Tour Australia

We had camped just out of Tom Price at a road side stop. We got going early and headed for Exmouth. The drive was easy and pretty; there were many flowers lining the roads and off in the surrounds.

We arrived in Exmouth in the afternoon and were trying to book a campsite in the Cape Range National Park. We were not sure if it was fully booked out or if we were doing something wrong but we couldn’t get a site. We ended up staying at the Lighthouse Caravan Park as we wanted to be as close to the National Park as possible.

Earlier that week I had accidently dunked my camera underwater and had opened up the case and left it to dry for a few days. This afternoon was the time to put it back together and see if it was going to work. I first tested the lens on my older Canon 40D and it worked! I was feeling excited. I then put the camera together stuck the original battery back in and it didn’t turn on. I thought it was dead, but as a precautionary I changed batteries and to my amazement it worked! The lens and camera had survived!

We went out on to the beach for sunset and watch it disappear behind the headland and were lucky enough to spot some Humpback Whales out to sea.

Ningaloo Reef Day 1

The next day we packed up early and arrived at the visitors centre in Cape Range NP right on opening. We chatted to the staff member and we were told that we were first in line for a booking cancellation and to wait until 10:45am.

We looked through the displays and waited. Finally she got a call and we had a campsite in the Mesa campground until Saturday morning. We were stoked and headed up there immediately. The campground was basically a big gravel carpark but was close to the beach. We unhitched and got ourselves organised for our first snorkel.

We drove to Turquoise Bay and walked down to the Drift Snorkel. We headed to the south end of the beach and swam out from there. The current slowly takes you north due to the water filling into the lagoon (which is the water between the reef edge and the land) and then draining out of a gap in the reef. There was lots to see; plenty of fish and plenty of coral. We really enjoyed our first snorkel and were keen to get in again.

We went back to the caravan for lunch and then headed down to Oyster Stacks, which gets its name from the limestone rocks which purtrude out of the water like stacks and are covered in oysters. This snorkeling site is only able to be snorkeled at high tides over a certain hight and this was going to be our only opportunity to do it. We hurried in and were very lucky to find a turtle sitting on the bottom of the beach. We hovered and watched it for a while and then it swam off. This snorkel site was one of our favourites and had heaps of coral, lots of fish, slugs and we found a giant clam.

We then jetted down further south to have a look around and saw some whales off the coast so we stopped at one of the campsites and watched them for a while. On the way back to camp we also spotted some Stuart Desert Peas growing by the side of the road.

Ningaloo Reef Day 2

Today we did another two snorkels. In the morning we went down to Lakeside which is right near the National Parks Visitors Centre. To get to this snorkeling location you have to walk around 500m from the carpark and then enter the water. Again there is a current pulling north so we started at the southern end. This was another great snorkeling spot; we saw heaps of fish, lots of coral, a giant clam, a couple of stingrays and a turtle.

We were out of the water when we spotted the turtle swimming adjacent to the beach so we quickly jumped into the water and followed it. It looked like it had some damage to its shell at the rear but it was happily swimming along.

In the afternoon we headed to Turquoise Bay again but this time went to the Bay Loop snorkeling area. The water was quite cloudy and stirred up so visibility wasn’t great. We still enjoyed having a look around at the fish and coral. We found some star fish and we even found a clown fish (Nemo!).

Ningaloo Reef Day 3

This morning we traveled down to Osprey and jump into the water for a snorkel. There was a very strong current pulling south at this spot and the visibility was low. We could not find much coral here and there seemed to be less fish in this spot compared to the others. We were lucky enough to find a giant clam and an octopus sitting on the bottom but we didn’t see a lot more. We didn’t stay long here and moved on up to Lakeside for another morning snorkel.

We went back up to Lakeside to finish the morning off with a longer snorkel. We planned to try and go to some of the reef we hadn’t been to the day before. Again we went to the southern end of the beach and drifted north. Again we saw plenty of fish and coral but this time we saw 3 stingrays including a blue spotted stingray.

That afternoon we made our way to Yardie Creek to have a look around. The creek is quite large but only a small opening to the ocean. We had a quick wander but it was very windy and cold.

On our way back we saw lots of kangaroos near the road and off in the grass.

Ningaloo Reef Day 4

Today we left the Mesa campground and headed back around to Exmouth. Along the way we visited the Lighthouse and enjoyed the view from up high.

Back in Exmouth we went to the supermarket for some supplies, filled up water at the visitors centre and saw an emu.

We drove down to Coral Bay and booked in to the caravan park for 1 night. We then walked up to Skeleton Bay to view the shark nursery. There were probably 40 or so sharks swimming around in the shallow water. We stayed there for a while and then went back to the caravan park.

Ningaloo Reef Day 5

We left the caravan park early and left the caravan outside the visitors centre in town. We headed out of town and north past the airstrip. We arrived at the beach we were planning on driving north along only to find that it is closed to 4wd’s. We then drove back and headed up to the Coastal rd which is marked as 4wd only. We followed this road all the way to the sand dunes. Once at the sand dunes we headed south to Oyster Bridge. The sand is very soft so we aired down to 15psi.

Oyster Bridge looked amazing! We parked the Jeep and walked down to it and jumped in for a snorkel. Unfortunately the water was very stirred up due to the waves pushing over the bridge into the lagoon. There were some small patches of very pretty coral and there were fish. We also saw some giant clams and star fish as well.

We headed back up north along the dunes and to a snorkeling location called The Lagoon. The waves were rolling in to this location and there was a large swell. We jumped in for a snorkel but due to the large swell and poor visibility decided to jump out shortly after.

We returned back to town and had lunch before heading up to Purdy Point for a look over the bay.

We made our way down to Five Finger Reef which is south of the township. Again there was soft sand to get down there but a beautiful drive along the coast and onto the beach. There was a current heading north so we jumped into the water at the southern end of the reef. This reef was probably the best snorkeling location we’d been in. There was a lot of coral, heaps of fish and a couple of octopuses.

We had a great time snorkeling at Five Finger Reef and wish we could have gone back for a second time but we had to move on. We hitched the caravan back up and headed south. We passed through the Tropic of Capricorn and stopped for some photos. We continued south and on the road spotted a little Thorny Devil. We stopped and moved it off the road. It was very cute!

We camped at a road side rest area for the night which was swarming with flies!