Warroora Station

A day's drive from Overlander and thirty kilometres of dusty red dirt track off the Coral Bay Road brings me to Warroora Station, a working sheep property which, like most station properties along the coast, also offers camping & tourist accommodation. Old Dan, one of the casual hands, points me to "the cottage", where Duncan hurls himself at me with his usual exuberant joy. He's done the plumbing & repair work and has been lonesomely fishing while waiting for me to arrive.

It's a stunning place and best of all there are no generators or trucks! A pair of falcons are nesting next to our cottage, zebra finches zip about everywhere, and there are two horses who come into the garden.

Warroora has a coastline of about 50 kilometres, with dozens of beaches & camp areas. Ningaloo Reef wanders along the coastline here, sometimes right up to the beach, so it's like having the Great Barrier reef at your doorstep. Dozens of rambling 4WD sand tracks take you to countless beaches & cliffs. On the map, it's the station property adjoining the south end of Coral Bay.

After unloading the supplies of beer, food, firewood and diesel fuel that I've brought up from Carnarvon, we jump into the ute and head off to go fishing. We see several great big emus fighting & leaping about on the hill - they look like enormous feather dusters doing some kind of demented dance.

Big red kangaroos and the smaller "biggeta" roos watch us from among the buffle grass dunes. We find Duncan's "snapper spot", spending the evening casting & not really catching anything, enjoying the sunset & stars. Duncan hooks something BIG which snaps his line at the last moment and he's a broken man for the rest of the night. "The one that got away". By the time he tells the story to Dan the next day, it has tripled in size.

On the way back in the dark, Duncan takes me completely by surprise by putting on a CD - "You have to listen to this! It's my new favourite song!"  He usually goes for 50's rock n roll, but what comes on is a Kenny Rogers song called "Throughout the Years", which you could describe as a mature age love ballad, very sentimental. Thinking it's another of Duncan's jokey things I'm about to say something funny but as I look over I see he's getting all teary, seizing my hand in his, so I shut up and gently kiss him on the cheek instead. "That's our song now!"  Later, curled up together in bed, Duncan wakes up at two am, mumbling passionately in my ear. "Oh darling! It must have been at least ten kilos!"  He dreams with the fishes...