From Carnarvon to Exmouth

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Day 39 - Thursday 11 May 2006
Carnarvon to Coral Bay
We didn’t travel that far today but we were glad to get out of the condensation and the hot weather. In Carnarvon it gets cool at night and gets really hot in the morning. I was eating my breakfast this morning and got dripped on. It is really wet underfoot but soon drys up. Graeme didn’t like Carnarvon too much but I thought it was okay.
We arrived at Coral Bay about lunchtime and decided to put the annexe up. We booked in for 3 nights as Maureen and Harry said it was a beautiful spot. It is not much of a town except basically accommodation, tours, small shopping centre and a pub. We drove in and thought there was only one caravan park but later found out there was two. The other one was nicer, more shade and better facilities. Oh well you live and learn. Another family set up next to us with twin 10 year olds. Duane met his new friend Richo and Kiera met her new friend Victoria. That day we went and visited the famous Coral Bay Beach and had a swim in the clear water and laid on the white sand. This is quiet a popular holiday spot and fairly busy. We met up with the dairy farm family and Duane and the boys played in the water. They were leaving the next morning so didn’t have much time to catch up. I spent the afternoon talking to Amanda (Richo’s and Victoria’s mum). They are traveling for 3 months and are going the opposite way and visited Darwin in the wet season.

Day 40 - Friday 12 May 2006
Coral Bay
The Nigaloo reef - how wonderful. The weather is beautiful and sunny with a breeze off the water. We went snorkeling today. We have all bought masks, fins and snorkels from Kalbarri except Kiera as she is too young so she gets her goggles and an old snorkel of Duane’s. She thinks it is Christmas. She also spits in her goggles because that is what you are suppose to do to prevent them from fogging up. It works. Graeme took some left over calamari from last night’s dinner in his pocket to feed the fish. You are not suppose to but typical Graeme. We all watched underwater as he pulled it out of his pocket. It was amazing the amount of fish that swarmed him.
6kg snappers came from everywhere. There were heaps of them. We couldn’t believe it and Graeme was concerned that his finger would be bitten off. You had to be there!!! The snorkeling was great. Graeme has taught Duane how to snorkel properly. The colours of the fish were fantastic. We wish that we had an underwater camera. Everybody either snorkels here or lazes on the beach.

Day 41 - Saturday 13 May 2006
Coral Bay
The caravan park only has bore water. They don’t have any hot water facilities as the water is so hot when it comes out of the ground. It is so salty. There is no use thinking you are going to have a nice shower to wash all the salt from the beach off because you just get back into a shower of salt. I am trying to hold off to do any laundry washing as it all goes hard. Today Duane and I went on a quad bike tour for three hours. Duane was on the back of me. I have never driven a bike before so I was fairly slow at the start so the tour guide pulled me off the bike and put me on he back and went driving down the straight to show me how fast they can go. They took you tup and down the sand dunes and to the first snorkeling spot called Oyster Bridge. This was like a little lagoon where the water was so clear and so many colourful fish (just like tropical/saltwater) you see in any aquarium. We also saw a huge sea urchin. I could hear Duane screaming underwater. We then got back on the bike and drove further down the beach to a second snorkeling spot. Duane and I had to swim around oyster stacks to get out in the open ocean and went snorkeling again. We were both a bit nervous and didn’t enjoy this as much as the waves were fairly rough. Apparently the tour guide was swimming with a manta ray the previous day in the same spot. We didn’t see any turtles but they are apparently hard to find. That night we went out for drinks with people that we met originally at Fraser Range Station (over the Nullarbor) so it was nice to catch up and change notes. We went out for tea after this and this was the worst meal we have had since we have left Melbourne cafes/restaurants cannot get staff. There are a lot of backpackers. They don’t have any houses here. They all live in either caravans or holiday accommodation. Thoroughly recommend it though except eating out.

Day 42- Sunday 14 May 2006 (Mothers Day)
Coral Bay
We were only going to stay three nights here in Coral Bay but it was so nice we couldn’t stand leaving on Mothers Day. It was such a nice day. We went out in the tinny to a remote beach. Graeme went fishing with Duane and Kiera and I laid on the beach and played in the sand with no-one around us. It was so wonderful. We then had a picnic lunch on the beach. We then decided we would go snorkeling as Coral Bay is renound for this, except watch out for the sharks. We were all going into snorkel when Graeme went ahead into the deep blue when he popped his head up and said “Shark get out of the water”. We were about 75 metres away from the shore and was all about to dive down when Graeme yelled out. I didn’t believe him at first and thought he was playing a joke but he said it for the second time so I told Duane to swim to shore and I pushed Kiera back to shore in a hurry. My heart was pumping and Graeme kept yelling “Get the kids out of the water”. Graeme said that all the fish that he was watching was in a gully when he saw a 2 metre shark. We still do not know what kind of shark it was but we were all scared. Graeme was petrified but he went out in the tinny to see if he could see it again. He couldn’t find it. Needless to stay we didn’t go back in the water that day.

