Our time went so fast at the Cape - we couldn't believe it! Over the last two or so weeks we didn't do much other than a little crabbing, as the winds came up rather strong and we couldn't launch the kayaks. The wind, combined with a large swell made boat fishing problematic for everyone! As we said, we did manage to get a few crabs for a feed or two, but even these were becoming hard to find as the large group from Nullagine and Hedland that came in over the school holidays hit the creeks pretty hard. In fact they hit everything pretty hard - talk about raping and pillaging!
Towards the end of our time, some of the long term campers began to drift off to home or to other places. Things quietened down towards the end of the school holidays, so most campfires were us and Wayne and Terry for most evenings. On a couple of occasions we were joined by others, (Pauline and Richard, Norm and Jackie, Lesley and Doug, Stuart and Toni - with Milly of course!)
Terry celebrated her birthday at the Cape (what a magnificent place to celebrate at) so Paula "whipped up" Chocolate Ripple Log from a recipe that we saw in a 4x4 magazine. We all enjoyed a piece along with a nice Nespresso coffee (Never go without the luxuries is our motto!)
We had decided to set Monday, July 20 as our departure date so accordingly Sunday was the pack up day. Steve decided to make a time lapse video of our final pack up of the Quantum as we are selling when we return home and have purchased a lotus Trooper to be delivered in November. We will miss the Quantum. It has been a magnificent camper and it has set the bar pretty high for the next one. The short video is below for those that can be bothered.
Monday duly arrived and we set off at a very leisurely time as we were only driving to Hedland to stay with some friends for the night. We stopped off in South Hedland so that we could use the car wash there to knock some of the dust off the car and camper at the local car wash and then drove across to Port Hedland where we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Esplanade Hotel before meeting up with our friends Kevin and Marie and Steve and Helen. Steve and Helen graciously offered their drive for our camper for the night, an offer too good to refuse. We thought we were heading out for dinner, but the Hedland crew had other ideas so it was a lovely feed of chicken, pizza and (wait for it) mud crabs - yummmmmm. Better than any restaurant.
We took our time driving home - no need to rush any more - and decided that from Hedland we would drive to Kumarina to stay for the night. The weather started cooling very quickly and we were soon driving into rain again! Kumarina has a basic caravan park out the back so we set up there and enjoyed a few drinks at the bar and dinner in the restaurant before bed.
Our next stop was at Lake Nullen again. This time we scored a prime camp site right on the banks of the lake. It was beautiful - the lake was full (it is often dry) and grebes and ducks were swimming in the water. We decided to light up the fire pit and this proved to be a good idea as the clouds cleared and the night became very cool.
Our last stop on the trip was again New Norcia - this has become a bit of a favourite. Once again we patronised the hotel for tea for a lovely dinner to celebrate a wonderful trip. The whole adventure passed too quickly and we enjoyed the company of many lovely people at the Cape. To those of you reading this who spent time with us, thank you for your company, hospitality, generosity, laughter and friendship. We intend to keep in touch and will be back again - don't know when, but we will be!
Finally we arrived home on Friday 23 July. Then the big clean up began! Until our next trip!