BEACH CAMPS ON THE NINGALOO COAST ARE INSANE | ROADTRIP AUSTRALIA EP.10 |

The freaking cruise master under there. Yeah. We're going to Ningaloo. So not far out of Coral Bay you'll find the turn off to Warra Station which is where we're going now. Absolute beachfront camping. Make sure you look for this sign and then hang a left or a right depending on which way you're coming. It's 34km down the dirt road to get in there. So the missus was navigating so don't blame me. We've done 40 extra kilometers that we had to turn around and come back in this way. Anyway, drop your tyres, slow down and it's an easy road. I just take all mine down to 20 straight up and cruise in probably takes another 40-50 minutes and hopefully, it's pretty busy in there so hopefully there's a few spots on the beach and we'll show you what that's all about. Absolute beachfront camping, reef out the front, good fishing, campfires like, it's brilliant mate. So come in here, we'll give you a look. How'd you enjoy that mate? You like driving an extra 40 kilometers or what? Quarter of a tank of fuel mate, why not? Thanks for that Bec. How's that mate? You like driving extra 40km's? Yeah, it was so much fun. She's clever. I don't think she's all there. I suppose a good thing to note is a big sign on entry. Don't bother getting here after 5pm or they won't let you in. I suppose this shows you what it's all about. Let your tyres down, slow down and enjoy. Don't bang in here like an idiot and ruin it for everyone else. Just chill out, have fun. It's one of the best campsites in Australia. So here's the first glimpse at 14 mile camp at Water Station coming down over the dune. Look at that, look at the colour of the water. You can see the vans parked up along there. Love this place. There's a dump on the way in down here on the left and there's also a little hill here, they call it Telstra Hill. So you can drive up there and get pretty good phone service. So that's handy and then yeah, just kick back and enjoy that. What are you, pumped mate? Bloody love this place. Honestly, I will tell you it's one of my favourites around Australia. Check it. What do you reckon of this joint? It's pretty bloody awesome, look at the view we've got. Here we go. So we're at Water Station. We weren't lucky enough to nail one of the beachfront sites which are down the end here. I'll sort of poke my head over the front here. They're all down the beach down there but it's a pretty sought-after spot these days. It's highly popular and we're in peak tourist season as well but I do reckon that the old grey nomads have got like a secret booking system going on because they all seem to get the beachfront sites. The families don't. There's a bit of a clicky system going on. I don't know what it is but I need to expose it. Anyway, we're on the ridge so there's about 18 sites along the ridge that range from the bottom across the top there. Actually, there might be more. It might be 20 or so. Anyway, we're parked up here. It's pretty nice. We're not absolute beachfront but we can walk down our own little track here. We've got a fire pit. The I'll be able to fish down there on high tide. It's really low now so the reef's really exposed and yeah, it's just a good spot. So we kind of planned if we managed to get, if you didn't notice the flies are pretty bad too, but if we managed to get a beachfront site we probably would have stayed a couple of days. The fact that we're up on the ridge here and there's no chance of us getting a beachy in the next few days. We'll just move on after tomorrow but it's pretty nice in here. We showed you the access road in. It's not too hard to get to. Night here and then we'll head up the coast and show you Ningaloo station. Somewhere we have never been but looks pretty epic. Pretty epic. Pretty epic. A bit hard to get to. There's not as many nomads up there. We should be able to get a spot on the beach but this will do for now. Righto, this is probably going to look a bit funny. I'm reef walking with my fly net on but old mate caretaker gave me a hot tip. He said get out and walk the flats just down here with your hand spear. There's a heap of octopus and stuff so you just find them in their hole, hit them with your hand spear and you can drag them out. So I was walking around for a while. I didn't think he was for real but I've just found one. Can't go underwater because it's got a microphone on it but nailed this one. You can see his big leg there but he's locked himself in the hole. Here we go. He's in there. I'm gonna get him. He's mine. Oh seriously, I