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Published: June 28th 2017
Geo: -23.1428, 113.771
Hello from Coral Bay
After our stay at Wooramel we moved on to Carnarvon
(110Km) and stayed in the Wintersun Caravan Park. Carnarvon is known as the
fruit and vegetable bowl of the north, its winter climate is perfect for
growing all kinds of fruit and vegetables and supplies 70% of Perth's needs
during winter. A drive along north or south river roads gives you access to a
number of farmers shops where you can buy fresh in season produce at good
prices. This river is also dry and only flows 2 to 3 times a year which
restocks the aquifers below the surface from which the farmers pump their water.
From the information centre we walked across the footbridge and through to the
1 mile jetty, out to the end of the jetty and back a journey of approx. 9Km.
The jetty is no longer in use and is maintained by the historical society using
the funds from the entry fee. At the start of the jetty there is a café, train
museum and the original lighthouse keeper's cottage which are all worth a look.
We also went on the town tour which takes in the historic sites around the town
including the Space Museum which was originally the OTC Satellite Station
used
for communications by the US during the moon landings in the 60's and 70's. Strolled
along the newly restored facine. We caught up with Ken and Val here and also
went for a meal with Dean and Mel who we had met at Kalbarri. The caravan park
is arguably the best in town and run very well, they have a Spud night on
Mondays and Roast Beef Roll night on Thursdays both at $10 a head then Pancakes
for breakfast on Sunday morning at a cost of $5. We drove 75Km north to see the
Blow Holes at Point Quobba and continued on to Quobba Station where you can
camp for a fee. Bought some more produce from the Saturday morning markets and
stocked up the fridge ready to head for Exmouth.
On 23rd May we travelled to Exmouth (370Km) by passing
Coral Bay as we were unable to book in there for any length of time until the 1st
of June. Upon arrival at Exmouth the van suffered a broken front leg when
levelling the van after unhitching it. The site we were on sloped upwards
towards the front of the van and after unhitching we needed to wind it down a
long way to level the van from front to back,
during the continual winding the
worm gear in the landing leg must have over heated and then stripped the thread
causing the driver's side to collapse about 100mm with a load bang and caused a
slight bend in the other leg. Scared the s…. out of us. We used the car jack to
prop the van back up and ordered two new landing legs from Victoria which were due
to arrive on 31st May so had them sent to Coral Bay thinking I would
replace them while we were there. The new legs arrived early on the 28th
so I drove down to collect them from Coral Bay and fitted them to the van with
some help from Ian and Ken. Ian's designated job was to remind me when getting
up not to bang my head on the van which he did whilst lounging in a chair, well
he failed miserably so after I had replaced one leg he went back to his van for
a well-earned nap. The two new legs looked slightly different and had obviously
came from different manufacturers but the gearing etc should be the same as
they are driven by one motor. After installing them I discovered during testing
that one extended at a slightly faster rate than the
other so either the
gearing or pitch of the worm drive was not the same. A call to the supplier in
Vic and they sent a new leg to match the drive side to Coral Bay which arrived
on Sat but I haven't installed it yet as its been too wet to work outside. To
our surprise the breakage is covered by our insurance with Ken Tame so we only
need to pay the $200 excess instead of $980 for the parts.
Exmouth is a small town which may not have existed if it
had not been for the war and the presence of the American and Australian Troops
being based here in the late 40's. Operation Potshot was based in the gulf near
Learmonth and was the refuelling and maintenance site for the US Submarines
along with Catalina Aircraft for about 3 years before relocating back down to
Freemantle due to the harsh weather conditions in the gulf. What was once a US
Airforce base is now a RAAF base approx. 40Km south of Exmouth. A short
distance north of town is a large installation of VLF (Very Low Frequency)
Antennas which were used to fill a gap in the communications systems used by
the US during the Cold War to communicate with their
submarines while they were
deep in the ocean. A short distance further north is Vlaming Head Lighthouse where
the original lighthouse still stands and the remains of a radar installation
used during the war to detect Japanese Aircraft heading south towards Perth.
