Coral Bay
Well we left the red dirt of the Kimberleys and Pilbara behind and travelled south from Karratha to Exmouth and the famous Ningaloo Reef. The road to Exmouth was dotted with lots of sturt desert peas and red iron ore dirt - quite spectacular really but I must admit I am very glad to be out of the red dirt. I don't think we will ever get it all out of the car or the caravan!!
We arrived in Exmouth and went straight to the Cape Range National Park - there are only a few campsites available in the National Park and they are very popular. We got to the gate at about 11 am. but couldn't get in so had to go into a caravan park in Exmouth for the night. The system is that the gate opens at 8 am and you get allocated a camp site at that time so the next morning I got up early and was at the gate at 6.50 am (the second one there - some German backpackers were there first) and managed to get us a camp site. We stayed at Mesa Camp which was great, right on the beach and only $10 a night. We met some really great people there who I am sure we will stay in touch with. We booked in for 4 nights and ended up staying for 10 nights.
There is a great system in the National Parks here in Western Australia - they have camp hosts who allocate sites and are a central point of contact for campers. Our camp hosts were Glen and Rowena with their 2 boys and they were all great fun. We were actually interested in being camp hosts and there was a position available at Yardie Creek campground. The Ranger came and saw us about it but as we are flying out from Perth to Adelaide for Christmas it wasn't practical but it is certainly something we will consider for next time.
We explored the beaches and did some snorkelling at Turquoise Bay which is absolutely stunning - a wonderfully sheltered bay with the reef just a few metres from the shore. We snorkelled, swam, saw reef sharks, rays, dolphins and generally just relaxed on the beach there. From what I saw I think the Great Barrier Reef is more spectacular with the coral colours etc. but Ningaloo Reef is so accessible which is a bonus especially if you are not a confident snorkeller. I just wish we had the grandies with us so that we could teach them to snorkel.
We also went to one of the turtle rookeries within the park. It was nesting season for the turtles and there were literally hundreds on the beach and in the shallows mating (hey is that a 2 hump turtle there?). They were fascinating to watch and see them digging their nests.
We met some great people there particularly Barb and Trev who have sold up and are travelling around in a bus. We spent lots of nights in the bus with them playing cards and sampling Trev's home made spirits - made the card games interesting as the night wore on!! Charlie and Trev went out fishing in his boat but only caught a few smaller fish but it was enough for a feed. Hopefully we will catch up with them again nearer to Perth.
We had a young German couple, Dennis and Katya, next to us for a few days and I'm not sure who adopted who but they wanted to learn fishing so Charlie lent them a rod each and took them fishing a couple of times in the morning and they were over the moon when they caught some fish. However, it was like taking the kids fishing when they were younger as he had to keep untangling the hooks and baiting them up until they got used to it!! Still it was good for international relations. We also met another lovely young German couple called Martin and Isobel and Martin and Charlie exchanged many tall stories about fishing!!!!
We were sorry to leave our campsite but there were still lots of places we've got to see so we said goodbye to our friends and headed to Coral Bay. Thanks Glen, Rowena, Barb, Trev, Graham and Sandra for your great company for the last 10 days and hope to meet up with you all again soon.
We arrived in Coral Bay yesterday which is a pretty little place and more of the same, swimming, snorkelling eating, drinking. Had a couple of glasses of cider last night at the pub up on the hill watching the sunset which was bliss.
We are leaving Coral Bay tomorrow and heading to Quobba Point where we will camp by the blowholes so for now its Adieu from The Wandering 2s. | 
oh what a gorgeous post! It looks so beautiful there, and you both look completely 'at home'. I love the story of the adopted german couple!
ReplyDeleteSomewhere I hope to visit one day, it looks beautiful!
Can't wait to see you both at Christmas! You will look like aborigines next to us, with your glowing tanned skin!!
Love Sandy xx