Day 96 – 19th April 2018 – Carnarvon roadside camp (Yalabia) to Giralia Station

We drove from Carnarvon roadside camp (Yalabia) to Giralia Station which was about a 2 and a half hour drive.

We stopped in at Coral Bay but it was seriously packed. All the caravan parks had people packed in like sardines and there were people walking everywhere. As we were towing the van and the boat, I was getting a little nervous about trying to turn around and get back out. People were parked on the side of the road making it quite narrow. Luckily in the carpark at the end of the road we were able to find a spot big enough to turn the van and the boat and high-tail it back out of there. It was a small seaside spot and the water looked beautiful, but I couldn’t get out of there quick enough due to the popularity. It was school holidays so we plan to come back and check it out once the school holiday rush has settled down. We have heard it is a beautiful spot to swim.  

On the drive we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn which was kind of cool.

Pulling up at Giralia Station I was a little apprehensive, as we had committed to staying for a month and doing the bush camp host role. I was excited and looking forward to it but also hoping I would like it. It is so different from the city life that we are accustomed to and I am learning time and time again not to judge a book by it’s cover. There have been so many places that I have looked at with my city eyes and then stayed there and loved it. So I look forward to getting to know and experience Giralia.

It is definitely a feeling of remoteness and outback Australia. At the moment in April the temperature is in the high 30s but is slowly coming down. It is a dry heat and it cools down significantly over night so that is great as Col and I do not have air-conditioning in the van, only fans. We are both adjusting to the heat ok.  There is sketchy mobile coverage and we have not been able to connect to the internet, so that will be interesting.  We will try and get into Exmouth once a week to shop and update the blog.

Giralia was once a working sheep station and there are rooms where you can see how the Jackeroos once lived, and they were doing it tough!! These rooms were used right up until 1989 which surprised me!! Living in a tin shed where it gets to 50 degrees celsius in summer would not have been a fun thing to do with no fans or air-conditioning! In 2005 Giralia was sold to the Department of Conservation and Land Management and destocked and since then offers various types of accommodation as a Station Stay including campsites on the beach, near a creek, bush camps, backpacker type accommodation and rooms at the homestead. Denver Blake who currently runs Giralia is the Great Grandson of Frank Whitlock who originally purchased Giralia in 1923.  The Homestead is about 35km from the beach along a 4WD track. Most of track is pretty good but there are some tricky sections. They have a communal camp fire at night but it is still too hot to light it so this won’t be starting for a while yet.

This photo is of our camp site at Giralia Station Stay.  The tin sheds on the left were the original Jackeroos bedrooms!  The tin shed on the right is our ensuite.  The shower only has cold water, but the weather is so hot at the moment that the cold shower is pretty comfortable.  We can use the Amenities for the other campers which includes hot showers, and is only a short walk from where we are.

We did a bit of a drive around the station to have a sneak peek.  You can camp directly on the beach and it is really beautiful.

The people that run Giralia are lovely, Denver and his wife Jen and we have also met their daughter Indya who is really lovely too. Let the new part of the adventure begin.