West Coast Part 1

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Snorkelling, Swimming and Sunbathing

After the relaxing time in Broome we had a fair bit of driving to do to get to the next stretch of coast and it turned out a fair bit of driving through featureless, barren landscapes and stopping in quiet roadhouses or industrial towns (and an overflow site on a golf course) but after a few days of constant driving we finally made it to the Ningaloo Reef, Cape Range National Park and the town of Exmouth which we used as a base to explore the reef and park.

The spectre of the school holidays again loomed as we had to book our tiny unpowered space next to a huge, loud Aussie family well in advance, and the fact we had loud neighbours was only made more bearable by the fact that we kept stealing their electricity. The Ningaloo Reef was amazing and we had three days of the best snorkelling we had ever done. After an informative talk at the visitors centre we headed out to one of the many beaches along the coast which consisted of masses of diverse marine life.

Exploring the reef

The water was crystal clear in some spots and after getting used to our $4 goggles we had bought we managed to spend hours in the sea viewing amazing coral reef and colourful fish. The road back to town was also full of wildlife and we only narrowly avoided murdering three suicidal kangaroos on the drive out of the park as well as the odd emu. From the lighthouse on the hill overlooking the coast we also managed to get decent views of migrating whales which was awesome.

The next resort down, roughly 100kms south was Coral Bay and again we stayed for a few nights, had great weather and managed to do some snorkelling, this time seeing exotic coral structures in the cold sea just out from the lagoon. We also saw some gigantic fish just off the beach, probably waiting for a feed from the tourists lined up along the beach. We also, again, managed to find a whole stretch of beach completely to ourselves, the aptly named 'Paradise Beach' and it was luckily only on the final night that we saw any clouds at all. The night had also started to become a lot colder, leading to the first time in about a month that the jeans and hoodie came on, a sign of things to come for sure.

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Photos

$4 goggles
Disgusting

Box of goon
Really ugly people on the box