Ningaloo Reef

When we stopped and thought about it, we realised it had been quite some time since we had been connected to power.  Apart from one night at Dampier, the last time was Eighty Mile Beach.  That's a lot of weeks now we have been using just solar.  Unfortunately, matching those times, we often have had no or limited internet, a little harder to cope with.  So tonight we have opted for a little luxury and a chance for me to catch up on this blog as the laptop I work on needs 240 volt power.  And to top it off, full Telstra service instead of watching one bar fade in and out.  So to recap the last couple of weeks -  

In the end, we had three nights on the Ashburton River at Old Onslow.  Again the wind came up from nowhere and just as quicky vanished.  We are finding this is happening more and more.  I don't know if it is connected to being further south or moving out of wintertime.   Our next stop is inland, so we are hoping for less wind.

It's a long day for us, about 300 k's.  We want to be within easy reach of Exmouth for the Friday when we meet up with Ingrid and Peter.  Originally we were just going to stop at a roadside rest area, but stopping at one for lunch made us decide that it wasn't all that desirable a place to spend the rest of the afternoon.  So instead we went just a short distance further to Ballara Station.  No powered sites here, but there is a generator area which we opted not to use.  The afternoon gave me a good opportunity to catch up on some washing.

There were quite a lot of campers here.  It seems many use it as a base and take day trips to Exmouth and to Coral Bay.  There was an happy hour at five around the campfire, and in the end there were over 30 people there.  We kept having to move the circle out. 

In the morning we drove the 90 ks to Exmouth, filled the water tanks, the fuel tanks and the food situation.  Our home for the next week was Yardie Homestead Caravan Park, 40 k's further, on the Ningaloo Reef side, the opposite side of the peninsula to Exmouth.  Powered sites here are only for fridges and recharging batteries, so for us not worth the extra as our solar does all that.  We ended up with two sites at the end of a row, back to back, which worked really well when Ingrid and Peter arrived. 

We had a lovely week, with some great highlights.  One of these was the Monday when the kids had paid for a whale shark swim for my birthday, and an early Father's Day present for Jim.  We couldn't have been luckier, as this was finally a day with no wind, absolutely perfect conditions.  The boat captain said you only get them as good as that about four times a year.  There were only ten of us on the boat, and only eight were going in the water.  The boat can cater for twenty.

 First stop was a snorkel on the inner reef, fascinating to see all the fish of various sizes and hues.  We spent some time then chasing whales unsuccessfully, but then as it got closer to lunch time, things started happening in all directions.  There were mantra rays that we got to swim with, turtles in the water, and then there were whales everywhere, breaching, rolling and generally having a great time. 

One of the many whales we saw

In the water ready to find whale sharks.

After lunch we entered the water for a snorkel of the outer reef and had not been long in the water when the shout went out to all head back to the boat immediately.  The spotter plane had excelled itself, and to everyone's excitement, it had found a whale shark.  The whale shark season actually ends around July, but apparently they get an odd late one, and even a few that stay all year, but they are hard to find.  Even the crew were really excited. 

Our whale shark, photo taken by one of the crew.

Snorkelling gear on, we all lined up at the rear of the boat waiting for the shoat to Go Go.  In we went, and once the bubbles had cleared, there he was right in front of us!!  A seven metre whale shark, what a beautiful creature.  Unfortunately this one was a little shy and dived down pretty quickly.  It was all back onto the boat while they searched for him again, then we all jumped back into the water.  This happened four times.  Twice he actually swam back under the boat.  One of these times Jim was a little later get in the water and while we were chasing in one direction, he was able to see it had turned, with the result he actually found himself in front of it and a little closer than he had anticipated.  What a great experience, and by now the afternoon was nearly done and it was time to head for home.  We had our exercise for the day as pulling yourself back onto the flat deck of the boat wasn't that easy.  She gave two demonstrations before the tour started of how to use your flippers to get momentum to push yourself up, and then she gave the beached whale version.  I think I was the latter, but I did think I got quicker at it. 

Tuesday was my birthday and we drove into Exmouth in the morning.  I had a hair appointment first, which proved fortuitous as we didn't know where to go for lunch.  The hairdresser said the best place was at the Novotel as it is the only place where you an eat with water views.  What a great choice - beautiful venue and lovely food.  After lunch we continued further south to Charles Knife Road which took us through the Cape Range, and we were amazed at the gorges in there.  Quite spectacular and not advertised that much as a great tourist spot.  Back to the camp for my bottle of French champagne and the end of a lovely birthday.

Birthday lunch

View of one of the gorges from Charles Knife Road

Surprise birthday flowers from my children

Over the next couple of days we did some more exploring of the Park, with Jim catching a very nice 44cm Spangled Emperor, a nice farwell dinner for the four of us on Thursday.  Friday morning it was time to farwell Ingrid and Peter on their long journey home.  They drove up in two but allowed three to get home. 

