Giralia Station on the Exmouth Gulf

Today we're in Giralia for some accidental luxury and a break from tent living, which the boys were very excited about.

We stayed in "The Cottage" which is really a spacious two bedroom house with a grassy yard that would be worth 2 million in Sydney. Sitting on the veranda is sheer luxury. The sunset with the old windmill, farming sheds, gear etc is magic.

It had a great little pool. Even the old shearer's shed was converted into a cinema with two giant speakers, a projector and a massive sheet as a white screen. The beach at Exmouth Gulf is a half hours easy drive. Here's some words from Louis, since he had to write a journal for school:

I woke up in a real bed instead of a tent. I was calling for Mum. It was dark and scary. My calling woke Ollie up. He kept on telling me to be quiet. Mum eventually came. I eventually went to sleep. Then I woke up in a real bed instead of a tent. Had breakfast.

Towards noon we went on a driving trip to the beach [Exmouth Gulf]. Me and my parents went on a walk. Ollie didn’t come. When we were getting close, I realised it would be a good idea to cut across the channel than walking all the way around. We didn’t have any problems at all until we were on the actual island. Then I tripped. I looked behind me to try to find out what I tripped on.

And I saw oysters. When I looked down at my toe, it was bleeding. We washed it off at a pool. The moment we did that it stopped bleeding. But it was still cut. We started heading back because of my toe. Then my sliders kept on getting stuck in the mud, and I had to take them off. Towards the end, we found a pool to wash off our feet, and sliders. I noticed that the cut on my toe had healed up and there was no evidence apart from a white line that it was ever there.

For the afternoon, we popped into their pool, which looks like it's in their backyard. Awesome for a cool off. In the evening, we went to the "Giralia Cinema". We watched a movie called Red Dog - True Blue. There were four funny scenes. One was when he said it landing in the Pilbara was awesome to his kid, but in reality he was saying “This is stupid!!” Then there was a horse that thought he was a bull. He said “What’s with the horse?” Then his grandfather said that he got struck by lightning. The funny bit was seeing the horse get struck by lightning. The third one was when he got a motorbike for his birthday. His son asked “Did you know how to ride a motorbike?” He said “Of course I did” The flashback showed him going “ahhhh” then crashing jumping off a ramp. Later they were playing a game with the dog. He said, no cheating this time, and hid it under a bucket. When the dog went to get it, because he was watching him hide it, the boy moved it to the roof and watched the bucket from the roof. And then he heard a squeak. The dog was on the roof and had the rubber ducky. He chased the dog with the rubber ducky and ended up in the paddock with the crazy horse. He ran and left the paddock gate open. He got chased by the horse. He thought he was safe, but then the horse opened the gate. First the dog goes past, then the kid, then the horse. It was funny watching him just race past the cook who hated the sun so much he always had an umbrella. Later in the movie, the spirits turned against the boy because he stole a spiritual rock. They ended up in a hurricane that stole the cooks umbrella. Then there was a fire. He took the rock back, then the wind turned. So the fire went out. And the wind brought the cooks umbrella back. They say lighting always strikes in the same place twice. That place is on the horse. Never ride him.

We can recommend this film!