26/09/18 Exmouth

25/09/18 On the way in to Exmouth, I stopped at the info centre to get the good oil on what to do and where to go.  Came away with a handful of paper, even menus of local eateries.
My accommodation at the Potshot when I got to it is basic but adequate.  Having an ensuite when you rock up hot and sweaty is just the best thing.  And it wasn't expensive.  The room is lined with small corrugated iron, one small window.  The airconditioner is the old type in the wall, but works OK.
Tea was at their restaurant.  Prices highish, but the chicken caesar salad was good and big.  Little Creatures cider is OK, but not special.  (Still looking for that elusive magical cider with real taste, a bit on the rough side.)
I got back to my room after tea and just crashed!  The day had been bigger than I thought.  Stirred a few times in the night, but slept through til nearly 8.

26/09/19 Got away around 9, heading for Turquoise Bay (recommended by Don) for some snorkelling.
My technology let me down.  I gawk at the sights and get lost easily, so I like the GPS to show me where to go.  It won't find anything here.  the street names show on the map, so it knows them.  Its as if they didn't bother to index them for searching in this part of the world.  Streets in Exmouth just can't be found.  It was the same further south.  So I tried Navigator, the offline map app on my phone.  Same problem.  Google saved the day.  Put Turquoise Bay into Google Maps on my phone, and it unerringly led me there.

On the way to Cape Range National Park, I passed lots of antennae, of all shapes and sizes.  Saw the HF array that was used to communicate with US submarines before satellite communication took over.  Might still be a backup, dunno.
Between the RAAF base on the way in, the Navy base out there and an Army base nearby, most of this whole area is Commonwealth controlled.  Then there is parks & wildlife controlling the reserves.  Lucky there's a bit of private land for people to actually live on!
While gawping at the antennae, I swivelled my head around to see a group of emus on the side of the road in front of one of the bases.  Luckily they didn't want to cross the road, cos I didn't have time for avoidance.
Those are the first emus I've seen on this trip!

I'm pretty hopeless at absorbing directions, or I forget lots, probably both.
Arrived at Turquoise Bay to find lots of people (no spare parking spaces), a toilet block, and that's it.  Where to hire some snorkelling gear?
So I rang (cousin) Don, who has been everywhere in Oz.  Found out that I should have stopped at the park information centre I'd breezed past.
Rode back.  Hired mask, snorkel, flippers, for what I thought was a reasonable $10.  Got told that Oyster Stack was the best place to snorkel, but might have to climb up and down rocks a bit. So I rode out there.

I'd worn my bathers under my riding jeans, so just had to strip down to those and don a t-shirt.  Wandered down to the sea from the carpark, and donned said snorkelling gear.  Here is where I should have had an 'action camera' to put to use.   But I don't, so no photos of what I saw.
The coral and fish are a few metres from the 'beach'.  You just have to drift around close by in shallow water to observe them.  The fish aren't shy.  Must be used to tourists.  -And there were lots of tourists (and fish) there.
I saw two colourful corals.  A blue-purple brain coral, and a bright green stag-horn coral (Think I've got the names right.)  No big fish, but a fair amount of colour.  As at Coral Bay, the most colourful and interesting were the parrot fish.

My swim was spoiled somewhat by two problems.  I had trouble to get the mask not leaking in water, and it was a bit blowy.  The wind meant choppy waves which ensured the occasional mouthful of seawater, annd you got pushed around by the waves.  Climbing back to shore was tricky, because the waves threw me off balance all the time.  But it was a good experience.  I didn't find the water too cold.  But I did think someone should have told me to get out there early to avoid the wind (so said someone I spoke to in the carpark).

So here is the procedure for a motorcyclist returning from the beach:
1. Undo string around neck for key hanging there, open topbox containing precious stuff.
2. Remove sopping t-shirt, put on dry long sleeved-shirt.
3. Remove sopping bathers.  Hope no-one is offended by my bare bum.  (Its probably my bare droopy chest that's worse. - Too much information?)
4. Dry nether regions and legs a bit.  Put on undies.
5. Take off deck shoes.  Scrape sand off legs & feet.  Put on socks.
6. Put on riding jeans.
7. Stow wet stuff in bag, everything in topbox.
8. Hop on, ride off unsteadily on dirt road to the site.  (The road the Turquoise Bay was totally sealed.)

Here would be the procedure for a car driver returning from the beach.
1. Don't be so paranoid about security, get key/fob from bag taken to beach.  Unlock car.
2. Throw towel over seat.  Get in.
3. Drive off confidently on whatever road surface is there.

