Exmouth 11/9/15
Next stop was Exmouth. We stopped for some groceries, had a coffee, some chips for lunch and bought a snorkeling set (mask, snorkel, flippers). The caravan parks in Exmouth had a bad rating and were very expensive, so we booked in on the other side of the cape. We drove up to the lighthouse and admired the humpback whales splashing out of the water in the distance.
Cape Range National Park / Ningaloo reef 12&13/9/15
On our way to the campsite at the Cape Range National Park, we stopped for a tour in a glass bottom boat. Ningaloo reef is the biggest fringing reef (means: close to mainland) in the World and also named the ‘Barrier Reef of the West’. Unlike most reefs on the east coast, this one can be snorkeled from the beach.
The tour was good and we’ve seen a lot of different corals and good amount of fish under our boat. Highlight was a rare Queensland Grouper, probably about 250kg in weight. (unfortunately the pictures are not good enough to show more here)
wildflowers and Yardie Creek hike
All the campsites in the National Park, as we found out, are unprotected and very well exposed to the beach. Unfortunately the wind picked up during the day and it even shakes our caravan quite a bit as I write this. Luckily we don’t have a roof top tent as some other campers here do.
Swimming was out, due to the wind, so we went down to Yardie Creek and did the little hike up the gorge. It’s a class 4 walk, but Sarah is now used to this and really enjoyed stretching her legs again after a couple of driving days.
What else can you do on a windy day? Fly a kite! And so we went to ‘Sandy Beach’ and got Sarah’s kite airborne (thanks, Anne & Viktor!). Sarah had a ball holding the kite and was giggling all the time. Of course she had most fun when the kite crashed into the sand or was chasing mummy or daddy.
Mandu Mandu Gorge hike (pic 1-5), Turquoise Bay and sand castle
Next morning the wind was still howling so Martin had a sleep in, Sarah watch videos and Regine was doing her gym exercises. After breakfast we decided to start the day with another hike and we drove to Mandu Mandu Gorge. The 3 km hike first lead us through the dry river bed full of big and small white pebbles (not the easiest to walk on) and Sarah started collecting stones. It took a bit of convincing and we ended up carrying a stone each for her. After a good 1km the trail went up the side of the gorge and back towards the carpark, involving climbing up and down some side gorges. Sarah was great but getting tired. A happy sing-song kept her going all the way! She’s really good!
Turquoise Bay, said to be the most beautiful beach on the Cape, was just a couple km further down the road and even though it was midday we wanted to at least have a quick look. It’s really beautiful and a bit shielded from the wind, so Martin went for a quick snorkel. We decided to go back and have lunch and a rest because the sun was just too intense – and we had planned to bake some scones. Later that afternoon we came back for a lovely play in the sand and another snorkel where Martin saw heaps of little and bigger fish, corals and even a turtle in the crystal clear water. All within 50-100 m range of the beach.