An Unexpected Detour in Exmouth
By now, I would have been in Karijini National Park, exploring the gorges, hiking, and swimming in the picturesque spa pool.
Instead, we found ourselves in Exmouth, settled for the last few days at RAC Exmouth Cape Caravan Park—because our car broke down halfway to Cheela Plains Station.
Last Sunday, we were stranded for five hours before RAC Roadside Assistance could come to get us. It was a hot and humid day, but we were proud of how efficiently we’d packed up from Warroorra Station earlier that morning. We’d been working on packing better, and the day before, we had an amazing time at Steven’s Bay and Sasha Belle Spot. We were excited to head to Cheela Plains, looking forward to a powered site before six nights of unpowered camping at Karijini. Spirits were high! The kids were having fun in the back, and we were chatting as we drove along a long, deserted road.
Just as we were explaining the Tropic of Capricorn to the kids, an error code for Power Train Faults appeared, and the car started losing power. We remained calm, checked the manual, and tried to troubleshoot. I remembered a friend at a caravan park had told us about the iPhone satellite emergency call feature, and it worked! I was able to text the emergency service operator, explain our situation, and ask them to contact RAC Roadside Assistance since we had no reception. The operator was very supportive, asking for our details, how many people were with us, and even what clothes we were wearing. They said the police were working on it and assured us we’d be okay.
We waited another hour before remembering that we had Starlink, which we could use with our battery. We logged on and prepared a simple lunch—it was now 1 pm, and the sun was high in the sky. There were still no signs of help, and the kids were starting to get worried. We managed to call RAC on my husband’s phone, though the reception dropped out multiple times. We spoke to at least five RAC operators before they understood where we were and what had happened. By almost 3 pm, they had quoted us a price. Since we were outside their range and needed to be towed 230 km to Exmouth (a 460 km round trip), it would cost $1,100 on top of our insurance excess.
As we arranged payment with the mechanic, we spotted a fire truck coming our way. We quickly realized the iPhone satellite emergency call had been pinged to Canberra, then to the state government, and eventually to the Fire Services with our coordinates—as a fire emergency. Without much more information, four fire trucks had driven all the way from Carnarvon to find us, thinking we were on fire!
I was so embarrassed! It was one of those moments when you wished you could crawl into a hole and disappear.
We chatted with the very kind volunteer firemen. They showed the kids their fire trucks, ration packs, and explained to us how the emergency service system worked. They reassured us they were happy to find us safe and sound, as many caravans catch fire due to overcharged lithium batteries. Once they saw we were self-sufficient and that the tow truck was on its way, they left.
Thanks to Netflix and Starlink, the kids stayed occupied while I worked on my reports. Knowing we’d arrive in Exmouth late at night, we booked a cabin and packed an overnight bag, including packets of instant noodles for dinner. The tow truck and a spare car arrived at 5:30 pm. We drove the spare car while the tow truck took our car and caravan to Exmouth, a two-hour drive.
The drive itself was another story, but long story short—we arrived safely at the workshop and checked into the cabin. As we ate dinner at 9 pm, we were so grateful that we were safe. Things could have gone horribly wrong, and we could have become one of the statistics.
All the drama aside, guess what? The detour to Exmouth turned out to be an expensive blessing in disguise. The kids loved the library across from our caravan park, we got our car back the next day, and we drove to Coral Bay for more snorkeling. Best of all, we booked the last whale shark tour of the season—a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it truly was. I’m not a confident ocean swimmer, but with help from the crew, I swam alongside these majestic creatures twice! The swells were huge, and the experience was heart-pounding yet surreal. In the afternoon, we stopped at the most beautiful snorkeling location I’ve ever visited. My older child, despite seasickness and vomiting in the morning, managed to enjoy the experience. My younger child came back on the boat and exclaimed, “This is the best snorkel I’ve ever had in my life!” Everyone laughed, and it felt like the perfect ending to an unexpected adventure.
Yes, we have to reschedule our stays at Karijini and we may risk missing out on Karijini adventure tour on Saturday. Yes, it was stressful. Yes, it was expensive. If I let my perfectionist self takes over, we would have been quite miserable feeling stuck contemplating how unfortunate we were. Instead, leaning in to see what Exmouth had to offer allowed us to have a blast here!
“There is no need to go against the currents of life. Lean in and trust the process.” This is an intuitive hit again and again every time I spend time at the beach, and in the middle of the ocean as we braved that swim with the whale shark.
