Coral Bay October 28

We left Exmouth about 9am and drove the 155kms to Coral Bay down the coast. It is still in the Ningaloo Marine Reserve and is basically a holiday town.
From April to the mid October the place is packed and the 2 caravan parks can't keep up with the tourists. It has a lovely beach which was sheltered from the wind and you could swim 100mtrs to snorkel the coral reef or go out in one of the many boats that take you out to the outer  reef.

Coral Bay

The snorkelling  off the beach here was not any where near as good as the National Park but I will never let an opportunity go when it is so accessible and it was a warm day as well.

Lloyd at Coral Bay(the other direction)-It reminded us of the Caribbean

We enjoyed lying in the shade until this fellow decided to come and visit! Its a sand goanna, he was about 2 metres long and was only a metre away, he just sat there and seemed to enjoy being photographed. Once we got over the shock we enjoyed watching him!

He had beautiful patterns

Last days Ningaloo Reef

We intended to stay to about 10 days at Cape Range but over the last few days the wind really increased which is usual at this time of the year.
 Its amazing how the wind noise especially in the caravan  gets to you after awhile and it meant we couldn't fish or snorkel.
Our neighbour decided it was a good time to do some renovations on his camper van and I couldn't help notice him in his building attire and had to take a photo-I'm sure some of you would appreciate the eye candy!!!

Notice the builders apron,goes well with speedos I thought!!!

We did drive down to Yardie Creek which was about 13kms away and walked along the beach, its surprising what you see. We decided it was time to move on and left after a wonderful week to go to back to Exmouth and stock up with food and water. The temperature was still over 32 deg but the wind did make a difference, we were beginning to find out about what they say about WA Windy Always!!

We saw this and it reminded us of San Francisco

Ningaloo Reef Part 3

There were several good snorkelling spots and we enjoyed going to an area called the Oyster stacks to snorkel. You needed to go at high tide and it had to over a 1.2mtr tide which seemed really strange as we had just been in Broome and Derby where the tides were over 10 metres.
We were both really quite surprised how good the snorkelling was, the coral was quite different from what we had seen last year in Vanuatu and around the oyster stacks were so many varieties of very cool fish. This was straight off the shore which is pretty amazing considering you have to go for miles in an expensive boat trip on the Great Barrier Reef.
The swimming at Turquoise bay was so nice as it was protected from the pre failing south westerly wind that was starting to be quite strong.

Lynda snorkelling

One of the popular swimming beaches is Turquoise Bay

Oyster stacks

Ningaloo Reef Part 2

It didn't take long for us to settle into the rhythm of things which included fishing.Lloyd loved being able to cast his line about 30 metres from the caravan and wait for the fish to take and watch all the marine life while waiting. The rock face was about a 2 metre drop into the water and there was many turtles,stingrays, sharks and colourful fish that went by in the very clear water. His was line was going out into weedy reef and we enjoyed the 2 spangled emperors he caught.

Lloyd fishing, the caravan in the background

Our dinner!!

Walking on the beach

Cape Range National Park - Ningaloo Reef Marine Park Part 1

This was one of the places in Australia that we both really wanted to visit and so we were excited at being able to spend a week or so camping here.
At the peak time you have to queue for hours as there is limited camping spots available in the park but the great thing being at this time of the year is that we could just roll up at 10am and get the campground  of our choice. There are many in the park, but as always some are better than others and we had been told to stay at Osprey Bay if we could.
The Ningaloo Marine Park is part of the World Hertiage area and is Australia's largest fringing reef system stretching 300 kms.
It hosts an array of marine life including whale sharks ( the worlds largest fish) but we were too late to see them but saw many turtles ,rays and of course coral and wonderful colourful fish.

Osprey Bay This was about 30 mts from our caravan

The wonderful thing is that you can snorkel straight off the beach as in one place in the park the reef is only 320mtrs out from the shore.
The colour of the water in Osprey is beautiful, it really is shades of turquoise and we just sat sometimes and soaked up the view. We were able to camp here for just $13.20 per night but there were only toilets and no showers or water so you had to make your water last as long as possible if you wished to stay for awhile.

Our amazing view

The reef was about 500 mtrs from the beach

Exmouth

We set off relatively early as we had a long drive ahead. About an hour later we got our first flat tyre, dam!!
Luckily it was not too hot and Lloyd (with my help of course!) was able to change the tyre and we then felt rather uneasy that we had only the one spare. We have 2 for the caravan but not the Landcrusier. At lest the road to Exmouth was rather busier than the roads we had travelled in the previous weeks. Our first task in Exmouth would be to get the tyre fixed and obtain another spare too.
Exmouth is a holiday town that is busy from April through to October school holidays so there was plenty of spaces available.

Lloyd changing the flat tyre!!

We stayed at the Exmouth caravan park and spent time on the phone organising tyres.We discovered that the tyre was a right off and our spare was an odd tyre even though it was nearly brand new so it meant 2 new tyres were needed.Thats what happens when you travel many kms and we so far have had no other trouble with the Landcrusier so it was all good, we even managed to get another wheel so we now have 2 spares and feel much better!!! 

We also visited the information centre and got everything we needed about our visit to Cape Range National Park. All around the centre are emus so of course we had to photograph one.

One of the many Emus roaming around

Road to Exmouth Oct 18

We left the National Park with low water tanks and food supplies which we were able to replenish in the small mining town ofTom Price. Many Australian towns have a water tape available to travellers and the supermarket was must visit.
The distance to Exmouth was over 600kms so we stayed at rest area about half way along. The place was rather pretty and another caravan pulled in later with a young family. We have met several young families who sell up,buy a caravan and set off in search of somewhere else to settle. They often stop for awhile in places to work and just keep going until they find somewhere that suits their needs.Mostly the children are not school age so the aim to get settled before this happens.
They are all very friendly, positive and keen for a chat.This couple made scones and bought some over for us to sample which was lovely.

