DAY 32 – ON THE ROAD

We spent most of today in our mobile armchairs enjoying the air conditioning to escape the 36 degree temperature outside. We have travelled 9,000 kilometres so far so I got the oil in the car changed this morning at the Exmouth 4X4 centre. It was the most reasonably priced service the car has ever had.

We are now at Tom Price, on the doorstep of Karajini National Park.

The picture is of Mount Nameless, said to be the highest mountain around here and located just behind the caravan park. Apparently, there is a 4WD track to the top which we will try tomorrow if the suspension can handle it.

We have left the beaches behind and are most definitely in spectacular outback country. There are two ways of getting here from Exmouth, the long way and the short way. The short way is at least 100 kms shorter but involves 50 kms of dirt road. Obviously we chose the short way and the corrugations didn’t seem too bad but the fridge had a different view. Its door fell off again! Shades of Innaminka.

I have carried out some first aid and it should be OK but it will be well and truly taped up for the rest of the trip. Perhaps it’s time we replaced it. It is 10 years old and seems to have lost the capacity to survive a bit of rough treatment.

We are now in the Hammersley ranges in iron ore country. We are hoping to do a mine tour in the morning. We are told it is very impressive. We will then be heading for the National Park.

I realized that there was a picture left out of those taken at the Navy Pier. Here it is.

DAY 31 - LAST DAY AT EXMOUTH - THE BEACH HOLIDAY IS OVER.

Not much to report today. It is our last day in Exmouth so, as you would expect, we spent a fair bit of it in the water. We had three snorkels, two of them at Torquoise Beach, the most crowded beach in the Marine Park as shown in the photo. The variety and quality of coral and fish at the various recommended snorkelling locations is impressive.

Tomorrow we start the long trek home, heading east to Tom Price and the Karigini National Park.

Since I don’t have much to say or show, I attempted to upload a video showing the whale shark chase. In the video, it appears that I am keeping up but that was the first of eight swims and I wasn’t able to maintain the pace in the later swims. The fish in the video is the small 4 metre one. The one in the still photo I put on the blog was the larger 7 metre one.

 Unfortunately it didn't work so those who want to see the video will have to wait until we get home.

DAY 30 – STILL AT EXMOUTH

Another great day. How often have I said that?

The day started with the dive at the nearby Navy Pier. It is within the area used for communication with submarines and is controlled by the Federal police so part of the procedure for going on the dive was to provide identification!

The dive consists of jumping off the pier and swimming around under the very extensive pier structure for an hour at a depth of approximately 11 metres. It has been in place since the 1960’s and is in a no fishing zone so there are a large number and variety of fish which hang around. 

The highlight was the groper. We were warned about him. He is like a dog craving affection. He swims up to you and effectively demands that you give him a rub. Great fun.

This afternoon we checked out the higher parts of the Cape Range National park, a spectacular combination of gorges and ocean views.

I was hoping to do a half day fishing trip while here to stock the freezer with fish before we head east but that doesn’t look like it will happen. I guess one can’t have everything. We expect to be leaving here on Tuesday to head for Tarajini National Park near Tom Price. It comes highly recommended.

These are some of the other photos taken during the dive.

DAY 29 – MORE OF EXMOUTH

This is a photo of Exmouth’s busiest beach, Turquoise Beach where we snorkelled this afternoon. What the photo doesn’t show well are the dark patches under the water where the coral is. Again, brilliant snorkelling just off the beach.

We had a leisurely start to the day and met Chelsea, her husband Dallas, and their two daughters for coffee at 9:00. Chelsea is an environmental scientist who assists Lady Elliot with its environmental obligations. She now works here for the WA Department of Environment and Conservation. They were able to give us a local perspective on living in Exmouth.

We then headed for Yardie’s Creek, the only creek in Cape Range National Park with water in it. The water only extends for a distance of one kilometre from the mouth which only opens to the sea in extreme weather events but it has surprising amount of water in it and well worth a look.

