Turn of Events on the West Coast
- Michele Payne
- Aug 20
- 4 min read
The colours of Ningaloo Reef defy description. From the moment you gaze on its myriad tones of blue you want nothing else but to immerse yourself in its warm waters.
Exmouth is the only township with access to the northern parts of the reef and its prosperity depends on such a fortuitous location. For us there was a sense of anticipation as we drove towards this small seaside town, having endured ten long weeks without access to crocodile free salt waters. We'd booked a campsite at Cape Range National Park, the best and closest access to the snorkelling sites and once there we made the most of viewing the beautiful corals and fish.
However, the ferociously windy weather made both the snorkelling and camping difficult, so we were happy to move on to the next planned "watery" delight of Coral Bay via Exmouth. Within hours of our overnight stop in Exmouth, Alan complained of a sore foot, most likely he thought the result of a spider bite he'd felt whilst cycling. A day or two of antihistamines and all would be well.
Coral Bay was idyllic. It had lost none of the isolation and pristine marine beauty that we'd been astonished by when we visited eight years earlier. Despite his now swollen and angry red foot - Al - in typical carefully considered manner, forced on his fins and enjoyed yet another snorkel. It was his last on the trip.
\Within hours his foot was gigantic. Coral Bay had no medical assistance bar a tiny nursing station, manned by casual, itinerant staff. A delightful Irish girl was the current nurse and, having looked at the by now distorted, purplish red foot called the doctor in Exmouth for advice. A script for antibiotics eventually came back through her fax. We needed to take the script to the Dive Shop (no reflection on their ethics!) and have them send it off to the Exmouth pharmacy who, if the timing was right and the drug in stock, would send the prescribed drugs back to the Dive Shop with the post the following day. Faultless! Unless the diagnosis was perhaps dubious? Or the post was delayed, or the fax was unreadable or…
Well yes, the antibiotics didn't work. Al's foot ballooned into something almost unrecognizable and we swiftly drove the 350 kms to Carnarvon Hospital. A very competent team looked after Al, quickly admitting him and giving him a large dose of intravenous antibiotic to cover both spider bite and possible coral water infection. Either way they thought it was a Staph infection which wasn't responding to treatment.
Thankfully, after three anxious days, there was an improvement and he was discharged (with a raft of drugs and strict instructions about his activities), so we could resume our travels. A very lucky escape was the general consensus. But then again it's not really a trip without Alan pushing the health boundaries!
We slowed our place, in accordance with instructions, and headed to Geraldton for a few nights. Apart from the excitement of the caravan next door being broken into during the night - they crept in and took the handbag, phone, tablet and jewelry from the bedside table as the couple slept - we found nothing to hold us there (certainly not the security!) and decided to follow the wildflowers for a while.
A great decision! We drove 100 kms inland via a roadside confetti of white, pink and lemon, towards Coalseam Conservation Park. The flowers teased us along like a Hansel and Gretel trail till finally, as if in grateful acknowledgment of our patience, it rewarded us with a vast slash of hottest pink or an entire field of yellow. But this was just the taste.
On arrival at Coalseam we saw the best display of everlasting daisies and wildflowers you could imagine. Not just a few, but paddocks and fields completely covered in them, as far as you could see. Plus we had the added delight of camping there, completely surrounded by a field of golden yellow everlastings, highlighted with the occasional hot pink and white ones. I just smiled all weekend!
We moved more quickly along the coast after that, unsuccessfully chasing fine weather. In the end we did a dash from seaside Kalbarri to Perth where we stayed for over a week. A beautiful city with excellent public transport and ample time to catch up with friends there, but the weather continued to be cold, wet and windy with sunshine quite elusive.
So we decided to move on to delightful Margaret River, where we knew it would mean a few more days of rain and cold, but where we were finally heading homewards. We were starting to feel that the trip was running out of steam, no doubt partly the weather, partly having spent four months in our tiny VW and partly Alan's still somewhat limited activity levels combined with being in places we'd explored previously. Novelty is a great entertainer!
This was Part Five of a five part series. Check out the other articles in the series too:
Comments