Ian and Mandy invited us to join them on a camping trip
down the other side of Cape Range to Osprey Bay so the 3 man tent and esky were
packed and of we went along with Ken and Val. We stopped for a snorkel at
Turquoise Bay were you can enter the water to the left of the car park and then
drift the full length of the bay it was beautiful with plenty of coral and
colourful fish. Sandy Bay was the destination for a picnic lunch with
spectacular white sand and clear blue water, then on to the campgrounds at
Osprey Bay. We had booked two sites between the 6 of us with the intention of
setting up the tents on one and parking the cars on the other. The ground was
like concrete so hammering pegs in was near impossible but after some time the
3 tents were all up along with a few tables and chairs then it was time for
drinks and we watched the sunset
while Ian cooked up his famous prairie stew
for all to enjoy. The chilies had been left back at his van so after some time
we sourced chili flakes from one of the other campers to complete the stew. We
had a great night with plenty of laughter and hit the sack early. During the
night it became quite windy and at about 3am we heard the pan and a few things
blow of the table, I ignored it but Ian climbed out of his tent to find a
carnivorous kangaroo had broken through the glad wrap on Ken's left over non
chilli stew which had been left on the table and was having a nice feed. The
Kangaroo had also managed to take the lid off a large plastic bin and eat ½ loaf
of bread and a banana. Ian protected us all from this dangerous animal by
throwing rocks at it until it retreated away from our site and then stood
looking at him licking its paws with delight. The next morning we all headed down
to Yardie Creek for the boat tour up the creek spotting Black Footed Wallabies,
Kingfishers, Osprey and many other birds along the way. The others then headed
for home while we called into the Oyster Stacks
for a snorkel but it was too
windy so we did the 3Km walk through and above Mandu Mandu Gorge then back to the
luxury of the van.
While we were in Exmouth we also rode our bikes around a
few times visiting the town centre, the golf club which was out of action as
they were re sowing the fairways and then onto the Marina.
We drove down to check out Charles Knife Gorge and also
Learmonth jetty.
This is the last we will see of Ian, Mandy, Ken and Val for
now as they are travelling faster than us, we have had a great time with them
and look forward to catching up with our new friends again sometime in the
future.
We left Exmouth on Wed 1st June and travelled
to Coral Bay (165Km) to stay in the Bayview Caravan park for 11 nights. While
we were in Exmouth we contemplated doing the Swim with Whale Sharks but
couldn't bring ourselves to book due to our fears and the windy weather. On the
way to Coral Bay the decision was made to harden up and book the experience,
when else would we have the opportunity to do it. Thursday was all booked out
and Fridays forecast looked the best for the rest of our
stay so after
discussing what goes on etc we booked to go on Friday. WOW WOW WOW what a great
experience there was so little wind the water was like glass with about a 2
meter swell and the sun was shining with a forecast of 29 deg. They took us to
the edge of the reef on the inside for a short snorkel to ensure everyone's
gear was ok and to check our ability in the water. The Whale Sharks have been
some distance north for the preceding trips and after 50Km we arrived having
seen Spinner Dolphins, Turtles and a pair of Humpback Whales along the way. As
those of you who know me well my swimming ability is not the best but if I
managed this anyone can. We lined up on the back of the boat and then the
signal was given to enter the water, face down and then it appears, 7 meters of
Whale Shark swimming straight at you unbelievable, move to one side then start
swimming when the side fin is level with you, very majestic as this massive
fish gracefully glides along while you swim with it. We had 6 opportunities to
swim with the 5 whale sharks we encountered ranging in size from 5 to
8 meters,
Caroline swam all 6 times and I managed 3 swims alongside a shark and a few
occasions where I didn't get to it as it was swimming away from me and I couldn't
catch up. We are very proud that we didn't let the negative thoughts of rough
seas, or dangerous sharks and my lack of swimming ability deter us from
booking. It was absolutely amazing and we highly recommend this experience if
you get to this area, it's on many peoples bucket list and we can now
understand why. As an added bonus on our way back to Coral Bay we came across 3
Humpback Whales migrating north for the mating season, they were moving at a
fair pace and the two males were aggressively breaching in an attempt to win
the female, we followed alongside them for about 30 minutes. Saturday the rain
set in and has been coming and going for the last 2 days but the forecast is
fine and sunny again by the weekend. Coral Bay is very small and the only thing
to do is swim and snorkel so if the weathers bad it's not the place to be, sadly
we are experiencing a bad spell of weather here with strong winds forecast for
the next few
days.
On the 12th June we will be heading to Tom
Price and Karijini National Park, we have high expectations as it's the most
talked about destination in WA everyone recommends going there.
That's all for now
Kym and Caroline
P.S. I write a small story or comment on some of the photos and I just noticed that when you view the blog using a mobile phone it doesn't give you the option to read these comments. So its best if you view the blog using your laptop or PC and then you can click on the
'story" box of a photo to read its comments.
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Liz Grant
non-member comment
Fantastic photo's and description of your antics, keep enjoying and stay safe. Lizzie, xx