabs that invade your camp site each night, looking for discarded scraps of food etc. Their foot prints carpet the sand each morning, but only where there are campers.
We did get some useful advice from the "long termers" although their suggestion of hunting for octopus in the holes in the reefs at low tide, was not one of them. They seemed to be able to locate enough octupus to keep them in bait, but our expedition proved unsuccessful.
With a steep slope and quite soft sand down to the waters edge, this place is certainly more suited to launching tinnies like Hanno's than boats the size of ours. Before our arrival the Hannans had tried a spot of fishing in their tinny (see photo of Hanno bogged on the beach) inside the reef as the strong winds had made venturing out through the narrow gap in the reef unsafe. They had found a few nice reef fish but most were a bit on the small side. Edie and John, two "long termers" had tried their luck outside and had returned with a nice Spanish Mackerel so when the forecast was for 5 to 7 knot winds for a couple of hours the next morning, Hanno and Stelleen decided they would follow Edie and John out through the reef and into the open sea. This proved to be a very smart move as within a half an hour of trolling outside, Stelleen had landed a MARLIN. No kidding, it really was a black marlin as can be seen from the photos. Another run on Stelleen's purple lure came up empty so with the wind beginning to pick up, they decided to return to shore and share their photos. To say I was jealous of Stelleen catching such a prized trophy fish would be an understatement. As it turns out it was quite an achievement as a couple of the "long termers" of 9 years had not heard of anyone catching a Marlin in these waters.
With a similar forecast the next morning, Stelleen kindly gave her spot up in the tinny and Carol and I, skippered by the skipper of the year, ventured out into the Marlin waters to try our luck. Apart from seeing a few schools of tuna, some turtles and flying fish and Carol having one short run on Stelleen's purple lure, the trip proved unproductive but still interesting and well worth the effort. Hanno is to be complimented on his ability to successfully guide his tinny and valuable cargo through quite a narrow, shallow entrance with waves breaking on "Bombies" all around.
We packed up that afternoon (Friday) and headed into the Peoples Caravan Park in Coral Bay. The Hannans join us tomorrow, hopefully with more stories of fish caught at Warroora Station.