I rode back, stopping at the visitor centre to return the snorkelling gear, to get my $50 deposit.  It was in the form of a card imprint, which they'd used if I didn't return the gear.  I haven't seen one of those mechanical gadgets in years.  they still exist!
On the way out I snapped yet another keep-out sign.
Definitely bad news here in school holidays.  The whole park is full.

On the way in, I'd seen a guy stopped behind an ant hill.  I thought he was photographing one up close.  As I rode past, I saw what he was really photographing.  There is the ant mound which was hiding...
Sturt Desert Peas.  There you are Michele.  I resolved to get it on the way out.

A closer look.

And just one spray.  No black centres, but it has to be them.

I only saw three small patches of these flowers on the roadside in the park.
BTW, my monthly WA Holiday Park Pass that I'd bought at Kalbarri, was OK in Cape Range National Park.

Rode 'home', hopped in the shower (bliss), had a lunch snack, did some laundry.  Just my luck, the first machine I tried just swallowed my money.  I rang the office and they sent a fellow with some more money for another machine.  Then onto this blog.  And by now, my stuff on the line will be dry as the proverbial.  Off to collect it, then check out the local Thai restaurant.  :)

27/09/18 Veeeerrryy slow start today.  Lounged around until midday, then decided to go for a walk.  I wanted a plug so I could wash things in the basin (usually they don't supply plugs).  Chickie in IGA yesterday couldn't tell me if they had one or not, just where it would be if they did.  I'd looked without success.
Google says the hardware store is 2.8km.  I can do that.  So off I trot.  A bit of breeze, so not too hot.  Get there, buy a plug, walk back to the shopping centre feeling hot and sweaty.  Must have walked miles n miles!  But the Samsung Health app on my phone still doesn't have me reaching that magical 10,000 steps today.  I reckon it lies!
Weakened, bought a roll and a 'Barista' coffee milk.  (I'm getting addicted to them.  But hey, cheaper and probably healthier than a beer.)  I just feel guilty, buying a drink in a plastic bottle in a state where they probably don't even recycle them.
Back to the digs to cool down.  The aircon soon has my room nice.

The resident/backpacker sitting area here is huge.  And behind it is a very big hotel eating/drinking/swimming complex.  There is indoor dining, or sitting around a swimming pool.  On the left of this area is the residents/backpackers kitchen.  Not too shabby.  More frying pans in there than you'd see in a shop.
(I just go in of a morning to boil the jug for my dripper coffee.)

Under the palm tree was this little guy.

Look how well camouflaged he is.  Saw a few of them crossing the road in the park yesterday on the way to snorkelling.  But unlike the slow sleepy lizards at home, these fellas zoom across the road.  Unlikely to get squashed.

While I was out on my walk, I came across an unlikely combination, a Europcar hire joint and secondhand bookshop.  Of course I had to have a look.  The lady was out front feeding a quite tame grey butcher bird with mince.  Another one rocked up which I thought was a murray magpie, but no, it was a different type of butcher bird (obvious by the beak, when I had a decent look).  A crested pigeon was hanging around.  She said they will eat meat when there's no seed or bread on offer (news to me).  She had to stop leaving meat on the floor inside the shop for the 'tame' butcher bird, because seagulls were getting in on the act.
I didn't buy any books (expensive at $12 or so each), but learnt a bit about birds.

Saw these plants all over the place in bare paddocks like weeds.

Tea was a seafood pasta in the Potshot.  I had to go out to the back garden with my ale, when the table next door became infested with demanding little kids.  -Really sounding like a grumpy old man, eh?

28/09/18  Another slow start.
Breakfast and coffee.  I have to go to the shared kitchen to get boiling water for my dripper.  Reckon they've got enough frypans?

Chatting to the next door neighbours, from New Zealand.  Then while catching up with the things I keep an eye on, Facebook led me astray.  I stumbled across a Far Side (cartoon) group.  Don't know where the time went!  Love that humour.
Eventually got on the bike to do some tootling round.  Posted some stuff home (won't need t much warm clothing now).  Did a bit of shopping.  Treated myself to another one of those decadent Barista coffee milks.  Then just rode around the town for a bit.

Look at the weeds I saw.

 These have the black bit.

Leah wanted to know what the Potshot hotel looks like.
This is the view of the hotel part from the road carpark.  At night it's very brightly lit up.

This is looking at the entrance to the accommodation.  My donga is behind that ute on the right.

Now John has joined me again.  He will sleep on the floor tonight.
Tomorrow we go on together to Tom Price.
Tea was a couple of beers and chicken caesar salad for both of us, at Potshot.
On the way back to our room, we stopped in at the bottle shop.  The only cask port they had was Renmano.  Not normally a brand I'd buy.  The port confirms that status.  (A cask packs better than a bottle.)