Tuesday, 9 June 2026
We were up at 6.20am to walk along to the Anzac Memorial Arch for the sunrise. After rain overnight there was cloud on the horizon but, hey, we got an interesting sunset last night with cloud, maybe the same will happen with the sunrise? Just us and one other woman keen enough to be up before 7.00am to watch a sunrise. While we waited for the sun to appear we chatted with our sunrise companion from Dromana. We imagine that the arch is aligned so that the sunrise on the 25th of April is perfectly centered?? This morning we found that we needed a pace to the right to have the sun inside the arch. It was still a lovely effect with the arch silhouetted in front of the rising sun.
We walked back to the resort past the Paparazzi Dogs, another art installation here in Onslow. There is plenty of info on the Internet about this artwork. Artists, Gillie and Marc created this interactive piece to expose the pack mentality of the media and how they hunt celebrities to get their photo. These paps are ideally situated on Onslow Front Beach to photograph the daily sunrise and Stairway to the Moon.
We have now decided that we weren’t relegated to the naughty corner last night, we were well located in the corner so that we didn’t hear all the FIFOs leaving in their utes to go to work this morning. We have no idea what time they left for work, but the car park was almost empty when we walked through it at 6.30am!
Now, Onslow to Exmouth ‘as the crow flies’ is 107 kilometres. To make the journey by road, it’s 402 kilometres, amounting to around four hours of driving. Syri was keen to shave about 50 kilometres off our journey, suggesting that we take Twitchin Road to Barradale. Even though the atlas showed this as an unmade road, we were game to give it a go. So, Syri thought it was a good idea BUT the road conditions sign at the beginning of the road said CLOSED. That meant continuing out to the highway on Onslow Road, to travel via the Nanutarra Road House.
Petro Spy had revealed that the fuel at Nanutarra Road House was much more expensive than at Exmouth. We probably had enough diesel in the tank to make it to Exmouth, but Bernie decided to put $50.00 worth of diesel in at the roadhouse … just to be sure. The roadhouse is currently being renovated, so all fuel purchases had to be pre-paid, with the shop currently operating out of a container out the back, with no line of sight to the bowsers. Fair enough. Other travellers were not so happy about it, complaining to Bernie that they are ‘cash people’. Hmmn, it gets harder and harder all the time to be ‘cash people’.
We stopped for a stretch at the Yannarie River Rest Area, just past the other end of Twitchin Road, where we would have come out onto the highway, if the road had been passable. About 40 kilometres later, we turned off onto Burkett Road to travel through interesting countryside that seemed to be passing over red sand dunes. Not loose, shifting dunes, but permanent sort of dunes covered in vegetation. Basically we kept driving over humps and then down into floodways between the ‘dunes’. Eventually the road turned more westerly and it was more like driving along one of the low areas between the dunes.
When we reached the Minilya Exmouth Road we turned right, for the final 85 kilometres into Exmouth. OMG, more termite mounds. Perhaps if we had known that there would be termite mounds on the Exmouth Peninsula we would not have made the trip out to Onslow? Maybe, maybe not. On the whole we’re not sorry to have spent a night in Onslow as it was such a pretty place.
Travelling along this road we encountered the line markers redoing the rumble strip on the side of the road. The escort vehicle was talking to approaching traffic on Channel 40. Vehicle approaching the line markers are you on this channel? Yes, Bernie replied. We were told that it was all clear ahead and to come around to overtake. OK, thank you.
It was lunchtime when we arrived in Exmouth, so we headed straight to the bakery to find some lunch. I sent a text to Sharon to say that we were grabbing some lunch from the bakery. Sharon replied that they were at the shops too and heading to the bakery next. We didn’t even have to look for them, we pretty much walked straight into each other! We all purchased something to eat from the bakery and ate at their outdoor tables under the watchful eyes of some semi-tame corellas. We did not feed the wildlife because that only makes them worse.
After inviting us to have dinner with them at their caravan tonight, Ross and Sharon headed back to their van at the Ningaloo Caravan and Holiday Resort. We purchased a couple of items at the IGA, refuelled at the Exmouth Ampol Service Station and then headed to the Exmouth Escape Resort, to check in and make ourselves comfortable in yet another home away from home.
Around 5.00pm we drove along Murat Road to the other caravan park. We would have walked BUT we had been told to BYO chairs, so we thought those would feel very heavy, very quickly if we carried them ourselves. Much better to transport them in the truck! Arriving at Ross and Sharon’s, we had the guided tour of their new caravan, before making ourselves comfortable under their awning. We enjoyed an al fresco dinner of butterflied lamb done on the BBQ, accompanied by potatoes, salad and fresh bread.
With a Ningaloo Reef Tour to swim with the whale sharks scheduled for tomorrow, we didn’t stay late with Ross and Sharon, but headed ‘home’ for an early night.
Steps: 6,237 (4.01kms)
