4 Stray Katz: When the Stray Katz are away the mice will play!!

We packed up early Friday morning to cross Yardie Creek at low tide (7am) and head to Exmouth via Cape Range National Park. We planned 2 nights in the tent to enjoy the Grand Final, a pool and a shower after a week roughing it at Ningaloo station. Cape Range National Park was. Dry impressive. We did an early morning snorkel at Turquoise Bay before the crowds and were rewarded with some awesome marine life. Daniel, Emilia and I went together and within a few minutes we saw a turtle in the crystal clear water. It was obviously accustomed to snorkellers as it just kept stayed where it was and kept munching on the seaweed. We were less than a metre away watching it eat its breakfast, it was incredible. We stayed with it for a while before it decided to swim off, Emilia was enthralled. We then kept going with our drift snorkel and floated over beautiful coral gardens full of fish. We saw another turtle and a small reef shark. It was a wonderful snorkel and we are both so proud of Emilia. When we emerged after about 30 minutes snorkelling the beach was packed! We played for a while in the shallows, Jackson enjoyed walking amongst the schools of fish that swam close hoping for a crumb or two.

After an ice cream at the visitor centre we headed to Oyster Stacks to coincide with high tide, the only time you can snorkel this part of the reef. I took Emilia in but we struggled against a ferocious current. We saw the rock stacks that give the area its names, they were large, oyster shell covered rocks, with many holes and crevices full of fish. It was super busy though and the current was too strong so we only did a short snorkel. Again I was extremely proud of Emilia snorkelling in these conditions.

We left the National Park after deciding it was definitely worth a second visit once school holidays ended and the crowds subsided.

We caught up with our friends (Brendan, Kat, Nathan, Bec and kids) at the caravan park in Exmouth and watched the Grand Final on Saturday. Thanks to Nathan the delicious squid in creamy garlic and chilli sauce and thank to all our mates for a great afternoon and night (made even better by the fact Hawthorn won!).

We awoke early Sunday to make it back to Yardie Creek for low tide. We made it and crossed easily then hightailed it home planning an afternoon of relaxing to get over the weekend shenanigans.

Well relaxing was not going to happen! We'd had a bit of problem before with left with some mice getting into the van. Daniel had caught a few and we had set traps whilst we were away. As it turns out our van was like an underage party when parents are away, every mouse in the vicinity decided to gatecrash and trash the joint. The van was full of mouse droppings and nearly all the food in plastic was gnawed through. When these mice got the munchies they liked sweet potato, gluten free flour, almonds and lots of pasta. I was shocked to find they were also partial to baby wipes as they had gnawed through a large refill packet leaving bits of chewed baby wipe through all our linen. The toilet paper was also clearly obstructing their thoroughfare from one cupboard to another so they just chewed through that. I spent 6 hours on my hands and knees in a 35deg caravan cleaning all the mouse poo and putting everything in Tupperware containers. It was nowhere near the relaxing, post party recovery day I had planned.

So then came Daniel Katz, 'Mouse Slayer' to the rescue. He set up 6 mouse traps in the car and van then some booby traps around the outside of the van (bottles with peanut butter on the end leaning over a bucket full of water. As the mouse tries to get the peanut butter it slips off the bottle, landing in the water then it's off to Mousey heaven). He also just left a few kids sand buckets full of water near edges of shelves just in case. Well the next morning it was carnage. He caught 2 inside, 1 in the car, 9 in the large bucket and 2 in a small bucket. The party was over for the mice. However there were clearly some ragers who were still going inside and who'd managed to evade the traps as there was still mouse poo over the couches and floor. Daniel caught about 5 more the next night but still we had mouse poo, where were these mice hiding! We ended up leaving on Tuesday morning as the wind had been howling for 2 days and we didn't want to spend Val and Henry's last few days cooped up in our vans.

So we are packing up to leave and a mouse scurries across the couch, of course I scream and run out and by the time Daniel gets inside he is well hidden. This is clearly the straggler mouse who won't leave. We drive to Exmouth, hoping he'll be shaken out on the corrugated road out of Ningaloo Station. Alas he is tough one and he is still there when we are setting up. I get another fright as this time he jumps out from under the doona and runs across the couch, the same way as last time and clearly to his hiding place. Daniel was not letting him get away this time. Whilst I curled up on a seat outside (with the kids telling me not to be scared and that they will look after me) things were being hurled out of the van whilst Daniel made sure the mouse had no place to hide. Daniel cornered him under the table and grabbed the closet thing (my bottle of mineral water) and squashed him, yet he still persisted so he got flung against the floor and gotten rid of for good. After I composed myself and Daniel cleaned up the guts in the caravan floor, Jackson proceeded to take the mouse by the tail to show Nanna and Opa. Here I am still on the seat trying to calm my breathing and my 2 and a half year old son is walking through the caravan park dangling a mouse saying 'We caught a mouse, we caught a mouse' much to the amusement of our fellow campers.

With this we hoped our mouse problems were over. We have set traps every night since and have not caught any so fingers crossed. I am still discovering the remnants of their shenanigans though, only a few days ago I discovered a 50c piece sized hole in one of our woollen blankets. I must say I was a bit nervous to go the the coast again but also grateful my kids don't have my mouse phobia as it appears that ingenious mouse catching may become a family sport for us. Katz by name, cats by nature!