Exmouth and Cape Range National Park – 16 to 18 May 2010

Exmouth is a relatively new town, established in 1964 to support the Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt, which uses a huge set of radio masts to provide very low frequency radio transmissions to Australian and US submarines in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans.

It is close to nearby Cape Range National Park and the Ningaloo Marine Park

Some small towns, rather than the usual glossy brochures, provide a list of things to do in the area. Exmouth produced a list of 25 things to do in the area, with a map keyed to the 25 items.

We visited Charles Knife and Shothole Canyons, Pebble Beach, the marina and the Exmouth Fish Company (MG Kailis), allowing us to add the Big Prawn to our list of bigs. The prawns in Exmouth are totally fresh off the boats at 8.00 a.m.

The local shopping mall although small has two competing IGA supermarkets, one on each side of the street.

We drove to Cape Range National Park passing the local lighthouse point [under restoration and wrapped in plastic] and the 1907 wreck of the “SS Mildura”.

In addition to the usual National Park visitor centre, the Park provides a fascinating cruise of Yardie Creek which allows an easy exploration of Yardie Gorge. The Ranger was very knowledgeable and gave good descriptions of the wild life and geology. We saw the local community of black footed wallabies, the Osprey and Sea Eagles nests perched on the gorge walls and the more common Corella's and Egrets. Yardie Gorge is the point where tropical and temperate zones intersect, with mixed communities of red mangroves [tropical] and silver mangroves [temperate].

The Ningaloo Reef continues the full length of the North West Cape, and we stopped at a number of beaches, before snorkeling the Drift Loop in Turquoise Bay. This is a great snorkel along the inshore reef, inside the fringing reef, but the currents are strong and there is a gap in the reef. You need to be alert to return to shore at the right point so you don't wash out to sea. We swam into the current. When we had finished we allowed ourselves to drift onto shore.

Coral Bay – 9 to 15 May 2010

On our drive from Carnarvon to Coral Bay we crossed the tropic of Capricorn – going “troppo” again.

Coral Bay is a small township nestled at the end of the bay. It is within the Ningaloo Marine Park

The fringing coral reef comes close to shore and in the protected waters of the bay there is coral and a wide assortment of reef fish. We snorkeled directly from the beach which was fantastic. With our snorkeling gear purchased in Perth, including top to toe suits called “rashies” to protect us from sunburn and errant jellyfish we felt like our Victorian era grandparents.

We took a tour with Ningaloo Reef Dive which offered the chance to swim with the Whale Sharks. The cruise had a spotter plane to look for these gentle giants, which although sharks and the world’s largest fish, feed on plankton like many whales. We had perfect weather with calm seas, and finding two whale sharks close together we had four drops into the water, on one of which we broke the cruises record for swimming with whale sharks, spending 27 consecutive minutes in the water. The Department of Environment and Conservation controls the number of swimmers allowed to be with the shark at any one time and the total amount of time the boat can remain in the sharks vicinity so we were very lucky. We had two wonderful snorkels on the fringing reef as well.

We enjoyed swimming with the Whale Sharks so much that we also booked the Manta Ray cruise. They are beautiful and graceful creatures who look like swimming blankets. Even though our Manta Ray did a barrel roll for us, we had to swim a lot faster to keep up with it. Again we had two great snorkels on the fringing reef and saw a turtle. We also saw dolphins and a dugong from the bridge of the boat. We have noticed that wild animals are often complete hams.

This dugong has been christened Hollywood by the crew as she likes to show off and she did hang around the surface so we could admire her for quite a while.

We spent the rest of our days snorkeling off the beach and going for walks. In the evenings Trish tried to reduce the crocodile population in Northern Australia by eating Cajun Crocodile at the Reef Cafe.

Please Note: All the underwater photos are courtesy of Ningaloo Reef Dive.

Carnarvon - 7th and 8th May 2010

We stayed at the Wintersun Caravan Park in Carnarvon.