think I've managed to spear like the biggest octopus on the reef. I don't know how the hell it got down that hole but it is massive and it will not come out. Yes, look at this. Oh lord, how the hell did that fit in that bloody hole? It's the biggest octopus ever. Man, hey, that'll be a good feed on the barbie. Wait for the rest of it. Oh man, that's another first for me. I don't even know they'd be in little holes like that. Look at this. Oh, look at him. Oh, isn't it cool how they change colors. That's insane. Oh, he didn't like that. Oh, go Jacko. What do you got mate? Octopus. You have to get out. Look at that. Hey Billy, come and help him. Oh, look at that. There you go. Twist him up. Twist him up. Go boys. Get into it boys. Lift him up. Yeah, on the beach. Take him up the beach. That's it. Oh, well done. High five Bill. Yes. I want to touch him. Oh, look at that. You can touch them. Yeah. So this is where you make it if you know the caretaker. I don't know. Like I said before, I reckon there's some unwritten law that we don't know about to get a spot down here but look at this. Look at this. Your tinny's here. There's a road. There's your van. Oh man. It's like a fishing, beach camping, that kind. Look at them. Look at that. They're sitting here for three months. Oh, easy. Three months, six months. Check out these setups. They have been here for a while but why wouldn't you? What is it? A hundred bucks a week? Yeah, for two people. Holy hell. They don't have to pay for kids either. Look how cheap they are. Man, this is 14 mile beach, beach camping. This is insane. Good luck trying to get here. Good luck. There was a waiting list when we got here to get on 14 mile. Yeah. A waiting list just to get on here. So we're up at, well, we've renamed it Heartbreak Ridge because we're pretty, we're pretty devoid that we didn't get a spot here. Oh, there's the family. Anyway, there's the lucky buggers there. Lucky family. One family out of 478 great nomads. Yeah. Anyway, you win some, you lose some. It's like the weather. Can't control it. Can't comply with it. Oh, sunset on the ridge, eh? Not too bad. We missed out on a beach spot, but what do you reckon, babe? Oh, this is terrible. Eh? Honestly. That sucks, doesn't it? Far out. Not too bad at all. This is why we love WA. Oh, look at this. How's that for a photo, man? That is just epic. Everyone's having like happy hour along the cliff watching the sun go down. Man, don't get much better than this. Aren't you guys bloody lucky? This is my kind of morning. Eh? Sunrise out here. Through our dirty window. I'm trying to watch the sunrise. Waiting for their coffee that I'm making here. Anyway, don't worry about them. I'll take you out of here to check this out. Look at these colours. Eh? Can you imagine waking up here? It's only a hundred bucks a week to stay here for two people or for a family. They don't charge you for kids. Eh? The sun went down out here last night. Had a fire. And then it's going to come up over the back of the hills here this morning. How's the colours, bud? Here we go again. Probably getting sick of looking at my bloody rough head, but we are at the turnoff to Ningaloo Station. Now this one, from all accounts, is a real adventure. It's one of the roughest roads to get into a campground and at the very start of it, at the highway, this is what you run into. So I'm guessing it is going to be pretty rough. Sad story. One of the families we've been travelling with, they just smashed the chassis on their van in here yesterday. So I don't know what happened, but the A-frame now bent like a banana and they got towed to Exmouth. So anyway, that's why we've got an off-road van and we're going to head in and give it a crack. Slow down. Drive to conditions. Should be able to get in here. No bloody dramas. Some cool campsites. The reason we're here is that we hit Coral Bay and we hit Warra. We're packed in like sardines, mate. Get real anxious and go stir crazy. I just want to get out on my own. Do some cool stuff. So we're coming in here where it shouldn't be so busy because the road's too rough and it scares everyone off. They go from Warra, Coral Bay, straight to Exmouth. Anyway, not for us. Not this time, eh dear? What's that? We're going in. Normally we'd drive straight past. Normally? But now we've got an off-road van. The freaking cruise master under there. Yeah. We're going to Ningaloo. It's going to be fun. It's going to be sick. I'm excited. Not for the corrugations, the beach camp. Yeah. I don't know where yet. We might be beside the South Lefroy or Winderbandie. There's a heap of camps in there. Flies are bad. Flies are bad. Again, flies are always bad. Wave your arms in the air and spell Bobo. She only fell for that once. Righto, let's go. 45km of this to get into the campsite. 