Warroora Station

Well we probably had our worst day of our trip so far. It started out okay as we left a week of bliss behind at Ningaloo station knowing we would definitely be back, it was fantastic. 

We hoped to continue the good run & stay at the next station further south called Warroora (pronounced Warra).  From the turn off into the station, it pretty much went pear shaped. We saw the sign for 14 Mile camp on the way in but it said it was for any 2WD vehicles & caravans, figuring it would be busy & we had heard there was other camping at the station we ventured further in. We arrived at the station to a office that had various information & a mud map of camping areas. It said if no one was at the office to try to call them on the UHF radio for permission to enter, if you got no answer to fill in the receipt book, pay your money in the box & write down what area you are going to. Ok, there was a bit of information on the walls about each camp, not particularly extensive though. We tried the UHF & finally after about 10 calls we got someone, he told us to go to a camp called Stevens. So off we went. They had a few signs up, but it was a bit confusing but we found the camping area. To say we were disappointed was an understatement. The coastline was beautiful but the camp was a long way from the beach. We wandered around trying to figure out if any of the sites were ok, we had just paid $100 to stay for a week, so wanted something decent. 

We both didn't like it so decided to try one of the other camps. We had our mud map but all the actual information on each camp is only at the office. Some weren't suitable for camper trailers but we couldn't really remember which was which. There was another camp not far from us which I decided we should look at before going back to the office. Well it turns out that after the initial sign post it wasn't actually signed & we ended up on a no trailers track that was super sandy & soft & had no room to turn around, we also had a car of surfers behind us, great. What ensued was us trying to turn around in soft sand & onto a grassy hill while yelling at each other about how we shouldn't even be on this track, to make it worse we then ripped both rear mud guards off the car when we finally managed to turn the trailer around. It was pretty heated!

We then went back to the office to try to find out some more info about the other camps. I was all up for leaving completely, blow the $100!! In the end we decided to go to a place called Black Moon cliffs. Again badly sign posted, but we found it along with a caretaker for the area. 

The caretaker was lovely & showed us a campsite closer to the water that wasn't normally available, it was a good one so we took it. We knew there was a change in the weather coming so we just set up a basic camp. Pretty much as soon as we set up the clouds came rolling in & it got really really windy. The tent was flapping like crazy despite it being well set up. Mat decided to check out the beach but I decided to stay near camp because those clouds looked ominous. Luckily I did because the rain soon stared with me running around trying to get everything sorted. We both jumped in the tent to wait it out. This was about 3pm & it drizzled & was really windy all afternoon. We even had to cook dinner in the tent. We haven't had to do that ever before. It was a simple steak & packet pasta but it was warm in our bellies in the freezing weather. What a downer, we went to bed early, not that we got much sleep as the canvas was flapping all night. What a day. 

We woke up to sort of sunny skies but it was still very windy. It was to windy for a campfire & boiling the billy was a nightmare on the gas. We tried to make the most of a bit of sunshine & I went for a walk on the beach & Mat went for a fish. It really was a lovely coastline but completely different from the sheltered bay at Ningaloo, it was rocky with huge waves so no swimming or snorkelling & the caretaker had told us to watch out for sharks as they were common along the beach. It was so windy Mat couldn't keep his bait in the water so no fish. We gave up on that & headed back to camp to try to fix the mudflaps. A couple of hours later we had them reattached without to many problems, not good though as they attach to the fibreglass flares on Ruby & these are damaged & will need replacing when we get home & aren't cheap. 

The weather was still crappy & the clouds started to roll in again, but no rain this time. We had a chat about what to do the next day. In the end we decided to leave. Yes it was a huge waste of our $100 but we both felt Warroora couldn't redeem itself. Probably an unfair statement but we just couldn't get past our couple of crappy days. 

The cost to stay at Warroora is $10 per person per night or $50 per person for a week. You must have a chemical toilet. You can get bore water & a shower at the homestead. There are lots of different camping areas, not that we saw any others than Stevens & Black Moon Cliffs. 

Maybe we would of had more luck at Warroora if we had of been able to talk to someone on arrival to work out a suitable camp area. No one can control the weather, but we were extremely disappointed with our time at Warroora, it's not often we would spend that money & just leave. We have read many good things about Warroora & there seems to be an online rivalry between if it or Ningaloo are better. We are definitely team Ningaloo. Let's hope we have better luck & weather at our next campsite because this is a beautiful area of WA.