Surprise, surprise, it rained. They say that the sun shines here 320 days per year and to be fair, the sun did shine for most of today but we awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of thunder and rain and we had a few follow up showers today. That lovely red dirt turns to lovely red mud.

Tomorrow morning, I am doing the Navy Pier dive, allegedly one of the ten best dive sites in the world so it must be pretty special. 

The locals are very relaxed as the photos below show.

DAY 28 – WHALE SHARKS

The whale sharks, neither a whale nor a shark, were in splendid form today. We were the oldies in a young athletic group and were therefore at somewhat of a disadvantage in the whale shark viewing procedure but we saw our share.

The procedure is that the crew, with the assistance of a spotter plane locates a whale shark. The boat is then positioned in the anticipated path of the whale shark, everybody is lined up on the duck board of the boat and, when the crew shouts “go,go,go” you jump into the water and follow the directions of the leader who positions you so that the whale shark swims past you. That’s the easy part. Once the whale shark swims past, you then swim as fast as you can to stay alongside it for as long as you can. Needless to say the oldest and weakest drop off first and you are then left bobbing around in the middle of the ocean until the boat comes along and picks you up. It is definitely adventure tourism but very exhilarating.

There is a rule that you must stay 3 metres from the whale shark as it swims past but the one in the photo didn’t know about that rule. He turned and swam towards me. Yes it is my photo and what a privilege it was to be so close to such a magnificent creature, estimated to be seven metres long.

We were very fortunate with the weather. It could not have been calmer.

That’s one item we can tick off the bucket list.

The locals are very cheeky.

DAY 28 – WE’VE ARRIVED - EXMOUTH

Sorry but I have very little to report. Today was quite bland. We woke up, listened to the dawn service being conducted next to our camp site, had breakfast, went for a snorkel, drove north for an hour and a half to Exmouth, and had another snorkel.

This afternoon’s snorkel at Lakeside was quite different to the conditions at Coral Bay this morning in that the coral was more like what we are used to and the fish life was prolific. We saw what I think is the biggest groper I have ever seen but Trish says that she has seen bigger!

The most important thing that happened today is that we confirmed our booking for the whale shark tour tomorrow. There have been plenty of them around so hopefully they will be there tomorrow. Our fingers are crossed.

We are in a very smart caravan park but, because it is school holidays, it is near enough to full but, where we snorkelled this afternoon, there were five people in the water including us so, where it counts, there’s virtually nobody around.

Even though Exmouth is virtually on the water, it is otherwise surrounded by the red desert. The other surprising thing is the amazing lack of bugs. It was 30 degrees today and, at 6:30 pm is still about 25 degrees but there are no bugs being attracted to our lights or otherwise irritating us.

We plan on staying here a few days before we embark on the long trek home.

DAY 27 – CORAL BAY

Today was yet another brilliant day. We are at Coral Bay having just seen the sun set over the ocean at our almost waterfront camp site.

I don’t have any photos of the best part of the day because I didn’t take my underwater camera when we went snorkelling off the beach this afternoon but this is yet another really special place.

We are near the southern end of the Ningaloo Reef which stretches for several hundred kilometres just a few kilometres off the beach creating an inshore lagoon in which is contained some of the best coral we have seen. It is different from but similarly spectacular to GBR coral and seems to go on forever. The entire area appears to be no more than five metres deep so we didn’t see any of the big fish, sharks, rays etc that are seen in the deeper water.

One walks off a beautiful sandy gradually sloping beach until it is deep enough to swim and the coral  starts once the water is two metres deep.

Notwithstanding that we are in the middle of nowhere, a long way from anywhere, this is a very popular spot. With a water temperature of 26 degrees at this time of year and brilliant weather, one can understand why.

Tomorrow we go to Exmouth, about 200 kilometres north of here where we have an appointment to swim with the Whale Sharks on Friday. Before we head off in the morning, we will be having another snorkel off the beach.