22km in and you hit a bit of a wide junction where one way takes you to Yardie Creek and all the campsites on Ningaloo Station. The other way takes you to the homestead. So this is the best part. Look at this. Camping fees, $5 per person per day. Children under 10, half charge. So it's like $35 a week. How good is that? And you don't have to hack in like sardines. You're not dealing with cranking caravan parks. And you're not paying $15 per child, which sucks. Anyway, I reckon we should unhook the van and have a look at that. Check out this bloody hill climb. Sick. Okay, here we go. We have made it to South Lefroy. We haven't had the best trip to be honest. It's only taken us about two hours. Took us extra because old numpty over here left the GoPro on the caravan and it fell off somewhere on the track. So we had to double back. Tell them the real story. Yeah, okay, I did it. But we haven't found it. So if anyone ever finds a flippin GoPro on the way into Ningaloo station, please let us know. Bloody hell. $500, awesome. To go with that, I screwed me storm tire deflators on at the start of the track. I thought I'll just leave them on and drive 10 minutes up the road. I got out and wanted to bloody come loose. So I lost one of those too. So not the best start of the freaking trip. But anyway, we're here. Check it out. There's nothing in the scheme of things. Flicked on through here, a bit of a sandy track and the sun's going down. We are at South Lefroy, Lefroy, Lefroy. L-E-F-R-O-Y. Anyway, we're hoping that we might have it to ourselves, but there's a heap of other Muppets here already. So anyway, all right, we had a change in plans. As we do. As we do. Hey, we showed up to Lefroy and all the good spots were taken, which is a bit of a bugger. So we're going up to another place called Winderbandy. It's a bit tighter, a bit rockier, but it's only about half an hour away. Anyway, and we've got some other mates who are staying up there anyway. So we will go there and have a look. It is here, if you can see that, Winderbandy point. No words needed. And it's down here. Here's where we were, Lefroy Bay. So I don't know what's happened. We've either missed the turn off or this is it here. Yeah, on Wikicamps, it looks like we need to go either left here or a little bit further. This is Winderbandy point coming down the track. Look at this. We have a few more Tiger Stripes up the side of the van, I reckon. Look at that. Well, you know, that's what you're buying for, I suppose, isn't it? She's pretty bloody tight. Hey, look at this. Stick your head out the window. Oh, okay. I can just hear those. At least it ain't, oh actually, I was going to say, at least it ain't saltbush, but it is. Anyway, our memories. Hey, every time I look at those scratches, I go freaking Winderbandy point. So this is Ningaloo station, right? And this is Winderbandy point, or Winderbandy point. It's pretty special. So I'm going to hold you in suspense because I reckon this spot deserves it. Wait for this, mate. Turn this around. Our caravan, our ute and the beach. Hey, what the hell is this? Far out, mate. Can you get any closer to the water? Seriously, look at that. Fully protected. Oh, about 20km that way is Yardie Creek and the start of Cape Range National Park. Mate, oh, it makes me so bloody happy, mate. Hey, what do you reckon, babe? Where are you? Oh my God, how bloody good is this? Look at this, you can just step out. Look up, mate, you just cooked up Justin some steamed dimmies. Oh, look at that, new beauty. Soy sauce. Going to go for a swim now, just put the bathers on. Oh my God, this is just unbelievable. We keep saying it, like we keep adding these places to our top 10, but we just keep finding better and better ones. It is a beautiful spot. It is ridiculous. And I went for a walk along the beach this morning and dolphins literally came off the shore like two meters. I've got it on my iPhone, might be able to drop it in, but like they were just chasing fish right there. It's paradise, love it. The good thing about it, like we showed you Warra, Warra's an awesome spot, they jam me in like sardines, right? So this one here, we're in a site and then the next site's not for like 30 meters up the beach that way. And then there's another one, you can see where this boat trailer is here, that's the next site there. So you can't hear your neighbours, you've got plenty of space to yourself and you've got this thing. Now there's lots of stuff you can do, you can go exploring, there's an old whaling station, there's a few different campgrounds to choose from. We showed you, we checked out South Lefroy on the way through, we didn't think it was much chop, but anyway, this one here for us is, I'm lost for words at the moment, because this is our perfect campsite. I think this is site 18 or is it site 20? Yeah, I think it's 18, 19, 20. Well not 19 because it's in the June. So 18 or 20. 