Howdy All,

After some very late planning and even later packing, we ventured up to 3 mile at Gnaraloo for the first week of the school holidays. 

We broke the drove up and spent a night at a very windy Gladstone which had us having to empty the sand out of the swags and remaking them before we jumped in bed...but that overnight stop had us in Carnarvon at 1030 and into Gnaraloo just after lunch.

Thanks to Andy for the tip to deflate to 30 at the King Waves sign - the ride in was comfortable sitting on 60-80 and having a very uneventful drive in - apart from the dust which was rather thick perticularly when the wind was right behind us and we had to slow in segments with it engulfing us. 

The first night, we caught wind of some spangos being caught right on the edge of the sanctuary...Right on the edge was very accurate but i wont go into that here...
We had a go the following afternoon around 100m away from the sanctuary pilons and successfully fed some fish.

The next morning, we were up again having a go off the rocks but after donating some hooks and lead, pulled the pin.

The next few days had a building swell (to 3+m) and breeze that transitioned from sse to SSW three days in a row with willy willys. There seemed to be narrow windows in the morning and those braver than me had a go and seemed to do OK with the Mackies. We could see birds and fish out to sea from camp but the launch looked undesirable as was the transit through the reef. 

The week prior to us going, we decided to extend our stay to depart Easter Sunday, which would give us a slight window for boating on Saturday, with the weather naturally turning it on from Sunday for the next few days....

Anyhoo - Saturday came along and after hearing some horror stories about the launch at Gnaraloo Bay (bogged up to side steps), we had multople plans in place. Got to the beach, deflated to 15 all round, threw it in low range, had the MaxTrax unbolted......and launched incredibly easy... and wondered, whilst beside the massive holes in the earth cut up by people before me, if we even needed 4wd...

Anyhow, fisheries were at Gnaraloo flying their drone around as we headed out. The South Easterly was gusting into the mid teens and the swell was still a nusence so we zipped up to the northern end of the bay looking for anything interesting before heading out the back of the reef. We found a bust up of microtuna and after going around them clockwise, anti-clockwise, through them, beside them, drawing a cock shape beside them, we finally got some interest, enough interest to snap my rod holder. After a brief tussle, we had unsuccessfuly netted (tangled hooks in net with fish outside) a decent sized fish which was released.

A few more laps, zigs and zags, the small people were winging increasingly more so we headed into the bay for a snorkle.

Around lunchtime, we headed back to the beach for lunch and retrieved the boat. All the plans put into place and again, an incredlbly simple reload was completed. 

Over lunch, the wind died down again, so we put the boat back in the water (using high range 4WD with tyres still down at 15) and headed around looking for some Mackie action. Whilst motoring out, Blake (#1 son) noticed a willy willy go throught he carpark.....so we drove around in an increasing seabreeze looking for fish for 30 minutes before going back to the car and retrieving in 2wd this time, just to see how easy it could be.

It seems people go in at 40 and do a big u turn right where you launch so they dig the shit out of the beach, or people launching dont deflate enough and just bog down. I was stunned how easy it was.

After the easter bunny did his thing, headed out. Checked out the HMAS Swan memorial, blowholes at Quobba, lunch in Carnarvon, wee and souvineer shop at Billabong and spent a night in Northampton with a pub meal.

Off to Sandy cape for two nights of rain on the way home and a frightningly close lighting strike that zapped many of us (me through the eyelets in my hat to my ears) before heading home. 2300km later and pleased to tick off another north west station.

The boat went really well after some issues post our Denmark trip and the mighty Ranger never misses a beat.

On one of the days, we drove up looking for Cape Farquar and after 40km or so of driving at 40kmh, found all the access tracks near it to be roped off with 'management access only' signs all around. It was actually a real pain in the arse to have access to so many of these beautiful spots blocked off with the only remaning spots (Gnaraloo Bay) like shopping centre carparks at lunchtime. 

Overall, a great week and a half away, with a highlight being the absoloute lack of connectivity at Gnaraloo.

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