We did the Fruit Loop Run and stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables. The Plantations surrounding Carnarvon utilize 1020 hectares of cultivated land on the fertile river flats of the Gascoyne river. There is a diverse range of produce which is sold at stalls outside the properties.

The Gascoyne does occasionally have water in it.

You can also buy lovely icypoles made of mango puree, sometimes chocolate dipped and fresh fruit smoothies, together with jams and relishes.

Carnarvon is the site of the 29.8m parabolic dish antenna which was commissioned in late 1969 by OTC in the early days of  global Television and space travel. The station was decommissioned in April 1987.

We visited Carnarvon’s Historic District and walked out on the 1 mile jetty, the longest jetty in north west Western Australia. This jetty was used to take produce to market and for shipment of sheep. Now it is a great walk and fishing spot. We saw two dugong grazing on the sea grass

Shark Bay World Heritage Area – 1 May to 6 May 2010

We stayed at Denham a small fishing village in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Photos cannot do justice to the beauty of this region or its diversity.

We visited the Heritage centre in Denham which outlines the reasons for this being a World Heritage Area. 

As the photo shows, even emus enjoy a beach holiday.

We were about 20 kilometers from Monkey Mia where the dolphins come to be fed. Tricia was lucky enough to be chosen to give fish to one of the dolphins.

In the afternoon we went for a drive in the Francois Peron National Park, exploring the shearing shed and tracks to Peron Point and the Big Lagoon.

The next day we drove 500 kilometer round trip, much of it 4WD only, to the most Westerly Point of Australia at Steep Point.  Steep Point is very satisfactory.  As the name suggests it is steep and pointy and  gives a good view of Dirk Hartog Island, where Dirk Hartog landed in 1616, preceded by Willem Janzoon but  predating Australia’s “discoverer” Captain Cook by 162 years. We signed the visitors book. You can camp there, use Australia’s most westerly toilet, and enjoy the fact that you are as far from Canberra as you can get on the mainland.

We also visited the Blowhole further down the coast.  On the drive back we saw more Emus, this time not on the main road.

That evening dinner was at the Old Pearler Restaurant. It is built of Coquina shells which have aggregated sufficiently to be carved into solid blocks so that walls can be built of them. Acoustics are very good, owing to all the air spaces in the shells and the room also maintains an even temperature. The food and service is good. It is the most Westerly Restaurant in the State, probably because it was built before planning permits and so didn't need to be set back.

The next day we sailed on the Shotover Catamaran to see some of the marine life in the bay. We were lucky enough to see two dugongs, a mother and baby.  Dugong’s are rather like sea cows, grazing on the sea grass beds and coming to the surface every three or four minutes to breath and then diving back down with gracefully arched backs.  With their wide snouts it is hard to imagine ancient mariners mistaking them for mermaids. 

We visited Shell Beach which is comprised almost entirely of shells.   At nearby Eagle Bluff you could stand there all day with an Eagle’s eye of the sea, watching the marine life. We saw several sharks and some stingrays.
Yet another lookout provided another shelly beach.

A sunset cruise on the Shotover gave us a view of dolphins at play and a loggerhead turtle, finishing up a very satisfactory week with dinner at the Bough Shed.

On the way out of Shark Bay we stopped at Hamelin Pool and saw the Stromatolites.  Built by cyanobacteria, the world’s oldest single cell organisms, hugely efficient oxygen producers and critical to the earth we have today, they are however  not very interactive.  We also saw the historic shell quarry, only used to repair buildings nowadays.

Kalbarri and Kalbarri National Park – 29 to 30 April 2010

Kalbarri  is a popular seaside town, located on the estuary of the Murchison River and surrounded by the Kalbarri National Park.

The coastline has a number of spectacular headlands and the “natural bridge” amongst its features. 

The estuary, with its difficult entrance supports a small fishing industry.  It is a popular holiday destination, being only six hours drive from Perth.

The National Park is famous for its rocky gorges, carved by the Murchison River and the aptly named “Nature’s Window.”  We also liked the stylish public toilets, each different and obviously architect designed, which were a feature of the stopping points on the coast and in the National Park.