Exmouth, WA, Australia

02/09 – Karratha to Exmouth today and it’s a bit over 550km. Guess what, the plan was to get away early. As the trip’s progressed we’ve got a bit better at sleeping a little later, so when it’s time to make an early start we have to think more about it.

We were on the road by 8:30 and made good time all day with only one stop for fuel and a stop for lunch at a roadside rest area where we also put fuel in from the Jerry Cans. Arriving at Exmouth mid-afternoon gave us enough time to set up the vans and drop into the Visitor’s centre before it closed for the day. Merryn, Patrick & Matthew are booked into the Osprey Camp Ground out on Ningaloo Reef for a couple of nights so we only have them with us for today as we want to look around Exmouth a bit.

Armed with a gazillion brochures of every type of expensive tour you can imagine (whale watching, swimming with turtles, quad bike expeditions, coral viewing, ultra-light flights, snorkelling, sunset snorkelling, diving etc) we retreated to the caravan park to try and map out our adventures for the next couple of days. Maybe it’s because we’re getting to the end of the trip and we appreciate what it’s cost us or maybe we’re just becoming a bit miserable, but we couldn’t decide on any organised activity from Exmouth. They were all expensive and we figured we could manage to do most of the things without paying.

Speaking of which, sunset at the Vlamingh Lighthouse was on our list so we drove the 17km to the pointy bit of land above Exmouth to view yet another Western Australia sunset. We didn’t expect to also be able to watch pods of humpback whales slapping around. You’ll be disappointed (or maybe pleased?) that they were so far offshore that while we got a great view through binoculars, we weren’t able to photograph them. We stayed out here for probably an hour or more watching them and almost forgot to look at the sunset!

03/09 – The Coughlins are packing up to leave for Osprey Bay and Glen, Lyn and I’ve decided we’ll do the touristy things around town and then maybe have a snorkel off one of the town beaches. First stop, Learmonth Jetty. Nothing special about Learmonth Jetty, it’s just a fisherman’s jetty but a pretty bit of beach and whilst walking on the jetty we saw squid swimming underneath, a turtle cruising by and a school of funny looking tall skinny fish and this was before we even thought about snorkelling. Cool!

The Krait Memorial was our next stop, this was a tribute to Operation Jaywick. This operation involved the “Krait”, a captured Japanese fishing vessel which sailed from Exmouth to Singapore in September 1943 severely damaging seven ships totalling almost 40 000tons. The party returned to Exmouth Gulf after 47 days at sea. There’s a special significance in that Patrick’s Uncle Kev was shortlisted for this operation, a fact they sadly didn’t learn until his funeral.

Potshot Monument was our last historic stop, commemorating the spot where allied forces had a US submarine service base where 1,000 US servicemen were stationed. Again, these monuments are all overlooking the Exmouth Gulf where the views of the turquoise water were just great.

Before returning to the park for lunch we took the ten kilometre drive up the Charles Knife Drive. Funnily enough, we expected all the land around Exmouth to be flat, but we were surprisingly mistaken. Entering the Cape Range National Park we came upon the Charles Knife Canyon, a spectacular gorge/canyon, the like of which we haven’t seen on this trip and a lot more like Grand Canyon scenery than what we’ve seen elsewhere in WA. With ten or so lookouts there was ample opportunity to grab another several hundred snaps of rocks.

Lunch in the park, a drive out to the lighthouse again to check out some more whales (which were again frolicking for us, this time much better) and then a stop at the Coral Viewing beach. Decked out in our flash new snorkelling gear we slipped silently into the water, much like James Bond I think. The Coral was very well disguised today and the fish must have all gone to the Fish Picnic because other than an old branch and a couple of rocks, I saw nothing at all. Hmm, perhaps this snorkelling thing is a waste of time?

Scott & Nicole Davies and their kids arrived in Exmouth today, parked only a few sites away and they meandered over to see us about 5:00 for a drink or two before tea. Well, tea ended up being two minute noodles for them and sandwiches for us, at 9:30 after more than a couple of pre-dinner drinks. A great night with some new friends and I’m sure there might be a couple of sore heads tomorrow morning!

 

04/09 – Okay, swimmers packed? Check. Snorkels in? Check. Esky full? Check. It’s off to Ningaloo we go.

We’re meeting the Coughlins at 10:00 at Turquoise Bay, the renowned snorkelling area and after stopping to hire our flippers we rocked up to the carpark just as they were arriving. All set up on the beach and covered in sunscreen as it’s about 50 degrees, we again slipped into the water. Well, with flippers on we probably looked more like a scene from Happy Feet than a James Bond movie.

Wow, this is amazing! We snorkelled the Drift Loop today, several times. Entering the water 100mtrs or so from where we’re set up on the beach and floating down with the current to the sandbar. The coral was there today, mostly grey and brown but with bits of brightly coloured as well and the fish life was incredible. We saw clownfish, parrotfish, a little shark and heaps of little blue, yellow, red, orange and multicoloured fish that I can’t identify. Matthew and I were even lucky enough to swim along with a turtle for a while.

We did this over and over again. I can’t describe how cool it was and given I’ve written a thousand words today I won’t attempt it.

Suffice it to say. We’ve all had a fantastic day today and stopping in at Osprey Bay for a cuppa on the way home was a great way to end the day although the drive back to Exmouth required us to avoid about 400 kangaroos. Seriously, I think there were 400!