Quobba (the reunion) and Shark Bay

Day 43:

KLMS Travelled – 11,840

The leaflet for Quobba Station & Red bluff had been stuck on the front of our fridge for 5 years. We met the owners, Tim & Sara during a trip to Rome in 2007 when somehow i’d managed to persuade Richard go to Italy with me, despite the Rugby World Cup being in full flow. He’d agreed to immerse himself in one of my passions, Classical history, as long we got to watch all the rugby games. During a tour of the Colosseum, Richard’s attention was soon diverted when he spotted the gleaming gold of 2 wallabies supporters – England were playing Australia that afternoon in the quarter finals and he was soon over and introducing himself, keen to know where they were watching the game. We swiftly left the tour and headed to the nearest pub, the Wallabies supporters introducing themselves as Tim&Sara from WA who’d come over for the  World Cup. They mentioned that they owned a station called Quobba and handed us a leaflet, saying if we were ever in Australia we should look them up. That afternoon the English smashed the Aussies in the quarter finals and by the look on Tim&Sara’s face we thought we’d better leave it a while before we visited. 6 years later we arrived on their doorstep!!

Quobba station is 80klms long by 15klms – stretching along the most beautiful, rugged west coast. We hadn’t timed our trip well, as Tim was heading off on a fishing trip the next day, but it was great to see them again and catch up over a beer and learning about station life and remote living.  We headed further up the property to Red Bluff – which boasts one of the best surfing and fishing spots in Aus and camped right on the beach – it was an unbelievable setting and we couldn’t believe that this was all in their ‘backyard’.  We had a couple of lazy days swimming and fishing off the beach and despite only having ‘light gear’ we still caught plenty of fish – only slight issue was the couple of sharks that were patrolling the shoreline. We tried to be brave and still go swimming and snorkeling but knowing that our toothy friends were not far away, we didn’t venture too far out!

Heading south we ventured into the Francois Peron National Park (Shark Bay) which is another World Heritage Marine Park. It gained it’s status through the it’s amazing bio-diversity including wild dolphins, rare Bilbys and the largest population of Dugongs. We saw bugger all! The  scenery was still spectacular and driving through the soft sand tracks was great fun and a great confidence boost to see what the car could do. We also gained another rescue credit, helping to pull a stranded car and trailer out of the sand as well as giving the Maxtrax another good work out. The most ridiculously expensive piece of plastic we’ve ever bought, so keen to get our money’s worth!

We can’t believe these are our last few days with Kylie – 6 weeks has gone so fast!