18 or 20 this spot is and it's, oh I can't wait to show all that footage from last time. Yeah, been good times here hey? Far out. Good times. Ningaloo station mate, how good is this? Absolute beachfront, caravans are parked right here, the sun's going down up here, you've got like the gorge in the background, so the moon come up there last night just as the sun went down, absolutely epic, but anyway, always want to do one of these. I've seen it heaps, other people digging them on the beach, today had a couple of other lads here, Jamie from Lap It Up, Jacko from the Jacksons and old Matty Marshman. We've managed to dig one, check out this, only took us about an hour, but far out. We're going to sit here tonight, hey, crack into the tins, crack that fire and then just watch that go down. I reckon it might be a big night, just quietly. Oh, ---- pour. So we get a few questions now and then about how we power up the ute if we're not driving, so we do have solar inputs on the ute and when we do stop for a while, we carry a 200 watt portable blanket, so normally I might throw that out and chuck it on the external Anderson plug on the van just to pump another few amps into it, because we get about 10 amps out of that blanket, so it just helps to top up and make sure we're always at 100 percent, but so yeah, we're parked up here on the beach. How bloody good is it? It's pretty good, isn't it? Anyway, I thought I'd take the chance to show you how we run this. It's just a 200 watt blanket and you can stand it up on legs or lay it flat, peg it down to the ground, do whatever you want to do and just run it to an Anderson plug, which I've got one on the front of the canopy here, in case I ever want to roof mount a panel, I can plug one in. I've also got another Anderson plug on the other side internally, next to the DC to DC, but anyway, at the moment, all we've got running is the fridge. I've just been charging my computer and doing some work out here and the battery is at 70 percent, but as you can see here, it's pumping eight amps in from the panel, take out about four and a half amps for the fridge running, so we're getting, you know, pretty good power, probably 10-12 amps out of that 200 watt panel, so that'll do us. Good sun like this, leave that on for a few hours, that'll be back up to 100 percent. Man, normally we're driving every day, so we hardly ever pull the panel out, but mate, I ain't driving anywhere for the next three nights. This place is the bomb. Righto, we caught a heap of crayfish on our heli charter a couple weeks ago and we froze them all up, but I know a lot of people just knock the tails off them and throw the rest out, right, but we just froze them whole, cooked the legs up in the first two nights and ate all those, because you don't want to waste anything, mate. These things are so damn delicious. Anyway, so I've tailed them and I've kept the heads and now I've just defrosted them while we're on the ocean or while we're at this beach camp here. I'm just going to cut them in half, because look in there, there's so much meat down in there, so you just sort of cut the whole head in half with a pair of good scissors, wash all the guts out and then just go and chuck it straight on the barbie. So I've done one, I'm having it for lunch, so come up here and I'll show you what it looks like. And here we go, whoa, giddy up, hey. Flip them over, so much meat in there, washed out in fresh salt water. Oh, look at that, hey. Be able to pick in there with a fork and pick all the good stuff out, mate. That's it, definitely nothing going to waste on those bad boys around here. Look at that, hey. Look how much meat's in there, all in here, all up behind there. It's like when you get, when you buy a hot chuck from Woolies and the only time all that stuff underneath tastes good is when it's hot and you've got to get straight into it. Look at all these little scallops a bit. It's so damn delicious, man. If you ever get a cray, cut the head in half and do that. Day six on Ningaloo