Day 43 - Monday 15 May
Coral Bay to Exmouth
Not a long drive today and we said goodbye to our friends for the last 4 nights. They were moving on to Carnarvon. Exmouth is a larger town and has two small supermarkets. There is a lot of construction going on here ie. Residential and commercial. They are building a beautiful Marina. Quite expensive land prices and a fair way from anything. Tonight we decided to go to a non-powered site in the Cape Range National Park which is a beautiful national park that covers 50581 hectares. We arrived at the entrance of the national park and looked on the board to see what was available for our caravan with generator. We booked into Ned’s Camp which is a 14 site campsite with hosts that volunteer their services for six months of the year in a caravan to collect fees, look after their camp and clean the toilets. There were no showers and no water available. The toilets (drop loos) were surprisingly clean. It was well kept but we had the last site and we felt like we were on top of each other. You could hear everything that the next caravan was doing and they certainly heard the Rimmers roll up. We were the only family on the campsite. That afternoon we went for a swim and snorkel. It seemed to have a lot of seaweed on the beach and I don’t think it was as clear for snorkeling as Coral Bay. The water is warmer though. Happy Hour at 5.30pm to see the sunset(refer photos). Ran the generator tonight to cook dinner and to have light. The kids weren’t used to not having power and didn’t like it too much under torchlight. We watched a DVD on the computer for entertainment as everybody goes to bed sooooo early here as no power.

Day 44 - Tuesday 16 May 2006
Exmouth
We decided to move on today because when we woke up there was no battery power to our fridges. You can run your generators from 8am until 9pm and that is all. Most of our food in our caravan fridge went off so we know next time to move everything to the Waeco. We need a battery pack for our caravan but we are not that modern. Everybody has a modern caravan with everything that opens and shuts. Went to Oyster Stacks in the Cape Range National Park where Duane and I went snorkeling. We saw a stingray and lots of fish. It was a little scary as it was open sea and the waves were crashing in. It was hard to get into the water as it was covered in rocks and they were sharp on your hands so we had to wait until the waves went out and dive in. Apparently if you get a coral cut it takes a long time to heal. We wanted to go to another great snorkeling spot called Turquoise Bay but we couldn’t as we had the caravan on and there was no access for us. We went to the Jurabi Turtle centre which is an interactive centre which teaches you all about turtles. Unfortunately it is not the right time of the year to see them at night as it is not breeding season. Moved into town today which is 50 km’s away from Cape Range National Park. We needed laundry facilities and fresh town water so we could all have showers because we were beginning to smell after all the sea and bore water. The pool is very cold at this caravan park.

Day 45 - Wednesday 17 May 2006
Exmouth
Today we drove to the Vlaming Head Lighthouse which shows you the pioneering history of the North West Cape. You can only walk around it. Bundegi Beach was the next destination which is another beach where Graeme wanted to go fishing but ran out of time. Just white sand and the bluest of bluest water. The next destination was HMAS Mildura is a wreck just off the coast that you can see from the shoreline (basically a rusty old ship). I wouldn’t like to snorkel around it.

Day 46 - Thursday 18 May 2006
Exmouth
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD(POPPY)
Today we drove out to Shothole Canyon Road which is 16km south of Exmouth to the Cape Range National Park where an unsealed road takes you through a canyon where shotholes were left by the explosive charge for studies during the oil searches in the 1950’s. Very interesting. Back to Bundegi Beach for fishing on the pier. Not much to report as we are packing up for Tom Price tomorrow which is over 600 km’s so the family is in for a big shock as we have not done these kind of km’s since traveling over the Nullarbor. Up early and late arrival and nothing in between except one roadhouse that is 300 km’s away which we plan to have morning tea/lunch at.

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Photos

Oyster Bridge
This is where Duane and I went snorkelling.

Richo and Victoria
Duane and Kiera's friends from Coral Bay.

Ned's Camp - Cape Range National Park
Our first night bush camping. What a view.

Exmouth Cape Holiday Park
The goosters were everywhere even our campsite.

Polly Cracker
Duane and Kiera fed this bird everyday. He wasn't very well and couldn't fly much.

Comments

[fahrners]

hi fahrners here
have been following your adventures, sounds like fun, looking forward to reading more