Ningaloo / Cape Range National Park

Ningaloo / Cape Range National Park

The drop toilets (as William will forever remember this place) are remarkable. Although not quite as Kim can remember Ningaloo from 20 years ago, this place is stark, hot, windy, exposed and beautiful. National Park camping at its best ($20 / night now) although the roads are all sealed from Exmouth to Yardie Creek.  Oh Yeah….Exmouth. We went shopping there and bought fuel.

We camped at Osprey Bay camp grounds. There are only a maximum of 17 camp sites here and some places had less, but with the road sealed it is easy to day trip from Exmouth. There was one small dune between us and the ocean with the Cape Range behind us. Not a tree to be seen. The reef here was not so accessible as the coast was rock ledges, but we fished and caught a feed of flathead – William and Lochie and Swallow Tail Dart – Dada.

Chinese Laundry

We went snorkelling each day at Turquoise Bay and the Oyster Stacks. There was some blue and green coloured coral and some purple, and some huge bombie’s and the most amazing fish. So many different ones it was difficult to look them up afterwards as I couldn’t remember them all. Eagle eye Lochie knows them all though, by species and genus! Kim and I decided that the coral had been damaged - at least the in-shore coral in recent years as there was a lot of broken or half dead corals and not many colours to see. I guess if you ventured further out in the lagoon towards the fringing reefs you might see more as the water is consistently deeper, but as Kim saw a black tipped reef shark lurking behind Lochlan while swimming with him, that wasn’t really on the cards.

All three kids loved snorkelling and kept dragging us back in – especially at Turquoise Bay because you get in at one end and the current takes you the 300 meters to the other end over all of the corals – no swimming required. Noodles were a good investment for all the kids although Lochie swam without his most of the time.

Amazing sunsets over the water and the biggest full moon made the end of the day quite entertaining. In between the sun set and the moon rising was the largest sky I could ever imagine seeing, full to the brim with sparkling stars. The kids are learning eagerly about the stars and the Milky Way and the Southern Cross as we work our way through the star chart we bought along.

After packing up on Tuesday we went to Yardie Creek to do a river cruise up the creek into the gorge. This is National Parks run and was really good. The creek is land locked by a large sand bar for extended periods and opens up every few months or years after storms or high tides. This means that many species of ocean critters live in the creek, adapting to the brackish environment, sometimes for years before they are flushed out to sea. Sharks, turtles, rays, and all manner of fish.

The kids were the official wild life spotters with the rangers binoculars. The highlight of the cruise were the black footed rock wallaby’s that lived in the gorge walls. We saw several on each side and got up close enough to watch how they hop around the ledges and up and down the gorge walls. Another amazing creature.

Well back to Coral Bay, via Exmouth to shop coz we have got Whale Sharks to see!