It's my sister's birthday tomorrow. I'm not sure how old she is but her younger sister recently celebrated her 50th birthday. Happy Birthday Trish.

DAY 26 – BEYOND HALFWAY – ONLY 23 TO GO

Today was another stunning day. I guess great weather comes with the desert landscape. No rain.

We are now half way, both time wise and location wise. We are at Canarvon tonight which appears to be approximately level with Bundaberg on the east coast so we have completed the bottom half of the continent and have now started on the top half. 

We had a leisurely start to the day and spent what was left of the morning at Ocean Park, not quite Sea World, but it contained a reasonable collection of local marine life including quite an impressive shark display.

We spent a couple of hours in the car this afternoon to get here. We have checked out the local sights, topped up the food supply at Woolworths and are ready to attack the Coral Coast, where we hope to have a whale shark encounter.

One of the main attractions of Canarvon is its historic one mile long jetty. It is no longer used for any commercial purpose other than tourism but is an impressively long structure with a fascinating railway infrastructure which transported goods out to the ships for loading.

DAY 25 –MONKEY MIA DOLPHINS CAN BE CROSSED OFF THE BUCKET LIST

We have had some special days on this trip but today was right up there. 

The highlight was of course Trish getting to feed a dolphin at Monkey Mia, a very special place. 

The photos tell the story of the day.

Between the dolphins and the Pearl farm tour, we enjoyed a cappuccino.

We were taken to the Pearl farm by a vessel with a very entertaining skipper who looked remarkably like Peter Dillon.

We then explored the 40 klms of challenging tracks in the Francois Peron National Park (we only got bogged once) to get to spectacular scenery. 

The contrast between the red dunes, white beach sand and blue ocean is outstanding.

Trish’s phone rang. It was her Springbrook walking mates ringing to compare notes on how our Monday afternoon walk compared with theirs.

And of course a friendly Manta Ray swam by. Unfortunately we didn't see any dugong, the other sea creature for which area is well known.

To round off the day, I took a quad bike tour along the local beaches.

And of course we finished the day with a Watershed Sauvignon Blanc Semillon especially selected from our cellar.

Tomorrow will be a lazy day heading further north but probably not too far.

DAY 24 – SHARK BAY – MONKEY MIA

Today we returned to the desert country. Rain is obviously quite rare in these parts. The contrast between the red sand and crystal clear water is spectacular.

This morning we meandered through Geraldton, a very old town with a substantial mining and fishing port and then headed north to Denham, the nearest town to Monkey Mia where the dolphin feeding happens. The whole area is within the World Heritage listed Shark Bay, well known for its marine life.

We have to get up early in the morning and leave here at 7:15 to be at the dolphin feeding at 7:45. How will we manage?

We are enjoying an Evans and Tate Classic Rose this evening, again especially selected from our cellar.

If you look carefully, you can see the ocean between the trees opposite our van site.

Earlier this evening we enjoyed some interaction with most of the family via Skype. They are having Pizzas at Royal Pines.

DAY 23 – IN TRANSIT

Not much to report today other than we spent an uneventful day in our mobile armchairs with the cruise control on heading north from Margaret River. We sailed through Perth on the freeway. Perth will be a fly in trip of its own at some future time.

The local wildlife came out to farewell us when we left.

We are now at the Double Beach caravan park just south of Geraldton. It is located at Greenough Beach which looked as if it would be a delightful place where the Greenough River appears to meet the ocean but it doesn’t! It is quite nice but the local scenery and the park are not up the standard we have become used to. 

The locals like to play on the beach.

Tomorrow we will be at Shark Bay on which Monkey Mia is located where we will hopefully be able to interact with the dolphins. We plan to spend a few nights there.

In the meantime, dinner is cooking in the webber and we are enjoying a very nice Knotting Hill wine from our cellar.