Exmouth & Coral Bay
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2008
1
19
50
Trip End
Feb 01, 2009
Exmouth,
Western Australia,
Australia
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
We rolled into Exmouth without the car missing a beat. The countryside is full of very low shrubs and is quite parched looking. The occasional water glimpses give you a hint of what's to come. Exmouth is known for its proximity to Ningaloo Marine Park. People come from all over the world between July to June to swim with whale sharks, from March to April to see coral spawning, from July to November for Humpback whales and year round to view manta rays, turtles, reef sharks and a myriad of sea life.
After booking in to the van park, we headed straight to IGA to re-stock. Much to our amazement, a male emu and his baby were wandering around town! We discovered later that this is a common sight around town in the summer months, as the emus come in for water.
View into Yardie Creek Gorge
The afternoon was spent practising our snorkelling skills at one of the beaches close to town, as we'd planned to go into Cape Range National Park the following day where the snorkelling is quite special.
(We forgot to mention in our Karijini entry that we met up with the family of a little girl who does Irish dancing with Hollie and Lauren! We were walking in to Circular Pool just as they were leaving. They happened to be at the same van park at Exmouth, so the girls had a great time catching up. They even put on a little dance concert for the adults, including a family from Switzerland who we'd met back at Mataranka.)
Our excursion to the national park on the western side of the peninsular came to a screaming halt when the car got 20m from our van and conked out...
Once we'd gotten over the disappointment, we couldn't quite believe that we'd driven all the way from Port Hedland completely trouble free. Not only that; we still had all of our NRMA entitlement! So, to cut a long story short, the road side assistance guy came out and diagnosed a faulty fuel pump. The car was towed to Carnarvon (where it was booked in for its service the following week) and we ended up with a Toyota Hilux for a week
Yardie Creek - looking out to sea
. We were able to complete our time up here and tow the van down to Carnarvon, where we would wait for the car to be sorted out. How lucky were we?!The day in the national park was enjoyable, but not ideal, due to the windy weather. A lot of tourists were complaining that their dives were being cancelled and that the water was cold - as if anyone could help the weather!
We began with a walk along the top of Yardie Creek gorge - more magnificent scenery. Apart from the outlook, we were treated to a sighting of a black footed rock wallaby (at least we think it was) that was feeding on some berries from a native bush.
From there we swam at Sandy Bay. Despite the wind, the water was probably the clearest we've ever seen. It's a glorious swimming beach, shallow and safe. Unfortunately the sand was whipping our legs, so we couldn't enjoy it as much as we would on a calm day.
Turquoise Bay was another exquisite place and offered great snorkelling straight off the beach. Fish were plentiful, as were star fish and sea cucumbers
Sussing out the camera
. The highlight though, was swimming along with two turtles!A visit to the Jurabi turtle Centre taught us a lot about turtle biology, threats, conservation measures and the correct way to observe nesting turtles without disturbing them. The season runs from November to February and we'd heard that the turtles were mating during our visit. Unfortunately, due to hire car regulations relating to night time driving, we weren't able to view them.
When we come back to this special place (and we will) we will stay at the Yardie Homestead Caravan Park which is much closer to the action. We'd just utilise Exmouth to stock up on groceries.
Coral Bay:
Just 155km south lies Coral Bay, yet another slice of heaven. If you like relaxing, fishing, swimming, snorkelling or diving, then it's a place to add to your itinerary. Coral Bay is at the Southern end of Ningaloo Reef and offers the same delights that Cape Range NP has to offer. Both van parks are just across the road from the swimming beach, although "People's Park" looks straight over the bay. We would still go to the effort of heading north though, as we felt the underwater world was just that little bit better up there.