We thought the Ningaloo Reef area was so beautiful, instead of leaving we booked a campsite in the National Park for three days.  The water is beautiful to swim in, so clear and calm and a lovely temperature.  Later in the afternoon Jim decided to have another go at fishing.  I had something in the oven that needed another ten minutes so said I would join him then.  So it was about fifteen minutes later that I walked onto the beach at the same time he hooked a fish.  I could see it was taking some effort to get in, and when he landed it, there was a 60cm Spangled Emperor, which is now my favourite eating fish.  He caught one of these at Cape Leveque as well, but each one he has caught has got bigger than the one before.  It was so big we got more than two meals out of it. 

The big catch

He's got one on

Our campsite at sunset 

It had been a lovely day, blue sky, sunshine and no wind.  So it was a surprise that as the sun went down the wind came up.  It blew hard all night.  We were lucky as it was coming in behind us and we also had the awning tied off well onto the timber posts of our site.  This resulted in the awning barely moving, and we were suprised to find that everyone else had got up around two and brought theirs in. 

It kept blowing all morning.  Undeterred Jim still fished but they were all undersized.  Late in the morning we decided to do the Mandu Mandu Gorge walk.  This is a 3 k walk, along the river bed initially, but then you climb very steeply up the gorge wall, needing feet and hands to ge there. There were great views of the reef from the top.  Once we had reached the highest point I expected an easy walk down, so was quite shocked to discover that there were a number of minor gorges of the main gorge, which meant we had to climb down and then back up them.  Jim also saw a small snake near the end of the walk.  We didn't bother looking too hard to see what type it was. 

It was straight up

But amazing view from the top

We then decided that as we were so close and had our snorkelling gear in the car, we would continue to Turquoise Bay.  Being a Saturday there were lots of people there, but we were quite disappointed in the snorkelling as unlike the day before, the water had lost its clarity, so we really couldn't see much.  In the end we decided it was probably just as good back at our campground.

I wasn't feeling that well on Sunday, so it was an easy decision to not stray far from home.  Jim the intrepid fisherman, kept trying to help our larder, and I ventured into the reef to discover that the snorkelling was excellent at the campsite.  So many fish, many of them very big.

We had thought about extending our time at the National Park, but upon looking, we discovered someone had booked our site for the next three days, so rather than move sites, we might as well move venue.  We headed back into Exmouth to repeat all the refuelling episodes.  On the way out of town we stopped at two historic monuments. One commemorates Operation Pot Shot, and the other the Z Force Special Operations Unit.  I'm pretty sure there has been a movie made about it somewhere in the past.  

It was then just over 100 k's to our next destination of Bruboodjoo Point (otherwise known as 12 Mile Camp).  This is aboriginal owned land opened up for basic camping.  You have to be completely self sufficient and can only enter if you have a chemical toilet.  There were absolutely no signs whatsoever advertising its presence and I would never have found it except for Wikicamps.  Jim was not expecting to find many there, so was quite amazed when we topped the last sand dune and we saw all the caravans spread out.  Talking to the caretaker later that day, it has been a well kept secret for over 30 years with many regulars returning for 3-5 months every year, and they are now cursing Wikicamps for letting their secret out.  However, we had a great spot a short sand dune walk to the water, and almost to ourselves.   We stopped two nights, but didn't find the little bay here as nice a  place as the Ningaloo Reef we had been at.  The water didn't seem anywhere near as clear as it had a lot of weed.  And all Jim could catch of any size were ugly Silver Toadfish (very poisonous).  However, at $15 a night, it is a bargain compared to other places in the area.

Our van on the left at Bruboodjoo Point

We left Wednesday morning with a possible aim of Coral Bay.  We had heard a lot about the place, and knew it was very popular and without a booking can be hard to get into.  When we arrived we were quite surprised to discover that the town is really not much more than the two caravan parks (owned by the same person I have read) and a few shops.  We rolled into the first (and cheapest) park to try our luck just after 9.30.  I wasn't sure whether to take my little bit of luxury for one or two nights, but the decision was made for us as we could not get the same site for two nights.  If we wanted a second night, we would have to move sites, not worth it for us.  We paid but couldn't get on the site until 11, so it was easy to do a little shopping and look at the beach.

Lovely bay for kids at Coral Bay

When we went to get our site, we couldn't believe our eyes at all the vans rolling into town.  Lucky we went there early.  There were seven already lined up in the street looking to get in, and more appearing over the hill.  

We set up and had lunch.  We thought that it was a very beautiful little bay and could understand why it was so popular with families for safe swimming,  but we weren't too sure what the fuss was about.  But then we headed over with our snorkelling gear.  My goodness, I have never seen a place like this.  The tide was on the way out, and you literally walk to the end of the sand, and it just about drops away vertically, and within two metres you are in deep water over the top of the coral reef.  It was amazing, with so many fish, especially the huge Spangled Emperor.  At 3.30 we discovered why there were so many - fish feeding!!  We weren't too proud to take our share and have a go.

On the edge of the sand

Just a couple of metres out

Fish feeding

Right at my feet, our favourite Spangled Emperor

In a way, it is something of shame that we couldn't get more than a night here, but we have now seen it, and there are more placed along the coast to explore.