Station and it has been one of the best places we've ever stayed, mate. Like, sunrises here, coming up over the range are just epic. So, fishing hasn't been that hot, which we thought it would be a bit better, but anyway, it's been bloody brilliant. The water here is perfect for the kids. You can go and do a few day trips and then today, give you a hot tip, we're going to pack up early. We're going to drop the key back at the homestead and then we're actually going to go that way. So, normally you'd have to go back that way. We're going to go up and cross Yardy Creek because it's dry. So, track's a bit tight, probably put a few extra pinstripes down the side of the willow, but it saves us going back out that access track and that was rough, man. So, that's the plan. We'll give you a look at that track and then we'll be in Exmouth, staying at Cape Range National Park. What do you reckon, mate? What'd you catch? A little mango Spanish. Mango Spanish? Yeah. What about a Spangled Emperor? We've lost him in the rocks here, but there we go. Good job. A little bit small, but how's that? Yeah. That's your first Spango. What do you think of that? Do you want to hold him? Put your hands underneath. What a spot. Only a couple of minutes drive. You can see our little hardy heads in these sand holes. Boof. Let's get a bigger one, eh? All right, so we're going from Ningaloo Station, Winderbandy to Exmouth, right? And we're going through this track. There's only one dip we've got to hit. We should be all right, but I'll get Beck to jump out and have a look through it. I get a bit nervous on these because I just don't know. Our van to bottom out. Anyway, we'll show you how it goes. I got a jiffy. A jiffy? Ah, yeah, spare hit there. Yeah. Bloody hell. I know. Well, good bump stop, eh? All right, I just got to get Jacko through. He's got a bit bigger van. It's like 23-foot Crusader, semi-off-road, but I reckon he'll be all right. He'll fall over this bush and he'll poke along in low range and we'll pull him up if we have to. Nice and easy. Whoa. Whoa. Stop, stop, stop. Just drop your bags. Just like that'll do. I'll just move this max track. Just creep along in low. Oh yeah, that's going to work. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Yep, you're good. Giddy up. Woohoo! How good's that? He did the same thing. Just dropped in. We're a spare tyre. Actually, it's a bit of a bump stop and we just slid on down. A couple of treads in there. Good work, Sambo. Righto, giddy up. Here we go. Yardie Creek crossing. The caravan on the back. Tyre's down to 16. Full drive, low gear in second and I'm just going to punch it. Yeah, mate. Ready to go. Across we go. Across Yardie Creek crossing. A little bit soft, but we'll smash through here. No worries. In low range. Look at that. There's the gorge. There's the bend. There's Becky. This bit's a bit lumpy. I'll have to get up here. And up, and up, and up, and up, and up. Yes! Yardie Creek crossing. Piece of cake. I like it. Now we'll go and see how Jacko goes running down here. Giddy up. Followed me across. I come down to film him and he's up. No dramas. How good's that? Awesome. Smashed it. That was a piece of cake. Honestly, that saved us about two hours then and going back out to one of the roughest roads in history. So, make sure, we were pretty smart. We drove it first the other day. I wouldn't have tackled it all the way here if we didn't know what it was like. So, anyway, a couple of big rigs, straight through. I'm talking about the vans too. Happy days, hey? That's the end of another episode. We took you through some great stations on the coast and we've ended up here in Cape Range National Park in Exmouth. We'll show you that in the next episode, so stay tuned for that. But, loved it. Great part of the coastline, great part of the world. The Mingaloo Marine Park and the Coral Coast is just epic. As always, remember to subscribe, drop your comments and questions in below, because Bec loves getting back to them, don't you? Not that she ever does. I do, you too. But we do, we love hearing your feedback, so keep it up. It's brilliant and we can try and incorporate your questions and comments into the next episode. So, cheering, happy days. We're going to Exmouth. We love it here. We're on the black stuff now. What a change. Whale shark festival on this weekend for us. New brewery in town we've never been to. We're excited to get to Exmouth to have a decent shower. We've low on water. We're pretty much out of food. So, first stop, coffee. Coffee. Bring it on. See you. See you next time. Bye.