West Coast Part 2 - Exmouth

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Exmouth is a wee tourist town at the top of the Ningaloo Reef and has some quality marine animals. During the cold war the US army built a military base there and it is the site for 13 massive towers that transmit Very Low Frequency radio waves (VLF) to the submarines. I think it can contact any submarine anywhere in the world. Anyway before the Americans showed up this place was pretty desolate and cut off from the rest of the world. Now it is a tourist hub. Ciaran went for a dive on the first day at the Navy Pier. It is a big pier built by the Americans for the army base, and apparently is consistently in one of the top ten diving sites in the world. Well, it was the best diving site Ciaran has ever been to (his 3rd dive site ever), encountering Big Gropers, rare shrimps, a sea snake and also big fully grown Reef sharks and Grey Nurse sharks. These boys didn’t really look scared of us at all, but then again, they didn’t seem to be too interested in eating people so it was ok.



Deirdre disappointingly lost another 2 games of Trivial Pursuit, trailing the series now (1-3). Whilst in Exmouth we explored the Cape Range National Park, visited Yardie Creek and possibly one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever been to – Turquoise Bay. We visited Turquoise bay a couple of days in a row as it was so nice. Ciaran got using his snorkel yet again and swam with his own turtle that he found all by himself and nobody else showed him where it was. The turtle was pretty chilled out and didn’t seem to mind a bright white Irishman swimming overhead. The snorkeling was cut short when a lady on the beach told him that she had seen a wee shark behind him chasing fish. She did tell him that it was only a baby Reef shark and that they don’t eat people, but he keeked it and didn’t get back in. Deirdre wasn’t too bothered either as the shark might have shut him up talking about his bloody turtle. The next activities were performed on land. Exmouth has a lighthouse, which was right next to the campsite and from here you could see whales in the bay. The bay is a place of safety where mothers and their calves come to park up for the night. There must have been about 20 of them at the one time. They were smacking their tales on the sea and jumping out of the water and getting up to all kinds of mischief. It was beautiful spot and one definitely worth the drive to get to.

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