Some of the scenery along the way!

Rest Area on way to Exmouth

Only in Australia are the roads long enough for air strips

Circular Pool

Some of the trees just seem to grow regardless!!!

On our last day we hiked around the rim of Dale Gorge and down to Circular Pool. After yesterday at the other spectacular gorges and pools we thought that this would be average but it certainly had its own charm. The hike back along the bottom of the gorge was very interesting, we couldn't get over the iron in the rocks. Of course this area is right in the Pilbara of Australia made famous for its iron ore mining. Each of the pools in the Karijini are different and the whole park is just spectacular , probably the best so far of all the National parks we have been too and thats quite a few!!!

The rim of the Dale gorge

The pool from the rim looking down

Hancock Gorge

Journey in

Again this gorge was on the southern side of the park and after we had hiked Weano Gorge we had lunch and then hiked to this gorge.

Swimming through one part Lloyd negated the narrow ledge

We had been told that you needed to swim through part of it to get to the end so we took along our reef shoes and was ready for some rather tough climbing as it was a class 5 hike"for very experienced hikers "

Kermits pool

It was so much fun as you has various parts which were different. The way down was very steep and then you hiked over high places and arrived in a place they called the amphitheatre for obvious reasons.

The spider walk

The next part was very tricky as the rocks were so slippery and it was narrow. It is called the spider walk as you have to walk along the sides of the walls like a spider with your hands and feet with water running through underneath you. At the end of this you are rewarded with reaching the Kermit Pool which is very cold and deep and of course a real green colour, wonderful with high rock sides.

The amphitheatre

Weano Gorge

This gorge is on the other side of the park about the 94 kms from our camp so we left early as there are 2 areas to hike in.

We walked along the rim of Weano gorge and then down to the lower gorge.

At the end of this is the amazing handrail pool which you need to climb down into via a handrail as it is encased in high sided rock.

Some were pretty narrow

The water was wonderful and clear and it was truly a great place to visit.

Sides of the Gorge as you walk in

Swimming in the Handrail Pool

Climbing down to the pool

Fortescue Falls

These were at the bottom in the Dale Gorge and down some really steep ladders.

The rock formations around the falls are horizontal strata which make the area very unique. I will let the photos tell all!!!

Fortescue Falls and Pool

Karijini National Park Oct 14 Fern Pool

WOW WOW What a wonderful place!!!
We had not heard anything about this place until we were in the Northern Territory and met people who said we should definitely visit.

Dale Gorge

Swimming in Fern Pool

We headed towards the park just south of Port Hedland and all you see are Road Trains from the mines and mining vehicles.
The park is nearly as big as the  Kakadus (nearly 500,000 sq kms) and has 2 main areas that are available for people to hike and visit. We drove to Dale Campground where there is the Dale Gorge which has 3 areas to see.
We hiked to the Fortescue Falls and the Fern Pool on our arrival. It was sooooo hot so the fact we could swim in the pools was great. The scenery ,the formation of the starta iron ore rock and colours was incredible. We hiked down into the gorge and along to the Fern Pool which was just lovely.

Albert Togolingi Rest Area

This is another wonderful free rest area that is set up for travellers. It is situated high up on a ridge and has wonderful views back down on to the main highway.
It is named after the engineer that designed the road through the gorge it overlooks as is quite stunning.

You can see the highway below

We arrived in about 38 deg heat at 4pm and I have to say it was one time that the flies got the better of us and we stayed inside and ate our dinner. It was ashame as the view was to die for but they were so persistent and we both over them.So an early night seemed a good idea and the wind did come up somewhat and keep the night bearable for sleeping.

Great views

Port Hedland

Port Hedland is an industrial town that has evolved to support the mining industry. We drove around and got the feel of it really quickly, every vehicle was a mining one except for  maybe 1 or 2.
Here are a few photos that show what its all about!!!

Rusty looking machinery that lines the main highway by the port

The port

De Greys Rest Area Oct 13

We had been told about this free rest area that got very busy earlier in the season but now was rather in off season mode.
We arrived and spent some time negotiating a site right near the river.It is one of the few rivers that is still flowing at the end of the dry season and it has cattle roaming right through as it is part of the De Greys cattle station.
We both really loved this place as we had for once in many months we  had grass under us and the smell of the eucalyptus trees was very strong.We were only about 5 metres from the river and had lovely shade most of the time but still enough sun to charge the solar.
So our stay here went from 1 to 2 days very quickly as we enjoyed reading, Lynda swimming and just relaxing Again!!!!

Our awesome camp site!!!

Swimming in the river

The friendly cows roaming through!!!

Cape Keraudren Oct 12

On leaving Broome we drove to Cape Keraudren which is on the Indian Ocean and council owned.
It is pretty exposed and has 3 camping areas right on the beach.
Lloyd tried his hand at fishing without any luck while I had a swim while the tide was in as we had read that the tide actually went out for 3kms!!!

Sun set at low tide

The landscape and rock formations were really interesting and so lots of photos were taken. However that evening the wind came up and we decided to move on the next day as it was still blowing quite strong although it was still over 35degs.

Rock Formations

Van right near sea

Broome -Cable Beach

We had decided to leave Broome on Saturday so on Friday night we went to Cable Beach to see the famous sunset camel walk.
As some of you know Lloyd worked in the Middle East and had no interest in re visiting camel riding, as he says they smell and spit and are best viewed from a distance which is what we did!!
He was however very amused with the back backer who had the job of following the camel train and collecting the left overs with out gloves!!! It made for some great photos!!!

The owners of the 2 chairs quickly removed themselves!